11.
BETH
How about the booze?
NICK
It's been three months.
BETH
(after a long beat)
How about the coke?
NICK
No.
BETH
No?
NICK
(hard)
No! I'm working my tail off. I'm
off the sauce, I'm not even smoking
anymore.
She smiles.
BETH
How's not smoking?
NICK
It's fucked -- now will you please
tell I.A. that I'm just you average
healthy totally fucked-up cop and
let me get out of here?
BETH
(after a beat;
smiles)
Yes.
NICK
Thank you.
And he starts heading out.
BETH
(behind him)
I still miss you, Nick.
He doesn't even turn, pretends he didn't hear.
INT. THE DETECTIVE BUREAU
He walks in. Gus Moran gets up from his desk as soon as hesees
him.
GUS
Talcott's in there. They're
waiting.
They start heading for Lt. Walker's office.
12.
GUS
(continuing)
How'd it go, son?
NICK
She misses me.
GUS
(grins)
Hallelujah.
INT. LT. WALKER'S OFFICE
He and Gus sit there with Lt. Walker, Harrigan, Andrews andCaptain
Talcott.
HARRIGAN
Sixteen stab wounds to the chest
and neck. No usable prints, no
forcible entry, nothing missing.
No prints on the ice pick, either --
it's available at any Safeway.
The scarf is Hermes, expensive --
they sell about 20,000 a year
worldwide.
ANDREWS
The powder was cocaine, high-
quality, high-content. He inhaled
it; there were minute quantities on
his lips and penis. Mr. Boz leaves
five million dollars, no insurance,
no direct survivors. He liked his
coke, he liked his girls, and he
liked rock and roll.
NICK
He liked the mayor, too, right?
Talcott gives him a look.
GUS
What about his girlfriend?
TALCOTT
Is she relevant here? I didn't
know she was a suspect.
LT. WALKER
She's a suspect.
TALCOTT
On what basis?
LT. WALKER
(looks a notes)
Catherine Tramell. Age 30.
☆☆13.☆☆
LT. WALKER
(continuing)
No priors, no convictions. Double
major, magnum cum laude, Berkeley,
1980. Literature and Psychology.
Daughter, sole survivor -- Marvin
and Elaine Tramell, killed in a
boating accident, 1978, Catherine
Tramell sole heir. Estimated
assets: $110 million.
It hangs there.
NICK
Are you kidding me?
LT. WALKER
(continues)
Formerly engaged to Roberto
Vasquez, deceased --
ANDREWS
Bobby Vasquez?
LT. WALKER
Bobby Vasquez, former middleweight
contender, killed in the ring
Atlantic City, 1984.
NICK
(smiles)
I love it. She's got a hundred
million bucks. She fucks fighters
and rock and roll stars. And she's
got a degree in screwing with
peoples' heads.
LT. WALKER
You forgot her degree in
literature. She's a writer. She
published a novel last year under a
pen name. Do you want to know what
it's about?
They just stare at him.
LT. WALKER
(continuing)
It's about a retired rock and roll
star who is murdered by his
girlfriend.
It hangs there a long beat.
INT. NICK'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
His apartment is very bare -- very few things -- with wideopen
spaces. There is a lot of chrome.
14.
He sits on the couch, reading a book. It is a paperback.We see
the title -- Love Hurts, by Catherine Adams. Heputs the book down
a beat, then picks the phone up, dials.
NICK
Page 67, pop. Do you know how she
does the boyfriend? With an
icepick, in bed, his hands tied
with a white silk scarf.
INT. A POLICE DEPARTMENT CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY
Nick, Gus, Lt. Walker, Harrigan, Andrews, Captain Talcott --
and Beth Gardner. With them is an older, white-hairedman, DR.
ANDREW LAMOTT. There are copies of "Love Hurts"around
the table.
LT. WALKER
Dr. Gardner?
BETH
I've asked Dr. Lamott to consult
with us. This isn't really my
turf. Dr. Lamott teaches the
psycho-pathology of psychopathic
behavior at Stanford and is also a
member of the Justice Department's
Psychological Profile team. Dr.
Lamott?
DR. LAMOTT
There are two possibilities. One:
The person who wrote this book is
your murderer and acted out the
killing described in ritualistic,
literal detail. Two: Someone who
wants to do the person who wrote
this book harm read the book and
enacted the killing described to
incriminate the writer.
NICK
(after a long beat)
What if the writer did it? What
are we dealing with?
DR. LAMOTT
You're dealing with a devious,
diabolical mind. This book must
have been written at least six
months, maybe years before it was
published. That means the writer
planned the crime, at least in the
subconscious, back then.
☆☆15.
DR. LAMOTT
(continuing)
The fact that the writer carried it
out indicates psychopathic
obsessive behavior in terms not
only of the killing itself but in
terms of applied advance defense
mechanism.
A long beat.
GUS
Most times I can't tell shit from
shinola, Doc. What was all that
you just said?
Some grins, titters.
BETH
She anticipates the book to be her
best alibi.
DR. LAMOTT
Correct.
BETH
She's going to say: Do you think
I'd be dumb enough to kill anyone
in the exact way I've described in
my book? I wouldn't do that
because I'd know I'd be a suspect.
A long beat -- as they think about it.
NICK
What if it's not the writer? What
if it's someone who read the book?
DR. LAMOTT
You're dealing then with someone so
obsessed that he or she is willing
to kill an irrelevant and innocent
victim to place the blame on the
person who wrote this book. We are
talking about deep-seated,
obsessional hatred; an utter lack
of sense of proportion or
perspective.
GUS
We've got a top-of-the-line, once-
in-a-lifetime loony-tune either way
you cut it -- that's what you're
saying, right, Doc?
DR. LAMOTT
You're dealing with someone very
dangerous and very ill.
☆☆16.
INT. THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE - DAY
PROSECUTOR JOHN CORRIGAN, a big man in his 50's, withCaptain
Talcott, Lt. Walker, Nick, and Gus.
Corrigan is reading a file. He gets up, yawns, goes to hiswindow,
looks out.
CORRIGAN
Come on, you know there's no case
here. There's no physical
evidence -- okay, she doesn't have
an alibi: but there's no motive.
Her defense would just beat us to
death with the copycat thing.
Anybody who read the book could
have done it.
A long beat; no one says anything.
NICK
So what do we do -- nothing?
LT. WALKER
(after a beat)
We bring her in for questioning.
TALCOTT
She's got enough money to burn this
whole department down.
LT. WALKER
She was the last person seen with
the guy -- I'll take the
responsibility.
TALCOTT
It's yours.
CORRIGAN
It won't do any good. She'll come
in with Lee Bailey and Mel Belli
trailing behind her on a solid gold
chain from Tiffanys.
TALCOTT
Yes she will.
NICK
(after a beat)
No she won't.
They look at him.
17.
NICK
(continuing; smiles)
I don't think she's going to hide
behind anybody. I don't think
she's going to hide at all.
TALCOTT
(after a beat)
I think you're as crazy as she
probably is, Curran.
Nicks says nothing.
GUS
You know what they say: It takes
one to know one.
Nick looks a Gus, grins.
EXT. HER HOUSE IN STINSON - DAY
They walk from the car to the door of the big beach house.They
ring the bell. They hear typing inside. The typingstops. She comes
to the door in jeans and a tight-fittingsweatshirt.
NICK
Ms. Tramell, we'd like you to come
downtown and answer some questions
for us.
CATHERINE
Are you arresting me?
NICK
If that's the way you want to play
it.
They look at each other a beat.
CATHERINE
(smiles)
Can I change into something more
appropriate? It'll just take a
minute.
He nods.
CATHERINE
(continuing)
Come in.
INT. THE HOUSE
It is beautifully done in a Santa Fe motif. She goes to abedroom
of the living room.
18.
Nick sits down on a couch facing the bedroom she's walkedinto.
Gus sits across from him, his back to the bedroom.There is a coffee
table between them. She leaves thebedroom door halfway open.
An old newspaper is on the coffee table them. Nick reachesfor
it. The headline says: VICE COP CLEARED IN TOURISTSHOOTINGS. A
headline underneath says: GRAND JURY SAYSSHOOTINGS ACCIDENTAL.
There is a photograph of Nick.
He stares at the paper.
CATHERINE (O.S.)
How long will this take?
Nick puts the paper down on the coffee table. He is lostin his
thoughts. Gus picks the paper up.
NICK
(looks up)
I don't know.
Nick, facing the half open bedroom door, sees a mirror nearthe
wall of the bedroom. The mirror reflects her in theother corner
of the bedroom. She is taking her clothesoff. He stares. She strips
down. He sees her back. Shehas a beautiful body. Naked, she puts
a dress on. Shedoesn't put any underwear on.
NICK
(continuing)
Do you always keep old newspapers
around?
CATHERINE (O.S.)
Only when they make interesting
reading.
And she is suddenly out of the bedroom. She stands there,smiles.
They look at each other a long beat.
CATHERINE
(finally)
I'm ready.
They get up, head out.
GUS
You have the right to an attorney.
CATHERINE
Why would I need an attorney?
INT. THE CAR - DAY
They sit in the front; she is in the back. The car goesover the
winding, two-lane Mt. Tamalpais road.
☆☆19.
The fog is heavy. It's starting to rain. We see the beachfar
below.
CATHERINE
Do you have a cigarette?
NICK
I don't smoke.
CATHERINE
Yes you do.
NICK
I quit.
She smiles, looks at him. A beat, and he turns away.Another beat,
and she lights a cigarette up.
NICK
(continuing)
I thought you were out of
cigarettes.
CATHERINE
I found some in my purse; would you
like one?
He turns back to her.
NICK
I told you -- I quit.
CATHERINE
It won't last.
A beat, as she looks at him, and then he turns away.
GUS
You workin' on another book?
CATHERINE
Yes I am.
GUS
It must really be somehtin' --
makin' stuff up all the time.
He watches her in the rearview mirror.
CATHERINE
It teaches you to lie.
GUS
How's that?
☆☆20.
CATHERINE
You make it up, but it has to be
believable. They call it
suspension of disbelief.
GUS
I like that. "Suspension of
Disbelief."
He smiles at her in the mirror.
NICK
What's your new book about?
CATHERINE
A detective. He falls for the
wrong woman.
He turns back to her.
NICK
What happens to him?
She looks right into his eye.
CATHERINE
She kills him.
A beat, as they look at each other, and then he turns awayfrom
her. Gus watcher her in the rearview mirror.
INT. A POLICE INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY
It is large, fluorescent-lighted, antiseptic.
She walks in with Nick and Gus. In the room are prosecutorJohn
Corrigan, Lt. Walker, Captain Talcott, Harrigan, andAndrews. There
is a police stenographer: a plain youngwoman in her 20's.
As soon as she comes in --
CORRIGAN
I'm John Corrigan. I'm an
assistant district attorney, Ms.
Tramell. Can we get you anything?
Would you like some coffee?
CATHERINE
No thank you.
TALCOTT
Are your attorneys --
NICK
(hiding a smile)
Ms. Tramell waived her right to an
attorney.
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