Packing Heat

Happy Tuesday, crime slicksters. It's time once again to take a trip to the dark side, where the girls are hot, the drinks are cold, and the hardboiled-pulp-noir action is non-stop, right here, at the coolest crime joint in cyberspace ... at That Killing Feeling.

In Chapter 37 of WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, homicide detectives Bernie Keko and Aya Meir watch the surveillance tape of private eye Carrie Love in disguise as a nurse, 'paying a visit' to arsonist Paul Martune's hospital room. Meanwhile, Carrie and Jenny Lane are speeding over to the widow Gay Flender's house to confront her ...


INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - LIPSHITZ’S OFFICE - NIGHT
Bernie and Aya sit across from Lipshitz,
chewing an unlit cigar.

Feet up on the desk.
Takes a sip of coffee.

BERNIE
We arrived at The Horse Head
minutes before she was there --

AYA
And now she’s disappeared --

BERNIE
She’s disguised herself,
cut her hair, we have a witness who --

LIPSHITZ
Okay, enough -- I get it.
I didn’t call you in to chew you out,
I need to show you something.

He picks up a videocassette.
Hefts it like it’s valuable.

LIPSHITZ
Martune died an hour ago at Cedar’s.
His doctor suspects foul play --
(slides the tape into the VCR)
We had security pull the tape
that was running when he died.
(punches ‘play’)
Watch closely.

ON THE MONITOR
in fuzzy black and white.
We see CARRIE
in her Nurse Betty disguise.

She pushes open room 134.
Goes in.

BERNIE
watches intently.

BERNIE
That Martune’s room?

LIPSHITZ
Yeah. Here, I’ll rewind it,
play it in slow-mo.

He punches the remote.
Hits another button.

ON THE MONITOR
we see Carrie again.
In the corridor.

Moving slowly toward the door.
Pushing it open.

BERNIE
Can you blow that up?

AYA
It’s her.

LIPSHITZ
I’ve got the boys in the lab
doing just that.

AYA
It’s HER.

BERNIE
Oh, yeah?
And just how do you know?

AYA
How many nurses pack heat?
(to Lipshitz)
Freeze it. There.

He does.

AYA
(points)
See the bulge
in the back of her uniform?
Something tells me
that’s not a stethoscope --

BERNIE
(squinting)
Goddammit, the broad’s right.
She’s carrying.

AYA
Broad? Who you calling a 'broad?'

BERNIE
I wasn’t talking to you,
I was talking to him.

LIPSHITZ
Enough, get outta here.
We’ve got an APB out on her,
and we need every man
and broad we can get.
But first, go visit Gay Flender,
find out if she’s
had any contact with Love.

BERNIE
(gets up)
You got it, chief.
(to Aya)
Let’s go, doll-face.

Aya SLAPS Bernie in the face.

AYA
I’m not a fucking BROAD.
Or a DOLL. Got it?

Bernie stares.
SLAPS her on the cheek, HARD.

BERNIE
GOT it.

AYA
PIG.

She SLAPS him again.
Storms out. SLAMS the door.

LIPSHITZ
Jeez. Touchy.

BERNIE
You know broads --

INT. JENNY’S BEEMER - MOVING - NIGHT
The rockabilly-hepcat swing of
The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s
DRIVE LIKE LIGHTNING (CRASH LIKE THUNDER)
rocks over --

Carrie, cruising down Montana Avenue,
gripping the steering wheel for dear life.
Cracking around the edges.

CARRIE (V.O.)
I didn’t have a plan.
I was flying blind,
on a date with destiny.
A moth about to fuck with the flame.
Hell-bent on revenge,
self-destruction --
or a combination of the two.

Pause.

JENNY
How do you do it?

CARRIE
Do what?

JENNY
Maintain your -- calm.
You seem so calm.

CARRIE
Survival instinct.
I’ve lived on the edge so long
I wouldn’t know what normal was
if it bit me in the shot glass.
(beat)
And I read alot of Raymond Chandler.

JENNY
Do you think there’s a --
a future for us,
once this is over?

CARRIE
Wrong question.

JENNY
What’s the right question?

PUSH IN ON Carrie.
Lighting a smoke. Thinking.

CARRIE
Is there a future -- for me.