Zodiac Page #16

Please prepare for departure...

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 91.

137 CONTINUED:
137

Toschi leans back in his seat when a passing passenger claps

him on the shoulder. AVERY, grinning:

Dave!

AVERY:

Narlow and Nicolai look on in disbelief.

AVERY (CONT'D)

Paul Avery, good to meet you, Paul

Avery. Can I catch a ride with

you gents when we land?

TOSCHI:

Not a good idea, Paul.

AVERY:

I gotta take a cab? We're goingto the same place(

off Toschi's look)

Fair enough, fair enough.

He heads a few rows back to his seat as Narlow and Nicolai

stare daggers at Toschi...

138 INT. RIVERSIDE POLICE STATION -- DAY 138

Toschi, Narlow, and Nicolai shuffle into CAPTAIN IRV CROSS's

office. Toschi, extending a hand.

TOSCHI:

Thanks for seeing us, Captain.

Not at all.

for us?

CAPTAIN CROSS:

You have some files

TOSCHI:

I'll show you mine you show me

yours.

TIME CUT TO:

138A Cross's desk, littered with files.

Book, by rote:

He reads from his Murder 138A

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Cheri Jo Bates attended Riverside

Community College.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 92.

138 CONTINUED:
138

CAPTAIN CROSS (CONT'D)

Studying in the library the night

of October 30, 1966, left with an

unidentified male at closing - 9

P.M., body was found the next

morning in the parking lot stabbed

to death. Her car was disabled,

someone pulled the distributor

coil which caused the battery to

die. The suspect shows up, offers

to help-

NARLOW:

Like Kathleen Johns?

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Who?

NARLOW:

A woman outside of Modesto, mightbe a Zodiac victim-

TOSCHI:

Might be. Her account's in,

uhhhh, this file.

He taps one of the many on Cross's desk.

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Okay - A typewritten confession

was sent to the Riverside Press

Enterprise November 29th, a month

after Bates' murder. They ran it.

He hands them copies. Narlow, reading:

NARLOW:

"I am not sick, I am insane, but

that will not stop the game. This

letter should be published for all

to read"-He wants to publish, hecalls it a game, sounds like our

boy.

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Six months later, the police, the

girl's father, and the paper all

received these.

He slides them a second letter, this one handscrawled:

BATES HAD TO DIE

THERE WILL BE MORE

2

TOSCHI:

Double postage, like Zodiac.

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 93.

138 CONTINUED:
(2) 138

NICOLAI:

These are what Sherwood Morrill

matched to the Zodiac letters?

CAPTAIN CROSS:

These and the desktop. Don?

A Riverside Officer enters, carrying a small LIBRARY DESK.

CAPTAIN CROSS (CONT'D)

This was found a couple months

later in library storage.

The cops crowd around it. The poem, carved into wood.

Sick of living/ unwilling to die

cut. Clean. If red/

clean. Blood spurting

dripping

Spilling;

All over her new

dress. Oh well,

it was red

anyway.

Life draining into anuncertain death. She won't

die.

This time. Someone ll find her

just wait tillnext time.

Rh

NICOLAI:

Sherwood got a handwriting match

off wood? Nobody carves in their

true handwriting.

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Also, our letters and your

letters, they don't bear much

resemblance.

He puts "Bates had to Die" next to the Paul Stine letter.

NARLOW:

How did Paul Avery get the

exemplars to give to Sherwood?

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 94.

138 CONTINUED:
(3) 138

CAPTAIN CROSS:

I gave them to him. We spoke at

length, and I told him we were

meeting today.

TOSCHI:

You told him?

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Yes. I also told him we don't

think this was Zodiac.

Toschi blinks.

TOSCHI:

Wait a minute-

CAPTAIN CROSS:

We have a guy we like for it.

Don't have enough to make it stick

yet, but we're pretty sure it's

him.

TOSCHI:

If you don't think it's Zodiac, why

did you give anything to Avery?

CAPTAIN CROSS:

I'm trying to cooperate-

TOSCHI:

By giving information to

reporters?

NARLOW:

(trying to defuse)

Look, I don't know from

handwriting but Sherwood says it's

a match, right? So maybe your guy

did Cheri Jo, typed the

confession, Zodiac saw it in the

paper and wrote the letter to take

credit. He's done that before.

CAPTAIN CROSS:

Look, you now have everything we

have, but in my opinion? You all

came south for nothing.

139 EXT. RIVERSIDE POLICE STATION -- AFTERNOON 139

Toschi, Narlow, and Nicolai, leaving.

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 95.

139 CONTINUED:
139

NICOLAI:

FUBAR, gentlemen. FUBAR.

NARLOW:

I don't care what he says, this

could still be Z.

TOSCHI:

Problem is, the entire state

already thinks it is.

Narlow spies AVERY across the street, waiting for them.

NARLOW:

Why don't you complain to your

press agent?

As Avery approaches, Narlow and Nicolai take off. Toschi

deliberately moves in the other direction.

TOSCHI:

Really don't want to talk to you

right now, Paul-

AVERY:

Dave, just a few questions-

TOSCHI:

Not now.

AVERY:

It's news. I'm doing my job-

TOSCHI:

Well, now I can't do my job, Paul.

We're already screwed with the

amount of tips we get and you just

freaked out the entire state!

TOSCHI (CONT'D)AVERY

I've got Vallejo, Napa, and (as he writes)

DOJ looking at me sideways, "'Out of the frying pan and

Riverside telling me I'm on a into the fire' the normally

snipe hunt and-cooperative lead inspector"-

Toschi SLAPS the pad out of Avery's hand.

AVERY:

Cheri Bates was a gift! You and

Armstrong were never gonna find

her

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 96.

139 CONTINUED:
(2) 139

TOSCHI:

This may not be Zodiac. Does that

matter to you? Does it matter

that Riverside may not be able to

make a case against their suspect?

AVERY:

Tell that to Sherwood! I'm

beating the bushes, trying to draw

him out! We're in this together-

TOSCHI:

No, we're not in this togetherbecause I'm not worried about

upping my circulation!

AVERY TOSCHI:

He wrote me! He threatened Paul-

my life!

AVERY:

It's been a year and a half,

Bullit, are gonna catch this

f***ing guy or not?

Silence. Toschi, mad enough to spit.

TOSCHI:

F*** yourself Paul. You should've

called me.

He stalks away. Leaving Avery to pick up his pad.

140 OMITTED 140

141 INT. GRAYSMITH APARTMENT -- LIVING ROOM -- MORNING 141

Graysmith, reading the morning paper - "ZODIAC RIVERSIDE

CONNECTION CONFIRMED - by Paul Avery". He takes out a pair

of scissors and begins clipping it for his files...

142 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE -- HOMICIDE UNIT -- MORNING 142

Toschi, sitting with the same paper. The PHONES all around

RINGING OFF THE HOOK. Armstrong, across from him.

ARMSTRONG:

Here comes Southern California...

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 97.

143 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE -- INTERVIEW ROOM -- DAY 143

An exhausted Toschi sits across from an INFORMANT. The

latest in a countless string of interviews.

INFORMANT 1

I think my mailman is the Zodiac

Killer...

We begin a series of CUTS - DIFFERENT INFORMANTS, different

locations - talking to either Toschi or Armstrong:

INFORMANT 2

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