may we never grow so somber or self-important

INT.  Lipton bedroom - Night

Larry and Carol sitting up in bed, talking.

CAROL
You're nuts.

LARRY
You know, look...

CAROL
Wait, wait, yeah.

LARRY
Let me be logical about this.

CAROL
Okay, she's not a twin.  We know she's not a twin.

LARRY
Hey.

CAROL
What are you talking about, Larry?

LARRY
Stay calm.  I want to try and puzzle this out.

CAROL
I'm calm, Larry.  Okay, but okay, she's a twin, she's not a twin.  I mean, now you're saying we are twins?  What are you, nuts?  Okay, I'm calm.  I'm calm, okay.

LARRY
Yeah, I'm going to be logical.

CAROL
All right, all right.

LARRY
The, uhm, the first thing is this.

FLASHBACK SCENE
INT.  Landing and hallway - Night

The door of the elevator opens.  Inside, Larry and Carol are smiling and talking.

LARRY
(voice over, from The Present)
We came home that night.  There had been a heart attack.

                          Some neighbors are gathered around Paul's apartment door.  Larry asks them questions.

LARRY
(voice over)
Uh, what if they induced it?  You know, some kind of poison.  We never saw the body.  You know -- it had to be some other woman.  You know, some- some woman who probably had some kind of ballpark resemblance to Mrs. House.

                           Group of neighbors standing in the hallway.

LARRY
(voice over)
The super says he saw her, but he's -- you know.  Mrs. House could have been hiding.

BACK TO THE PRESENT, IN BEDROOM

LARRY
But you-you remember that you heard a noise that night.  That had to be Mrs. House leaving to check into the hotel.

CAROL
Yeah.  Yeah.  Well...

LARRY
I can't sleep.  I just, I...

CAROL
No, wait a minute, wait.

LARRY
I'm too, you know...  I'm too...

CAROL
But it doesn't make any sense at all, Larry, because suddenly, you know, he murders her.  I mean, what's it all about?

LARRY
Let me, let me call Vincent's Restaurant in New Jersey... and why don't we go meet Ted and Marcia and get something to eat, and talk with them.

CAROL
Wait a minute.  At one in the morning?  What are you talking about?  You mean... You wanna --

LARRY
Yeah, so what?  So what?  It's -- so, you know, Ted-Ted was taking her to a show and to- to dinner... so they'll be there.

CAROL
All the way out to New Jersey...

LARRY
So -- hey kid, this is the apple.  This is the town that never sleeps.  That's why we don't live in Duluth.  That, plus I don't know where Duluth is.

                               He picks up the phone on his night table.

LARRY
Lucky me.

INT.  Vincent's Restaurant - Night

Larry, Carol, Ted, Marcia seated around a table.

TED
Uh, you really saw his face?

CAROL
Yes.  Oh, yes, I'm here to tell you...

TED
You saw, you saw what he looked like?  No question.  You know exactly who it is.

LARRY
Oh, no question about it.  It was - It was Mr. House.  There was no... Not a, not a question.  I mean, you could see him because, uh, you know, there was-there was just no way that you could avoid it.  He was right there.

                            CAMERA, moving around the table, stops on Marcia Fox.

MARCIA
To me, it's obvious.

LARRY
What - How do you see it?

TED
How, obvious?  What do you mean?

MARCIA
Obvious he's committed the perfect murder.

LARRY
What do you mean?

TED
What?  How?  What do you mean?

MARCIA
Okay, look.  You have to start off with another woman who bears some ballpark resemblance to Mrs. House.

TED
Yeah.

LARRY
That's what I said!  That's exactly -- I used the term "ballpark resemblance" myself.

CAROL
I know.  You used the term, right.

LARRY
It was my idea.  I said what she said.

MARCIA
They're with this woman.

TED
Yeah.

FLASH BACK SCENE
INT.  Paul's apartment - Night

Paul and another woman, that looks like Mrs. House, are seated around a table, having dinner.  Lillian House gives a glass of wine to the woman, then one to Paul, and kisses him on the forehead, as she walks past him to the kitchen.

MARCIA
(voice over, from the Present)
Maybe having dinner.  They don't induce a heart attack, because that's fiction bullshit.

                           MED. SHOT:  The woman having a heart attack.  Paul, helping her to walk to the sofa to lie down.

MARCIA
(voice over)
She has a heart attack.  She drops dead spontaneously.  They had no thought of killing her.  Maybe they wished she was dead. ...

________________________________________

{Manhattan Murder Mystery}

-30-