"Oh, good evening." "The leading man in tonight's saga is an alley cat." "He must be fed before each performance, it keeps him from eating the actors." "Today he's having a finely chopped mice burger." "Naturally we used nothing but contented mice." "For two weeks, they have been fed nothing but tranquilizers." "Now, just as soon as I can feed our star, you shall see our story "Miss Paisley's Cat."" "Oh, dear, there's a spot on the table." "What would Papa have said?" "It must have been something hot." "How could I have been so careless?" "Papa always told the servants, there was no excuse for carelessness." "Even when one is always alone, it doesn't do to let down." "Papa always said a lady behaves like a lady, whether anyone can see her or..." "How on earth did you get here?" "Oh, animals aren't allowed in the Piedmont Apartments, so you must go." "Go please." "What an ugly cat." "I don't suppose anyone ever wants to stroke you." "Well, I suppose you may stay for dinner." "Goodbye, Stanley." "Now be a good, good, kitty, or be as good as you can, and do try to stay out of trouble." "Goodbye." "Good morning, Miss Paisley." "Good morning, Jenkins." "Excuse me, miss." "Would that striped cat be yours, by any chance?" "It is my cat, Jenkins." "I realize he's not supposed to be here and..." "I'd be very glad to pay you a dollar a week for..." "For any trouble he might be to you." "Oh, that's very kind of you, miss, and thank you." "But what I was going to say was," "I saw it jump out of Mr. Rinditch's window with a bit of food in its mouth." "You know what Mr. Rinditch is." "I know he is a bookmaker and a vulgar man." "Yes, miss, he sure is." "He's a violent man too, miss." "That's what I wanted to say." "Yes, yes, I understand." "I shall give Stanley raw meat, then he won't steal." "I have to cut up your meat, Stanley, and I'm rather dreading it." "I always pick up my steak and chops with a fork to put them in the pan." "I've never actually handled raw meat before, Stanley." "That wasn't considered a necessary item in my education." "See, Stanley," "I wore these gloves when I use to ride during my holidays from school." "They're the best leather." "Papa always bought the best of everything." "Now, I hope this will discourage you from sneaking into Mr. Rinditch's apartment, Stanley." "That man is not fit for anyone, not even a cat to associate with." "The other people in this building are common, they cannot help that, but he is also vulgar and that is a matter of character." "Now, I'll show you your present, Stanley." "You may not like it but it's for your own good." "See, it says, "$5 reward for return", and it gives our name and address." "Now let me put it on you." "Now, don't fuss." "You brought this on yourself." "Good afternoon, Jenkins." "Afternoon, Miss Paisley." "Stanley." "Yeah?" "You kicked my cat." "Your cat, is it?" "Well, I thank you to keep it out of my apartment." "I regret the trespass but..." "I do too, but if I catch him in here again, you won't have no cat." "This is outrageous!" "Jenkins." "I am going to file a complaint against Mr. Rinditch for cruelty to animals." "You won't bother him none getting him fined." "He's a bookie, you know." "He gets fined many times." "It's part of his business expenses." "How revolting." "You'd be surprised, the cash that he handles." "The night before a big race, he'll be home with that bag of his stuffed full." "Then he'll go out around 8:00 and do his round of the bars and be back at 10:00 with that much again." "The amount of the fine is irrelevant, Jenkins, this is a matter of principle." "Principle don't mean a thing to Mr. Rinditch, miss." "Stanley, are you all right?" "Stanley, don't go in there." "Stanley, come on." "Come." "Kitty, kitty, kitty." "Oh, Stanley." "Stanley, don't..." "Stanley, we are in great danger." "Don't you care?" "Oh, how can I make you realize, Stanley?" "We are helpless, Stanley, helpless." "He's a dreadful man and we've no recourse in law." "We can't prove anything." "The lawyer said we'd be laughed out of court." "Oh, Stanley, why must you be so independent?" "Stanley, run away!" "Danger." "Danger." "Run." "I'm sure sorry, ma'am." "He jerked the leash right out of my hand." "Sure hope he hasn't hurt your cat." "On the contrary, I'm afraid my cat may have injured your dog." "I'm very sorry." "If there's anything I can do." "No, that's all right, ma'am." "He asked for it and he got it." "Your cat knows how to take care of himself all right." "Get in under and strike up." "Oh?" "I have some iodine in my apartment." "He don't want none of that." "Maybe your cat has saved him from losing an eye to the next one." "Don't give it any more thought." "You're very kind." "Thank you." "Good day." "Good day." "Oh, Stanley!" "Oh, my dear, what a fright I've had." "And I didn't know whether you were hurt or not." "Oh, I'm so glad you came in." "That huge dog." "Oh, Stanley, I was so proud of you." "You knew just how to defend yourself." "Get in under and strike up." "Oh, Stanley, do be careful." "I don't know what I'd do if anything should happen to you." "Stanley?" "Kitty, kitty, kitty." "Stanley, where are you?" "Stanley?" "Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty." "Come on, kitty." "Come on, Stanley." "Kitty, kitty, kitty." "It's been 24 hours." "How can you treat me this way?" "I must find him." "Something may have happened to him." "Stanley?" "Are you in there?" "You mustn't be in here, kitty." "Come on, Stanley!" "Come." "Kitty, kitty, kitty." "Jenkins!" "Jenkins, I'm afraid something terrible has happened!" "Why, miss, what seems to be the trouble?" "Stanley, my little cat, is missing." "And I..." "I just saw his collar in the wastepaper basket in Mr. Rinditch's room." "What a pity, miss." "Jenkins, you must investigate this at once." "It's your duty." "Yes, miss." "I sure hate to do this, but there's something I think you should see outside, in back." "Very well, Jenkins." "He was in Mr. Rinditch's room again soon after you come home last night." "You shouldn't really be surprised." "He was bound to do it sooner or later." "Maybe he didn't do it." "Maybe that wasn't his collar I saw." "Oh, yes, it was, miss." "When my wife went in this morning to straighten up his apartment, she spotted the collar in the wastebasket." "She said the strap part had been cut, like maybe with a razor." "People are dreadful, Stanley, dreadful." "Mr. Rinditch is a beast." "No, no, he's much worse." "You were the beast, Stanley, a dear good little beast." "And Jenkins is a cruel man." "I can see that now." "He's..." "He's always mocked me." "I think..." "I think he was hoping this would happen." "It excites him to see us suffer." "It is now 8:05." "In less than two hours," "Mr. Rinditch will come home." "You could defend yourself against other animals, but I taught you to trust human beings" "and I couldn't defend you against them." "I've allowed myself to become excited." "I must be calm." "I must be calm." "I must be very, very calm." "That's strange." "I don't remember turning out the lights." "Good heavens, it's 4:00, almost daylight." "No wonder I'm so tired." "Hey, Emma!" "They took him away, handcuffs and all!" "What?" "What is all this noise about?" "The bookie on the ground floor, miss." "Somebody cut him up with a knife last night." "The cops have arrested Bob Jenkins." "They took him away in handcuffs." "I see." "Hey, Myrtle." "Thank you very much." "I must think." "I must try to remember." "Get in under and strike up." "I went out..." "I returned... $5 reward for return..." "Return..." "Oh, please help me." "Please." "I must have committed murder." "Miss Paisley, do you really think that you killed a man while in a state of trance because you believed he had killed your cat?" "I knew he had killed my cat." "Jenkins showed me the cat's body and I myself saw my little cat's collar in Mr. Rinditch's wastepaper basket." "Well, then that collar should still be in the basket, shouldn't it?" "Naturally." "There was no collar in the basket, Inspector." "Oh, I..." "I must have taken it away with me." "It must be here somewhere." "I can't think what I could have done with it." "At what time did you kill him?" "I don't know." "I have no memory of the act itself." "I can only say that it was fixed in my mind that I must get close and strike upwards." "And how did you get in?" "Again, I can't say." "I might have..." "I must have got in through the window." "So you don't remember anything, you are simply working out what you think you must have done?" "I appreciate the force of your remark, Inspector." "But I must ask you to believe that at 8:05," "I sat in that chair waiting." "That my next clear memory is of starting up in that chair at about 4:00, noticing that it was nearly daylight and someone had turned off the lights." "Quite so, quite so." "Now, we accept the fact there's a period you don't remember in which you have done various things, but I don't believe that you killed Rinditch." "What about the knife?" "I can identify it." "And so could dozens of people." "It's a very common kind of knife, Miss Paisley." "Any hardware store has sold hundreds of them." "But my knife is gone." "Miss Paisley, if you had entered Rinditch's apartment, and done everything you said, your fingerprints would be all over the place." "I was wearing leather riding gloves." "May I have look at them, Miss Paisley?" "I..." "They're gone and the raincoat, too." "What raincoat?" "My gabardine raincoat." "I was wearing it and the gloves when I sat in that chair, to wait for Mr. Rinditch to come home." "When I came to, they were gone." "You don't believe me." "Well, I believe that you believe it all, Miss Paisley." "You felt that you had to kill the man who had killed your cat." "But you knew you couldn't face up to a job like murder, especially with a knife, so you had a brainstorm or whatever you want to call it, in which you convinced yourself you had committed the murder." "I don't understand." "Even if I can't prove that I did it, why do you think Jenkins did it?" "At 7:00 this morning, before the murder was discovered, a police officer found Jenkins trying to sink a bag in the river." "Now, that bag belonged to Rinditch." "He had collected money in it and kept it overnight." "And Jenkins has more than $500 in cash that he can't account for." "Oh, yes, Jenkins was always interested in Mr. Rinditch's money." "Well, he must have discovered the body and been unable to resist the money." "I suppose he thought he could get rid of the bag, hide the money and the police would think that the murderer had taken it." "And that's exactly what we do think, miss." "Now, do you still believe that you killed him?" "Well, then remember this, if the brain can play one sort of trick on you, it can play another, just as it's doing now." "Well, don't try to figure it out." "Just relax and after a while, the whole thing will come back to you." "Goodbye, Miss Paisley." "Goodbye." "I tried." "I told him everything." "He was very kind, very considerate." "Well, I suppose I must just do as he says, try to relax and not think about it." "But it does seem a little hard on Jenkins, undesirable as he is." "I still miss you, Stanley." "Though it's been six months." "Six months and three days." "And I still find myself looking toward the window, listening for you." "I'm lonely, Stanley." "I was used to it before you came, but now I'm lonely." "Perhaps I'll get a kitten, a very young one that I can train so it won't..." "Oh, dear." "It's gone down behind the cushion." "Oh, bother." "Well, I don't see how it..." "$5 reward for return..." "Now, I remember everything." "I took it out of the basket afterwards." "I didn't want to get blood on it, so I took off my glove," "I took the collar out of the basket and put it in the front of my dress." "Then..." "Yes, I put on my glove and went out the window to the river, that's where the coat and knife and gloves are." "I must tell that nice inspector." "What a pity poor Jenkins has already been executed." "But the new superintendent is much nicer." "Almost a gentleman in fact." "Unfortunately for Miss Paisley, murder will out." "She was finally uncovered chiefly through the efforts of the SPCH, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans." "It's not a very powerful organization, but it's growing." "As for the star of our show, Miss Paisley's cat, Stanley, he went down in the line of duty, making a revival of our play impossible." "But all is not lost, he is being used for dog food." "And on this pleasant note, we conclude tonight's entertainment." "Until next time, good night."