Klute Page #16

KLUTE:

Trask wants to talk with you.

She continues on up; Klute continues down.

INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAY

Entering without greeting Trask (his manner is not

uncivil but simply neutral, unreacting, Cop-like)

she quickly gathers up a few properties, a change

of shoes.

TRASK:

Miss Daniel, be sensible, you find

another place till we get things

cleaned up.

BREE:

(brightly)

Oh well that shouldn't take you

more than another, oh, two and a

half or three years, should it?

TRASK:

A few more days. We know who did

this.

BREE:

So do I.

TRASK:

No, not Grunemann. He's dead. The

man that killed him -- also prob'ly

Jane McKenna, also Arlyn Page.

She spins around -- mute -- terrified.

BREE:

(manages)

Arlyn and Jane commited suicide. He

said they commited suicide.

TRASK:

Now there's a picture I'd like you

to --

BREE:

You said someone killed them, you

said you know who, you said that.

TRASK:

Well we're pretty --

BREE:

Why isn't he locked up?

TRASK:

We don't want to just lock him up;

we want a conviction, we wanted him

to do something more.

BREE:

Is that why Klute didn't tell me?

TRASK:

I guess he figured it was better.

BREE:

What was better? I made better

bait?

TRASK:

No, that's not --

BREE:

Is that what he set me up for?

Everything he's told me from the

beginning? -- don't worry, don't --

TRASK:

(coldly)

From the beginning I don't know why

the hell he's messin with you. If

he was me he'd know better. If he

was even a city boy he'd know

better. You're a whore Miss Daniel,

that's the truth of it, right? Now

somethin I'd like you to look at.

BREE:

I don't have to look at anything. I

don't have --

TRASK:

Here please.

He coerces her to the table and unrolls the Company

outing picture. (We see the rip extending up

through the image of Tom Grunemann in the front

row.)

BREE:

Oh no.

TRASK:

Like for you to look for the man.

BREE:

Grunemann? I've looked at him a --

Trask has clamped his thumb over the torn image of

Grunemann, indicates with the other hand --

TRASK:

No. Not Grunemann. The Dumper. Just

look around -- I said look for the

Dumper.

We see her comply -- her eyes moving over the rows

of faces. Then we see her stiffen, hear her gasp --

BREE:

Oh! --

-- and WE CUT TO --

INT. DOWNTOWN HELIPORT - DAY

Cable welcomes Klute. His outer manner is warm,

voluble, congratulatory --

CABLE:

Sorry we had to meet here. But I'm

pressed for time.

KLUTE:

Well there's a couple --

CABLE:

I read your report. I had to go

along with it -- the idea of this

being a wild goose chase, Tom being

nowhere around --

KLUTE:

Well as a matter of --

CABLE:

I've been up country, you know my

summer place, my camp. I don't even

have a telephone there. This

morning they sent a messenger out,

that you'd been trying to call me.

KLUTE:

Yeah.

CABLE:

I'm on my way to Chicago. Very

important meeting tonight. Well --

any new developments?

KLUTE:

Yeah, two things Pete, that --

CABLE:

You said Trask was arranging

laboratory work. Police laboratory.

Anything from that?

KLUTE:

Yeah. It wasn't Tom.

CABLE:

I'm sorry. I don't understand.

KLUTE:

It wasn't Tom that broke in the

room.

CABLE:

It has to be Tom. You said he

ripped up his own pictures, he --

KLUTE:

Not Tom. Whoever it was left a kind

of souvenir, I told you, in her

clothing. Semen. The laboratory got

a blood group reading from that.

The man was blood type 0; Tom was

an AB.

CABLE:

(slowly)

Some mistake perhaps that --

KLUTE:

No. No mistake Pete. It doesn't

prove who it was -- but proves it

wasn't Tom.

CABLE:

You must be discouraged.

KLUTE:

(prosaically)

Not too bad. This brings back that

Dumper in the picture.

CABLE:

That who?

KLUTE:

Dumper, the man Bree Daniel

mentioned and Arlyn Page knew and

Jane McKenna knew.

CABLE:

You said he was no possible

connection with Tom. The Page girl

told you that, not Tom.

KLUTE:

Someone's been doing all these

things.

CABLE:

You were hired to look for Tom, not

someone.

KLUTE:

Pete, I've got a chance to buy Jane

McKenna's black book.

CABLE:

What?

KLUTE:

Call-girls generally keep a book,

you know, a list of their clients.

Sometimes, if a girl retires,

she'll even sell it worth good

money. Jane McKenna had a black

book; when she died it was stolen.

I've been after it a long time.

CABLE:

You were hired to look for Tom.

KLUTE:

I'm meeting a man tomorrow night.

He wants to meet me on East-River

Drive -- he wants five hundred

dollars for the book. Can you get

that for me Pete?

Sometime -- right along about now -- it privately

comes to Cable that Klute may know everything and

that he, Cable, may be being trapped.

CABLE:

I can't follow you.

KLUTE:

Will the Company put up five

hundred dollars to get Jane

McKenna's list of clients?

CABLE:

No. It's ridiculous. This has

nothing to do with Tom Grunemann.

KLUTE:

(shrugs, stolidly)

It probably has the Dumper's name.

It might give us some kind of new

lead.

(beat)

I want a look at it anyhow.

CABLE:

Klute, the Company's interest is

Tom Grunemann. Solely and

exclusively. You say you can't find

Tom; all right, I'll see that

you're paid off; the case is

closed.

KLUTE:

All right, but I'm going to see

that list.

HELICOPTER FLIGHT is announced over loud speaker

and Cable and Klute walk onto field.

EXT. HELICOPTER FIELD

People are boarding helicopter.

CABLE:

Why would they deal with you? You

don't know these people.

Klute is momentarily at a loss -- not a question

he'd prepared for -- improvises.

KLUTE:

No, but Bree does. She's

negotiating for me. Bree Daniel.

Cable takes an instant to compute the thing. Then --

CABLE:

I can talk it over; possibly I can

get the money. When are you meeting

the man?

KLUTE:

Tomorrow evening, nine. East River

Drive and 73rd Street.

CABLE:

Suppose I meet you there a half

hour before.

KLUTE:

Just send me a money order.

CABLE:

No, I'd -- like to be in on it.

ATTENDANT comes over to motion Cable onto the

helicopter.

Klute smiles awkwardly, raises his hand in a

goodbye gesture.

KLUTE:

Well --

CABLE:

Tomorrow. See you tomorrow night.

INT. HELICOPTER

Cable sits down next to window. The helicopter

begins to rise. CAMERA goes into a medium close

shot of Cable against the helicopter window. The

helicopter ascends in front of a very tall office

building made up of endless glass squares. A

telephoto lens brings the glass squares of the

building directly against Cable's head and

shoulders giving us the feeling that Cable is

almost levitating by himself. As one floor after

another disappears behind him we see an almost

manic exhultation in Cable's face; as if he is on

top of things once more.

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE BROWNSTONE - DAY

We bring Klute along street, and into the

Brownstone.

INT. STAIRWELL - DAY

Klute climbs the stairs to Bree's apartment --

knocks. He waits. No answer. He calls once --

KLUTE:

Bree?

No answer. He starts downstairs again -- then turns

back, unlocks the door himself, enters.

INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAY

The room is still disordered. Bree and Frank

Ligourin look at him, silently. Bree has been

assembling armfuls of dresses to carry away with

her. Frank sits nearby in a chair. Klute smiles a

little -- almost apologetically.

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