The Public Eye Page #11

BERNZY:

If somebody could get his hands on

the gas coupons, if somebody could

control 'em, there'd be a lot of

money in it. Like if this was

Prohibition, and there was only one

source of liquor.

KAY:

Lou wouldn't of done that. He has

two nephews in the service.

BERNZY:

I'm talking about lot of money.

KAY:

He wouldn't do that.

BERNZY:

He did it!... If there's one thing I

know it's that most people ain't

human when there's enough money

involved... I got pictures of guys

killed over 50 cents. For somebody,

that was enough.

She doesn't argue this time.

KAY:

So that's it? Lou got himself involved

with these hoods and now I'm stuck

with them for partners.

BERNZY:

They don't have partners. You'd be

out.

KAY:

(drawing breath)

I see.

BERNZY:

Unless.

KAY:

Unless what?

He gets up. He moves as he talks.

BERNZY:

This thing -- this Black Gas -- it's

big:
the Feds are up in arms, there's

corpses poppin' up all over town,

who knows who's involved: the Mob,

definitely; the Feds, probably, maybe

the cops... What's bigger than the

War? What's uglier than somebody

stealing from the fighting boys to

feather his nest? If I can get just

one incriminating photo there's a

front-page uproar, not just tabloids:

they're exposed, humiliated, indicted.

KAY:

And I get to keep the club.

Bernzy nods. She thinks, and then she looks straight at him.

KAY:

Why're you doing this?

He looks at her, unwilling or unable to answer.

The Maid brings them coffee. When she's gone, Bernzy sits

across from Kay again.

BERNZY:

I need to know what Spoleto said to

you. Don't leave out nothing.

KAY:

He had two men with him, an accountant

and somebody rough, to intimidate

me. He said he wanted to see the

books, and when I refused he said

"You'd better ask your boyfriend

about me."

BERNZY:

Boyfriend?

KAY:

Yeah... He meant you.

Bernzy nods. He tries to be matter-of-fact about it.

KAY:

He knew you'd been there, up in my

office -- he seemed to know a lot.

BERNZY:

He's got at least one waiter on the

payroll by now.

KAY:

I guess so. Whichever one heard

Portifino ask you to take his

portrait.

BERNZY:

(keenly)

What?

KAY:

He said Portifino offered you cash.

BERNZY:

Who did?

KAY:

Spoleto.

BERNZY:

Portifino never offered me -- I never

even talked to Portifino.

Bernzy gets up; he starts pacing.

KAY:

I'm just telling you what he said.

BERNZY:

That was something I made up when

Farinelli asked me how I knew

Portifino... Christ Almighty.

He is agitated -- knows he onto something.

KAY:

I don't get it.

BERNZY:

There was just four or five of us in

that room -- Farinelli, two of his

lieutenants, two of his hoods.

KAY:

(still confused)

I'm sorry, I -- ?

BERNZY:

One of Farinelli's men is selling

information to Spoleto. How else

could he know that? I made it up on

the spot.

KAY:

What're you gonna do?

CUT TO:

INT. CAMERA SHOP - DAY

The clerk rings up a sale for Bernzy in a shop crammed with

film, cameras, lenses...

CLERK:

One-sixty-six.

Bernzy pays the Clerk as he drops a few boxes of film marked

INFRA-RED into a paper sack.

CLERK:

You gonna get some more shots in a

movie house?

BERNZY:

Someplace even darker, I think. Will

it work?

CLERK:

I don't know. Can't say, really.

The Clerk staples the bag.

CUT TO:

INT/EXT. BERNZY'S CAR/SUBURBAN STREET - NIGHT

The bag of film from the camera store lies on the seat, torn

open. Bernzy is already gone from the car.

EXT. SUBURBAN STREET

Bernzy walks in shadow, on a self-important Long Island street

of mock-Tudor houses and stone villas behind low walls.

EXT. STREET

Bernzy climbs a six-foot wall, legs waving maladroitly. At

the top, he peers over, manges to pull himself flat onto the

wall, then swiftly drops down into

THE GARDEN:

where he almost breaks his neck: the property drops off

steeply inside the wall, where a storm drain is covered in

old ivy. Bernzy squats among the shrubs which are set two

feet inside the wall. He looks:

The stone house is guarded by a few men in suits.

In the bushes, Bernzy extracts a camera from one of his pants

pockets and a long lens from the other. He begins to screw

the lens onto the camera body, but freezes when he hears a

Guard's footsteps crunching on the gravel.

Bernzy's POV:
the Guard swings a flashlight back and forth

over the path, onto the shrubs, up along the wall.

When the Guard has passed, Bernzy screws on the lens. He

aims the camera at the house.

VIEWFINDER POV:
The silhouettes of two men are visible behind

curtains in a front room, but the laughter of many men can

be heard. Panning, we see the stone arched entranceway to

the house.

A Guard sits on a stone bench on the front porch. He sits

beneath a tile plaque that says VILLA SPOLETO, illuminated

by a tiny bulb. This is the only illumination on the porch;

the rest of it is in near-darkness.

The front door opens, the Guard stands. It's too dark to see

the faces of the two men who exit, but Bernzy takes a shot

anyway -- "blind." The Men then veer camera left to the

driveway, crossing an area of total darkness.

He looks at his watch: 11:28.

CUT TO:

EXT. GARDEN - LATER

Bernzy consults his watch, again. 2:12. He hears noises from

the house, seizes the camera.

VIEWFINDER POV:
The door opens. This time, several men exit,

alone or in groups of two or three: the meeting is breaking

up. Bernzy can see no faces, shoots blind.

They all veer off into the darkness of the driveway.

He clicks the camera, advances the film -- click, click,

click.

ON THE PATH:

two Guards on their rounds hear the soft clicking in the

shrubs. They move nearer, carefully. The 1st Guard takes the

gun from his holster, c*cks it.

IN THE BUSH:

Bernzy hears their footfalls, freezes.

ON THE PATH:

the Guards hear a soft rustling in the bush. The 1st Guard

takes the gun from his shoulder holster. The two Guards

advance slowly, shining their lights.

The 2nd Guard moves to the bush where Bernzy is hiding while

his partner covers him, gun cocked and aimed. In a swift,

decisive move, he parts leaves and branches of the bush,

exposing the ground behind it. REVERSE:

Bernzy is not to be seen.

The 2nd Guard shines his beam into the bush, then up along

the wall.

Shooting low from the other side of the bushes, we see the

dirty, ivy-covered storm drain cut into the drop-off at the

edge of the property. Only Bernzy's white-knuckled hands can

be seen as he holds on from inside the drain.

The 2nd Guard drops to his knees, shines his light along the

base of the wall, under the bushes: he is right over Bernzy.

We see into the drain, where Bernzy is having a hard time

holding on. The Guard is painstakingly thorough in his

examination of the area behind the bushes. After an eternity:

GUARD 2

Must be them squirrels.

He releases the bush and he gets up.

CUT TO:

INT. BERNZY'S APARTMENT - LATER

Bernzy works feverishly in his darkroom. He coaxes a print

to life by agitating a tub. In fact, he has two tubs, and he

moves from one to the next in his zeal to see the pictures.

We see into one of the tubs:

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