he stands up, takes the shotgun, and stands back.
MIKE
Kick them off.
LINOGE kicks them off. MIKE nods to HATCH, who bends down (keeping a skittery eye on LINOGE as he does) and picks them up. HATCH feels inside them, then shakes them.
HATCH
Nothing.
MIKE Toss them over by the desk.
HATCH does.
MIKE
Step into the cell, Mr. Linoge. Move slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.
LINOGE opens the door of the cell and swings it back and forth a time or two before going in. The door SQUEAKS, and doesn't hang quite true when it's all the way open. LINOGE touches a couple of the home welds with the ball of one finger, and smiles.
MIKE You think it won't hold you? It'll hold you.
Yet MIKE doesn't look entirely sure, and HATCH looks even more doubtful. LINOGE steps in, crosses the cell, and sits down facing the door. He draws his legs up so that the heels of his stocking feet (white athletic socks) are on the edge of the cot and he is looking at us from between his bent knees. We will see him in this same posture for some little time, now. His hands dangle limply. He wears a trace of a smile. If we saw a guy looking at us this way, we'd probably run. It's that caged-tiger look very still and watchful, but full of pent-up violence.
MIKE closes the cell door, and HATCH uses a key from the ring to lock it. With that done, he shakes the door. It's locked, but he and MIKE share an unhappy glance, just the same. That door is as rattly the last tooth in an old man's jaw. The cell is for the likes of SONNY BRAUTIGAN, who has a nasty habit of getting drunk and breaking the windows in his ex-wife's house with stones . . . not for a stranger with no ID who beat an old widow to death.
MIKE crosses to the loading dock door, looks at the dead bolt, then tries the knob. The door opens easily, letting in a FRIGID GASP OF WIND and a SWIRL OF SNOW. HATCH'S mouth drops open.
HATCH Mike, I swear it wouldn't budge.
MIKE closes the door. As he finishes doing that, ROBBIE BEALS comes in. He crosses to the desk and reaches for one of the gloves.
MIKE Don't touch that!
ROBBIE
(draws his hand back) Does he have any ID on him?
MIKE I want you out of here.
ROBBIE picks up the joke sign and shakes it at MIKE.
ROBBIE
I want to tell you something, Anderson: your sense of humor is entirely
HATCH, who actually put that sign around the dummy's neck, looks embarrassed. Neither of the other men notice. MIKE snatches the damned thing out of ROBBIE'S hand and dumps it in the wastebasket.
MIKE
I don't have the time or the patience for this. Get out or I'll throw you out.
ROBBIE looks at him and sees that MIKE absolutely means it. ROBBIE backs toward the door.
ROBBIE
Come town meeting, there's maybe going to be a change in law enforcement on Little Tall.
MIKE
Town meeting's in March. This is February. Now get the hell out.
ROBBIE leaves. MIKE and HATCH hold their positions for a moment, and then MIKE lets out his breath in a long WHOOSH. HATCH looks
relieved.
MIKE I think I handled that pretty well, don't you?
HATCH Like a diplomat.
MIKE takes another long, steadying breath. He opens the sandwich bags. As he and HATCH finish talking, he puts the bloody gloves in two bags, and the cap in a third.
MIKE I have to go out and
HATCH You're going to leave me alone with him?
MIKE
Try to raise the state police barracks in Machias. And stay away from him.
HATCH I should say you can count on that.
138 INTERIOR: THE REAR OF THE MARKET, BY THE MEAT COUNTER.
Perhaps two dozen TOWNSFOLK have clogged the aisles, looking hopefully and fearfully toward the constable's office door. To one side, glowering like a banked furnace, is ROBBIE. ROBBIE has now been joined by the other two members of his family . . . wife SANDRA and the charming DON, from day care. In the forefront of the TOWNSFOLK is MOLLY, with RALPHIE in her arms. When the door opens and she sees MIKE, she hurries forward. MIKE puts a reassuring arm around her.
RALPHIE
You didn't hurt him, Daddy, did you?
MIKE No, honey, just put him safe.
RALPHIE In the jail? Did you put him in the jail? What did he do?
MIKE Not now, Ralph.
He kisses the fairy saddle on RALPHIE'S nose and turns to the gathered people.
MIKE
Peter!