Blood Simple Page #19

Dial tone. Beep.

Meurice's hand drops into frame.

WOMAN'S VOICE

Meurice, where the hell have you

been? I--

His finger presses the stop button.

MATCH CUT TO:

RAY'S FINGER

Pressing into a dark stain in the upholstery of the back

seat of his car. When he raises it the fingertip is red--the

seat still wet with blood.

CLOSE SHOT RAY:

Looking down at the seat. He backs out of the car and walks

up the driveway to his house.

INT. RAY'S LIVING ROOM

As he comes through the screen door. It bangs shut behind

him. As he crosses the living room we see, and he hears,

Meurice's Trans Am pulling up and stopping at the foot of

the lawn. Ray turns and looks out the window.

CLOSE SHOT CLOSET DOOR

Ray throws it open and hurriedly pulls out the first thing

at hand--a sheet. We hear the door of the Trans Am open and

slam shut.

EXT. RAY'S BUNGALOW

TRACKING SHOT ON RAY

Exiting the house as the screen door bangs and shudders behind

him. He hurries down the walk.

TRACKING SHOT RAY'S POV

Meurice is rounding the bottom of the lawn and starting up

the drive toward the incriminating car. Its back door is

standing ajar.

MEURICE:

I hope you're planning on leaving

town.

BACK TO RAY:

Reacting to the line as he reaches the car. He bends over to

throw the sheet over the seat just as Meurice walks up behind

him.

RAY:

(his back to Meurice;

arranging the sheet)

Got a problem, Meurice?

MEURICE:

No, you do, cowboy. You been to the

bar?

Ray is still hunched in the open doorway. He freezes

momentarily in arranging the sheet.

RAY:

...Why?

MEURICE:

You shouldn't have taken the money...

Ray doesn't reply or turn around. Meurice is getting more

strident.

MEURICE:

...Look at me man, I'm serious. You

broke in the bar and ripped off the

safe...

Ray backs out of the car and turns around.

MEURICE:

...Abby warned me you were gonna

make trouble. Trouble with you is,

you're too f***ing obvious; the only

ones with the combination are me and

you...

Ray looks evenly at Meurice. Behind him the sheet has been

arranged over the seat. He puts an unlit cigarette in his

mouth.

MEURICE:

...and Abby. Maybe. But as far as

I'm concerned that only leaves one

f***ing possibility.

RAY:

(tonelessly)

What's that?

Meurice reaches out and swipes the unlit cigarette out of

Ray's mouth.

MEURICE:

Those things are nothing but coffin

nails.

He turns and stares down the street, exasperated.

MEURICE:

...Look. Personally I don't give a

sh*t. I know Marty's a hard-on but

you gotta do something. I don't know;

give the money back, say you're sorry,

or get the f*** out of here, or

something...

Mow that his temper is gone, he realizes he has nothing much

to say. He shakes his head and turns back down the drive,

muttering as he lights himself Ray's cigarette.

MEURICE:

...It's very humiliating, preaching

about this sh*t.

CLOSE SHOT RAY:

Standing in front of the back door of his car, watching

Meurice walk away. His right hand rises into frame to deposit

another unlit cigarette in his mouth. Offscreen, Meurice

calls from the end of the drive:

MEURICE:

I'm not laughing at this, Ray Bob,

so you know it's no f***ing joke.

We hear his car door slam. After a moment Ray exits frame,

heading for the house. The camera tracks slowly in to the

back window of the car.

Traces of blood are starting to seep up from the upholstery

into the sheet.

INT. MARTY'S HOUSE DAY

LOW WIDE SHOT FRONT FOYER

We are looking across the tiled floor toward the front

doorway. The room has the dim gray cast of daytime inside a

shuttered house. We hold on the empty foyer as we hear an

intermittent high whining sound. We hear the padding of feet

on carpet, and then the clatter of nails on tile as Opal,

Marty's German shepherd, trots into frame and circles the

foyer, still whining. She jumps up and scratches desperately

at the front door.

A slow, rhythmic pounding is very faint on the track.

EXT. MARTY'S BAR DUSK

Abby has just gotten out of her car and is walking up to the

front of the darkened bar. The faint, rhythmic thumping

continues over the cut, its source somewhere offscreen. As

Abby takes a key out of her purse and lets herself into the

bar, the thumping stops.

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