Suspect Zero Page #7

DYSON:

Benjamin spent hours down here.

Mackelway takes it all in, every corner of this basement. He

notes a row of standing GYM LOCKERS.

MACKELWAY:

(re:
lockers)

Did he have access to those?

DYSON:

No. They're staff-only.

MACKELWAY:

Would you mind opening them for me?

Dyson shrugs; he thinks it's a waste of time - but he'll do

it. Mackelway follows him across the dank room.

MACKELWAY (CONT'D)

He was here... seven years you said?

DYSON:

Off and on. It's not uncommon for our

guests to vanish for months at a time.

Dyson works a combination lock on the first locker.

MACKELWAY:

I ran the name through our database, just

to be sure. There's never been an Agent

Benjamin O'Ryan in the Bureau.

DYSON:

No... but as elaborate fantasies go, it

was one of my favorites.

(fondly)

And he always seemed so sincere about it.

Dyson half-chuckles; he always liked the guy... He throws open

the locker. Inside, nothing. Mackelway indicates the next

locker. Dyson works the combination.

MACKELWAY:

Is that what you called him? Benjamin?

DYSON:

It's what he wished to be called.

Locker #2 is opened - also empty. Only one locker left.

DYSON (CONT'D)

(re:
locker #3)

That one's mine.

Mackelway shrugs: "Sorry, it has to be opened." Dyson sighs,

then works the combination. Mackelway waits.

Locker #3 is opened. Inside, nothing incriminating: a sweater,

some old junk, two trophies. Dyson eyes him: "See?" Mackelway

nods. Dyson shuts the locker.

Mackelway looks to that wall: 1,000 copies of the circle-with-

a-slash-through-it. No idea what they signify...

DYSON (CONT'D)

He painted one of the walls in his room,

too.

MACKELWAY:

Can I see it?

DYSON:

We've painted it over.

MACKELWAY:

Still, might be helpful.

Dyson heads for the stairs. They're wooden slats with more

basement-junk stored below: old sporting equipment, an old

vaccuum cleaner, broken chairs, rusted patio furniture.

Mackelway follows. They climb...

MACKELWAY (CONT'D)

Wait.

They stop. Something just caught Mackelway's eye, visible

beneath these stairs: a BOX, with a bucket of PAINT sticking

out of it...

28 INT. BASEMENT - BENEATH THE STAIRS - CONTINUING 28

Mackelway climbs under the stairs, crouching down, pushing

aside all of the aforementioned junk. He grabs the box.

Sure enough, that bucket once held red paint - same color

O'Ryan used to cover that wall. There's also a bucket of BLACK

PAINT here. And some used brushes.

Mackelway brings the box into the meager light. We get a look

INSIDE IT now. So does Dyson.

Inside, beneath the paint-buckets, we see a few TV GUIDES, a

yo-yo, a football. Then a BOOK on TRIBAL RITUAL AND TRANCE.

Mackelway grabs it, eyes it.

He flips through a few pages - odd images: a TRIBESMAN with

eyes rolling back in his head, strange rites, etc.

Mackelway sets the book down. Then, amidst the other materials

in this box, he spots a large folded MAP.

He grabs it, begins to unfold it. We see that this map's been

written on, in pen. Cities on it have been CIRCLED.

But before we can get a good look at it, Mackelway spots

something else, at the bottom of this box, a shocker:

A photograph of himself.

It takes him a second to realize what he's looking at. But

there it is, a NEWSPAPER PHOTO, of Agent Thomas Mackelway.

It is part of a FRONT-PAGE STORY, dated July of this year,

concerning the trial and release...of Virgil Ray Starkey. #7

on the F.B.I.'s Most-Wanted List...

Dyson can't help but notice the picture of Mackelway.

Mackelway stares. Suddenly we JUMP BACK IN TIME, NINE MONTHS,

for a brief, choppy FLASHBACK.

29 EXT. STREET - MATAMOROS - NIGHT - MACKELWAY'S FLASHBACK 29

We're RUNNING, dashing between two buildings of chipped-adobe,

hearing nothing but the sound of our own breathing and the

thuds of our own heavy feet.

This is Matamoros, Mexico, a sh*t-hole of a border town.

Squalor and sin. We find a DRUNK MEXICAN TEEN. He nods: "This

is the place," and sticks out his palm.

30 INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING 30

Mackelway stares at that newspaper: Starkey - rapist,

murderer, whose case was just thrown out of court - a stunning

failure for all involved.

...as we RESUME MACKELWAY'S FLASHBACK - Matamoros again...

31 INT. "CLUB" - BACKSTAGE - RESUMING FLASHBACK 31

Bad-lighting, drunk patrons in a CIRCLE, and a DONKEY-SHOW

taking place on a bare stage. Feels like we've stepped into

some kind of evil carnival. It's dizzying.

Among the crowd:
Virgil Starkey, in an ugly drunken binge, the

only guy in here who isn't cheering or laughing.

Suddenly our GUN is pointed right at his head.

Starkey freezes, caught. Some of the PATRONS around him find

somewhere else to stand... But the show goes on.

32 INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING 32

That ARTICLE gives us more detail now, the reason Starkey's

case was thrown out of court. It is this:

The F.B.I. Agent on the case had made a mistake in

"evidentiary procedure." Hence, Mackelway's picture.

On his face, we GO BACK TO ANOTHER MEMORY: six months ago.

33 INT. COURTHOUSE - ANTEROOM - DAY - ANOTHER FLASHBACK 33

Three months have passed since the arrest in Matamoros. Now

Mackelway sits in this courthouse ANTEROOM, adjacent to a

courtroom. Four sour PROSECUTORS surround him.

PROSECUTOR #1

D'you understand how f***ed we are?

MACKELWAY:

Yes, Sir.

PROSECUTOR #1

Leaving a tissue sample in the care of a

Mexican lab? Are you f***ing kidding me?

MACKELWAY:

They assured me that they understood

protocol.

PROSECUTOR #1

Well guess what? They didn't. And this

prick's gonna walk, ten murders or not.

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