Red Riding Page #9

EDDIE’S MOTHER

I thought you were bloody dead!

Eddie struggles to get up.

EDDIE’S MOTHER

What are you doing?

EDDIE:

I’ve got to go.

EDDIE’S MOTHER

Don’t be daft. You’re not fit.

Eddie lurches to his feet. Sick, dizzy, in pain.

EDDIE’S MOTHER

Don’t do this to me! I hate you for

this, Edward!

Eddie takes her by the shoulders - brandishes his damaged

hand in her face.

EDDIE:

Mum, this is my work, right? I

don’t want you involved.

76 INT. EDDIE’S MOTHER’S HOUSE, HIS BEDROOM - NIGHT 76

Eddie throws his few belongings into a couple of bin liners -

his clothes, his files, three of his father’s suits. He

carefully rolls up his three columns of information on the

missing girls...

77 INT. EDDIE’S MOTHER’S HOUSE, BACK ROOM - NIGHT 77

Eddie’s mother has cried herself to sleep in her chair in

front of the TV. Eddie softly looks in on her. He kisses her

head. She stirs but doesn’t wake. Eddie pads away. She

sleeps.

The sound of the door closing. She sleeps on.

The sound of the Vauxhall Viva starting up and driving away.

She opens her eyes.

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EDDIE’S MOTHER

Dad...?

No one. Just the framed photograph of her dead husband.

78 INT. VIVA, THE DONCASTER ROAD - NIGHT 78

Eddie cruises down the Doncaster Road. He’s on the look out.

Then he sees the sign in the night:“It’s the Only Place to

Stop!” “The Redmoor Cafe and Motel. En-suite accommodation.”

79 INT/EXT. VIVA / REDMOOR CAFE AND MOTEL - NIGHT 79

Eddie pulls up beside a lorry in the forecourt of the new,

long red brick building with pitched roof.

Eddie gets out. Looks around. Quiet. He pulls his black bin

liners out of the car and heads for the motel...

80 INT. REDMOOR CAFE AND MOTEL, ROOM 27 - NIGHT 80

A NIGHT PORTER shows Eddie into a flimsy room overlooking the

carpark. A single bed, MFI wardrobe, damp curtains.

NIGHT PORTER:

Two quid a night.

Eddie dumps his bags. He counts out twenty eight pounds in

notes. The night porter shuffles away.

Eddie locks the door. Draws the curtains. Empties out his

sack of goodies:
Clothes, a portable typewriter, files,

envelopes and research...

Eddie tears up strips of wallpaper. Makes three columns and

pins them to the wall.

Eddie labels the columns with a black marker:

SUSAN . JEANETTE . CLARE

He pins up clippings for each girl. He tears Jack’s name off

the Yorkshire Post article and chucks it. He pins the article

beneath Clare’s name.

Photos and newspaper cuttings. He adds the horrendous postmortem

photographs.

Eddie makes a new column in his growing collection of

material:

JOHN DAWSON:

He pins up a snap of the destroyed gypsy camp.

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Eddie picks up a photograph of Paula Garland...

81 INT. VIVA - NIGHT 81

Eddie driving one handed. Bites the lid off a bottle of

Paracetamol - gobbles a few down. Every move hurts.

82 INT. PAULA GARLAND’S HOUSE, FRONT ROOM - NIGHT 82

Eddie eases painfully back into the white leather sofa. On

the mantle is a card of the Dawson house, “Shangrila”, relocated

to a snow-covered forest. A pastel sky, windows

filled with yellow firelight. Hyper real. Kitsch on

Quaaludes.

Paula hands Eddie a Scotch. He knocks it back. Good stuff. He

is in a very dangerous mood.

PAULA:

What happened to your hand?

EDDIE:

Two policemen slammed the car door

on it.

PAULA:

Why? What for?

EDDIE:

Thought you might be able to tell

me that.

PAULA:

I don’t understand.

EDDIE:

They were the same two coppers who

warned me off last time I was here.

Paula’s nervous. She gets herself a drink. Eddie watches her

body against the drinks cabinet lights.

PAULA:

I never said anything to the

police.

EDDIE:

Who did you tell?

PAULA:

No one.

EDDIE:

Please tell me. I need to know.

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PAULA:

I was upset. After you went...

Well, John came over. John Dawson?

EDDIE:

John Dawson?... What did you say?

PAULA:

I told him some f***ing journalist

had been round asking questions.

You pissed me off.

EDDIE:

(waving his bandaged paw)

There you go, then.

Eddie painfully gets out of the chair. Goes towards Paula.

EDDIE:

Tell me about Dawson.

PAULA:

He’s rich. And he was very kind to

us when Jeanette went missing...

EDDIE:

He’s rich.

PAULA:

Yeah.

EDDIE:

Sub-standard housing, dodgy

property trusts, back-handers to

the local council.

PAULA:

He’s been very good to me.

Eddie looks her up and down.

EDDIE:

I’ll bet.

PAULA:

What’s that supposed to mean?

Eddie holds his bandaged hand in her face.

EDDIE:

Think he’d do something like this?

PAULA:

No.

EDDIE:

No?

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PAULA:

He wouldn’t. Why would he?

EDDIE:

Because of what I know, maybe.

PAULA:

And what do you know, Eddie?

EDDIE:

Clare Kemplay was found on a Dawson

construction site.

PAULA:

You’re talking nonsense.

EDDIE:

I know all people like Dawson care

about are their money and their

little lies.

PAULA:

You don’t know anything. You’re

just a boy.

Paula pushes Eddie back.

EDDIE:

I know there’s some bastard out

there who’s taking and raping and

murdering little girls and nobody

is going to stop him because nobody

really f***ing cares!

PAULA:

And you do?

EDDIE:

I’m some f***ing journalist who

asks questions, right. And I’m

going to keep asking them until I

get the answers.

Eddie lowers his hand, brushes lightly down her body.

EDDIE:

Who else is going to do that for

you?

Paula kisses Eddie full on the mouth, his eyes, his ears.

PAULA:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you...

Eddie grabs at Paula, numb bandaged hand pawing at her skirt,

good hand pulling her against him. They fall to the sofa.

They pull at one another’s clothes.

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Desperate to get at each other’s body. Every move hurts

Eddie. He doesn’t care. No words.

83 EXT. SHANGRILA - NIGHT 83

Eddie drifts towards "Shangrila”. Candles burn at the

windows. The door opens for him.

84 INT. SHANGRILA, HALLWAY - NIGHT 84

Eddie enters a magical hall lit by a roaring log fire...

In a four poster bed, Paula sleeps on her stomach. Satin

sheets up to her neck. Golden hair splayed...

Eddie pulls back the sheets to reveal... Paula has bloody

swan wings on her back... Eddie staggers away...

85 INT. PAULA GARLAND’S HOUSE, HER BEDROOM - DAWN 85

Eddie wakes in a silent house. He’s alone -in Paula’s double

bed. His wounds have blotted the sheets with blood.

Daylight filters into a room that is very much Paula’s.

There’s a picture of Jeanette on her side of the bed...

86 INT. PAULA GARLAND’S HOUSE, LANDING / JEANETTE’S ROOM -DAWN

86

Eddie emerges from Paula’s room. There’s a plastic door

plate:
‘Mummy and Daddy’s Room’. Opposite is a slightly ajar

door:
‘Jeanette’s Room’. He can hear a softly recited rhyme.

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