Storm of the Century (17 page)

Behind the children, we see CAT WITHERS, MELINDA HATCHER, and LINDA ST. PIERRE

making beds. Standing nearby, holding piles of blankets, are GEORGE KIRBY, HENRY BRIGHT, and
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ROBBIE BEALS. ROBBIE doesn’t look happy about it.

CARLA BRIGHT comes up to MOLLY, who is monitoring the festivities.

Evening sessions now?

It’s sort of fun. But . . .

PIPPA manages to plant the tail somewhere in the region of the donkey’s ass.

(continues)

. . . when they all finally fall asleep, I intend to track down the nearest alcoholic beverage and make it disappear.

I’ll pour.

I wanna be next!

(to CARLA)

Done deal.

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She takes the blindfold off PIPPA and starts putting it on DON.

8 INTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL, UPSTAIRS--NIGHT.

FERD ANDREWS bursts in, wild-eyed and covered with snow from top to tail.

(top of his lungs)

Lloyd Wishman’s dead!

All bustle and activity stops. Forty or fifty faces turn to FERD. Central to this group is URSULA GODSOE, with her clipboard.

9: INTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL BASEMENT.

The KIDS are still having a good time, shouting “Warmer!” and “Colder!” to DON BEALS as he tries to pin the tail on the donkey, but all the ADULTS have turned toward the SOUND of that SHOUT. ROBBIE BEALS drops his pile of blankets and heads up the stairs.

10 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE’S OFFICE--NIGHT.

HATCH grapples with the SHAPE, hysterical with fear, until-

Stop it, Hatch! Whoa! Whoa!

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HATCH stops it and looks up at MIKE, his terror becoming relief. He hugs MIKE tightly--does everything but rain kisses on MIKE’S face.

What’s the-Then, without the distraction of being grappled by his rather overweight second-in-command, MIKE

sees what the trouble is. His face fills with wonder. He walks slowly past HATCH to the dangling body. He looks at it ... then looks at LINOGE. LINOGE smiles back at him.

11 INTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL, FEATURES FERD--NIGHT.

Lloyd Wishman’s killed himself! Chopped his face in two with a axe! Oh, God, it’s awful! Blood everywhere!

ROBBIE comes upstairs. His wife, SANDRA (a plain little thing), is there, and she grabs ineffectually at his shoulder, probably wanting some comfort. He yanks her hand off him without so much as a look (pretty much the way he treats her even in ordinary circumstances) and goes to FERD.

(babbling)

I ain’t never seen nothin’ like it! Knocked his own brains right out! And he wrote on the side of the new pumper, didn’t make no sense-

(grabs him, shakes him)

Get hold of yourself, Ferd! Get a damn grip!

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FERD quits babbling. It’s so quiet now you could hear a pin drop--except, of course, for the CEASELESS WHOOP OF THE STORM OUTSIDE. FERD’S eyes are filling with tears.

Why would Lloyd chop his head in two, Robbie? He was going to get married, come spring.

12 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE’S OFFICE--NIGHT.

(also babbling)

I just went out to use the can and get a fresh coffee--he was fine then. But he kept lookin’ at him . . . like a snake lookin’ at a bird ... he ... he ...

MIKE looks at LINOGE. LINOGE looks back.

What did you do to him?

No reply. MIKE turns to HATCH.

Help me get him down.

Mike ... I don’t know’s I can.

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You can.

HATCH gives him a pleading look.

(very pleasant)

Let me out and I’ll help, Michael Anderson.

MIKE looks at him, then back at HATCH, who is pale and sweaty. But HATCH takes a deep breath and nods.

Okay...

13 EXTERIOR: BEHIND THE STORE--NIGHT.

A snowmobile pulls up next to the loading dock, and two men, bundled up in heavy nylon snowsuits, clamber off. They have rifles strapped over their shoulders. It’s KIRK FREEMAN and JACK

CARVER, the next watch. They go up the steps.

14 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE’S OFFICE.

MIKE and HATCH have just finished putting a blanket over PETER--we can see GODSOE’S

fisherman’s boots poking out--when a HAMMERING on the back door begins. HATCH gasps and lunges for the desk, where the pistol sits beside the makeshift sign, which the men took off the suicide’s chest. MIKE grabs HATCH’S arm.

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Relax.

He goes to the door and opens it. KIRK and JACK come in with snow swirling around them, stamping their feet.

Right on time, by God, storm or no st-(sees the blanket-covered corpse) What--! Mike, who’s that?

(sick to his stomach)

Peter Godsoe. I reckinize the boots.

JACK turns to look at LINOGE. KIRK follows his gaze. These men are new to the situation, but still understand instinctively that LINOGE has been a part of what has happened--they feel his power.

In the corner, the CB RADIO CRACKLES.

URSULA (radio voice)

. . . ike . . . come in, Mike An . . . have a bad sit ... town hall . . . Lloyd Wish . . . gency . . . emergency .

. .

That last word, at least, comes through clearly. MIKE and HATCH exchange a startled, worried look--what now? MIKE goes to the shelf where the CB sits and snatches up the microphone.

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Ursula, say again! Say again, please . . . and go slow! The roof antenna’s snapped off and I’m barely picking you up. What is your emergency?

He lets go of the button. There is a tense pause. HATCH reaches past him and TURNS UP THE

VOLUME. SOUND OF STATIC, then:

URSULA (radio voice)

. . . oyd . . . shman . . . Ferd says . . . Robbie Beals . . . Henry Bright . . . have . . . can . . . hear me?

MIKE looks frustrated, then has an idea.

(to HATCH)

Go out front and get her on the Island Services CB. Come back as soon’s you know what her trouble is.

Right.

He starts away, then looks back doubtfully.

You’ll be okay?

He’s locked up, isn’t he?

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HATCH looks more doubtful than ever, but he leaves.

Mike, do you have any idea what’s going on here?

MIKE holds up a hand, as if to say, “Not now.” He reaches into his coat pocket and brings out the Polaroids he took at MARTHA CLARENDON’S house. He shuffles through them until he finds the one from over the door. He lays this down in the corner of the paper he and HATCH took from around PETER GODSOE’S neck. They are identical--even the drawing of the cane over MARTHA’S living room door looks the same as the ones dancing on the sheet of paper.

What in God’s name is happening?

MIKE starts to straighten up, then sees something else.

15 INTERIOR: THE OPEN POWERBOOK, FROM MIKE’S POINT OF VIEW.

The entire grid of HATCH’S crossword has been filled in with variations of “GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I’LL GO AWAY,” plus the little cane-icons in the black squares.

16 INTERIOR: RESUME CONSTABLE’S OFFICE.

I’ll be damned if I know.

17 INTERIOR: THE TOWN OFFICE, WITH URSULA--NIGHT.

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She’s working the CB microphone for all it’s worth. Behind her, looking anxious, are a number of men and women, SANDRA BEALS and CARLA BRIGHT among them.

Mike, are you there?

MOLLY, also understandably worried, works her way through the knot of onlookers.

Can’t you get him?

The wind’s knocked the damned antennas down! Over here . . . over there ... all over the island, most likely.

HATCH (staticky radio voice)

Ursula, do you read me? Come on back.

I’m here! I read you! You gettin’ me, Alton Hatcher?

HATCH (radio voice)

You’re breaking up some, but it’s better than it was. What’s your problem?

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Ferd Andrews says Lloyd Wishman has killed himself over at the firehouse-HATCH (radio voice) What?

--only it doesn’t sound like any suicide I ever heard of ... Ferd says Lloyd cut his own head open with an axe. And now Robbie Beals and Henry Bright have gone over there. To investigate, Robbie said!

HATCH (staticky radio voice)

And you let ‘em go?

CARLA takes the mike from URSULA.

There was no way to stop Robbie. He practically shanghaied my husband. And there could be somebody there! Where’s Mike? I want to talk to Mike!

18 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND SERVICES VEHICLE, WITH HATCH.

He sits behind the wheel, holding the mike and thinking this over. Events are spinning out of control here, and HATCH knows it. At last he raises the mike to his lips again.

I’m calling from the truck--Mike’s inside. With the man who . . . you know, the prisoner.

CARLA (very staticky voice)

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You have to send him down there!

Well . . . we got us a little bit of a situation right here, you see, and . . .

19 INTERIOR: THE TOWN OFFICE--NIGHT.

MOLLY grabs the microphone from CARLA.

Is Mike all right, Hatch? You come on back and tell me.

20 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND SERVICES VEHICLE, WITH HATCH.

Poor guy actually looks relieved. Here, finally, is a question for which he can provide a satisfactory answer.

He’s fine, Moll. That’s a big 10-4. Listen, I have to go. I’ll pass on the message. This is Island Services.

He lowers the mike, looking simultaneously perplexed and relieved, then racks it. He opens the door and gets out into the HOWLING STORM. MIKE has parked the vehicle next to GODSOE’S truck. Now, as HATCH looks up, he sees LINOGE’S ghastly, grinning face peering out at him from the snow-caked driver’s side window of the pickup truck. LINOGE’S eyes are DEAD BLACK.

HATCH GASPS and staggers backward. He looks at the window of the truck again. Nothing there.
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Must have been his imagination. He starts toward the porch steps, then turns and looks back, like “it”

trying to catch one of the other children moving in a game of Red Light. Sees nothing. Goes on.

21 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.

Grinning. He knows perfectly well what HATCH saw in GODSOE’S truck.

22 EXTERIOR: THE FIRE STATION--NIGHT.

The side door is open--FERD didn’t bother to close it when he fled the sight of his partner’s corpse--and the emergency lights inside the garage are throwing their glow out onto the snow.

A HEADLIGHT appears; the WASPY WHINE of a Sno-Cat accompanies it. The Sno-Cat pulls up. ROBBIE gets out from one side (the driver’s side, naturally) and HENRY BRIGHT from the other.

I don’t know about this, Robbie-

You think we can wait for Anderson? On a night like this? Someone’s got to take charge, and we happen to be the ones on the scene. Now come on!

ROBBIE strides in through the open side door, and after a moment, HENRY BRIGHT follows.

23 INTERIOR: THE FIREHOUSE GARAGE.

ROBBIE is standing to one side of the nearest pumper. His hood is pushed back, and he has once again lost most of his pompous authority. In one hand he holds his little gun, and now he waggles the barrel at the floor. HENRY looks, and the two men exchange an uneasy glance. FERD left BLOODY TRACKS

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when he fled.

ROBBIE and HENRY are both reluctant now, but as ROBBIE pointed out, they’re on the scene. They walk around the back of the pumper.

24 INTERIOR: ROBBIE AND HENRY.

As they come around the pumper, their eyes widen and their faces KNOT WITH REVULSION. HENRY claps both hands over his mouth, but that isn’t going to keep it in. He bends out of the frame, and we hear the SOUND OF VOMITING. (Sort of like the SOUND OF MUSIC, only louder.)

ROBBIE looks at:

25 INTERIOR: THE BLOODY AXE, FROM ROBBIE’S POINT OF VIEW.

It lies on the floor, beside one of LLOYD WISHMAN’S boots. THE CAMERA TRAVELS UP the side of the pumper to the words printed there in paint as red as blood: “GIVE ME WHAT I WANT

AND I’LL GO AWAY.”

26 INTERIOR: ROBBIE BEALS, CLOSE-UP.

Wide-eyed. Beginning to pass fear and perplexity and into the land where panic dwells and really bad decisions are made.

27 EXTERIOR: ANGLE ON ATLANTIC STREET--NIGHT.

The STORM IS HOWLING. We hear a LOUD, RENDING CRACK, and a tree branch falls into the street, crushing the snow-covered roof of a parked car. Conditions are still getting worse.