Cape Fear Page #2

- Thanks. I needed that.

I'd rather Dani didn't wander out alone...

...on her walks in the woods...

...till I've started a few things,

maybe even talk to the boss.

- What if she takes Benjamin with her?

- Big Ben, our guard dog?

What's he gonna do, lick him to death?

- Just tell her.

- What? I hardly know anything about him.

I don't mean his biography.

Just there's some creep around.

If you see him again,

call the cops and then call me.

What about a weapon?

In case things get exciting around here.

Would you feel more secure

with a loaded gun in the house?

We'd end up using it on each other.

Or Dani would. He won't do anything.

He just got out of prison.

He doesn't want to go right back.

Call Lee Heller.

Lee is a colorful character but he's still

the best criminal lawyer in the state.

- Good.

- Get me Lee Heller.

- Sam, you defended this guy, right?

- Right.

What makes you think

he wants to harm you?

Yesterday I was getting in my car.

The guy comes up.

We have a conversation.

He says to me,

"You're gonna learn about loss. "

That'd hardly qualify

under the terrorist threat statutes.

Tom, for Christ's sake, the guy's an ex-con.

You know as well as I do what that means.

Last night, there he was, behind our house.

- Attempted B and E.

- No, not exactly.

He was sitting on a wall

that bounds our property.

That's not even trespassing, Sam.

Come on. What can I say?

Get a restraining order.

I filed one this morning.

The hearing's in ten days.

Good. Anything I can do.

Tom, fourteen years ago...

...in this case I had a report on the victim.

- It was a rape case.

- That's right.

Rape and aggravated sexual battery.

Anyway, I had a report on this victim...

...and it came back

that she was promiscuous.

And...

...I buried it.

- Anybody else know about this?

- No, I buried it.

I didn't show it to the client

or the prosecution.

But if you had seen

what this guy had done to this girl-

"In every criminal prosecution,

the accused shall have...

"... the Assistance of Counsel

for his defense. "

I know the Sixth Amendment.

I believe in it.

That's why I left

the Public Defender's Office.

There was no way to serve the law

in that capacity.

Some folks don't have the right

to the best defense?

Of course they deserve the best defense!

But if you had seen what he did

to this girl...

- Buried the report.

- If it was your own daughter.

- Yeah, I mean-

- Buried the report.

Jesus, Sam.

Oh, God.

But I don't see how he could know that.

He was illiterate.

I had to read everything to him:

the probable cause affidavit...

...the arrest reports, everything.

There's no way he could know that.

Hey, Dani...

...it's so quiet out here,

and the light's so perfect...

...why don't you get your book

and come out here and read?

Why?

I told you why.

Is it because he's like a flasher

or just a peeper?

What do you know about that? A flasher?

You don't think I've been flashed before?

I didn't mean to insult you.

I'm sure you've been flashed.

If you want to come out, come on out.

If you don't, go on.

Do whatever you want.

But don't go outside.

'Afternoon, Counselor.

What do you want, Mr. Cady?

They're great at that age, ain't they?

All those discoveries ahead of them.

You're lucky.

My own daughter,

she don't even know me.

After I went inside,

her mama told her I was dead...

...which, in a way, I was.

Mr. Cady, I realize that you suffered.

I understand your problem,

but, I mean, why me?

I was your lawyer. I defended you.

Why not badger the D.A. or the judge?

- "Badger. "

- Why not them?

Best I remember,

they was just doing right by their jobs.

I didn't do my job? Is that right?

I pleaded you out

to a lesser occluded offense.

You could've gotten rape

instead of battery.

I'd have been up for parole in seven years

according to Georgia penal code.

Rape is a capital offense.

You could've gotten life, death.

You could be sitting

on death row right now.

I learned to read during my stretch.

First, Spot Goes To The Farm...

...then Runaway Bunny,

then law books, mostly.

Did you know, after I discharged you,

I acted as my own attorney?

Applied several times for an appeal.

No, I didn't know that.

So, here we are...

...two lawyers, for all practical purposes,

talking shop.

How much do you want, Mr. Cady?

- How much do I want what?

- How much money do you want?

Money?

Counselor, do I look destitute to you?

I'm open to discussion,

within reasonable limits.

You ever been a woman?

- A what?

- A woman.

Some fat, hairy, ugly hillbilly's wet dream?

I realize that you suffered.

There's no question about that.

You don't know

what suffering is, Counselor.

Like it says in Galatians 3:

"Have ye suffered so many things in vain?"

I learned from the get-go in the joint

to get in touch with my feminine side.

I'm open to some sort of discussion

on compensation.

What shall be my compensation, sir...

...for being held down and sodomized

by four white guys...

...or four black guys?

Shall my compensation be the same?

What is the formula for compensation, sir?

How about $10,000 in cash?

Do I...

Let's just break that down.

That figure just came

to the top of my head.

For argument's sake,

let's say $20,000, $30,000.

I'll tell you what. Let's say $50,000.

$50,000 into fourteen years.

Fourteen years times 365 days...

...is about 5,000 days.

You divide that by $50,000,

and that's like $10 a day.

That's not even minimum wage.

To say nothing about the family

and respect that I lost.

I don't think you really understand

what we're talking about.

Fourteen years.

Whoops.

Gotta git.

I'm late for another appointment.

I got some good news.

I got the bank, the account number.

I'll call your son-in-law's lawyer,

tell him we're going to court.

Mr. Bowden, your wife's on line one.

Ask her to hold. I have to make a call.

- I wouldn't make that call. The way I'd-

- Mr. Bowden...

...she says it's urgent.

Yeah?

...these kind of horrible,

high-pitched howls.

They sounded like he was screaming...

...and then Dani came running in, and I...

...I called the vet.

Then it was so weird because...

...it was like he was winding down...

...just winding down like an old clock.

Then, all of a sudden, he just stopped.

He had this kind of...

...his eyes just wide open,

and this kind of...

...surprised look.

And then...

...then he died.

He just died, before the vet even got here.

What did the vet say?

- That he was poisoned.

- Poisoned?

What kind of poison?

- I don't know what kind of poison.

- Jesus! I told you not to let him out.

- I didn't let him out!

- Then how?

Stop!

I've got an English setter myself,

so I don't cotton to dog killers.

Trouble is, poisoning a dog is just a fine.

But if he's unemployed,

he has to have money...

...or we'll bust him for vagrancy.

We'll give him a full-body strip search.

Jerk a knot in his tail.

All right.

They got so many ways on the books

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