Original subtitles

See you next time.

when it sets you down.

And loving seems so easy once you're in love.

So go them alone.

So go them alone.

Try to catch him.

If you can, if you catch him, try to hold that man.

Love him, yes, but don't expect to own.

Go them alone.

hottest toasty.

In here darling.

Good flight Susie.

Jackie lover.

Jackie.

Good flight Jackie.

Any flight's good brings me here.

how was joe burke frankfurt frankfurt

change of schedule

no no

i'm qantas darling it's susie who's luke dancer

can't pick them all

How was Frankfurt, then?

Very, very, very cold.

We'll have to do something about that.

Everything swinging in the world of crime?

Bit of a turn at the opera the other night.

At the opera?

Scobie Malone at the opera.

That's funny.

Hilarious.

I didn't know Susie was a music lover.

Helga.

Who?

Helga.

What kind does she fly for?

God knows.

Somebody doing the tenor? Female.

Ambulance? Too late.

Where is she? Follow me.

Like a creature of the air you float Your heart like

a sailor without a boat

Your happiness is caused while she just waits, but you're not the

fisherman, just the bait.

Softly twisted threads.

And while you're still thinking of leaving,

her silver threads are still weaving.

It's not the end, just the beginning.

The spider is dead, but her thread is still spinning.

twisted through

Somebody picked her out a $100 million turn.

Maintenance man found her.

Shook him up quite a bit.

Was she an opera performer?

Starco? I'll check for missing, Sergeant.

Telephone handy?

I'll show you.

Ring headquarters and ask for the works.

No. I'd better.

Sergeant, when you first looked at her, you got a funny look on your dial.

I thought for a minute something about her. The eyes.

I'm sorry.

3-2-6-2-5-double-7.

3-2-6-2-something-double-what?

Sergeant? A bloody phone number. She told it to me and I can't remember it.

3-2-6-2-something-double-bloody-bugger-all. That's just what we got in

this case, bugger-all.

Cheer up. Got a name?

Got a robe.

Cleanest tag on the robe.

Half a cleaner's tag. But the wrong half, little mate.

Think of that.

So do what the book says.

You're always on about the book.

So fare forth and find a name to go with Helga.

Scobie?

Whoever Blue-Eyes Orphan Annie was, somebody must have known her. So start

checking dry cleaners.

All of them?

There's bloody thousands of them.

Not thousands.

That's 326 on a number. That's Double Bay. Maybe 20 or 30. You wanted to learn

to be a detective, so go out and learn.

All that ego, Walter, darling. What?

Surely my little rabbit can't be all that nervous.

I'll get you a drink and settle your nerves.

My dear Helga, I do wish you'd try to remember my position in the community.

I'm a minister of the government.

And we ministers are not as other men are.

You always like to laugh at me.

Sorry, darling.

There's some by-elections coming up.

Surely you know what the slightest breath of scandal could do.

My secretary and my chauffeur are already suspicious of me.

Driving my own car every Monday and Wednesday.

Little people love to gossip.

It's not a very long road from their mouths to the ears of the Premier. So,

for the sake of the party, my dear... Ah, yes, the party.

The party tells you what to do. The party tells you when to go to the loo.

That's poetry, Walter.

Your horse a poet.

Helga, you're outrageous.

Oh, and I'm forgetting my manners.

Thank you for the robe, dear Walter.

Do you like it?

Yes, it becomes your... I know you like what's in it.

My dear, must you be so... Open. Well, really, you know that I'm... Yes, I know

you.

And I know what you like.

You like to see me naked as an egg.

Oh, the nasty little schoolboy in you says that it's naughty.

But you like that too.

Nonsense.

Or perhaps the Minister for Cultural Development finds that his morals are

not those which he so often expounds.

Even preaches.

Helga, please, please.

God, what a day I've had.

Another drink?

Or shall we get to work?

Later for the drink. I need relaxing.

This way, my lord.

How about the robe, my dear?

Oh, it's brilliant.

I told you, I love it.

Frankly, it's a sort of goodbye present, if you know what I mean.

I am way ahead of you, Walter.

I mean, darling, it's been so thoughtful and kind of you to have talked to a

little kid lately.

I'm laughing at me again.

Then let's laugh together about a robe as a bonus for, uh, what is it, dear?

Two years of loving service?

What did it cost?

All of $50?

Over a hundred.

A hundred. Two hundred.

A partnership usually splits.

Fifty-fifty. What are you talking about?

Money, Walter. Money, money.

I think I'd account a square.

When one has a sexual arrangement like ours. It takes two for a sexual

arrangement, dear Walter.

One man debates.

Really, Hilda. This game's gone far enough.

The game stops.

At 20,000. 20,000?

Oh, think of your real estate up and down the coast.

Beach house, a cruiser you'd mistake for part of the fleet.

And all on a minister's wage, too.

You're a bloody marvel, darling.

Helga,

don't you ever remember the light? The light?

Ah, yes.

The light. Do anything as long as it's in the dark.

That's the politician in you.

Come to mommy, baby boy.

Poor baby.

Mommy's got positions to make her boy forget his position in the community.

You're impossible.

That's better.

Much better.

Now, what will mommy do to earn her keep?

Anything at all.

I'll have time together.

And Mummy will see that her little boy gets it.

Well, how are we going to get him out of here, then?

No, Walt.

Not nearly as much as you imagine.

Three, two, six, two, five, doubles.

Hiya, Jackie.

I'm not Jackie.

That's for sure.

Hiya, Becky.

Not that I mean anything to you.

What's the matter?

Come on, honey, don't sulk on me. It doesn't suit you.

How would you like it if I went on about some guy's equipment and phone number

all night?

Did I?

Who the hell is Helga?

You mean I set a phone number in my sleep?

Over and over and over?

The whole number?

Well, what is it?

Come on, honey, it's important to me.

Becky, it's business.

Police business.

I've got a dirty cup on my hands. You don't understand.

Helga's dead.

She's a police case.

Now tell me the number, honey.

What's it worth to a hard-working girl?

What's it worth?

Hey, Becky, what's it worth?

Malone. You're off-sider here.

Did I take you away from your breakfast?

Well, yes, Junior. I was about to tackle my eggs and Becky.

Her name was Brand. Helga Brand.

Brand? She lived in Bayside Street.

Pick me up right away.

Hold on.

I don't need that phone number anymore.

Hang on, Constable.

Sergeant? Hang on, Junior. Hang on.

You got a cat or something with you?

I'm thinking.

I'm still hanging on.

Find me a state aid. I have.

Well, you need a key.

I've got the key.

I could call back at another time.

Woman works from sun to sun, but a cop works never.

Starting right with breakfast.

Wow.

Scene of the killing.

You see a lot of... Blood around, Junior?

Maybe there was a problem a bit.

Don't touch a thing.

I've read all the manuals, Sergeant.

Nice aroma of scent and girl.

Scurvy?

Do you think she was... Was what, Constable?

Amateur or pro, very rare is the difference these days.

This is no spinster's retreat.

Go phone in.

Ask Inspector Fulmer for the full treatment on this place, square inch by

square inch. Right.

And don't use her phone, rookie.

Go outside.

Right where I was going.

Naturally.

What a workbench.

Listen, I'll see you later on at the studios.

Okay, Jack. See you.

Well, and what gets you out of a soft bed this time of morning?

An egg to see you, love.

And I need some money.

Just a pigeon to pluck.

Up to my arse in bills, unprocessed films.

I don't know who hates me more, the bank manager or the film lawyers.

Aw, just a little money to keep Helga's teeth smiling.

I owe the debt at 60 and he won't even look at my darling little bicuspid until

I pay up.

Actually, I could try to work off the debt with him.

Not a very sexy man, though. I think we can save you from the wrong end of the

drill.

60 isn't a ripple on my thing, is it?

Got everything you wanted? Yes, a nice little documentary, Captain Bixby.

That all you managed to get? I saw only what the camera saw.

Are you damn bloody sure of that, Pally?

Here we go now, Captain Bally.

Boogerman got you scared, lover.

It's just my bloody bad luck. Old wrong place at the wrong time. Jack strikes

again. Last night I couldn't sleep. Went up on deck for a breath of air. Saw

something I wish I hadn't.

Bixby and crew were hauling up little plastic bags attached to boys.

He's running drugs?

H is for horse, I think.

The bad thing is who Bixby works for.

Grafter Gibson.

Come again?

Call him Mr. Big, call him Mr. Sin. He owns a fishing fleet and several other

legit businesses.

Just as a cover.

That's why the documentary.

Good for his public image.

Well, well, well.

Most interesting.

All that lovely illegal money.

All I can hope for is that I convince Bixby that I saw nothing.

Will you take me to the studio?

No.

Not before breakfast with love at my flat.

My man at sea, we must start Tuesday and our Thursday.

I'm hungry, darling.

Your clue boy's trying to keep me on a starvation diet.

Fingerprints everywhere.

Mostly of two men.

Footprints all through the bathroom. Mostly of two men. And not one damned

ID. Yeah, how are we supposed to solve a case without clues?

Well, the constable operates strictly by the book.

And the book says, first, collect the clues.

Have you given a thought to the pearls?

Yes, I saw them.

So the lady had pearls.

Possibly, but not likely.

We found some jewellery, kinky costume stuff, not worth more than $40, $50.

Found yourself a job, boy.

Checking jewels.

All of them.

Catching on.

Not things, Toby.

A telephone book.

No names, just initials.

Careful girl.

Found yourself a chance to get buddy-buddy with the telephone people.

Finding names to match initials. You just said to check jewellers. And the

telephone people.

Someday I'll have a junior of my own and I'll work the backside off him. You did.

Found an item in her waist basket.

A check torn to pieces.

Made after Helga Brand, proprietary limiter.

She had herself incorporated.

Hard to say.

You like jigsaw puzzles, Constable?

Sure you can spare it.

Losing your appetite for clues, book boy?

Clues. Is that what little girls are made of?

Whatever Blue Eyes was, she was a living, breathing, hoping girl.

Somebody chopped her off.

Why?

Something she did, something she was.

Who fucked her? Who loved her? Who hated her?

She was a person.

Persons know people.

The one who signed that cheque was a person, Scobie.

Walter? He?

Hellerdon.

Hellerdon? Hellerdon.

Government. Minister for Cultural Development. Right.

Kept a kind of scrapbook. Interesting collection.

Supreme Court judge.

With Grazier from Queensland.

Minister Walter P. Heldon on the steps of Parliament.

Sportsman Walter Heldon on his yacht.

Here's a daisy.

The Minister for Cultural Development and Society Leader Wife Norma at the

cocktail party which celebrated her election to Chairwoman of the Red and

White Forum.

Well, girls, that's it for the subcommittee, except for the selection

of someone to handle the seating.

Beastie chance.

Whoever gets it's certain to reap a crop of enemies.

I wouldn't dream of sticking one of you.

But it simply comes down to whom I dislike that much.

Louise County.

Dare I?

Well,

it's been a long, long day.

Don't get me wrong, girl. We've been the dearest of friends ever since we were

schoolmates, despite the fact that she absolutely spat chips when she wasn't

elected as chairwoman.

What a dear girl she is. I remember once...

Better not tell you.

Please,

please, don't tell anyone.

Good heavens, no.

She couldn't have been more than 16 at the time when she ruined an entire

school rugby team right on the eve of a great public school final.

Hello. Charles?

How are you? It's Norma Hellerton here. Could I speak to Louise?

The next day she cheered the other side on to victory and that night

accommodated that whole lot.

Oh, but she's so respectable now. She's even played hostess to Billy Graham.

Oh. Hello.

Louise, darling.

I'm so thrilled.

I've stunning news for you.

Christ, look at that.

There's a fortune in this driveway.

Bring me up a champagne belt now.

Maybe we come at the wrong time.

No way, little man.

Darling, of course you can handle it. And besides, who else can I trust?

Yes, dear, and the same to you.

Bye-bye, darling.

Oh, he's living.

Four Charles won't have a moment's peace for weeks.

Well, then, tomorrow at the Bistro for lunch?

Well, two policemen should be here, Mrs. Hallerton.

What have they done, Norma? They're probably selling tickets for the

policeman's ball.

The policeman's ball.

Well, we do have quite a few ladies in the force as well, ma'am.

Yes?

Detective Sergeant Malone, and this is Constable Clements, Miss.

Well, if it isn't one charity, it's another.

A word with Mr. Helen, if it's convenient.

A word about what?

That'll be all, Rosita.

Nothing to alarm you, Mrs. Hilden, but we need to discuss the matter with your

husband.

Walter, these men are from the police.

Who?

Sergeant... Malone and Constable Clements.

Fourth Division Detectives Branch.

Our territory includes the Opera House, Mr. Minister.

Everything about the Opera House passes across my desk.

Are you interested, darling?

Would you care for some coffee?

No, thank you.

There's just a few questions I'd like to ask about the girl.

What girl?

It seems some girl's body was found in the place.

Night of the Tannhauser, too.

We kept it from the news media in the interest of public relations.

Is it a dramatic suicide, your theory, Sergeant?

No, sir. It looks like murder.

And the devil's then?

The tape recorder, Mr. Allen.

I have a terrible memory.

A personal idiosyncrasy, or is that standard police equipment now?

I can pack it away if you object.

Go ahead, Sergeant.

Everyone's bugging everybody these days.

Does the name Helga Brand mean anything to you?

It's not a bright question to ask a politician. We need thousands.

I mean personally.

Brand.

Do we know a Helga Brand, darling? A few things in her apartment in Double Bay

seem to make her.

connection to, or possibly both of you.

Really?

She kept a scrapbook, newspaper cuttings and pictures.

Not very many people, but all of them prominent.

You mean she collected right people, the way some girls collect movie and

television stars?

I hadn't thought of that explanation.

Thank you, Mr. Allen.

That's all then, I take it.

Tell him about the phone book, Constable.

Funny thing, all she had in it was initials.

You were there, sir.

WPH.

Anyone can get a minister's number by looking in the directory under state

government. A confidential number, too.

I think I have the answer.

Helga Brand.

It rings a bell. She was a model, wasn't she?

Of course.

I knew her, Walter.

You think she's been murdered?

How ghastly.

That poor girl.

If there's anything you can tell us about her, it would be greatly

appreciated.

I engaged so many of these girls for my charity affairs, it took a moment for

the name to register.

I wonder if that would explain the check.

A thousand dollars does seem a big fee for a model.

Made out to Helga Brand, Proprietary Limited.

I was going to tell you about that.

She was thinking of opening a boutique. It seemed to me a sound investment.

So I rang Mr. Hellerton's secretary and asked her to draw a cheque for Mr.

Hellerton to sign.

He signs all the cheques.

And I sometimes think he doesn't look at half of them.

That's how I've read your ad, darling. The puzzling thing, though, the criminal

investigation men recovered it and it was torn to pieces.

It seemed to suggest there might have been a disagreement.

Was there anything like that between Miss Brand and either of you?

I guess that's a rum idea.

Well, these are busy people.

We've taken enough of their time.

Thank you both.

I must ring the commissioner and congratulate him on the very good

manners of you two gentlemen.

No need to go to that trouble.

Department of Policy.

G'day, ma'am.

G'day, sir.

Damn you, Walter.

Not to worry, Norma. We handled them beautifully.

We? You sat there with ache all over your face until I came to your rescue.

You didn't ask about the pearls.

Suppose they're hers.

If we ever know they're hers, they're ammunition for a return visit.

Maybe this is what?

One of Wiley Walter's.

That's stealing, Sergeant.

It's fingerprints.

Your department.

Clue boy.

She's the one who fries my snacks.

Looks to the bloke like he's a spitty place on the footpath.

Know what I'd enjoy to do?

What? Nail a tits to a wall.

You're a vile character, Consul.

Nothing about you.

Nothing about us, Jack.

There comes a time when a person should stop and take a good look at herself.

That's me now, taking a broad look at Helga Brand.

A broad?

If you make a low crack out of it, I will bat you one.

Those are assets.

She's fairly attractive.

And sometimes she's fun.

She isn't a whore. She isn't on anyone's string.

But she's in how many little black books?

You know how it goes from one mate to another.

Fred, when you're in Sydney, look up Helga.

She'll show you the town and there's a load of laughs.

But whether she gives out or doesn't is up to her if she likes you enough.

She isn't a tramp.

And so there are the little gifties to help. the budget.

The lady is getting very tired of spending so much of her life horizontal.

But, well, the lady will.

Yeah.

And she loves you, Jack.

If she can love.

And there are little jobs in your films.

And there are still some modeling jobs.

She's even had a state minister for bread and butter.

And I will get the 20,000 from that Minji bastard if I have to skin him with

a dull knife.

But 20,000 isn't her future.

Nope. This lady needs a lucky strike.

She needs a jackpot.

Jack lover.

That boat that you were on that fished up those lovely little parcels of dope.

You sure it belonged to Mr. Finn?

Hey, wait a minute.

What are you getting at?

I'm not sure.

If one word about your dirty affair with this girl gets out, not only are you

ruined, but I am as well.

There's nothing to get out, darling.

I've seen her once or twice.

I've made it very clear to her that I'm not going to see her again.

Whose car is that?

You said you were going shopping.

I'll drive you.

I've changed my mind.

Norma, when you get upstairs... Your maid let me in.

I'll handle it, Norma. I hadn't expected this pleasure.

Aren't you going to introduce us?

I'm Helga Brand.

Really?

I've come on some unfinished business with Walter.

Tell her, dear.

She wants money.

Not enough to break it.

I've told her it's impossible.

Hardly even bend you.

Twenty thousand dollars.

Twenty thousand?

Call it severance pay.

God knows I earned it. When I think of the nasty little schoolboy he was when

he came to me. You told me you'd only seen her once or twice.

I didn't want to hurt your feelings.

For how long have you carried on with this tramp?

For lack of a better word.

Whore, then.

That's what I call a better word.

I believe everything you told me about her, Walter.

I really do, Miss Brandt.

You will oblige me by leaving my house at once.

It'll make such a lovely story for the newspapers.

They'd never believe you.

Your word against... The distinguished government minister.

Oh, you're wrong, Walter, they would. They'd have to when they saw the

photographs.

What photographs?

Oh, she's lying. My word, she is. Your little boy at play.

Make it as a babe.

It's simply not possible.

He means because he could never get his engine running unless it was dark.

There is a way, lover, to make dark as bright as day.

And I've brought the proof.

A dozen samples.

There are no more.

There's one.

Two.

There you are.

Well, they're not all that much, Mr. Saladin.

Why, if I ever laid your fellow down and gave him the full treatment, he'd finish

up a walking zombie.

If he could walk.

I have pictures of you on my album.

You don't want these for yours?

Walter? How could you, Olga?

Survival, Walter.

Something we all must try for.

Oh, you can make the check out to, uh, Olga Brown Proprietary Limited.

Then if the income tax people question you, you can call it an investment.

In an undressed shop.

Darling, these little things will happen.

I'm sorry.

I'm very sorry in this game.

That's all I can think of to say.

The hell it is.

Name, position, respectability.

We've lost nothing yet, Norma. We still have... What, Walter? What do we have?

Each other.

Love. Twenty years ago.

Our marriage, then.

We don't have a marriage, Walter.

We have an arrangement.

My arrangement.

Do I have to remind you that I picked you up as a minor and scruffy shire

politician and made you what you are?

I had the family and the money.

You had nothing.

I've got damn it, Norma. I haven't helped.

Yes, Walter.

In this brief moment, I'm trying to remember that you have helped.

You had the looks.

The appearance of strength to fit you for, well, not prime minister, not even

premier, but a minister who would be noted.

And so the two of us, united by our bond of ambition, clawed up the slippery

ladder until you had to stick that thing of yours into the first dirty hole you

came across and bring us back to nothing.

Damn it, Norma, get off your high horse.

I'll get us into this mess.

I'll get us out.

You leave it to me. I'll handle her.

How will you do that, Walter?

How will you handle her?

Do I listen to reason or frighten her?

She didn't look exactly petrified of you just now.

Not to me, she didn't.

I can send someone to do it.

Remember in the rubbish they vacuumed up from where her body was? They found a

chumped on mat.

Yes, I remember.

Most people collect boxes.

Pat. Pardon?

What are you looking for?

I don't know.

Great reason to be here.

Scientific went over every square inch.

Just a hunch.

right clear boy something

like an

itch you can't quite reach

About a pad so slick and clean.

Neat little housekeeping kind of blue-eyed lady. How come the scientific

boys missed it?

Missed what?

Remember there were flecks of wall paint picked up off the carpet by their

vacuum. My department, Sergeant?

Bits of paint gone from around the ventilator.

Maybe it was removed and then replaced.

So?

So get a ladder.

What?

Now where would I find...

Angie. Me?

Yes, you.

Angie, baby.

You work for the photographic department out there at the university.

Mm-hmm.

Drink? A gin and tonic.

Double.

Do me a favor?

Anything.

Let me explain my problem.

Imagine a darkened room.

Got it?

Apple having it on a bed. Somebody wants a photographic record.

Maybe for kicks.

Now, my amateur guess is infrared.

Is that possible?

Oh, yes.

Movie or stills? Whatever.

To fun and games. Watching to that.

A 35mm Kodak high-speed infrared which can be loaded into a 135 snap cap

magazine. I have to be very sure.

It will be helpful first to define the various kinds of electromagnetic

radiation, then to consider infrared that falls within the region of the

spectrum to which film is sensitized.

You're marvelous, Angie.

Infrared photography can be defined as the technique of using a camera lens to

focus an infrared image onto an emulsion sensitized to infrared radiation, so as

to produce a black and white negative record and subsequently a positive

print.

Incredible. The subjects producing the image emit luminescence, and sometimes,

even in darkness, the subjects are hot enough to radiate actinic infrared

themselves.

Sweetheart, you hit the old nail right on the head.

Excuse me.

Constable Clements.

Malone here.

I've got a job for you.

Start checking all the camera shops and find out who's been buying 35mm Kodak

high-speed infrared, which can be loaded into a 135 Snapchat magazine.

Russ, don't you want to learn to be a detective?

My head does, but my feet don't.

Then walk on your head.

Scobie.

She almost killed me.

I tried to ring you last night, sweetie.

I took the wife to dinner and a movie. Have to sometimes.

To tell you some news, darling.

I have some, too. Not bad.

I landed a special for telling.

Means a job for you.

Thanks, pet.

High fashion.

Red and white ball.

Well, that is terrific.

Anything that I can do for the red and white ball in this chair, woman, is too

little.

Besides, the helitons are donating to Helga's ball.

What are you raving about?

I went out to Pimble and made them a proposition they can't refuse.

I put it to her, too.

How did I ever put it to her?

Like what?

Like 20 grand, darling. Are you kidding?

Huh? Peanuts.

Not to this little black duck.

But that's only the petty cash account.

Now for the big one.

We'll order later.

Do you want a drink?

Later, darling.

What's going on in that little head of yours?

Mr. Sin.

Oh, my God.

No, no, Mr. Big or whatever he is in the Sunday papers.

Now. I know what you're going to say.

Mafia and all that.

For Christ's sake, keep it down.

Can't you be satisfied with what you're getting from your minister?

Eat a shrimp and leave the big fish in the sea.

Never.

Dozens of boats he must be smuggling on a very large scale.

What would it be worth to him to keep from being nailed?

You're out of your league. You're going to fatten the head.

He didn't get to be big by being nailed.

How does the figure 100,000 strike you? A hundred grand?

Grand, grand, grand.

His Captain Bixby's out to sea again. He'll be back tonight. I've checked it

out. It will only take a threat to tip off the water police to make Mr. Sin

come across.

Darling, on my knees.

Don't dare.

Not me, lover.

You. Me?

You, darling.

You're the one who saw it, and you owe him money. That is great. Anyone who

owes him, he'll see.

I couldn't get past his goons.

$100,000, my darling.

Think of the life we could have.

Us darling on a silver bird.

Acapulco, Tangiers, Saint-Tropez, a villa in Switzerland.

Together for always.

We'd have a state. You could make films in Europe.

Or we could both end up in the bottom of the harbour. Or you can stay with your

fat wife. It's your choice.

No, I don't mean that, lover.

I want to be with you. I want to be yours.

But for God's sake, don't go weak on me, Jack.

Not you, lover.

If I'm scared, and I am scared, it's for you, Helga.

Then listen to me as if I will die tomorrow.

The world has kicked us in the teeth, both of us.

They think they have us lamed, gutted.

It's our time to dare, to be audacious.

Do it for me, Jack.

It's my best chance.

It may be my only chance.

Jack Savannah, boss.

You've, um... You've come to settle your account?

No.

I'm disappointed to hear that.

You had a little documentary turnout.

Better than I had anticipated.

I mean, can I expect that? You know, my fondness for the cinematographic art

will sit down.

Well, I get it out of hock to the lab.

Did you, um...

Would you like a drink?

I should have asked you earlier.

Nothing for me.

I won't have one either.

What can I do for you, Mr. Savannah?

You know, I never like lending money on enterprises that don't make me a

generous return on my investment.

But you look so very distressed, Mr. Savannah.

Trouble?

Lots of trouble.

But not for me.

You're the one that's in trouble.

You've come here to help me out, huh?

Why don't you explain yourself, Mr. Savannah?

I'm talking about Doug, Michael.

You're in your neck.

Everybody knows that.

But not everyone has the evidence.

And you do.

I do. I was on Bixby's boat.

Blackmail, eh? Nasty business.

And difficult to pull off.

And just... What do you think you know?

That your fleet of boats is picking it up outside the three-mile limit from

Boyce and running it in.

Your Captain Bixby's out on a run now.

One phone call from me to the water, please, and you're in it.

And you figure that your silence will make you a packet of brass, eh?

$100,000.

I'm not an unreasonable man, Mr. Savannah, but I'm not stupid either.

Have you ever considered on just how permanent your silence could be?

I'm not here without insurance.

If I'm not out of this building within an hour, somebody else makes a phone

call.

You're a thoughtful man.

If the Savannah is going to reveal to you the name and whereabouts of a

colleague of his, he'll give you this information within half an hour.

Unless, of course, you'd like to remain intact.

Tell me now.

Heard her?

So, Delilah gave Samson the backbone to cry.

Don't name an address and throw this chicken shit out of here.

Tell that cretin Bixby to get here straight away. Use the ship's phone.

Tell him to dump his load overboard and get here.

Hiya, Hunters. Who are you?

Um,

Constable Clements.

I'm looking for Sergeant Millard.

Hey, Scobie.

Little mate, make yourself comfortable.

Beats working in a stuffy office, do you agree?

It's a nice place.

Let's see if we can add up what we've got so far.

They're all really.

Russ? Yeah.

Yeah, what?

Yeah, what you said.

Of our so-called suspects, who is your favourite?

That one.

Susie's a man killer.

Our victim's a girl.

Oh, I mean, Helidan.

Why don't we give him another go with the fingerprints from the pipe?

He ain't innocent.

Too easy and too thin.

You'd like it to be him, if only bastard.

Maybe so would I.

But there are good cops, kid, and bad cops, said the professor.

And the bad ones get a theory and then try to bend the facts to fit.

While the good ones collect the facts and then get a theory.

I've been giving some thought to that infrared.

I was wrong to send you chasing camera shots.

You're admitting to a mistake, Sergeant.

I should have sent you to chase down a private eye.

Oh, who?

Who is what you find out.

A careful girl like Helga would want a private detective to find a

photographer.

Chase him down, Russ.

Probably one of your heavy divorce evidence types.

I'm chasing down the pearls.

And the photographer.

And the photographer.

Constable, don't you ever want to learn enough to make sales?

I'd like to stay right here and learn to be a sergeant like you.

Well, you said yourself that two months training with you was worth five years

with anybody else.

Earn your stripes, boy.

Earn your stripes.

And straighten your time.

Is it too much to ask what you'll be doing?

Don't worry about me.

I'll be busy.

Starting at the beginning, I'm going to have another go at Jack Savannah.

The boyfriend?

Oh, come on. He went all to pieces when we told him she was dead.

Crocodiles and actors cry easy.

Admiring yourself, Jack?

Ten years of radio announcer.

Ten years voiceover for commercials.

Ten years of this setup.

What do you see?

A failure.

A lying, wife-cheating, fading Casanova.

Am I going to get sicker if I look at this mail? You might. The laboratory

won't release the fashion footage until the bill is paid.

I wish this whole complicated mess would come up in my head like a sore boil.

Bankroll, clothes, wife, divorce me.

I'd welcome being bankrupt, uninvolved, alone.

That's masochism.

That is the unbeautiful truth.

The fuzz again.

I thought we covered everything the last time.

One part of a cop's job is to collect and try to assess the clues.

Another part, and how many people think about this, is to try to guess what went

on between her and the people she knew behind the events.

For good or for evil.

I loved her.

Don't match our belief.

You didn't deserve what you got.

Any girl who dies, no matter what she is, has the right to have someone mourn

her.

What more can you want from me?

Ever see this album of hers?

No. Newspaper cuttings, mostly.

Clients. Prospects.

People with some contact.

Look through it.

And if you see anyone you know, tell me.

Don't linger over it. Just look through it.

Walter Hellerton.

What did you know about him?

I've already assumed he was a regular.

Mondays and Wednesdays.

I was Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Just another client of mine.

What do you know about a cheque for $1,000 made out to Helga Brand,

Proprietary Limited, and signed by the minister?

Nothing.

He kissed her off after two years with nothing.

He's a lousy cheat.

I was surprised to see him in her book.

She was class merchandise, dealing with a minister from the government, among

others. Why did she step into the underworld?

She didn't.

Pull you in, bastard. I swear I'd bounce you up and down a little.

Isn't this an illegal gambling club?

That's right.

Well, then.

Well, then what?

There are people in there breaking the law.

Are you mentally calling the paddy wagon, little mate?

If we don't nail this character graft to Gibson, we can at least get... Harvest a

mass arrest.

Yeah.

Do we need a warrant, or can we just bust straight in? Right.

Look at that.

At what?

Either first.

That's shameful, Constable.

Senator?

Your Honor?

Sergeant,

always good to see you.

Still is.

About Helga Brand.

Did you kill her, Grafter?

I wouldn't even know if she walked through that door.

Give the contract to one of your boys?

If you thought that, you wouldn't be trying this out on me.

Drink? Beer.

Thanks.

What is it you really want to know?

Have you told me how you're tied up in this?

You know, Grafter...

Miraculously straight, as your record is down at the station.

You're as crooked as a nest of baby snakes.

Really?

Oh, I make my money in many devious ways, Malone.

Licency, prostitution, extortion, gambling, violence, murder.

The tools of the trade.

Here am I telling the truth to a cop.

Voluntarily.

It's mortifying.

It's refreshing.

But I notice you leave dope running off the list.

I don't have to use that stuff.

I can make plenty of money without helping dumb kids use shit.

Convince me.

Go on with the truth about Helga Brandt.

It was a pathetic case of blackmail.

One of my captains, a stupid ox, thought he could pick up a bit of brass on the

side. So she and her pimp got ideas it was me.

So?

I kicked Jack Savannah out in his backside and sent her a message saying

it would be a good idea for her to get out of town. Even send her to the fair.

Send it where?

Bird's Nest in the Double Bay or something.

Who was your messenger boy?

Constable, take your lecherous hands off that nice girl's private car.

Fingerprint.

Sergeant Malone.

I need a make on a Phil Bixby.

Call the captain to grab the Gibson.

Not Walter.

Am I expected to stand out here?

Afraid he'd screw it up. If you'll pardon the pun.

Good night.

Here for a quick drink?

I've come for those trashy pictures.

With trashy money, I hope.

Enjoy them, dear.

I shall.

I burden them.

$1,000.

Enough to get you to Melbourne, or Adelaide, or Perth, or some other place

you may choose.

There'll be a light amount when you prove you've said the word.

The price is $25.

That's all you're going to get.

There's something I should tell you. You don't have the negatives.

They're not there, Mrs. Hamilton.

I have a rehearsal call.

And that's not fair.

The picture of a perfect lady.

Darling, my costume.

Bring it to the dressing room as soon as it's fixed.

And Harry, love, I'm late.

You've got a big mouth, ain't you?

Who the fuck are you?

Troublemaker, ain't you?

Cost me my job, you and that mug, Savannah.

Oh, now I know you. You're from that fishing trawler. Your name is... I

didn't come to mag.

Just with a message.

It says to get out of town.

Mr. Big?

I'll pay the fare.

And if I won't?

You go back and tell him I am not frightened.

Tell him I'll see him myself tomorrow and to have the money ready.

Now get out of my way.

Grow or take no lick from a horn. You ask it, you get it.

Ha ha ha!

You know, the hell with the policeman's job is that you're always tagging along

behind things that have already happened.

Trying to catch up. Yeah, all this legwork you're not used to. Your feet

must be worn down to nubs.

Passport photos, gentlemen?

No.

Something more confidential.

Fred Cox put us under.

Cox?

Fred Cox?

Private investigator.

There must be some mistake. The name doesn't mean a thing.

Well, if the name doesn't mean a thing within about ten seconds, we're going to

start finding things wrong with this place of yours.

Faulty wiring, by the look of it, Constable.

Check the dunny.

Probably a public health hazard.

Now, let's see.

Okay, okay.

Look, I just did one little trick as a favour to Fred. He had me over a barrel.

I'm told you're very good with infrared and all.

Even if I do say so myself.

Her bedroom, through the ventilator.

I gave the next to her. I just... You just kept a set or two for private

distribution. You probably don't get such good talent in your usual stuff.

I had to keep one set for the files.

The culture.

Very cultural.

Who are you?

Everything but the dwarf and the donkey.

Where did you get these?

I'm thinking of taking a trip out of town, but I'm a bit short of brass.

So I'll let you off easy for 20 thou.

Keep them.

I've got two more strips of negatives, just as juicy.

You realise I could take this to the police?

That'll get you a long way.

Make it tonight and make it in small bills.

Even if I agree, it's damn late. The banks are closing.

Oh, you can do it, Mr. Bloody Minister. You're a big man.

Now, I'll tell you where we're going to meet.

Mrs. Sullivan?

You two again?

Yes, ma'am.

I take it your husband's in.

A word with your husband and yourself in private.

Try.

Just a few more questions, Mr. Minister.

Question or police harassment?

In our previous talk, sir, I can play it back to you to refresh your memory.

That will not be necessary.

I believe you stated that you did not know... I was the one who said I knew

her. I stand corrected.

By the way, do you fancy the color aqua green?

What kind of stupid question is that? When Miss Brand was found, she was

wearing a robe of that particular color.

It was an original design by a famous couturier purchased from a shop in

Double Bay.

On the 19th of October, you bought that gown.

Care to say who you bought it for?

What I do with my money is my own personal business.

Like the thousand dollar check.

That was my personal business.

I keep making mistakes.

You own a famous string of pearls, I believe.

Sort of trademark?

I have several.

Yesterday, my poor overworked off-sider finally tracked down your jeweler.

And Mr. Smythe Jones told him there were three less pearls than the last time he

strung them for you.

They do have to keep a careful kind of power.

I took the

cheque to her.

She was disappointed with the amount.

She screamed at me and tore the cheque into pieces.

She grew violent.

She hit me.

Laid her hands on me.

My pearls broke.

I had to get down on my hands and knees before that whore.

Try to get it.

I was humiliated.

So much so that I've never told anyone.

Get the hell out of my office, Malone.

Before I go, I should return this.

Your pipe, Mr. Minister.

The prints on it match some found all over Miss Brand's apartment.

Around her bed, in her bathroom, all over.

Do I have to call security?

You not only knew the girl intimately, but customarily visited her each Monday

and Wednesday.

And before you answer, perhaps you'd like a look at these prints.

alone. Yes, but I'm a police shit.

Now, shall we start this conversation all over again?

I want to make a statement.

I demand to make a statement.

Turn that bloody thing on.

Happens to be Inspector Fulmer.

Sorry, he's gone for the day.

What happened to Mr Matts?

Never found him after he got out of the bloody building.

Malone?

Hold on.

£180, medium build, blue eyes.

Served two years Bathurst, malicious assault.

Three years long by possession of stolen goods.

Right. Thanks.

Cheer up, Constable.

You might have lost Mr. Matches, but maybe we can find this bastard Bixby.

I couldn't give a stuff where and it wasn't a minute too soon.

Dirty stick and a fish float, dropping trash and matches all over the place.

Sick to death of picking up matches, matches, matches.

letting go and bludge off some other poor woman.

Right.

So Matches and Bixby are the same person?

Why didn't you think of that, Constable? Why didn't you, Sergeant?

Because what could Hellerton possibly have to do with Bixby?

Well, it's aggravating to always have to be lagging one step behind.

Money in the briefcase, sport?

It's there.

That's the ticket.

Don't look much, does it?

You'd reckon it'd make a file Jack Rice couldn't come by.

Never thought putting Grant in test before.

Pretty tough.

Don't you want to cut her?

Nah. I trust a member of Parliament.

How do you trust your own mother?

Besides, if you wait in short, I can always come back and pay you a visit.

Did you kill Helga Brand?

Nah, why should I want to do that, eh, sport?

Waste a good piece of machinery like that.

Bastard, it must have been you. Knock it off!

Sound carries over water. You ought to know that.

Give me the negatives and go away.

I think I might hang on to them for a while.

What the hell do you mean?

You know.

with all the caution a master politician can muster on his own behalf, we have

it. Admission of intimacy.

I have a set of the prints, if you care to look at them, sir.

Dr. Minters, David Sharman, nobody.

Shocking.

Threatened with blackmail. That's a possible motive.

But he denies the murder.

At the beginning, he denied even knowing it.

Look, Inspector, all I'm asking for is authorisation to bring him in for

official questioning.

He knows as well as we do that you can't use a tape recording as evidence,

otherwise he wouldn't have let me take it.

You've done a good job, Sergeant.

And you too, Constable.

But a government minister married to a woman of prominence and respectability.

Is there one law for them and another law for the Helga Brandts? That's

enough, Sergeant.

You're a good officer, Malone, but you sometimes let yourself get involved too

emotionally.

A lingering... trace of the eager cadet you used to be when you first joined the

force.

Any matter that comes into this office, whether it involves rich or poor,

unknown or of great prominence, will be handled as a routine case.

That's all I can ask, Inspector.

But, in a matter of this delicacy, I'd hesitate to act on my own

responsibility.

Fortunately, I have an appointment with the Commissioner on another matter.

I have to leave now, I'll be late for it.

But rest easy in your mind.

You'll get your authorization.

I pride myself on the fact that I always stand shoulder to shoulder with my men.

I'm not called True Blue Tom for nothing.

Inspector Fulmer?

from the police commissioner's office with a message from Inspector Forma.

You are not to wait for him today and you're to do nothing on the case till

you hear from him on Monday.

Shit.

Bugger all.

What? We're on ice till Monday. They put the handcuffs on us for the week. Oh,

fair dinkum.

What are you whinging about, Malone? A holiday?

We've just been handed a case.

Let's go get a beer.

Which one are you an ID?

What was that name again? Bixby?

Bixby.

Did you say Bixby?

The harbour police would pick Saturday, Arlo, to pull him out of the water.

Some trawler, Captain.

This is for us, little mate.

But we can't go against orders.

Stop waiting till Monday.

But our orders specifically... Then stay out of it, you chicken.

Well, if you... No.

of the crunch of metal against bone will haunt me for the rest of my life.

It's a terrible thing, Walter, what you've done.

But it might be the end. It might be over for us at last.

Do you want your visitors to come aboard, Mr. Halliton?

If he wishes.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Malone.

Had a bit of a time running you down.

What now?

It's about a man named Bixby.

I don't know anyone named Bixby.

He was a trawler captain, worked out of the harbour here.

Had a habit of chewing on matches.

And what is this Mr. Bixby to do with my husband?

A man chewing on a match came out of your husband's office yesterday, Mrs.

Helen.

I could show you the police photo if your memory needs jogging.

It was Bixby, his name.

Said he'd heard I was in the market for a bigger boat.

Get to the point, if you have a point.

I think there was a connection between Bixby and Miss Brand's murder. I know

there was a connection between Bixby and your husband, Mrs. Helen.

Mr. Malone, do you think my husband caused Miss Brand's death?

I'll ask you a question.

Do you think your husband caused Miss Brand's death?

I'm sorry?

I didn't mean that as a nasty remark. I'm only trying to do my job.

I think you had better come into headquarters with me, Mr. Helen.

Do you have a warrant for my arrest?

That will depend on your answers to our official questioning. I should warn you,

I think we have enough evidence against you to ask for a warrant.

If you take my husband, you'll take me too.

As you wish.

We keep a little roll of red carpet.

Sorry.

After you, Mr Malone.

Who did you kill, Mr Helder?

Helder? Or Bixby?

Both of them.

Yes?

Yes, Sergeant Malone, what is it? After further investigation, Inspector, I've

brought in Mr. and Mrs. Hiller. You've what?

Yes, Tom, what is it?

He what?

Well, you... You've built up a good case against Mr. Hellerton, Sergeant.

As Attorney General, I could take it into court and a jury would probably

convict, but do you think Mr. Hellerton killed this girl, this... this...

Helga Brand?

I felt that an official questioning was in order, sir. I didn't expect, and I'm

not prepared for this kind of confrontation.

You should have thought of that before you brought him in.

Answer my simple question with a simple answer.

Are you convinced to kill them? It isn't my job to decide guilt or innocence.

I need to collect the evidence.

Yes, yes, yes. But with this new development, with this man, this, uh...

this Bixby, what do you think now?

It's not the duty of a detective to make that decision.

You seem to have some doubt, though, Sergeant.

Yes, Mr. Premier, I do have a doubt.

I think Mr. Hellerton killed Bixby. I'm not so sure he killed Helga Brandt.

Well, now, who do you think could have killed her? It would appear to be Bixby.

Sir, we would, in point of fact, be taking Mr. Hellerton into court for a

crime he didn't commit.

That's right, sir.

Unless we charge him with the murder of Bixby. For which you have no evidence.

If I'm given time... Or evidence, I should say, which is as thin as a

matchstick. Two people are dead.

As an officer of the law, I'm supposed to try and do something about that.

Admirable idealism, Sergeant Malone.

You make my eyes water.

Call it a search for the truth.

Better to consider the search for justice.

There's a man to be put on trial for a murder he didn't commit.

Because we can't put him on trial for a murder you think he did commit.

Are you sure, Sergeant, you don't just want the conviction of a government

minister as a real feather in your cap?

Am I the one on trial here, sir?

No.

Mr. Pratt. I understand, John.

I'm sure John never intended that point of view to be taken, what he said.

Well, now, I think perhaps we should continue our discussion on this in

private. Would you mind waiting outside?

Are they ready for my husband yet?

No.

Would you go in, Mr. Heredon?

And Mrs. Heredon, too, if she wishes.

Thanks for your help, Inspector.

It's superintendent now. Oh, sir.

That sorts it out a lot.

If you were embarrassed, you've no one but yourself to thank.

Not only did you allow yourself to become emotionally involved... against

which I fruitlessly warn you.

But you then went on to deliberately violate correct police procedure.

Am I allowed to ask what the present procedure is in there?

The minister will offer his resignation on the grounds of ill health, which will

be accepted with regret.

It will be announced that he's quitting politics and that he and Mrs. Helden

will be taking a long vacation in Europe.

Will it also be announced that the case gets a big political cover-up? The case

will go into the confidential file.

I need hardly add that you'll forget everything you heard in there. One thing

I learned in there I won't forget.

That politics are politics, I suppose?

That you'll be commissioner someday.

Don't push your luck, Sergeant.

Luck? Christ!

If I ever decide to murder someone, I'll make sure I'm a cabinet minister first.

All you get for it's a holiday in Europe.

One more word, Malone, and you're on 30 days' suspension.

Stop your suspension! A girl was killed!

All right, she wasn't your top social class with little fingers in the air.

She had to get somewhere the only way she knew. Not so bloody different from

the way the top social climbers get where they are.

60 days, Sergeant.

Is that all?

Do I get to take them in Europe?

Some of your justice for rich and poor alike?

Terrific if you're making the rules, because then you can bend them.

90 days.

Better and better.

Maybe I could join the Hellertons on the Mediterranean.

It's lucky hell the brand was only trash.

We'd be in a hell of a fix if she'd had my...

Malan? Sergeant.

In the matter of your suspension, I've been having some second thoughts.

You have, sir? You made a mistake.

Serious speech of discipline.

Yes, sir, that I did.

But perhaps even the best of us in the heat of anger.

Well, that, as the good book says, let him who is without sin, et cetera. Do

you mean, superintendent?

I mean I'm going to let a bygone be a bygone.

So get your towel down here, Sergeant.

No, sir, no.

It's big of you, and I won't forget it. But I made a mistake, as you said, a bad

mistake. And I could never live with my conscience.

Never, sir.

unless I stand up to my punishment like a man. I'll see you at the end of my 90

days.