who looks at him with that faint smile.
MIKE Later on we're going to have that talk you wanted, sir.
He closes the case and starts for the door. A HUGE GUST OF WIND hits the building, making it CREAK. Out back, something falls over with a CRASH. HATCH winces.
98
HATCH
What do we do with him if Robbie and Ursula decide to blow the town whistle and bring everybody in? We can't very well sit him in a corner of the town hall basement with a blanket and a cup of chowder.
MIKE I don't know. Stay right here with him, I guess.
PETER And blow away if he blows away?
MIKE
You want to go home, Pete?
PETER
No.
MIKE nods and leaves.
155 EXTERIOR: MARTHA CLARENDON'S HOUSE DUSK.
The Island Services vehicle comes out of the growing gloom, crunching through drifts and driving over fallen limbs in the street. It stops by MARTHA'S gate. MIKE gets out, carrying the little case, and goes up the walk. The storm is worse than ever; the GUSTS OF WIND push MIKE around. He struggles up the snow-laden porch steps.
156 EXTERIOR: THE PORCH, WITH MIKE DUSK.
He opens his case, takes out the flashlight and the cased Polaroid. He hangs the camera around his neck on its strap. The WIND MOANS. Branches CLACK against the porch. MIKE looks around, a little nervous, then returns his attention to the case. He takes out a roll of white adhesive tape and a Sharpie-type pen. Holding the flashlight (now turned on) between his chest and his arm, MIKE tears off a strip of the tape and puts it on MARTHA'S door. He uncaps the pen, thinks, then prints: 'CRIME
SCENE DO NOT ENTER MICHAEL ANDERSON
CONSTABLE.' Then he puts the roll of tape on his arm like a bracelet and opens the door.
He picks up MARTHA'S walker, holding the grips in his gloved hands, and sets it in the hall. Then he closes his case, picks it up, and steps inside himself.
157 INTERIOR: THE HALLWAY DARK.
99
MIKE puts his flashlight, turned on, in his coat pocket. The beam SHINES UPWARD at the ceiling.
MIKE himself is little more than a MOVING SHAPE in the dark as he readies the Polaroid and raises it to his face.
FLASH! and we see:
158 INTERIOR: MARTHA CLARENDON.
Her battered, bloody face. Just for a moment. Then it FADES. This picture and those that follow have the stark quality of crime-scene photos ... of evidence . . . which is just what they will be in a courtroom someday. Or so MIKE hopes.
159 INTERIOR: THE HALLWAY DARK.
MIKE turns, putting the first photo in his coat pocket, then triggers the Polaroid again.
FLASH! and we see:
160 INTERIOR: PICTURES ON THE HALLWAY WALL.
Boats at sea. The town dock in 1920. Old Fords chugging up Atlantic Street Hill in 1928. Girls having a picnic by the lighthouse. The pictures are stippled with BLOOD. Between them, on the wallpaper, are THICKER SPRAYS OF BLOOD. FADES.
161 INTERIOR: THE HALLWAY DARK.
The shape that is MIKE ANDERSON bends a little.
FLASH! and we see:
163 INTERIOR: THE HALLWAY DARK.
MIKE moves up the hall toward the living room.
164 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM DARK.
100
It's pretty spooky in here, with the furniture just dim shapes and the WIND HOWLING outside.
BRANCHES TAP and TREES GROAN.
MIKE moves forward, the flashlight beam still spraying up from his coat pocket. He inadvertently KICKS SOMETHING. A DARK SHAPE rolls across the floor, hits a leg of MARTHA'S chair, and ricochets out of frame. MIKE follows after, takes the flashlight out of his pocket, and shines it into the lens of THE CAMERA he's looking at the object he kicked, although we can't see it from where we are. He replaces the flashlight in his pocket, raises the Polaroid, and bends forward.
FLASH! and:
165 INTERIOR: DAVEY'S BASKETBALL.
Splotched and stained with blood. Looks like some weird planet. FADES.
166 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM, WITH MIKE DARK.
He rips off a piece of the tape, prints 'EVIDENCE' on it, and sticks it to the basketball. Then he walks around the chair and aims the Polaroid at the TV.
FLASH! and:
167 INTERIOR: THE TELEVISION.
The picture tube totally smashed. The electronic guts of the thing visible inside the ragged hole.
It's like a gouged-out eye. FADES.
168 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM, WITH MIKE DARK.
He's frowning, puzzled, thinking about the TV. He and Hatch heard the damned thing. They really did. He moves carefully toward it, then turns and raises the POLAROID.
FLASH! and:
169 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S CHAIR.
101
Stark and bloodstained, as creepy as an instrument of torture. The cookie plate and bloodstained teacup are still on the table beside it.
170 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He wants a second one of this. He raises the Polaroid, then stops. He looks up at: 171 INTERIOR: ABOVE THE DOOR BETWEEN THE LIVING ROOM AND THE HALL.
There's something up there, written on the wallpaper above the arch. We can see it, but it's too dark to read.
172 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He points the Polaroid up, aims, and
FLASH!
173 INTERIOR: ABOVE THE DOOR BETWEEN THE LIVING ROOM AND THE HALL.
It's a message printed in MARTHA CLARENDON'S blood: 'GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I'LL GO
AWAY.' Above it is a drawing
We may or may not recognize it. FADES.
174 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He's shaken, and badly. Still, he's determined to do his job. He raises the Polaroid for that second shot of the chair.
FLASH!
175 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S CHAIR.
This time LINOGE'S cane lies across the arms of the chair, the bloodstained wolfs head snarling into the flash. If we didn't understand the significance of the drawing on the wall, we do now.
102
176 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
The camera drops out of his hands; if not for the strap, it would fall to the floor. He is understandably freaked. The cane wasn't there before. The WIND GUSTS the strongest one yet.
Behind MIKE, the window facing the street EXPLODES INWARD. SNOW SWIRLS into the room, twisting in ghostly cyclones. The sheers billow like ghostly arms.
MIKE is startled (hopefully we will be, too) but recovers quickly. He pulls the drapes across the broken window. They BILLOW OUT, but he quickly moves a table into place to anchor them. Then he turns back to MARTHA'S chair . . . and that unexpected cane. He bends over it, then raises the Polaroid.
FLASH! and:
177 INTERIOR: THE WOLF'S HEAD CANE, CLOSE-UP.
It stares at us with its bloody teeth and eyes like a ghost wolf in a stroke of lightning, then FADES.
178 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He remains where he is for a moment, trying to get himself back together. Then he pockets the last picture, tears off another strip of white tape, and tags the cane. On it he prints 'EVIDENCE' and
'POSS. MURDER WEAPON.'
179 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S DINING ROOM
