LORD OF ILLUSION

CHAPTER 18

INT. SWANN'S MANSION - CASKET ROOM - NIGHT :

The FIRE follows him across the ground and STRIKES his hand. Harry drops the GUN. Looks up to see the Stranger in the doorway, arm raised to will the fire-serpent on. But then, he hesitates. Harry glances round, and sees that the Stranger - whose face is still a dark smear - is staring at the CASKET.

HARRY Somebody you know? Dorothea appears behind the Stranger. Sees Harry, burned and sweating, cornered against the casket. DOROTHEA Oh my God! The Stranger looks round. Harry snatches up the GUN, supporting his burned hand with -his good hand. Levels the gun at the Stranger. The FIRE raises its head, like a cobra.

HARRY Which goes first? My face or your heart? The Stranger draws a deep breath. The Fire-Serpent withers and dies. DOROTHEA Who in God's name are you? She reaches for the Stranger, who simply folds up again; gone into darkness. The WIND blows through the house, masking his exit.

DOROTHEA Are you all right? HARRY Find Valentin! Find him! Get him in here! Dorothea disappears. Harry takes one of the candle-holders and jams it under the casket lid. Wood splinters. He starts to force off the lid. Valentin and Dorothea enter.

VALENTIN What are you doing? This is sacrilege. He starts towards Harry. Dorothea goes after him and catches hold of his arm. Her expression is a mingling of fascination and dread, as Harry gets his fingers under the casket lid and pulls. Inside, Swann's corpse.

VALENTIN Are you satisfied now? HARRY No. Harry holds Valentin back with one hand, and puts his finger into the corpse's mouth. DOROTHEA Harry? HARRY It's all right. It's not hurting... He now has four fingers in Swann's mouth and seizes hold of his lower jaw. It cracks -- -- and comes away in a little rain of plaster and latex. HARRY ...plaster doesn't bleed. He tosses the jaw to Valentin. HARRY (to Dorothea) It looks like you're not a widow after all.

INT. SWANN'S MANSION - STUDY - NIGHT:

Harry interrogates Valentin in a white fury, while Dorothea binds Harry's hand. HARRY You rigged the illusion to fail, right? VALENTIN Yes. HARRY You paid off the doctor. You set up the fake body. Yes? VALENTIN Yes.

HARRY And then... because I was getting too close to something -- (at Dorothea) --or someone, you called Swann VALENTIN I tried to pay you off. HARRY Was that Swann's idea? VALENTIN No. It was mine. I didn't want any more bloodshed. That's why we went to all this trouble, so there'd be no one for Nix to come after.

HARRY Nix is dead and buried, for fuck's sake. VALENTIN Haven't you seen enough to know that doesn't matter? ON HARRY. He looks as though he's beginning to think maybe Nix's resurrection is plausible. HARRY I want to see Swann face to face.

VALENTIN Why don't you leave this alone? Let everybody think it's over? DOROTHEA What about me? VALENTIN Nix was never interested in you. It was always Swann. A beat. HARRY (to Dorothea) Maybe Valentin's right. We should let it alone.

A BELL starts to TOLL- HARRY (con't.) He went to all that trouble to be dead. Maybe we should let him stay that way. The TOLLING carries over into

EXT. HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY - DAY:

WE CRANE DOWN from a high angle on a GRAVE, surrounded by MOURNERS. The graveside service has just ended, and the Mourners are beginning to disperse. Dorothea is there amongst them, of course. So are several faces we recognize: Vinovich, Wilder, Billy Who, Swann's Stage Manager, his Dancers, his Technicians.

There are also several members of the PRESS, and thirty or fourty other Mourners, some of whom, to judge by their dress and manner, are also illusionists. Harry stands some distance from the crowd, watching (hidden) from the doorway of a mausoleum.

His eyes are on Dorothea as she goes amongst the Mourners, receiving unheard words of condolesence.

EXT. WILTERN THEATRE - DAY :

The standee of Swann is being demolished by two WORKERS. They are taking hammers to it, smashing it to pieces.

INT. WILTERN THEATRE - STAGE - DAY:

The stage is starkly lit with working lights, the auditorium in darkness. Swann's equipment - including the partially dismantled Dragon's head - is heaped on the stage.

Valentin wanders through the boxes to the place where Swann "died." He stares down at the BLOOD on the stage.