The Verdict Page #26

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DR. THOMPSON

You know... sometimes people can

surprise you. Sometimes they have a

great capacity to hear the truth.

GALVIN:

Yes... I... yes.

They shake hands. Dr. Thompson walks off. Stops.

DR. THOMPSON

You sure you don't want me to stay

on.

GALVIN:

No. No. Thank you. You go home.

Mickey walks out of the courtroom arranging papers in his

briefcase.

MICKEY:

I'm going back to the office.

He walks off leaving Galvin standing there alone. Laura comes

out of the courtroom. Tentatively, she looks around.

Comes up to him.

EXT. COURTHOUSE - STREET - DUSK

Laura and Galvin walking.

LAURA:

Is it over?

GALVIN:

No.

LAURA:

What are you going to do?

GALVIN:

I don't have a goddamned idea.

INT. GALVIN'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Galvin pacing. Mickey seated. Morose.

GALVIN:

Okay. What do you do when you don't

have a witness?

MICKEY:

(reciting a catechism;

dispiritedly)

You use their witness.

GALVIN:

That's right.

MICKEY:

I think we tried that. The case is

over.

Galvin continues pacing. He will not hear what was just said.

MICKEY:

And how the f***... You broke the

first law that they taught you in

law school. You never ask a question

you don't know the answer to.

(beat)

Frankie, wake up. You got your own

expert witness says there was no

negligence. It's over. Period.

There'll be no other cases...

Galvin turns on him, animal-like.

GALVIN:

There are no other cases. This is

the case.

(beat)

Now you decide...

(beat)

Are you in or out...?

INT. CONCANNON'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Soft, dim lights. Concannon sitting on a couch. He holds a

red-backed file document. His listener is unseen.

CONCANNON:

I know how you feel. I know you don't

believe me, but I do. I'm going to

tell you something I learned when I

was your age. I had prepared a case.

Mr. White asked me, 'How did you

do.'

(beat)

I said, 'I've done my best.' He said,

'They don't pay you to do your best.

They pay you to win.'

(beat)

That's what pays for this office.

(beat)

And that's what pays for the pro

bono work that we do for the poor.

And for the kind of law that you

want to practice. And that's what

pays for your clothes and my whiskey,

and the leisure that we have to sit

back and discuss philosophy.

(beat)

As we're doing tonight.

(beat)

We're paid to win the case.

ANGLE - CONCANNON AND LAURA

Laura sitting across from him, impassive.

CONCANNON:

You finished your marriage. You wanted

to come back and practice law. You

wanted to come back to the world.

A beat. He hands the red-backed document to her.

ANGLE - THE DOCUMENT

stamped CONCANNON, BARKER, WHITE. Confidential. Eyes only.

CONCANNON (V.O.)

Welcome back.

INT. LAURA'S HOTEL ROOM/CORRIDOR - NIGHT

A lonely middle-class hotel corridor. HOLD. HOLD. Laura,

tired, enters the corridor from the side and proceeds away

from the CAMERA. The CAMERA FOLLOWS her to her door. She

stops, takes out her key, tiredly opens the door.

INT. LAURA'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

Laura opening the door, looks down, sees something, bends

down to pick it up. Straightens up.

ANGLE - INSERT

A hotel envelope, The Hotel Lincoln - Boston, Mass. on the

letterhead. Laura's hands open the message, take out a sheet

of yellow legal paper.

ANGLE:

Laura closes the door behind her, she does not turn on the

light, walks over to a couch by the window, sits down, all

the while reading the paper by the outside light. She lowers

the paper to her lap.

ANGLE - INSERT

The legal sheet. It reads, handwritten:

Laura. I'm going to try. When this is over can we go away?

Joe.

INT. GALVIN'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Mickey on his feet, pacing. Galvin at a blackboard on which

is written, "Dr. Towler. Dr. Marx. Admitting Form.

Anaesthesia." Etc.

GALVIN:

Why doesn't Mary Rooney testify?

Mickey shakes his head.

GALVIN:

Are you with me... are you awake...?

MICKEY:

Yeah. I'm awake.

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