A Few Good Men Page #37

DOWNEY looks at DAWSON.

DOWNEY:

Hal?

ROSS:

Don't look at him.

DOWNEY:

Hal?

DAWSON:

Private. Answer the Lieutenant's

question.

The room is still silent. DOWNEY does something we've never

seen him do before. He straightens himself up and says this

with the pride of a man who believes he's done the right

thing.

DOWNEY:

Yes, Lieutenant. I was given an order

by my squad leader, Lance Corporal

Harold W. Dawson of the U.S. Marine

Corps. And I followed it.

ROSS let's it hang. He looks over at KAFFEE. KAFFEE won't

meet his eyes.

INT. KAFFEE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

JO and SAM are sitting in silence. It's dark outside.

JO:

Where do you think he is?

SAM doesn't know. JO is beside herself, and trying to keep

it together.

JO:

(continuing)

As far as Downey was concerned, it

was an order from Kendrick. It didn't

matter that he didn't hear it first

hand. He doesn't distinguish between

the two.

SAM understands, but he doesn't say anything. The door opens

and KAFFEE walks in.

JO:

(continuing)

Danny. I'm sorry.

KAFFEE seems to be in an incredibly normal mood.

KAFFEE:

Don't worry about it.

JO:

Sam and I were just talking about

how all we really have to do is call

some witnesses who'll talk about

implied orders... or maybe we put

Downey back on the stand before we

get to Dawson.

KAFFEE:

Maybe if we work at it we can get

Dawson charged with the Kennedy

assassination.

JO studies KAFFEE for a moment.

JO:

Are you drunk?

KAFFEE:

(a simple answer)

Pretty much. Yeah.

JO:

(pause)

I'll make a pot of coffee. We have a

long night's work ahead.

KAFFEE:

She's gonna make coffee. That's nice.

(beat)

He wasn't in his room.

(Kaffee's amazed)

He wasn't even there.

(beat)

That was an important piece of

information, don't you think?

JO:

(pause)

Danny, it was just a setback. I'm

sorry. But we'll fix it and then

move on to Markinson.

KAFFEE:

Markinson's dead.

JO and SAM are frozen.

KAFFEE says this with no particular feeling one way or the

other.

KAFFEE:

(continuing)

You really gotta hand it to those

Federal Marshals, boy.

(he almost has to

laugh)

It's not like he hanged himself by

his shoelaces or slashed his wrists

with a concealed butter knife. This

guy got, into full dress uniform,

stood in the middle of that room,

drew a nickle plated pistol from his

holster, and fired a bullet into his

mouth.

Jo and SAM don't say anything.

KAFFEE:

(continuing)

Anyway, since we seem to be out of

witnesses, I thought I'd drink a

little.

JO:

I still think we can win.

KAFFEE:

Then maybe you should drink a little.

JO:

Look, we'll go to Randolph in the

morning and make a motion for a

continuance. 24 hours.

KAFFEE:

(beat)

Why would we want to do that?

JO:

To subpoena Colonel Jessep.

KAFFEE:

What?

JO:

Listen for a second --

KAFFEE:

No.

JO:

Just hear me out --

KAFFEE:

No. I won't listen to you and I won't

hear you out. Your passion is

comforting, Jo. It's also useless.

Private Downey needed a trial lawyer

today.

JO:

(pause)

You chicken-sh*t. You're gonna use

what happened today as an excuse to

give up.

KAFFEE:

It's over!

JO:

Why did you ask Jessep for the

transfer order?

KAFFEE:

What are you --

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