Mannix (TV Series)

A Rage to Kill (1974)

Ramon Bieri: Carl Meiss

Quotes 

• Carl Meiss : Okay, what about Dr. Jarrud?

  Joe Mannix : Actually, I wanted to talk to you about one of Dr. Jarrud's patients.

  Carl Meiss : [scoffs]  Which one?

  Joe Mannix : Did you by any chance read his book?

  Carl Meiss : Book? Who, me?

  Joe Mannix : One of the people he wrote about was someone he identified only as "X, " a child molester.

  Carl Meiss : Well, what would I know about creeps like that?

  Joe Mannix : I thought you might know this particular man.

  Carl Meiss : Yeah, well, I don't.

  [Joe picks up a toy bear sitting on a nearby shelf] 

  Carl Meiss : You can't just come pushing in here like that.

  Joe Mannix : You're Patient X, aren't you?

  Carl Meiss : [scoffs]  Y-You think that, uh, he put me in that book of his?

  Joe Mannix : Not so that anybody could identify you.

  Carl Meiss : Then how come you're asking?

  Joe Mannix : I'm going on a theory that Dr. Jarrud didn't pull the trigger himself.

  Carl Meiss : You mean someone killed him?

  Joe Mannix : And put the gun in his hand.

  Carl Meiss : Who?

  Joe Mannix : Maybe one of the three patients he wrote about.

  Carl Meiss : Why should they?

  Joe Mannix : They might be afraid that their secret is no longer safe.

  Carl Meiss : Well, I got nothing to hide.

  Joe Mannix : You've got my word that if you're innocent, your secret is safe with me.

  Carl Meiss : You don't know any secret.

  Joe Mannix : Eight years... in a hospital for the criminally insane for molesting, then strangling two children.

  [Carl lunges at Joe, but Joe pushes him away] 

  Joe Mannix : Dr. Jarrud helped you. He got you this job. He treated you without charge.

  Carl Meiss : He... he kept me from... feeling... that I wanted to do it again. He kept me safe.

  [sobbing] 

  Carl Meiss : Me kill Dr. Jarrud? Without him, how much longer before it would happen again? Before I'm back in hell again?

  Joe Mannix : Carl... at the time of his death, where were you?

  Carl Meiss : I don't remember. I... I think maybe... on the sixth floor.

  Joe Mannix : Did you see anything unusual?

  Carl Meiss : No! Nothing! Except, yeah... yeah, somebody came running down the stairs right past me. The didn't pay no attention to me. They're always... all of 'em always looking right through me. I... I might as well be... a...

  Joe Mannix : Uh, Carl, try to remember. Was it a man or a woman? Young, old?

  Carl Meiss : I don't know, just a shadow. You know, to most people in this building, I'm just a shadow, I'm invisible. Well, they're just shadows to me, too!

  Joe Mannix : If, uh, Dr. Jarrud was murdered, you'd want his killer caught, wouldn't you?

  Carl Meiss : Without the doc... I'm nothing. What do you think?

  Joe Mannix : Well, if, uh... if that shadow you saw ever becomes a face... call me, huh, Carl?

  [leaves his business card on a nearby desk and leaves]