Script Assignment

Drama Script: Chicago-Metro Intelligence Unit

Setting: Jackowo District, Chicago, 2017

Cast

·      Detective Trudy Delmare – A veteran detective with nearly twenty years of work on the force. She has    spent the last fifteen years working with the homicide intelligence unit with Marcel as her partner. She is about forty-six years old, married to Walter Delmare and mother to three children: Samuel, Lila, and Marian.

·      Detective Marcel Fredericks – Another veteran detective with seventeen years of work on the force and four years in the marines. He has spent the last fifteen years working with Trudy as his partner. He is about forty-nine, Divorced once; married to Dominique Fredericks and father to one child, Isaac.

·      Norman Atkinson – Forensic Technician/Blood pattern analysis, roughly 31 in age.

·      Dr. Dorian Cooper – Forensic pathologist around the age of 38

·      Officer Nicholas O’Hare – Greenhorn officer, first to the scene of the crime, weak stomach looks to be around 30

·      Mikolaj Wiatrowski – Neighbor in apartment 12B. A Polish immigrant around 34 who speaks in very broken English.

·      Ida Wiatrowski – Neighbor in apartment 12B. A Polish immigrant 28, speaks in broken in English.

Victims

Murder 1                        Tesia Gburek  (33. Single mother of 3 here on a work visa)

Murder 2                        Anna Martinak (23. Single, college student)

Murder 3/ 4                        Janina Sabala (19, college student) and Natalina Lipczynska                                                  (20, college student)

Murder 5/6/7                        Wanda Rudzinski (49, single mother of 2), Agata Rudzinski                                                 (16, High school student), and Róża Rudzinski (16, high school                                                 student)

ACT I SCENE I

The back patio of an outside bar at night. Present are two tables, four chairs, and an umbrella. Leaning against the outside wall of the bar is Trudy smoking a cigarette looking physically tense. Enter Marcel. He looks around cautiously and makes eye contact with Trudy and gives her a very charming smile.

Marcel:            You know those things kill right? (Chuckles) What are you doing out here                                     alone? I thought you were back home working on the case.

Trudy:                        You’d think so, but no I needed to get out of there. There is only so much                                     time you can look at a case file without wanting to throw it across the room… y’know. I just needed some fresh air and a smoke.

Marcel:            Fresh air and a smoke? Two words I never thought would go together. I thought you quit those things a long time ago. (He walks over to her and leans up against the wall next to her.)

Trudy:                        (Looks over at him a takes another drag. She gives his a wistful look                                     before exhaling smoke.) Some things are quit, I thought I was done but every time I say that I end up with another one in my mouth. Besides I needed one tonight, between the case and Walter I-

Marcel:            (Interrupts midsentence) Walter? What’s wrong with Walter?

Trudy:                        Well…(Looks hesitant and takes another drag) Well we had another fight,                         it seems that the so-called miracle marriage counseling isn’t helping anything it’s just making him angrier. He wants me to retire and stay home with the kids… he says I’m crazy for wanting to stay. I got mad and told him he could go shove it where the sun don’t shine that I could do whatever I liked. He yelled back and said I was avoiding our problems and the main one was my job. A long story short we yelled and argued over it and I stormed out for a cigarette (She looks prickled and sighs in                                                 frustration)

Marcel:            Well what the h*ll does he know anyways he doesn’t know how good of a cop you are anyways. He’s an idiot I don’t know why you even put up with him.

Trudy:                        I don’t know either; he’s not a bad guy Marcel. Y’know he’s not… he just                                     gets these ideas of how he wants life and he’s too stubborn to give them up.

Marcel:            Yeah, I know.  So what are you going to do now?

Trudy:                        Well right now I’m going to finish off this cigarette, get a drink, and take a                         walk around the block before going back to work. After all that’s what’s needed to be done now. The rest will have to wait…

Marcel:            Does that mean you are calling it quits? (Look of both sympathy and                                     intrigue. His hand goes to reach for hers but hesitates)

Trudy:                        (Looks down at the ground then at her cigarette taking another drag and                      sighs. She then looks down at his hand and smiles softly) Some things are hard to quit Marcel (She shakes her head. She throws her cigarette to the ground and snubs it out with her foot) Y’know how hard it is to quit something once it grabs hold of you… we both know.

Marcel:            Trudy I- (Stops midsentence)

(Both of their phones begin to ring and they both go to answer their cells)

Marcel:            Hello?

Trudy:                        Hello? (Long pause then pulls away from the phone turning to her phone)                           D*mnit! Marcel we gotta go. He’s struck again. (Returns attention to her cell phone) We’ll be right there, text us the address.

Exit Marcel and Trudy

ACT I SCENE II

An apartment located in Jackowo’s eastside. Present is a living room set of a couch, table, chairs, a lamp, and a broken clock which are all tipped over. The room is disheveled. On the wall the words “Śmierć dla grzeszników” is written in red followed by the drawing of a bird. In the far corner are the bodies of three women, all three are bound, beaten, half naked, and lying in a pool of blood. Inside stand Norman and Dorian taking pictures and taking back the door. Enter Trudy and Marcel stepping under the yellow cation tape.

Trudy:               (Walks in and looks at the bodies with a look of disgust then turns to Dorian. She pulls on latax gloves and steps over a chair) What do we have here?

Dorian:            Triple rape homicide. Victims are Wanda Rudzinski aged forty-nine and her two daughters Agata and Róża aged sixteen. All three recent were immigrants from Warsaw Poland. The b*stard left them hogtied, all three have the same hit to the left temporal lobe and the right side of their torso is riddled with stab wounds. Neighbors found the bodies.

Marcel:            Cause of death?

Dorian:             I wouldn’t know until I do the initial autopsy but my guess would the puncture to their renal arteries.

Marcel:            English please.

Dorian:            They were all stabbed in their right kidney.

Trudy:              How long have they been here?

Dorian:            About seven or eight hours.

Trudy:             Why would you say that?

Dorian:             (Points to the broken clock on the floor) In the struggle they knocked down the clock and it stopped ticking stopping it at 4:02. If the killer stuck with his normal time frame then he killed them within the hour. Again it’s not set in stone until I do my report.

Marcel:            The Warsaw whacker strikes again but he’s changed pattern. Why change                    the pattern so far into his game?

Norman:             He’s definitely evolving as a killer. C’here, look at the blood here (Motions Marcel) all three victims were stabbed in their sides and the blood has pooled rather than sprayed. Judging by this alone he’s leaning from his last four victims, the last victims were stabbed all over but did                                     receive some blows to the renal arteries which proves the last set were experiments.

Marcel:             So he’s testing the waters to see what ways are the most effective to kill

Norman:            Exactly.

Enter Nicholas looking extremely sick

Nicholas:            Um. Hey it’s about time you guys got here I’ve got some witnesses who                                     said they saw what happened.

Trudy:                Who are you?

Nicholas:            Officer O’Hare, I was the first on the scene…

Trudy:                 First homicide case?

Nicholas:             Yeah. Yeah it is. (Slow nod, looks as though he will vomit)

Trudy:                 (Pats him on the back) They never get any easier, why don’t you take us                     over to them and then you can go tape off the rest of the building.

Nicholas nods and leads Trudy and Marcel out of the room to the hall where Mikolaj and Ida stand with another officer. Both look clearly traumatized and very nervous.

Nicolas:            Careful they don’t speak too much English; we’ve been trying to get a translator in for the last hour or so but have at it. They said they saw what happened I hope you guys can understand the rest; it’s all in Polish.

Exit Nicholas and the other officer.

Marcel:            You saw what happened?

Mikolaj:            Jes! Jes! That’s vhat I’ve been sayin’ vhe saw man! Wracaliśmy z pracy i                                     wspinaliśmy się po schodach, gdy usłyszeliśmy krzyki pochodzące z mieszkania sąsiada!

Marcel:             Whoa whoa slow down… Let’s take it one step at a time. You said you saw a man. What man? What did he look like? (Pulls out his note pad and pencil and begins to jot down)

Mikolaj:            UGH! Jes! Vhe saw man. Man… bardzo wysoki i bardzo chudy (making a                         gesture that he was very tall and slim)

Marcel:             Tall and skinny? What about his face? (makes a gesture towards his face)

Ida:                   Vhe see no face. But he have uh... how say brązowy. Uh... (Grabs at her                                     hair and points to her jacket)

Trudy:                 Brown hair?

Ida:                     Jes! He hadda brown hair.

Trudy:                 And who are you? Um... kim jesteś? (Attempts Polish looking hesitant)

Mikolaj:            Vhe live um… Mieszkamy w budynku po drugiej stronie korytarza. Apartment 12B (pointing to the door behind them.) Nikolaj Wiatrowski and Ida Wiatrowski… an’ who you are?

Trudy:                I’m detective Trudy Delmare CPD and this is my partner Detective Marcel                         Fredericks (Shows badge. Mikolaj reaches for in and stares. He nods and hands it back to her.)

Marcel:             Did you see anything else besides the back of his head?

Mikolaj:            I no understand… vhat about his head? (Turns to Ida in confusion and begins to converse with her in nervous Polish)           

Marcel:             I mean did you see anything else?           

Mikolaj:           No, vhe see nahthing… nic.

Ida:                  We no see but um… Słyszałem, jak krzyczą. Usłyszałem, jak krzycze na nich (grabs at her ear). Poor girls scream... Mikolaj grab me an’ push in. Vhe hide an’ see man... vhe vhait until he gone, long time maybe many hour then I-I-I call Policja!

Trudy:               Good good, you called the police?

Ida:                    Jes! Jes! That vhat I say! I call Policja an’ Mikolaj... Mikolaj saw in.

Mikolaj:            I push Ida in home. Tell call policja, I go to check an’ I saw... Zobaczyłem, co zrobił dla moich sąsiadów i wbiegłem do domu i zamknąłem drzwi, dopóki nie przyszła policja. (gets overly emotional thinking about it) The wall in say  “Śmierć dla grzeszników” with redbird...

Trudy:               Yes do you know what that means?

Ida:                    Jes, Śmierć dla grzeszników mean death to sinners... did they do wrong? Vhy vhuld he hurt Wanda? Wanda very nice an her gurls very good... Agata an Róża no trouble gurls.

Marcel:            What about the red bird?

Mikolaj:            Red bird? In Warsaw were we from red bird mean uh… how you say firebird. Warsaw symbol is firebird.

Marcel:            Firebird? You mean like a phoenix?

Mikolaj:           Jes! Firebird or phoenix, it mean destroy then rise again just like Warsaw city.

Trudy:              Mr. and Mrs. Wiatrowski would you be able to come down to the police station to give a full report and meet with our sketch artist? Um… Wejdź na posterunek policji i pomóż? (Again attempting Polish)

Ida:                   Vhat if he come back? Is vhis man kill us too?

Mikolaj:            Is vhis man the morderca from paper? Warsaw H-whacker?

Marcel:             We will make sure that if you help us he will not come back. If you help we can catch whoever did this to Wanda and her girls.

Micolaj:            (Looks hesitent and sighs with a nod) Jes we help. (Turns to Ida) Ida Chodź, weź płaszcz, kochanie, które nam pomożemy.

Exit Mikolaj and Ida

(Trudy and Marcel enter back into the crime scene where everyone is gather around the body of Róża Rudzinski)

Dorian:            Hey we found something! (Lifts up the hand of Róża. She is wearing pink acrylic names. One nail is chipped off and in the jag of the broken acrylic is a long strand of black hair)

Trudy:              What is that?

Dorian:            A foreign hair, I think we may have our first real clue. Ladies and gentlemen I do believe this maybe our killer’s hair.

Marcel:             It’s black… I thought the witness said the man had brown hair.

Trudy:              You should know at this point most witness testimony isn’t always spot on. So the hair color changed.

Marcel:             Yeah changed color not length, look at the size of this thing it’s too long to be our killers

Trudy:              Unless we aren’t looking for a man, our killer might be a woman.

Marcel:             A woman who rapes other women, I don’t think so. The four other victims had semen present on their bodies unless we are looking at a couple. An accomplice, maybe?

Trudy:              But if we are going off of witness testimony then wouldn’t there be another person in the stairwell if it were a couple?

Marcel:            Well if it’s not that then who the h*ll does this hair belong to and why is it tangled in one of our sixteen-year old’s broken fingernail?

(Fades to black: End Scene)