Suspect Zero Page #11

We see the VICTIMS photographed face up, face down, waist and

above, waist and below. Charlton gives the photos a cursory

glance, nothing more.

But we notice something, on one of the bodies: the male from

Trenton - an odd BURN MARK on his lower left calf.

Looks almost symmetrical, horizontal across the calf...

CHARLTON:

Either of the bodies have the zero on

them?

MACKELWAY:

No, Sir.

Charlton, frustrated, SHOVES THOSE AUTOPSY PHOTOS ASIDE. We

look to that MAP, a handful of yellow pins in it...

DISSOLVE TO:

...that same map, over a HUNDRED YELLOW PINS in it now.

55 INT. FBI OFFICE - "O'RYAN ROOM" - NIGHT 55

It's 8:
30 at night. Mackelway is alone in here - staring at

the map. He's been doing a lot of that lately.

The stack of HAVE YOU SEEN ME's has grown as well. Every one

of them corresponds to a yellow pin on the map.

(Some of the HAVE YOU SEEN ME's have arrived via U.S. MAIL. We

see a stack of ENVELOPES in a box, each sealed in PLASTIC,

each stamped and addressed to Mackelway.)

Mackelway eyes the map, puzzling. Fran's right beside him.

Assorted papers and leads fill this room, including photos he

took himself with that Minox.

FRAN:

Why you?

MACKELWAY:

Huh?

FRAN:

He could be sending these to any agent in

any office in the country... But he's

sending them to you. Why?

Mackelway's been asking himself that same question lately.

MACKELWAY:

I don't know.

PHONE RINGS. She grabs it.

FRAN (INTO PHONE)

This is Agent Kulok.

(a beat)

Who's calling?

She hears the answer, then covers the phone.

FRAN (CONT'D)

(to Mackelway:
)

Do you know a professor named Daitz? Says

he's from Tulane.

MACKELWAY:

(eagerly)

Yeah. Criminal Psych. I've been trading e-

mails with him.

FRAN (INTO PHONE)

One moment, please...

She hands him the phone...

CUT TO:

56 EXT. TULANE UNIVERSITY - ESTABLISHING - NIGHT 56

A beautiful campus, quiet tonight. In its center lies a vast,

expensive structure - the Behavioral Sciences Building. The

place goes on forever.

57 INT. TULANE - BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES BUILDING - SAME 57

Mackelway exits an elevator on the "B-1 Level." Corridors

octopus their way from these elevators, confusing us...

58 INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - MOMENTS LATER 58

Every door looks the same. Mackelway follows the numbers -

can't believe how long these hallways are. Turns a corner.

Air can be heard, moving through the corridor. But he has

found the right number, at last.

A tiny CARD fastened to a wall reads, "Dr. Emile Daitz,

Professor Emeritus, Criminal Psychology." It also lists his

office hours. Mackelway knocks at a door.

MACKELWAY:

Professor Daitz?

O'RYAN (O.S.)

Yes?

Mackelway opens the door. Looks inside.

Here sits O'Ryan, looking as much like a tweedy professor as

he can look. He rises, smiles warmly.

O'RYAN (CONT'D)

Agent Mackelway. Come in...

CUT TO:

59 INT. DAITZ' OFFICE - LATER NIGHT 59

A tiny, cramped hovel. Books, papers, and all of it jammed to

overflowing. Mackelway sits across from O'Ryan...

O'RYAN

(as "Daitz:
")

...The name of this theory was "Suspect

Zero."

(Mackelway nods)

The idea of Suspect Zero posits that if a

serial killer were diabolical enough, he

could traverse the country without ever

being caught, killing randomly.

There's a COLLECTION here in a glass case: ANCIENT WEAPONS -

crude knives, swords, blow-darts. Mackelway notes them.

O'RYAN (CONT'D)

Tell me, what makes a killer catchable?

MACKELWAY:

Patterns, repetition of behavior.

O'RYAN

Now imagine a killer with no patterns, no

tell-tale fetishes, no rituals, no hidden

desire to be caught. A perfect vessel of

evil, killing without ever leaving a

single meaningful clue in his wake...

He'd be immune to capture, wouldn't he?

Your task forces, your forensics teams -

they'd be helpless.

Mackelway looks over Daitz' bookshelf: volume after volume

about evil, the devil, the minds of sociopaths, the history of

serial-killers, ritual killers, tribal rites...

MACKELWAY:

Is that something you believe in,

Professor? Evil?

O'RYAN

As a citizen of the world, it's hard not

to. Wouldn't you say?

(Mackelway can't argue)

Evil is all around us, I think - a part

of the natural order of things. Like

gravity. Like wind. A vast black wave,

corrupting everything it touches. A virus

invades a cell, causing it to

dysfunction. Perfectly logical. But did

it ever occur to you that something may

have invaded that virus, something

capable of using it to mutate so

powerfully?

Mackelway pauses, considering that.

O'RYAN (CONT'D)

Just because something's invisible to us

doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Mackelway is silent: Something's off here. But he can't say

for sure just yet what it is...

O'RYAN (CONT'D)

Have you ever seen a fifty-foot shark?

That wasn't just the echo of a question he's heard before; it

was a red flag. A big one. Mackelway tightens.

MACKELWAY:

I'm sorry?

O'RYAN

A shark, as we know, will only attack

humans if he runs out of food. But

biologists have theorized that for a

shark of fifty feet the ocean would be an

endless buffet. He'd never run out of

food, so he'd have no need to come to the

surface. Consequently, we would never see

him. Do you follow?

(Mackelway doesn't)

We'll never see one. But that doesn't

mean they don't exist. Hence Suspect

Zero.

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