Nick of Time
Ms Brooks I had to, Brendan. Her security people may be involved.
Old Man Is there a problem, Brendan?
Brendan Er, I think you could say that. This man says he’s been hired to kill Eleanor.
Gene No, not hired. Blackmailed. They’re blackmailing me.
Old Man Now, who is this ‘they’?
Gene I really don’t know, sir. Mr Grant, we’ve gotta hurry. They’ve kidnapped my little girl. Your, your wife’s in serious danger here. I mean, anything could happen at this point.
Old Man Er, just a minute. On the strength of this. . . story, you bring this man to Mr Grant’s suite? You think that shows very good judgement, Miss Brooks? I may be just a friend of Brendan, but it certainly. . .
Ms Brooks He brought a gun, onto the pool deck.
Brendan What?
Ms Brooks He got onto the pool deck carrying a gun. Now, how did he get past her security, with this gun?
Brendan I’d like to know that.
Old Man Is it real? I mean, do we know anything about it?
Ms Brooks It looks real. I don’t know anything about guns.
Old Man May, may I see it, please?
Gene The gun’s real.
Old Man Well, it certainly looks real. May we have your opinion? You’re supposed to be the expert in these matters.
Smith Yeah, I’d say it’s real.
Brendan Are you out of your fucking mind?
White What are you doing?
Smith Help me. Get her outta here.
White What’s the matter?
Brendan God, what have you done to me?
Gene Bastard!
Smith You fucked up! You want me to kill your kid?! You want me to kill you?!
Old Man That’s enough. I said that’s enough. Don’t let him get away.
Gene I killed you.
Smith You fucked up.
Gene No, please. Please, no!
Lynn Help me, Daddy!
Old Man You put him down, right now! You nearly killed him, you idiot.
Smith Nearly doesn’t count.
Brendan Well, this is a nightmare. This was supposed to be clean and simple. A high-powered rifle and it’s over. But no, you’ve gotta get creative. Drag some jerk in off the street, stick a gun in his hand, and what? I mean, what the hell were you thinking?
Old Man Relax, relax will you? It’s academic now.
Smith What were you thinking, lock her in a closet? He’s been seen all over the hotel, looking like some looney-tunes. Got him on video. It’ll work. Don’t worry about it. Come on, you. Up, let’s go. I want to show you something.
Brendan I don’t think we should go through with this.
Old Man I’m afraid it’s too late for that now.
Brendan How do I explain a dead woman on my bathroom floor?
Old Man She’s Eleanor’s assistant. She would have been shot by the same gun, by the same man, some, anonymous loser who went over the edge.
Smith Okay. Look at that. That’s what it looks like. She was alive a minute ago, now she’s dead because. . . you wouldn’t do what I told you to do.
White Here, here, clean up. Come on, let’s get going, we’ve only got a few minutes to pull this together.
Smith Look at that. Let’s go.
Old Man Every single promise made to us when we got that woman elected was broken. I don’t have to remind you who was supposed to keep her in line.
White Hey, Albert. Let me use your phone for a second.
Gene I know how this thing’s supposed to work.
Smith Do you, Mr Watson? Huh?
Gene I kill her and you kill me.
Smith Keep your voice down.
Gene Even if you don’t, a security man will. How am I supposed to get away?
Smith That’s not my problem. Come back.
Gene How do I know you’re not gonna kill my kid once I’m gone?
Smith It’s the radio. Come back. I told you, she’ll be all right. You do your job.
Gene Fine. I’m supposed to trust you?
Smith What choice do you have? After you. Gene, look out there. You see the van?
Gene Yeah.
Smith Come back.
Jones (on radio) Yeah.
Smith Do it!
Lynn (on radio) Daddy! Help me, Daddy! No!
Gene You son of a bitch!
Smith Security force, take the next car. Thank you. Do it again.
Lynn (on radio) Daddy! No!
Smith You got one last chance. Half an hour, the kid is dead. I’ll kill her myself. . . rip her head off right in front of you. Get up. Come on. Come on.
Lynn (on radio) Daddy, did you hear me scream? She told me to scream as loud as I could. Did you hear me?
Man Oh, Jesus!
Smith Next time I tell you to do something, you damn-well do it.
Jones Hey fuck you. You wanna baby-sit a screaming kid in traffic, you come out here and do it. He got the message, didn’t he?
Huey Come on, step up. Give ’em a shine with that extra something. Come on, step up. Do your shoes a favour. What you need is a shoeshine. Shoeshine, shoes shines today. Hey, take ten, take a break, take a seat, take a load off, put the world in perspective. So, what do you do, if I may be so. . . you got a complaint?
Gene Remember me?
Huey Yeah, the big tipper.
Gene Good. Listen, something’s gonna happen. When it’s over with, you’ll know what I was talking about.
Huey What? The end of the world? Look man, don’t give me your crazy rap. I’m not a bartender. I don’t wanna hear it. I raise a family doing this bull-shit. Do me a favour. Get your white ass outta my chair. Big tip doesn’t give you the right to crap in my ear. You want change, then you got it, brother. What was that you gave me? A twenty?
Smith Let’s get some privacy.
Gene He’s deaf.
Smith You wouldn’t be kidding me?
Gene No. No, no, he can’t hear a thing. Look, read that sign.
Smith Is that right? Shine man, you can’t hear me? Hello.
Huey Well, well lookee here. My customer quotient just got multiplied by two. What do you think of that? Oh, you’ll have to forgive me, sir, I didn’t hear you approach. Fact of the matter is, I’m deaf as a post. You want a shine, sir? You don’t see your face, you don’t pay.
Smith Yeah, sure, give me a shine. Let’s get out our itinerary. Hold that. Don’t throw it away. I’m putting your toy back in your pocket, Mr Watson. It’s all wound up. Now, let’s check this itinerary. Right there.
Gene One-thirty, California Ballroom.
Smith That’s right. That gives you twenty-eight minutes to get your shit together.
Gene Let me talk to her again.
Smith No.
Gene I wanna talk to her.
Smith Forget it.
Gene You let me talk to her, or you can forget it.
Smith Don’t you threaten me, young man.
Gene It’d be a lot less trouble if you’d just let me talk to her. You’re wasting time.
Smith Come back.
Jones (on radio) Yeah.
Smith Put her on.
