Page 60 of Murder in the Family

No need to apologize, my dear. Jack isn’t dead, he’s just gone. Alzheimer’s. I’m afraid these days my husband doesn’t even know who I am.

Now – tea?

CUT TO: Studio. Time has clearly passed, as the team are in different clothes. Guy is again at the table.

LAILA FURNESS

(looking round)

And that’s as far as we got. Sorry.

BILL SERAFINI

Not your fault. You did what you could. But we hit a brick wall.

(turns to Guy)

I guess you’ve already spoken to your mother about all this?

GUY HOWARD

Yes, when the idea for this project first came up. But it wasn’t much use. I’m afraid she’s not in a good way – she’s very confused a lot of the time and gets distressed very easily. And even if she appears to have remembered something I don’t think it’s necessarily reliable.

(looking round)

But whenever we’ve talked about this – I mean, in the past, before she was ill – she’s always maintained exactly the same story. The same one she told the police. She was at the party all night, she had no reason to kill Luke or have him killed, and she didn’t know anyone else who did either.

ALAN CANNING

(flicking through the papers)

There’s no mention of the dirt on her shoes in the police file.

GUY HOWARD

I didn’t know about that, not till I heard what Phyllis said. I guess her being out in the smoking area is the simplest explanation.

ALAN CANNING

But not the only one.

GUY HOWARD

All the same, Occam’s razor and all that—

MITCHELL CLARKE

Occam’s what?

HUGO FRASER

‘The simplest explanation is nearly always right’.

ALAN CANNING

‘Nearlyalways’. Notalways. Let’s wait and see, shall we?

BILL SERAFINI

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