flinches, opens his mouth, then closes it again. What do you say to a remark like that? But LINOGE isn't finished.
LINOGE (voice)
You were with a whore in Boston when your mother died in Machias. Ma was in that crappy nursing home they closed down last fall, the one where they found the rats in the pantry, right? She choked to death calling your name. Isn't that sweet? Other than a good slice of processed yellow cheese, there's nothing on earth like a mother's love!
57 INTERIOR: ROBBIE.
Big reaction here. How would any of us react, if told one of our darkest secrets by a murderous stranger we could not properly see?
LINOGE (voice) But that's all right, Robbie.
Another big reaction from ROBBIE the stranger knows his name!
58 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S CHAIR.
LINOGE peeks around the chair's left-side wing, almost coyly. His eyes are more or less normal, but he is almost as blood-streaked as the head of his silver bludgeon.
LINOGE
She's waiting for you in hell. And she's turned cannibal. When you get there, she's going to eat you alive. Over and over and over again. Because that's what hell's about repetition. I think in our hearts, most of us know that. CATCH!
He heaves DAVEY'S basketball.
59 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM DOORWAY, WITH ROBBIE.
CHAPTER 5
The ball hits him in the chest, leaving a blood mark. ROBBIE'S had enough. He turns and FLEES, SCREAMING.
60 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S LIVING ROOM, ANGLE ON CHAIR AND TV.
Once again, we can just see the top of LINOGE'S head. Then his hand appears, rolled into a fist. It hovers in the air for a moment, then one finger POPS OUT, pointed at the TV. The WEATHER LADY resumes immediately.
WEATHER LADY (voice-over)
Let's check the area apt to be most severely affected by the oncoming storm.
LINOGE reaches for another cookie.
61 EXTERIOR: IN FRONT OF MARTHA'S.
ROBBIE bolts down the steps to his car, as fast as his chubby little legs will carry him. His face is a mask of horror and bewilderment.
62 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S LIVING ROOM, FEATURING THE TV.
THE CAMERA MOVES IN SLOWLY on the SHATTERED PICTURE TUBE and SMOKING INNARDS as the WEATHER LADY talks.
WEATHER LADY (voice-over) The forecast calls for destruction tonight, death tomorrow, and Armageddon by the weekend. In fact, this could be the end of life as we know it.
63 INTERIOR: LINOGE.
LINOGE
Seems unlikely . . . but we can always hope.
He takes another bite of cookie.
FADE OUT. THIS ENDS ACT 2.
Act 3
64 EXTERIOR: ROBBIE'S LINCOLN, WITH ROBBIE DAY.
He claws at the driver's side door. Down the street, a number of TOWNSFOLK are watching him curiously.
GEORGE KIRBY Everything all right up there, Beals?
ROBBIE doesn't answer the old guy. He gets his car door open and dives inside. He has a CB radio under the dash, and now he yanks the mike off its prong. He punches the power button, punches in channel
19, and speaks. All during this, he keeps casting panicky glances at the open door of the CLARENDON house, in terror that MARTHA'S killer will show up.
ROBBIE
This is Robbie Beals for Constable Anderson! Come back, Anderson! This is an emergency!
65 INTERIOR. ANDERSON'S MARKET DAY.
The market is as crowded as ever. CAT and TESS MARCHANT, a motherly looking woman in her mid- to late-forties, have been checking folks out just as fast as they can, but now everyone freezes as the radio spews out its EXCITED BABBLE.
ROBBIE (voice)
Come back, dammit! Anderson! We've got a murder over here! Martha Clarendon's been beaten to death!
A DISMAYED, DISBELIEVING MURMUR goes through the shoppers at that. Their eyes get big.
ROBBIE (voice) The guy who did it is still in the house! Anderson! Anderson!
You come back, do you hear me? You're always around when it comes to unwanted advice, where are you when
TESS MARCHANT takes the microphone from the radio like a woman in a dream.
TESS Robbie? This is Tess Marchant. Mike's not
ROBBIE (voice)
I don't want you! I want Anderson! I can't do his job and mine, too!
CAT
(takes the mike)
He had an emergency at home. Alton went with him. It was his little g
Just then, MIKE and HATCH come in through the door. CAT and TESS look incredibly relieved. A LOW MURMUR runs through the crowd. MIKE makes about three steps into the room, then stops, realizing something very much out of the ordinary is going on here.
MIKE What? What is it?
Nobody in the market will answer him. Meantime, the RADIO continues to SQUAWK.
ROBBIE (voice)
What do you mean, an emergency at home? There's an emergency right here! An old woman murdered! A lunatic in Martha Clarendon's living