Red Riding Page #5

1974.TG.170808 Locked Draft - 1st Revision

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MARY COLE:

They thought he’d done it, you

know.

LEONARD:

Shut up, mum!

MARTIN LAWS:

Leonard.

(to Eddie)

The police very quickly realised

their mistake.

EDDIE:

Why did they think you’d done it,

Leonard?

LEONARD:

Ask them.

MARY COLE:

He’s a good boy, Mr. Dunford. He

didn’t do nothing.

EDDIE:

Get some brass out of it, Leonard.

Tell us what happened.

MARTIN LAWS:

No need for money, Mr. Dunford.

It’s the truth matters... Leonard

can show you the place...

MARY COLE:

She was a lovely little thing.

36 EXT. DAWSON CONSTRUCTION SITE, DEVIL’S DITCH -DAY 36

Eddie and Leonard tramp through a dense drizzle to stand on

the rim of the building foundations. No work going on.

WORKMEN watching from the shelter of a half-built house.

Martin Laws and Mrs. Cole stand together a little way off,

watching.

LEONARD:

We were waiting for Gaffer, but he

never come, and it were raining so

we were just arsing about, you

know. I went over to have a waz and

that’s when I saw her...

(the memory hurts)

She was lying there... She had...

aw, f***...

(tears in his eyes)

I couldn’t believe it was her...

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Eddie crouches and picks up a single white feather. He stares

into the black foundations. Behind him, is a large hoarding:

A DAWSON UK DEVELOPMENT.

37 INT. THE PRESS CLUB - EVENING 37

Eddie down into the red gloom of the Press Club. Only a FEW

SOULS in hell this early. He heads for Jack at the bar.

Jack’s on a bender.

EDDIE:

Hard at it, Jackie?

JACK:

Serves me in sickness, poverty and

ignorance. Hello, Scoop.

EDDIE:

Had a chat with Leonard Cole.

JACK:

You naughty boy. Didn’t Aunty

Hadley send you home for an early

bath?

EDDIE:

Heard you were over at Clare

Kemplay’s post-mortem...

JACK:

The police are withholding exact

details...

(a drunken stab)

Don’t you have a family to go home

to?

EDDIE:

Don’t you?

A shaft goes down. Jack laughs in Eddie’s face... He slides

off his stool and stumbles towards the toilets.

38 INT. THE PRESS CLUB MEN’S TOILETS - EVENING 38

Eddie follows Jack to the urinals. Jack leans his head

against the tiles as he pisses.

JACK:

Keep following me like this and

your friend Barry’s going to get

very jealous...

EDDIE:

Did you get a look at it?

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JACK:

What? Your friend or the postmortem?..

Yeah, I saw it...

EDDIE:

And?

JACK:

And, a little girl was tortured,

raped and strangled. In that order.

EDDIE:

I want to know the details.

JACK:

No you don’t, Scoop.

EDDIE:

Don’t f*** around, Jack.

Jack smiles with the wisdom of the drunk.

JACK:

Whatever happened to all those

novels you wanted to write but were

too scared shitless to even try...

Eddie grabs Jack - shoves him against the tiles.

EDDIE:

Tell me!

JACK:

Eddie, I am pissing down my trouser

leg... Yours too...

Eddie lets him go. Steps back.

EDDIE:

You’re all washed up. You’re just a

hack.

JACK:

Such insight.

39 INT. EDDIE’S MOTHER’S HOUSE, HIS BEDROOM - NIGHT 39

Beethoven’s Eroica blasts the player. Eddie’s father’s vinyl

collection is strewn across the floor. Eddie, in pants and

vest. Swigging Scotch. He manically pages through articles on

the missing girls - SUSAN, JEANETTE, CLARE...

Eddie’s mother enters. He stops the music. She takes in his

sorry state. In her hand she has a manila A4 envelope.

Scrawled on the envelope is one word: “Scoop”.

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EDDIE’S MOTHER

A man left this for you, love. Niceman. Said he was a friend of yours.

Jack someone...

His mother leaves and Eddie cautiously opens the envelope...

Trembling, he pulls out a couple of sheets of paper. We seetyped words:

CLARE KEMPLAY. POST-MORTEM.

“The body measured four feet three inches and weighed seventy-

two pounds... Presence of coal dust found beneathfingernails... Facial abrasions, possibly bites werenoted...”

Eddie scans. Panic rising. Horrors. Glimpsing phrases...

EDDIE:

(reading to himself)

“...palms pierced... tears andbruising...”

“Ligature marks... burns upon the neck... inserted into thevagina...”

Eddie shuffles the pages front to back to reveal a set ofphotographs.

Rapid fire images flash before his eyes:

ABRASIONS... A SMALL HAND... A SEVERED SWAN’S WING...

GEORGE GREAVES V/OThey’d hacked f***ing swan’s wingsoff... Clean off. Left poor bastardlying there... Still aliveapparently...

WORDS RAZORED INTO FLESH: “4 LUV”.

Eddie’s face. The horror.

40 EXT. HUNSLET CARR, MOTORWAY - NIGHT

The tiny 10 year old gypsy girl stands screaming amid thesatanic fury of the burning gypsy camp. Then, blackness.

40

41 OMITTED 41

42 INT. VIVA, CASTLEFORD - DAY 42

Eddie drives. Battered. Haunted. Stares out at the grey day.

Barry beside him.

*

*

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EDDIE:

She was strangled - gouged her own

tongue out with her teeth... But

not before some evil f***er had

crucified her and...

(still not believing)

They’d gone and stitched f***ing

swan wings into her back!

They’re both quiet. The horror settling.

42A EXT/INT. LANE & SHANGRILA / VIVA - DAY 42A

They drive up a dark, leafy lane lined with high walls. Fairy

lights are strung in the trees...

A big house comes into view. Uber 70s bungalow chic. A sign:

“SHANGRILA”. Red Jaguar in the gated drive.

EDDIE:

Smart.

BARRY:

“All great buildings resemble

crimes,” they say.

A DANGEROUS LOOKING MAN WITH A JASON KING MOUSTACHE comes

down the drive.

Barry goes to get out.

EDDIE:

I’m off for a poke around. Catch

you later.

BARRY:

(smiling, knowing)

You still think there’s a

connection to Jeanette Garland and

the other missing girls?

EDDIE:

Dunno. I mean, yeah, could be.

BARRY:

Good lad.

The Jason King Moustache comes down the drive.

EDDIE:

We can swap horror stories after.

Barry gets out. Eddie spins the Viva round and away.

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