Return Of The Thin Man Part 18

Nick and Nora say: "Yes," trying not to look proud of themselves.

Face wiggles a finger in front of the baby's nose, saying: "Googoo, googoo!"

The baby looks at him blankly.

Nick and Nora try to stir the baby into some semblance of liveliness, but with no success. After watching their antics for a moment, the baby says, "Drunk," and turns to Face again.

Face, a little abashed by the baby's patient stare, asks: "A boy?"

Nora says: "Certainly!"

Face: "That's great. How old is he?"

Nora says: "Be a year next Tuesday."

Face: "Tuesday? Swell. Say, we'll give him a party . . . Tuesday afternoon! I'll get my brother to let me bring his kids over. He's got two of the cutest little monkeys-leave it all to me. Tuesday afternoon-that's a date."

Nora says confusedly: "Well, I don't-"

Face pats her on the back: "You leave it all to Facie, Mrs. Charles. I'll give you a baby party you never seen the like of."

He goes out, picking up Nora's address book from beside the telephone as he pa.s.ses without their seeing him.

Nora looks at Nick in consternation.

Nick says: "We can stay down at MacFay's until Tuesday night."

Nick, Nora, the nurse, Nick Jr., and Asta go down to the street, where the nervous chauffeur is standing beside a car into which a bellboy and the doorman have just finished putting their bags.

The chauffeur, looking at the two women and the baby, asks Nick in a somewhat surprised tone: "Are you going to take them?"

Nick says: "I don't know how to get rid of them. Maybe we can ditch them somewhere on the road."

The chauffeur says: "I'm sorry, Mr. Charles, I didn't mean to-" and breaks off to look at his watch and then at the sky. It is now early twilight, although the streetlights have not yet been turned on.

They get into the car. The nurse sits in front with the chauffeur; Nick, Nora, the child, and dog sit in the rear.

Nora, looking at the chauffeur, asks: "What's the matter with him?"

Nick replies: "We had a couple of girls lined up."

DISSOLVE THROUGH THE NEW YORK STREETS, OVER THE TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE, ALONG LONG ISLAND ROADS.

As darkness closes down, the chauffeur drives faster and faster until, by the time they have turned off the highway into a dark, tree-lined side road, Nick, Nora, the baby, and Asta are bouncing around on the backseat. The baby bounces peacefully without opening its eyes.

Nick calls to the chauffeur: "You're working too hard. If we don't get there in three minutes, it'll still be all right."

The chauffeur pays no attention to him. Nick leans forward, touches the chauffeur's shoulder. The chauffeur jumps, jerks his head around, and almost sends the car off the road. His face and the back of his neck are covered with sweat.

Nick says: "Not so fast, son, the baby has a hangover."

The chauffeur mumbles: "Yes, sir-I'm sorry," then almost immediately begins to step up the speed again.

Suddenly he emits an ear-piercing scream of terror and sends the car hurtling ahead. Through a window, Nick catches a glimpse of a Negro man lying on his back on the side of the road. The man's body is arched so that its weight rests on heels and head. The five-inch handle of a knife sticks up from the left side of his breast.

Nick yells to the chauffeur to stop. The chauffeur pays no attention, and, when Nick touches him on the shoulder, he screams again but does not slow up.

Nick, standing up in the lurching car, puts his forearm around the chauffeur's throat, his other hand on the wheel, finally chokes the chauffeur into submission, and stops the car. Nick Jr. opens his eyes once to look at this and then goes back to sleep.

Nick says to the nurse: "Come back here."

She jumps out and gets in the rear of the car. Nick pushes the chauffeur over into the nurse's seat and climbs in behind the wheel. The chauffeur jumps out of the car and runs off into the woods.

Nora asks: "What happened?"

Nick says: "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," turns the car around, and drives back to where he saw the Negro.

There is no body there, and, with the help of the car's lights, he can find no signs that one has been there.

Nora asks: "What are you hunting for?"

Nick says: "I thought I knew, but now I'll take anything I can find. Listen, I'm willing to call the whole thing off and drive right back to New York."

The nurse says: "Oh yes, sir, that would be fine."

Nora says: "We can't do that, Nick. Colonel MacFay expects us. What was the matter with the chauffeur, Nick?"

Nick answers: "He was scared and now I am. Let's go somewhere and get a drink and think this over."

Nora says: "The nearest drink would be at the MacFays', but I wish you would tell me what is going on-what we came back here for."

Nick says: "You're a stubborn woman, Mom."

He turns the car around again and drives on. Presently they come to a high grilled gate that blocks the road. When Nick has honked the horn, a gangling youth appears on the other side of the gate holding a double-barreled shotgun partly out of sight behind the gatepost. His manner is half-frightened, half-sullen.

He asks: "What do you want?"

Nick says: "We're bringing back Colonel MacFay's car."

The youth says: "I can see that all right, but how do I know what you want?"

Nick says: "This is the Charles family. We have come down to spend the weekend."

The youth says: "Anybody can say that, but wait-I'll see," and vanishes into a cottage set beside the gate. His voice can be heard talking over the telephone. "He says their name is Charles-I don't know-He looks like a pool parlor dude and he's got a couple of ladies and a baby and a dog. Oh, all right."

He comes back without his shotgun and swings the gate open. They drive on to a large house set in the middle of extensive grounds.

The front door is opened by a neat, elderly woman with a placid face. This is Mrs. Bellam, the MacFay housekeeper.

Nick says to her: "I'm sorry, but we lost your chauffeur somewhere along the road."

She replies serenely: "Oh, bless you, it's quite all right. Thomas," indicating the servant who has appeared behind her, "will bring up your bags. I suppose you'll want to wash up. Colonel MacFay is waiting dinner for you, but you don't have to hurry."

She leads them upstairs into their rooms. One is for Nick and Nora, with a connecting bath leading to the nurse and Junior's room.

MACFAY LIVING ROOM.

In the MacFay living room are four people.

Colonel Burr MacFay is a tall, scrawny man of seventy, actually still vigorous, but a hypochondriac and suspicious of those around him, though his bark is worse than his bite.

Lois, his adopted daughter, is a girl of twenty-very pretty, with a sweet and simple manner.

Dudley Horn, her fiance, is a large man in his thirties. He is an engineer, MacFay's right-hand man, rather good-looking, and affects a candid, open-faced, man's-man manner.

Freddie Coleman is MacFay's secretary, a nice boy of twenty-two or twenty-three, who is very much in love with Lois and is writing a play in his spare time.

Colonel MacFay is complaining over a gla.s.s of sherry, his voice a nasal whine: "I won't have it. I won't put up with it. I'm not a child and I won't have it."

Horn, leaning against the mantelpiece, holding a Scotch and soda, says good-naturedly: "What's the good of saying we won't put up with it when we are putting up with it?"

Freddie, leaning forward in his chair, frowning earnestly, says: "But maybe he did kill him."

MacFay, glaring at Freddie, whines impatiently: "Him! Him! I'm the one that doesn't want to be killed."

Lois, patting a collie that is standing with its head on her knee, looks anxiously at her foster-father and starts to say: "But, Papa dear, you-" as Nick, Nora, and Asta come in. Asta goes over to investigate the collie.

MacFay greets Nick and Nora: "Come in! Come in! You're late."

Nick: "Had a little trouble. Did your chauffeur tell you about the black man in the road?"

MacFay presses his lips together, says nothing.

Nick: "He wasn't there when we went back."

MacFay, explosively: "I don't care about your black men and your roads. I care about what happens to me. I-" He breaks off, pushes his face into what is meant for a smile. "You know Dudley."

Nick and Nora say: "Yes," and shake hands with Horn.

MacFay: "And this is my adopted daughter, Lois, and my secretary, Mr. Coleman."

When the introductions have been acknowledged and Lois has given Nick and Nora each a drink, MacFay says: "Dinner is waiting. Come on, bring your drinks in."

As they go into the dining room, Lois tells the servant to feed the dogs.

Dinner is served by two badly trained servants who keep looking over their shoulders as if frightened, and jump at every unexpected sound. One of them, turning from putting soup on the table, knocks Nick on the elbow with the b.u.t.t of a pistol in his pocket.

MacFay, who attacks his soup hungrily, complains after each spoonful. "They know this isn't good for my stomach. I ought to have some kind of light broth, but they don't care-n.o.body cares what happens to me." He empties his plate before the others are half through and has a second helping. When he has finished that, between complaints that it is so badly cooked that it wouldn't be food for him even if it weren't too heavy, he bangs his spoon down on a plate and says to Nick: "I'm not a child-I won't be frightened."

Nick asks: "What is there to be frightened of?"

MacFay replies: "Nothing, nothing but a lot of idiotic and very pointless trickery and play-acting."

One of the servants grumbles sullenly over the dish he is taking from the table: "You can call it anything you want to call it, but I seen what I seen." n.o.body pays any attention to him.

Nick says: "What kind of trickery and play-acting?"

MacFay puts his arms on the table, leans over them toward Nick, and says: "Suppose you had a man working for you and he did something they put him in jail for. He did it, you didn't do it, and you even tried to get him off and to get his sentence cut down, but you couldn't. And now, after he gets out, he comes to you and says it's all your fault and wants you to give him a lot of money. And when you're not fool enough to do that, he says he hopes you're not going to be pig-headed about it because he's dreamed twice about your dying, and the third time he dreams things, they come true. He says he hopes you're not going to die before your conscience makes you do the right thing by him. What would you think?"

Nick says: "I wouldn't think I ought to hurry up my dying on his account."

MacFay stares at Nick blankly for a moment, then says: "You'll excuse me, but that's just about as stupid an answer as I've ever heard."

Nora nods brightly at Nick and a.s.sures him: "Yes it is."

One of the servants says to the other: "A fat lot of help this new guy's going to be to us."

MacFay taps his gla.s.s with a knife and says angrily to the servants: "Shut up! Where's the roast?" He points to Nora's gla.s.s. "Her gla.s.s is empty." He holds up the knife and complains: "See how they take care of my silverware. It hasn't been cleaned decently in a month." He puts the knife down, pushes back his plate, and leans over the table. "Listen," he whines to Nick, "this isn't April-foolery, this man means to murder me. He came here to murder me, and he will certainly murder me unless somebody does something to stop him."

Nick asks: "But what has he done so far?"

MacFay shakes his head impatiently. "That isn't it. I don't ask you to undo anything that he's done. I ask you to keep him from killing me. What has he done? He's terrorized the whole place-that's what he's done."

Nick asks: "How long has this been going on?"

MacFay says: "A week, ten days."

Nick asks: "Do you think the black man on the road is part of it?"

MacFay retorts: "I don't think anything about it. You used to be a detective. I asked you down here to help me, not to bring me more wild stories."

Nick asks: "Have you said anything to the local authorities?"

MacFay whines: "I'm not altogether a fool. Of course I have, but what good did it do? Has he threatened me? Well, he told me he has dreams about me dying, and I know him well enough to know that's a threat. But to the sheriff it isn't a threat. Have I any proof that he is responsible for all these things that have happened-that he's turned this place upside down? The sheriff says I haven't. As if I needed proof! So it comes to this: The sheriff promises to keep an eye on him. *An eye,' mind you. Here I have, with my family and servants and the guards I've hired, twenty people with forty eyes, and he comes and goes when he wants, so what good's the sheriff's *eye'?"

Nick asks: "Who is this fellow?"

One of the servants mutters: "It's not him, it's that black devil."

MacFay says: "Church is his name-Sam Church. He's an engineer-worked for me ten years ago."

Nick asks: "How long was he in jail?"

MacFay says: "Ten years. He got out a month ago."

Nick: "You think he really means to kill you?"

MacFay bangs on the table and shouts: "No! No! No! I don't think he means to kill me, I know it!"