CLERK: Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
JUNGQUIST: I do.
STEVENS: What is your name?
JUNGQUIST: Siegurd Jungquist.
STEVENS: What is your occupation?
JUNGQUIST: My last job was secretary to Herr Bjorn Faulkner.
STEVENS: How long have you held that job?
JUNGQUIST: Since beginning of November. Since Miss Andre left.
STEVENS: What was your position before that?
JUNGQUIST: Bookkeeper for Herr Faulkner.
STEVENS: How long did you hold that job?
JUNGQUIST: Eight years.
STEVENS: Did Mr. Faulkner give you Miss Andre’s position when she was dismissed?
JUNGQUIST: Yes.
STEVENS: Did Miss Andre instruct you in your new duties?
JUNGQUIST: Yes, she did.
STEVENS: What was her behavior at that time? Did she seem to be angry, sorry or resentful?
JUNGQUIST: No. She was very calm, like always, and explained everything clearly.
STEVENS: Did you notice any trouble between Miss Andre and Mr. Faulkner at that time?
JUNGQUIST: [Amused, with a kindly, but superior tolerance] Herr Lawyer, there can be no more trouble between Herr Faulkner and Miss Andre as between you and your face in the mirror!
STEVENS: Have you ever witnessed any business conferences between Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Whitfield?
JUNGQUIST: I never been present at conferences, but I seen Herr Whitfield come to our office many times. Herr Whitfield he not like Herr Faulkner.
STEVENS: What makes you think that?
JUNGQUIST: I heard what he said one day. Herr Faulkner was desperate for money and Herr Whitfield asked him, sarcastic-like, what he was going to do if his business crash. Herr Faulkner shrugged and said lightly: “Oh, commit suicide.” Herr Whitfield looked at him, very strangely and coldly, and said, very slowly: “If you do, be sure you make a good job of it.”
[An ATTENDANT enters and hands a note to STEVENS. STEVENS reads it, shrugs, astonished; then turns to JUDGE HEATH]
STEVENS: If your Honor please, I would like to report this incident which I consider as a hoax and whose purpose I would like to determine. A man has just called on the telephone and insisted on talking to me immediately. When informed that it was impossible, he gave the following message just brought to me.
[Reads note]
“Do not put Karen Andre on the stand until I get there.” No signature.
[The crash of her chair pushed back so violently that it falls makes all eyes turn to KAREN. She stands straight, eyes blazing, her calm poise shattered]
KAREN: I want to go on the stand right away!
[Reaction in the courtroom]
FLINT: May I ask why, Miss Andre?
KAREN: [Ignoring him] Question me now, Stevens!
STEVENS: [Very astonished] I’m afraid it’s impossible, Miss Andre. We have to finish the examination of Mr. Jungquist.
KAREN: Then hurry. Hurry.
[She sits down, showing signs of nervousness for the first time]
JUDGE HEATH: [Rapping his gavel] I shall ask the defendant to refrain from further interruptions.
STEVENS: Now, Mr. Jungquist, where were you on the night of January sixteenth?
JUNGQUIST: I was in our office in the Faulkner Building. I was working. I been working late for many nights.
STEVENS: What did you do when you heard of Mr. Faulkner’s death?
JUNGQUIST: I want to call Herr Whitfield. I telephone his home in Long Island, but butler say he not home. I call his office in town, but no answer, no one there. I call many places, but not find Herr Whitfield. Then, I call his home again and I have to tell Mrs. Faulkner that Herr Faulkner committed suicide.
STEVENS: And when you told her that, what were Mrs. Faulkner’s first words?
JUNGQUIST: She said: “For God’s sake, don’t give it to the newspapers!”
STEVENS: That is all.
[KAREN jumps up, ready to go on the stand]
FLINT: Just one moment please, Miss Andre. Why such hurry? Whom are you expecting?
[KAREN sits down reluctantly; without answering]
Mr. Jungquist, you have been employed by Bjorn Faulkner for over eight years, haven’t you?
JUNGQUIST: Yes.
FLINT: Did you know all that time how crooked and criminal your boss’s operations were?
JUNGQUIST: No, I did not.
FLINT: Do you know now that he was a criminal and a swindler?
JUNGQUIST: [With the quiet dignity of a strong conviction] No, I do not know that.
FLINT: You don’t, eh? And you didn’t know what all those brilliant financial operations of his were?
JUNGQUIST: I knew that Herr Faulkner did what other people not allowed to do. But I never wonder and I never doubt. I know it was not wrong.
FLINT: How did you know that?
JUNGQUIST: Because he was Herr Bjorn Faulkner.
FLINT: And he could do no wrong?
JUNGQUIST: Herr Lawyer, when little people like you and me meet a man like Bjorn Faulkner, we take our hats off and we bow, and sometimes we take orders; but we don’t ask questions.
FLINT: Splendid, my dear Mr. Jungquist. Your devotion to your master is worthy of admiration. You would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?
JUNGQUIST: Yes.
FLINT: Are you very devoted to Miss Andre, too?
JUNGQUIST: [Significantly] Miss Andre was dear to Herr Faulkner.
FLINT: Then such a little matter as a few lies for your master’s sake would mean nothing to you?
STEVENS: We object, your Honor!
JUDGE HEATH: Objection sustained.
JUNGQUIST: [With quiet indignation] I not lied, Herr Lawyer. Herr Faulkner is dead and cannot tell me to lie. But if I had choice, I lie for Bjorn Faulkner rather than tell truth for you!
FLINT: For which statement I am more grateful than you can guess, Herr Jungquist. That is all.
[JUNGQUIST exits]
STEVENS: [Solemnly] Karen Andre!
[KAREN rises. She is calm. She steps up to the stand with the poise of a queen mounting a scaffold. The CLERK stops her]
CLERK: You solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
KAREN: [Calmly] That’s useless. I’m an atheist.
JUDGE HEATH: The witness has to affirm regardless.
KAREN: [Indifferently] I affirm.
STEVENS: What is your name?
KAREN: Karen Andre.
STEVENS: What was your last position?
KAREN: Secretary to Bjorn Faulkner.
STEVENS: How long have you held that position?
KAREN: Ten years.
STEVENS: Tell us about your first meeting with Bjorn Faulkner.
KAREN: I answered his advertisement for a stenographer. I saw him for the first time in his office, on an obscure side street of Stockholm. He was alone. It was my first job. It was his first office.
STEVENS: How did Faulkner meet you?
KAREN: He got up and didn’t say a word. Just stood and looked at me. His mouth was insulting even when silent; you couldn’t stand his gaze very long; I didn’t know whether I wanted to kneel or slap his face. I didn’t do either. I told him what I had come for.
STEVENS: Did he hire you then?
KAREN: He said I was too young and he didn’t like me. But he threw a stenographer’s pad at me and told me to get down to work, for he was in a hurry. So I did.
STEVENS: And you worked all day?
KAREN: All day. He dictated as fast — almost faster than he could talk. He didn’t give me time to say a word. He didn’t smile once and he never took his eyes off me.
STEVENS: When did he first . . .
[He hesitates]
KAREN: When did he first take me? That first day I met him.
STEVENS: How did that happen?
KAREN: He seemed to take a delight in giving me orders. He acted as if he were cracking a whip over an animal he wanted to break. And I was afraid.
STEVENS: Because you didn’t like that?
KAREN: Because I liked it . . . So when I finished my eight hours, I told him I was quitting. He looked at me and didn’t answer. Then he asked me suddenly if I had ever belonged to a man. I said, No, I hadn’t. He said he’d give me a thousand kroner if I would go into the inner office and take my skirt off. I said I wouldn’t. He said if I didn’t, he’d take me. I said, try it. He did . . . After a while, I picked up my clothes; but I didn’t go. I stayed. I kept the job.
STEVENS: And you worked, and lived, and rose to success together ever since?
KAREN: For ten years. When we made our first million kroner, he took me to Vienna. We sat in a restaurant where the orchestra played “Sing, Gypsy.” When we made ten million, he took me to Delhi. We stood on the shore of the Ganges, on the steps of an old temple where human slaves had been sacrificed to gods . . . When we made twenty-five million, he took me to New York. We hired a pilot to fly a plane above the city — and the wind waved Bjorn’s hair as a banner over the world at his feet.