FADE IN:

EST. SHOT

The crooked little streets behind Chinatown and in front of the criminal justice
complex.  Our hero, O’JOHN, is dragging a GIRL with her hands manacled
behind her back.  

She’s kicking up a storm, not really trying to get away, just trying to get attention.  From the theatricality of it you’d think she was enjoying herself.  Some unblinking Asian faces stare at her fixedly then snap away.

					GIRL
				(for the 100th time)
			You cant arrest me, you’re not a cop!

					O’JOHN
			You’re right.

She looks at the building she’s being steered to and begins to scream.

					GIRL
			Help!

SOME TOURISTS with video cameras and funny hats gather round and begin taping them.  O’John and the girl break into a quick soft-shoe, then stop and 
look disgusted.  He flashes a detective’s gold badge and the tourists disperse.

					GIRL
			Where’d you get that?

					O’JOHN
			Like it makes a difference.  If you knew the 
answer it would change everything.

		GIRL
I’ll say you raped me.

		O’JOHN
Nobody is going to listen to anything you have to say.

They were across the street now with only the sidewalk between them 
and the building.  She freezes.

				GIRL
		How much they paying you?

				O’JOHN
		Forget it, it’s over.

				GIRL
		I’ll give you that much love.  Keep me chained
		to the bed, I don’t care.

He shakes it off, but she’s getting him depressed and she’s stamping her
feet like a little girl having a tantrum.  He muscles her into a dilapidated
office building, through the lobby and into an old fashioned cage elevator.

The bars make him uncomfortable.  He cant find a neutral place to park
his glance.  The elevator is run by a crazy OLD MAN.  He’s bald, but grows
his sideburns long and combs them over his head.  The hairs are as far
apart as eyelashes but he kept bobbing his head, exposing his crown
like he had something to prove.

They get off on the 5th into a morgue-like corridor.  There is only one door
with a light behind it, an old frosted glass door with the lettering:

THREE MIGHTY MEN BAILBONDS     WE NEVER SLEEP
PLEASE CLOSE DOOR CAREFULLY

O’John stops to throw up on the floor then knocks on the door.  It opens.
Inside are 3 leg breakers.  

CU  FREEZE FRAME on the fattest and strongest.

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
That’s Vito.  He has seen The Godfather 37 times.
			He is also a baseball fan and, like most spectators,
			considered himself an intellectual.

			But he’s not an intellectual.  His favorite weapon is
			a baseball bat and he’s never connected that to his
			admiration for Babe Ruth.

START MOTION

					VITO
			Johnnie, baby doll, optimal pussycat!  Just like you
			said and here!, like I said.

He’s holding out a huge wad of money.  O’John leaves him standing there
holding it while he undoes the handcuffs and slides them back over his belt.
Then he hands the girl in.  He takes the money out of Vito’s hand and 
pockets it without counting it and then wipes his hands on his pants.

The OTHER 2 BONDSMEN have handcuffed the girl to the couch and
began loosening their belts and unzipping their Levis-For-Men.

					GIRL
			They’re going to rape me!

					VITO
				(to the girl)
			No shit?  Your problem is you got no sense
			of history.
				(to O’John)
			I got another client for you.

					O’JOHN
			Forget it.  I’ve had it.

					VITO
			What’s wrong?

					O’JOHN
			It’s getting to my head..

					VITO
			Let’s talk outside.

He takes him by the arm above the elbow and walks him outside.
He stops to close the door very slowly.  there is a strip of Scotch
Tape over a crack in the glass to show what happened when you
didn’t.

					VITO
			Now, tell me what’s wrong.

					O’JOHN
			Nothing, like I said.

					VITO
			Look, if it’s…

					O’JOHN
			The money is fine.

He starts to walk away, but Vito grabs him, affectionately.

					VITO
			Alright.  Good.  How’d you find her?

					O’JOHN
			A bar in her neighborhood.  She went back for
			money to get out of town.

					VITO
			Stupid.

					O’JOHN
			Oh, yeah, she was standing right next to me.
			She turns to go and I see her tattoo.

					VITO
			Get real.  You don’t owe respect to a girl with
			a tattoo.  She’s stupid too.

					O’JOHN
			I know.

					VITO
			So what are you going to do?  Divorce work?
			What else can you do?

					O’JOHN
			I don’t know.

					VITO
			That’s all a private dick can do, divorce work and
			popping bailjumpers.  Repos?, that’s better?
			Sorry to repossess your heart transplant, lady,
			but you’re 3 payments behind.  R-I-I-I-PPP

					O’JOHN
			I know.

A sickening scream comes through the wall.  A high thin girlish scream
that ends in a broken toothed mumble.  Then male voices muttering in
disgust.  Vito puts his arm around O’John’s shoulders and walks him
down the hall.

					VITO
			So, you don’t like your job.  Whadaya wanna 
be when you grow up?  How many people you 
know like their job?

		O’JOHN
I know.

Disengaging yourself from an affectionate embrace is a tricky business.
O’John leans against him in unwholesome camaraderie.  Vito lurches
back, finds his hand in midair and reaches for a cigarette like that had
been his intention in backing off.

				VITO
		So, I’ll call tomorrow, we’ll talk.

				O’JOHN
		No.

He walks away, down the hall to the elevator and leans on the button.
Vito calls after him in the tone of voice used on TV to advertise Florida
vacations.

				VITO
		I am sending you a client.  I’ll call tomorrow.
		We’ll talk.  Remember Sam Spade.  Be ironic.
		Stay drunk.  Have a beautiful secretary with
those 1940 stockings with the seam up the 
back…And those strappy fuck-me shoes so
she looks accessible to trash like you!

		2ND BONDSMAN
	(calling from the office.)
Hey, Vito, you take her out for a turn.

				VITO
		What I got to do this for? 

FREEZE FRAME 

CU of Vito’s hand in his pocket. 

O’JOHN (V.O.)
Vito has been making fists in his pocket, 
apparently trying to squeeze up an erection 
and not liking the odds.

START MOTION

				VITO
I got a beautiful wife waiting at home.

				2ND
		You implying I don’t?

				VITO
		Your wife is beautiful.  Your wife is more
		beautiful than my wife.

Holding up his hands like he was Superman holding back a locomotive.

				2ND
		But you say she’s not home.

				VITO
		You know, this is always what breaks 2 guys up,
		some woman that don’t mean anything.

				GIRL
			(Screaming through the wall)
		Who says I don’t mean anything?

				2ND
		He means my wife!

				VITO
		You’re losing it.

				2ND
		I wouldn’t mind losing it if I knew for sure
		that I’d ever had it.

				3RD       	
		What?  You got something on us we don’t 
have on you?  That doesn’t happen.  You 
have her too.

		VITO
		Yeah, fuck, alright.

O’John is still standing by the elevator.  Vito calls after him.

				VITO
		I’ve had enough of you too.  You’ll meet
		your obligations.  And waving your library
		card like it gave you diplomatic immunity
because you’re the worst of us because 
you’re the only one who should know better…
Where do you think you’re going?

		O’JOHN
Chinatown.

		VITO
It’s the same there too.

		O’JOHN
But I cant understand what they’re saying.

The elevator comes and he gets on.  The defective at the wheel 
and he stare at each other.

FREEZE FRAME

CU THE OLD MAN

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		He looked at me with a please-don’t-hurt-me 
expression.  He might be gay, more likely an
intellectual.  In fact, he looked like a college
SUSAN SONTAGessor who didn’t get tenure 
and has been on the skids ever since.

START MOTION

		O’JOHN
The Ides Of March have come.

		ELEVATOR MAN
	(smiling like a werewolf)
But not yet gone, Caesar.

The elevator disappears down the shaft with a subway train rumble.

CONTINUITY SHOTS:

1: Outside there’s a funny little park behind Chinatown.  It’s deserted
    and the fake pagodas give it the look of a carnival with the tents down.

2: He finds a deserted restaurant on East Broadway.  The menu is in Chinese
    and no one speaks English.  He points at something random on the menu
    playing Chinese roulette.
 3:  It turns out to be sea urchins.  They look like transparent  tampons.
      Then a high-pitched argument breaks out in the kitchen.  Amazingly,
       it turns into a fight and spills out into the restaurant.   He throws a 
       bill on the table and leaves.

4:    Riding a Honda 750 through the night.

INT. O’JOHN’S APARTMENT (A HORROR MOVIE)

He’s met at the door by an enormous tomcat.  The beast pays for his 
food with his one trick.  He walks in a circle and then rears like a circus
horse.  He feeds the cat and pours himself a triple shot of Scotch.

He looks in the mirror.  He doesn’t like what he sees.  He closes his eyes
and gulps the Scotch.  He looks in the mirror again.  He still doesn’t like
what he sees.  He takes out his pistol to kill himself.  The cat jumps on
the table in front of him and meows with concern.

He puts the gun away and pets the cat, absently, then he climbs into 
bed with the bottle of Scotch and a glass.

EXT. HIGHWAY (RAINY NIGHT)

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
			Not a bad dream, really, I mean considering.

AN AMAZON is riding a big Harley through the night.  The air is full of
wind and rain.  The night is very black, but the wet street is strangely 
smooth and assembles the ambient light.

The Amazon and her machine look glossily obscene as a Helmut
Newton photograph, every reflective surface glaring a sexual innuendo.  There’s a hoarse honking behind her and looks back.  2 MEN in black 
leather on big cycles are coming up behind her.  

One of them waves a cheery cavalry charge salute.  She smiles, teeth 
and goggles gleaming and slows down so they can catch up, guiding 
her bike so that she will be between them when they come even with 
her.  But when they reach her, it isn’t 2 cycles it’s the headlights of a
gigantic semi-.  BLAM.  SPLAT,

INT. O’JOHN’S APARTMENT (MORNING)

He sits up in bed with a bang.  The cat is standing on the pillow,
staring at him fixidly and purring loudly.

					O’JOHN
			Anytime you want to swap jobs, it’s cool.

EXT. STREET (SUNNY MORNING)

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
			It wasn’t Spring, but Winter wasn’t trying very hard.

He walks into his office building.  There’s a middle-aged woman
talking to the doorman.  He points to O’John and she rushes over
with her mouth open.

FREEZE FRAME:

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
			I couldn’t tell if she were old or just naturally ugly.
			Her dental work looked like a Lionel train set.

START MOTION:

					WOMAN
			Michael O’John, the detective?

					O’JOHN
			Discreet investigations our specialty.

					WOMAN
			You’ve got to find my husband.

She begins hopping from one foot to the other.

					O’JOHN
			If he doesn’t come home to a woman
			like you, he must have amnesia.  When
			and where was he last seen?

					WOMAN
			I don’t remember, it was 5 years ago.
		
					O’JOHN
			Wait 2 years and you can have the court 
declare him dead.

She keeps talking MOS.
					O’JOHN (V.O.)
			Her glasses had gone askew, it made her 
eyes look run together like 2 fried eggs.

		WOMAN
I want him alive!

		O’JOHN
Do you know where he is?

		WOMAN
If I knew that what the fuck would I be playing 
with you?

		O’JOHN
I could bring him back for you, that’s what.
But if you don’t know where he is, I cant find 
him, not after 5 years.

He walks to the elevator.  She follows him in, but he pushes her
back out.  She screams and pounds on the door as the elevator
goes up.  He shouts back at her through the door.

INT. HALLWAY (DIM AND GRIM)

He walks to his office.  The lights are on.  Calmly he pulls a combat
magnum and cocks it.  He holds it slightly behind his back as he opens
the door,

Sitting behind his desk is a 6 FT. SHIKSA SHOWGIRL wearing black 
leather and a knowing smile.  She has red-chestnut hair.  She looks 
good in black.  It’s the Amazon from his dream.  He puts the gun away.

				O’JOHN
		Have we met?

				AMAZON
		Oh, yes.

Her voice has a surprising delicacy.

				O’JOHN
		I’d remember.

				AMAZON
		You weren’t looking at my face.

He squeezes his eyes tight shut and rubs his face with his gun hand.

				O’JOHN
		Oh, like that.  How did you get in?

				AMAZON
		I gave the janitor $10.  You wont have
		him fired, will you?

				O’JOHN
		I cant, they have a union.  How long has
		your poodle been missing?

				AMAZON
		I beg your pardon?

				O’JOHN
		Just an inspired guess.  You want to find
		your lost poodle.

				AMAZON
		I can tell you’re tired.

				O’JOHN
		It’s the Phillip Marlow manner.  The clients
		expect it.  They find it reassuring.

She stands up.  She’s taller than he is.  She sits down in front of 
his desk.  

				O’JOHN (continuing)
		You’re still taller.  That’s strange.  Most of
		the variation is in the legs.

				AMAZON
		Focus, Mr. O’John, Focus.  I want you to find
		the whereabouts of Graham Savage.  He was
		a rock musician and, naturally his group was
		called Savage Grace.

				O’JOHN
		“Was”, past tense?

				AMAZON
		He disappeared 3 years ago, September 11. 
		He took advantage of the confusion to take
		someone else’s ID and vanish.  I know, 
because he’s been sighted.

		O’JOHN
There are sightings of Elvis too.  Why don’t we
look for him instead?  We could sign him to an 
exclusive contract.
	
				AMAZON
		Please.

				O’JOHN
		Sorry.  Pictures?

				AMAZON
		He was almost killed in the fall of the towers.  
There was extensive facial reconstruction.  
And there might have been brain damage.  
He may have amnesia.

				O’JOHN
		No, he doesn’t.  Identifying marks, scars,
		anything like that?

				AMAZON
		I don’t know, we weren’t that close.  Next
		you’ll be saying: it’s a beautiful case, I could
		milk this one for years…

				O’JOHN
		..but I cant take your money.  Look, Miss…

				AMAZON
		Not “Miss” anything.  Just ‘Azriel’.

				O’JOHN
		Azriel, I’m a little unclear about what you want 
me to do.

		AZRIEL
Find him.

				O’JOHN
		He’s been gone 5 years.  The people who know 
him think they’ve known him all their lives.  There’s 
no way to recognize him and you tell me that even 
he doesn’t know who he is.  He doesn’t exist.  
I cant find a man who doesn’t exist.  

		AZRIEL
But you can look for him when he doesn’t exist.

		O’JOHN
Did she really say that?  You didn’t really say
that, did you?

The phone rings right on cue.  He stares at her as though he thought
she was responsible.  It keeps ringing.

				AZRIEL
		Shouldn’t you answer that?

				O’JOHN
		No.

and he picks up the phone.  It’s Vito.

				VITO (V.O.)
		Thunder buns, I send you a client today.

				O’JOHN
		Oh, I am so very sorry, Slippery Lips, but I have
just taken a case that will keep me fully occupied 
for at least 15 years.

				VITO (V.O.)
		I told you yesterday, I’m sending you a client!!

				O’JOHN
		Gee, Honey, I don’t know what happened.  I don’t 
remember a thing.  I must have had amnesia.  That’s 
the only way I could have ended up in a motel room 
with 3 dykes, a great Dane, Boy George and the 
entire Harlem Globetrotters team.

The phone begins to emit horrid noises.  He hangs up.

		(to Azriel)
	By the way, amnesia doesn’t exist, that’s pulp fiction.  
If your boy shows up claiming amnesia, he’s lying, 
but pretend to believe him.

				AZRIEL
		Does that mean you’ll take the case?

				O’JOHN
		Yeah, I guess.  You were saying?

She opens her bag and then puts a stack of $100 bills on the desk.
She pushes it toward him.

				O’JOHN (continuing)
		Yeah, tell me some people he used to know.
		They might tell me something useful.

				AZRIEL
		Start with this one.  Evil John Conigliero.

She hands him a picture of an emaciated junkie.

				AZRIEL (continuing)
		Get to him today.  There’s a $10,000 reward
		out for him ad, if business stays bad, I’ll turn
		him in myself.

He turns the picture over.  There’s an address written on the back:
697 East 3rd Street, apt. 6-F.

				O’JOHN
		Sounds simple enough.

EXT. ST. MARKS/2ND AVE.  (DEEP NIGHT)

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		I made him in the corner candy store picking
		out $10 worth of penny candy  His expression
		said it was a big moment in his life

				O’JOHN 
		Hey, Evil John!

Evil John takes one look and sets off at a gallop. His shopping bag is
bouncing up and down, leaving a trail of M&M’s.  O’John chases him 
a block and then gives up as Evil John takes off across back yards,
knocking over garbage cans behind him.

O’John checks the address on the back of the picture and walks there
slowly.  He climbs to the 6th floor and finds 6-F.  There are a variety of
locks. but none of them were on.  He slips the latch with a credit card,
walks in and sits down to wait.

The walls are covered with rock posters and photographs of Savage 
Grace.  One of them shows all five members of the group.  Two of 
them were X’d across and the date of their deaths written beneath.

The Three left alive are Evil John and Graham Savage and someone
named Thomas Jefferson Rozzo.

Then there was the sound of someone running up 6 flights of stairs.
Evil John careened out of the stair well, lurched through the door 
and leaned against the wall, panting explosively.  He pulled himself 
together and slammed the door shut.  He flipped on the lock, the 
police lock, the dead bolt and 3 sets of chains.  So far he was too 
busy to notice O’John.

					O’JOHN
			Hi.

Evil John froze, vibrating between equal pulls of anger and fear, then 
he frantically tried to unlock the door, but his fingers would not obey 
him.  He’s scratching at the door like a cat.  The Evil John, very softly 
began to cry.

					O’JOHN
			I’m not a cop.
					
				EVIL JOHN
		I don’t…I don’t…

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		Whatever it was that he said he didn’t do,
		it was obvious that he did.

				O’JOHN
		You alright?  yeah, that’s about what I figured.
		You don’t mind if I record this, do you?

				EVIL JOHN
			(with perfectly normal breath control)
		What do you want?

				O’JOHN
		I don’t want you.  I want Savage Grace.
		Where is he?

				EVIL JOHN
		He isn’t.

				O’JOHN
		The picture says he’s alive.

				EVIL JOHN
		Maybe, but if that’s the way he wanted it
I wont help you find him.

		O’JOHN
Who were his friends?

		EVIL JOHN
He didn’t have any.

		O’JOHN
Except one.

and he offers Evil John a cigarette.  He takes it.

		You know a 6 ft. redheaded woman named Azriel?

Evil John freezes for a second then takes a running dive through
the window, head on into the steel gate.  It’s unlocked and swung
out like a telescoping arm.  Evil John dropped from sight.  It’s the
6th floor and there’s no fire escape.

O’John walks to the window and looks out.  Evil John was in a tree
monkey-barring his way down.  He’s almost to the ground when 2 
kill-crazy Rottweillers chase him back up.  Evil John sits in the tree
crying.

EXT. STAGE OF A ROCK CONCERT (NIGHT)

The group Savage Grace is on stage and things are going badly.
The crowd decides to make their own excitement by rushing the 
stage.  At 1st, it’s 1 or 2 at a time and security is beating them back 
with pool cues.  Then it’s 3 and 4 and 5 in a rush and it turns into 
a war.  

Savage Grace smashes his guitar and the musicians retreat back 
stage.Savage Grace takes another guitar off a rack.  

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
Apparently he used them up like Kleenex.

				SAVAGE GRACE
I lost it.

				EVIL JOHN
		You never had it, but you find it or lie about it
because we can get killed out there, you know.  
It’s not impossible, it has happened.  Focus!

He walks back on stage with the rest of the group, leaving him alone.  
They begin to play some driving death rock that cools out the crowd.  

A cute, serious, Greenwich Village BLACK GIRL appears out of nowhere
and walk up to him. He looks annoyed.

				BLACK GIRL
		Quite a performance.

				SAVAGE GRACE
		Sold my soul to break my heart.

				BLACK GIRL
		That isn’t what happened.  More like the
		Little Mermaid, don’t you think?
		
He has to laugh at that.
		
				SAVAGE GRACE
I’m convinced.  I want it back.

		BLACK GIRL
There’s a price this time.

		SAVAGE GRACE
I’ll give anything,

Something white flutters in her hand.
		
				BLACK GIRL
		Anything?  That’s quite an offer.

				SAVAGE GRACE
		Forget it.
				
				BLACK GIRL
		They’re waiting for you on stage.

The noise doubles. The crowd is getting meaner, it sounds like a prison riot.

SAVAGE GRACE
			Alright.  All Right ALL RIGHT!

A white  butterfly flies straight into his face.  He tries to swat it away, but 
there’s nothing there.  He looks around.  The Black girl is receding fast
without walking.

He picks up his guitar and walks back on stage.  Suddenly he’s playing
better, much better, incredibly better.  The rest of the group is too, just
trying to keep up.  They’re flying and the crowd is in rapture.
				
INT. EVIL JOHN’S APT.

				O’JOHN
		Hey, Evil John!

But Evil John has managed to hang himself.  His toes point straight 
down.  The Rottweillers are at the base of the tree, jaws on their paws 
and whining worriedly.  O’John finds a black felt topped pen.  He walks
to the group portrait and inks a large X across the image of Evil John
and wrote the date beneath it.

He picks up a phone book and looks for Thomas Rozzo.  There are 15.
He slams the book shut.  He opens it again.  There are still 15, but only
one Thomas J.  The book flutters closed.

INT. LAW OFFICE (DAY)

POV goes through an opening door that has Thomas J. Rozzo, esq.
on a brass plate.  Rozzo is leading O’John to a rear office.

					ROZZO
			So, it turned out there was still time to go back
			to law school.

					O’JOHN
			Better?

					ROZZO
			It’s a trap like everything else.  So...?

					O’JOHN
			Savage Grace.

					ROZZO
			Yeah, he was good, the best, that part’s true.
			Goddamn that man could play.

					O’JOHN
			I’ll get a CD.

					ROZZO
			No, that’s the thing: you couldn’t can it, he came
			across live, but on disk he was just one more
			screamer.  Like Coltrane.  The passion was real,
			but musically it was trivial.
					
					O’JOHN
			Savage Grace.

					ROZZO
			Yeah.  I wish you could have heard him live.

					O’JOHN
			I might yet.  He’s not dead.

					ROZZO
			They say that about everyone.

					O’JOHN
			In this case, it’s true.  He’s alive.

					ROZZO
			That sucks.

					O’JOHN
			Seems to be the general opinion.  I don’t know
			why.  I thought you made allowances for things
			like talent.

				ROZZO
		You been talking to Evil John, that asshole.
		He loves everyone, a real degenerate. NO.
		If Graham is alive, I haven’t seen him.  If I
		did see him, I wouldn’t see him.  It’s been
		great talking to you, goodbye!

				O’JOHN
		I don’t understand.

				ROZZO
		Why should you?  Look, I’ve got a client
		waiting.

				O’JOHN
		You know a red headed woman named Azriel?

				ROZZO
		There’s no need for threats.  I’m cooperating
		fully.  He had a daughter, if you’ll believe that.  
Her name is Meg.  She has a boutique, she had 
it, I think she still does, a sex shop called The 
Triumph of Aphrodite, Chelsea, 9th Avenue 
around 38.

				O’JOHN
		That’s Hell’s Kitchen.

				ROZZO
		You’re a real comedian.  It’s the flower market,
		they’re open all night.

O’John turns to go.

				O’JOHN
		But why run? Why fake being dead?

				ROZZO
		He was into some weird shit toward the end.

				O’JOHN
		Like what?

				ROZZO
		Like I expect you’ll find out.

EXT. STREET (DEEP NIGHT)

The Triumph of Aphrodite: Aphrodisiacs is between 2 wholesale florists.
There’s a tall girl of 17 at the back counter.  She has a round cheeked
cheer leader’s face.  She looks like she bakes good apple pie.

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		I found it on 9th Avenue between 2 wholesale florists.
		A lot of the stores had their lights on and their doors
		open, but the street looks empty.

He checks his watch.

		It was 11:30, about 3 hours before the retail florists
		began showing up to buy their flowers for the day.
		
There was nothing else to do so, I went in.

He walks in.
				MEG
		Excuse me, but you don’t look like 
		you need an aphrodisiac.

				O’JOHN
		I need all the help I can get.

				MEG
		Then you don’t like what you’re getting or
		you lost your confidence.  You wont find it
		here.

				O’JOHN
		I thought you were supposed to try to sell 
this stuff?

				MEG
		I do, usually, but you’re a cop.

				O’JOHN
		No, I just keep my face blank with people I don’t
		know.  It avoids a lot of trouble in this city.

				MEG
		It avoids everything.

				O’JOHN
		Do I interest you or are you just practicing?

				MEG
		Do you care, Mr…?	

				O’JOHN
		O’John.  I was looking for the owner and you’re
		too young to be her.
				
				MEG
		No I’m not.

				O’JOHN
		Excuse me.

				MEG
		Does that mean you did a bad thing and 
didn’t mean it or you did a good thing and 
I don’t now it?

				O’JOHN
		Why do you play these dumb games?

				MEG
		I guess I’m bored and you’re not helping much.

				O’JOHN
		I’d like to see you again.

				MEG
		Zowie!, Pow!, Zippo Bam! … At least you don’t
		want to be mothered.  The men who com in here.
		…You remind me of my father , vaguely.

				O’JOHN
		That would explain it, but why make it so 
complicated?

				MEG
It’s not complicated, but you keep changing 
the subject.

		O’JOHN
I’m looking for Savage Grace.

		MEG
See, that’s what I mean.

He takes 3 slow breaths.			
				
					O’JOHN
			Let’s solve our problems one at a time.  Your father
			isn’t dead.  I know they always say that about a rock
			star: it was a publicity stunt or the only way he could 
escape the trap.

This time it’s true.  Have you seen him?

		MEG
Only in my dreams

		O’JOHN
There’s a lot of it going around.  There’s a woman
named Azriel looking for him.

She ducks behind the counter and comes up with a pump shotgun.
She lays it across the counter pointed at his stomach.

				O’JOHN (continuing)
		I changed my mind, I want to be mothered

				MEG
		Get out.

				O’JOHN
		Who’s Azriel?

It’s clear that he doesn’t know.

				MEG
		I suggest you find out.  If you’re wondering what 
she has in mind, that’s the name of the angel of 
death.  Look it up!

He walks out and diagonally across the street and lounges in a
darkened doorway.

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		I didn’t have long to wait.  She talked frantically 
on the phone and closed the shop with in 10 
minutes.

She strides away up 9th into Hell’s Kitchen.  He catches up to her.

				O’JOHN
		Can we talk?

				MEG
		Why do you want to kill my father?

				O’JOHN
		Have you stopped beating your wife?

				MEG
		Which one?

				O’JOHN
		Right.

				MEG
		Make a choice: Which of us do you want,
		him or me?

				O’JOHN
		I have to choose right now?

				MEG
		Or I choose for you.

				O’JOHN
		I choose you.

They passed an over lit boutique.  She pointed to a dress.

				MEG
		What do you think?

				O’JOHN
		It sets off your hair, but the color is
		a bit piercing.

				MEG
		That’s why I like to go shopping with a man.
		(PAUSE)
		Anyway, you couldn’t find him after all this time.

				O’JOHN
		Only if he wants to be found.

				MEG
		Strange thing to say.

They had passed Lincoln Center and were approaching the fierce
looking slums behind it.  3 3RD WORLD MUGGERS appeared out
of an alley and closed in on them, eyes half closed, mouth half open.

He put his hand on his piece and smiled at them.  They kept coming.
Meg started to squeak and hung onto his right arm.  He threw her off.

				O’JOHN
		Not on the gun arm.

and passed her around to his left.  The 3 muggers did a 90 degree
turn like it was close order drill and sauntered off.

				MEG
		Yes, there is something to be said for having 
a man around.

INT. MEG’S APARTMENT (VINTAGE BOHEMIAN)

No chairs, lot of cushions.  He’s sitting on the floor.  She’s in the kitchen 
brewing an enormous pot of powerful black tea.  She pours him some 
and fills the rest of the cup with cheap brandy.

				MEG
		Why didn’t you kill them, you had a
		perfect excuse.

				O’JOHN
		It wasn’t necessary.

				MEG
		I would have thought you like that sort of thing.

				O’JOHN
		It’s like any other kind of solitaire, you have to
		play it by the rules or it takes all the fun out of it.
		
		MEG
		You’re quoting.  Educated men use quotes the 
way ignorant men use clichés, when they’re afraid 
of the experience they’re having and trying to get 
some distance from it.

				O’JOHN
		Hey, give it a rest, I’ve had a long day.  
		What am I doing here?
				
				MEG
		It just happened, that’s all.  What’s wrong with that?

and she sat down on the floor beside him.  She puts her hands on his 
thighs and eases his knees apart.  He doesn’t react.

			Are you afraid of me?

					O’JOHN
I’m not that smart.

		MEG
Let’s start with a back rub.

She turns him on his stomach and climbs on his back.

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
			She was good at it.  It took a strangely
			Long time to realize I’d been drugged.	
			Hog tranquillizer because the visions 
were alive and powerful.	

DREAM SEQUENCES

INT. LIVING ROOM (BLOOMINGDALE’S WINDOW STYLE)

Some middle aged suits are staging a Black Mass, reciting Latin prayers backwards and all the usual nonsense the witches had gotten into after 
they had forgotten their own traditions.

A MAN on the altar is being whipped.  He yelps and stuffs a copy of
the Village Voice into his pants.  Graham shakes his head in disgust
and turns away.

				PLUMPISH MAN
		You must not defile our ceremony!

				SAVAGE GRACE
		God bless you!

and the plumpish man staggers off, cringing with his hands over his face.

INT.  A BALLROOM IS THE HAITIAN PART OF HARLEM

A VooDoo ceremony is in progress, but it’s kind of homey, like the one
in BLACK ORPHEUS.  Savage Grace is talking to the HOGUN who’s 
wearing an Indian war bonnet with plastic feathers.

					HOGUN
			We know nothing of this.  We are men of God
			and enemies of the Devil.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			Thank  you, I’ll just have to keep trying

EXT.  A BOMBED OUT CITY (NIGHT)

The tracers are whizzing by overhead like in the siege of Baghdad.
SAVAGE GRACE is sitting against a fragment of wall with AN 
ELEGANTLY DRESSED FAT MAN.  They each have a frozen 
daiquiri with an umbrella.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			You come here often?

					FAT MAN
			Every day in my dreams.

The umbrella turns into a butterfly and takes off.  ONE OF THE LOCALS
is running around with a burning tire pinning his arms to his sides.  He’s
screaming but there’s no sound.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			It’s a zoo.  

					FAT MAN
			It’s like any other kind of politics: the price
			of activism is the company you keep.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			How do you break a contract with the Devil?

					FAT MAN
			You hire a stand in, of course.

INT. LIBRARY (STRICTLY MASTERPIECE THEATRE)

SMASH CUT.  They’re still holding their drinks.  Then the fat man takes
a massive folio volume down off a high shelf.  He turns the pages
ponderously until he finds what he wants.  There are some geometric
diagrams.  The rest of the page is densely written in a tiny crabbed
medieval script.

The fat man begins to read MOS, pointing out things on the page and
translating them.  Savage Grace begins to relax, then slowly he began
to smile.  The fat man stops reading and looks pleased with himself
peeping over his bifocals in the Ben Franklin manner.  They beam at
each other.

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MEG’S APT. HOUSE (FALSE DAWN)

Rozzo and ANOTHER FREAK are carrying O’John out of the building.
He’s semi-conscious, but unable to move.  They’re holding him up and
pretending he’s drunk.

					ROZZO
			Come on, Manny, don’t act that way.  people
			are watching.

Meg comes running down the stairs.

					MEG
			No, this has gone far enough!  This isn’t what
			I agreed to.  Stop it!

They ignore her then Vito comes out from behind a car with an army 
.45 that rattles as he walks and Meg fades into the shadows.

					VITO
			Dishway, Black Powah, we got an IQ test
			design for YOU.

FREEZE FRAME

					O’JOHN (V.O.)
Which is kind of inappropriate since the clowns 
carrying me are both fish-belly white, but maybe 
that was the intention.

They had to stop to think about it and by that time
it was over.  It usually is.

START MOTION

Rozzo & Co. put O’John in Vito’s car.  Vito takes their watches and 
money and shoes.

				VITO
		Drop the knife!

Rozzo & Co. look at each other.  Neither of them has a knife.   Belatedly 
they  realize the Vito is preparing to shoot them and they take off running,
bouncing off each other as they stumble around the corner.

Vito laughs, gets in the car and drives.

INT. CAGE ELEVATOR

O’John sees it upside down.  Vito has him over his shoulder, holding
him around the knees.  The elevator operator giggles and nods approval,
giving Vito the Black Power salute.

INT.  VITO’S OFFICE (DAY)

When O’John wakes up.  Vito is completing a bail bond contract with 
an elegantly dressed BLACK COUPLE.  Vito and the Black man smile 
at each other conspiratorially.

				BLACK MAN
		Well, I like to do business with one bondsman.

				BLACK WOMAN
		Wait!, did you say you were going to need a
		bondsman again?

They exit arguing.  As soon as they’re gone and the door safely closed,
Vito pulls a .25 automatic out of his watch pocket.

				VITO
		Now, you little bastard, I’ve been after you 
for weeks!

O’John opens his eyes.  Vito fires again.  O’John sits up groggily, but
Vito is leaping around the room banging away.  Vito bends over behind
the desk with the .25 in his teeth and holding an apparently dead rat by
the tail.

He sees that O’John is awake.  He tucks the rat under his arm, the tail
hanging down his sleeve, and pours a cup of coffee.  He holds it out to
O’John.  He takes it.  He tastes it.  He pours it out on the floor.

				O’JOHN
		Azriel is the client you sent me.

				VITO
		You just figured that out?

He drops the rat in the wastebasket and turns away.  The rat peeps
out to check that the coast is clear then runs for it.

				O’JOHN
		It’s too late now.  He’s skipped, the daughter
		skipped.  It’s over.

				VITO
		Run?, from YOU?  She’s probably at home
		wondering why you don’t call.

The O’John sees the bail jumper girl he caught 2 days before. She’s
sitting in a straight backed chair with one wrist handcuffed to the door
knob of the closet.  She’s been beaten.  One half of her face is swollen 
and discolored and she looks like a battered child.  Vito is still talking.

		He didn’t run either.  He’s got a 5 year pattern 
going, if he breaks the pattern, he’s naked.  
Nobody skipped.

				O’JOHN
		She’s still here?  Why don’t you turn her in?

				VITO
		What’s the rush?, the hearing’s not for 3 days.

				GIRL
		Stop staring at me!

She claps her hand over the disfigured half of her face.  O’John looks away.

				O’JOHN
		All this and she’s worried about how she looks.

				VITO
		Yeah, women, God bless ‘em.

				O’JOHN
		Let her go.

				VITO
		One musical comedy stunt and you think suddenly
		you’re a nice guy?

				O’JOHN
		Let her go.

				VITO
		Hey, old buddy, why don’t you grab the girl 
		and shoot your way out.?

				O’JOHN
		Tell Azriel I quit.

				VITO
		Savage Grace said that too.  It did him a lot
		of good.  You think you’ll do better?  Get on 
with it.

		O’JOHN
			One question.  Who is she?  Why does everyone
			go crazy when I mention her name?  Why is she
			chasing this sad little washed up rock musician?

					VITO
			You ever read much Raymond Chandler?  You
			should.  The motives don’t make sense, just
			like in real life.

O’John walks out, slamming the door hard enough to give the
frosted glass a new set of cracks.

					VITO (V.O.)
			The simple pleasures of the poor.

INT. ROZZO’S APT. (DARK)

The phone is ringing.  Rozzo comes in the front door and
rushes to the phone in the darkness.

					ROZZO
Hello…Why didn’t you check that you were 
being followed…Oh, that makes a difference…
Yeah, I’m leaving tonight… No, I got an angle, 
I can head him off of he shows up…I’ll watch 
out, thank you for nothing.

He hangs up.  O’John  comes out and hits him in the kidneys
with a pistol butt.

	What are you doing?

			O’JOHN
	Renegotiating the relationship.

He whacks Rozzo in the shins with the gun butt and Rozzo sits down
heavily.  O’John kicks him in the stomach and Rozzo falls over gasping 
for breath.

	Tell me about it.

Then he sees an invitation next to the phone.  It appears to be in Latin,
written in an angular medieval hand.  He pockets it; Rozzo sees him do it.

			ROZZO
	The phone.  That was him.  Savage Grace.
	He wants to talk to you about it.

			O’JOHN
	Why didn’t you say so before?

			ROZZO
	You didn’t give me a chance.  Be on the
	11:55 copter to Kennedy.  From the 63rd
	Street heliport.

			O’JOHN
	Sure, Baby, of course I will.  Tell him I’ll be
	sucking on a bread stick with a bullseye
	pasted to my forehead.

He kicks Rozzo once more and then he leaves.

INT. WORKING CLASS BAR (NIGHT)

Cab drivers, hookers and small insular group of lab technicians
wearing white lab coats.  O’John sits down next to one of them,
a middle aged black man with the air of a preacher.  His name
is HENRY.
	
			HENRY
	Where you been, Man?  Good to see you.

			O’JOHN
	Henry, you studied Latin?

			HENRY
	Of course I studied Latin.  I studied in a
	Catholic school in the Islands where, if you
	were called up on and did not know your 
	lesson, you received a concussion.  Omnia
	galli en tres partes divertes est…

O’John hands him the invitation.

	It’s medieval writing, Man.  The way they wrote
	before the cursive script was introduced in the
	16th century.

			O’JOHN
	Henry, what does it say?

			HENRY
	Everyone loves you, Man.  It’s your friends they 
don’t like.  It’s to the Feast Of Lupercal, the Roman 
festival of fertility.  That’s March 15.

		O’JOHN
Where?

		HENRY
	(puzzled)
The 3rd floor of the Whitney Museum?  Where you
going, Man?.  That’s not for 3 days.

		O’JOHN
I got to meet someone at 11:55

EXT. BAR (NIGHT)

TWO HEAVIES are approaching at a 90 degree angle.

			O’JOHN (V.O)
	Isn’t that interesting, an optimal attack pattern.
	A what?!

			HEAVY #1
	My friend, Azriel says that you are not doing right.
	We come to discuss that with you.  Why is it that
	you are not doing right?

			O’JOHN
	Talk about simplistic.

			HEAVY#2
	No offense, but we got to check that 
you’re unarmed.

and then Heavy#2 gets between O’John and Heavy#1.

			O’JOHN (V.O.)
	And suddenly the odds changed.
	I could deal with them one at a time.

which he does.  There’s a MOTOR CYCLIST waiting for the light
to change O’John knocks him off with one kick, jumps on and
takes off.

CHASE: He’s on a motorcycle being chased by cop cars.  I’ll skip
the choreography, but he loses one set of pursuers by driving the
cycle down and through the subway (as in DIVA).  

He loses a 2nd set of pursuers by taking the cycle back and forth
on the pedestrian bridges over the East Side Drive.  He ends up
at the 63rd Street heliport just as a helicopter is taking off.  He
checks his watch.  It’s 11:55.  There’s a FLIGHT ATTENDENT
to meet him.  The copter pilot takes it in a lazy circle to give the 
passengers a view of the city at night before heading south.  

			O’JOHN
	Can you describe the passengers for me?

			FLIGHT ATTENDENT
	No passengers.  No flights this late; he’s
	going home.

			O’JOHN
	He’s taking the scenic route.

			FLIGHT ATTENDENT
	Habit.  He always does that.  Something wrong?

			O’JOHN
	No, I guess not.

Just then the helicopter explodes in a giant chrysanthemum of 
orange-red flame.

			FLIGHT ATTENDENT
	Oh, Christ, am I gonna get in trouble for this!

O’John slowly walks away with fireworks in the background.

INT. TAXI (NIGHT)

			TAXI DRIVER
	I don’t know, Man, I get these people want to
	go to an underground club cause they read 
about it in some magazine and I say: 

You ever been there before, you know what 
kind of place this is?  And they say: what kind 
of place is it?  and I say…

		O’JOHN
A bucket of blood.

		TAXI DRIVER
Aren’t you a little old for this?  They’ll think 
you’re a cop.  In fact, I think you’re a cop.

		O’JOHN
Close, baritone sax.  The buck stops here.

		TAXI DRIVER
Gotcha.

INT. UNDERGROUND ROCK CLUB (GRUNGE)

It’s a converted garage.  There’s an inch of water on the floor.
The ROCK GROUP is roaring at full career, but something is 
wrong with one of the speakers.  It begins to crackle.  The LEAD 
GUITARIST jerks his head and A TECHIE runs on stage and 
starts futzing with the amplifier.  The cracking noises get worse.  
The lead guitarist starts to smash his guitar in the Savage Grace 
manner.

				O’JOHN
		NOOOOOO!

He rushes the stage.  He gets through the guards, decks the lead
guitarist with a kick to the knee, takes the guitar away from him and
runs for it using the guitar like a cudgel staff.

He exits thorough the stage entrance with the guards, the guitarist
and the crowd in full pursuit.  He’s somewhere in Loisaida.  The street
lights have been shot out and the street is full of the people your mother
warned you about.

He runs throwing stun grenades behind him.  This being Loisaida and
everyone has a gun, this might be the place for some John Woo bullet
ballet.  I’d like to see him with 2 six shooters doing the Reno Pass ----
a simultaneous right and left Border Shift ---- I don’t know how John 
Woo could have missed that one.

Anyway, he manages to escape the pack and duck down an alley.  
He looks at the guitar, throws it down and walks away.

INT. AFTER HOURS BAR (FOREIGN AND QUIET)

The CLIENTELE are mostly very good looking, very stupid and very
crazy, maybe Albanian.  O’JOHN is talking to TWO MUSICIANS.

				MUSICIAN #1
		It looked like the start of something new and it was 
for awhile, but it was too limited.   Like Coltrane,
		driving himself crazy, trying to find a way to break 
the rules that would lead on to  something new.  

				MUSICIAN #2
		He never found it.  I’d like to believe the last albums
		were brilliant, but they sound like the struggles of 
a maniac in a straightjacket.

				O’JOHN
		Yeah, the only way out was rock and roll.

				MUSICIAN #2
		Now that’s gone too.

				O’JOHN
		Did you ever know Savage Grace?

				MUSICIAN #1
		Yeah, he made the jump to rock and roll, but 
like that.  Like Coltrane.  Like he was trying to 
bypass the  music and get to you directly.  All 
that courage and fury.

		If you ever saw him live, you’ll remember it for
		the rest of your life, but on disk there’s almost
		nothing there.

				O’JOHN
		Did you know him?

				MUSICIAN #1
		Slightly.  He didn’t want any friends, not 
hostile, just into his own head.

		O’JOHN
You like him?

		MUSICIAN #1
Anyone who loves anything that much, 
that purely, has got to be kind of likable.  

		O’JOHN
Was he religious?

		MUSICIAN #1
RELIGIOUS?!  Well, I’ll go along with Paul
Tillich who said that there is no clear line 
between the secular and the sacred.  If you
get into anything deeply enough, it’s essence
becomes spiritual.

Religious?  Well, I guess you might say that.  
I never would, but you might.

				O’JOHN
		He’s not dead.

				MUSICIAN #1
		Who’s not dead?

				O’JOHN
		Savage Grace.  He got careless.  Some people
		know he’s alive and they’re looking for him.

Long silence.

				MUSICIAN #1
		I’ll tell him.

The musicians look at him, look at each other and get up and
walk away with out a word.

INT. HALL OUTSIDE MEG’S APARTMENT

O’John knocks on the door and Meg opens it.

			MEG
	Come in, I’ve been expecting you.

			O’JOHN
	Why didn’t you run?

			MEG
	Run where and what do I do when I get there?

			O’JOHN
	That’s the most depressing view of life I’ve 
ever heard!

		MEG
You going to kill me?

		O’JOHN
No, I’m working for the bad guys so,
you must be the good guys.

		MEG
Cant argue with logic like that.  Are you staying?

		O’JOHN
Sitting down.  I’m kind of tired.

		MEG
So I hear.  Rozzo phoned me.

		O’JOHN
I’m going to have to do something about him.

		MEG
You could try leaving him alone.  No, sit there,
I’ll get you some chamomile tea and an oatmeal 
cookie.  It’ll calm you down.

and she bustles into the kitchen.

			O’JOHN
	Aren’t you frightened?

			MEG
	No, I like you.  When I was a little girl, I dreamt 
of this horrible monster that came into my room 
at night to kill me, but he couldn’t because I liked 
him.

			O’JOHN
	Women, God bless ‘em.

			MEG
	Get a grip.  I’ll be with you in a minute.

He’s been looking through a scrap book of Savage Grace he found on
the coffee table.  He flips through it slowly.  Savage Grace looked out
of the photographs with a knowing smile as if they shared a private joke.

There was a clipping from Rolling Stone lamenting his death.  There
were Xeroxes of the death certificate and coroner’s report.  He slipped
them out of the plastic holder and put them in his wallet.			

Meg appears with tea and cookies.

			O’JOHN
	Your man, the Savage, who’s chasing him.

			MEG
	You ought to know, you work for them.

			O’JOHN
	Yeah, I ought to know, but I don’t.  But why
	doesn’t everyone just act like they don’t know
	what I’m talking about.  There’s no defense
	against that.

			MEG
	Don’t play games, I thought we were friends.

She bends over him and give him mouth to mouth.

EXT. STAGE OF A ROCK CONCERT (NIGHT)

The group Savage Grace is on stage and things are going badly.
The crowd is jeering and chanting their contempt.  Soon they’re
drowning out the music and things look to get physical.  Security 
is on the cell phones calling for back up, calling for police.  Savage
Grace smashes his guitar as usual.  No one is interested.

The musicians retreat back stage.

				SAVAGE GRACE
		Look, there were always musicians who had
		contempt for the music they played, like
		Miles Davis the definitive creep.

				EVIL JOHN
		Yeah, but he could create emotion even if
		he felt nothing himself.  You make a point
		of saying there’s nothing happening here
		except your technique and your technique
		isn’t that.

				SAVAGE GRACE
Wynton Marsallis…

		EVIL JOHN
…has a great ear, he would’ve made a fine
piano tuner, but he’s Classical and they can
get away with anything. Now, Focus!
		
He walks back on stage with the rest of the group, leaving him alone.  
They begin to play some driving death rock that cools out the crowd.  

A cute, serious, Greenwich Village BLACK GIRL appears out of nowhere
and walk up to him. He looks annoyed.

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		And there she was, standing in the moonlight
		like a gravy spot in a lace doily.

				BLACK GIRL
		Black turn you off?

				SAVAGE GRACE
		At least you’re coal black so you know who you 
		are; the light skinned ones are all crazy.

				BLACK GIRL
		I see that I am dealing with a man of taste.

He has to laugh at that.

		Quite a performance.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			I cant get it into my hands.

					BLACK GIRL
			You express yourself very well with your hands.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			My feelings, they’re always doing something else.

BLACK GIRL
			What feelings?

SAVAGE GRACE
			How about fear?

BLACK GIRL
			False limb sensations, like an amputee feeling 
an itch in the foot they cut off.  You express 
everything you feel, but you don’t feel anything 
at all.

SAVAGE GRACE
			You’re losing your accent

BLACK GIRL
			I know.  I try to keep it up.  It helps establish trust.

SAVAGE GRACE
			What are you selling?

BLACK GIRL
			Feelings.

She opens her hand.  Inside is a thing that looks like a white butterfly
seen in multiple exposure.  It’s impossible to see clearly.

SAVAGE GRACE
			What the fuck is that?

BLACK GIRL
			A soul.  That’s what you’re missing.
			you don’t have a soul.

SAVAGE GRACE
			What’s the catch?

BLACK GIRL
			Isn’t it obvious, if you have a soul, 
you can lose it.

					SAVAGE GRACE
			Where do I sign?

BLACK GIRL
			That wont be necessary.

She slips the butterfly inside his shirt and presses it to his heart.

INT. MEG’S BEDROOM (NIGHT)

He sat up in bed and tried to light a cigarette, but tore the heads off 3 matches
in a row and quit.  Then Meg woke up.

					MEG
			What are you doing?

He got out of bed and walked the length of the room then stood with his hand poised over the phone.

					O’JOHN
			Answering the phone.

The phone rings on cue and he picks it up.

			Hello, Azriel.  I got your calling card: bad dreams.
			I’ll be there in 10 minutes.

					MEG
			Will you tell me what’s going on?

					O’JOHN		
I will when I know.

and he starts to get dressed.

EXT. LINCOLN CENTER (NIGHT)

				O’JOHN (V.O.)
		She was sitting on the rim of the fountain. 
It had been turned off for the night and most 
of the lights.

		The square looked like the set of a Broadway 
musical that had closed the night before.

		She was obscenely beautiful and like all 
pornography she was better in black and 
white.

He sits down beside her.

		We talked in circles for a long time, not even 
arguing, just stating our desires at each other 
like 2 bad actors trying to improvise.  Then nothing.  
We’d repeated ourselves 10 times and there 
was nothing more to say.

				AZRIEL
		Would it help to know that all charges against 
you have been dropped?

				O’JOHN
		You can do things like that?

				AZRIEL
		I can do it all.  I can make your dreams 
come true.

				O’JOHN
		But you don’t know my dreams.

				AZRIEL
		It wasn’t meant as a bribe.

				O’JOHN
		The problem is I cant help you.

He pulls pot the Xeroxes and clippings from Meg’s scrapbook.

		Death certificate.  Coroner’s report.  And his 
finger prints were on file for a New York cabaret 
card.  Identification was positive.  The man is 
dead.

She picked up the clipping from the Rolling Stone.

				AZRIEL
		It says that Graham was survived by his analyst.
		he had imaginary problems with his right hand.
		A lot of musicians do.  The doctors kicked him 
out and told him to see a psychiatrist.

Her name is Octobrina.

		O’JOHN
Another comic strip name.

		AZRIEL
After the October Revolution.  It’s a common name 
in Eastern Europe.  She works over a Hungarian 
restaurant at 2nd and 83rd.

		O’JOHN
I read it.  It doesn’t say any of that.

		AZRIEL
Then you better write it down.

She pats the inside of his thigh and stands up.

	Trust me.

She hands him another wad of $100 bills.

			O’JOHN
	That doesn’t answer the question.

			AZRIEL
	It answers all questions.  An answer is
	what removes doubt.

			O’JOHN
	So does a bullet in the head.

			AZRIEL
	I’d much rather you took the money

She walks off to the subway and disappeared down the stairs.  He
follows her, but when he reached the subway platform he find its 
empty.  He rushes back up the stairs thinking she must have taken 
the other exit out but the streets are deserted in all directions.

At the top of the stairs he hears a train coming and rushes back down.
The train is already leaving.  He sees it go by with Azriel inside and not 
looking at him.  he leaps the turnstile, running and jumping onto the rear 
bumper of the train.

He stays there, peeping out at every stop to she if she had gotten off.
She gets off in SoHo and he follows her to a reconverted tenement.
he checks to see if he has enough cigarettes and settle down to wait.

THE SAME (DAY)

			O’JOHN (V.O.)
	She went to work late.  She didn’t leave until 
10.	Tailing her was easy.  Like most beautiful 
women she didn’t look at anyone in the street 
for fear it would be taken as an attempt at 
communication.

He follows her through the street, on and off the subway, and into a
Madison Avenue building.

	The kind of building that has expensive dentists
	and bad lawyers with good connections.  Then
	I lost her.

She gets into a crowded elevator.  He lets it go and watches the indicator
above the door.  The elevator stops at almost every floor.  It’s impossible
to tell where she’s gotten off.  He checks the building registry and there it 
is: AZRIEL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES 1401.  He takes the elevator
to 14.

INT. AZRIEL’S OFFICE (SWEDISH MODERN)

There are lots of fashion magazines on the tables in the waiting room,
mostly the various editions of VOGUE.  CU of the Afghan edition, the
cover shows a tent with eyes holes cut into it.

			SECRETARY
	May I be of assistance, sir?

			O’JOHN
	Yes, well, I don’t know how to say it, but…

The secretary smiles and nods encouragement.  He starts again.

	But, well, I’d like my wife’s activities investigated,
	you see I’m contemplating, well, divorce.

			SECRETARY
		(bitter sweet smile)
	I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t handle that
	kind of work.

			O’JOHN
	This is a private detective agency, isn’t it?

			SECRETARY
	Yes, but Ms. Azriel only handles bail jumpers
	and only if the bail is in excess of $10,000.

			O’JOHN
	You mean, she’s a bounty hunter?

			SECRETARY
	That is a crudely romantic word to put on it,
	sir, but that is the work we do.

He looks around.  Nothing in this room is going to tell him anything.
he walks out.  The secretary calls after him.

	I do hope things work out for you, sir.  Why
	don’t you give your wife another chance?

INT. ELEVATOR.

When it opens on the ground floor, Vito is directly in front of him.

			VITO
	So you made a deal with her.  Good, I’m glad
	you’re showing some sense.

			O’JOHN
	What are you doing here?

			VITO
	Business, what do you think.  I mean, what
	else is there.

			O’JOHN
	Come on.

he grabs Vito’s arm two handed and steers him out the door
to a delicatessen on the corner.

INT. DELICATESSEN

They sit down in a booth.

			VITO
	I’ll have pastrami on white with mayonnaise 
and a glass of milk, I’m trying to pass for
Episcopalian.

		O’JOHN
	Make it two.

The WAITER spits on the floor and leaves.

			VITO
	So?, how much do you know?

			O’JOHN
	She’s a bounty hunter.

			VITO
	So?

			O’JOHN
	It means she’s doing the job.  I’m just here 
to draw fire.  I’m the decoy.

		VITO
You just figured this out?  She’s paying you to 
find out things she already knows.  What did 
you think was going on?

		O’JOHN
I didn’t know.

		VITO
And you play peek-a-boo following her around
all night long when all you had to do was look
her up in the phone book.  You know, as stupid
as you are, you’re lucky to have any job at all.

		O’JOHN
What is this, another lecture?

		VITO
No, what’s the use.  Just get on with it.

		O’JOHN
The man is dead.

		VITO
No, she finds him and then he gets dead.
She told you that.  Didn’t she tell you that?

		O’JOHN
Yeah, I guess she did.

The waiter arrives with the sandwiches and slams them down
on the table loud as he can without breaking the plates.

			VITO
	Where’s the milk?

			WAITER
	The place is kosher, but there’s a Jews for 
Jesus store front at Avenue B and 10th Street.  
May I suggest you take your business there. 

He spits on the floor again and leaves.

			VITO
	Strong sense of territory, that one.  
What was I saying?

		O’JOHN
Goodbye.

He walks out and leaves Vito with the check.

CONTINUITY SHOTS:

1.	O’John drawing his money out of the bank.
2.	Emptying his safe deposit box.  Guns and money go into one of
      those big hexagonal boxes used to carry 35 mm. film.
3.	At a travel agency buying a ticket for Brazil.
4.	Interrupting a ballet class to give his cat to an astonished girl.
5.	Getting out of a cab at the international departures terminal.
6.	Getting his guns past the metal detectors, waving his film box 
      and saying: “Please don’t X-ray it, it’s photographic film.”
7.	Taking the last turn in the corridor to the loading gate.

INT. LOADING GATE (KENNEDY)	

			ANNUNCER (V.O.)
	Flight 319, non-stop to Rio de Janeiro, now
	loading at gate 25.

There are Azriel and her secretary wearing leather raincoats and
holding guns in their pockets in the B-movie manner.	

			O’JOHN (V.O.)
	The raincoats looked to be 3 grand a piece.
	It was hard to believe they’d shoot through
	their pockets , but maybe they could charge
	it to expenses.

			AZRIEL
	You’ve got to be kidding.

He put a cigarette in his mouth left handed then took a grenade out
of his right hand pocket like it was a lighter; a Dutch stun grenade the 
size of a tangerine.  He pulled the pin, but held the handle down.  He 
held out his hand, palm up to show what was happening.

			AZRIEL
		(admiringly)
	All plastic, no metal to detect.

			O’JOHN
	All right, bitch, let’s see what you can do.

She takes her hands out of her pockets.  Her secretary does too.

			AZRIEL
	Me?, I’m not going to do anything, but I thought 
	I’d tell you that there’s a reception committee 
waiting in Rio.

He thinks that over and replaces the pin in the grenade.  
He puts it back in his pocket.

			O’JOHN
	You know, I believe you.

INT. AZRIEL’S LANDROVER (DAY)

Azriel is at the wheel with O’John in the suicide seat.  The cover 
girl secretary is in the back leaning forward between them.

			O’JOHN (V.O.)
	There was nothing to say so I didn’t say it.

			AZRIEL
	Cant we be friends?

			O’JOHN
	You should have caught me when I was 17,
	I was up for anything.  OK, let’s start again,
	tell me the story from the beginning.

			AZRIEL
	Once upon a time…

			O’JOHN
	Jack Christ!

			AZRIEL
	There was a rock guitarist named Graham Savage.
	He was playing pit stops on the Jersey shore.

			O’JOHN
	Some good people come from there.

			AZRIEL
No, some good people escape from there, that’s
	different, and Graham wasn’t going to escape.

			O’JOHN
	Could we skip ahead a little?

			AZRIEL
	So, he sold his soul to the Devil.  He thought 
he did.

			O’JOHN
	I’ve heard the story.

			AZRIEL
	Really?

			O’JOHN
	Even as those stories go, it doesn’t make sense.
	Why give him a soul just to buy it back?

			AZRIEL
	Mr. O’John, I don’t know if you’re crazy or you 
think I am, but she didn’t give him anything.  
She did a parlor trick with white butterfly and
tricked him into signing away his life.

		O’JOHN
But the way he played…

		AZRIEL
He believed in it so it worked.

		O’JOHN
Oh.

		AZRIEL
She kept him broke.  He paid her.  He thought
he had a contract with the Devil, 7 years as a 
superstar.

Then, as the years went by, he began to look 
for a way to weasel out.  He collected priests, 
witches, warlocks, astrologers, anyone who 
said he could get him out of it.

He made a lot of funny deals with a lot of funny 
people, thinking he had nothing to lose. 7 years 
go by and, surprise, the Devil doesn’t show up.

But he’s got all these funny people looking for him.

		O’JOHN
And you’re one of the funny people looking for him.

		AZRIEL
Anyway, we’re here.

They pulled up in front of a Hungarian restaurant.

	She’s on the 2nd floor.  Octobrina.
	Keep in touch.

He gets out of the car and walks to the corner.  There’s a neon sign on the 
2nd floor: Octobrina, Chiropractor and advisor.  He turns on something in
his shoulder bag and walks up the stairs.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OCTOBRINA’S APT.

The waiting room looks like that of a psychiatrist’s office.  He drops his bag
and leans it against the leg of a chair, then OCTOBRINA comes out of the 
inner office.  She cocks an eyebrow at him then takes his right hand in both 
of hers.  She drops it in disgust.

			OCTOBRINA
	Gun calluses, you’re a cop.  What do you want?

			O’JOHN
	You could be a fortuneteller with an act like that.

			OCTOBRINA
	I could.  What do you want?

			O’JOHN
	Savage Grace.  No, I don’t want to find him,
	I don’t think I’d live past it, but I’m being paid
	to ask.  So, where is he?

Octobrina jumps in the air and begins to scream.

	Everyone says that.  I was just leaving.

He walks out down the hall, sits down on the stairs and lights a
cigarette.  He puts it down on the edge of the step and watches it
burn.  When it’s all ash, he walks back to Octobrina’s door and 
knocks.

	I forgot my shoulder bag.

She opens the door and flings it at him.  When he is safely in a cab
on 2nd Avenue, he opens his bag and takes out a min-tape recorder.
It’s still recording.  He stops it and presses the re-wind button, then 
he plays it back.

There’s the sound of a phone being dialed then Octobrina’s voice

		OCTOBRINA (V.O.)
	Daddy, they know he’s alive.  They’re looking 
	for him to kill him…No I don’t know who.

He cuts it off, re-winds and plays it again this time at slow speed
and jacked into a small electronic device.  It counts the clicks and
registers the digits of the phone number in glowing green numbers.

INT. O’JOHN’S OFFICE (DAY)

He’s on the Net typing in the phone number he got from Octobrina.
The machine says it’s the number of a psychiatrist named Denesh
on West 117th Street.

Then switches on a DVD player.  It shows Savage Grace doing an
American Express commercial.

			SAVAGE GRACE
	No one knows my face, that’s why I always
	carry the American Express Card.

			MEG
	Where’d you get that?

			O’JOHN
	It’s on file.  Everything’s on file.  Is that his 
	voice or did they have an actor dub him?

			MEG
	No, that’s him.  And who’s that?

pointing to the computer display.

	She was calling her psychiatrist?
	that’s another age, another culture.

			O’JOHN
	So is Savage Grace.

He rewinds and replays the video.  This time he records it.

			SAVAGE GRACE
	Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt, but
	this is Savage Grace.

			MEG
	What now?

He looks up to see that the bail jumper girl from Vito’s office has
walked in.  Her face is still black and blue, but less swollen.

			GIRL
	I don’t mean to interrupt, but I came to turn
	myself in.  I escaped.

			O’JOHN
	My office hours are from 11:30 to 6:00 as you
	can see quite clearly on the door.  Come back 
after lunch.

			GIRL
	I had nowhere else to go.

			O’JOHN
	My advice is to get a cat.

			GIRL
	Are you alright?

			O’JOHN
	The biggest mistake you can make is 
coming home to an empty house.  You 
have someone who loves you and 
depends on you and you begin to live 
your life a little differently.

			GIRL
	My God, what have they done to you?

He looks at her for the 1st time and recognizes the bruises.

			O’JOHN
	Oh, yeah, I remember you.

He reaches into his jeans pocket and hands her a wad of money
without counting it.

	That’s 1,500, a little less.  That will get you 
to the Canadian border.  Then just stay out 
of trouble.

She takes the money in both hands, almost praying with it.

			GIRL
	Why are you doing this?

			O’JOHN
	It’s so damn melodramatic, almost anyone 
would help you.

		GIRL
No, they wouldn’t. Why?  I have to know.

O’John just shrugs.

	If there’s anything you want.

She walks toward him with a practiced swing of her hips,
but he shakes his head.

	I will pray for you.

			O’JOHN
	That’s cool, but do it somewhere else.  Right 
now, I’m busy so, if you’ll excuse me?

She points to the DVD case and the name on the spine.

			GIRL
	They’re going to kill him on Friday.  
Savage Grace.
	
			O’JOHN
	Vito told you that?

			GIRL
	I heard him say it on the phone.

and she leaves very quietly.

			MEG
	And you’re going to let it happen.
	Find him and warn him.

			O’JOHN
	How?

			MEG 
	You could at least try.

and she slams out of the office.  O’John checks his computer again
for the address of Denesh.

EXT. A MONSTROUS OLD PILE LIKE THE DAKOTA (DAY)

O’John checks the address, has some words MOS with the DOORMAN
and takes the elevator up.  He finds the door.  It has a polished brass
plate that says Dr. Manfred Denesh PH.D.  He rings the bell.

			DENESH
	Who is it?

in a muffled voice with out opening the door even a crack.  O’JOHN
stands to one side of the spy hole and starts his tape recorder.

			TAPE RECORDER
	Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt, but
	this is Savage Grace.

DENESH throws open the door, takes one look and faints.  He goes
over rigid as a store dummy.  O’John manages to grab him by the 
lapels just before he cracks his head on the floor.

He gets the man under the armpits and drags him into his office then
heaves him onto the black leather couch.  There are 2 huge black 
leather swivel chairs.  O’John sits down in one of them.

There’s a slick silver water decanter beside him.  He pours a little
into a glass and flicks a few drops into Denesh’s face.  The man
wakes up and looks at O’John with awe.  O’John smiles at him
reassuringly like a Norman Rockwell doctor.

			O’JOHN
	Why don’t you tell me a little more about it?
	I’m very interested in what you have to say
	and I think I can help.

			DENESH
	You can call up his spirit even to ring a doorbell.

			O’JOHN
	Don’t reproach yourself; we’re all beginners 
in the art.

		DENESH
All except Graham.  All the others trying to sell
their souls only succeeded in throwing them away.
Graham demanded payment and got it.  But you
know all that.

		O’JOHN
Don’t assume I know anything, just tell me 
your side of the story.  I want to be as lenient 
as possible.

		DENESH
He found this old book on alchemy that told of 
switching souls, the metaphysical equivalent of
getting a forged passport.  They’ve been trying 
that ever since Faust switched clothes with 
Wagner in the last act.

		O’JOHN
But Graham made it work.

		DENESH
September 11.  In that confusion, the avalanche
of souls screaming into Hell, he knew he could
escape.  He switched souls with some fireman,
left him dead and walked away.

		O’JOHN
A fireman?

		DENESH
Alright, it was a cop.
	
		O’JOHN
I probably saw him.  I’m an ex-cop.

		DENESH
You were there at the fall of the towers?

		O’JOHN
Of course.

He gets up to go.

			DENESH
	Let me hear his voice again.  Call up his
	spirit one more time.

O’John takes out his mini-recorder and rewinds the tape. He presses
the start button and Savage Grace says “Excuse me” one last time.
Denesh runs for his desk and fumbles out his gun.

			O’JOHN (V.O.)
	The only safe place to stand was where he 
was aiming at.

He gets it into a lopsided two-handed grip and starts blazing away.
Pockmarks explode from the plaster, pictures fly from the walls,
books leap from the shelves and Louis XIV figurines tip-toe across
the shelf in response to the vibration.

O’John walks away unconcerned.  Denesh is convinced that it’s
black magic and stares open mouthed as O’John exits.

INT. MEG’S APT. (EARLY EVENING)

Meg is wearing a frilly apron as though it were a flag and making a 
salad, consulting cookbooks and shredding various kinds of vegetable.  
She adds the dressing, tosses it and serves herself a small portion.

She tastes a forkful and smirks with delight at her won cleverness.
The doorbell rings and she puts down her fork to answer it.  She 
opens the door and O’John walks in.

					O’JOHN
			Hi.

and leaves her there holding the door.  He walks across the room,
picks up her plate of salad and begins eating it.
	
					MEG
			May I finish my salad?

					O’JOHN
			I thought you were done.

					MEG
			Why did you think that?

					O’JOHN
			You weren’t eating it.

					MEG
			I wasn’t eating it because I as answering 
the door.

					O’JOHN
			That would explain it.

and he flops down on the couch that hadn’t been there the day before.

					MEG
			You’re really making yourself at home.

					O’JOHN
			I have nowhere else to go.

					MEG
			I’m beginning to understand why.

					O’JOHN
			I’m sorry.

					MEG
			There’s pasta for dinner.  The sauce is home 
made.  I added smoked oysters to give the 
flavor some depth.

					O’JOHN
			I said I was sorry.

					MEG
			Coffee’s on, if you want some.  Jamaica Blue 
Mountain with some French roast to give it 
some guts.

					O’JOHN
			Oh, alright.

He picks her up in his arms and starts to carry her into the bedroom.
She grabs his ear and twists violently.  He puts her down gently and
walks back the length of the kitchen.  He sits down at the table and
looks at her.

					MEG
			You interpret everything physically, you just
			don’t understand.

					O’JOHN
			Tell me what’s wrong.

					MEG
			I’m sorry.

She grabs a handful of silverware and begins setting the table.

					O’JOHN
			Nothing to be sorry about.  I didn’t pick up on 
your mood.  It’s my fault.  Now, tell me what’s 
wrong.  What was wrong before I came in?

					MEG
			Nothing.

					O’JOHN
			Are you pregnant?

					MEG
				(closing her eyes)
			Do not say another word.

					O’JOHN
			I don’t have time for this.  I have to be somewhere 
at 8.  We’ll talk later.

		MEG
But I made dinner!

		O’JOHN
I don’t have that kind of life.  Oh, Savage 
Grace swapped identities with a dead cop.

		MEG
Why?

		O’JOHN
I don’t know, why does he do anything?
I’ll talk to you later.

and he exits.

INT> WHITNEY MUSEUM (NIGHT)There is an exhibit by Duane Hansen on the 3rd floor.  These are 
extremely life-like sculptures done mostly in acrylics.  The statues 
are meticulously detailed even to body hair and skin grain.  And the models are not idealized so that it takes a while to realize 
that they're not alive.  At the entrance there's A GUARD standing 
in an authoritative pose, the butt of his .357 magnum leaning out 
of the holster at you. In front of him is A WALL PAINTER with powerful forearms and a 
potbelly wearing spattered overalls and standing on a paint spotted 
canvas.  He's holding a large paint roller but has stopped in mid-gesture to 
stare pensively into space.  POV turns to show a PUERTO RICAN WAITRESS with a mole on her cheek the size of a ping-pong ball.  She's wearing a pink uniform and she leans to one side poised in a 
psychotic stance.  She's very out of place and on closer inspection 
turns out to be one of the statues.  So are the guard and painter.The set up of the museum is such that you take the elevator to the
exhibits on the 3rd floor and then walk down to the permanent exhibits 
on the 2nd.  POV follows A COUPLE on their tour, around the exhibit 
and down the stairs.  

On the midfloor landing is A SEEDY OLD MAN LAYING ON HIS 
BACK WITH HIS FEATURES CLENCHED IN THE RICTUS OF 
ANGINA. His face is purple.  He obviously had a severe heart 
attack and is close to death.  

The couple we have been following pause for a moment 
undecided what to do. 
     		WOMAN        			We've got to do something.                    				MAN        			 We cant get involved in this.        			 Dont let it ruin your evening.                    				WOMAN
I suppose by the time the ambulance
 got here..

                                 MAN         		We have to get out of here, we         		might be called as witnesses.
They scamper away without noticing the TV cameras hanging from the ceiling.

INT> WHITNEY MUSEUM 2ND FLOOR A SMALL CROWD is watching the previous scene on a larger TV set and giggling.  It seems it was a set up.  The seedy old man is a statue too.INT> 3RD FLOOR

O’John comes out of the elevator and talks to the guard 					O’JOHN                    		Excuse me, but can you tell me           			what time the museum closes.          			Excuse me!SOME PASSERSBY giggle.  He touches the guard on the arm 
and discovers that it's a statue.  He looks around casually, but 
it's a typical museum crowd.  

He unstraps the guard’s holster and lifts out the .357 magnum.
It’s the right weight and it takes careful inspection to see that
it’s a plastic toy.  On impulse, he takes his own magnum out 
of the shoulder holster and switches guns with the guard

Then the other elevator opens and a Denesh enters with Rozzo,
Octobrina and several familiar faces.  O’John sees them first. 
He turns, striking a pose, gawking like a tourist at a blank wall. 
They take him for 1 of the statues and pass without looking closely.  
O’John waits until he's turned a corner and is about to follow when
the other elevator disgorges a 2nd group.

They march together as though they were on a guided tour.
They’re all unsmiling except for a 20ish FASHION MODEL 
GIRL laughing delightedly at what she sees.  A REAL GUARD 
thinks they look suspicious and follows them slowlyThe guard turns a corner and passes the  model girl impaledon an asagai, the short stabbing spear of the ZULUS. Unlike 
the .357 the spear is real.He takes the woman and the spear for one more exhibit. He looks 
distracted.  There is the faint, steady sound of dripping water. He 
looks at the floor and sees that the woman is dripping blood.  He 
puts his fingers into it and tastes it.  It's blood alright.  He falls over 
with a convulsive heart attack then lays very still.  

TOURISTS pass by.  They take him and the model for statues.                    		TOURIST 1          	I like it.                    		TOURIST 2         	Well, it is only clever exhibit here.

CU TV SET showing ROBERT HUGHES doing an episode 
of the TV series THE SHOCK OF THE NEW.			ROBERT HUGHES	Surrealism was not primarily an artistic             		movement.  It was a spirit of revolt that 
                                 chose art as its instrument.          It no longer inhabits art and it may never again,
                                but one day poltergeist is throwing dishes in
          		the kitchen, the next it shows up in the hall           and its very orneriness and perversity are a          kind of innocence and, for that reason, a          declaration of freedom and of hope.		         	SUSAN SONTAG          Are you trying to justify these murders          on the grounds of Surrealism?			ROBERT HUGHES          Au contraire, mon frere, I’m saying          that Surrealism isn’t art either.			SUSAN SONTAG          Then what is it?

She catches a gigantic lemon meringue pie full in the face.

Back to the guard and the model.  O’John turns the corner, takes
one look and takes off at a run.  He reaches the entrance, but
suddenly the entire floor seems deserted.  He walks to the stairwell,
but there’s no sound of footsteps going down.  Dead silence.

Then he’s grabbed from behind.  There’s one on each arm and
another with an arm around his neck .  Denesh walks up and
frisks him, taking the toy magnum from the shoulder holster.
he points the toy pistol at him then gestures for the 3 men to
let him go.

					DENESH
			As a psychiatrist, I have always been 
amazed at the traps intelligent men can 
set for themselves.

		O’JOHN
But your madness is always a little smarter
than you are.  I’ve always wondered about 
that.

		DENESH
It’s an interesting conversation, but we
barely have time for the ceremony.

		O’JOHN
A shame, I figured I couldn’t die as long
as I kept talking.

		DENESH
This way, Mr. O’John.

O;John lunges for the gun in the guard staute’s holster.  The
killers just stand there watching, chuckling at his silliness.

The magnum was stuck in the holster, but they were giving him 
all the time in the world.  They seemed to be enjoying it and didn’t
want it to end.  Then O’John got the gun out with a 2-handed yank.
He shot Rozzo as he brought the gun up and then another as he 
flung the sights into position.  Denesh pulls the trigger of the toy 
.357 and is rewarded with a plastic click.  O’John shoots him in the 
stomach.  And O’John shoots 2 more.

Denesh drops to a squat and reaches for a cigarette, but he’s
shaking too badly and the cigarettes fly out of the pack with the
jerking of his arm.

O’John plugs in a quick loader and keeps firing slowly and
methodically as the rest of them scatter to the rear galleries,
bloody, lurching and falling down.  He plugs in a 2nd quicker 
loader and waits.  Dead silence.  No sound from below, no
response to the shots.  The building seems deserted.

Denesh looks up at him with astonished and gentle reproach.
O’John picks a cigarette off the floor and puts it in Denesh’s
mouth.  He lights it for him.

				O’JOHN
		Where is he? or is it who?  He’s here
		in New York.

Denesh bites the cigarette in two and begins hemorrhaging
torrentially from the mouth, then he falls over dead.  O’John
holds his gun out in front of him in the police water-skiing pose
and walks slowly through the galleries.

Then suddenly a figure darts past him.  It’s Octobrina and she’s 
into the stairwell and gone, down the stairs at a gallop.  He chases 
her but she’s always one landing ahead, against the wall and showing 
too little and too fast to be shot at.  One landing away from the ground 
floor the sound of high heels on marble suddenly stops.

He leaps the last half flight of stairs He looks around.  She must be
somewhere in the lobby.  He passes a few bodies, drugged or dead
and looks around again.

There standing in the shadows was Octobrina.  She had knocked one
of the ceramic skulls out of Jasper John’s Target With Five Faces and
is standing in for the one on the end.  

She’s trying to keep her face stiff, but her face keeps twitching with 
tension.  It’s the only thing moving in the room.  She begins to cry 
noisily.  He waits until she settles down to some muffled sobbing.

				O’JOHN
		Where is he?  Who is he?

				OCTOBRINA
		 I don’t know.

				O’JOHN
		Of course you do.  That’s what all this is about.
		That’s why everyone goes crazy when I say his
		name.  Because I’m about to find him.

				OCTOBRINA
		Yes.

and she comes out from behind the painting and leaps forward.
She grabs the gun in both hands and presses it to her chest and
pushes the trigger with her thumbs.  And then she falls over dead.
Suddenly it was time to go.

O’John steps to the front door.  He’s about to smash the glass with 
his pistol when he sees that it’s open.  It had been locked before.
He walks out looking no more worried than anyone else on a New 
York street in the dark.

INT. VITO’S OFFICE (NIGHT)

O’John enters without knocking.  Vito is playing solitaire.  He looks
more ominous than before, a little less of a clown.

			O’JOHN
	Miracle to find you alone.

			VITO
	You waiting for a miracle?

			O’JOHN
	I’m counting on it.

			VITO
	What’s on your mind, old buddy?  
This doesn’t feel like a social call.

		O’JOHN
How long have we known each other?

		VITO
I don’t know, I really don’t remember.

		O’JOHN
That’s a long time but, you know, 
I still don’t feel close to you.

		VITO
If we were any closer, I’d be standing behind you.
24 hours don’t go by that I don’t save your life.  
No, we don’t go out drinking together.  That’s the
way it is in this business.  You got to keep your
private life separate or you lose respect for
yourself.

		O’JOHN
You make what off me?  50,000 a year?

		VITO
Nowhere near.  I send you the easy ones.  You’re 
good with women.  You got presence.  Even so, it 
costs more than that to keep you alive.

		O’JOHN
Why?, why do you keep saving my life?

		VITO
I don’t need reasons for what I do.  I can get
away with anything.  But, yeah, alright, in
financial terms it as a mistake.

		O’JOHN
Is it personal feelings?

		VITO
What? You finally need a friend?
You must be awfully scared.

		O’JOHN
I’m scared.  There’s something out there.
Something so monstrous I’d go insane if
I even saw him.  You keep him invisible 
for me.

		VITO
That’s right, old buddy, that’s exactly right,
but you’re going to see him soon.

		O’JOHN
Who is it?  Who does Azriel work for?
You obviously work for the same people.

		VITO
How many times you ask me that?  Is there
a magic number, already?  I don’t know.  I’m
like you, I don’t want to know.  Ask her.

		O’JOHN
I did.  She says she works for you.

		VITO
She didn’t say that.

		O’JOHN
But she does, doesn’t she?

		VITO
You got a cigarette?  Never mind, I got
another pack somewhere.

He opens a drawer in his desk, but O’John has his gun out 1st.

			O’JOHN
	Get real.

Vito pulls a pack of Pall Mall out of the desk.  He opens one and 
lights it, talking as he does.

			VITO
	You oughta learn to relax.  You’re getting
	to be like a wounded animal.

			O’JOHN
	Who?

			VITO
	You forgot to put your gun away.

			O’JOHN
	Who?  I’m going to see him soon so,
	what’s the difference.

			VITO
	This is painful, old buddy.

He pulls out his .25 automatic and point it at O’John’s head.
O’John doesn’t move.

			O’JOHN
	You’re not going to shoot.

			VITO
	You know that?

			O’JOHN
	You mean you’d rather die than tell me.

			VITO
	Well, yeah.

			O’JOHN
	That’s weird.  I didn’t know there was anything
	you were willing to die for.  No, I haven’t lost
	respect for you.

He gets up and leaves, but outside the door he hears Vito making
a hurried phone call.  He throws open the door and shoots Vito
through the head with the usual results.  

He walks behind the desk and steps over the body.  The rat is
squeaking in the garbage can.  It’s the size of a cat, but apparently
quite tame.

He picks it up, wraps it in the garbage can liner and sticks it in his
shoulder bag with its head peeping out.  He gets out and walks
to the elevator.  AN OLD MAN has stuck his head out the door at
the sound of the shot.

			O’JOHN
	Some goddamn kids been throwing firecrackers
	in the hall.  You see which way they went?

There is no reply and O’JOHN keeps on walking.  
The rat looks around and yawns.

EXT. APT. WINDOW (NIGHT)

POV is pointed in the window of Azriel’s apartment. Azriel and her 
secretary are playing out a private ritual.  Azriel is wearing jodhpurs
and riding boots and is naked to the waist.  Her secretary is wearing 
a white wedding dress and veil.  

Azriel has her left arm out straight, but bent at the elbow with the hand 
pulled back to her ear.  Her secretary is lifting her veil with one hand 
and lightly kissing the point of Azriel’s elbow.  They are smiling and 
whispering to each other.

O’John drops into the POV and walks along the ledge to Azriel’s window.
Not being on a fire escape there is not gate.  He unwraps the rat and
heaves it through the window.  Azriel’s attack dog takes one look at
the enormous rat and runs for it.  Azriel strides to the window, throws
open the sash and looks out.

He shoots her through the left eye.  The back of her head is gone, but
the message has already left her brain.  She turns and runs across the 
room straight into the wall.  She falls over backwards, but her legs
continue running motions.

Her face is rigid, eyes staring straight ahead as though she were
concentrating very hard.  He shoots her again, but she keeps trying
to run up the wall.  After the 4th shot she lays still.

Her secretary is screaming, but the sound is muffled because she has 
her fist in her mouth.  She is hopping slowly from one foot to the other,
staring wide eyed at Azriel.  He’s about to shoot her too then notices
the rat looking at him.  He looks at the rat then reholsters his gun,
changes his mind, shoots her and climbs back up on the roof and 
disappears.

EXT. MEG’S APT. (NIGHT)

O’John is squatting on the window ledge, 60 ft. above the ground.
There is no fire escape.  He opens the window with infinite patience.

INT. MEG’S APT. (NIGHT)

The window has a double locked gate, but he reaches in and wrenches
on the locks, slowly, without apparent effort.  It’s the strength of the
insane.  With the same silent patience he slides back the gate and 
climbs through the window.

Meg is in bed asleep, looking childlike and innocent.  He stands over
her staring down.  He makes no move, but there is something homicidal
in the rigidity of his stare, the fixity of his stance.  Then Meg’s cat jumps
up, meowing loudly and demanding to be petted.

He pets the cat absently and the animal closes its eyes in ecstasy,
purring loudly as an alarm clock.  Meg wakes up sleepily, rubbing
her eyes.

			MEG
	Sit down, I’ll make coffee.  It’s made, I’ll
	reheat it.

She starts to get up.  He just stands there.

			O’JOHN
	Go back to sleep.

She gets back under the covers.

			MEG
	You killed them all?

			O’JOHN
	All I could find.

			MEG
	You must be hungry.

			O’JOHN
	Go to sleep.

			MEG
	Are you coming to bed?

			O’JOHN
	Yeah, I guess so.  

DREAM --- INT.MEG’S APARTMENT

O’John is in bed with Meg.  He sits up sharply as though he heard
a sharp noise, but the room is dead quiet.  He reaches under the
pillow and pulls out a large black automatic.

Gun in hand he advances into the room.  He passes a 3-way mirror
full of cold bluish light, more light than there is in the room.  He looks
into it automatically.

Something is very wrong.  His reflection is facing the same way he is.  
He’s staring straight at the back of his head.  He smashes the mirror 
with the gun butt.

The mirror stays intact, but his reflection shatters and fall off the glass
like colored leaves.  The mirror is still full of blue light, but now it shows 
no reflection at all.  The frame looks like a doorway.  He steps through 
the surface of the mirror and as he does there’s a sudden breeze that 
ruffles his hair.  

Inside the mirror is an ice palace.  Everything in the apartment is 
duplicated in the mirror, but made out of clear glass.  And instead
of growing smaller with distance by the rules of perspective,  things
are growing smaller physically.

As he walks deeper into the mirror, the furniture is ½  normal size,
then ¼  then 1/8 and the ceiling keeps rising.  He hears a laugh
and turns around.  It’s Azriel, of course, looking into the mirror
and laughing at him.

The mirror goes opaque, silvery and rippling, like the surface of a 
lake seen from below.  He swimming in space surrounded by blue light.
It swirls down to a CGI featureless black plain and a cloudless blue
sky and the Black girl is there and laughing.

			BLACK GIRL
	Repent.

			O’JOHN
	That’s pretty funny coming from you.

			BLACK GIRL
	It’s like the Surgeon General’s warning on a
	cigarette pack: truth in advertising. Do you
	repent?

			O’JOHN
	Repent what?

She laughs with delight.

			O’JOHN (CONTINUING)
	Well, for example?

			BLACK GIRL
	How many men have you killed?

			O’JOHN
	I don’t know, but I always thought that, you 
know, between consenting adults and all that.

She laughs again and the dark comes roaring down.

Automatically, pathetically, he reaches for a cigarette and tries to light
it   The background is blacked out by the glare of the flame.  There’s
nothing but the flame surrounded by darkness.  POV pulls back to
show him sitting up in bed and lighting a cigarette.  Meg is still asleep.

THE SAME (MORNING)

He’s still in the same position staring at the phone.  Meg wakes up
and looks at him sleepily.

			MEG
	What are you doing?

			O’JOHN
	Waiting for the phone to ring.  I guess
	she’s really dead.

THE SAME (AFTERNOON)

They’re sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.  O’John
looks shell shocked.

			MEG
	Take it easy.  Don’t try to talk.  It’s a long
	swim back to consciousness.

He nods.

			We’ve got to find him.

					O’JOHN
			Find who?

					MEG
			Savage Grace.

He grabs his head with both hands and begins rocking side 
to side.  She grabs him and holds his head to her breast.

					MEG
			It’s alright, Baby, I’m here, it’s alright.
			But we have to find him.

					O’JOHN
			What for?

					MEG
			Because it isn’t over.  It isn’t over till we do.
			How many cops were killed at the Trade
			Center?

					O’JOHN
			A couple of hundred.

					MEG
			That’s not that many.  How do find out
			their names?

					O’JOHN
			Hall of records, I guess.

EXT. BATTERY PARK (DAY)

They’re standing at the rim, watching the boats drift by.

					MEG
			What are you doing?

					O’JOHN
			Trying to figure out how you got me out here.

					MEG
			Come on, it could take hours and they close at 4.

					O’JOHN
			All we have to do is walk away and it’s over.

					MEG
			What are you scared of?

					O’JOHN
			Of it starting all over again.  I’ve had enough.

					MEG
			Enough of me?

					O’JOHN
			That’s an argument.  let’s go.

SOMETHING PROCEDURAL NEEDED HERE.
I’LL FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS LATER.

INT. HALL OF RECORDS (MUSTY)

They’re sitting at a long table with a line of computers.  Meg reading
through a long list of names.  She comes to the name ‘O’John’.

					MEG
			You were at the towers.

					O’JOHN
			A lot of people were.

					MEG
			It says you’re dead.

					O’JOHN
			They exaggerate.   Let’s get out of here.

					MEG
			Their records are unreliable.  We have to
			try something else.  Let’s go.

Reluctantly she follows him out.

They walk downstairs and come to a floor with a long hall and many doors.
At the end of the hall is A CREATURE, A VERY TALL HUNCHBACK.  
Without the hunch, He’d be at least 8 ft. tall.  He has a huge long face 
and his posture, bent over and looming forward, makes it look even bigger.  His head is twisted to one side and he is drooling, eyes wide and burning.  

He is gesturing frantically, pointing to a side door and pantomiming holding something in his hands.  
MEG
When we came in, we walked up one 
flight.  We have now walked down 
one flight and we should be on 
the street.

O’JOHN
I know.

MEG
(majestically calm)
We are not and that creature at
the end of the hall is beckoning 
to us.  He seems to know you.
What is he trying to say?

O’JOHN
He's saying that he has what we're
looking for.  Hang on to my hand 
very tight.  We are going to walk 
down the stairs. 

They walk down another flight of stairs, holding hands very tightly.  
But the next floor down is the same floor with the same creature at 
the end of the hall, gesturing and shouting in his private language.

MEG
I begin to sense a trend.

O’JOHN
			Nothing slows you down, does it?  You’ll sit 
up in your coffin to make one more smart 
ass remark.

MEG
I’m standing up in my coffin right now.

They stare over the banister and see an unlimited number of floors 
below them, each identical to the one they're on, each with an identical gibbering creature at the end of the hall.

			O’JOHN
I think that means we might as well
see what he wants to show us.

They walk down the hall and follow the creature through a door and 
into what should have been an apartment.  But there isn't any furniture, 
just ceramic figures on shelves from floor to ceiling.  There are plaster 
statues of the Virgin and of Spiderman. 

There are Louis XIV and Hummel figurines and every other kind of ceramic statuette. The creature keeps beckoning them farther in.  The walls have 
floor  to ceiling shelves of statuettes.  At this point, the figurines begin to 
move, very slightly and with tiny intermittent jerks like a fly in a glue pot.  
There is the sound of a bell or something like it.  

Something is jingling in the rapid complex rhythms of African drumming.  
The figurines are moving with increasing confidence and the bell-like 
music is getting louder.

Walls keep swinging aside until they come to a giant mummy case.
The creature opens the door.  Inside is a skeleton in a street cop’s
uniform.  The name tag says O’JOHN.

Then Vito come up behind them.  The music is in time to the jingling
of the handcuffs he carries.  Meg begins to cry, sobbing and sniffling.

					VITO
			The contract was due, but I couldn’t collect.
			You’d swapped memories so you were the
			equivalent of not competent to stand trial.

			I had to trick you into finding out who you are 
and what you’d done so I can collect.
				
MEG
It must be like a certificate of deposit.  Cant we 
roll it over or something?

Vito laughs.

O’JOHN
What happens now?

			VITO
Nothing happens now.  
This is it.

Meg sneezes noisily.

					O’JOHN
				(absently)
			God bless you.

Vito’s face contorts in absolute horror.

FREEZE FRAME

			          and that’s all