SCULLY: Back door’s wide open.
(They go around to back.)
BONSAINT: Melissa! (to SCULLY) Sheets are still wet.
(SCULLY enters house, goes up to POLLY’S room and looks at windows which are nailed shut.)
SCULLY: Chief? Take a look at this.
BONSAINT: What the devil’s this for?
SCULLY: It looks like she was afraid of something.
BONSAINT: Whatever it is, she’s run off in a hurry. Laundry’s out. Door’s unlocked. Beats me.
SCULLY: You know her?
BONSAINT: Melissy Turner?
SCULLY: Mm-hmm.
BONSAINT: About as local as you can get. Born and raised here. Married a fisherman. Widowed last year after a boating accident. Don’t know if the little girl, Polly ever really understood. Toys in the attic.
SCULLY: The daughter’s autistic?
BONSAINT: That’s what they say. There was the incident last year over at the daycare center? Proprietor slapped Polly across the face.
SCULLY: Slapped her? What for?
BONSAINT: Well, she said Polly threw a tantrum so fierce there was nothing else she could do. Next thing she knew, she’s on the ground. Little girl knocked her silly.
SCULLY: The little girl did?
BONSAINT: Well, that’s her story. Polly never touched her, far as I could figure. Oh, it was a real drama, though. The lady who ran the school lost her license. People calling the kid all manner of names saying Melissa’s a witch. Polly never went back to school a day since.
SCULLY: This ah, this affair that the mother was having with the butcher …?
BONSAINT: Dave. Oh, I might have given you the wrong impression. That wasn’t really an affair. Although Dave did make quite a fool of himself and his wife.
SCULLY: So, it was unrequited.
BONSAINT: You could say that.
SCULLY: To the extent that she’d have to nail her windows shut?
BONSAINT: Oh, he wasn’t that big a fool. You know, maybe she wasn’t afraid of something getting in. Maybe she’s afraid of something getting out.
SCULLY: Like what?
BONSAINT: Just a thought.
SCENE 6 (Fast food restaurant. OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS sets a chocolate sundae in front of POLLY who is holding her doll.)
BUDDY: What do you think of that, huh?
(POLLY does not answer. She eats the cherry, then begins eating the sundae. OFFICER BRIGGS pats her on the head and goes to sit with MELISSA. They talk quietly.)
BUDDY: Why don’t you leave town?
MELISSA: I’ve got nowhere to go, Buddy. I live on a shoestring as it is.
BUDDY: Listen to me. I’ve got some money put away.
MELISSA: Buddy, I can’t!
BUDDY: I’ve had my eye on you, Melissa, for more years than I care to remember. You know, I missed my chance the first time around. I’ve been waiting in the wings. Now, I’m sorry about things, truly I am, but you need somebody who can provide.
MELISSA: Don’t, Buddy, please!
BUDDY: 'Don’t' because you don’t want to, or just because you’re too proud?
MELISSA: You don’t understand!
(They watch POLLY take her sundae up to the counter.)
BUDDY: What don’t I understand?
MELISSA: What happened in the Super Saver, what happened to Dave … I couldn’t stop it.
BUDDY: What do you mean?
MELISSA: I’ve seen things.
(POLLY has gone up to the counter.)
POLLY: I want more cherries.
