Smoking Kills: A Radio Play

Copyright © 2006 Ul. Czysta 5/19
by John Marshall KRAKOW, 31-121, Polska
Email: jpm1234@hotmail.com
(+0048) 0511109687

A police interrogation room in an unnamed American city, present day.

DETECTIVE
Interview suspended at 2:36.

The recorder is switched off.

Why are you wasting my time, Reece? We both know you killed her.

REECE
Really? Isn’t there a little thing called proof in this country?


DETECTIVE
I’ll get proof, Reece. One way or another, you know that.


REECE
I love bent cops, Mickey.


DETECTIVE
Detective.


REECE
Cops, detectives, whatever. Makes me feel almost superior.


DETECTIVE
That why you beat your wife, Reece? Make you feel superior, does it?


REECE
That’s all in the past. You know it is. Angie and me are fine now.


DETECTIVE
Seems to me any man who beats his wife’d have no problem strangling his hooker girlfriend.


REECE
What, you take a psychology course now? Didn’t know you dicks could read.


DETECTIVE
You are scum, Reece. Incapable of functioning within any normal society. You have three previous convictions for domestic abuse –
REECE
Two.


DETECTIVE
Two … three. We can change the numbers. Understand? A known criminal and wife-beater sends his girlfriend a text saying ‘I’ll shut you up for good, you f’ing bitch’ and an hour later she’s found dead in a motel room. I don’t know what to think, Reece.


REECE
Wish I could help you, detective.


DETECTIVE
Almost a shame this is a hanging state, really. Never believed in executions myself. Always thought that was too easy for men like you.


REECE
What is a man like me?


DETECTIVE
A man without honour. Wifebeaters. You’re all faggots underneath. Wouldn’t know what to do in a real fight. Ironic, really.


REECE
You trying to provoke me, detective? Shall we turn the tape back on?


DETECTIVE
No, Reece, I wouldn’t swap places with you for all the money in the world right now.


REECE
You don’t know I even saw Sally that night. You can’t prove nothing.


DETECTIVE
Let’s recap, shall we? Your wife says that on the night, you got a call – all very secretive – then you seemed to get angry for some reason. You wouldn’t say why. You left the house at seven thirty and your girlfriend was found dead in a motel room about an hour later. You arrived back home shortly after that, angry. When your wife asked you where you’d been, you struck her.

REECE
She said that?


DETECTIVE
Under oath.


REECE
The bitch! Well, she shouldn’t have started, should she? Like she ain’t getting nothing, right?


DETECTIVE
You told her to quote stay outta my face unquote and spent the rest of the night getting drunk. Now we’ve been here six hours, Reece, and so far you haven’t given me anything. What am I supposed to think?


REECE
I told you before. Sally called me, asking me for money.


DETECTIVE
Did you give it to her?


REECE
What? So she could stick it in her arm? I told her she was drunk and she better get some sleep. Then she started bawling, threatening to tell Angie all about it if I didn’t get over there right away!


DETECTIVE
And you couldn’t have that, could you, Reece? You need that rich wife of yours, don’t you?


REECE
I love my wife.


DETECTIVE
Then why d’you go to see Sally?


REECE
I had to! She was screaming, telling me she was gonna get the money somehow.

DETECTIVE
Like a loan, you mean? From a friend?


REECE
You know damn well what she meant!


DETECTIVE
But you’d already told her to get off the streets, right? It was too dangerous?


REECE
Look, detective, you know how many hookers get killed every year, or smashed up! I got to her flat, saw she was out – working – and drove straight back home. Yes, I was angry with her, but I never even saw her that night. The first thing I knew when they busted me yesterday.


DETECTIVE
And that’s your story, is it, Reece?


REECE
Ain’t no story. It’s the truth.


DETECTIVE
Well, it’s gotta tell you, over thirty years on the force, it’s one of the lamest stories I’ve ever heard.

Pause

But I believe you.


REECE
What?


DETECTIVE
I believe you. Or, to be more precise, I believe that a jury wouldn’t –couldn’t – convict. There’s no evidence. No forensics.


REECE
Then what the hell am I doing here? You got no case! Why’s that tape not switched on?


DETECTIVE
I’ll tell you why, Reece. You’re a low-life. And killing a woman’s just your thing, I reckon. But I don’t actually care whether you’re guilty or not. Either way, I’d be happy to see you executed.


REECE
Why the special interest, detective? Trying to keep your clean record?


DETECTIVE
I got a letter yesterday, Reece. From the hospital. Very official. The sort you don’t wanna get, you know?


REECE
You got a point?


DETECTIVE
Yeah, Reece, I got a point. I got cancer. Terminal.


REECE
Hey, I’m bleedin’ over here.


DETECTIVE
Exactly. Nobody cares any more, Reece. No concern for the fellow man.


REECE
And you want me to go to the chair? That brighten your day?


DETECTIVE
The thought did cross my mind, yes. If I gotta go, make sure I take one of you with me. Keep the balance, you know.


REECE
Keep the what?


DETECTIVE
But then I had a much better idea. I’d love to see you all hang. There’s nothing I’d like more. Guilty or innocent. But I never said I wanted you to die, Reece. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.


REECE
What?


DETECTIVE
You wanna coffee?


REECE
Yeah.
DETECTIVE pours coffees for both of them.


DETECTIVE
This cancer. It’s in the ‘advanced stages’, apparently. Cigarette?


REECE
Don’t smoke.


DETECTIVE
Wise man. It’s lung cancer, you see. I got about a month, they reckon. Maybe less.


REECE
I still don’t figure what that’s –


DETECTIVE
If I die of cancer, I got no insurance. My wife gets nothing, Reece. And I can’t have that.


REECE
Why you worried? She’ll be shacked up before you’re even cold.


DETECTIVE
My wife is not a hoar, Reece, unlike the women in your life.

Reece starts to get up.


REECE
My wife is not a hoar!



DETECTIVE
Careful, Reece. Cameras.

Pause

It’s good to see you have some feelings for the little lady. I care about my wife, too. That’s why I wanna make a little proposition for you.

Pause

I want you to kill me, Reece.


REECE
You want me to what?


DETECTIVE
Insurance won’t pay. Not on these lungs. But if I was to die at work, in the line of duty, well the government would pay. Full whack. I’d be a hero!


REECE
You want me to kill you so your wife gets a pension. Is that right?


DETECTIVE
I’d make it worth your while. Well, for your widow, anyway.


REECE
You’re talking about killing a cop. So I go to the chair so your wife and mine spend the winter in Florida together? You’re forgetting, detective, you said yourself no jury would convict me of killing Sally.


DETECTIVE
They would if had they more evidence. Forensics, for example.


REECE
What are you talking about?


DETECTIVE
DNA. We’ve got your DNA, Reece.




REECE
But I wasn’t with Sally that night. I don’t even know which motel she was at! You ain’t got no DNA and you know it!


DETECTIVE
Oh, come on, Reece! With your record? We could fucking clone you if we wanted!


REECE
But you wouldn’t do -



DETECTIVE
Wouldn’t do what, Reece?


REECE
You’re gonna plant my DNA in the motel?


DETECTIVE
Reece, you’ve done time for manslaughter and you’ve got a long record of violence against women. I’ve arrested you myself twice. Now, what’s a jury supposed to think when your DNA is found in a motel room with a murdered hooker?


REECE
And you talk to me about honour!


DETECTIVE
Reece, you’re gonna die. There’s no question. But I’m offering you a deal, a business deal, if you like. Now, I’ve already arranged for $50,000 to be delivered to your wife, tomorrow.


REECE
Fifty? Cops do pretty well these days.


DETECTIVE
Government bonds. And I’ve also hidden the DNA, Reece. If I die, the money goes to your wife and forensics don’t get their evidence. Reece, you don’t look so good. Won’t you have a cigarette? For your nerves?


REECE
You deaf? I told you I don’t smoke.


DETECTIVE
Of course. I forgot.

He opens the cigarette packet.

Last one, anyway. Look.

He take the cigarette and slides the packet over to Reece


REECE
What’s that doing in there?


DETECTIVE
It’s a key, Reece. This room’s locked. Once you kill me, you’ll need to get out. There’s a door at the end of the corridor - same key. If you’re quick, you should get out of here.


REECE
What if I take my chances with the jury?


DETECTIVE
Of course, that is your choice, Reece. Still, it would be a shame to involve your wife in all this.


REECE
My wife? What d’you mean?


DETECTIVE
A classy woman, your wife. But not exactly old money, is she? Tax avoidance, fraud, embezzlement,. Quite the couple, really, aren’t you!


REECE
Angie’s businesses are 100 per cent legitimate. That’s old news and you know it.


DETECTIVE
Oh, I do, Reece. But I could easily make it new news. Your wife’s running out of friends fast in this town.
REECE
What are you doing?


DETECTIVE
I’m putting a silencer on my gun. There. There it is, Reece, sitting on the table. Pick it up. Take the gun, shoot me and get out of here.


REECE
You’re crazier than me. You know that?


DETECTIVE
I am going to die, Reece, either now or in the next few weeks. It seems entirely logical to me.


REECE
Even if I got out I’d be on the run.


DETECTIVE
But alive, Reece. Alive.


REECE
What about the cameras? You just offered me your gun.


DETECTIVE
Seems I forgot to switch them on.

Pause

Now, Reece, I’m going to turn my back to you now, I’m going to stand against that wall by the door and you’re gonna kill me.

He starts to walk

REECE
Shit, man! You’re serious!


DETECTIVE
Take the key, Reece, stand up and put it in the door, ready to go. Then come up close behind me, shoot me in the back and get out. Walk until you get out of the building, then run as fast as you can.


REECE
This is crazy. I won’t do it.


DETECTIVE
I’m offering you a way out, Reece. Do it right and you and your wife are free. I’m going to count to ten. If I get to ten, Reece, you’re going to the electric chair. One …

Over the count, Reece picks up the key and the gun, puts the key in the door and walks up to behind DETECTIVE.

two … three …


REECE
Hey, maybe the doctors are wrong! You know what they’re like!


DETECTIVE
Four.


REECE
Maybe you’re not gonna die!


DETECTIVE
Five. Doesn’t matter. Too late now.


REECE
You bastard!


DETECTIVE
Six. Come on, Reece! You’ve always hated me. Now’s your chance to do something about it! Seven... that’s it. Eight … now squeeze the trigger, Reece. Nine …ten.