The Dietrichson Report, by Simon

 Simon wrote this because it had been scratching at the back of his mind. It's essentially an alternate ending to the film 'Double Indemnity' in which Walter Neff gets away with it scott free. It's just one of those little things which won't leave one alone... so he wrote it.

The Dietrichson Report

Pacific All Risk Insurance Co. Internal Memo

To: Barton Keyes, former chief claims adjuster, retired

From: Walter Neff, chief claims adjuster

Subject: Final report on the Dietrichson case

Keyes, I can now compose this report, the final report on the Dietrichson case, but I can never send it, not when we buried you this morning.

I was there with my wife Lola, our three children Jane, Alice and little Billy, your god-children, and all your other friends. You had a lot of friends Keyes, with your big heart that you would never admit to.

You had the Dietrichson case all worked out Keyes, you and your little man, all but one little detail. You had the identity of the murderer wrong because you were too close Keyes, you thought it was Zachetti. It wasn't Zachetti, Keyes, it was me, Walter Neff, right across the desk from you. I killed Dietrichson because I was in love with his wife, Phyllis. I planned the whole thing and I planned it smart because I knew you would investigate and I had to fool you.

I killed Dietrichson, Keyes, I broke his neck in the car on the way to the station. I felt his neck snap as I twisted it and I glanced up at Phyllis in the mirror and saw the savage exultation in her face. It didn't impinge on me at the time but I came to remember it later.

I got onto the train in place of Dietrichson, just like you figured, wearing a blue serge suit like Dietrichson was wearing. Remember the blue serge suit Keyes, it had a part to play later on. Jackson surprised me by being on the platform of the observation car but he turned out to be useful in the end. I sent him away, jumped off the train and Phyllis and I put Dietrichson's body on the tracks as though he had fallen from the train. I thought we were all clear and then the car wouldn't start. I thought my heart would stop, Keyes, but I managed to get the thing going.

Things moved smoothly then, though that idiot Norton tried to claim it was suicide. You put him right with a vengeance, Keyes, I really enjoyed watching you do it. And then. Then I thought of what I'd done. I'd killed a man. I'd killed him for his woman. And money. Then I remembered that look, the look on Phyllis' face when I killed Dietrichson, and that made me uneasy, Keyes.

You know what happened then, Keyes, I started seeing Lola. First it was to find out what she knew, but then it was just because it made me feel good. I couldn't help comparing Lola and Phyllis and wondering when Phyllis would decide that she didn't need me around any longer, particularly when Lola told me about her mother and Phyllis.

You remember, Keyes, you said when two people commit murder together they are on a street car together, and they can't get off and the last stop is the cemetery? I was on that streetcar, Keyes and I didn't think I had a way off. Then I broke into your office and listened to your report. You said you had investigated me and that you vouched for me, also that you thought that Zachetti was the murderer and that he had been seen at the Dietrichson house.  As Lola had left home and moved in with a girlfriend, I knew that Zachetti had been seeing Phyllis. Was Phyllis setting up my replacement so soon? Whatever her reasons I figured that this was my way out, my way off the streetcar. I could get Zachetti to get on and he could ride to the cemetery, not me.

It wasn't difficult to get Zachetti to go and see Phyllis that night, I just had to get there first. I don’t know why I wore the blue serge suit, the same one I wore to kill Dietrichson but I'm glad I did. When I got there Phyllis admitted to seeing Zachetti but claimed she did it to use him as a fall guy. Poor Zachetti, he was everybody's fall guy. As I closed the curtains Phyllis drew a gun and shot at me but just missed, I think in the darkness my blue serge suit threw off her aim. I dared her to shoot again but she didn't, told me that she loved me, that she'd just realised it.  I didn't believe a word of it. I took the gun, said "Goodbye, baby" and shot her twice.

I wiped the gun with my handkerchief and left it by Phyllis' body. I got out quick, leaving the door ajar and hid until I saw Zachetti come to the house. I waited until he went in and then I left, I wanted to be well away before the cops arrived as with three gunshots someone was bound to call them. I was sure that an impulsive guy like Zachetti would pick up the gun or something else equally stupid, and as it turned out, he did. Zachetti protested his innocence of course, but it did no good. The jury were out less than an hour. Poor Zachetti, everybody's fall guy.

I helped Lola during the trial when all sorts of things came out, like Phyllis being Lola's mother's nurse and helping her on to her final pneumonia. I came to work with you as a claims adjuster. I saw more and more of Lola and we were married in the spring with you as best man. Then Jane came along, with you as her god-father. Then the war came and I moved into your job when you went to work for the government doing the job you could never talk about. I'm sure your little man worked overtime.

You carried on working for the government after the war, but we remained close, you being god-father to Alice and Billy. I'm glad Billy got to have you around for several years and I'm very glad that when you got sick, it was quick.

And so, I'm responsible for the deaths of three people; and I'm responsible for three lives. Does that balance it out somehow? Perhaps, one day, you'll be able to tell me, Keyes.

This concludes the file on the Dietrichson case.

W. Neff senior claims adjuster.