PAUL SMECKER, F.B.I. agent, is lead by the Boston Chief of
Police through a jungle of ravenous reporters, police lines
and uniformed officers. He is impeccably dressed in a deep
red suit. He is smiling, confident as he walks. He is a
very good-looking, slender man.
He looks intently, for a moment, at four uniformed officers.
They approach two dead bodies, laying next to a dented green
dumpster with half the paint job scraped off.
One man, IVAN CHECKOV, lays on his stomach, closer to the
dumpster than the other. The ass of his pants has been burnt
out and a large cotton bandage is in its place.
The other, VLADDY, has a blood soaked bandage around his
head and is on his stomach as well. There are hundreds of
pieces of porcelain of various sizes everywhere. Three plain-
clothed homicide detectives, DUFFY, DOLLY and GREENLY hover
close to the bodies. Dolly and Duffy listen to GREENLY, an
obvious rookie, give his over-confident theory of what took
place.
The chief is about to interrupt them, but Smecker holds him
back with a smile. The two wait and watch in a position,
where the unsuspecting detectives have their backs to them.
GREENLY
(Thick Boston Accent)
… so these guys are just kickin’ the shit out of each other. This guy (points to Vladdy) picks up an old kitchen sink that some one threw out and crushes this guy (Checkov) with it. All right, so it makes a big bang and alerts their friend, who’s standin’ look out around the corner. So he comes over and gets into it with this guy, (Vladdy). He’s angry at him, right?
(MORE)
7/27/98 - Yellow Revision
16 CONTINUED:
GREENLY (CONT’D)
They get into an altercation in which the look out guy crushes this guy by jumpin on him. And look at the damage here (Vladdy). I mean this guy’s fuckin’ hamburger man. His spine is crushed. He’s all twisted and shit. That guy had to be one big mother fucker. Huge, 3-400 pounds, fuckin huge.
Smecker listens. The Chief is embarrassed.
GREELY (CONT’D)
Or, okay. Check this out. Say these two don’t even know the huge guy. They’re just staggerin’ home from a bar this morning, still all fucked up from St. Patty’s last night. So they figure they’ll take a short cut down the alley and this big mother fucker, he’s just waitin’. And what could be more perfect for strong arm robbery? Two drunk guys all bandaged up. They’re already injured for Christ sakes. He takes a blunt object and whacks the guy with the bandage on his head, right? Cause he’s smart. He knows the guy with the bandage on his ass, he ain’t going nowhere. Matter of fact, this guy’s probably helping his friend with the rectal problem along. They’re limping around like a couple of decrepit old broads. So once this guy’s out of the picture
(denotes Vladdy) this poor asshole, he tries to run. But look how far he gets fore the huge bastard catches up with him. Only a few yards. And what does he do? He gets creative. He picks up a sink and crushes the poor mother-fucker. Then, he ain’t done yet. He comes over here, jumps on this guy’s back and crushes him on death (Vladdy). He steals their shit and beats it! Thanks for comin’ out! (Beat)
And look at this print…
Greenly points out a large foot print on Vladdy’s back.
Some detectives nod in agreement. Smecker chuckles as he
shakes his head.
7/27/98 - Yellow Revision
16 CONTINUED (3)
GREENLY (CONT’D)
That’s one big fuckin’ shoe!...and think about it. Of all the ways to kill a guy, crushin’ him to death. That’s very particular. You don’t get many of those. I dunno. I feel something big here. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of these turning up.
SMECKER
(Stepping into the open)
Brilliant. So now we got a Huge guy theory and Serial crusher theory. Top fucking notch.
(To Greenly)
What’s your name?
GREENLY
Detective Greenly. Who the fuck are you?
Smecker saunters up to Greely and pulls his I.D. out of the
breast pocket of his sport coat and lets it hang. The large,
light blue letters, F.B.I. can be easily seen.
SMECKER
That’s who the fuck I am.
All the detectives seem disgruntled and look to the Chief
for an explanation.
CHIEF
Listen, I gotta go by the numbers on this one. I.D. just came back on these guys. They’ve got connections to the Russian mob. That makes it a federal matter and Agent Smecker, here, is heading up the investigation with our full cooperation.
SMECKER
(Transfixed on Greely)
Why don’t you get me a cup of coffee.
GREENY
What the fuck?
SMECKER
Café latte.
16 CONTINUED: (4) 7/27/98 - Yellow Revision
GREENLY
Who the…
SMECKER
Twist of lemon!
GREENLY
(To Chief)
Chief, what the fuck is this?
SMECKER
Sweet-n-low!
Greenly looks helplessly to the Chief, who simply nods. He
storms off the scene, upset. Smecker turns his back on
everyone and puts earphones in. He reaches down and hits
play. The choir song “Agnus dei” overtakes. He begins to
investigate. He kneels at the bodies for a moment then stares
at the opposite brick wall. He picks up a piece of porcelain
and scrapes it with his thumb.
He quickly cocks his head toward the sky and begins to chuckle
as he says Jesus Christ, under his breath. He brushes some
paraffin on each of the dead men’s hands. Duffy and Dolly
watch defiantly. They start to smile at one another as they
collectively realize his homosexuality. He is slightly
effeminate buy not overly fey.
SMECKER (CONT’D)
(Loudly)
Mitchell, Langley!
Two uniformed officers approach.
MITCHELL
Yes sir.
SMECKER
Find the manager of this building. See if he has had any complaints of water coming down in any apartments, starting just this morning. If he’s not there, knock on every door starting from the third floor up. Langley, you take this building, same thing.
Mitchell and Langley exit.
SMECKER (CONT’D)
Chaffey, Newman.
Two more uniforms approach.
16 CONTINUED: (5) 7/27/98 - Yellow Revision
CHAFFEY
Yes sir.
SMECKER
(To Chaffey)
Look in the trash around their hands. See if you can find me two bullet casings. 45’s, if my eye serves me right. Don’t disturb them. Mark them as they lay. Newman, root through this shit. (points to the mountain of garbage) If this was a sink find me some metal parts. Gimme a faucet or a drain cover or something.
The two begin their tasks. Chaffey finds a casing near
Checkov’s hand, hidden under the edge of the pile.
CHAFFEY
Got it. It’s a 45.
The homicide detectives are surprised as Chaffey looks for
the second shell. Smecker lights up a smoke.
SMECKER
Chief, could you get ballistics down here and tell them they have to dig a 45 slug out of a brick wall.
He points to a bullet hole in the opposing and tattered wall.
SMECKER (CONT’D)
… and locate another that’s been fired through a dumpster.
He points to another bullet hole at the dumpster’s base.
CHIEF
I got the best ballistics guy in the world. He’s mobile. Got all his stuff right in the van. Can have him down here in 10 minutes.
DOLLY
How did you know that?
SMECKER
Paraffin came up positive. And bullet holes are usually a big clue.
CHAFFEY
I can’t find the second one, sir.
16 CONTINUED: (6) 7/13/1998 – Pink Revision
SMECKER
Look under the body.
CHAFFEY (OBEYS)
Got it.
Smecker turns to detectives with a smirk.
SMECKER
You guy’s ready for this?
They both nod.
SMECKER (CONT’D)
This was no gangland assassination. Though creative, it was way too sloppy. Something went wrong here. This has personal written all over it. Now, these men were crushed and the first natural reaction the body has to such trauma is to tense up. So now the two shots fired here were reflex rounds. These guys weren’t shooting at anything, but they were just about to.
Mitchell returns.
MITCHELL
Agent Smecker,
(pointing to MacManus building)
This is all illegal loft housing so there’s no manager on the premises but I found a lady on the fourth floor said she’s had water dripping down on her whole place. Started just this morning.
SMECKER
Fourth floor huh? Then we’re heading to the fifth. Let’s go up and see just how right I am.