Quandary by Judith Boyd


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CAST

Ami

Jane

Ellen

Mrs Miller ( gran )

Jamie

Chief Inspector Mulgrave ( Ted )

Sargent Davidson ( Liz)


Scene One
Jane: You're looking better
Ami: Am I?
Jane: Yes, you looked dreadful when I arrived. Can I get you anything?
Ami: No I'm fine.
Jane: It must have been awful for you
Ami: It was.
Jane: Are you alright?
Ami: I don't know, I can't take it in.
Jane: You've had a rotten time of it, don't feel guilty
Ami: I don't. Why did you say that?
Jane: I don't know. I'm sorry.
Pause
Ami: I wonder how long they'll be
Jane: It should only be a couple more minutes
Ami: Will you stay with me?
Jane: Of course I will
Ami: I never thought he'd do it
Jane Who would, bloody hell I didn't think he had it in him.
Ami: Ellen'll be here soon. What am I going to tell her?
Jane: The doctor's here I'm sure he'll talk to her and make sure she's ok.
Ami: Yes
Jane: You mustn't worry, I'll stay as long as you need me.
Ami: She didn't come home last night
Jane: I know
Scene Two
Enter Chief Inspector Mulgrave. ( Ted) with Sgt Davidson
( Liz )
Ted: Do you feel up to answering some questions Mrs. Miller?
Ami: Yes, can Jane stay?
Ted: If you'd like her too
Jane: Thanks
Ted: We'd like to talk about last night
Ami: Yes of course
Liz: Did you see your husband?
Ami: Yes
Ted: Did he seem depressed?
Ami: He always was
Ted: What do you mean?
Ami: He was a manic depressive
Ted: Oh really? He'd been diagnosed by a doctor ?
Ami: Yes. Dr Roger Cox, he's in the city
Liz: Sydney?
Ami: Yes.
Liz: We'll get in touch with him. Had your husband been seeing him long?
Ami: Six years
Liz: What time did he return home last night?
Ami: About nine. I didn't look at the clock so I can't be precise. I wasn't
expecting him, but I was still up
Ted: Did you both go to bed at the same time?
Ami: No. He stayed up after me to have another drink, he needed it to help him sleep .
I went to bed, I had a migraine
Jane: She gets a lot of migraines
Liz: You went straight to sleep, you didn't hear anything?
Ami: That's right
Ted: Did you always sleep in separate rooms?
Ami: Yes
Ted: Why is that?
Jane: They were separated
Ted ( To Jane) Thank you
Jane: My pleasure
Ted: You shared a house, but you were separated?
Ami: Yes
Ted: Why didn't you live apart?
Ami: We found it more economical to live together.
Ted: I understood you have two houses
Ami: We do. I did move into the Sydney house for a while.I came back
when we decided to put it on the market
Ted: You're selling your other house?
Ami: Yes
Jane: Is that relevant?
Ted: Mrs? ( He glares at Jane)
Jane: Ms Roberts
Ted: Ms Roberts, I don't mind if you stay but you must stop interrupting. I'm sure Mrs Miller
would like to get this over with as soon as possible.
Jane: I was just trying to help
Ted: By interrupting?
Jane: I wanted to know the relevance of the question that's all.
Ami: It's alright Jane
Liz: Did you and your husband talk last night?
Ami: For a short time, I was feeling sick
Ted: Yes of course. The migraine
Liz: What did you talk about?
Ami: I can't remember exactly.
Ted: You can't remember?
Jane: That's what she said
Ted: All right, I'll come back to that. You say you found him at seven o'clock this morning
Ami: I did find him at seven o'clock this morning
Ted: Why did you clean up the body before you phoned us?
Ami: He was such a mess. I couldn't leave him like that ... it's ... so undignified and I was
worried my daughter would come home and see him
Ted: Do you think it's a normal thing to do?
Ami: What?
Ted: To clean up the body, change him, put clean sheets on the bed, to do all
that before calling the police
Ami: The body as you call it was my husband.. I didn't think, it was just a natural
reaction
Ted: It seems a very unnatural thing to me
Ami: Does it?
Ted: Yes
Ami: Well I'm a nurse. I'm used to cleaning dead bodies. I didn't want anyone to see
him like that
Liz: But he was your husband, not just a body
Ami: My point exactly
Ted: It's not the sort of thing a normal wife would do. They'd be shocked and upset
they'd probably call for help
Ami: I don't know what other people would do. I went into his bedroom and found him
lying in a mess. It was such a mess. ( pause) He was dead. Nothing anyone
could do would bring him back
Ted: I see
Ami: I haven't tried to hide anything from you. All the sheets are in the laundry basket .. the bag
Ted: The normal procedure would be to call the police before you touched anything
Ami: The normal procedure?
Ted: Yes
Janei: What the hell are you talking about? It's not normal for a wife to find her husband dead with a
bag over his head is it?
Ted: She shouldn't have touched it
Ami: What would be the point of cleaning him up if my daughter walked in and saw him with a bag
over his head?
Ted: Well first of all you shouldn't have cleaned him, secondly, the bag's plastic, we could get
finger prints from it
Ami: So what. You know they're mine, and presumably his
Ted: But they could have just been his.
A beat
Ami: What are saying?
Jane: What the hell are you up too?
Ted: Miss Roberts if you interrupt again I'll have to ask you to leave.
Jane: My friend has just lost her husband and
Liz: Did he give any indication that he was going to do this?
Ami: He's tried it before
Liz: And failed?
Jane: Obviously
Ted glares at Liz as if she'd said something stupid
Ted: Did he say anything last night?
Ami: Yes, he said lots of things: one of them was that he was going to kill himself.. he
was always saying that.
Ted: What did you do about it?
Ami I didn't believe him
Ted: You could have rung his doctor
Ami: I didn't believe him—and I had a migraine. I was sick
Ted: Not as sick as your husband
Ami: My husband threatened to take his life all the time, he was a depressive,
the doctor would have just talked to him
Liz: Did you try?
Ami: I did, we talked
Ted: About what?
Ami: Do I have to talk about this? It's private.
Liz: I'm sorry, you do
Ami: Robert wanted to try and sort things out between us
Ted: And did you? Sort things out.
Ami: We were going to discuss it again today, when I felt better
Liz: Did he seem happy when you went to bed?
Ami: No but I thought he was alright
Ted: All right? You mean not depressed?
Ami: You have to understand Inspector, my husband wasn't happy unless
he was depressed
Ted: He didn't leave a note, don't you find that odd?
Ami: He tried to give me a letter last night, He'd written down all his feelings, his
doctor told him to do that apparently it helps to clear the mind ... my head was bad.
I said I'd read it in the morning, that seemed to satisfy him
Ted: Where is it?
Pause
Ted: Mrs Miller. Where is the letter?
Ami: I don't know
Ted: You haven't seen it then?
Ami: He said he was going to leave it on the table for me to read, it wasn't there when
I came down this morning, that's why I went into his room
Ted: To find the letter?
Ami: Yes
Ted: It wasn't there?
Ami: I found him didn't I? I forgot about the letter
Ted: What did you think when you first saw him this morning?
Ami: I thought he was dead
Liz: What did you feel?
Ami: How the hell do I know
Liz: Were you surprised?
Ami: I don't know, I can't remember
. Ted: After you'd cleaned the body and changed the sheets, did you look for it then?
Ami: What?
Ted: The letter
Ami: No
Ted: Are you sure?
Ami: Of course I'm sure
Liz: Why didn't you?
Ami: I assumed you'd do that
Ted: Oh I see, you left us to find the letter, but you cleaned up the body and made things tidy
Ami: Yes. Look I wasn't thinking. I was in shock
Ted: So you were shocked?
Ami: Of course I was bloody shocked what do you think?
Ted: You said you couldn't remember what you felt
Ami: I didn't understand the question
Ted: It all seems very strange to me Mrs Miller
Ami: Does it really? Well I'll tell you what I find strange shall I?
Liz: You're not helping yourself by being aggressive Mrs Miller.
Ami: I don't need to help myself. My husband has taken his life and I find it strange
that you're treating me as a criminal. He did it himself. I didn't make him. It was
his choice.
Ted: Was it really?
Ami: Yes, look he's tried it before ask his doctor
Liz: We will
Ted: Mrs. Miller you don't seem very upset by his death
Ami: Don't I?
Ted: No ( Pause ) Are you upset?
Ami Of course I am. What do you want tears? Hysteria?
Ted: At least that would be normal
Pause
Ami: The truth is we weren't a happy couple
Liz: You had an unhappy marriage?
Jane: She's bright isn't she?.
Ami: We fought, sometimes we hated each other, but most of the time
we put up with each other for the sake of the children
Ted: I see
Ami: No, I don't think you do

[end of extract]



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