The Mousetrap and Other Plays (30 page)

SARAH
. Couldn't it be someone outside altogether?

GERARD
. (
Moving Left Centre
) It would be pleasant to think so—but you know only too well that what you say is unsound. After all, who is there? The good Jefferson Cope. But the death of the tyrannical old woman deprives him of the lady of his affection.

SARAH
. Oh, it isn't Jefferson Cope. As you say, he's no motive. Nor have the others. But there's you—and there's me. You know, Doctor Gerard, I had a motive—and it is my syringe that is missing.

GERARD
. And the digitoxin is mine. All the same, we did not kill her.

SARAH
. That's what you say.

GERARD
. We are doctors. We save life—we do not take it.

SARAH
. “Doctors differ—and patients die.” What years ago it seems when you said that to me in Jerusalem.

GERARD
. Courage,
mon enfant.
And if I can help, remember that we are colleagues.

(
GERARD
exits to the marquee,
SARAH
moves towards the rock up Right.
)

SARAH
. Raymond. (
She moves nearer. Imperiously
) Raymond.

(
RAYMOND
turns his head and looks at
SARAH
.)

Come down here.

(
RAYMOND
rises, but does not come down. His manner is apathetic and he does not look at
SARAH
.)

RAYMOND
. Yes, Sarah?

SARAH
. Why don't you stay down here and—talk to me? Why do you all sit up there by that cave?

RAYMOND
. It seems—the right place for us.

(
SARAH
reaches up and takes
RAYMOND
's hand.
)

SARAH
. I never heard such nonsense.

RAYMOND
. (
Sighing
) You don't understand. (
He turns away.
)

SARAH
. Raymond—(
She goes up to him.
) do you think I believe you killed her? I don't. I don't.

RAYMOND
. One of us killed her.

SARAH
. You don't even know that.

RAYMOND
. Yes, I do. (
Thoughtfully
) We all know.

SARAH
. But
you
didn't kill her. You yourself didn't kill her.

RAYMOND
. No, I didn't kill her. (
He looks at the others.
)

SARAH
. Well then, that's all that
matters.
Surely you see that?

RAYMOND
. No, it's you who don't see. I suggested killing her. One of us acted on that suggestion. I don't know which of us. I don't want to know. But there it is. We're all in it together.

SARAH
. You won't even fight?

RAYMOND
. (
Turning and smiling at her
) There's no one to fight. Don't you understand, Sarah? One can't fight the dead. (
He sits on the steps.
)

SARAH
. (
Moving down Centre
) Oh, what shall I do?

LADY
WESTHOLME
. (
Off Left
) I can only tell you, Colonel Carbery, that I shall take it up with the Foreign Office.

(
SARAH
moves wearily to Right of the table and sits.
LADY
WESTHOLME
and
CARBERY
enter from the marquee. They cross to Centre,
CARBERY
Left of
LADY
WESTHOLME
.)

CARBERY
. This is my territory, Lady Westholme, and I am responsible for its administration. To put it plainly, an old woman has been cold-bloodedly murdered, and you are suggesting that I should refrain from enquiring into the matter.

LADY
WESTHOLME
. There are wider diplomatic considerations to be observed. The whole thing must be dropped.

CARBERY
. I don't take my orders from you, Lady Westholme.

LADY
WESTHOLME
. I assure you that I shall pull strings—and that I can pull strings. Once I get to a telegraph office.

CARBERY
. You will get to a telegraph office tomorrow, and you can send wires to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the President of the United States and play cat's cradle with the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries if it pleases you. In the meantime, I run my own show.

LADY
WESTHOLME
. You will find, Colonel Carbery, that I am more influential than you think.

(
LADY
WESTHOLME
exits angrily Right.
)

CARBERY
. Phew! What a tartar! (
He moves above the table.
) The worst of it is—(
He smiles ruefully at
SARAH
) the damn woman's quite right.

SARAH
. What do you mean?

CARBERY
. The whole thing will have to be dropped.

SARAH
. Why?

CARBERY
. Because there's no evidence. One of 'em did it, all right, but as the evidence lies there's no earthly chance of proving which one. Oh, that's a very common state of affairs in police work. Knowledge without proof. And in this case the Westholme woman is quite right—there is an international aspect. Can't bring an accusation against an American subject unless you've got sufficient evidence. We haven't.

SARAH
. (
Slowly
) So the whole thing will be dropped.

CARBERY
. Yes. There'll be an inquest and all that. But the result's a foregone conclusion. They'll go scot free. (
He gives her a quick glance.
) That please you?

SARAH
. I don't know.

CARBERY
. (
Moving to Left of the table
) Well—(
He jerks his thumb towards the
BOYNTONS
) it ought to please
them.

SARAH
. Ought it?

CARBERY
. Don't you think so?

SARAH
. (
Rising and moving Right Centre, explosively
) No, no, no!

CARBERY
. You're very emphatic, Miss King.

SARAH
. Don't you see—it's the most awful thing that could happen to them? They don't know
themselves
which one of them it was—and now they'll never know.

CARBERY
. May have been all in it together. (
He sits Left of the table.
)

SARAH
. No, they weren't. That's just the awful part of it. Three of them are innocent—but they're all four of them in the shadow together—and now they'll never get out of the shadow.

CARBERY
. Yes, that's the worst of the verdict not proven. The innocent suffer. (
He coughs.
) You've got—a special interest, I gather.

SARAH
. Yes.

CARBERY
. I'm sorry. I wish I could help you.

SARAH
. You see—he won't fight for himself.

CARBERY
. So you've got to fight for him?

SARAH
. (
Moving to Right of the table
) Yes—it began when she was alive. I fought her. I thought I'd win, too. This morning I thought I had won. But now—they're back again—back in her shadow. That's where she sat, you know. In the mouth of the cave there—like an obscene old idol. Gloating in her own power and her cruelty. I feel as though she's sitting there now, holding them still, laughing because she's got them where she wants them, knowing that they'll never escape her now. (
She speaks up to the cave.
) Yes, you've won, you old devil. You've proved that death is stronger than life. It oughtn't to be—it oughtn't to be. (
She breaks down and sinks on to the chair Right of the table.
)

(
There is a pause.
CARBERY
realizes there is nothing he can do, rises and exits to the marquee.
HIGGS
enters from the marquee.
)

HIGGS
. Aye, but it's warm. (
He crosses to Centre.
)

(
The
DRAGOMAN
enters down the slope Left.
)

DRAGOMAN
. Horses coming over pass. Be here in a few moments.

HIGGS
. Then hurry oop and get some beer—ah'm in a muck sweat again.

(
The
DRAGOMAN
exits to the marquee.
MISS
PRYCE
enters down the slope.
)

MISS
PRYCE
. What a wonderful place this is.

SARAH
. I think it's a damnable place.

MISS
PRYCE
. (
Crossing to Right Centre
) Oh, really—Miss King . . .

SARAH
. Sorry.

MISS
PRYCE
. Oh, I quite understand. Such tragic associations. And then, of course, you are so young.

(
MISS
PRYCE
exits Right.
)

SARAH
. (
Bitterly
) Yes, I'm young. What's the good of being young? It ought to be some good. Youth means strength. It means life. Life ought to be stronger than death.

HIGGS
. (
Seriously
) So it is, lass. Make no mistake about that.

SARAH
. It isn't. (
She indicates the
BOYNTONS
) Look at them. Sitting in the shadow of death.

HIGGS
. (
Considering them
) Aye! They look as though they'd been given a life sentence.

SARAH
. That's just what they have been given. (
She rises.
) Of course.
That's it.
(
She crosses to Right Centre
) That's what
she
wanted.

HIGGS
. What's oop?

SARAH
. (
Laughing wildly
) I think I've got a touch of the sun. But the sun lets in light, doesn't it?

HIGGS
. (
Crossing to the marquee and calling
) Hey, Doctor, here's a patient for you out here.

(
GERARD
enters from the marquee.
HIGGS
jerks his thumb at
SARAH
and exits to the marquee
)

GERARD
. (
Moving Left Centre
) Are you ill?

SARAH
. (
Moving to Right of Gerard.
) No, I'm not ill. Listen, Doctor Gerard. I know who killed Mrs. Boynton. I know it quite certainly—(
She touches her forehead
) here. What I must do—what you must help me to do—is to get proof.

GERARD
. You know which of them killed her?

SARAH
. None of them killed her.

(
GERARD
is about to interrupt.
)

Wait. I know what you are going to say—that they themselves think so. That's what she wanted.

GERARD
.
Comment
?

SARAH
. Listen. Yesterday I lost my temper—I told her what was the truth, that she couldn't live long. I told her that when she died, they'd be free. You know what she was like—the lust for power and cruelty had grown—she wasn't quite sane, was she?

GERARD
. She was a sadist—yes. She specialized in mental cruelty.

SARAH
. She couldn't bear what I told her, she couldn't face the thought of their being free—and happy. And she saw a way to keep them in prison for ever.

GERARD
.
Mon Dieu
, you mean . . .

SARAH
. Yes, don't you see? She took the digitoxin from your case. She took my syringe. She slipped the empty bottle into Raymond's pocket, and she asked Lennox to fasten her bracelet and then cried out when she knew someone was watching them. It was clever—damnably clever—just enough suspicion against each of them. Not enough to convict one but enough to keep them believing all their lives that one of them
had
killed her.

GERARD
. And then she committed suicide. Yes, she had the courage for that.

SARAH
. She'd got
guts
all right. And hate.

GERARD
. (
Crossing to Right as he works it out
) After filling the syringe she slipped the empty bottle into Raymond's pocket—yes, she could have done that as he was helping her up to the cave. Then later she called Lennox, pretended her bracelet was undone. Yes, that too. But she made no attempt to incriminate Nadine or Jinny.

SARAH
. Nadine would come under suspicion because of always giving her medicine, and she could pretty well trust Jinny to incriminate herself with her wild talk.

GERARD
. (
Crossing to Left as he works it out
) After filling the syringe, seeing there is no one to see, she plunges the needle into her wrist—so—and dies. But no, that will not do—for in that case what happened to the hypodermic needle? It would have been found by the body. There would have been only a minute or two—not time enough for her to get up and hide it. There is a flaw there.