Out of the Past

Where's Bailey?

Deaf and dumb, eh?

Can you read lips?

Where is Bailey?

Coming back today?

Come on.

- Hello, Marny. - Well, look who is back.

- Did you dye your hair? - Why?

I keep thinking of you as a blond.

For all the thinking you do about me, I could be bald-headed.

Ham on rye. Did you miss me, honey?

If I didn't, I can't think of anybody else who did.

- One thing's sure, Bailey don't miss nothing. - Neither do you.

She's your girl, and he ain't my man.

So it's no skin off my nose. I just see what I see.

You sure you don't see what you hear?

Nothing can happen in this town that I don't hear about it.

I'm just saying what I see. Every day they go fishing together.

Look, the sandwich.

Two things I can smell inside 100 feet: burning hamburger and a romance.

You got a customer.

- What'll you have? - Coffee.

- Nothing else? - Cream.

- Where you been this time? - L.A.

- Coffee? - No, thanks.

First she's got you, now she's got you and Bailey.

And the only thing I seem to get is older.

Thanks a lot, Marny. I'll see you later.

Hmm. I guess I must have said something.

You talked enough.

Everything people ought to know they just don't want to hear.

That's the trouble with the world.

Either that or you're on the wrong side of the counter.

- Tell me something. - You don't look as though I could.

That, uh, Bailey who burns you up, he run the gas station?

- Do you know him? - I might have once.

If he keeps mooning around Jim's girl, nobody'll know him...

...and that'd be too bad.

You, uh, see much of this Bailey?

Yeah, every day from here.

I often wondered what happened to him...

...then one day I'm breezing through here, and there's his name up on a sign.

- It's a small world. - Yeah, or a big sign.

- They're just not feeding today. - They will later. It's clouding up.

They say the day you die, your name is written on a cloud.

- Who says? - They.

Never heard of them.

Nothing in that one but rain. Think we ought to go home?

Yes.

- Do you want to? - No.

Every time I look at the sky, I think of all the places I've never been.

Yes, and every time you look up, they're all the same.

- You've been a lot of places, haven't you? - One too many.

- Which did you like best? - This one right here.

- I bet you say that to all the places. - You see that cove over there?

I'd like to build a house right there...

...marry you, live in it and never go anywhere else.

I wish you would.

You were never married before, were you?

Not that I can remember.

That's good.

You'd be amazed the way people talk about you.

The mysterious Jeff Bailey.

My mother tells me that I've only known you for such a short time.

And where'd you come from? And what did you do?

My father was...

- We'd better go. - Is something the matter?

Maybe not.

Here.

You sure are a secret man.

Thanks.

Oh, a man just wants to see me.

Oh.

A long time. - Hello, Joe. I wish it was nicer to see you.

Everyone sure missed you, Jeff, but not as much as I have.

- How's that? - Whit used to look at me...

...shake his head, and wish I had brains like you.

- What's the other reason? - I had to find you.

- I owe you something? - Not me.

Who?

- How far can that kid read lips? - I don't know. I'll ask him some time.

This far?

- You don't like to make mistakes, do you? - They don't let me have many.

All right, come on inside.

- Funny racket to find you in, Jeff. - Yeah, me and the kid laugh all the time.

Heh. I guess that's because it's respectable.

That hash slinger across the street says you are too.

- How did you happen to find me, Joe? - I was driving down the road one day...

...and who do I see pumping gasoline but my old chum from the old times.

Of course, there's a different name on the sign.

- So you just dropped in? - Why not?

Okay, then I'm glad to see an old pal too.

So I take you to dinner, buy you drinks, it gets late chewing the fat...

...you hop in your car and you're gone. Right?

- Almost. - What else?

I'm still working for that guy, Jeff.

- Whit? - He'd like to see you.

- As much as you did? - Heh.

- Worse. - I see.

No one ever thought more of you than Whit.

Or more about me.

Well, that could be too.

- All right, what's he want, Joe? - Maybe he's got something nice for you.

- Try once more. - Heh.

Look, Whit never steered you into anything bad, did he?

Why, he never even squawked when you blew the best thing he ever gave you.

- Go on. - The guy just wants to see you.

Well, you put it that way, what can I do?

You know of any other way to put it?

- Say tomorrow morning? - Where?

Lake Tahoe. Turn right at Emerald Bay. Big house on a hill. You won't miss it.

You can't.

Ann? John, are you letting her out like this?

Are you gonna stand for it, with a man who won't even come to the door?

Don't worry about them.

- Darling. - It's no good, is it?

- It doesn't matter. It's just that they... - Oh, honey, I know how they feel.

- Don't worry about it. - I'm not.

- Then don't look so grim. - No, it's something else.

- What? - That guy that showed up today...

Yes?

You want to ride with me up to Lake Tahoe?

- Now? - Yes, now.

I want to tell you something.

All right, Jeff.

You told me once I'd have to tell you sometime.

Well, this is it.

Now, the first thing I wanna get off my chest: My name isn't Bailey, it's Markham.

- Markham. Jeff Markham? - I should have told you before.

I meant to, but I kept putting it off...

...because I didn't like any part of it.

- Please tell me, Jeff. - Some of it's gonna hurt you.

It doesn't matter.

Well, our friend Markham lived in New York.

He worked with a sort of stupid, oily gent by the name of Jack Fisher.

We called ourselves detectives.

That was about three years ago, maybe more.

Wintertime. One of the coldest days I remember in the town.

And we got a call to come and see a big op.

- A what? - An operator, gambler.

He didn't come to see us because he was too high-powered a character.

Also, because some dame had taken four shots at him with his own.38.

Made one of them good.

He was taking it in stride, but he had a friend who was a ball of fire.

Newspaper guys, wise guys, who do they think they're kidding?

So he shot himself cleaning a cap pistol.

So I shot the ace of spades out of a sleeve during a gin game.

A guy can't even get shot by a dame...

...without the whole town starting to buzz like a...

Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe.

You just sit and stay inside yourself. You wait for me to talk. I like that.

I never found out much listening to myself.

Hmm.

- It amazes me how she missed so often. Maybe you were moving.

A dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.

- What's he doing here? I called you. - My partner.

- Should I ask why you didn't call the law? - Should you?

Heh. I guess not.

- Anything happen to her? - She ran out on me.

- With 40,000 bucks. - I want her back.

Or the money?

You know, I once bet $40,000 on a horse that ran dead last, so I bought the horse.

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Oh, you're wrong. I put that horse in a nice green pasture...

...so he'd never get his foot caught in a mutuel machine.

You should go out and visit it sometime.

No, I just want her back. When you see her, you'll understand better.

Maybe she's just an impulsive girl.

- Shall we let it go at that? - I can let it all go.

An even 5000 now and 5 when you bring her back.

And expenses.

Now, that should have been the first thing you said.

- Find her, Jeff. Bring her back. Why me?

Well, I know a lot of smart guys and a few honest ones, and you're both.

What happens to her?

I won't touch her.

Okay.

Get me the stuff on her family, pictures, anything interesting.

- You'll get it. - I'll see you.

You bring it over, Joe. Come on, let's go.

Oh, by the way, you mind telling me her name?

- Kathie Moffat. - Thanks.

She must be quite a dame. A wild goose with 40 G's.

You know, for a smart guy, that Sterling sure trusts you, don't he?

Why not?

- Am I going along? - No.

Oh, he doesn't like my personality, huh? Well, I'm still in, Jeff, fifty-fifty.

- Did I say anything different? - All right. It's a good soft touch.

Don't get hot at me. And don't get any cute ideas.

These are on me.

This is an old friend of mine, Jeff Markham. He wants to ask you something.

- Which one of you is Eunice Leonard? - Me.

May I ask you a few questions?

Come on, honey, let's dance.

You work for Katherine Moffat?

Not anymore, she's gone. She got pushed around.

I wouldn't have stayed myself, only she got sick being vaccinated.

- How come you're asking? - I want to find her.

- You want to find her for that man? - No, for myself. Where'd she go?

- Maybe I oughtn't to tell nothing. - More harm might come to her if you didn't.