Insomnia Page #29

WILL:

I like it fine.

Fred pats Will's shoulder.

FRED:

What Detective Dormer needs is a little

shut-eye.

RICH:

The white nights been hard on you?

WILL:

They haven't been easy.

Francis grabs a handful of peanuts.

FRANCIS:

They don't have titanium shades over at

the Pioneer.

RICH:

Well no wonder.

FRANCIS:

You lose all sense of time.

FARRELL:

Better than Fred's home town.

Will turns to Fred. Wiping the foam from his moustache.

FRED:

My people are from Barrow. Way up north.

RICH:

In the winter there's no sunlight for

five straight months.

FRED:

Like being swallowed up in a black hole.

JUST THEN.

ELLIE (O.S.)

Hi, guys.

They look up. Ellie standing by their table. Jeans, down

vest. Hair tousled.

FRED:

Nancy Drew! Pull up a seat!

FRANCIS:

You hear what happened, Ellie?

ELLIE:

Yeah.

RICH:

Pretty cool.

FARRELL:

Rich found the gun.

ELLIE:

I know. I heard.

Fred leans back in his seat. Eyeballs Ellie.

FRED:

Something's on Nancy's mind.

Ellie reaches into her vest pocket. Pulls out a Ziploc with

the SHELL CASING inside.

ELLIE:

I found this out on the beach.

FARRELL:

What is it?

ELLIE:

Shell casing. 9mm.

Will, blanches.

FRANCIS:

Let it go, Ell. We got the bad guy.

ELLIE:

None of us carries a 9mm duty weapon.

And the murder weapon was a 357.

Rich throws peanut shells at her.

RICH:

Get a hobby, will ya?

Ellie brushes off the shells. Looks right at Will.

ELLIE:

It's a legitimate point, isn't it,

Detective Dormer?

Everyone turns to Will. Their faces, spinning. He nods.

WILL:

It's legitimate.

ELLIE:

Worth pursuing?

He looks up. Holds her gaze. Then turns away. Grabs the

side of the table.

WILL:

The case is closed, Ellie.

(gets up)

I got the next round.

The guys don't protest. Will starts heading for the bar.

Weaving through broad shoulders, massive backs. Smoke.

MUSIC. Laughter. Arguing. A mass of bodies and sound.

Like being swallowed up in a black hole...

Looks back at the table.

Ellie, watching him.

EXT. ELLIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Ellie's truck pulls up in front of a small house. She jumps

out.

INT. FRONT HALLWAY - HOUSE - NIGHT

SLAM! Ellie heads through the front door like a gust of

wind. Thunders up the stairs. Calls out.

ELLIE:

Me, Pop!

We hear the TV in the other room. An older MAN, Ellie's

father, appears in the doorway. Thick glasses, grey stubble,

big paunch. Wearing a flannel robe.

ELLIE'S DAD

Ellie? You okay?

Ellie appears at the top of the stairs.

ELLIE:

Where's all my academy stuff?

INT. BASEMENT

Pitch black, then, CLICK! as a bare lightbulb's switched on.

Ellie stands beneath it. Piles of crap everywhere.

She steps through the quagmire of old bikes, fans, auto

parts. Over to a stack of cardboard BOXES in the corner.

She nudges through them, reading the writing on the tops. In

thick black pen. Shoves a couple aside.

Then. Finds what she's looking for. Pulls down a box

marked:
Ellie Acad. Tears it open.

INSIDE - piles of papers, polaroids of her and her FRIENDS,

schedules, syllabi, handbooks. Stuff from her Academy year.

At the bottom, a report. The title: "Securing the Crime

Scene," the Leland Street Murders. By Eleanor P. Burr.

Ellie pulls it out. Sits down on an old stool. Opens to the

middle of the report. Her finger, tracing down the

typewritten page. Flips to the next page. Then the next.

The next. Then. She spots it.

THREE-QUARTERS DOWN THE PAGE, her finger finds the

sentence:
...Detective Dormer's unregistered Smith and Wesson

model 39/13 9mm, to immobilize Langley...

Ellie looks up. Chews her bottom lip.

EXT. MARINERS MEMORIAL - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - DAY

CLOSE ON a huge wave CRASHING against a retaining wall.

Spray flying.

PULL BACK to reveal a small monument by the sea. A stone

cupola with a bronze statue underneath. The sky, black with

clouds.

INT. MARINER'S MEMORIAL - CONTINUOUS

Walter Byrd waits under the Mariner's Memorial. Wind

whipping his jacket, the green sea churning behind him. Next

to a fifteen-foot statue of a SEAMAN, tall, rugged, tough.

Holding on to a thick coil of rope.

Hunches against the wind. Watches as...

WILL approaches the monument. Sonics sweatshirt, wrinkled

coat. Face drawn and haggard. Angry.

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