The Public Eye Page #10

HAYWARD:

The D.A.'s in court till five.

BERNZY:

We'll be finished by three.

CUT TO:

EXT. GREENPORT, NEW JERSEY POLICE STATION - DAY

Bernzy and Hayward climb the steps of the almost rustic police

station. Bernzy has his camera.

HAYWARD:

How you gonna do this?

BERNZY:

Don't worry about it. Everybody likes

to have his picture took.

CUT TO:

INT. GREENPORT POLICE STATION - SAME

Bernzy is talking to the earnest, red-haired SERGEANT POINTER.

Hayward stands in the background, watching.

HAYWARD:

We had a whole crowd of boys in from

New York last week. Nobody gets to

see those kids.

BERNZY:

I don't see how the kids matter,

Sgt. Pointer. Do you?

POINTER:

What're you talkin' about?

BERNZY:

I don't see that it takes a whole

lot of courage to hit an old lady

with an ax.

POINTER:

It's sick, is what it is.

BERNZY:

That's what I'm sayin'. It's sick.

But to walk into a house with some

sick kid runnin' around with an ax --

that's courage.

POINTER:

What're you gettin' at?

BERNZY:

We'd like to meet that man arrested

those kids.

POINTER:

That'd be me.

BERNZY:

("surprised")

It was you? Then it's your picture I

wanna take. My colleague, Mr. Hayward,

would like to take down your words.

What it was like. You've prob'ly

seen our series in the Saturday

Evening Post. 'Brave me in blue'?

POINTER:

Yeah. Oh yeah.

INT. SERGEANTS' OFFICE - LATER

In an office with three desks, Bernzy has just taken a picture

of Pointer in uniform. He is lining up another one. Pointer

smiles -- pleased by the attention -- and swells his chest.

Suddenly Bernzy breaks off in seeming exasperation.

BERNZY:

No. No, this upsets me. This really

upsets me.

POINTER:

What's wrong? I do somethin' wrong?

BERNZY:

You? No. You should be on the $50

bill. It's just not gonna work.

Bernzy smiles sadly, starts to pack up his camera; Pointer

watches forlornly.

POINTER:

Mr. Bernzini, I think you owe me an

explanation.

BERNZY:

(reluctantly)

...Who said no pictures of those

kids? It was the D.A., right?

POINTER:

All of us agreed.

BERNZY:

But it was the D.A. said it first.

Pointer doesn't deny it.

BERNZY:

You see what I'm saying? You ever

caught a fish on vacation?

Pointer nods.

BERNZY:

You get a pictue of yourself after

you caught him?

POINTER:

Sure.

BERNZY:

With the fish, or without him.

POINTER:

No pictures of those kids. That's

final.

BERNZY:

And I'll tell you why, Sgt. Pointer.

There'll be plenty of pictures of

those kids when the D.A. gets his

conviction. You caught the fish only

he's in the picture.

(turning to Hayward)

Ready, Hayward.

Pointer watches as they go out the door.

POINTER:

(calling out)

Wait!

CUT TO:

INT. GREENPORT STATION - LATER

Pointer stands alongside the two 17-year-old prisoners. The

girl is a pretty redhead; her Boyfriend a good-looking

athlete. All three are posing: the Girl pouts like a starlet;

the Boy sneers; Pointer is corn-ball stern.

BERNZY:

This is beautiful. Just like I

pictured it.

IN Bernzy's viewfinder: Pointer is not in the shot. As the

shutter clicks, we

CUT TO:

EXT. HAYWARD'S CAR/ROAD - DAY

They ride back to New York.

HAYWARD:

(laughing)

He wasn't even in the shot?

BERNZY:

They'd just crop him, anyway. I got

one of him, too. I'll send it to his

mother. 'Case I ever gotta drive

through Greenport.

Chuckling, Hayward sees a roadside filling station.

HAYWARD:

I gotta stop in here.

EXT. HAYWARD'S CAR/FILLING STATION - LATER

An Attendant is filling the tank.

Hayward takes a large sheet of gas rationing coupons from

his billfold.

Bernzy's eyes narrow. He knows the coupons are significant,

but plays it cool.

BERNZY:

How'd you get so many stamps?

HAYWARD:

Guy at my garage sold me some extra.

As Hayward pays the Station Attendant, Bernzy takes the

stamps, examines them.

BERNZY:

Extra? Where's he get extra?

HAYWARD:

(drinking from his

flask)

I don't look a gift horse in the

mouth.

Bernzy continues to study the stamps as Hayward starts the

car, moves toward the highway.

HAYWARD:

What's so interesting about those

stamps?

BERNZY:

Let's go.

As Hayward pulls out onto the highway, we hear a car horn

scream as we

SHOCK CUT TO:

EXT. LOWER WEST SIDE - NIGHT

The horn comes not from an oncoming car, but from a parked

one:
the head of a Man murdered while driving is pressed up

against the steering wheel, causing the horn to blow

ceaselessly. The front end of the car is wrapped around a

pole.

O'Brien, the cop we saw in the first scene leans into the

car (parked in a deserted quarter, near the docks) and guides

the dead man's head back onto the seat (his hat falls off).

The horn stops.

Beside O'Brien stands his partner, the Young Cop. There are

bullet holes piercing the driver's door. The windshield is

shattered.

O'Brien swings around when he hears someone coming up behind

him.

O'BRIEN

Jesus.

It's Bernzy. He takes up his camera to get a wide shot --

the car in all it's devastation.

BERNZY:

His hat fell off.

O'BRIEN

Huh?

BERNZY:

Could you put it back on, please?

People really like to see a dead

guy's hat.

O'Brien replaces the hat, begrudgingly, again.

O'BRIEN

Maybe I should pull his dick out.

Maybe they'd like to see a dead guy's

dick.

BERNZY:

The News'd prob'ly buy it.

(he squeezes the

shutter)

I might have some trouble over at

the Mirror.

O'BRIEN

(of the corpse)

Who'd he work for, Bernzy?

BERNZY:

Spoleto.

O'BRIEN

Spoleto and Farinelli. Spoleto and

Farinelli, all month long. Like rabid

dogs fightin' over some stinkin'

bone.

Bernzy says nothing, keeps his eye to the viewfinder.

CUT TO:

EXT. RIVERSIDE DRIVE - EARLY MORNING

Bernzy is sitting on the stoop of a magnificent Beaux-Arts

townhouse. He consults his watch.

A long black sedan pulls up to the cub, on the opposite side

of the street.

Kay gets out, followed by a middle-aged Italian Man in a

suit and hat.

Bernzy sits up, watches keenly as they talk, with evident

agitation.

Now the Man catches sight of Bernzy, takes Kay's arm rather

gruffly, and walks her across the street to him.

MAN:

Bernzy, I want you to tell Kay who I

am.

BERNZY:

Kay Levitz, Marc-Antony Spoleto.

Spoleto's Lieutenant gets out of the car, stands in the

street.

SPOLETO:

No -- you to tell her who I am.

BERNZY:

Mr. Spoleto has the East Side of

Manhattan all to himself.

KAY:

Lucky for us we're on the West Side.

SPOLETO:

That's no way to talk to your new

partner, Kay.

(to Bernzy)

You tell her, Bernzy.

He walks off. He joins his Lieutenant, who walks him back to

the car.

LIEUTENANT:

Bernzy gonna set her straight?

SPOLETO:

If he's thinkin' straight.

LIEUTENANT:

(as they climb into

the car)

Why wouldn't he be?

SPOLETO:

Look at him, over there: it's like

that movie with the Hunchback and

Sasperilla.

Bernzy, in his rumpled clothes, stands with Kay, in her

nightclub finery.

LIEUTENANT:

Y'mean Esmerelda.

SPOLETO:

(he signals the Driver)

Whatever.

They pull out.

INT. KAY'S TOWNHOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER (MORNING)

Bernzy and Kay sit at the kitchen table. A black Maid is at

the other end of the enormous room, working; Bernzy speaks

softly.

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