Scene 2
Detective Trent Baker and his partner of two years Detective Ben Taylor (he's mid-20's) are staking out the house of a suspected murder.
INT. TRENT’S CAR - NIGHT
BEN
I think I like stake outs.
TRENT
Wait till you’ve done more of them.
BEN
How do you get through them?
TRENT
I usually bring along a book or
two.
BEN
What do you like to read?
TRENT
Glove box.
Ben opens it and pulls out a book.
BEN
"True Paranormal Encounters". Huh.
I didn’t think you were the type.
Trent grabs it and chucks it in the back.
BEN
Okay.
He looks back at Miles’ file. Grimaces.
BEN
Simon Miles. Man, how does a kid
get like that? I mean, you don’t
just decide one day that you’re
going to cut up your parents with a
kitchen knife, you know? And then
he claims he was possessed? What
had to happen to him?
TRENT
It wasn’t something that just
happened, it was a lot of things.
Years of dysfunction and abuse,
problems that never got addressed
that built up until he just
snapped. If you know something is
wrong and you continue doing it,
you don’t get to decide where it
ends.
Ben is a little surprised.
BEN
You sure you don’t believe he was
possessed?
Trent gives him look.
TRENT
We all have a sense of right and
wrong. But people have an
astounding capacity for
justification and self-deception.
They repress their God-given
conscience and we get a world like
we have today. People convince
themselves they can sin without
consequence or that there is no
sin. Or they don’t care one way or
the other and end up butchering
their parents with a kitchen knife.
BEN
That’s very philosophical of you. I
thought I was the religious one.
TRENT
I’m not stupid enough to not
believe in a God. People just don’t
want to believe in one because that
might mean they can’t do what they
want. In the case of Miles, I
believe he’d had it with his
parents and decided to kill them
and then claimed to be possessed so
he would get off on an insanity
plea.
BEN
You’re telling me a kid who does
something like that doesn’t have a
serious mental problem?
Trent is quiet for a moment.
TRENT
When I was a rookie back in Idaho,
there was a guy I knew named
Terique. Really nice guy, had a
wife, Sherry, and two kids. Didn’t
know him all that well, just seen
him a few times when I was hanging
out at the bar with the guys. One
day we get this call for a domestic
disturbance. I was surprised when
Terique answered the door. Whatever
it was, it was over by the time we
got there. He answered the door.
Said he didn’t know why the
neighbours called us. The kids had
just been playing around and
knocked over a vase. He invited us
over for a barbecue a couple days
later. He said it was an apology
for the waste of our time. Looking
back, things were a little
different with them that day but I
didn’t notice at the time. (beat)
The next week we got another call.
As I pulled onto their block, I
passed Sherry almost running on the
sidewalk, crying. Terique said it
wasn’t anything and closed the
door. I caught up with Sherry and
she said they just had a fight and
I shouldn’t worry. (beat) A couple
days later another call came in.
Someone else took the call but I
found out that they got there right
after the call was made and Sherry
answered door. Her nose was
bleeding and her face was starting
to swell. They hauled him down to
the station for 24 hours and fined
him. I showed up at his house that
night and... let him know what
would happen if he touched her
again. (beat) Three days later we
got a report of gunshots at his
house. Me and three other cars
showed up at the same time but I
kicked the door in. Sherry was in
the kitchen. She had been knocked
out of her chair by the shotgun
blast that had blown her head
apart. The kids... The kids were in
the corner. The boy shielded his
sister but it was pointless. The
first shot killed him and knocked
him on top of her. Terique finished
her off point blank. Just as we
started looking for him he walks in
the back door covered in blood and
brain matter and acting like
nothing happened. (beat) I put a
bullet through his eye.
BEN
He came at you with the shotgun?
Beat.
TRENT
Yes.
Ben looks over at him. From Trent's tone it's apparent that no, Terique did not.
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