"Good morning." "Intertect Limited." "Would you hold a moment?" " Good morning." " Intertect Limited." "One moment." "Thank you, sir." "Bye." "One paper on the desk at a time, Mr. Pender." "Oh, cut it out, Mannix." "Company rule." "I know." "I know." "Mannix, take the jacket away from the lens." "I want to talk to you, Mannix." "Go ahead, Lou." "In my office." "Now." "Smith, where's Mannix?" "Wrong again." "Three days and 55 minutes late." "I, uh, broke the Ashland case." "Uh-huh." "Didn't do my hand any good, either." "You broke the man's jaw." "Did you have to slug him?" "It seemed like a pretty good idea at the time." "You know Intertect's policy about brawling." "Well, it got the job done anyway, Lou." "True." "But Mannix, I run an organization-- a large one-- and I have to have rules, a system." "It's not perfect." "No system is." "It is, however, designed to get the most out of people." "Not me." "If I were you, I'd fire me." "Joe, this is the 28th..." "Lou, we've been here before." "I just don't fit into the system." "I know you won't change the system." "I know I won't change the system." "It's logical." "Can me." "You're my best man." "I know." "I know you know." "Now, come on." "I have a job for you." "What's the rough angle this time that means it's mine?" "There's a girl missing with her mother's bracelet." "Family doesn't want police." "Oh, come on." "That's a system job." "Her father's one of the richest men in the state." "Semi-retired, grows dates." "Still a system job." "The girl's name is Angela Dubrio." "Father:" "Samuel Dubrio-- used to head the rackets up 20 or 30 years ago?" "Why would he call Intertect for help?" "He didn't." "He asked for my best man." "If you laugh, I will fire you." "Um..." "I'll see what I can do." "Oh, Mannix, don't forget:" "Check out with Operations." "Flight 44 from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, now departing, gate one." "191 from Palm Springs to Tucson, now boarding at gate two." "Are you from Intertect?" "Yes." "I have Mr. Dubrio's car waiting, sir." "Oh, thank you, but, uh, tell Mr. Dubrio" "I'll see him in an hour or so." "I'd like to check into a hotel, maybe look around town." "Excuse me, sir." "Mr. Dubrio would like to see you now." "In an hour or so." "Immediately, if you please." "Sir?" "Is something the matter?" "Not at all." "He just tried harder." "Hands." "I'm Sam Dubrio." "Nice meeting you... and good-bye." "Don't you know what that thing is?" "Sure, but a gun in the hand doesn't mean the world by the tail." "Oh, that's true, but he don't need the gun." "Doesn't he?" "I said, hands!" "No, no." "Let 'em go." "Why?" "You're supposed to be Intertect's best." "I wanted a look at how you handle yourself." "How rough a boy do you need to find a missing girl with a bracelet?" "There ain't no bracelet." "And the girl isn't just missing." "She's been..." " ...kidnapped." " That's right." "My wife got the phone call." "They want one-half million dollars in cash aboard the mountain tramway at 2:00 today." "I've got the money ready." "I want you to make the payoff." "Sorry, but kidnapping is a matter for the law, not a private firm." "Please, help us." "Mrs. Dubrio..." "Please!" "Mrs. Dubrio, the state can lift my license just for not picking up a phone." "Sam won't go to the police." "Not won't." "I can't." "I'm Samuel Dubrio." "Sure, now, I'm a date farmer, but they still remember when I used to be wrongside." "Government goes out of its way to give me tax trouble." "I hand that money over to the law to make the payoff, and never see it again either way." "It?" "The money?" "What about your daughter?" "Do you think just paying over that money's gonna save her?" "Well, it don't figure to as a rule, but those people know me." "I still got an organization." "Look, pay, and we stand a chance of getting Angela back." "There's none if we call in the cops." "You still have an organization." "Why call Intertect?" "I got no one on my payroll that I can trust." "Not with a half a million bucks in cash." "Uh-uh." "It's you, or I pass." "And your daughter?" "Eh, Angela may be dead already." "That's not true." "I heard her voice on the phone." "Sure, maybe her, maybe a tape." "Sam, please!" "Ah, Louise, go on and wash your face!" "Pay them, just..." "Louise, it..." "Mrs. Dubrio your husband, he seems pretty cold about all this." "Mister...?" "Mannix." "Mannix." "I know what Sam is." "You... you should know he's not Angela's father." "Just a few months after we got married," "Sam went to the penitentiary." "I was 19 years old, Mr. Mannix." "There was no question of divorce." "It's no excuse, I know, but..." "You can't imagine how... miserable and lonely I was." "Five years later, when Sam came back," "Angela was already... almost three." "Understand, h-he didn't leave me." "He beat me bloody, but he didn't leave me." "All these years, he's never said anything to Angela." "He's paid all the bills." "You don't know." "You just don't know." "Please, do what he asks." "You can't blame him." "All that money and she isn't even his daughter." "Hey, Andy, move that picking crane over to check three." "She tell you?" "She told me." "Now what do you think of Sam Dubrio?" "Oh, I think he's a... prince." "Well, it's not your opinion of me that means a thing, it's what I think of you." "And you know what I think?" "I think you're hooked." "You got no use for me, but you're worrying about the girl." "You're all heart." "You'll do it." "Yeah, I'll do it, Dubrio, but not for you, for the girl." "Because I'm not so sure they'll let her live, police or no police." "I'll make that payoff for you, Dubrio, but my way." "Just what is your way?" "A way to find out where they're holding the girl." "How?" "The kidnappers have the same problem you have:" "who can they trust with a half a million dollars in cash?" "That's why they picked the tramway for the payoff." "They can keep me under observation the whole time." "The pickup man has no place to run." "He's got to follow orders." "As long as he does, there's no way I can follow him." "So what can you do about it?" "I'm gonna make him disobey orders and give me a lead to the girl." "You can't." "He knows they'll kill him." "You're going to gamble I can." "I'm not going to give him a half a million dollars." "What?" "!" "You'd better sit down, Dubrio." "It's all there, wrapped like you said." "Your attention, please." "This is the last call for this part of the mountain trip." "All those wishing to make this trip, please come to the waiting room now." "All aboard." "Your attention, please." "The next car to the mountain station will leave in five minutes." "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway." "Hey, look why don't you guys go on without me." "I just remembered I didn't pay up my insurance." "Hold on, I'm sure they give out parachutes." "Fasten your seat belts." "Coffee, tea or milk." "Is there a lawyer in the house?" "I want to make out a will." "Now, in the nine minutes that it takes us to complete our trip, we're going to rise a full vertical mile and travel two and a half miles up the canyon to the mountain station." "Any questions that you folks have, please, feel free to ask me." "Anything at all you want to know about the trip, about the scenery and so forth." "Now the rock on the left is called "Mineral Rock,"" "because almost every color of the rainbow can be seen on its sides." "Did you bring it all?" "One million dollars." "Now, on these slopes below us, you'll see pinion pine, yellow pine, big cone pine, lumber pine, sugar cone pine, and here and there, a dead pine." "Let's see it." "One million dollars." "Please notice on the right the towering spire of cathedral rock, just one portion of the mountain solid core of granite visible to us." "Stand back there." "Now, by looking out over the left side of the car, you can see the Salton Sea which is 240 feet below sea level, and, of course, also, the cities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert," "Cathedral City and Indio." "How many people can the car hold?" "Eighty-one." "The two tram cars pass exactly in the middle." "And although it may seem that the car going down is going much faster than we are, both cars travel at exactly the same speed." "How fast are we going?" "Uh, 18 miles an hour." "What happens if the car slides backwards?" "Well, nothing to worry about." "We've got springs under us." "Springs?" "Yeah." "Palm Springs, Desert Springs, hot springs." "Look, a helicopter." "A chopper." "Boy, he's close." "Now, at our mountain station, you will find a restaurant and a complete virgin forest with hiking trails and, uh, nice, clean, smog-free air." "And here we are." "Everybody out." "Stay here." "Ride down." "Don't leave the tram." "All right, everybody, step up, please." "Valley Station next." "Did you get it all?" "Half a million." "What took you...?" "Move!" "There you go." "Watch your step." "Your attention, please." "The next car for the Valley Station will leave in ten minutes." "All those wishing to make this trip please come to the waiting room now." "What is this?" ""Eddie Lee Prentiss."" "You shouldn't have come back," "Eddie Lee Prentiss." "You a cop?" "Where's the girl, Eddie." "You a cop?" "Where's the girl?" "You're not a cop." "Where's the girl?" "!" "I don't know." "I had nothing to do with that." "They paid me $1,000 just to make a pickup." "Where did the helicopter let you off?" "Where?" "!" "A private airport, just outside of town that no one uses." "Now Eddie, look, if you're lying..." "It's not finished." "The builder went busted or something, I don't know." "All right, Eddie, you take me there." "Listen, mister, a half a million." "Forget it!" "A half a million dollars!" "A half a million." "Everything changes." "Try to understand." "You take me there." "It's all different." "It's another world when you're rich." "Eddie!" "Oh, Eddie, a half a million dollars." "Now, you knew... you had to know that was too much." "You were never meant to have that kind of money." "Yeah..." "I knew." "I knew it was too good." "But, mister, think-- there'll never be another chance like this." "You take half." "Quarter of a million a piece." "Quarter of a million...?" "That's rich... that's rich." "Yeah, I know, Eddie." "But I want to go to the airport, Eddie, now." "Everybody wants to be rich, mister." "Why not us?" "I'll tell you what, Eddie-- let's go to the airport... then we'll talk about the money." "Don't kid me." "What do you got to lose, Eddie?" "You take me to the airport." "I'll even let you hold the key." "You're lying to me." "A quarter of a million dollars, Eddie." "There it is." "Oh, but mister, this is stupid." "We could be rich." "Hang on." "But, mister, this is..." "Out!" "Let's go!" "Eh..." "It's okay, Eddie." "You're gonna be all right." "Just take it easy." "Just think, Eddie, quarter of a million dollars." "We'll go halves." "You..." "Here..." "A quarter of a million dollars." "You should've known, Eddie." "You should've known." "Angela, I'm a private detective." "Your father hired me to find you." "I don't believe you." "Well, I can prove it." "Don't...!" "All right, if you're what you say you are, give me your gun." "There are no bullets left, anyway." "Please take me home." "Please take me home." "What happened back there?" "Miss Dubrio, I'm trying to help you." "I'm afraid." "I want to go home." "Just lie still." "He'll have a tough time seeing us here." "Where are we?" "I don't know." "How did you find me?" "It's not important." "Tell me-- what happened back at the tower?" "I don't want to talk about it." "I want you to talk about it." "What happened?" "I don't know... except that it must've been the money." "I heard them fighting over it, and then there was shooting." "I didn't know what to do, so I hid." "The man with the money ran out to the helicopter and the other man just kept shooting at him, and then he came back in and just hung there..." "on the railing." "I watched him for a long time, but he didn't move." "He was dead." "I took his gun a-and he fell over the railing." "Then I heard somebody." "I didn't know it was you, honest." "That's why I hit you." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Please take me away from here." "Please." "I just want to go home." "Dubrios." "Nice family." "What?" "You almost told it well enough." "Well, that's what happened." "Sorry, baby." "It just doesn't scan." "What do you mean?" "I saw the man who ran out to the helicopter." "He didn't have a thing in his hands-- no money, no gun, nothing." "It must be back at the tower." "What difference does it make?" "Just a bit." "Why didn't he go back to the tower and get the money?" "Why is he still chasing you?" "I don't know." "I do." "He'd like to kill you." "That's it, Mannix." "I can identify him." "No, no, there never was a kidnapping, was there?" "Just a nice little squeeze on old "dad,"" "in case he happened to forget his "daughter" in his will." "You must be crazy." "No, baby, just lucky." "Lucky you ran out of bullets." "All you had left was a loaded handbag." "I'll tell you why he wanted to kill you." "'Cause you happened to do all the shooting." "No!" "I'll take that bag." "No!" "Give me the bag." "You almost knocked my head off with this." "Of course, it was a little heavier than it should have been." "It had a half a million dollars in it." "It's not fair." "It's not fair!" "How much?" "One million dollars." "Mine." "Is it?" "It's his." "Okay, but it's evidence, Mr. Dubrio." "You'll get a receipt." "Where is it?" "There's a half a million dollars in a locker, top of the tramway." "The girl buried the other half, just out of bounds, near the 12th green." "If she won't tell you exactly where it is, you'll just have to bulldoze the area." "Uh, Stan!" "Oh, you can bill Mr. Dubrio." "Aw, now, lay off, will you?" "Say, you know, I don't get it-- that part about her thinking that I wouldn't leave her a penny." "Well, that's not true." "It's true." "How did you know about Angela?" "Well, all three men involved were at the tramway." "That left no one to watch a kidnapped girl." "There was no reason to return to the tower, except to, uh, split the money." "That's not all, is it, Mr. Mannix?" "No, Mrs. Dubrio, I'm afraid not." "Angela knew my name." "Is that important?" "Well, sort of." "You see, uh, your husband didn't know it." "He couldn't have cared less." "He just called Intertect and said, "Send me your best man."" "Your chauffeur didn't know it and..." "I didn't get a chance to check into a hotel." "Yeah, but you just used his name." "I'm..." "I'm sorry, Mrs. Dubrio." "You asked my name when you pleaded with me to make that payoff, right before you called Angela to tell her the plan had worked and, uh... the money was on its way." "Louise... do you mean to tell me..." "What did you expect, Sam?" "After 22 years of living with you, aren't you surprised it took so long?" "I mean, after 22 years with a... a disease, chances are you catch it." "I can't tell you how sorry I am, Sam, that it didn't work." "Now, for the benefit of those who couldn't make it last time..." "Lou, I..." "Oh, hello, Joe." "What is it?" "Uh, it'll hold." "How'd it go?" "I found the girl." "Who was that?" "His name is Mannix."