Birdland Page #2

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(Tom shushing)

What's wrong?

Wait.

What's that noise?

(introspective music)

(intense music)

(gasping and breathing heavily)

(intense music)

[Sheila] Tom?

Yeah.

[Sheila] Baby?

I'm in the kitchen.

Hey.

Hey hey hey hey hey.

You gotta see this.

Check it out.

Oh my God, you're bleeding.

No (shushing).

You gotta see this.

You're bleeding.

Wait wait wait.

Look at this, I

got it right here.

Look at me, look at me.

- Wait, wait.

- Look at me!

- Just hang on,

you gotta see this.

Okay.

See this riot cop

hits me with his baton.

- What the f*** are you

doing hitting a cop?

You should have been there.

We were protesting

Futron Energy.

The same a**holes

sponsoring your exhibit

produce the oil equivalent of

a quarter of a million tons

of carbon dioxide a day.

Baby, we've been living

with our heads in the sand.

You're blonde.

- At first she seemed to be

strictly interested in Starling.

Maybe the word

stalker is too strong?

But she had a pretty

unhealthy preoccupation

with my sister, Merle.

- I have no idea what

she wanted from me.

But to be honest,

I think she may have

wanted to blackmail me.

They're lying.

We'll get to that later.

When did you first come across

the guy in the cowboy

hat, what's his name?

Bob McIntyre.

- So as part of your

investigation for Mr. James,

he had you follow Tom and Merle

to his fracking

operations, right?

Yeah.

(introspective music)

- [Calvin] And the

guy in the cowboy hat,

that, that's Bob McIntyre?

[Sheila] Bob McIntyre.

Right.

What do you think?

Do you think Tom and Merle

were doing the sabotaging?

(tense music)

(liquid sloshing)

(sniffing deeply)

You know when that was taken?

Sure.

Yeah, not really.

I don't know, obviously

before Merle died.

You know, you just

always seem like

you're enjoying your job.

- Do you know they

say that men and women

think about sex

every seven seconds,

it's just like (tongue popping).

12,000 times a day.

- What is that, your new

favorite pickup line?

No, just,

an interesting statistic.

(breathing heavily)

(woman moaning)

Everyone has a breaking point.

Me for instance,

I don't think I could

handle watching my wife

do lines off some

naked dude in my bed.

Get the f*** out of here.

- Tom is suspected of

committing two murders,

but if I didn't know you,

I'd say you'd be

a prime suspect.

(intense music)

Did you ever meet her?

No.

I just surveilled her.

- Hey.

- Hey.

Top up?

Hmm, yeah.

What are you looking at?

Is this a new ring?

No.

No, it was my great-aunt's.

I don't usually wear it,

but are you sure you've

never seen it before?

Aren't we supposed

to be married?

- It was familiar, I

just didn't recognize it.

- I guess there's a lot we

don't know about each other.

Sorry, what?

Hmm?

What?

- See, you're not

even listening.

Always busy working late with

your dinosaurs and your birds.

I heard you.

It's your great-aunt's ring.

I like it.

Thank you.

(introspective music)

(ring clattering)

"Forget me not."

- Maybe this is all a

case of cherchez la femme.

Look, you know Tom.

He's a mild-mannered

ornithologist.

- Yeah, but I think

that maybe Tom started

to feel protective over Merle.

Maybe it was a

jealous rage, or a,

a sudden dose of

testosterone just kicking in.

[Tom] Hey!

- His motive, if you can

categorize it as such,

was self-defense.

- If Tom killed Starling

in self-defense,

why wouldn't you just call

the police right away?

I don't know!

Panic?

Embarrassment?

Maybe we just needed a

little time to process

what had just happened.

We?

You know what I mean.

- This is more like a

case of I will repay you.

- You know that the average

person is caught on camera

over 300 times a day.

It doesn't mean the whole truth

about their lives is exposed.

- Doesn't explain

Tom's behavior.

I'm gonna f***ing kill him!

Baby.

- It's like watching the

hour a dog turns into a wolf.

This isn't a black hole, Hood.

If that isn't motivation,

I don't know what is.

This is over.

You know, I'm mystified

as to how you can defend

somebody who betrayed

you so deeply.

If it was me, I'd be

calling my lawyer right now.

- I'm not sure it's

really possible

for you to fully understand

what happened here.

- Remind me again why you

have all this weird creepy

dead stuff in your house.

(Sheila laughs)

You'd have to ask Tom.

Tom, babe, why do

we have so much

creepy dead stuff in our house?

[Tom] It's my job, a**hole.

- I don't know, when we

first started dating,

we spent oh half our time

looking at dead things.

Now we have a freezer

full of birds.

Here you go.

Hey guys, give me a

second, I forgot something.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

You guys ready?

The piece de resistance.

(murmurs of admiration)

What are those?

These

are roasted beetle larvae.

Right?

- Yeah, you know I hear

that beetle protein

is going to save the world.

Yeah.

Sheila?

Come on, you gotta try one.

Aw, you two should have kids.

(Tom laughs)

- No, I would

never bring a child

into the world in

its current state.

Uh, okay.

You've never said that before.

- I've certainly voiced my

reservations, my reluctance.

- Yeah, I know, but

you've never said it

like that before, like

you'd never do it.

- Well, I just

don't to bring kids

for not doing what

I want in life.

Okay, you know what?

(dance club music)

Come on.

- No, no, I don't dance.

- Dance with me, come on.

I don't dance.

Oh, God.

- Come on, detective,

on your feet.

See?

Check this out.

(Sheila laughs)

- [Calvin] Oh,

what are you doing?

Shh.

Why are you up there?

(Sheila shushing)

What are you doing?

- Let's see what

these puppies can do.

You can rewind and pause it.

Sorry you gotta see this.

I was just so,

showing him some new cameras.

See?

Bird's eye view.

(dance club music)

(introspective music)

(woman breathing heavily)

(tense music)

Hmm.

Your wife, yes?

You remember me, don't you Tom?

John James.

Yes of course, Mr. James.

How can I help you?

- I hear my daughter has been

speaking with you lately, Tom.

Don't worry, I understand.

I was married once myself.

You know, Futron Energy has a

lot invested in this exhibit.

- I'm just an

ornithologist, doing my job.

Are you sure ornithology

is all you've been

doing lately, Tom?

- Bet some weird things

just started to appear

when you turned on

that camera of yours.

End of times, I guess.

Did Tom ever make mention of

Mr. James coming to visit him?

Yeah.

He was upset, shaken really.

What did he say exactly?

- I remember he went on

about how the oil industry

represented the end

of civilization,

how we should all just leave

fossil fuels in the ground.

And he talked about

pulling the plug

on Mr. James' sponsorship.

- Well, Merle must have

had a lot of faith in Tom.

I mean, do you think Tom had

that kind of power

at the museum?

- Oh, he was

well-regarded there.

And they had to be seen as not

sanitizing dirty oil money.

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