Blood Simple Page #25

HALLWAY:

Abby lurches from her apartment and pounds on the neighboring

door. No answer. She pounds on the door across the hall.

OLD WOMAN'S VOICE

(frightened, in Spanish)

Get away! I'll call my son-in-law!

ABBY:

(groping for the words,

in Spanish)

No no--you don't understand--

OLD WOMAN'S VOICE

(in Spanish)

He has a gun!

Abby heads for the stairway at the far end of the hall. The

heel of her shod foot is throwing her weight onto her bad

foot; she kicks off the shoe.

CLOSE SHOT ABBY:

As she reaches the top of the stairs. She takes one step

down, then brings herself up short. She looks over the railing

down the stairwell. It is quiet. An innocent-sounding cough

echoes somewhere in the building.

We hear the sound of footsteps from somewhere below.

Abby turns and hobbles back to her apartment. The bareness

of the hallway sets off her abandoned shoe.

ABBY'S APARTMENT

As she enters and slams the door behind her. She scrabbles

at the lock, finally manages to get it shut, then turns and

looks frantically around.

ABBY'S POV

Ray is lying still in the darkness.

We can hear footsteps approaching up the hallway.

Abby enters frame and kneels down next to Ray. She fumbles

around him briefly in the darkness.

The doorknob rattles. Abby freezes, listening, trying to

control her breath. After a moment we hear a scraping at the

lock.

Abby moves to the bathroom adjoining the main room and shuts

the door behind her.

BATHROOM:

It is very small. Abby presses her palms against the door

and slowly eases her ear against the door to listen. The

scraping in the apartment door lock continues. Sweat streams

down Abby's face. She brushes a drop from her eye.

We hear the snap of the lock springing open, and the front

door swinging on its hinges.

CLOSER ON ABBY:

Her ear pressed to the door. From the next room we hear the

sound of footsteps crunching across broken glass.

Abby backs away from the door, stares at it, then turns and

moves to the bathroom window. She looks out.

ABBY'S POV

A sheer drop to the narrow backyard of the building four

stories below. Next to Abby's window is another window,

separated from hers only by the breadth of the wall, that

separates the two apartments.

ABBY'S APARTMENT

Visser hunches, hands on knees, over Ray, who lies on the

floor out of frame.

VISSER:

(grimly)

All right...

He hunkers down closer to Ray.

VISSER:

...You got some of my personal

property.

He is rummaging through Ray's pockets but comes up empty-

handed.

VISSER:

...One of you does.

Visser looks down at Ray, glances around the room, looks

back down at Ray.

VISSER:

...I don't know what the hell you

two thought you were gonna pull.

His hand, gripping something, flashes down out of frame. We

hear a dull crunch.

BATHROOM:

Abby has drawn her head back from the bathroom window. She

moves back to the door and braces herself against it.

ABBY'S APARTMENT

Visser straightens up from Ray's body. He drops something to

the floor, out of frame, that lands with a thud.

He goes over to the light switch on the wall and flips it

back and forth. No light.

He goes over to the brass lamp, sets it upright, tries its

switch. Again nothing.

He disappears into the kitchenette as we hold on its open

doorway. After a moment we hear a refrigerator hum as a cold

blue light plays in the doorway. There is the rattle of a

can being pulled off the refrigerator rack, and the snap of

its pull-tab being opened. After a couple of audible slurps

we hear the can go back on the rack and, as the blue light

disappears, we hear the refrigerator door close.

Visser reappears in the doorway. He surveys the room, fixes

on the bathroom door, goes over, turns the knob. The door

swings open.

He walks in.

BATHROOM:

Visser looks around the cramped space. The shower curtain is

drawn. He casually draws it back. The shower is empty.

He goes to the window and leans out.

VISSER'S POV

The sheer drop below; the other window to one side.

BACK TO VISSER:

He draws his head back in, presses his palms against the

adjacent wall, and eases his ear to the wall to listen.

Perfect quiet.

After a moment he goes back to the window, braces himself

against the sash, and sticks his arm out--groping for the

window of the adjacent apartment.

EXT. ABBY'S BUILDING / BATHROOM WINDOW

CLOSE SHOT VISSER'S FACE

Pressing against the glass as he leans against the upper

half of the bathroom window.

CLOSE SHOT VISSER'S HAND

It finds the adjacent window and starts to raise it.

BACK TO VISSER'S FACE

Again we see him through the window. His jaw is set as he

gropes offscreen.

Suddenly his body jerks violently forward, his head smacking

against the glass and cracking it.

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