Project 16: Part Six
INT. SOUTH CITY, CALVIN'S HOME - DAY
Calvin is surrounded by boxes in an otherwise bare living room. Cherise Jordan enters.
CHERISE JORDAN: Are you moving out?
CALVIN ROBERTS: I’m thinking of dropping the case and I need to downsize.
CHERISE JORDAN: So, one of the few good deeds you’ve done in your whole adult life and you’re just quitting?
CALVIN ROBERTS: Up to now it was always about the money Cherise, but now it’s about my reputation.
CHERISE JORDAN: Don’t you think you should care more about your reputation with the people that matter and not the country club members?
CALVIN ROBERTS: I’m tired of your good girl attitude. Not all of us can be like you and throw away their careers for a marriage doomed to failure.
CHERISE JORDAN: I want to help Calvin. If there’s anything I can do. Anything at all. I’ll do it?
CALVIN ROBERTS: A lawyer needs to win court cases. If I don’t win court cases, I’m nothing.
CHERISE JORDAN: No Calvin. If you fight for real justice for people like Verdi, then you are everything to them.
INT. CALVIN’S NEW HOME - EVENING
Calvin is unpacking in his new home. Cecilia Albright appears at the open doorway. She enters once he notices her.
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: Mr Roberts, I’m Cecelia Albright.
CALVIN ROBERTS: You’re the girl who Mr Duncan told me about. You disappeared.
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: I was scared but now I know that I must help Verdi.
CALVIN ROBERTS: How will you be able to help him?
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: I was with him on the night of the murder. I’m a married woman, Mr Roberts. I had multiple reasons not to come forward. Verdi didn’t want me to.
CALVIN ROBERTS: And your husband?
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: We had an open marriage. He is a wealthy businessman. Josh doesn’t love me. He never did, but Verdi is one in a million.
CALVIN ROBERTS: It’s a bit late in the day for a key witness to come forward. It’s highly irregular.
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: Put me on the stand Mr Roberts. You won’t regret it.
INT. SOUTH CITY, TRAVIS ROBERTS HOME - NIGHT
Cherise enters Travis living room. He sits on the couch with a beer in his hand.
CHERISE JORDAN: And I thought you were trying.
TRAVIS ROBERTS: Some days are better than others.
CHERISE JORDAN: Do you want to talk about it?
TRAVIS ROBERTS: All we ever do is talk about it.
CHERISE JORDAN: What’s really troubling you? What set it off?
TRAVIS ROBERTS: I don’t know.
CHERISE JORDAN: Try me.
TRAVIS ROBERTS: I’ve seen a lot of things.
He pauses
The last straw was a kid who was no more than six. I was called to his house for domestic disturbance. I found him on the floor. Badly beaten. I called for an ambulance. He was still alive.
Travis takes another drink.
He wasn’t able to talk. I waited for the ambulance to arrive and held his hand. The ambulance took forty five minutes.
The kid lasted forty.
CHERISE JORDAN: It wasn’t your fault.
TRAVIS ROBERTS: I’d met him on the street the previous day. He told me he wanted to be a cop just like me. He was the same age as Calvin at the time.
CHERISE JORDAN: Don’t you think that turning to drink is the last thing that kid would want to happen to you?
TRAVIS ROBERTS: I used to be that guy. The kind of person who’d run through a brick wall.
CHERISE JORDAN: You haven’t lost yet. Don’t you want to fight back?
INT. SOUTH CITY, COURTROOM - DAY
CALVIN ROBERTS: Your honour, I’d like to call Cecelia Albright to the stand.
MISS TREMBELAY: Your honour, she’s not on the list.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Your honour please just hear what she has to say.
JUDGE ORMSBY: I’ll allow it for the time being.
Cecelia walks from the audience to the witness box.
Verdi turns to Calvin and whispers.
VERDI OCOCHA: It’s not her.
CALVIN ROBERTS: It looks like her.
VERDI OCOCHA: It’s not her.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Miss Albright, where were you on the night of the murder?
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: Well, from about 8pm to eleven o’clock I was with Verdi. Then he asked me to wait for him while he took care of business. He returned at about half an hour after midnight. Then I went home.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Are you a married woman Miss Albright?
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: Yes, but for eighteen months I’ve been having an affair. At first, I thought he was nice but later I became afraid. Afraid to leave him and afraid to be with him. He’s a phoney. A fake.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Did you ever confide in anyone about your relationship?
CECELIA ALBRIGHT: Just my best friend, Agatha.
CALVIN ROBERTS: But you lied to everyone else.
INT. SOUTH CITY, COURTS OF JUSTICE, ELEVATOR
Calvin enters the elevator and Miss Trembelay follows him.
MISS TREMBELAY: Discrediting your own witness? That’s a first.
CALVIN ROBERTS: She was a changeling.
MISS TREMBELAY: Even your excuses become more and more tiresome. I think you’re losing your touch.
CALVIN ROBERTS: This case isn’t over.
MISS TREMBELAY: Is that your pride talking?
EXT. SOUTH CITY, STREET NEAR COURTHOUSE - DAY
Cecelia Albright walks down a street and rounds a corner. She hails a cab and climbs in.
Cherise follows her and also hails a cab.
INT. SOUTH CITY, TAXI CAB (MOVING) - DAY
CHERISE JORDAN: Fifty bucks bonus, if you keep up with the cab in front.
CAB DRIVER: You’ve been watching too many movies lady. I never break the speed limit. That cab must be doing ten miles over.
The taxi cab in front goes through traffic lights as they turn amber. The taxi cab containing Cherise comes to a stop.
CHERISE JORDAN: Great. Just great.
CAB DRIVER: For a hundred bucks I could give you the name and number of that cab driver.
INT. SOUTH CITY, OFFICES OF LEOPOLD AND LEOPOLD, SIXTH FLOOR - DAY
Devon Somerset, Mortimer Leopold and Morecambe Leopold are seated at the conference table.
Mayor Calhoun bursts into the room.
MAYOR CALHOUN: Gentlemen, so glad you’ve agreed to meet me.
MORTIMER LEOPOLD: Anything for an old friend.
MAYOR CALHOUN: No doubt you’ve been following the Changeling case with interest.
MORECAMBE LEOPOLD: It’s a blight on the lanscape.
MAYOR CALHOUN: Your boy has presented us with a problem. He is outside the fold. He presents a danger to humanity.
DEVON SOMMERSET: I’m sure its only temporary. Money talks after all.
MAYOR CALHOUN: When the time comes, I want you to make him an offer. We don’t need any crusaders upsetting...
MORTIMER LEOPOLD: And what happens if he doesn’t want to be a team player?
MAYOR CALHOUN: Anyone who stands in my way will have to be dealt with, but I won’t bother you with the finer details.
INT. SOUTH CITY JAIL, VERDI’S CELL - DAY
Verdi enters his cell but is pushed from behind by Grant Hercules. The prison guard whacks Verdi with his baton.
GRANT HERCULES: I know what you’re thinking. There’s a glimmer of hope that you might actually make your way out of here. Hope can kill a man. Despair is your friend
Grant Hercules whacks Verdi again and again.
GRANT HERCULES: We have to have you looking all presentable for your date in court. Have you anything to say for yourself?
Verdi doesn’t respond
GRANT HERCULES: How about “thank you sir?”
Verdi is barely able to talk.
VERDI OCOCHA: Thank you sir
GRANT HERCULES: Now see. A little appreciation goes a long way.
INT. SOUTH CITY, CHINO’S FAST FOOD RESTAURANT - DAY
Police officers ERNIE JORDAN and his partner DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO are eating junk food when Cherise approaches them.
ERNIE Jordan: Male, 30’s, dark hair, moustache, irritable
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: Male, 40’s
CHERISE JORDAN: Ernie, I need your help
ERNIE JORDAN: When have you not needed my help?
CHERISE JORDAN: It involves the death of a woman
ERNIE JORDAN: I suppose this is the changeling case?
Cherise doesn’t respond.
It is the changeling case. Look, honey, even if I wanted to help you and I don’t. Why in heavens would I touch the changeling case?
CHERISE JORDAN: I’ll return the favour.
ERNIE JORDAN: Does that sound tempting to you Doug? The ex-wife who I was dying to get away from wants me...
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
ERNIE JORDAN: What exactly is it you’re looking for?
CHERISE JORDAN: A woman went into a subway station but never came out.
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: She probably hopped on a train.
CHERISE JORDAN: I think she’s a changeling.
ERNIE JORDAN: If the Captain finds out...
CHERISE JORDAN: He’s not going to find out now is he Douglas?
ERNIE JORDAN: Three weeks in Aspen with the kids and Madeline.
CHERISE JORDAN: You know I can’t stand her.
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: Have you lost your marbles?
ERNIE JORDAN: It wouldn’t be the first time. I married her didn’t I?
INT. SOUTHWAY SUBWAY CENTRAL STATION - DAY
Ernie, accompanied by Douglas and Cherise, knocks on the Security door. A security guard answers. Ernie produces a badge.
ERNIE JORDAN: We’d like to see your footage from Friday night, between the hours of six pm and six thirty pm?
SECURITY GUARD: On whose authority?
ERNIE JORDAN: Don’t make me, make your life more difficult than it has to be.
CHERISE JORDAN: It’s a matter of life and death
INT. SOUTHWAY SUBWAY SECURITY CENTRE - DAY
A security guard shows footage of Cecelia Albright. At one point she appears to change identity.
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: She looks familiar
ERNIE JORDAN: How familiar?
DOUGLAS CASAVECHIO: She looks like a woman I almost busted for shoplifting a couple of months back. She gave me a sob story about supporting her kids and how her husband had left her...
CHERISE JORDAN: Who is she Doug?
INT. CALVIN'S NEW HOME - NIGHT
Calvin sits on his couch in contemplative mood. Loud shouting from outside followed by a knock on the door.
Calvin climbs off the couch and opens the door. Mr Duncan is standing there with his hand on his stomach. Blood seeping.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Rod, you should be in a hospital.
ROD DUNCAN: Let me in. I don’t want a hospital. The bastards would only kill me.
Calvin helps Rod inside and sits him on the couch.
ROD DUNCAN: I probably have only minutes. They got me.
Calvin retrieves a role of bandages and proceeds to wrap it around Rod’s stomach.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Who did this?
ROD DUNCAN: Does it matter? They are everywhere?
CALVIN ROBERTS: Who is everywhere?
ROD DUNCAN: Who do you think? They infiltrate society. They control everything. There’s probably no genuine humans left. I should know. I am one of them.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Don’t be ridiculous. If they were everywhere everyone would know about it.
ROD DUNCAN: They are nearly everyone Calvin. They’re afraid of the status quo changing. It’s all about fear. They’re afraid of the fear of their own making. This case is bigger than you or me. It’s a chance to change society. To open minds. Maybe years from now. Maybe centuries from now society will be different. It starts with you and me.
Calvin calls emergency services.
CALVIN ROBERTS: I have an emergency. A man has been stabbed. 221 Sycamore.
EMERGENCY SERVICES (O.C.): We’ll send someone straight away.
CALVIN ROBERTS: They’ll be here shortly.
ROD DUNCAN: Somewhere inside you, there is a good man, trying to get out. Promise me, you’ll fight tooth and nail for Verdi.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Why did you pick me, Rod? Why me?
ROD DUNCAN: You weren’t my first choice Calvin. You were my last.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Rod...
Mr Duncan loses consciousness.
EXT. SOUTH CITY, CALVIN’S NEW HOME - NIGHT
Harbright and Ramirez question Calvin.
DETECTIVE HARBRIGHT: Do you know who killed him?
CALVIN ROBERTS: No
DETECTIVE RAMIREZ: How long were you talking for?
CALVIN ROBERTS: About two minutes
DETECTIVE HARBRIGHT: And in all that time he never mentioned who killed him or where he was stabbed?
CALVIN ROBERTS: He just started talking about futility and conspiracy theories. Changelings are everywhere type of stuff.
DETECTIVE RAMIREZ: Changelings? Everyone knows they’re just freaks.
CALVIN ROBERTS: That’s what I thought.
DETECTIVE HARBRIGHT: What do you mean by that?
Calvin’s phone rings.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Can I take this?
DEVON SOMMERSET (O.C.): Calvin, I heard that Mr Duncan was stabbed. Is he okay?
CALVIN ROBERTS: He’s dead.
DEVON SOMMERSET (O.C.): The case, Calvin. You’ve got to drop the case.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Isn’t it too late for that?
DEVON SOMMERSET (O.C.): Drop the case and you’ll probably be welcomed back with open arms. Hell, Calvin, the Leopolds aren’t going to be around forever.
CALVIN ROBERTS: I can’t just drop it. It’s unprofessional
DEVON SOMMERSET (O.C.): People will love you for it. Your income source is gone. Everyone dislikes the changeling. It will be the final nail in his coffin.
Calvin doesn’t respond.
Everything your doing now is because of a kid named Ludro.
CALVIN ROBERTS: How did you know about Ludro?
DEVON SOMMERSET: If you don’t drop the case, you’ll be on the street in less than a year. Do you want to own the squash club or not? You have till the morning. Think about it.
Devon ends the call.
Calvin’s phone rings again.
DETECTIVE HARBRIGHT: Aren’t you in demand tonight?
Calvin answers the call.
CHERISE JORDAN (O.C.): Calvin, I think I might know where Cecelia is?
CALVIN ROBERTS: It’s over. She screwed us.
CHERISE JORDAN (O.C.): I mean the real Cecelia.
INT. SOUTH CITY, CAR (MOVING) - NIGHT
Calvin drives a BMW with Cherise in the passenger seat
CALVIN ROBERTS: What makes you think, she’s in Midridge?
CHERISE JORDAN: Where did you get the car?
CALVIN ROBERTS: Mine got burnt out a week ago.
CHERISE JORDAN: I hope you didn’t steal it?
CALVIN ROBERTS: Not really? Getting back to my first question. What brings us to Midridge?
CHERISE JORDAN: The changeling who testified. She was there twice in the last ten days.
CALVIN ROBERTS: So it’s a hunch?
CHERISE JORDAN: If you can come up with something better, be my guest.
CALVIN ROBERTS: I just want to do whatever it takes to win this case. I’ve never lost to Trembelay before and I don’t intend to, now.
CHERISE JORDAN: Maybe you should try seeing life through Verdi’s point of view.
CALVIN ROBERTS: Yeah but I’m not him, am I?
CHERISE JORDAN: Everyone has there blind spots. No matter how hard I try I can’t put myself in my ex-husband’s shoes.