Twist In The Wind

Video Clip: Twist In The Wind

Time: After Veronica declares that the tape must be a fake.

Setting: The atrium at the Capwell home.

Characters: Mason, Veronica, and Peter

Mason: (Stopping Veronica on her way out.) Thank you for what you did tonight.

Veronica: You’re welcome.

Mason: It meant a lot to me.

Veronica: I didn’t want to see you put on a rack for a private moment between friends.

Mason: This is the kind of thing that seals friendships. I mean it, I won’t forget it. I don't forget favors and I owe you one.

Veronica: I certainly hope so because it looks like Peter is going to fire me.

Mason: (Angry.) What!

Veronica: (Nods) I just had a little talk with him, and now I’m going home because I'm tired. No, I’m exhausted. (She leaves.)

Peter: (Enters the scene.)

Mason: Peter!

Peter: Yes, Mason.

Mason: You really are something!

Peter: Oh?

Mason: You told my father that you that you thought those voices on the tape were mine and Veronica’s. I had hoped that we were cultivating a better relationship than that.

Peter: Those were your voices, Mason. Everyone knew it, and everyone including your father knows you’re both lying about it. I guess that’s a lot easier on the whole family that way, though.

Mason: You’re doing an excellent job of digging a hole that I don’t see how you’re going to get out, Peter.

Peter: I haven’t been tape-recorded comparing my father to Hitler though. Have I?

Mason: We don’t even know who your father is. ‘Do we?’ There’s a lot we don’t know about you, Peter. You have become quite the mystery man.

Peter: Don’t try to make a mystery man out of me, Mason, just because I don’t have the Capwell credentials behind me. I was a schoolteacher not a lawyer, so I guess I don’t know how to set up my secretary to lie for me.

Mason: I’ve never trusted you, Peter.

Peter: How much did you pay Veronica to lie for you?

Mason: (Laughs) Don’t be ridiculous.

Peter: Don’t tell me she did it out of pure loyalty to you.

Mason: She told me her job was in jeopardy.

Peter: It is. I don’t think I can trust her.

Mason: Well loyalty has never been your bag, Peter. Veronica, on the other hand, seems quite loyal. No, if anybody’s job is in jeopardy, Peter, it’s yours. Veronica, on the other hand, is going to be in great shape because you’re going to give her a substantial raise.

Peter: (Laughs) I have no intention of—

Mason: You listen to me. You’re going to give her a raise or you’ll be back out in the streets looking for work.

Peter: I don’t think you’re father would allow you to fire me, Mason.

Mason: No? Well my father doesn’t know that you have an old and established friendship with Augusta Lockridge. Would he want as an Assistant Manager of Capwell Hotels the young man who had been intimate with his rival? More importantly, would he want that same young man to marry his daughter?

Peter: The only reason I had anything to do with Augusta Lockridge is to get the information you wanted to give to father the big bang birthday present tonight, and to try to get Joe Perkins back in prison.

Mason: Joe Perkins, well now, there’s another subject. You know every time I see Kelly; she’s just come from seeing Joe Perkins. Then you don’t need me to tell you that, do you, Peter?

Peter: You know, Mason, we really wouldn’t have a problem with Joe Perkins if you had been doing your job properly and kept him in prison.

Mason: Oh, you’re trying very hard, Peter, but you’re making a big mistake taking me on. You’re in enough trouble already. Hasn’t your past just come back to bite you.

Peter: Don’t you worry about it.

Mason: Since I’m not going to lend you the two hundred and fifty grand, who is? I trust you’re not going to try to raise it by recycling aluminum cans.

Peter: How’d you guess?

Mason: Is this the kind of trouble that the Capwell family name would want to be associated with?

Peter: It’s just some old debts from my past, Mason.

Mason: Well, just what is the nature of your extravagant past, Peter? Is it women? Gambling? You’re gambling even now, aren’t you?

Peter: How’s that?

Mason: Isn’t every day a gamble for you, Peter? Isn’t Kelly a gamble? Isn’t your entire life?

Peter: What are you looking for, Mason?

Mason: Guess which one matches, Peter. What is it? Drugs? Gambling? Women? You tell me.

Peter: I’m not going to tell you anything.

Mason: After what you did to me today Peter, you can forget about me bailing you out of anything. You’re on your own as far as I’m concern. I’m going to let you hang free to twist in the wind.

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