Klute Page #15

INT. BREE APARTMENT - NIGHT

Klute jettisons the grocery bags, thrusts himself

inside, looks quickly about, finds no one. Bree

follows more slowly, whispering:

BREE:

Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus.

KLUTE:

Don't touch anything.

He moves quickly to the rear of the apartment,

looks at the rear window which has been broken

inward in a litter of glass -- then returns to the

table at the front of the apartment; his folders.

Bree cracks wise, unsteadily.

BREE:

You suppose he's a married fella?

ANGLE TO TABLE; FOLDERS

The contents of the folders have been spilled

across the table and -- we ZOOM IN -- the

photographs of Tom Grunemann sorted out and ripped

apart, Even the COMPANY PICNIC photograph has been

painstakingly torn, specifically to destroy the

image of Grunemann in the front row.

KLUTE:

He stands, looking down, taking no notice as --

BREE:

He got in my clothing!

Then a moment later, she cries out again, more

sharply:

BREE (CONT'D)

Oh. Oh.

He turns quickly. She is holding out, at arms

length, a pair of her underpants. With a disgust so

extreme she can only laugh.

BREE (CONT'D)

Oh look what he did in them.

KLUTE:

Drop it.

She doesn't respond. He seizes her arm, shakes the

garment back onto the floor. She starts to gag,

slaps her hand over her mouth, starts for the

bathroom. Klute yanks her back.

KLUTE (CONT'D)

Stay out of there.

She twists free of his hands, backs away. The same

elementary terror we've seen before.

KLUTE (CONT'D)

Listen to me:
It's all right. I've

been expecting something.

BREE:

(full out, vengefully)

My God, I thought it was over. And

here I am, daddy, right back at the

start.

KLUTE:

Bree --

BREE:

Right back at the start, right?

KLUTE:

Go down in my room.

BREE:

You said it was over, right? You

said not to worry any more, all

over, right?

She's broken for the door; it's questionable that

she's even heard him. He hasn't time to pursue --

shouts again --

KLUTE:

Go down in my room and wait.

Then he turns back into the apartment.

INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAY

A DOWNSHOT TO UNDERPANTS (as if from Klute's POV,

connecting directly to the previous shot) -- then a

FLASHBULB goes off and a hand and pair of tongs

enter frame and flip the garment into a collecting

box and we widen to reveal that it's now daylight

and the scene has been invaded by POLICE

TECHNICIANS. One is a photographer; another, a

fingerprint man, is spraying surfaces with a can of

fixative. In the foreground Klute and Trask are

talking with Ross, the FBI man. Ross is looking

through a dossier on Cable that Klute has compiled.

Over the following conversation we show CLOSEUPS of

material in the dossier. It contains photographs of

Cable and his life from childhood to the present -

including pictures of him with his mother and

father - she a very dominant looking lady and he a

very passive looking man;

also graduation pictures and pictures with his

former wife taken when he was still a very young

man. They are the personal images of a life time.

ROSS:

(to Klute)

But if Cable killed Grunemann why

would he get you hired to look for

Grunemann?

KLUTE:

Because he knew I couldn't leave

the case alone. And this way at

least he'd keep track of it. And

me.

ROSS:

What about Grunemann's letters to

the girl, everything like that?

TRASK:

Cable's letters, Cable's phone

calls. Cable's everything else.

He's been a Dumper a long time. He

just passed off his own peculiar

habits on the other man -- it kept

things goin'.

ROSS:

OK, pretend I believe you. Tell me

how you get an indictment.

TRASK:

Can't. Yet. Oh we got everythin'

else:
first rate evidence Cable

typed those dumper letters to Bree

Daniel. And Jane McKenna: Klute

found a couple in her personal

remains. We got dates of Cable's

trips here coincidin' with phone

calls to Bree Daniel, also the

dates of death of McKenna and Page.

We got some hints of his personal

history. His father, unsuccessful

salesman, committed suicide when he

was 13. His mother pinned all her

hopes on her son. He won a national

science youth award at the age of

eight. They had no money, but she

hired special tutors for him in the

summer time. She saw a good thing.

He graduated from high school at 14

-- college at 16 -- no friends --

The kids in his class thought of

him as a freak. He got his Ph.D. at

18 -- married at age 21 to his then

employer's daughter. The marriage

lasted 4 weeks. Her father had it

annulled. She says he was impotent.

World War II he got in bad trouble

about a German girl, no details. We

think we know why he killed

Grunemann -- he found out Cable was

a dumper; Cable couldn't take that.

We think we know why he killed

McKenna -- she wanted to blackmail

him for it. All fine. But we got no

body, no direct witnesses, we can't

go any-damn-where.

KLUTE:

That's the reason i told him we had

no evidence Tom was still alive. We

wanted to shake him into another

phone call or another letter. It

didn't work out just that way.

The Technicians, meanwhile have packed to depart.

The first Technician scoops the torn up photographs

into another collecting box. Trask retrieves the

company outing photograph.

TRASK:

Gov, want to leave me that one. How

come he got to play with this one,

anyway.

KLUTE:

I left them here. I was doing some

work here.

Trask eyes Klute for a moment, as if a querying his

relationship with Bree. Klute is clearly

unresponsive. Trask resumes.

TRASK:

It's damn lucky you didn't have the

dossier on Cable here.

KLUTE:

Nobody's seen that.

TRASK:

If we get anything from the lab,

we'll have it by noon. And just

think -- all he really had to do

was write us a letter.

ROSS:

Sounds to me you better shake him

again. Put him in a spot he has to

do something more -- but this time

give him a time and a place to do

it.

KLUTE:

He called this morning from

Tuscarora. Asked me to meet him at

3:
00 at the downtown heliport. He's

on his way to Chicago.

TRASK:

He sure chalks up a lot of flight

time.

Klute starts gathering his papers we CUT TO --

INT. STAIRWELL:
BREE - DAY

Bree coming up the stairs meets the Technicians

coming down -- stands aside to let them pass --

starts up again and comes face to face with Klute.

On her part we see a wish to be reconciled -- a

shyness mixed with defiance -- but Klute's manner

is arduous. She smiles nervously, asks --

BREE:

Ah, Schmendrick -- what's the scam?

KLUTE:

Those were police laboratory

people, they've been over the

apartment.

BREE:

(mock delight)

Oh zippidy-doo, they'll find my

fingerprints.

(then)

Can I go in? I need some stuff.

He nods; she starts by. Then --

KLUTE:

Where'd you spend last night?

BREE:

With Trina.

KLUTE:

I called Trina.

BREE:

Maybe I wasn't there when you

called.

KLUTE:

Bree, what's actually happened? It

wasn't that bad.

BREE:

(cuts in harshly)

How do you know how bad it was?

KLUTE:

Why couldn't you stay here with me?

BREE:

Because I didn't want to be

touched! I didn't think you'd get

that!

Pause. Then, evenly --

KLUTE:

Trask wants to talk with you.

She starts on, then turns back toward him -- rather

pleadingly --

BREE:

Hey -- look officer -- I can

explain everything. It was just --

you know, everything all of a --

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