|
|
Musical Cords
Opening Billboard
Harry Kramer: "Theeee EEEEEdgge of Night!"
SCENE 1
In an overlap of the final scene of Friday's episode
Jonah is dragging the unconscious body of Tango to the open window. He
leans her against the baseboard to catch his breath and chuckles; "There's
nothing easy about killing people. I know because. . .you're number four.
Number four. No wait. Number five!" Thinking aloud to himself that he almost
forgot poor Uncle Charley. He then says, "Well, let's get it over with,
huh?"
SCENE 1B
In the hallway of Laurie's apartment house Nancy
has just come up the stairs. She isn't happy about the errand she is on
and knocks lightly on the door. When there's no answer she hesitates, then
knocks louder. Inside the apartment Jonah is peering out the windows. Tango
is gone. He whirls when he hears the knock, then hears Nancy's voice from
the other side of the door, "Hello, anyone home?" He swiftly, but noiselessly
closes the window and goes to the door and opens it. Nancy seems surprised
to see him and asks if Laurie is home. Jonah says, "No, ma'am. Laurie isn't
here. Nobody's here," as he glances at the window, sweating. Nancy asks
if it would all right if she came in and Jonah ushers her in. Jonah offers
Nancy a cup of coffee and, with a strained look on his face goes to the
kitchen to get it. Nancy asks where Laurie went so early in the day and
Jonah responds that he doesn't know exactly, just that she was visiting
a friend. He says, "She just told us she would be out for an hour or so.
. .I said I'd wait here for her." When Nancy says, "Told. . .us," Jonah
says that Tango was there at the time and then says that she and Laurie
had had an altercation. Then the call from her "friend" came and perhaps
that's why she seemed so eager to leave. Nancy asks what the altercation
was about and Jonah responds, "That's hard to say." Nancy tells Jonah that
she knows Tango was arrested last night for possession of marijuana and
asks if that was what their quarrel was about.
FIRST COMMERCIAL
SCENE 2A
Jonah tells Nancy that the arrest wasn't really
the reason for the quarrel. He says that Tango did tell them about it,
though. Nancy asks what, exactly, Tango told them and he says she told
them she was busted at the party she was at last night and spent the night
in jail. Nancy asks if he knows anything about this party and he tells
her that from what Tango said there were some people there who were smoking
pot and unfortunately someone called the police and they were all hauled
down to the police station. Nancy presses the issue by asking Jonah if
he didn't know the sort of party it was and Jonah says that they (he and
Laurie) aren't a couple of innocent lambs, that in the past he'd given
some of his friends the stuff they roll those joints with but they never
thought there would be pot at the party. When he and Laurie realized what
was going on they cut out. Jonah tells Nancy that he and Laurie were afraid
to be there and it looks like he was proven right. Nancy asks him if he
means because the party was raided and he says that that's the reason exactly.
He says he couldn't think of anything worse than to have she and Mr. Karr
find out that he and Laurie were busted on a narcotics rap. Especially
after he told them how much against that sort of thing he is and how much
he admired Mr. Karr's work against it. He goes on to say how strongly he
feels about her daughter, that he hasn't met many girls in his life that
he likes as much as Laurie. He suddenly notices the picture of himself
that Tango left, the one with the beard drawn on it. He picks it up and
very carefully, noiselessly, making sure he isn't seen begins to tear it
into shreds. He drops the shreds in the wastebasket nearby.
SCENE 2B
Colin Whitney is sitting on the sofa in his living
room in Washington looking at a picture of his brother Keith in a family
photo album. As he continues to look through it, his wife Tiffany joins
him. She asks him what he thinks of the job she did organizing the photos
and he remarks that he wasn't aware there were so many pictures of him
and Keith as boys. Tiffany says he has no idea how many photographs there
are, and most of them are still in a cupboard in Monticello. Colin says
it's sad to see Keith's pictures as it makes him realize how young he was
when he died. Tiffany says it's strange about Keith's pictures. Up until
they were eight or nine there are dozens of the two of them together, but
after that all the photos are separate. Colin says that's when Keith's
independence kicked in and he refused to be posed with him. He says Keith
developed his antagonism toward him very early in life. He resented the
amount of attention being paid to him, mostly by their mother. Tiffany
asks Colin if their mother really paid that much more attention to him
than Keith. As Colin remembers it, their mother spoiled Keith much more
than him. She indulged him completely, "Anything he wanted, asked for,
cried for - he got at once. Except the one thing he learned to want the
most, preparation for that brilliant political career." Tiffany remarks
that she's heard their father say things about Keith and she wonders if
he was "all right." Colin supposes she means all right in the head and
Tiffany says that Father keeps dropping hints. Colin closes the photo album
and asks her if he ever told her about the dog named Blanche. He tells
her that when Keith was twelve he found a mongrel in the woods near their
summer house. Of course their mother allowed Keith to keep the animal,
but he didn't keep it very long. Colin says the official story was that
a car hit Blanche, but the truth was that he saw Keith kill the dog. He
pelted it to death with stones. Tiffany asks why Keith would do such an
awful thing and Colin shrugs and says, "The dog was starting to annoy him."
He then tells her that Keith also slaughtered his rabbits but he at least
had an excuse for that, claiming he was doing it for their skins. He then
says that he's always felt there were other episodes like this that he
knew nothing about and Tiffany asks him if Keith was a sadist. Colin responds
that it was as if Keith had been so spoiled that he used up all the pleasure
available to him and eventually nothing gave him joy except. . .blood and
slaughter. He then says that he's putting it too strongly, that Keith wasn't
any sort of. . .fiend. He guesses that all boys go through that sadistic
stage. He then tells her that Keith had his good qualities too. He was
a romantic, always falling in love with some "blue-eyed darling" in the
neighborhood. He was also a great reader and Colin says that even now he
thinks Keith knew more about politics than he does now. Tiffany sadly says
that Colin wants so badly to think well of Keith and Colin reminds her
that it's August, the month Keith was killed in his automobile. . .one
year ago.
SECOND COMMERCIAL
SCENE 3
Tiffany remembers that it was towards the end of
August that Keith died and Colin asks her if she thinks some type of memorial
service is indicated. Tiffany answers him by saying that she's sure his
press representatives would think it worthwhile then apologizes for her
remark, saying it was in bad taste. Colin says that he's sure his mother
and father expect it and goes to the phone and dials his parents' home.
After answering a few of his mother's questions he tells her the real reason
he called has to do with Keith. As Colin speaks with his mother Tiffany
sadly starts to look through the photo album. She stops on a photograph.
. .the same photograph that now lies in shreds in Laurie's wastebasket!
THIRD & FOURTH COMMERCIAL
SCENE 4
In Adam's office, Adam and Nicole are cleaning out
the Whitney files. Nicole ruefully comments on the amount of work it took
to file this material on the Whitney family. . .and now they're getting
rid of it all. She asks Adam if he's sure they're not going to need his
services any more. Adam wryly says that Mr. Whitney's letter was pretty
clear about that, "The very fact that they asked for this material to be
returned indicates that I've served my somewhat dubious purpose. . ." When
Nicole says that she thinks Adam did something remarkable for the Whitneys
when he detected that embezzlement by Charles Weldon, Adam says, "There
are some favors that earn no appreciation at all, Nicole. This was one
of them." Nicole sighs that at least they'll have their filing cabinets
back, "I've been stuffing papers into folders and behind the radiator and
under the desk. . ." This comment prompts Adam to ask her how many clients
they currently have and she responds, "Counting our number one client,
Dr. Fields - eleven." Then there's a knock on the door and Lt. Anderson
enters. Anderson tells them he has "semi-official" police business with
Adam concerning the Rosella Gray case. He tells them that Chief Marceau
asked him to check out "this key business" and Nicole asks him if he's
been to see Mr. Schreiber, the keymaker (who's blind). Anderson says that
yes, he went to the shop to check out Adam's story and it was pretty much
what Adam had said, that Mr. Schreiber had identified the woman who had
the key duplicated by the perfume she'd been wearing. Adam says, "Not just
any woman, Lieutenant. Rosella Gray! And if we prove that, we prove that
she wasn't invited to Jim's apartment that night." Nicole comments that
Anderson still doesn't sound convinced and he says that he wasn't, but
then "something happened." He goes on to say that the keymaker remembered
something else, that another customer was in the shop at the same time,
a lady in the neighborhood and he was pretty sure she wasn't wearing such
an exotic perfume. Anderson says he got the name of the woman, Lucille
Meeker, and showed her a picture of Rosella Gray and she remembered her
as being in the shop that day. He says that he was always convinced that
Dr. Fields asked that girl to come to his place so he could stage a murder
that looked like a screwball did it, "Only now. . .well, this proves that
if he did kill her, it couldn't have been premeditated." Adam asks him
if he still thinks Jim killed Rosella and Anderson says, "No, Mr. Drake.
I'm beginning to believe that maybe - just maybe - this doctor friend of
yours is innocent." Adam and Nicole exchange a look.
SCENE 4B
Back at Laurie's apartment Nancy looks at her watch
and gets up to leave. Since there's no telling how long Laurie will be
gone there's no point in her staying any longer. Jonah asks Nancy if there's
any message he can give Laurie for her and she asks him to have her call
her. She then asks Jonah why he won't admit something to her, "Why don't
you admit that you and Laurie are planning to get married?"
FIFTH COMMERCIAL
SCENE 5A
Jonah asks Nancy where she got the idea that he
and Laurie were getting married. Nancy tells him that the night he and
Laurie were at her house for dinner he said several things that indicated
he was very serious in his intentions toward Laurie and she's simply trying
to find out if these intentions are serious. He says that he and Laurie
have talked about marriage, but there's nothing formal about their engagement.
They thought they would take it slow until the Karr's had a chance to find
out he wasn't such a bad guy. As Nancy listens she moves toward the window
and kicks a shoe that Tango, or rather Jonah, has left behind. She bends
down, picks it up, and asks if it belongs to Laurie. Jonah, alarmed and
dismayed, says he doesn't know, perhaps it belongs to Tango, "She's pretty
sloppy. Just drops her things any old place. . ." Nancy asks where the
other one is and Jonah, sweating, says, ". . .it could be anyplace at all.
. .under the bed. . .anyplace. . ."
SCENE 5B
In the alley below Laurie's apartment Tango's body
is lying still in death. One foot is bare!
SIXTH COMMERCIAL
CLOSING CREDITS
Harry Kramer: This is Harry Kramer, inviting
you to join us each weekday afternoon for "THE EDDGGGEE OF NIGHT."
