Shallow Grave Page #8

ALEX:

Oh, that'll come in useful.

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

Alex is serving on plates from a large bowl of pasta.

David and Juliet sit at the tabel.

JULIET:

Is this the same stuff you made last week?

ALEX:

No, no, it's different.

JULIET:

I hope it tastes better than the other stuff.

ALEX:

It tastes different.

JULIET:

I don't want it to taste different. I don't know why I bother. Is

that enough for you? Hey!

DAVID:

What? Yes, that's fine.

ALEX:

You're sure? There's lots more.

DAVID:

No, I'm sure, that'll be enough.

ALEX:

What's wrong?

DAVID:

Nothing.

ALEX:

You're not eating.

DAVID:

Not eating what?

ALEX:

Not eating like you used to, that's what.

DAVID:

If you give me the plate, I'll eat.

Alex hands him the plate and he starts to eat. Alex watches him

chew a mouthful.

ALEX:

Now swallow.

David does so.

ALEX:

(continued)

You know, you should spend some of that money instead of worrying

about it. That's my advice.

JULIET:

He's right. You'd feel much better about it.

David has stopped eating.

ALEX:

Once it's spent you won't have to worry about it.

JULIET:

Be like a weight off your shoulders.

ALEX:

You know we're right.

JULIET:

Don't you?

DAVID:

I want to secure it.

ALEX:

Secure it? What do you mean -- you're gong to take it to a bank?

You're not going to take it to a bank? You're not going to take

it to a bank Or what, you want to bury it? Is that it?

JULIET:

I don't see the point in that.

ALEX:

Because that's no good. Remember, we did what we did, we took the

money. It was a material calculation. But what's the use if it's

underground, or in some funny bank in some funny place? If you

can't spend it, if you can't have it, what use is it? None. It's

nothing, all for nothing, if you do that. I didn't get into this

for nothing, so that I could have nothing --

DAVID:

Yeah, and you didn't saw his feet off.

There is silence. David resumes eating.

DAVID:

(continued)

It tastes different.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

Alex stands at the sink doing some washing up. He hears footsteps

from the loft above. He stops what he is doing and walks slowly

out ot the hall.

INT. LOFT. NIGHT

In the darkness we can just make out David's eyes as he sits in

darkness.

ALEX:

(calling from below)

David, David, what are you doing up there?

The torch goes on. David lifts the bag of money from between the

rafters. He puts it inside another thick yellow plastic bag,

which he ties tightly with string.

David opens the water tank.

Alex's voice can be heard throughout.

ALEX:

(continued; calling from below)

Will you come down now. It's not safe up there. Are you listening

to me. Security and insanity are not the same thing.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

ALEX:

Sh*t.

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

Juliet sits drinking coffee, while Alex sands in the doorway

looking up towards the trapdoor.

JULIET:

Leave him alone.

ALEX:

He can't stay up there.

JULIET:

He'll come down. Leave him alone.

ALEX:

Yeah, he's got to go to work, hasn't he? You think he'll come

down for that?

JULIET:

No, but he's looking after the money, so what's the problem?

ALEX:

Looking after it -- he's probably f***ing well eating it.

INT. HOSPITAL. DAY

Juliet looks through the door from a small office out into the

main waiting area in the casualty departmet. It is busy and there

are rooms of people nursing injuries waiting to be seen. More

file past the door while she watches with no enthusiasm.

INT. HALL. DAY

The trapdoor opens. David's head appears. He looks around and

listens carfeully.

INT. LUMSDEN'S OFFICE. DAY

Lumsden answers his telephone.

INT. HALL. DAY

David speaks on the telephone.

DAVID:

It's my mother, sir, she's very ill and I think I need to be with

her just now. I don't know. The doctors aren't sure. It could go

either way. Yes, sir, I'll certainly stay in touch.

INT. BATHROOM. DAY

David shaves carefully with a safety razor.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Bacon and eggs fry in a pan. David attends to them while drinking

from a large tumbler of orange juice.

INT. HOSPITAL. DAY

A Sister hands Juliet a casualty case sheet. Juliet reads it.

JULIET:

Painful groin? What does that mean?

SISTER:

I don't know. He wouldn't show me.

Juliet draws back the curtain of a cubicle. Alex is sitting on a

trolly.

ALEX:

Boy, am I glad to see you.

JULIET:

What are you doing here?

ALEX:

We have to talk.

JULIET:

Your painful groin?

She turns and walks away. Alex chases after her.

ALEX:

Later. But first -- him.

JULIET:

David?

ALEX:

Exactly. Now I've been thinking --

JULIET:

Oh, good.

ALEX:

He won't do anything for me, but for you --

JULIET:

Forget it.

ALEX:

He isn't safe up there. If you really cared about him, you'd use

your influence to get him down, then he'd be safe.

JULIET:

And the money?

ALEX:

We could put it somewhere.

JULIET:

Where he can't get it?

ALEX:

Now you thought of that, not me.

JULIET:

Forget it -- he'll come down.

Juliet walks away.

INT. HALL. DAY

The hall is empty and the flat is silent. We see the trapdoor.

INT. LOFT. EVENING

David sits in the darkness. A crack of light penetrates beside

the trapdoor.

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

Alex and Juliet sit at the table, eating in silence.

The doorbell rings. Alex and Juliet look at one another.

ALEX:

Expecting anyone?

JULIET:

No.

ALEX:

Oh.

Alex resumes eating.

JULIET:

Aren't you going to answer it?

ALEX:

Well, I'm not expecting anyone either.

Juliet glares at him.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

Alex approaches the door and is about to open it. At the last

moment he checks himself and looks through the spyhole.

INT. THROUGH THE SPYHOLE. NIGHT

Tim and Andy stand outside the door.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

Alex, slightly puzzled, fixes the security chains before opening

the door. As soon as he opens it, the door is kicked wide open as

the security chains break off. Tim and Andy enter the flat.

In a whirlwind of force they drag and shove Alex and Juliet into

the living room and bind them up with cord. There are no words

apart from slightly muffled cries.

At the end of this Andy stands in front of Alex holding a

crowbar. Swiftly and without warning, he cracks it across Alex's

shins. Then Andy slowly puts one one end of the crowbar into

Alex's mouth. For a moment he does nothing, then just as slowly

again, he takes the crowbar out.

ALEX:

It's in the loft.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

The trapdoor is closed but the sound of it being unlocked can

just be heard (although not by anyone in the flat.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

Tim pulls the ladder across to the trapdoor.

INT. LOFT. NIGHT

It is completely dark in the loft, but as the trapdoor opens a

shaft of light strikes upwards and illuminates a small pool

around the opening.

INT. LOFT. NIGHT

Away from the trapdoor there appears to be a wall of uniform

darkness, but then we see a pair of eyes in the darkness. It is

David. He stands perfectly still.

There is a hammer in his right hand.

INT. LOFT. NIGHT

Tim's head appears through the trapdoor. Cautiously he lifts

himself through and balances on the beams.

INT. HALL. NIGHT

The hall is empty, but we can see the open trapdoor. Suddenly

there is a single thud, as might be caused by a body landing

heavily on and across some beams in the loft.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes