Shallow Grave Page #11

INT. LOFT/HALL. DAY

Looking down on Alex as he leaves the flat and closes the door.

INT. LOFT. DAY

David scurries back across the beams to look down through another

hole. He looks for several seconds.

NOTE In the following sequence, Juliet's face is not seen until

her comment on it.

INT. JULIET'S ROOM. DAY

Juliet lies on her bed. She throws the covers back.

INT. LOFT. DAY

David is still looking down through the hole.

INT. JULIET'S ROOM. DAY

Juliet moves about her room. She is wearing a large, baggy T-

shirt.

INT. LOFT. DAY

David still watching.

INT. JULIET'S ROOM. DAY

Juliet's legs are seen as the T-shirt lands on the floor beside

them.

INT. LOFT. DAY

David sits back suddenly, recoiling from the activity. He

scrambles back across to his mat, where he sits back down and

closes his eyes. Then he opens them and scrambles back to look

down again.

INT. JULIET'S ROOM. DAY

The room is empty.

The sound of the flat door closing is heard.

From David's point of view we see:

INT. LOFT/HALL (EMPTY). DAY

INT. LOFT/LIVING ROOM (EMPTY). DAY

INT. LOFT/KITCHEN (EMPTY). DAY

INT. HALL. DAY

David's head appears beneath the trapdoor. He hangs from the

hatch and drops down to the floor.

INT. BATHROOM. DAY

David showers.

INT. HALL. DAY

David emerges from the bathroom and walks towards the kitchen. We

follow him in.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

David takes orange juice out of the fridge and pours himself a

glass. He sits at the table and looks briefly into a corner that

we cannot see. The expression oh his face does not change and his

voice is impassive.

DAVID:

I thought you'd gone to work.

JULIET:

(unseen)

With a face like this?

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Juliet's face. There are bruises across it where she was gripped

by David.

INT. MONITOR SCREEN/NEWSPAPER OFFICE. DAY

In close-up we track along the following half-sentence: In the

event of my death I want the following facts to be known:' --

The remainder of the screen is blank.

Alex sits at his desk, deciding what to type next on the screen

seen before. A young Office Boy approaches his desk.

OFFICE BOY:

The editor wants to see you.

INT. KITCHEN. MORNING

David sits while Juliet talks. She is now seated behind him.

JULIET:

I remember how things used to be here, and I see how they are

now, and I don't know why it is. I don't know how we let you

become like this. We were your friends and we should have looked

after you.

INT. EDITOR'S OFFICE. DAY

Alex sits nervously while the Editor sits on the side of his

desk.

EDITOR:

Out in the woods. Three bodies. Decomposed. Mutilated. Beyond

recognition.

ALEX:

I don't know anything about it.

EDITOR:

Of course you don't know anything about it. If you knew anything

about it, I wouldn't have to send you over there to cover it.

ALEX:

Cover it?

EDITOR:

Well?

ALEX:

But there's no --

EDITOR:

Animals involved? I know, but you need a change. And besides,

we're short.

ALEX:

I don't know.

EDITOR:

Don't know what?

ALEX:

Well, I've got this story, it's really good, I'm working on, that

is good, I feel it could be big, it this, eh, and it's, you know,

it's incredible. Am I right, did you say beyond recognition'?

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

David and Juliet are seated as before.

DAVID:

I'm sorry.

JULIET:

I should hope so.

david turns towards her. He reaches out and softly touches her

face.

DAVID:

Maybe we can still sort everything out.

Juliet takes his hand.

JULIET:

We can try.

They look at one another.

EXT. FOREST. DAY

Several police and unmarked vehicles, including one mobile

incident room', stand on a rough track. Another car arrives at

the end and is parkeed to one side. Alex steps out.

From where he stands, Alex can see towards the site of the

burials. There are a few policemen, uniformed and plain-clothes,

and a small knot of journalists, kept at bay by plastic tape

draped from tree to tree. Mounds of earth mark the site of the

exhumations.

Alex walks past the other journalists into the woods. He looks

back towards the sight, then turns to look in the opposite

direction. He finds himself at the edge of a golf course. From

the green to the graves is hardly any distance.

To one side, Alex sees McCall and Mitchell, hunched in earnest

discussion. Mitchell looks up briefly and ctaches Alex's eye.

BINT. KITCHEN/HALL. DAY

The kitchen is empty. We track through the kitchen and out into

the hall, stopping at the door to Juliet's room.

INT. JULIET'S ROOM. DAY

David and Juliet are seated on the bed. Among the junk on her

bedside table is the Polaroid photograph of Alex, propped up

against a tumbler. Juliet reaches out and turns it away before

pulling David towards her.

INT. MOBILE INCIDENT ROOM. DAY

Several journalists sit close together on plastic chairs. Alex

sits at the back, near the half-open door. At the other end,

three police officers face them. They are a medium-ranking

Uniformed Officer, and to one side of him Mitchell and then

McCall, both of whom sit in silence.

UNIFORMED OFFICER

All right, ladies and gentlemen, the releasable and print-worthy

facts of the day so far are as follows. Late yesterdat afternoon,

forestry workers came across one set of human remains lying in a

grave which appeared to have been recently dug. Further

excavation on our part has revealed two similar, deeper graves,

again containing human remains.

Alex turns his head and looks out of the door towards the burial

site, now enclosed in a plastic tent. He continues to stare at

it.

While Alex is looking, the sound of laughter and Uniformed

Officer's subsequent comments become muted and we hear the memory

of a sound in Alex's head: it is the noise of the saw going back

and forth across the victim's limbs.

UNIFORMED OFFICER

(continued)

As and when the corpses are removed, we will endeavour to

ascertain the mode of death and duration of burial, as well as

identification, which will of course be passed on to you after

informing, where possible, the next of kin.

Alex discreetly stands up and slips out of the van.

EXT. FOREST. DAY

Alex walks away from the incident room towards his car. He breaks

into a run for a few paces.

The noise of the sawing continues.

As he reaches his car, Alex fumbles in his pockets for his keys.

He is sweating and trembling. He drops his keys. As he bends down

to pick them up, his foot slips on the wet grass. He falls to his

knees, his forehead banging against the car door. He kneels for a

moment, gripping the keys, his head resting against the door.

The noise of the sawing stops.

From behind, the arm of a Police Constable reaches out and his

hand rests on Alex's shoulder.

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