St. Stephens Wayward Heroes.
He walks over to the park bench.
Eyes squinting against the sunlight .
Looking at the odd wreck of a man
sitting two feet away from him.
"Mr. Voudon." He says softly.
Voudon glances up with annoyance in
his black eyes, then turns his focus
back to his cellphone.
"Yes? Have we met?" He asks
disinterestedly.
(Flashback/black and white sequence.
A seemingly much younger Voudon is
standing over a small child grinning.
The body of a woman can be seen lying
in front of him. With a bullet hole in
Her head. The child is shaking her.
Yelling "wake up! Wake up!")
End sequence.
"Oh yeah... we've met." The man whispers
gruffly. Pulling a silenced pistol out of his
jacket pocket. Before taking aim, and
firing one shot between the eyes.
Afterwards the man reaches down with
his gloved hand, grabs voudons cellphone,
and walks over to the hot-dog vendor on
the other side of the park.
"Two coneys with chili, mustard, and onion
please." He says to the vendor, handing him
a 20$ bill. "and keep the change."
Fade to Black.
++
Act One Scene One: The Investigation.
Ext: The Park. Voudon Crime Scene.
(a plainclothes officer is hunkered down
by Voudons body. Going through his pockets
and pulling out his i.d. card.)
Blacke: fuck me. FUCK ME!
(a patrol officer walks behind him holding
out a cellphone.)
Officer: Detective Blacke sir? Phone.
Blacke: (turning and grabbing the phone, nods at the officer, suggesting he can leave. The officer walks back to the crime scene perimeter tape and crosses his arms over his chest.)
Blacke: Blacke here.
Scene change: int: police station.
(Captain Cooley is pacing slowly back
and forth in his small office.)
Cooley: So is it true? Is it Him?
(Ext: back to crime scene. )
Blacke: yeah..it's him. Looks like a pro.
I'll keep you looped in.
(Int: cooley's office.)
Cooley: (screaming in rage) FUCK!...FUCK
FUCK FUCK!! (regains composure. his
voice growing calm again.) Report only to
me for now. Whatever you find. And get
Cctv. from the area. (Hangs up phone.)
Ext: The Crime Scene. /Park
Blacke: (still holding phone to his ear.)
Roger that cap. Already on it.
(Blacke walks over to the officer. Returns
his phone , then approaches the hot dog
vendor who had sold the hitter hotdogs.)
Blacke: (taking out notebook.) Ok Mr.?
Vendor: (looking nervous and with a
heavy accent) uh. Smith.
Blacke:(smiling indulgently.) Smith? Wow .
Really? Look. I know you're probably not
Legal. Don't care. My grandfather was an
immigrant himself. If you ain't break-in the
law you're fine. Now. Can we start over..
Mr...?
Vendor: Sanchez. Ruben sir.
Blacke: good. Now we're gettin somewhere.
o.k...Mr. Sanchez. So tell me what you saw.
Vendor/Sanchez.: That's the thing sir. I didn't
see nothin. Seriously. Like I was telling the
other dude who question me. He must've
used like a silencer or something. I didn't
even know anything was wrong till I heard
a lady scream. Then I looked over and saw
Voudon on the bench with his head back.
All bloody and shit.
Blacke:(looking up from his notepad.) So
you knew Voudon then?
Vendor/Sanchez: well. We didn't like hang
out or nothin, but..yeah. everyone on 13th
knows Voudon. He comes here all the time.
He owned this corner.
Blacke: ok. Fair enough. and this man you
described. Who (looking down at notebook)
bought two chili dogs with onion and
mustard. What makes you think he's the
shooter?
Vendor/Sanchez: well. Because it had been
slow sir. Nobody else had been in the
area except him, Voudon, and the jogger
lady who screamed. I usually look up every
few minutes to check the street out you
know. He's the only one I saw. He tipped
me 9$.
Blacke: Ok. Noted. We'll pull CCTV .
did you get a good look at him mr. Sanchez?
Vendor/Sanchez: well. See that's the thing.
No. Not really. Like I was telling the other
officer who questioned me. He was wearing
like one of those...Humphrey Bogart hats,
and sunglasses you know?
Blacke: (looking at Sanchez ) you mean a
Fedora?
Vendor/Sanchez: yeah. Like one of those.
Blacke: o.k. mr. Sanchez. That should do
for now. You can go if you want. But ofcr.
Jenson will give you my card. If you think
of anything else that stands out just give me
a call. Day or night. Even if it doesn't seem
too important. You never know what detail
might help.
Vendor/Sanchez: ok. Thank sir. Umm..I
don't mean to sound ..insensitive or
anything, but could I maybe set up over
there? (points to a spot outside the
perimeter) I can do Blue Discounts...
Blacke:(smiling slightly) yeah. Sure why
not? That'll be fine. ...hell, matter-o-fact,
(hands Sanchez a ten) I'll take two coneys
with onion and mustard.
Vendor/Sanchez (smiling and taking the
ten) yessir. coming right up sir. You want
your change?
Blacke: (waving his hand) nah. Keep it.
Vendor/Sanchez: yessir. Gracias.
(As Sanchez walks away, the officer from
earlier approaches Blacke again holding
an ipad tablet. and shows him CCTV footage
of the event. In it you can see the gunmen
shoot voudon in the head, and calmly going
over to the vendor for the hotdogs before
walking away in the opposite direction.)
Blacke:(looking up from the iPad at the
Cctv cams.) Well. Looks like our witness
was right. Can't make out any facial
characteristics at all on our Mystery Guy.
Officer you want me to check other street
cams, maybe see if we can get a better angle?
Blacke: yeah. Yeah that sounds good.
But I doubt we'll find shit. This guy knew
what he was doing for sure. Still. You
find anything call me. K?
Officer: yessir. Will do.
(as the officer is walking off Blacke calls
back to him. )
Blacke: hey, beatie. (reaches into his pocket
and pulls out 100$ bill . handing it to the
officer.) Here. Get you and the other beaties
some coneys. My treat eh.
Officer:(smiling. takes the money.) thank
you detective Blacke! I'm starving.
Got called over here on my way to lunch .
Blacke: don't mention it kid. I remember
my beatie days. Just keep me informed
if anything new comes up yeah?
Officer: (giving a thumbs up) you got it
boss.
(The officer walks over to a group of officers
maintaining the perimeter and begins
speaking to them, pointing over to Blacke
who is getting in his car to leave. Blacke
looks up for a brief second and salutes in
the direction of the men. One smiles at him
and salutes back.)
End Scene.
+++++
Act1 Scene 2. (St. Stephen.)
Ext. Outside of The Bus Station.
(Stephen is sitting on a bench. With
a cigarette dangling from his lip.
He wears a black trench coat out of season for the summer day, and has a five day beard, and overall unkempt appearance.
Looking around to ensure nobody is
watching him. He hurriedly pops two
nondescript white pills in his mouth,
crunches them once, and washes them
down with a shot from the flask he pulls
feom his coat pocket. Then coughs in a ragged bark for a moment before hawking, and spitting onto the concrete.
A pretty woman passing by looks at him in
disgust and mutters "ew.. gross." and
increases her speed .
Grinning , Stephen looms appreciatively
at her backside as she walks past.
Shortly after , Josh's shadow appears next
to him and they begin their dialogue.)
Josh:
