Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts (3 page)

This is a routine matter. I'm from the Department, and I have a few questions. It won't take long.

JANE
(
standing to one side, sipping at her drink.
DAVID
and
FULLER
are sitting.
) What department?

FULLER
The Department of Justice, Mrs. Graham.

JANE
You mean you're a G-man? Why didn't you say so?

FULLER
(
taking out his wallet and extracting a Jew cards
) We don't like the term. It has melodramatic connotations which are hardly grounded in reality. Here are my credentials, Mr. Graham.

DAVID
(
taking the credentials and scanning them uneasily
) Yes—well, we'll be happy to co-operate with you—in any way, Mr. Fuller. I don't know how we can help you—I mean, I can't think of anything——

FULLER
It's just a regular routine matter. We're checking on someone else, a man by the name of Leonard Agronsky, and we were referred to you as friends of his. That's all. It's just as simple as that and I'm sorry that it has to break into your evening this way, but I thought it would be the best time to find both of you home.

DAVID
We know Agronsky. That's right. Is he in some kind of trouble?

FULLER
I hope not—but then that's not properly my affair. I'm simply given the routine matter of investigation. My guess would be that it's simply the routine check we are taking of any government employees about whom there might be any doubt at all.

(
He takes out a small book and opens it.
)

My own information has him as an under-secretary in the Department of Commerce. That's a pretty important job, so it's only natural that he would be investigated.

JANE
He's been in government a long time, hasn't he?

FULLER
(
shrugging
) I don't make the policy. Is there anything you'd like to tell me about him, Mr. Graham?

DAVID
What sort of thing? I guess there's a lot I could tell you about him, but I don't know what I could tell you that would help you. I haven't seen as much of him as I might have since the war. That's where I met him—in the army. Since then, well, I guess we've seen Agronsky about every ten weeks or so.

FULLER
You work for the Treasury Department, don't you, Mr. Graham?

DAVID
That's right.

FULLER
You've been there almost three years now.

DAVID
Since the war. I'm a statistician. But I suppose you know that?

FULLER
Yes—but don't let me give you the impression that we have anything like a spy service. There's too much loose talk about dossiers and things of that sort.

(
He smiles apologetically.
)

This is simple information. We know, for example, that before the war, you worked for
New York Life.
But it is true that Agronsky helped you get this job with the Treasury Department?

DAVID
Well—I guess you could say that. He knew Phillips quite well. Phillips is out now.

JANE
I don't see what this has to do with us. Dave's record is a good one. You're not investigating him, are you?

FULLER
(
He never loses his air of intense and self-concerned seriousness, withal there being always a note of embarrassment.
) I don't enjoy this—it's a job. But what would you say, Mr. Graham, that Agronsky's politics are?

DAVID
I don't know. I suppose he's a Democrat. A New Dealer, I suppose. At least he was in the Roosevelt administration.

FULLER
I mean—in a deeper sense.

DAVID
I don't know what you mean by that.

FULLER
Did you know that Agronsky wasn't born in this country?

JANE
What has that got to do with it?

FULLER
Just in terms of information. I can understand you when you say you were never very friendly with him. He was born in Russia and he came here when he was seven years old. In addition to that, he's Jewish. These are matters of information, and I was just curious as to whether you knew. Naturally, you wouldn't be too friendly with him.

JANE
Why not?

DAVID
You know what he means, Jane. For God's sake, can't we keep our heads about this!

JANE
I'd like to keep my head. As a matter of fact, I've been practising all day. If Mr. Fuller wants to speak to you, I'll be happy to go inside and sit with Hilda. If he wants to talk to me, too, I should like to know what Agronsky's being Jewish or foreign born has to do with us being friends of his?

DAVID
I think all Mr. Fuller meant was that he's not exactly our kind.

JANE
You know that wasn't what he meant. Anyway, Leonard was enough your kind when you were in the service.

DAVID
All right, Jane. This isn't getting us anywhere. Why don't you let Mr. Fuller say what he means.

FULLER
(
placatingly
) I don't think I meant anything in particular. It was your opinion that you were not too friendly with Agronsky. But those times when you did see him, what were his political expressions? I mean, would you call him pro-Russian?

DAVID
God knows! The few times we've seen him, we played bridge mostly.

FULLER
And in the service?

DAVID
Well—you could say we were all pro-Russian then, couldn't you?

FULLER
I wouldn't know.

DAVID
Agronsky as much as the next fellow, I suppose. We were Russia's ally.

FULLER
How does he feel about Franco?
DAVID
Franco?

JANE
Yes, dear. (
caustically
) That's the Spanish dictator.

DAVID
I'm not completely an idiot, darling. I don't know how he feels about Franco. I've never talked to him about Franco. There's one thing I think you should understand, Mr. Fuller. In the service, Agronsky was an officer. I was an enlisted man. He didn't talk to me about these things, even if he had them on his mind.

Fuller I see.

(
He closes his notebook, looking from
DAVID
to
JANE
.)

Yet you can always make inferences, would you say? I could infer that you're not very co-operative.

DAVID
I'm trying to be co-operative, Mr. Fuller.

JANE
(
to
FULLER
) Is that a threat?

FULLER
We don't make threats, Mrs. Graham. That's a comic book aspect of the Department. It just seems to me that if you know a man, you know what he thinks' and what he is. You would know whether or not that man was a Communist—or a Republican—or a Seventh Day Adventist.

DAVID
Maybe I would. I don't know if Agronsky's a Communist, if that's what you're asking me.

FULLER
What do you think?

DAVID
I don't know. I never really thought about it. As a matter of fact, I never knew a Communist, so I wouldn't be able to recognize one if I ran smack up against him. About Franco—well, I would guess Agronsky doesn't like him. We've never talked directly about it, but I would think so from what I know of him. He doesn't like fascism.

FULLER
Red fascism as well as the other kind?

DAVID
I don't know how you mean that.

JANE
I don't like Franco. Does that make me a Communist?

FULLER
I don't know, Mrs. Graham.

DAVID
(
smiling uneasily
) Well, just for the record, she isn't. Neither am I.

FULLER
And Agronsky?

DAVID
I've no reason to think he is. I don't know that I ever talked directly about Communists with him——

(
The bell rings.
JANE
goes to answer, greets
GRACE LANGLY
offstage, and comes back into the room leading a Negro woman. This is
GRACE LANGLY,
about thirty, dark, intelligent looking, with contained dignity.
)

JANE
Hilda's in the kitchen, still struggling with Lorry's supper.

DAVID
(in
the most matter of fact way, still struggling with his thoughts in relation to
FULLER
) Hello, Grace.

GRACE
Good evening, Mr. Graham. This is certainly a fine summer evening, isn't it?

DAVID
Yes——

(
For all that he and
FULLER
are superficially alike
,
DAVID
is
at the disadvantage here, wholly so, fighting basically to understand what is the best required response to each situation on his part.
)

I know——

FULLER
(
looking at
GRACE
) Yes, Mrs. Graham?

JANE
This is Mrs. Langly. Grace, this is Mr. Fuller.

GRACE
How do you do, Mr. Fuller.

(
FULLER
looks evenly at her. She meets his gaze for a moment, then turns and goes into the kitchen.
)

FULLER
(
to
JANE) YOU
keep two in help?

JANE
No. She's a friend of Hilda. That's the woman you met before.

FULLER
Oh—I see. You're a Southerner, aren't you, Mrs. Graham?

JANE
Yes. I'm from South Carolina originally.

(
FULLER
nods slowly, regarding
JANE
deliberately and curiously.
)

Is that a crime too?

FULLER
Not at all. Quite to the contrary. You talk my language—which' is more than I can say of most New Yorkers. Or at least, I thought you did. What were you going to say before, Mr. Graham?

DAVID
Nothing important.

FULLER
If it concerned Agronsky, why don't you let me decide if it was important?

DAVID
Only that I saw a copy of.
The New Masses
in his house once. I don't know how it happened to be there or whether it's of any importance at all.

JANE
David!

FULLER
You don't object to that, do you, Mrs. Graham?

JANE
I can't see that it makes any sense. Suppose you found a copy of
The New Masses
here?

FULLER
Let me decide what makes sense, Mrs. Graham. We're all of us good Americans and devoted to protecting our country. Or at least I think we are.

(to
DAVID
)

What about Agronsky's friends?

DAVID
(
his uneasiness and uncertainty increasing
) Just ordinary people—the sort of people you'd find around Washington.

FULLER
But Agronsky isn't just the sort of people you'd find around Washington, is he?

JANE
What are you trying to make us say, Mr. Fuller? We're not holding anything back. You're not asking questions—you're forming implications.

FULLER
You're forming the implications, Mrs. Graham.

DAVID
Please, Jane, let me handle this. If Mr. Fuller asks me something, let me try to answer it. God knows, I want to.

FULLER
Exactly. I'm not a private detective and I'm not a policeman—and certainly you've got nothing to fear from me. If anything, I'm wholly and completely on your side. The question is simply what side Agronsky's on. That's why I asked you about his friends. Are most of them Jews?

DAVID
Some are, I suppose. I just wouldn't be able to say without thinking about it.

FULLER
Reds? Jews and Reds? That's a fairly common equation, Mr. Graham. Think about it.

DAVID
I want to help you, Mr. Fuller—but I don't know where to start.

FULLER
(
placatingly, his voice softer, confiding, with a suggestion of warm intimacy
) Why don't you think it over, Mr. Graham? Here's my card. Just think about it. I'll be in my office until midnight. I know you wouldn't have been thinking this way. It's just our damn good fortune that as yet most Americans don't have to think this way. And that's a condition we're trying to preserve.

(
rising and turning to
JANE
)

You agree with me, don't you, Mrs. Graham?

JANE
Yes, I agree with that.

FULLER
Then I'll conclude that both of you have forgiven me for breaking in on you like this. It's a fine family you have, Mr. Graham. I'd be proud of them, if I were you, and I'd fight to the last drop of red blood in me to defend them, if I were you.

DAVID
Yes—thank you.

FULLER
Thank you for your kindness. Good night.

DAVID
Good night. I'll go to the door with you.

(
He accompanies
FULLER
to
the vestibule.
JANE
mixes another drink. He returns to the room, stands for a moment regarding
JANE
.)

Nice feller.

JANE
What?

DAVID
I mean he could have been a lot more nasty than he was.

JANE
I think he was insufferable. Do you want another drink? I want another. I think I want two or three. I think I want to get stinking drunk to-night.

DAVID
That's fine—that's just fine. That's a nice healthy reaction.