A Murder of Crows Page #5

that a murder of crows

was based on real events?

None whatsoever. I'm shocked.

What is the publishing

company's position on this?

Devrie publishing only wants

to see justice served.

I hope that the police apprehend

this maniac quickly

and that he is made to pay severely

for these crimes.

When was the last time...

How was I?

Brilliant.

This book is gonna go through the roof.

My father loved the law.

He saw in its pursuit

the highest achievement of man... justice.

And "a little bit

of justice," he used to say,

"is all we count for."

Before I went off to college at Yale,

he gave me 3 pieces of advice.

Never waste the opportunity

to tell someone you love them,

never take the credit or the blame

for something you didn't do,

and always tell the truth.

It's easier to remember.

Thank god he was dead.

- Hi.

- Hi.

I'm trying to find out what happened

to the personal effects

of a man who died here

in key west earlier this year?

All right. What was the name?

Last name, marlowe. Christopher marlowe.

When did he die?

March third.

I'm not showing any marlowe, sir.

Are you sure he died here?

Positive.

Well, we have no record of it.

It's gotta be in there somewhere.

Well, if he died in Monroe county,

a death certificate would be on file.

Do you have an attending

physician's name?

No, I don't have a physician's name.

I spoke to a detective

at the key west police department,

detective goethe?

Goethe? Goethe?

You mean like the German writer?

You know, I don't think there is

a detective goethe on the force, sir.

Maybe you all have the wrong county.

She was part right.

I was on the wrong planet.

I had to retool my thinking.

Everything I knew was wrong.

Christopher marlowe

was the english writer

who first interpreted

the medieval legend faust,

the man who sold his soul to the devil.

Goethe, of course, was the German poet

whose crowning work, faust,

was the most famous version of the tale.

I'd been tempted by the devil, all right,

and sold my soul lock, stock, and barrel.

Sh*t.

One park 14, com one.

He's here.

Hi.

Are you Mrs. Evans?

Yes.

I'm inspector Harris

of the department

of justice. May I come in?

Am I in some kind of trouble?

No, ma'am. I'm investigating a man

who was a tenant in this rooming house

in march of this year.

A one Christopher marlowe?

Wore glasses, walked with a cane,

english accent?

Sure, Mr. marlowe. I remember him.

What did he do?

I'm not at Liberty to say, ma'am.

How long did he stay here?

Just about a week,

and he seemed like a nice enough man.

Paid in cash.

Did he leave a forwarding address?

No.

Did he meet with anyone

while he was staying here?

No, not that I know of.

This subpoena, as you will see,

requests the phone records

of this rooming house

while he stayed here.

No, no, no, no.

He didn't use the phone here.

And I thought that was odd.

He always used the pay phone

on the corner.

The pay phone?!

Thank you, Mrs. Evans.

You're welcome.

The supervisor at ma bell

was even more cooperative

than Mrs. Evans.

Sometimes life just works out that way.

We are police!

Stop!

Stop running!

Freeze!

Hey, stop!

Hey!

Car 4-14 calling com one.

I'm pursuing suspect,

he went over a fence at calder alley.

I'm proceeding to Elizabeth.

Attention, all units

in vicinity of calder alley...

We lost him.

The FBI is here.

F*** 'em.

Well, you're gonna

need to confer with 'em.

What for, Billy ray?

So we do all the work

and they get to give

the press conference?

I would've thought you wanted to do that.

This is the one he poisoned.

They exhumed the body this morning.

I assume you heard about key west?

It's a bonehead move, if you ask me.

I figured he'd be long gone by now.

South America, maybe.

No way.

He's on his way back to the big easy.

You think?

I know it.

The man's not finished.

He's got another lawyer to get.

Who?

Himself.

Why do you think he sent me his book?

I took a flight from Miami to Baton Rouge

and caught a greyhound down to the city.

All the calls from the phone booth

in key west were local

except for one in the 504 area code.

New Orleans. My home town.

The phone was listed

to a miss althea delroy,

616 Jackson street

in the garden district.

Thurman parks lived

in the garden district.

I didn't think it was a coincidence.

I wanted to see if althea delroy's number

was in thurman park's book.

It wasn't.

The whole thing didn't add up.

Get on.

But from the sound of it,

thurman and Janine did.

I ain't drunk.

Look at this ass. Nice!

You're so bad!

Well...

That's what you love about me, baby.

Reminded me of the old story

of Adam and Eve.

Adam, exasperated with Eve,

asked god why he made her so beautiful.

"So that you would

love her," god replied.

"Why did you make her so stupid?"

And god said, "so she would love you."

God damn it, get off me. You're such a...

They deserved each other.

Get off!

Yeah!

Little thing, come on, resist me.

Fight me, baby! Fight me!

All right...

Come on!

It used to be over that hotel...

Elizabeth pope.

Hi. It's me.

I can't talk to you. I could go to jail.

I know.

I need your help, pope.

The legal database

report Elizabeth gave me

said that Mrs. althea delroy

was a widowed housekeeper.

She had a 10-year-old daughter and lived

in a 2-bedroom condo on Jackson street.

She owed 59,000 bucks on it.

What she had to do with all this

was anybody's guess.

Come on, kids! This way!

Theme is the controlling idea

of a play.

It's the single thought

which the playwright tries

to prove by his own work.

Can anybody tell me what

the theme of MacBeth is?

Iaura.

If you're greedy, it leads to disaster.

Is it really greed, though?

MacBeth is more than that. James.

He's more ambitious.

He's ambitious, isn't he?

How ambitious?

Ruthlessly, would you say?

So, Shakespeare set out to prove

that ruthless ambition

leads to its own destruction.

I think he did that.

I figured the professor would

be tied up for at least an hour.

It's time to see where

the bodies were buried.

[Doorbell rings]

I'd never broken

into anyone's house before.

Must be a good way.

I didn't know one.

His name was Arthur corvus.

I saw all the photographs

of his wife and daughter.

They could be coming home any minute.

The daughter's room was musty-smelling.

I figured she was away

at boarding school.

So he didn't know thurman parks III.

But he was a professor of drama.

He taught acting, theater history,

playwriting.

What was his connection to marlowe?

I spent too many years

listening to bullshit

to not know it when I see it.

There had to be a connection.

Well, if it weren't

for lawyers, dear boy,

we wouldn't need lawyers.

Night.

Nice... poetic.

Thanks.

Ruthless ambition leads

to its own destruction.

OK, professor, thanks.

How you doing?

Good.

Professor?!

Professor!

Rod, what happened?

Somebody broke into your house.

God.

I live here. Go ahead.

Thank you.

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