The Mousetrap

JUSTIN. We shall go into that.

(PHILIP comes into the room and crosses to C)

PHILIP. May I point out something that does not seem to be recognized by anybody? (He moves toRof Justin) What we have been listening to—and supplying—can only be recollections, and probably faulty ones at that.

JUSTIN. As you say.

PHILIP. And therefore quite useless as evidence. (He turns away upLC) We haven’t heard facts at all, only people’s vague recollections of facts.

JUSTIN. (moving toLof Philip) What we have heard has no evidential value as such—but it has a value, you know.

PHILIP. In what way?

JUSTIN. Shall we say, in what people choose to remember? Or, alternatively, choose to forget.

PHILIP. Very clever—but fanciful.

ANGELA. (to Philip) I don’t agree. I . . .

PHILIP. (overriding Angela) And I will point out something else. (He crosses below the stool and stands between Miss Williams and Elsa) It’s not just a question of what people remember, or do not remember. It might be a question of deliberate lying.

JUSTIN. Of course.

ANGELA. That’s just the point, I rather imagine. (She rises and moves C) Or am I wrong?

JUSTIN. You are thinking on the right lines, Miss Warren.

(ANGELA crosses to the armchair L)

PHILIP. (exasperated) Look here, what is all this? If somebody is deliberately lying—why then . . .

ANGELA. (sitting in the armchairL) Exactly.

PHILIP. (crossing to Justin; angrily) Do you mean you have got us here with the idea—the preposterous idea, that one of us could be guilty of murder?

ANGELA. Of course he has. Have you only just realized it?

PHILIP. I never heard such offensive nonsense in my life.

ANGELA. If Amyas didn’t kill himself, and if his wife didn’t murder him, then one of us must have done so.

PHILIP. But it has already been made perfectly clear, in the course of what we’ve heard, that nobody but Caroline could have killed him.

JUSTIN. I don’t think we can be as certain as all that.

PHILIP. (crossing below the stool toR) Oh, God!

JUSTIN. (not heeding) There is the question you yourself raised, the question of lying.

(There is a slight pause. PHILIP sits on the right end of the stool, with his back to the audience)

When one person’s evidence is corroborated or acquiesced in by another person—(he moves down C) then it can be regarded as checked. But some of what we have heard is vouched for by only one person. (He crosses below the stool and moves up C) For instance, at the very beginning, we had to rely solely on Mr. Meredith Blake here for what passed between him and Caroline Crale.

MEREDITH. (indignantly) But, really . . .

JUSTIN. (quickly) Oh, I’m not disputing the authenticity of what you told us. I only point out that the conversation could have been an entirely different one.

MEREDITH. (rising) It was as accurate as anything could be after a lapse of sixteen years.

JUSTIN. Quite. (He crosses to the french windows and goes on to the terrace) But remember the fine weather and the open windows. This means that most of the conversations, even those that were apparently tête-a-têtes, could be and probably were, overheard from either inside or outside the room. (He comes into the room and stands up LC) But that is not so for all of them.

MEREDITH. (movingL) Are you getting at me?

(There is a pause. JUSTIN looks at his notebook)

JUSTIN. Not necessarily. I singled you out because you started the ball rolling.

MISSWILLIAMS. (moving toRof the stool) I would like to state here and now that any account I have given of my part in the affair is true. There is no witness who saw what I saw—Caroline Crale wiping fingerprints off that bottle, but I solemnly swear that is exactly what I saw her do. (She turns to Carla) I am sorry, for Carla’s sake, I have to tell you this, but Carla is, I hope, courageous enough to face the truth.

ANGELA. Truth is what she asked for.

JUSTIN. And truth is what will help her. (He crosses below the stool to Miss Williams) What you don’t realize, Miss Williams, is that what you have told us goes a long way towards proving Caroline Crale’s innocence, not her guilt.