Storm Warning Page #2

"Where are the keys?" he says.

"Go look," I told him.

- Who was in here?

- I was.

"Which cell is Adams in?" he says.

I wouldn't tell him. "Go look," I said.

Then I got it in the back of the head.

- Who was it?

- What? Come again?

The guy with the shotgun.

The other fellows.

Come on, Ernie, who were they?

What's the matter this time?

Too dark in here?

All happened too fast?

Maybe you didn't recognize any of them,

never saw them before in your life?

That's right.

You realize as the deputy,

you're sworn to protect your prisoners.

You know, I could hold you

as an accessory to murder.

Okay, hold me.

Accessory to murder.

You better go with him.

Better get that head X-rayed.

Don't tell me my job. I know my job.

Ernie knows who dragged Adams

out of here.

So do I.

So do you, Burt,

when it comes right down to that.

It was the Klan. What about it?

Well, a man got killed.

Something's got to be done about it.

All right, tell me what.

lll do what you say.

That's what lm here for.

You wanna start naming names,

Mr. Rainey?

lll pull them in, if you name them.

- That's not good enough, Art.

- Well, that's all there is.

I take orders.

You give me an order, lll do it.

You know anybody in Rock Point

that will go to the inquest for you

and testify against the Klan?

Tell me, and lll bring them in.

If you don't, and you don't,

stop kicking my men around for not doing

what you can't do yourself.

I know.

But every time someone from

New York, Washington, or points north,

starts poking his nose in our affairs,

we holler foul.

Well, if we don't want the meddling,

one of these days

we're gonna have to start cleaning up

our own messes.

You and me. All of us.

How far did you get eight months ago

with that lynching?

About as far as lll get with this one.

Thought you might wanna see him, Burt.

- I was in bed. He got me out of bed.

- Hello, Frank.

The night bus was supposed

to stop 10 minutes.

- It didn't. It left right away.

- I have nothing to do with the bus stops.

I just handle the baggage.

You know that, Mr. Rainey.

lm just a baggage man.

- You were there when the bus pulled out?

- Yes, sir.

About three minutes later

a man was killed.

He told me about that.

I suppose... Yes, sir.

You didn't see anything? Hear anything?

Please, Mr. Rainey,

don't ask me any questions.

I don't wanna lie to you.

lm a family man just like you see me.

I love my kids. I gotta protect them.

A mob that did what those people

did tonight,

would burn me up like that.

I ask you, what would you do in my place?

Tell the truth.

Could you afford to get involved?

- Let him go.

- lm sorry.

But what they did tonight,

believe me, I hate it.

It made me sick.

I don't know, maybe lm just a coward.

- Maybe I just use my family as an excuse...

- All right, Frank, all right.

Believe me, Mr. Rainey, lm sorry.

- He's got a case.

- Everybody's got a case.

Nobody saw anything.

Nobody heard anything.

It' s a shame

Adams' body keeps getting in the way.

I don't know who's the guiltier,

the one who commits the crime

or the one who just stands by

and refuses to do anything about it.

Sometimes, I sit around for hours

trying to figure that one out.

Take Jaeger in there.

He makes allowances for the Klan.

He's really against guys like Adams,

yet he gets his head broke

trying to protect him.

Complicated, isn't it?

Here we are trying to find

a bunch of murderers.

When we find them, who will they be?

Probably friends of ours,

fellows we went to school with.

- You a member of the Klan, Walters?

- I used to be.

- You're kidding.

- Fact.

Why'd you join?

I thought it was something to do good.

You know, help people.

Get them out of trouble, keep them out.

I wanted to help people.

What do you know about that.

Why'd you quit?

I found out it was a lot of bunk.

Just a racket.

Bunch of hoodlums dressed up in sheets.

- Going to go ahead with it, Burt?

- Oh, sure.

Gum?

You can sleep on the couch, Marsha.

See, this opens up into a day bed.

Well, it's really more comfortable

than it looks.

Looks all right.

Of course, I could ask Hank

to sleep on the couch

and then you could sleep in bed with me.

Oh, no.

Don't do that.

Oh, it's Hank.

He's home early.

Yeah, lm mad about him.

Oh, he's so wonderful.

Hank.

Hank.

- Don't do that, honey. Stop.

- What?

- What for?

- Company.

Oh.

Hey, no company, hon.

lve been out wrestling that truck all night.

I wanna hit the sack.

Its my sister. My sister Marsha's here.

Oh, why didn't you say so

in the first place?

Come on.

Hey, what do you do

when you meet your wife's sister?

Do you shake hands with her?

Do you kiss her?

- I don't know, what?

- You kiss her, silly.

Hey, this calls for a little celebration, huh?

Right.

Marsha, come on.

Go ahead, kiss her. Its legal.

Well.

Gee, I heard all about you from Lucy,

but I didn't know you looked like...

Oh, holding out on me, huh?

You know, you never did tell me

she was such swell hunk of equipment.

I told you she was pretty.

Hey, hon.

Them drunken mice have been at it again.

He marks the bottle to see if lm nipping.

Well, she shouldn't ought

to drink so much, should she, Marsha?

Did you hear what happened at the jail?

No.

No, I was out on the road

driving the truck.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they told me about it

down at the mill

- when I was putting the truck away.

- Marsha saw it.

Did she?

- What did you see, Marsha?

- The whole thing. She was right there.

Did you see who done it?

No, she was so frightened,

she just ran away.

Good. You didn't see who done it, huh?

Well, she just tried to get out of there

as fast as she could.

And besides, they were wearing hoods.

She didn't get to see anything.

Outsiders. That's who killed him.

Outsiders, hiding in Klan robes.

And then they blame us. We're lynchers.

You wait and see,

when it all comes out, it was outsiders.

Say when.

Hey!

Nothing at all? Give you a lift.

Do you good besides helping you.

Not a drinking woman, huh?

Well, that's smart.

People drink too much.

You know,

that's probably how it all happened.

- What? How what happened?

- That trouble tonight.

A bunch of guys got loaded and, you know,

they probably didn't want

to kill that guy at all.

They just probably figured on scaring him

and, you know, just scare him out of town.

And then one of the guys got excited

and, wham!

Well, that's probably how it happened.

What's the matter?

Did I do something wrong?

Did I say something?

Honey.

What do you keep looking at me

like that for?

- Hank, please.

- Well, I don't care.

I don't go for these outsiders

staring down their noses at us.

- Honey.

- What is she, anyway?

Nothing, but a model. A dress model.

Running around half-naked all the time

and letting men slobber over her.

Hank, she's got nothing against you.

She's tired.

The bus trip.

After what she saw tonight,

it's enough to make anybody sick.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes