'Act 2 Flashcards
T: Now Mrs. Ralston, try and think- think…
I can’t think, my heads numbed
T: Mrs. Boyle had only just been killed when you got ot her. You came from the kitchen. Are you sure you didn’t see or hear anybody as you came along the hallway?
No- no, I don’t think so. Just the radio blaring out in here. I couldn’t think who’d turned it on so loud. I wouldn’t hear anything else with that, would I?
T: That was clearly the murderer’s idea- or murderess.
How could I hear anything else?
T:.. He might have slipped up the back stairs- or into the dining room…
I think- I’m not sure- I heard a door creak- and shut- just as I came out of the kitchen.
T: Which door?
I don’t know.
T: Think Mrs. Ralston- try and think. Upstairs? Downstairs? CLose at hand? Right? Left?
(tearful) I don’t know, I tell you. I’m not even sure I heard anything.
T:… You switched the light on, say Mrs. Boyle, and screamed.
Yes. I screamed and screamed. And at last- people came.
P: I do not expect so. I was playing very very softly- with one finger- so
You were playing Three Blind Mice
P: Yes. It is a very catchy little tune. It is- how shall I say?- a haunting little tune? Don’t you all agree?
I think it’s horrible
M:… Nice cellars you’ve got.
Glad you like them
M: Steady lad, steady
It’s all right Chris, no one is against you. Tell him it’s all right.
T: We don’t frame people
Tell him you’re not going to arrest him
G:… It’s only fair to the rest of us.
Wait Giles- Wait. Sergeant Trotter can I- can I speak to you for a minute?
G: I’m staying.
No Giles, you too, please.
G: I’m staying. I don’t know what’s come over you Mollie.
Please
T: Yes, Mrs. Ralston, what is it you want to say to me?
Sergeant Trotter, You think that this- This crazy killer must be the eldest of those three boys at the Farm- but you don’t know that, do you?
T:…The telephone wire that links me with the police headquarters has been cut…
You don’t even know that. It may have been the snow.
T: No, Mrs. Ralston, the line was deliberately cut. It was cut just outside by the front door. I found the place.
I see.
T: Sit down Mrs. Ralston.
But all the same, you don’t know…
T: I’m going by probability. It all points one way; mental instability, childish mentality, desertion from the army and the psychiatrist’s report.
Oh I know. And therefore it all seems to point to Christopher. But I don’t believe it is Christopher. There must be other possibilities.
T: Such as?
Well- hadn’t those children any relations at all?
T: The mother was a drunk. She died soon after the children were taken away from her.
What about their father?
T: He was an army sergeant, serving abroad. If he’s alive, he’s probably discharged from the army by now.
You don’t know where he is now?
T:… That the police take every eventuality into account.
But you don’t know where he may be at this minute. And if the son is mentally unstable, the father may have been unstable too.
T: Well, It’s a possibility.
If he came home, after being a prisoner with the Japs, perhaps, and having suffered terribly- if he came home and found his wife dead and that his children had gone through some terrible experience and one of them had died through it, he might go off his head a bit and want- revenge!
T: That’s only surmise.
But it’s possible?
T: Oh yes Mrs. Ralston, it’s quite possible.
So the murderer may be middle-aged, or even old. (pause) When I said the police had rung up, Major Metcalf was frightfully upset. He really was. I saw his face.
T: Major Metcalf?
Middle-aged. A solider. He seems quite nice and perfectly normal- but it mightn’t show, might it?
T: No, often it doesn’t show at all.
So it’s not only Christopher who’s a suspect. There’s Major Metcalf as well.
T: Any other suggestions?
Well, Mr. Parivicini did drop the poker when I said the police had rung up.
T: Mr. Parivicini.
I know he seems quite old- and foreign and everything, but he mightn’t really be as old as he looks. He moves like a much younger man, and He has definitely got makeup on his face. Miss Casewell noticed it oo. He might be- Oh i know it sounds very melodramatic- but he might be disguised.
T: You’re very anxious, aren’t you, that it shouldn’t be young Mr. Wren?
He seems so- helpless somehow. And so unhappy.
T:… There’s a sister, you remember.
Oh- the sister?
T:… Yes, it might have been a woman.
MIss Casewell?
T:… There’s yourself, for instance.
Me?
T:… And then there’s your husband.
Giles, how ridiculous!
T:.. How much do you know about your husband, Mrs. Ralston?
How much do I know about Giles? Oh, don’t be silly.
T: You’ve been married- how long?
Just a year.
T: And you met him- where?
At a dance in London. We went in a party.
T: Did you meet his people?
He hasn’t any people. They’re all dead.
T: They’re all dead.
Yes but- oh you make it sound all wrong. His father was a barrister and his mother died when he was a baby.
T: You’re only telling me what he told you
Yes- but… (turns away)
T: You don’t know it of your own knowledge.
(turning back quickly) It’s outrageous that…
T:… How long had you known Giles Ralston when you married him?
Just three weeks but….
T: And you don’t know anything about him?
That’s not true. I know everything about him! I know exactly the sort of person he is. He’s Giles. (turn to the fire) And it’s absolutely absurd to suggest that hes some horrible crazy homicidal maniac. Why, he wasn’t even in London Yesterday when the murder took place
T: Where was he? Here?
He went across country to a sale to get some wire netting for our chickens.
T: Bring it back with him?
No, it turned out to be the wrong kind.
T: Only thirty miles from London, aren’t you? Oh, you got an ABC? Only an hour by train- a little longer by car.
I tell you Giles wasn’t in London.
T: Just a minute Mrs. Ralston. This your husband’s coat?
Yes
