into each other's eyes. RALPHIE is too young to be scared. He looks into that shining, smiling, interested tiger's gaze with a kind of breathless interest.
LINOGE I know you.
RALPHIE You do?
LINOGE You're Ralph Emerick Anderson. And I know something else.
RALPHIE is fascinated, unaware of HATCH RACKING A SHELL into the shotgun, unaware that the market has turned into a powder keg of which he is the fuse. He is fascinated, almost hypnotized, by LINOGE.
RALPHIE
What?
LINOGE plants a quick, light kiss on the bridge of RALPHIE'S nose.
LINOGE
You have a fairy saddle!
RALPHIE
(smiling, delighted) That's what my daddy calls it!
LINOGE
(returns the smile) You bet! And speaking of Daddy
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He sets RALPHIE down, but for a moment he's leaning so close that RALPHIE is still, in effect, his hostage. RALPHIE sees the handcuffs.
RALPHIE
Why're you wearing those?
LINOGE
Because I choose to. Go on. See your dad.
He turns RALPHIE around and gives him a light swat on the butt. RALPHIE sees his father and lights up in a smile. Before he can take more than a step or two, MIKE grabs him and pulls the boy into his arms. RALPHIE sees the pistol.
RALPHIE
Daddy, why have you got
MOLLY
Ralphie!
She sprints for him, brushing past HATCH and knocking a bunch of canned goods to the floor. The cans roll everywhere. She pulls RALPHIE out of MIKE'S arms and hugs him frantically. MIKE, flustered and rocky (who wouldn't be?), returns his focus to the faintly smiling LINOGE, who has now had about nine billion chances to get away.
RALPHIE
Why's Daddy pointing a gun at that man?
MIKE Moll, get him out of here.
MOLLY What are you
MIKE
Get him out of here!
She FLINCHES at the unaccustomed shout and begins to retreat with RALPHIE in her arms, 82
toward the other people clustering timidly at the foot of the aisle. She steps on a can and it rolls out from under her. Before she can fall, KIRK FREEMAN catches and steadies her. RALPHIE, looking over her shoulder at his daddy, is finally upset.
RALPHIE Don't shoot him, Daddy, he knows about the fairy saddle.
MIKE
(more to LINOGE than RALPHIE)
I'm not going to shoot him. Not if he goes where he's supposed to.
He looks toward the end of the aisle. LINOGE smiles and nods, as if to say, 'Of course, since you insist,' and starts that way, hands in front of him again. HATCH catches up to MIKE.
HATCH
What are we going to ?
MIKE Lock him up! What else?
He's terrified, ashamed, relieved . . . you name it, MIKE is feeling it. HATCH sees enough of MIKE'S emotions to be abashed and retires a bit into the background as MIKE shadows LINOGE to the upper end of the aisle.
132 INTERIOR: ANGLE ON MEAT COUNTER AND CONSTABLE'S OFFICE DOOR.
As LINOGE and MIKE get to the head of the aisle, LINOGE turns left, toward the constable's office, as if he knows where it is. HATCH follows after. And then, from Aisle 1, comes BILLY
SOAMES. He's too angry to be scared, and before MIKE can stop him, he grabs LINOGE and THROWS HIM against the meat counter.
BILLY SOAMES What do you know about Katrina? And how do you know it?
MIKE has had enough. He grabs BILLY by the back of his shirt and HEAVES HIM against a rack of powdered herbs and fish fixin's. BILLY hits it hard and goes spawling.
MIKE
What are you, crazy? This guy's a killer! Stay out of his way! And stay out of mine, Billy Soames!
LINOGE
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Also, clean yourself up.
We glimpse that STRANGE, BLACKISH WAVERING in his eyes again.
133 INTERIOR: BILLY, CLOSE-UP.
At first he sits there where he landed, looking question marks at LINOGE. Then his nose GUSHES
BLOOD. He feels it, reaches up to catch the flow, and looks unbelievingly at the blood on his palms.
CAT runs up Aisle 1 to where he is and kneels beside him. She wants to help him; she wants to do anything, really, that will take away the awful look of surprise and hurt anger on his face. But BILLY is having none of it. He shoves her back.
BILLY SOAMES Leave me alone!
He lurches to his feet.
134 INTERIOR: BY THE MEAT COUNTER, WIDER.
LINOGE
Before he gets too self-righteous, Katrina, ask him how well he knows Jenna Freeman.
BILLY flinches, stunned.
135 INTERIOR: KIRK FREEMAN, IN AISLE 2.
KIRK FREEMAN
What do you know about my sister?
136 INTERIOR: RESUME MEAT COUNTER.
LINOGE
That horses aren't all she enjoys riding when the weather's hot. Right, Billy?
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CAT looks at BILLY, stricken. He wipes at his BLEEDING NOSE with the back of his hand and looks anywhere but at her. His self-righteous, wounded anger has dissolved into a kind of slinking furtiveness. His face says, 'lemme outta here.' MIKE still looks like he can't believe how screwed up this whole thing has gotten.
MIKE Move away from this man, Cat. You too, Billy.
She doesn't move. Perhaps doesn't hear. There are tears on her cheeks. HATCH uses one hand to push her gently away from the door marked CONSTABLE'S OFFICE. He inadvertantly pushes her in BILLY'S direction, and they both shrink back.
HATCH
(kindly) Got to get out of his grabbin' range, darlin'.
This time she goes blundering past BILLY (who makes no move to stop her) toward the front of the store. MIKE, meanwhile, steps forward
and picks a package of plastic bags the kind you use to save leftovers off a display. Then he puts the muzzle of his gun between LINOGE'S shoulder blades.
MIKE Come on. Move.
137 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE.
The WIND is VERY LOUD, SCARY shrieking like a train whistle. We can hear SHINGLES
