Night Must Fall | Page 7

BELSIZE (_politely_): Really--
MRS. BRAMSON: And what d'you expect the policeman to do about
it?
HUBERT: Well, it was very interesting, he said. Bit ghoulish, of
course--
BELSIZE: I expect so.... (_Getting down to business_) Now I wonder
if any of you've seen anything in the least out of the ordinary round
here lately? Anybody called--anybody strange wandering about in the
woods--overheard anything?
_They look at one another._
MRS. BRAMSON: The only visitor's been the doctor--and the district
nurse.
MRS. TERENCE: Been ever so gay.
HUBERT: As a matter of fact, funny thing did happen to me. Tuesday
afternoon it was, I remember now.
BELSIZE: Oh?
HUBERT (_graphically_): I was walking back to my cottage from golf,
and I heard something moving stealthily behind a tree, or a bush, or
something.
BELSIZE (_interested_): Oh, yes?
HUBERT: Turned out to be a squirrel.
MRS. BRAMSON (_in disgust_): Oh!...
HUBERT: No bigger than my hand! Funny thing to happen, I thought.

BELSIZE: Very funny. Anything else?
HUBERT: Not a thing. By Jove, fancy walking in the woods and
stumbling over a dead body! Most embarrassing!
MRS. TERENCE: I've stumbled over bodies in them woods afore now.
But they wasn't dead. Oh, no.
MRS. BRAMSON: Say what you know, and don't talk so much.
MRS. TERENCE: Well, I've told 'im all I've seen. A bit o' love now
and again. Though 'ow they make do with all them pine-needles beats
me.
BELSIZE: Anything else?
MRS. BRAMSON: Miss Grayne's always moping round the woods.
Perhaps she can tell you something.
OLIVIA: I haven't seen anything, I'm afraid.... Oh--I saw some men
beating the undergrowth--
BELSIZE: Yes, I'm coming to that. But no tramps, for instance?
OLIVIA: N-no, I don't think so.
HUBERT: "Always carry a stick's" my motto. I'd like to see a tramp try
anything on with me. Ah-ha! Swish!
MRS. BRAMSON: What's all the fuss about? Has there been a robbery
or something?
BELSIZE: There's a lady missing.
MRS. TERENCE: Where from?
BELSIZE: The Tallboys.
MRS. BRAMSON: That Tallboys again--

BELSIZE: A Mrs. Chalfont.
MRS. TERENCE: Chalfont? Oh, yes! Dyed platinum blonde--widow
of a colonel, so she says, livin' alone, so she says, always wearin' them
faldalaldy openwork stockings. Fond of a drop too. That's 'er.
HUBERT: Why, d'you know her?
MRS. TERENCE: Never set eyes on 'er. But you know how people talk.
Partial to that there, too, I'm told.
MRS. BRAMSON: What's that there?
MRS. TERENCE: Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.
BELSIZE (_quickly_): Well, anyway ... Mrs. Chalfont left the Tallboys
last Friday afternoon, without a hat, went for a walk through the woods
in this direction, and has never been seen since.
He makes his effect.
MRS. BRAMSON: I expect she was so drunk she fell flat and never
came to.
BELSIZE: We've had the woods pretty well thrashed. (_To OLIVIA_)
Those would be the men you saw. Now she was ... HUBERT (_taking
the floor_): She may have had a brain-storm, you know, and taken a
train somewhere. That's not uncommon, you know, among people of
her sort. (_Airing knowledge_) And if what we gather from our friend
here's true--and she's both a dipsomaniac and a nymphomaniac--
MRS. BRAMSON: Hark at the walking dictionary!
BELSIZE: We found her bag in her room; and maniacs can't get far
without cash ... however dipso or nympho they may be....
HUBERT: Oh.
BELSIZE: She was a very flashy type of wo--she is a flashy type, I

should say. At least I hope I should say ...
MRS. BRAMSON: What d'you mean? Why d'you hope?
BELSIZE: Well ...
OLIVIA: You don't mean she may be ... she mayn't be alive?
BELSIZE: It's possible.
MRS. BRAMSON: You'll be saying she's been murdered next!
BELSIZE: That's been known.
MRS. BRAMSON: Lot of stuff and nonsense. From a policeman too.
Anybody'd think you'd been brought up on penny dreadfuls.
OLIVIA _turns and goes to the window._
BELSIZE (to MRS. BRAMSON): Did you see about the fellow being
hanged for the Ipswich murder? In last night's papers?
MRS. BRAMSON: I've lived long enough not to believe the papers.
BELSIZE: They occasionally print facts. And murder's occasionally a
fact.
HUBERT: Everybody likes a good murder, as the saying goes!
Remember those trials in the Evening Standard last year? Jolly
interesting. I followed--
BELSIZE (_rising_): I'd be very grateful if you'd all keep your eyes and
ears open, just in case ... (_Shaking hands_) Good morning ... good
morning ... good morning, Mrs. Bramson. I must apologise again for
intruding--
He turns to OLIVIA, _who is still looking out of the window._
Good morning, Miss ... er ...

_A pause._
OLIVIA (_starting_): I'm so sorry.
BELSIZE: Had you remembered something? OLIVIA: Oh, no....
MRS. BRAMSON: What were you thinking, then?
OLIVIA: Only how ... strange it is.
BELSIZE: