002 Crime And Punishment

CRIME & PUNISHMENT by Rick Regan Jan. 1, 2025 Rick Regan Rick@rickregan.net 919-218-8834 PO Box 40039 Raleigh, NC 27629(MORE) EXT. SMALL WESTERN TOWN - DAY A bright sunny day in a rural town, the county seat, Norton, Kansas. Troy is the County SHERIFF, sitting in his car at a quiet cross-roads north of town. Sheriff talks to Head Dispatcher, JONI. SHERIFF (into radio) Say Joni, isn’t this Friday the first home game for your boy? JONI Oh, Coach is real proud of him! Real strong season last year and two wins already this season. SHERIFF Kids got a cannon-arm. The scouts from the big progrums been sniffing around yet? JONI You betcha! Jayhawks AND Wildcats. Coach says if he stays healthy and keeps his nose clean the Nebraska folks might send somebody with a fat check! SHERIFF (chuckles) Crazy days, these days. JONI So...are you coming to the game? SHERIFF You gonna be there? JONI I might... SHERIFF Well, if you might, I might. Hubert still away? JONI Far as I know. He called on the weekend and said he was working more than ever and making more than ever. Not that I see much of it. He said he was getting a bigger apartment. Crime and Punishment 2. Says he wants me to come up to North Dakota, to live there. Can you imagine it? Leaving Kansas for Dakota? SHERIFF Leave God’s Own Country? No sense in it at-all. JONI I don’t think he’s serious. I read that working gals from all over the country headed to Williston. They stack ‘em in like cord wood and work through the oil riggers till they find a keeper, then latch on. I’m betting it wouldn’t take long for Hubert Yocum to hitch-up with a green-eyed young thing. She’d peel every dollar out of his wallet, and he’d thank her for the service. SHERIFF Isn’t that what you did? JONI Troy! No. We wasn’t but kids. It all happened fast and hot. Love is like that. SHERIFF Burns out too, they say. JONI It does that. Hold on... SHERIFF You got something? JONI We got a report of a bank robbery in town, The Equity. SHERIFF (urgent) I’m by the Co-op. I’ll head down. Let me know if he takes a runner. Sheriff Troy starts the car and heads south towards town, Norton, KS. It doesn’t take long before a dirty white car comes speeding the other way. Sheriff Troy spins the car around and takes off after the car. In the powerful Sheriff’s car, he catches up to the smaller car. Crime and Punishment 3. SHERIFF Joni! I’m on his tail! He’s heading hell-for-leather for the state line. Call Kurt up in Arapahoe. Tell him to keep a lookout! JONI 10-4! Sheriff Troy comes up alongside the car and tries to push the car into the ditch, but the panicked driver slams on the brakes and turns off down a side road. Troy flies by, having to stop and back up. SHERIFF (into radio) We’re heading west on Wabash! The getaway car slams on the brakes and stops. A man, HUNTER, jumps out. He has a gun. He aims at the Sheriff car and hits the windshield. Sheriff Troy stops. He jumps out of his car, gun drawn. The two men point guns at each other. SHERIFF Put the weapon on the deck! Put it down, now! HUNTER Go ahead! Go ahead! SHERIFF Put the gun down! Before anybody gets hurt. HUNTER You don’t understand, man! You don’t get it at all! Don’t shoot me. Don’t shoot me. Hunter goes behind the car and ducks down behind it. Sheriff approaches, gun drawn. He bends down, behind the other side of the car. They are out of sight of each other, on either side of the car. SHERIFF So tell me! Tell me what I don’t know. HUNTER I don’t want to hurt anybody, man. (MORE) Crime and Punishment 4. SHERIFF But you shot at me! HUNTER Naw, just the car, man. Just the car. I don’t want to hurt anybody. It’s just...you know, man. SHERIFF What? Tell me. HUNTER Hey, winter is coming. The cold. Real cold. And I got no place to be, man. SHERIFF What, so you rob a bank? You need a deposit for an apartment? You going to rob a bank every month to make rent? HUNTER See, that’s it. You don’t understand at all. I got a condition. But nobody helps me. SHERIFF How come I never seen you before? Where you from? HUNTER Arapahoe. Grew up there. SHERIFF So I bet Sheriff Kapp knows all about you then. HUNTER Kapperman, that’s my name. He’s my uncle. He’s arrested me more times than I remember. You can ask him! I never resist. I don’t fight back. Ask him! He’ll tell you. SHERIFF I don’t have time to check your references, son. So tell me Mr. Kapperman, why you come down to Kansas to rob a bank. HUNTER Don’t they teach you guys anything? It’s Interstate, man. Crime and Punishment 5. Federal. Not some county-lockup nickel and dime stuff. Talking Leavenworth, man. That’s where they really take care of you. SHERIFF What do you mean, take care of you? HUNTER Look, it’s like this. Federal prison inmates are the only people in the US with a Constitutionally guaranteed right to medical care. They HAVE to take care of you. It’s in the Constitution! You can look it up. SHERIFF What’s the matter? They don’t have doctors in Nebraska? HUNTER Sure, yeah, best in the world! If you’re rich! But if you’re just some dirtbag from the trailer park, man all you got is a bag full of dust. And I ate dust my whole life. And when I was in school, if you can call it that, they said I had a “condition”. In my head, man, but they never understood. Nobody understands. Man, that place was just it’s own kind of prison, for kids. SHERIFF Nobody gets through this life easy, son. Now put the gun down and let’s get started. HUNTER Man, when I was in school, there wasn’t any point to any of it. They just wanted to get the kids old enough so they could go to work. You know the Harlan meatplant in Alma? They start you there and then, if you’re good, you can go work up in Grand Island at the freezer plant. Sounds like a good life, doesn’t it? Crime and Punishment 6. SHERIFF Honest work, I’d say. Honest pay. HUNTER They brought in the Mexicans ‘cause they were cheaper but when they all got rounded up, the plants got the rule changed so they could use kids. Fuckin’ kids, man! SHERIFF You work in the plant? HUNTER They make you take a drug test, after, like sixty-days?, like, and then you get put back on probation, for another sixty. That’s the racket, nobody ever gets off probation, because who’s NOT going to want to light up, after shooting cows in the head all day? Made me a vegetarian, man. SHERIFF Mister Kapperman, this is real interesting and I’m sure a judge will be listening-along the whole time, but I’ve got to get back to work. You see? (sympathetic appeal) Why, there might be some real criminals on the loose, right now. And if I’m here just chewing the fat with you, well I can’t very well let the real bad guys get away, can I? Now let’s get moving on this. HUNTER I’ll tell you where the real money is, man! Not in robbing banks, that’s for sure. You know how much I got, at that damned bank? SHERIFF Couple hundred, I imagine. HUNTER Two-forty-eight. That’s all she gave me. Probably marked bills too. (MORE) Crime and Punishment 7. SHERIFF Probably not. Too much trouble to keep that stuff on hand. It get’s mixed in when they count up at the end of the day, and, well, then it’s just money again. And, at the Equity, they just don’t do much business in cash anymore. Arlene was telling me. HUNTER Arlene? That your date? SHERIFF My sister. HUNTER No, I tell you. The money is in selling the drugs to the workers. And the managers, for real. But those jobs just suck the life out of you. Killing all day. Handling all those dead bodies. And they do it all, weed, blow, meth, whatever. SHERIFF You deal too? HUNTER I got out when they started to mix it with that fent stuff. I saw guys dying and thought, man, I gotta get out of this. That’s why I came down here. I’m looking for a fresh start. SHERIFF By robbing a bank? HUNTER No, man! Three squares and a roof! Get some decent medical care, help for my mind. Stay quiet, stay warm this winter. Federal, man. Interstate. SHERIFF Alright, Mr. Kapperman, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to stand up and your going to put the gun on the hood. Then I’m going to put the cuffs on and we’re going into town. Crime and Punishment 8. My knees are getting too old for this. OK. On three. Ready? Hunter quietly drops the bullet clip out of the gun onto the ground next to his feet. He checks to make sure the gun is empty. HUNTER OK. SHERIFF One...two...three...easy now. Both men stand up slowly, the car between them. Sheriff has gun aimed at Hunter. Hunter has gun aimed at Sheriff. HUNTER Sheriff. SHERIFF (softly) Boy, put the gun on the deck. Real slow. Hunter does not move. Sirens are heard approaching from three directions. Police, fire and ambulances converging. SHERIFF (softly) Think about this, now. Real careful. We can help you. You want three squares and dry cell, OK. I’ll tell ‘em that’s what this is ALL about. Now real easy... HUNTER Sometimes a man gets tired of running. Just wants to end the chase, man. A Furnas County Nebraska Sheriff car skids to a stop, lights flashing. A man jumps out, gun drawn. Two Norton Count Kansas Sheriff cars skid to stops, coming from the opposite direction, surrounding Sheriff and Hunter. Hunter’s face stiffens and he pulls the trigger. SFX: CLICK! (gun mis-fires/empty) Crime and Punishment 9. HUNTER (softly) Bang... Sheriff shoots. SFX: BANG! Hunter falls backwards from the shot. Shouts all around, “Get down! Shots fired!” SHERIFF (to himself) Goddammit, kid. You didn’t have to do that. Sheriff walks back to his shot-up cruiser. SHERIFF (through loudspeaker) Stand down! All stand down. Shooter is down. Make way for EMS! Make way! Cars back away as ambulance approaches. They rush to the wounded man, Hunter. SHERIFF (into radio) Joni, you on? JONI You OK, Troy? SHERIFF Oh, Joni, bless my soul. JONI You alright? I tracked your position and sent the deputies. SHERIFF The Arapahoe boys showed up too. Just twelve miles, I guess. JONI But you’re alright? SHERIFF Well, I’m a mess but I’m alright. That boy came down to rob a bank, and you know why? (MORE) Crime and Punishment 10. JONI The money? SHERIFF He wanted a cell in Leavenworth. Warm and dry for the winter. But that’s not it. I feel like I can’t help a boy like that. Only thing I can do is catch ‘em when they fall through the net. But there ain’t much net left. And by the time I see ‘em, they’ve got a gun in their hands. Just ain’t right, Joni. The world ain’t right. JONI (gently) You come home to Mama. I’ll see you’re took care of. SHERIFF Joni, he was out of luck, the day he was born. Behind the eightball. This was how it was always going to end for him. Just today was the day. But how many more we going to have like this, like him? Left behind, left for dead. What kind of world have we made, Joni? JONI You come on home, Sheriff. I’ll look after you. SHERIFF There ain’t much that your loving can’t fix, but Joni, there’s things in this world I wish was different, wish we could set right. But I sure don’t see how. JONI Troy, you just get on back to town. SHERIFF Maybe it’s time to hang up the badge. Maybe I’m not cut from the right-cloth for this business anymore. Maybe it’s time. JONI Troy, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t but you did right. Crime and Punishment 11. I know it. You always do right. Now just come on home, safe. SHERIFF Maybe you’re right. I’m going home. You come on by later. JONI I’ll see you then. END