phyllis, do you mind if we don't finish this game? it bores me stiff.
yes, i have.
father, is it all right if i run along now?
just anne. we're going roller skating.
anne matthews.
it's anne matthews, i told you. i also told you we're going roller skating. i'm meeting her at the corner of vermont and franklin -- the north- west corner, in case you're interested. and i'm late already. i hope that is all clear. good night, father. good night, phyllis.
oh, i'm sorry. good night, mr. --
good night, mr. neff.
no thanks. i'd rather be dead.
hello, mr. neff. it's me.
i've been waiting for you.
i thought you could let me ride with you, if you're going my way.
down the hill. down vermont.
i can take it or leave it.
yes, i am. you see, mr. neff, i'm having a very tough time at home. my father doesn't understand me and phyllis hates me.
that's why i have to lie sometimes.
it's vermont and franklin all right. only it's not anne matthews. it's nino zachetti. you won't tell on me, will you?
nino's not what my father says at all. he just had bad luck. he was doing pre-med at u.s.c. and working nights as an usher in a theater downtown. he got behind in his credits and flunked out. then he lost his job for talking back. he's so hot- headed.
i guess my father thinks nobody's good enough for his daughter except maybe the guy that owns standard oil. would you like a stick of gum?
i can't give nino up. i wish father could see it my way.
i suppose it will sometime. this is the corner right here, mr. neff.
there he is. by the bus stop.
he needs a hair-cut, doesn't he. look at him. no job, no car, no money, no prospects, no nothing. i love him.
nino!
this is mr. neff, nino.
nino. please. mr. neff gave me a ride from the house. i told him all about us.
we don't have to worry about mr. neff, nino.
what's the matter with you, nino? he's a friend.
of course i'm coming. don't mind him, mr. neff.
thanks a lot. you've been very sweet.
hello, mr. neff.
lola dietrichson. don't you remember me?
could i talk to you, just for a few minutes? somewhere where we can be alone?
yes, mr. neff. it's about my father's death.
mr. neff, i can't help it, but i have such a strange feeling that there is something queer about my father's death.
i don't know why i should be bothering you with my troubles, except that you knew my father and knew about the insurance he took out. and you were so nice to me that evening in your car.
look at me, mr. neff. i'm not crazy. i'm not hysterical. i'm not even crying. but i have the awful feeling that something is wrong, and i had the same feeling once before -- when my mother died.
we were up at lake arrowhead. that was six years ago. we had a cabin there. it was winter and very cold and my mother was very sick with pneumonia. she had a nurse with her. there were just the three of us in the cabin. one night i got up and went into my mother's room. she was delirious with fever. all the bed covers were on the floor and the windows were wide open. the nurse wasn't in the room. i ran and covered my mother up as quickly as i could. just then i heard a door open behind me. the nurse stood there. she didn't say a word, but there was a look in her eyes i'll never forget. two days later my mother was dead. do you know who that nurse was?
phyllis. i tried to tell my father, but i was just a kid then and he wouldn't listen to me. six months later she married him and i kind of talked myself out of the idea that she could have done anything like that. but now it's all back again, now that something has happened to my father, too.
yes, and two days before he fell off that train what was phyllis doing? she was in her room in front of a mirror, with a black hat on, and she was pinning a black veil to it, as if she couldn't wait to see how she would look in mourning.
i caught her eyes in the mirror, and they had that look in them they had before my mother died. that same look.
i loathe her. because she did it. she did it for the money. only you're not going to pay her, are you, mr. neff? she's not going to get away with it this time. i'm going to speak up. i'm going to tell everything i know.
i'm not afraid. you'll see.
i'm sorry. i didn't mean to act like this.
no one.
of course not. i'm not living in the house any more. i moved out.
i'm not seeing him any more. we had a fight.
i got myself a little apartment in hollywood.
yes, mr. neff.
of course i will, walter. i wouldn't tell anybody else but you. it's about nino.
they killed my father together. he and phyllis. he helped her do it. i know he did.
i've been following him. he's at her house, night after night. it was phyllis and him all the time. maybe he was going with me just for a blind. and the night of the murder --
-- he was supposed to pick me up after a lecture at u.c.l.a. -- but he never showed up. he said he was sick. sick! he couldn't show up, because the train was leaving with my father on it.
maybe i'm just crazy. maybe it's all just in my mind.
i only wish it was, walter, because i still love him.