Page 34 - Murder on the Dirigible

Murder on the Dirigible

METCALF: I’m not through with that guy. If he can clear himself,
I’ll send him in; otherwise, he can’t be trusted. He might try to hijack
the airship and escape to Mexico.

MATTHEWS: He’d never make it.

METCALF: That doesn’t mean he isn’t crazy enough to try. Did you
know he was part of that fake Swami’s organization? These religious
fanatics give me the creeps. Maybe Louie hypnotized or drugged
Perkinson and made him do the job, leaving that old grifter with an
alibi. Well, I’m going through this briefcase again. If what Louie says
is true, there might be some evidence of blackmail in these papers.
Fisk wasn’t as clever as he thought: otherwise he wouldn’t be laid out
in the baggage compartment. (goes through briefcase carefully)

POMELLO: (gets up from seat and heads for galley; MacAllister
blocks her way) Come on, let me through. I seem to have a terrible
thirst.

MACALLISTER: I know you are one of the owners of the Golden
Cloud, Mrs. Pomello, but I’m supposed to keep everyone seated until
Mr. Metcalf or the captain give me other orders.

POMELLO: The captain takes his orders from me! At least he
should have, when he had the chance. (stumbles; MacAllister puts her
in chair in galley) Oh, Oscar, why did we have to fight over money?
(looks at MacAllister) You don’t really know him, do you?

MACALLISTER: You mean Captain Matthews. Why, no, not really.

POMELLO: I used to be Mrs. Matthews, before I was Mrs. Pomello.
(watches MacAllister’s reaction) Yes, I know, hard to believe, isn’t it?
He’s so calm and calculating, and I’m such a nervous wreck. But it
wasn’t always like that. Hand me that bottle, would you, dear. And a
glass. Thank you. Back in the Twenties he was a broken-down
barnstormer, dusting crops and doing advertising stunts around the
state. I met him in a bar in Santa Rosa and pulled him together. It
turned out he had been shot down over France in the war and lost
his nerve. Some woman there took care of him until he was
repatriated, and then he had no friends except these. (waves bottle)
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