Inherent Vice Page #18

107.

DOC:

And you know all this because...?

PENNY:

Everyone does. State Attorney

General's office has been after

him for years but nobody can touch

him, partly because of this

interesting portfolio of

IOUs he has -- and that's always

enough to guarantee obedience.

DOC:

Obedience to who?

PENNY:

Commanders. Controllers. The

Department itself.

DOC:

So someone inside the LAPD ordered

a hit on Bigfoot's partner?

PENNY:

You think it's all some monolithic

fun fest down here, Doc? Nothing

to do all day but figure out new

ways to persecute you hippies?

DOC:

Did you change your hair?

PENNY:

Somebody talked me into seeing

this hotshot on Rodeo Drive. He

put these streaks in and called it

the Surfer Chick Special -

DOC:

For me?

DOC:

Who else?

PENNY:

Or maybe you'd go for Lynette

Squeaky Fromme-type look?

DOC:

Long and curly? Well, huh?

PENNY:

Thing for those Manson chicks?

DOC:

Wait a minute...

PENNY:

Word around you go in for that

sort of thing...

108.

Doc is speechless.

DOC:

Why was I here again?

PENNY:

You wanted to see a restricted

file. (Adrian Prussia.)

DOC:

So Adrian Prussia kills Bigfoot's

partner with the apparent

collaboration of elements within

the Department. Everybody knows

he did the deed but there's no

back channel outcries in the

paper, no vigilante revenge by

horrified fellow officers... No,

instead it's locked up tight for

the next thirty years, everybody

pretending it's another cop hero

fallen in the line of duty.

Forget about decency, or

respecting the memories of all the

real dead-cop heroes -- how can

people be that f***in'

unprofessional?

Penny is tearing up... Doc sees she's human.

DOC:

Penny?

96 CLOSEUP - DOC 96

looking at Adrian Prussia's INTERNAL AFFAIRS FILE. He

sees of picture of Adrian onboard the GOLDEN FANG...

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

What Doc was seeing now was

something that made his heart

hurt... that Bigfoot's pain was

deep. That Adrian Prussia worked

not only as a what seemed to

be a personal loan shark for the

LAPD but moon-lit as their own

personal contract-killer -- doing

deeds for them that they couldn't

do themselves. Time after time,

he was pulled in, questioned,

arraigned, indicted, no matter --

somehow the cases never quite got

to trial, each being bargained

down in the interests of justice,

not to mention Adrian, who

invariably walked. And one of

those deeds appeared to be

(MORE)

labeled ‘the justifiable homicide’of one of the LAPD'S very ownnamed Vincent Indelicato...

Bigfoot's partner. Lieutenant

Detective Christian F. BigfootBjornsen... This was mourning allright, and it was deep. Bigfoot'sair of possessed melancholy nowmade sense.

SORTILEGE (V.O.) (CONT'D)

109.

CUT TO:

97 EXT. AP FINANCE - DAY 97

Adrian Prussia Finance is somewhere between downtown and

South Central and the Wash. Doc pulls up, parks, looksaround... There's a BUNCH OF MEN LOITERING AROUND... Doc

notices them, they notice him...

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

Doc knew he had needed to see

Adrian Prussia at some point...

he'd really been avoiding it,

mostly because Bigfoot was pushinghim towards it -- but here he is:

looking for something he doesn'twant to find and seeing someone hedoesn't want to see -- (andwhere's the partner to watch Doc's

back?)

(ALTERNATE)

(wondering, 'where's the partnerto watch my back?)

OFF IN THE DISTANCE

Bigfoot watching...

CUT TO:

98 INT. AP FINANCE - DAY 98

It's nondescript offices. A SECRETARY is here:

SECRETARY:

May I help you?

DOC:

I'm here to see Adrian Prussia,

my name is Doc Sportello.

SECRETARY:

Yes. May I tell him what it'sregarding?

(...)

DOC:

110.

SECRETARY:

What is it regarding?

DOC:

Bigfoot Bjornsen.

CUT TO:

99 INT. ADRIAN'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 99

DOC is let in by the Secretary. He enters. It's

covered... wall-to-wall with BASEBALL BATS... ADRIAN is

sitting behind a desk...

DOC:

Afternoon...

ADRIAN:

So, you here about... (Bigfoot)

DOC:

Good question.

ADRIAN:

Wait-a-minute. This is bullshit,

I remember you -- the kid from

Fritz's shop out in Santa Monica,

right?

I lent you my special edition Carl

Yastrzemski bat once, to collect

from that child-support deadbeat

you chased down the Greyhound and

pulled him off of, and then you

wouldn't use it.

DOC:

I tried to explain at the time, it

had to do with how much I've

always admired Yaz?

ADRIAN:

There's no place for that in this

business. So what are you up to

these days? Skip tracing or'd you

go into the priesthood?

DOC:

P.I.

ADRIAN:

They gave you a license? So who

sent you here? Who you working

for today?

DOC:

All on spec. All on my own time.

111.

ADRIAN:

Wrong answer. How much of your

own time do you think you got

left, kid?

Adrian presses a buzzer under his desk...

DOC:

I was just about to ask...

ENTER:
PUCK BEAVERTON.

DOC:

Howdy... Puck...

PUCK:

Do I know you? I don't think I

do.

DOC:

You look like somebody I ran

across once. My mistake.

PUCK:

Your mistake.

ADRIAN:

I have a busy day ahead. And I

know nothing of any of this.

PUCK sits at Adrian's desk and lights up A VERY LARGE

JOINT. He takes a hit, hands it over to Doc... Doc

notices PUCK wearing the same seashell necklace as

Shasta.

PUCK:

It helps to have a bad memory

sometimes.....

(You didn't take my advice.)

So what can I help you with today?

DOC:

I'm not sure. It's these cases

I'm working on... wondering if you

can shed some light on the winding

out at Channel View Estates with

Glen Charlock?

PUCK:

Glen was the target all along.

That outfit he was runnin' guns

for didn't trust him anymore than

the Brotherhood who shitlisted him

for being a traitor to his race...

DOC:

And what about Mickey Wolfmann...

112.

PUCK:

Mickey just saw things he

shouldn't've. The boys in the

John Wayne outfits at Channel View

panicked and hustled him away --

then the Feds found out -- here's

an acid-head billionaire about to

give away all his money -- and, of

course, they had their own ideas

on how to spend it -- then they

programmed Mickey into Ojai for a

little brain work.

DOC:

While we're just talking here --

did you know a detective named

Vincent Indelicato?

PUCK:

Sure.

DOC:

He met an untimely end -- any

ideas on what might have happened

PUCK:

That was Adrian's. But I got to

pull the trigger...

DOC:

... So who hired Adrian?

PUCK:

It's cop-on-cop. Kind of a waste

of time to try and figure out...

DOC:

... Why are you telling me all

this?

PUCK:

After faithful attendance at Ninja

School in Boyle Heights, I have

become a master in the technique

known as false inhaling -- Acid

invites you through a door. PCP

opens the door, shoves you

through, slams it behind you

and locks it.

CUT TO BLACK.

OVER BLACK:

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

So commencing a classic and

memorable bummer...

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