X-MAN SCREENPLAY by BRIAN R. LUNDIN (ereader for comics txt) 📕

/> Ringo was awakened by Evetta holding two cups of Starbucks coffee.

EVETTA
You ain’t married so I know no woman put you out.

Ringo took one of the cups, blew the coffee and took a quick sip.

RINGO
I wanted to go over Esau file, guess I fell asleep.

EVETTA
Well Lieutenant Marvel, want to see you right away.

Without knocking or waiting for an invitation Ringo walked into Lieutenant David O’Shea’s office and sat on the arm rest of a chair across from his desk The lieutenant didn‘t acknowledge him as he continued writing on a yellow pad on his oversized wooden desk. By designed O’Shea had ordered a high chair that made him look down on anyone sitting, and Ringo knew by sitting on the arm it pissed him off. He put his pen down and looked at Ringo for a second.

O’SHEA
Please sit in the chair sergeant.

Ringo ignored the request and continued sitting. O’Shea he shook his head and his ruddy red face got redder.

You and that partner of yours really fucked things up, letting that prisoner escape.

RINGO
We didn’t let him escape, how he escaped I don’t know, but TONY ALFONSO the lockup keeper was killed, did you read my report?

O’SHEA
Yeah I read it and it is completely unacceptable, you and your partner should have personally taken him to the lockup.

RINGO
I don’t recall ever reading that in a General Order.

O’SHEA
Fuck General Orders, it’s your fault that a serial rapist and killer escaped.

O’Shea slides a Complaint Register form to Ringo.

I will be investigation this complaint myself, and if founded I’m going to recommend separation for you and your partner.

Ringo got off the chair.

RINGO
Do your worst.

Ringo walked out the office.

INT. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT DENNIS GULT OUTER OFFICE

Ringo sat in the large comfortable chair and browsed through the magazines on the table. He knew this was not going to be a pleasant meeting; Lieutenant O’Shea had already got a Complaint Registered Number on him and Evetta alleging that we were responsible for the escape of Esau Sneed and the murder of the lockup keeper, Tony Alfonso. I wasn’t worried about the complaint it was completely unfounded, but that was O’Shea’s way to deflect the heat off the Special Crimes Bureau and himself. After a half-hour wait Captain Patricia Woods came to the door and summoned Ringo into the office

INT. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT DENNIS GULT OFFICE

GULT
Have a seat sergeant; be with you in a minute.

Ringo sat next to the captain and a few minutes later Gult put down a folder and turned to me.

Gult
What happened John?

RINGO
I interrogated Esau Sneed and he confessed to the murders and rapes, we got it on audio and video tapes. I had two of my officers take him to the lockup and when I went there to interrogate him again I found the lockup keeper in a cell, his throat cut and Esau gone.

GULT
How in the hell does that lieutenant deduct it was your fault?

RINGO
Me and the lieu have never gotten alone, why I don’t know, but like he always says, “Shit rolls down hill.”

GULT
(the deputy shook his head)
Don’t worry about the CR Number I’ll take care of that. I’ve been notified that the US Marshals have a warrant out for Esau and are looking for him and they have assigned Marshal Marcus Cahill as a liaison with the department and I want you and Evetta to work with him. I’m assigning you and your people to my office and you will report directly to me through Captain Woods, she will give you anything you need.

After escaping from the Special Crimes Bureau Esau Sneed spent the next three months traveling around the country. He worked odd jobs in Warsaw, Indiana, Fort Wayne Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, but he soon got tired of those little hick towns and decided to go back to the Midwest. Esau Sneed felt good, he had fucked the shit out of that black bitch Ada, took her Cadillac Escapade and the bitch had over a thousand bucks in her purse. He remembered the old police officer who though he so fuckin’ smart and tried to put him in that dirty, smelly cell.

FLASHBACK: SPECIAL CRIMES BUREAU LOCKUP 10 JUNE 2008 EVENING.

The two detectives turn Esau over to the lockup keeper Tony Alfonso and leave the lockup. Tony a big Italian cop glances at the little man removes his handcuffs and place at the fingerprint table. Esau sees a knife sitting on a desk punch Tony in the stomach grabs the knife and cuts his throat.

INT. ADA’S VEHICLE 10 AUGUST 2008-MORNING

ESAU
(talking to himself)
Well, where should I go, Chicago is a little too hot now, I sure would like to see the face on that mutherfucking, smart ass detective John Ringo with his smug ass.

Esau slightly opened the vehicle’s sun-roof and breathed in the warm late morning air. He turned on the CD player and BB King Blues guitar filled the interior. He was driving west on Interstate 80 and passed the road sign that read, “Joliet 10 miles.”

Joliet, never been there, might find some country pussy there.

In ten minutes he exited the Interstate and drove through the small city, stopped at a Mc Donald, went in an ordered a Big Mac, he sat at a table and looked around. The restaurant was filled with teen-agers white and black all giggling and acting like teen-agers. He noticed two young black girls in the group; one looked about fifteen and the other a little older. Esau watched and hoped that the two girls would leave their friends and he would follow them and maybe fuck them both, but after getting their food the group of teens, including the black girls piled into a beat-up Ford pickup and drove off.

ESAU
Shit!

Esau walked up to an older black woman sitting at one of the tables and smiled.

I'm new to the city and I’m trying to find a friend, where is the black folks in this town?

WOMAN
Most blacks live on the Southside, I would suggest you try Fairview Projects, someone might know him there.
EXT. FAIRVIEW PROJECTS- AFTERNOON

Esau parked his vehicles three blocks from the projects and walked. The Fairview was like the projects in Chicago or anywhere else in the country; worn-down buildings and worn-down people. Esau observed the children playing in the run down playground, a group of boys were playing basketball on a pot-holed basketball court that contained a net-less basketball rim, a group of young girls were jumping around a hopscotch board drawn in red crayon on the dirty concrete ground while others jumped rope. He sat on an iron bench in front of a sixteen storied high rise building and looked up at the old women sitting on the balconies watching their grandchildren through the wire mess that encased the balcony. An older group of boys, wearing red and white Bulls caps were gathered together in front of another high rise waiting for darkness to resume their drug business. He noticed a young girl walk over to a bench and sit down; she had an arm full of books that she carefully spread out on the bench, Esau approached the girl.

ESAU
What you reading?


GIRL
I’m having a hard time with my algebra I don’t understand the formulas.

ESAU
Maybe I can help; I was always good at algebra.

GIRL
My name is Deloris Whitfield, please sit down.

ESAU
My name is Robert, let me see the book.

Deloris handed him the book and in a few minutes he had solved the twenty questions she was assigned, Deloris was amazed.

DELORIS
How much would you charge to tutor me? I don’t have much money.

ESAU
A smile.
DELORIS
(excited)
When can we start, I’ve got to get a good grade, I‘m planning on going to college next year.

ESAU
When do you want to start?

DELORIS
How about tomorrow afternoon, my grandmother goes to work at noon, so the apartment will be quiet.

ESAU
I’ll meet you right here tomorrow at 1:00 pm.

Deloris jumped off the bench grabbed her book and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Esau watched Deloris butt as she skipped away he put his hands in his pocket and closed his eyes softly muttered to himself.

Tomorrow my dear you will learn more than algebra.
INT. RINGO’S APARTMENT- 12 AUGUST 2008 -MORNING

During the months the X-Man escaped the Ist Deputy had quashed the complaint on Ringo and Evetta and Lieutenant O’Shea had been transferred to the Motor Maintenance Unit. There had been no more murders or rapes in the city that could be attributed to the Esau Sneed, but Ringo knew Esau was still out there, waiting. Ringo’s cell phone ranged and it was Evetta.

EVETTA
Just got word that the body of a young girl was found in Joliet, and according to the ME, she was raped after she was killed and an x was carved into her chest, sound like our boy, also, I just talked with Cahill he said a report just came over VICAP, of the young girl raped and murdered in Joliet, X carved in her chest.


INT. SPECIAL CRIMES BUREAU COMPUTER ROOM-MOURNING

A warm late summer rain started to fall as Ringo parked his Dodge Neon in the Police Parking Lot. Evetta and Cahill were already in the office reading the teletype from the FBI. Cahill an ex-Marine was light skin, light brown hair cut short, over six feet and a solid two hundred pounds. He told us that he joined the US Marshals five years ago after he got discharged from the Marines and spent most of his time on the Marshal’s Apprehension Unit. Cahill pulled a folder out his brief case.

CAHILL
This just came in, A young girl seventeen who lived in the Fairview projects in Joliet was found murdered this morning, she had been raped and stabbed and a X was carved in her chest, sound familiar?

RINGO
Let’s go to Joliet.

EXT. FAIRVIEW HOUSING PROJECT-MORNING

An hour later we pulled onto the fire-lanes at the Joliet Fairview Public Housing Projects in a predominately black section of the city. It was a large public housing project but was slowly being demolished. An angry black crowd had gathered were held back by a cadre of uniformed Joliet Police officers in riot gear standing at the lobby door of the high rise building.

VOICE(OS)

I live in that building, motherfucker!
Ringo showed my badge to a young, nervous looking white policeman his white face shield resting on top of his blue helmet they entered the lobby.

RINGO
What floor?

OFFICER
Tenth floor Apartment 10B and the elevator is out of order.

They started up the urine soaked, dark and graffiti-marked stairwell passing other police officers. Ringo was out of breath when they reached the tenth floor; more uniform officers were on the corridor and in front of apartment 10B. We entered the neatly furnished apartment and I saw an older woman sitting on a couch in the small front room, being comforted by a female officer, another police officer nodded towards the bathroom. In the bathroom a Crime Scene Investigator was examining the body while an evidence technician was