1. SFX: RUNNING FOOTFALLS ON PAVEMENT (SLOWING)
2. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) (Out of breath) All right,
which way? (Beat) Which way? Come on! White
car, white car, come on . . . He said it
would be -- there! There! Under the
streetlight!
3. SFX: RUNNING FOOTFALLS ON PAVEMENT
4. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) (Out of breath) Never thought
I’d be this happy to see an old station
wagon!
5. SFX: RUNNING FOOTFALLS ON PAVEMENT
6. SFX: RUNNING FOOTFALLS ON GRASS
7. SARA: Passenger side --
8. SFX: CAR DOOR OPENS
9. SARA: You?
10. SFX: CAR ENGINE REVS TO LIFE
11. PETRA: Get in!
12. SARA: Petra!
13. PETRA: Get in! Close the door!
SCENE 6 – INT. PETRA’S CAR
14. SFX: CAR DOOR SLAMS
15. SARA: Why are you --
16. PETRA: I’m trying to save your life!
17. SFX: CAR TEARS DOWN THE STREET
18. SARA: I don’t understand.
19. PETRA: You will.
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SCENE 1 – INT. PETRA’S CAR
20. SFX: CAR, ROAD SOUNDS
21. SARA: Never would have pegged you as the station
wagon type, Petra.
22. PETRA: I need something I can haul the discarded
things I find or buy to create my upcycled
pieces.
23. SARA: Yeah, but a beater like this --
24. PETRA: This is a 1986 Mercedes-Benz S123 Wagon --
25. SARA: A Mercedes. That explains it.
26. PETRA: It’s one of the most durable cars in the
world -- people put half a million miles on
these without any major --
27. SARA: I’m not in the market, Petra.
28. PETRA: Whatever.
29. SARA: Look . . . thank you. I-I don’t know what
was going to happen to me.
30. PETRA: I don’t either.
31. SARA: What do you mean you don’t know? (Beat)
You’re not . . . ?
32. PETRA: Not what?
33. SARA: Why were you waiting there for me, then?
34. PETRA: I got a phone call --
35. SARA: A phone call.
36. PETRA: The day after I talked to you, I started
getting phone calls. Someone hiding their
voice, like a crappy stalker movie. Hinting
at things about me, about my past --
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37. SARA: -- about Rufus Knobbe.
38. PETRA: What do you know about it?
39. SARA: About as much as you do. I’ve been getting
the same calls.
40. PETRA: Who is it?
41. SARA: When I got in this car, I thought it was
you.
42. PETRA: Me? Why in God’s name would I want to make
anonymous phone calls and talk about . . .
43. SARA: Talk about Rufus Knobbe?
44. PETRA: This all started because you came back to
Etta.
45. SARA: The calls brought me back to Etta. But
this . . . when this all started was twenty
years ago. (Beat) Well?!?
46. PETRA: What do you want to hear?
47. SARA: I want to hear whatever it is someone just
tried to kill me for!
48. PETRA: Kill you?
49. SARA: Why do you think I came running out of some
stranger’s yard and jumped in a car I had
no idea who was driving?
50. PETRA: The call I got this afternoon, telling me
to go there tonight and wait for you --
51. SARA: This afternoon?
52. PETRA: I was told that you spoke with Rufus. That
I’d want to talk to you afterward. And then
another, about ten minutes ago, saying you
were in danger and I had to get you away.
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53. SARA: (To herself) How does he know . . . ?
54. PETRA: So did you?
55. SARA: Did I what?
56. PETRA: Did you talk to Rufus?
57. SARA: I did.
58. PETRA: How . . . is he?
59. SARA: He’s probably safer in there. And I don’t
mean just from whatever’s going on here
tonight.
60. PETRA: I guess that’s good.
61. SARA: What . . . what is it Rufus might say that
somebody is this afraid of?
62. PETRA: (Quickly) I don’t know.
63. SARA: They tried to kill me over what they were
afraid Rufus might say! C.J. Fischer may
already be dead because of it!
64. PETRA: C.J.?!?
65. SARA: One of the neighbors called the police,
reported a disturbance. C.J. came to the
house, and somebody was there. They broke
in, and . . . whoever it was shot him,
Petra.
66. PETRA: Is he all right?
67. SARA: I don’t know. C.J. shouted at me to go, and
I ran. Found you and your car.
68. PETRA: C.J. doesn’t deserve -- not because . . .
69. SARA: Because what?
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70. PETRA: Because of what I did -- Because of what I
said!
71. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING
72. SARA: I know you lied, Petra. Back in high
school, and today still.
73. PETRA: You don’t know.
74. SARA: Not all of it. I know the lies have made
you just as much prisoner as they have
Rufus. (Beat) You might consider slowing
down a little. It’s dark, and these roads -
-
75. PETRA: I’ve lived with this long enough.
76. SARA: With what?
77. PETRA: (Indiscriminate emotional sounds)
78. SARA: Whoever’s behind this, we’ve got ’em on the
ropes. They’re only taking these big,
reckless swipes because they’re afraid of
how close everything is to coming out!
79. PETRA: You don’t think I know that?
80. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING
81. SFX: TIRES SQUEAL IN TURN
82. SARA: Why don’t you find a place to pull over?
83. SFX: TIRES SQUEAL IN TURN
84. SARA: Or let me drive for a little bit. I’ve
never driven a Mercedes --
85. PETRA: Not now.
86. SARA: Okay, but before -- Uh-oh. We’ve got red
lights behind us.
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87. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING MORE
88. SARA: You can’t run from them --
89. PETRA: What are they going to do? Shoot the
daughter of Etta’s retired police chief for
speeding?
90. SFX: TIRES SQUEAL TURNING
91. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING
92. SARA: I don’t really want to find out.
93. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING
94. PETRA: At this point, I don’t care.
95. SFX: CAR ENGINE ACCELERATING
96. SARA: You’re not losing him. Just stop.
97. SFX: PETRA’S PHONE RINGTONE
98. SARA: Promise me you’ll pull over before you
answer that.
99. SFX: PETRA’S PHONE RINGTONE
100. SFX: TIRES SQUEAL TURNING
101. SARA: Better yet, let it go to voicemail.
102. SFX: PETRA’S PHONE RINGTONE
103. PETRA: I know who it is.
104. SFX: PHONE ANSWER BEEP
105. PETRA: Hello.
106. TOM NOVAK: (FILTER – SPEAKERPHONE) Petra, sweetheart,
it’s me.
107. SARA: Is that your dad . . .
108. PETRA: What is it?
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109. TOM NOVAK: (FILTER – SPEAKERPHONE) You and I need to
talk.
110. PETRA: So talk.
111. TOM NOVAK: (FILTER – SPEAKERPHONE) I’m in the car
behind you. Pull over.
112. SARA: Are you kidding me?
113. TOM NOVAK: (FILTER – SPEAKERPHONE) There’s a rest stop
at the next exit. We don’t need to do this
at the side of the road. Pull over there
and we’ll get out of the cars and talk.
114. PETRA: Fine.
115. SARA: He’s retired -- how’s he driving a police
cruiser?
116. PETRA: Perks of the job.
117. SFX: PHONE HANGUP BEEP
118. SARA: Petra, I’m not so sure --
119. PETRA: I am.
120. SFX: ENGINE GUNS
121. SFX: TIRES SCREECH
122. SFX: ENGINE SLOWING
123. SARA: The sign says this rest stop’s closed.
124. PETRA: Of course. We’ll keep this private --
125. SFX: CAR COMING TO A STOP
126. SFX: PARKING BRAKE ON
127. PETRA: -- Keep it in the family.
128. SFX: SEATBELT RELEASES, RETRACTS
129. SFX: CAR DOOR OPENS
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130. SARA: Wait --
131. SFX: CAR DOOR SLAMS CLOSED
132. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) For anybody listening, start
connecting all the pieces with me. An
unstable drifter framed for the abduction
of a high school girl . . . A scandal in
the police department . . . a traffic cop
killed in a hit-and-run. And everybody
lying about it for twenty years.
133. TOM NOVAK: (MUFFLED, OUTSIDE CAR) Petra --
134. PETRA: (MUFFLED, OUTSIDE CAR) Just stay away from
me!
135. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) Somebody knows. Somebody who
called me, who brought me home to uncover
the answers. I still have gaps in the
picture I’ve put together . . . Time to
fill them in.
136. SFX: CAR DOOR OPENS
SCENE 2 – EXT. REST STOP
137. TOM NOVAK: Petra, who did you bring with you?
138. SARA: Chief Novak.
139. TOM NOVAK: I don’t believe I’ve had the privilege,
Miss -- ?
140. SARA: Not for lack of trying at my brother’s
house a little while ago.
141. TOM NOVAK: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
142. PETRA: Don’t you?
143. TOM NOVAK: Petra, you’re upset. I understand.
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144. PETRA: You can’t possibly understand! What you
asked of me -- You should never have asked!
145. TOM NOVAK: You didn’t have to.
146. PETRA: Didn’t have to?!? What choice did I have?
You told me it was the only way out for all
of us! I was seventeen! You’re my father!
What did you think I would do?
147. TOM NOVAK: All you had to do was drive to that field.
148. SARA: But she improvised. Your overachieving,
full-ride scholarship daughter -- desperate
to save her family -- knew that she needed
more than a story to be believed
unquestioningly. (To Petra) You were smart
enough not to use a pair of scissors from
home . . . what did you do, Petra,
shoplift them someplace?
149. PETRA: I stole them from the counter at Closet
Catch.
150. TOM NOVAK: Petra, not here. Don’t --
151. PETRA: When you picked me up at the farmhouse, the
first thing you asked me, the first moment
we got alone, was if I thought they
believed me! I stabbed myself to sell your
story!
152. TOM NOVAK: All you had to do was find someone and tell
it the way we’d rehearsed, with the details
I gave you!
153. SARA: If it makes you feel any better, she still
tells it the way you two rehearsed it, with
all the details you gave her. But back
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then, she didn’t adjust them to match the
facts. Your dramatic “eyes in the rearview
mirror” moment -- a great detail, for print
media -- didn’t match the fact that her
boyfriend had knocked the mirror off the
night before. (To Petra) That part of the
story got crossed up with the truth in your
memory, Petra.
154. PETRA: I knew, I knew eventually this would --
155. TOM NOVAK: Not now, Petra. Not here, with --
156. PETRA: With what? Someone else you’ll have to
kill?
157. TOM NOVAK: Stop!
158. PETRA: It’s what you did to Charlie Fischer! You
made me your accomplice on that, too!
159. SARA: Charlie was in on it at the start, wasn’t
he? Somebody loyal. Somebody you could
trust to bring in Rufus and say all the
right things. He had his doubts, but you
were able to smooth those over. It took
him, what, six or nine months before his
conscience gnawing at him made him start
asking you more questions? You were able to
lean on Eddie Dial, and if he wouldn’t go
along, quitting the case was just as good.
But if he started talking with Charlie
Fischer -- two men of conscience -- it
would blow the case. And reveal all the rot
underlying it. How long had you been
embezzling money from the department?
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160. TOM NOVAK: We burned all our savings in just the first
year of taking care of my wife. I asked for
help, but --
161. SFX: FIST SLAMS ON CAR HOOD
162. TOM NOVAK: People think you’re just provided for when
you’re a public employee. Maybe Federal.
Maybe in big cities. Little town like Etta,
they only shake their heads and pat you on
the shoulder.
163. SARA: You needed a distraction. And something you
could start logging hours to. Hundreds if
not thousands of investigative hours.
164. TOM NOVAK: I needed time to move things around,
construct documents --
165. SARA: Forge documents, you mean. But Charlie
Fischer noticed -- you probably signed him
in and out a number of times. Getting Rufus
off the streets was one thing -- he could
be dangerous. Probably didn’t take too much
convincing. But Charlie began noticing the
suspect paperwork, the questionable
orders . . .
166. TOM NOVAK: I never meant for -- That was an accident.
167. PETRA: I wanted to believe that. “Just have to
scare him,” you told me. “A near miss at a
traffic stop.” Instead you --
168. TOM NOVAK: You think it was easy? I’d known Charlie --
worked with him -- for fifteen years. He
was my friend, our kids went to school
together --
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169. PETRA: And you tried to kill his son, too!
170. TOM NOVAK: Not me. Her.
171. PETRA: Dad, put away the gun!
172. SARA: You can’t be serious. You came to the
house, cut the power, took a shot at me
through the window. If C.J. hadn’t shown up
when he did . . .
173. TOM NOVAK: You shot him and fled. In a stolen car.
174. PETRA: No . . .
175. TOM NOVAK: I heard there was an officer down -- never
lost the habit of listening to the police
scanner. I caught up with you at a closed
rest stop. A woman who’d been obsessing
over my daughter and her abduction since
they were both kids.
176. PETRA: No! Not again!
177. TOM NOVAK: Petra, this is to protect us -- you as much
as me!
178. PETRA: I’ve lived more than half my life under
this! No more! No more!
179. SARA: You’ve got one thing you need to consider
before you do anything more, Chief.
180. TOM NOVAK: What’s that?
181. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) I’ve been livestreaming
everything since my call with Rufus.
182. TOM NOVAK: You’re bluffing.
183. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) Here’s my phone.
184. SFX: PHONE TOSSED AND CAUGHT
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185. SARA: (OFF MIKE) You can see the streaming app’s
running. Look at the elapsed time.
186. TOM NOVAK: (HOT ON MIKE) But now I have the phone.
187. SARA: (OFF MIKE) And you clearly don’t understand
“livestreaming.” Everything that’s
happened, every word I’ve said and that has
been said anywhere near that phone, has
been sent to a secure server. Break the
phone in half right now -- it doesn’t
matter. It’s all saved elsewhere.
188. TOM NOVAK: Petra, what have you done?
189. SARA: What has she done?
190. PETRA: (Crying) Not any more, Dad . . .
191. SARA: No matter what happens to me, that
recording of everything gets released.
192. TOM NOVAK: What have I done?
193. SARA: It’s all going to come out, Chief. Don’t
make it any worse. Keep the phone or don’t,
it doesn’t matter. Petra and I are going
back to her car.
194. TOM NOVAK: I won’t make it any worse.
195. SARA: Petra, let’s go.
196. PETRA: I can’t.
197. TOM NOVAK: Go. All I did . . . They’ll need someone to
blame --
198. SARA: Petra --
199. TOM NOVAK: I love you, sweetheart, never doubt that.
200. PETRA: (Screaming) No!
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201. SARA: Chief Novak -- Don’t --!
202. SFX: GUNSHOT
203. (Beat)
204. (Beat)
205. SFX: PETRA LOW, QUIET MOAN, GROWS TO SOBBING
206. SARA: Petra -- ?
207. PETRA: He -- he’s --
208. SARA: I’m, I’m sorry . . .
209. SFX: PETRA WEEPING
210. SARA: Are you all right?
211. PETRA: (Softly) I don’t know.
SCENE 2 – INT. LINDY’S HOUSE
212. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) And so knowers, we see
everybody has secrets, and holding on to
them can corrode your very . . .
(NORMAL) No, that’s not it.
213. SFX: RECORDING END BEEP
214. SARA: (Yelling) Lindy!
215. LINDY (OFF MIKE) What?
216. SARA: Come here and help me up!
217. SFX: FOOTSTEPS
218. LINDY I told you to get that knee looked at.
219. SARA: I did. The doctor said it’s badly bruised.
I just have to suffer it for a while.
220. LINDY Then maybe you should just keep it up and
iced.
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221. SARA: I want to get up. I’ve been sitting here
all morning. You hear anything on C.J.?
222. LINDY Couple of cracked ribs. His vest stopped
both rounds. Lucky.
223. SARA: Damn lucky.
224. LINDY You tell Mom all about this, yet?
225. SARA: No . . . I figured I’d let her hear it on
the podcast next week.
226. LINDY Next week?
227. SARA: I need time to edit the show together.
There’s so much here, this could be a
multi-parter.
228. LINDY You think she won’t ask you what’s going on
for a week?
229. SARA: Not if I don’t go home for another
week . . .
230. LINDY Oh, and where do you think you’re staying?
231. SARA: All my stuff’s still unpacked in my old
room.
232. LINDY Great way to ask.
233. SARA: Thanks! Now, help me up. Reach down here
and give me your hand --
234. LINDY “Come with me if you want to live!”
235. SARA: You’re funny.
236. LINDY Like in the Schwarzenegger movie --
237. SARA: Yeah, I get it -- Oof --– wait . . . You --
238. LINDY What?
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239. SARA: You son of a bitch -- it was you! The whole
time, it was you!
240. LINDY Sara.
241. SARA: That! You were Mr. X -- How did I miss
that?!? (Beat) Why didn’t you just ask? Why
the character and all the drama? Why the
big mystery?
242. LINDY If your brother Lindy asked you to come
back to Etta after all these years to look
into the open-and-shut Rufus Knobbe case,
would you have?
243. SARA: I mean, if you showed me evidence . . .
outlined a reasonable theory . . .
244. LINDY Right. But if you got dragged into it,
prodded on by a mysterious caller trickling
clues to you while you investigated . . .
245. SARA: But you didn’t need me. You knew it all.
246. LINDY I had some of it figured out. The holes in
Petra’s story. And the audit. It just
wasn’t right Rufus Knobbe was in prison for
someone else’s lie . . . You figured out
all the rest.
247. SARA: Wait a minute -- you were in the room one
of the times Mr. X called.
248. LINDY I was in the room when I had a scheduled
robocall ring your phone and play a
recording for you.
249. SARA: Wow. Now I need to go amend the episode.
250. LINDY Don’t.
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251. SARA: Why not?
252. LINDY First, I don’t want the attention. That’s
another reason I put you on this -- you’re
the podcast detective. I’m a tech guy in
Etta, Indiana.
253. SARA: And second?
254. LINDY And second, isn’t it a better story with
something left unsolved? A little mystery
to ponder at the end?
255. SARA: Yeah . . .
SCENE 3 – INT. STUDIO
256. SARA: (HOT ON MIKE) So, knowers, once again,
among all the secrets we find there are no
villains, no bad guys. Yes, people do bad
things. But everybody is the hero in their
own story. The evil they do, they excuse of
themselves for the good they’re trying to
accomplish. Tom Novak was trying to take
care of his family -- his wife and
daughter. But each misdeed led to another,
a chain of sins he found himself bound up
in. The investigation now seems focused on
pointing all of it at the retired Etta
police chief, with your host’s recordings
in evidence. Speaking of the Etta PD, I
still owe Officer C.J. Fisher a dinner out
for all he did -- not to mention the two
rounds he took for me. Eddie Dial’s taken
on getting Rufus Knobbe released and having
his conviction overturned. I don’t envy him
that. Prosecutors are loathe to allow a
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reversal for any reason. And courts don’t
like to admit they’re wrong, no matter the
evidence. Remember, it was a judge that
once said, “Proof of innocence is no
impediment to serving a legally convicted
sentence.” I’m not sure what kind of life
Rufus will be released to. Maybe it doesn’t
even matter to him. He is, as he expressed
to me, already free -- in his mind. Petra
Novak Van Damme . . . Petra’s missing. She
seems to have left town. Nobody’s seen her
for weeks, and so far nobody can find or
contact her. The only thing apparently
missing from Petra’s home is her white
Mercedes station wagon. Petra was as much a
prisoner of all the lies as Rufus. Relieved
of those bonds now, I genuinely hope she’s
all right. That only leaves the question of
which of you knowers is Mr. X. To the one
who nudged me -- well, it was more than a
nudge, wasn’t it? -- into looking into a
case that tied directly to me and my past,
let me say I had an adventure worthy at
least of a good, cheap paperback novel.
Thank you. I have no idea if you intend on
doing this again. But, if you do, I’m sure
it will be over something important enough
to make certain that somebody knows.