CARTER: This—despair he gets into. This—anguish.

CECILIA: Anguish and despair.

CARTER: It’s no joke. He’s liable to do something very serious to himself.

CECILIA: Oh. I see.

CARTER: If you could just come with me over there and have a talk with him—

CECILIA: I’m not getting into your car, pal. So just give it up.

CARTER: No, I didn’t mean that! You can go there any way you want. Walk, drive, take the bus! It makes no difference to me how you get there! I just think that it would do him a world of good if he could see you and—talk things out.

Pause.

CECILIA: He told you that I had him arrested? For what?

CARTER: Trespassing. Invasion of Privacy and uh—Harassment.

CECILIA: That’s amazing.

CARTER: He could have been making it all up. It’s possible.

CECILIA: I really liked him, you know. Right from the get-go. He seemed like such a sweet man, underneath. Innocent. A man like that has no business being in such a seedy occupation as that. It’s bound to pull him down sooner or later.

CARTER: What occupation?

CECILIA: A private investigator. It just doesn’t suit him at all.

CARTER: No, see, that’s exactly what I’m trying—

CECILIA: He has all kinds of potential, but you can’t continue to rub up against that kind of low-rent world he lives in without feeling the effects.

CARTER: He is not a private investigator! He’s not a detective or anything like that! That’s what I’ve been trying to get through to you, here!

CECILIA: He showed me his badge and his gun. He took me on surveillance with him. He even showed me pictures from a case he’d worked on.

Pause.

CARTER: What case?

CECILIA: Some case involving a racing official or something. He said it was years ago.

CARTER: He talked to you about that?

CECILIA: He talks to me about everything.

CARTER: What’d he tell you?

CECILIA: I can’t remember all the details of it. But he wasn’t lying.

CARTER: He lies about everything! It’s all part of this illness of his. This sickness! He’s a professional liar.

CECILIA: Well, the pictures didn’t lie. I can tell you that much.

CARTER: What pictures?

CECILIA: He showed me a couple of pictures of this guy that were presented as evidence against him.

CARTER: What were the pictures of?

CECILIA: What difference does it make to you?

CARTER: I am trying to figure out what’s going on in his head. That’s all.

CECILIA: They were very, very filthy pictures. That’s about all I can say. I’ve never seen anything like it, in fact. And, believe me, I’ve been around the block. I may not look it but I have.

CARTER: Was there a woman involved?

CECILIA: A woman?

CARTER: In the pictures!