City Heat Page #2

tonight, and I'm holding two tickets.

What makes you think

I'd go to the fights with you?

Who invited you?

I'm calling you for Addy's number.

Not a chance. I like the girl too much.

See you around, shorty.

Not if I see your mug first, flatfoot.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Go for the eye!

Thanks for the invite, Lieutenant.

I like the fights.

No, honest, I really do.

I love watching two sweaty,

sinewy, nearly-naked guys

bounce each other around.

Raises all my prurient interests.

Well, that's great.

But you don't have to be so formal.

Why don't you call me Speer?

(CROWD CHEERING)

Come on. Go! Go!

Come on!

Way to go.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Ten. You're out.

- COLL:
A toast.

- REDHEAD SHERRY: A toast.

Dehl Smith's got something. He's outside.

- Where you going?

- PHOTOGRAPHER:
One more picture over here.

COLL:
Better be good, sunshine.

Name's not "Sunshine,"

and it's $50,000 good.

- COLL:
$50,000?

- DEHL:
Uh-huh.

(GROANING)

I don't like clowns, sunshine.

Told you, my name is not "Sunshine."

You spit it out or you're a memory.

How does "bookkeeper" strike you, huh?

- What about him?

- He sold you out.

- To who?

- Primo Pitt, for 25 big ones.

What did he sell?

Just a cleaver big enough

to cut yours clean off.

Yeah.

Pitt got the stuff?

(SCOFFS)

Not yet.

- But you'll get it back.

- Oh, yeah.

For $50,000.

Half now, half on delivery.

Don't got that much on me.

(CHUCKLING)

Tell you what. The bookkeeper does.

On the river. Pier 14, Star of Bolivia.

Just have one of your mutts

drop it at my place.

- COLL:
And the goods?

- Don't worry, you'll hear.

COLL:
Dehl. Dehl!

Yeah?

Cross me and you're snail food.

(CHUCKLING)

(ENGINE STARTS)

This is crummy, Speer.

I better check this out.

It may be for his own good.

(WHISTLING)

(GUN CLICKS)

Look what the rat dragged in.

Uh-uh, Sugar, it's all gonna be fine.

What kind of game are you playing, Pitt?

Did you have a good time at the fight?

Wasn't nothing.

Maybe not.

You're in a lot of trouble, shoofly.

Open that case.

Open the case.

(GASPS)

(GRUNTS)

- DEHL:
Run!

- (GUNSHOT)

(GINNY SCREAMING)

Get her!

SPEER:
Stay there.

- (GUNSHOT)

- (GROANING)

Jesus!

(GROANING)

Come on! Come on! Come on!

(SCREAMS)

- (GUNSHOTS)

- (GINNY SCREAMS)

(GRUNTS)

(GUN CLICKING)

(GUN CLICKING)

(GUN CLICKING)

Everything all right?

All right for me, not so good for him.

- SPEER:
He took a four-story fall.

- MIKE:
"Fall"?

- He had help.

- MIKE:
Bastards.

- Didn't know you two were so close.

- He was my partner.

That's right, he was.

We dug two .38s and a .45 out of

the walls, a 9mm out of the ceiling.

Now this in here was chasing Ginny Lee

when I bumped into him.

She got away.

Vint Diestock, one of Pitt's soldiers.

Dehl's gun was in his holster.

What'd you do with Addy?

I sent her home in a patrol car.

Boy, you really know how to show

a girl a good time, Speer.

Mr. Coll wants to see you.

TROY:
Hard or easy, Murphy?

Ah, Mr. Murphy.

- Mr. Coll.

- Well, I'm so glad you could come.

Make yourself comfortable.

- You want a drink?

- No, thanks.

Swell-looking joint you got here.

- Fruits of my labor.

- Yeah.

Don't tell me why you asked me up here.

Let me guess.

You're a night kind of guy.

You like to invite new friends up.

Chew the rag a little bit.

What do you want to gab about, fish face?

- I saw your late partner tonight.

- Oh, yeah?

Was that about 1:00,

when he tried to fly out of

the fourth-floor window without any wings?

- You know I didn't dust him.

- And how do I know that?

Because you remember all about Mr. Pitt,

don't you?

Oh, yeah. Primo Pitt. Hell of a guy.

He came in second to you

in the snot ball pageant.

You're real close to a manners lesson.

You're real close

to getting your ass kicked.

- You want some of me, pal? Come on.

- Not now.

(CHUCKLES)

Where do you stand, Murphy? Hmm?

You and Dehl,

you had a fix with Mr. Pitt, right?

So, Dehl, he pulls a double-cross.

Now, you in with him

or he's screwing you too?

He was my partner.

He couldn't cut it. Can you?

He was my junior partner.

I taught him practically nothing

of what I know.

So you'll get my goods back for me, then?

Well, I didn't talk to Dehl

before he went out for some air.

I don't know the financial arrangement.

This now, another like it

when I take possession.

$50,000 or forget it.

Agreed.

Good. Tell the little rodents

to fix me a drink, will you?

COLL:
Two.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

(SAXOPHONE PLAYS)

(WOOD CREAKING)

(GUN C*CKS)

Wait till you see the bedroom.

When was the last time

you talked to Primo Pitt?

I've never talked to Primo Pitt.

Well, two of his guns

are parked right across the street.

- MIKE:
Cadillac?

- Yeah.

You rate the heavy artillery.

Maybe they're waiting for you.

Did you ever think of that?

Mmm-mmm. I ducked in the alley,

came up the back.

What are you drinking?

Tea. I found it in the bottle

under the sink.

Or what's left of your sink.

It tastes like gin.

It is gin, my gin.

You didn't sly up here

just to prove you're stealthy.

We fished Aram Strossell

out of the river today.

- Leon Coll's bookkeeper.

- A friend of yours?

He was gonna do my taxes next year.

Well, he was wired to a cement block.

The wire broke, and he popped up

in front of a seafood restaurant,

much to the chagrin of the customers.

- Catch of the day.

- Very funny.

You want to quote me odds on the connection

between Dehl and the bookkeeper?

Uh-uh.

Or the link between you and them?

They dug a slug out of the mess

that was left of Dehl.

It was a 9mm.

One of those wouldn't be too good

for your looks either, shorty.

Duck.

SPEER:
That's right.

- Yeah?

- Roll it down further.

(GASPS)

(PANTING)

It's against the law

to lie down in the middle of the street.

- I never laid down on the street.

- Sure you did. You were hit by a truck.

- What truck?

- Next one that comes along.

- Look, Lieutenant...

- No, you look.

I don't like sludge like you,

you understand?

In fact, it wouldn't break my heart at all

to scrape the street clean of your ilk.

You know what an "ilk" is, don't you, Dub?

- A big deer.

- Yeah.

Now, if I catch you loitering

around my precinct again,

I'm gonna shoot me an ilk. You understand?

All right, throw your cannons

out the window.

- (GUN COCKING)

- Come on, I hear a truck coming.

(GUNS CLATTER)

Good boy.

(ENGINE STARTS)

(GASPING)

Pretty stealthy, Lieutenant.

Pretty stealthy.

- Hello, Tuck. How you feeling?

- Good.

Getting plenty of raw meat, are you?

- Huh?

- That's good.

- Say, "The Leith police dismisseth us."

- What?

- It's a test they give radio announcers.

- What?

- You don't wanna be a radio announcer?

- No.

- C'est la vie, Tuck.

- Yeah.

- Hello, Freddie.

- Well, Murph.

Care for a taste?

- I'm full of tea.

- (LAUGHING)

You're supposed to flush that,

not smoke it.

Now, don't razz my ass, Mike. I'm low.

- Why?

- Ginny.

I do some fine coin with her singing.

And she hits them notes real nice.

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