SOUND: That same TWANGING SNAP.
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124 INTERIOR: TOWN OFFICE, WITH URSULA.
She's at her radio, which is on a table below the STORM EMERGENCY/TAKE SHELTER poster.
From the RADIO comes the LOUD SOUND OF STATIC.
URSULA Come back? Rodney, are you there? Come back, Rodney!
Nothing. After another moment or two of twiddling, URSULA racks the mike and looks at the useless radio with disgust.
125 INTERIOR: THE MARKET.
HATCH, coated with snow, steps in. The SHOPPERS react to the shotgun. Before, it was under his arm and pointed at the floor. Now he's holding it up against his shoulder and pointed at the ceiling, like Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive. HATCH looks around at the SHOPPERS.
HATCH
Mike wants all you folks to move back on both sides, okay? No one in Aisle 2. We've got us a bad guy, and we can't use the back door to bring him in like we'd like to, so just move back. Give us some room.
PETER GODSOE
Why'd he kill her?
HATCH
Just move back, Pete, okay? Mike's standing out in the snow, and his feet must be pretty cold by now. Also, we're all gonna feel better when this guy's locked up. Move back, folks, give 'em a clear way up that second aisle.
The customers move aside in two groups, leaving the center of the market clear. PETER GODSOE
and ROBBIE BEALS are with one group (the one on the left, as you look toward the back of the market); MOLLY is in the other, standing with CAT and TESS MARCHANT, who has moved away from the cash register.
HATCH surveys this and decides it'll do it'll have to. He goes to the door and opens it. He beckons.
126 EXTERIOR: THE PORCH, WITH MIKE AND LINOGE.
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LINOGE walks ahead, cuffed hands at his waist. MIKE is alert for anything ... or so he no doubt hopes.
MIKE Not one wrong move, Mr. Linoge. You mind me, now.
127 INTERIOR: THE MARKET, FEATURES HATCH.
He lowers the shotgun to port arms, one hand on the barrel and the other wrapped around the trigger. LINOGE, coated with snow, eyebrows crusted white, comes in. MIKE follows closely, the gun now raised and pointed at LINOGE'S back.
MIKE Right down Aisle 2. Nowhere else.
But MARTHA'S killer stops for a moment and surveys the clusters of frightened islanders. Here is an enormously important moment. LINOGE is like a tiger that has been let out of its cage. The trainer is there (two of them, counting HATCH), but when it comes to tigers only bars lots of them, strong and thick are safe. And LINOGE doesn't look like a prisoner, or act like one. He stares at the residents of Little Tall with shining eyes. The residents look back at him with fear and fascination.
MIKE
(prods him with the gun) Come on. Let's go.
LINOGE starts, then stops. He looks at PETER.
LINOGE
Peter Godsoe! My favorite seafood wholesaler standing shoulder to shoulder with my favorite politician!
PETER flinches at being addressed by name.
MIKE
(prodding with the gun) Come on. Andale. Let's just
LINOGE (ignores him)
How's the fish business? Not so good, is it? Lucky you've got the marijuana business to fall back on. How many bales have you got in the back of the warehouse right now? Ten? Twenty? Forty?
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PETER GODSOE reacts violently. The shot has gone home. ROBBIE BEALS moves away from his friend, as if afraid of catching a flu germ. And for a moment, MIKE is too shocked to shut LINOGE
up.
LINOGE
Better make sure you've got it wrapped up good, Pete there's gonna be a hell of a storm surge tonight when the tide comes high.
MIKE reaches out and shoves LINOGE'S shoulder, good and hard. LINOGE stumbles forward, but keeps his balance easily. This time it is CAT WITHERS that his bright eye fixes upon.
LINOGE
(as if greeting an old friend) Cat Withers!
She flinches as if struck. MOLLY puts an arm around her and looks at LINOGE with fear and mistrust.
LINOGE
You're looking well . . . but why not? It's just an in-office procedure these days, nothing to it.
CAT
(real agony) Mike, make him stop!
MIKE pushes LINOGE again, but this time LINOGE won't budge; he's as firm as ... well, as firm as that troublesome stuck door out back.
LINOGE
Went up to Deny to have it taken care of, didn't you? Don't suppose you've told your folks about it yet? ... or Billy? No? My advice would be to go ahead. What's a little scrape among friends these days?
CAT puts her hands to her face and begins to CRY. Any number of townspeople are looking at her with shock, wonder, and horror. One looks absolutely stunned. BILLY SOAMES, about twenty-three, is wearing a red apron. He's BETTY SOAMES'S son, also the market's produce man and janitor. He's CAT'S steady guy, and this is the first he knows of how CAT got rid of their child.
MIKE places the barrel of his gun against the back of LINOGE'S head and thumbs back the 79
hammer.
MIKE Move, or I'll move you.
LINOGE starts up the center aisle. He's not afraid of the gun to his head; he's simply finished with this bit of business.
128 INTERIOR: BY THE CHECKOUT, WITH MOLLY AND CAT.
CAT is SOBBING HYSTERICALLY, and MOLLY has her arms around her. TESS MARCHANT is dividing her attention between the sobbing girl and the incredulous BILLY SOAMES. All at once, MOLLY wakes up to a very important consideration.
MOLLY
Where's Ralphie?
129 INTERIOR: AISLE 2, WITH LINOGE AND MIKE, HATCH IN BACKGROUND.
As they approach the end of the aisle, RALPHIE comes tearing around it from the other side with a box of the sweet cereal in his hands.
RALPHIE Mom! Mommy! Can I have this one?
With absolutely no hesitation at all, LINOGE bends, picks RALPHIE up by the shoulders, and swings him around. All at once, MIKE'S son is between LINOGE and MIKE'S gun. The kid's a hostage. MIKE reacts first with shock and then with sickening, agonized fear.
MIKE Put him down! Or
LINOGE
(smiling; almost laughing) Or what?
130 INTERIOR: BY THE COUNTER, WITH MOLLY.
She loses all interest in CAT and hurries toward the head of Aisle 2 so she can see what's happening. One of the ISLAND RESIDENTS, KIRK FREEMAN, tries to stop her.
MOLLY
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Let me go, Kirk!
She gives a good, hard yank, and he does. When she sees that LINOGE has her son, she GASPS
LOUDLY and her hands go to her mouth.
MIKE gestures her to stay where she is without ever taking his eyes from LINOGE. Behind MOLLY, the MARKET CUSTOMERS begin to gather, staring tensely at the confrontation.
131 INTERIOR: AISLE 2, WITH LINOGE AND RALPHIE, CLOSE-UP.
LINOGE puts his forehead to RALPHIE'S, so the two of them can look intimately
