Manhunter Page #10

GEEHAN:

Haven't asked me.

(beat)

Took four coats of interior latex,

five in places.

(pause)

You can drop that key in the

mailbox. You don't have to come

back by, do you?

GRAHAM:

Uh-uh.

Geehan leaves. The door closes with a SLAM.

WIDE - GRAHAM

In the empty white living room. Graham walks OUT OF FRAME.

Bare floors and dead air. His footsteps echo in the empty

house.

CUT TO:

40.

EXT. JACOBI HOUSE - WIDE - DAY

An image from Bill Owens' "Suburbia." A family house. No

different than any other family house around. But it is

somehow sinister in its vacancy. It ought to be littered

with bicycles and wagons: the signs and symbols of suburban

normalcy. TRACK LEFT to reveal the back of Graham staring at

the house from across the street.

CUT TO:

EXT. NEXT DOOR HOUSE - GRAHAM - DAY

In a different position staring at the rear of the house from

a neighbor's bushes. We don't know why Graham is staring at

the Jacobi house from different vantage points.

CUT TO:

EXT. SIDEROAD - GRAHAM'S POV: 3/4 VIEW OF JACOBI HOUSE

DAY:

Graham looking at the house from the third vantage point.

JACOBI BACKYARD:

And turned earth where the cat was found.

REARSHOT:
GRAHAM

starts backing up and we MOVE WITH him. He looks over his

shoulder at us and keeps walking backwards. Trees enter the

frame on the left and right.

TRACKING GRAHAM IN PROFILE

He stumbles through underbrush into a dry streambed. He

backs up a slope on the other side and finds himself in some

trees. There are three. Graham looks around.

BRANCHES:

now obscure the Jacobi house. Something glints right...

SEARCHING THROUGH GRASS

At the base of one elm tree. A ring tab from a soft drink

can is half-buried in leaves. Graham's fingers move leaves

aside.

41.

GRAHAM:

looks slowly up the tree trunk.

RED CREEK MUD:

Wedged into the first strong limb, it's from the instep of

a boot.

GRAHAM:

hangs his coat on the branch of a neighboring tree and climbs

the far side of the elm. His head and his cheek raise

through limbs. His eye is six inches away when he finds a

soft drink can wedged between limb and trunk.

GRAHAM:

I love it. Sweet Jesus, yes come

on, can.

He photographs its placement with the camera on his belt,

bracketing exposures. Then he tears a small branch and uses

it to put the can in an evidence bag. Graham climbs higher

until his foot is level to where he saw the mud. He looks

to his left. Something he sees stops him cold.

A SYMBOL:

is carved in the wood.

GRAHAM:

photographs this as well as a branch that's been trimmed by

a cutting tool. Then he looks...

OVER GRAHAM'S SHOULDER: THE JACOBI HOUSE

A perfect view.

GRAHAM:

high in the tree, leans back against the trunk. Re seems

frozen. Then:

GRAHAM:

(mumbling to himself)

... after you killed the cat and

threw it into the yard, my man,

you climbed up hero and waited.

You used a cutting tool on these

branches so you could see.

(MORE)

42.

GRAHAM (CONT'D)

You watched the children and passed

the time whittling and dreaming.

(beat)

When night came, you saw them

passing their bright windows and

you watched the shades go down,

and you saw the lights go out one

by one. And after a while, you

climbed down and you went in to

them, didn't you?

(shouts)

DIDN'T YOU, YOU SON OF A B*TCH!

YOU WATCHED THEM ALL GODDAMN DAY

LONG! !

(beat)

That's why you like houses with big

yards, the easier to see them

CUT TO:

INT. JACOBI HOUSE - GEEHAN + PROSPECTIVE BUYERS

DAY:

Geehan showing some new candidates around the house. It's a

YOUNG COUPLE and they look interested.

GEEHAN:

They don't build houses this way

anymore:
solid lath and plaster

construction. None of your drywall

stuff and aluminum studs here. No

sirree Bob!

WIFE:

I like it, hon.

HUSBAND:

Let's go to your office and see if

we can work out some terms...

GEEHAN:

Great. You goin' love this house!

Geehan's got a sale. He's at the front door. He opens

it.

CUT TO:

EXT. JACOBI HOUSE - DOOR - DAY

The door is opened by Geehan and his big smile, shepherding

his customers-to-be out the front door. The smile falls off

Geehan's face. The young buyers look quizzically.

43.

GEEHAN:

has deflated against the doorframe.

GEEHAN'S POV:
THREE ATLANTA P.D. CARS, A FORENSICS

TRUCK, + ATLANTA P.D. HELICOPTER

with flashers going are converging onto the scene. Will

Graham is at the nearest police car talking on a cellular

phone .

GRAHAM:

I'm sending the can to Jimmie

Price to dust for prints.

(fast beat)

I need Bowman in Documents to fall

on this carving. Then I need the

Firearms and Toolmarks Section out

here on the severed branch. I

need to know what kind of cutting

tool he used.

CUT TO:

INT. WASHINGTON, FBI OFTICE - CRAWFORD - DAY

On phone to Graham.

CRAWFORD:

Is it weird?

GRAHAM (V.O.)

The mark? Yes.

CRAWFORD:

If the Documents section can't do

it... I'll send it up to Langley...

GRAHAM (V,O.)

Did Price get anywhere with the

single prints off the Leeds?

As another line on Crawford's phone rings, we PULL BACK to

his secretary, SARAH's area.

SARAH CRAWFORD

(fading up) (fading down)

Special Agent Crawford's No. The killer's not in

office.. the Single Print Index. He

must never have been printed.

TIGHTEN ON Sarah. We don't hear what's said to her.

44.

SARAH:

No, Mr. Graham is not in the

office, bur let me...

(beat)

Wait, I'll be glad to...

(beat)

Yes, he'll be in the office later,

but let me...

She holds the receiver as though it had died in her hand

and crosses into Crawford's office.

CRAWFORD:

(to Graham)

... bur if we find him, the print

as evidence will get a conviction,

Hold on. What?

SARAH:

He asked for Will. He said he

might call back tonight. I tried

to hold him... I'm sorry... He said

'tell Graham "broken mirrors."'

CRAWFORD:

(to Graham)

Will. Get right back here. He

just called.

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