Love You More: A Novel (48 page)

Read Love You More: A Novel Online

Authors: Lisa Gardner

Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #General

BOOK: Love You More: A Novel
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EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

Sarah continues jogging the wooded trial.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

Rosie’s face is suddenly flooded with light. The Assailant has doubled back and is now only a dozen yards away. Moving in with terrifying speed. With a scream, Rosie runs—

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Dawn. Sarah bursts into a clearing, down a small embankment, is an abandoned beach strewn with driftwood, fog.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Rosie tripping, scrambling on hands and knees down a small embankment. The flashlight behind her jaggedly cuts through the woods, nearing.

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Sarah looks up, goes still. A FIGURE lies on the beach. A blanket of loopy seaweed covering it. Gnats and flies buzzing over it.

Sarah, transfixed, nears the still figure on the sand.

She reaches down, pulls off the blanket of seaweed.

It is a dead SEA LION — one blank eye staring up. Sarah takes it in. RAIN begins to fall.

Even here, on this beach, she is unable to escape these broken, sad bodies. The exhausting knowledge that life doesn’t care. It is indifferent.

Sarah’s CELL PHONE RINGS, startling her—

SARAH

    (into phone)

Yeah, Linden here.

 

Off this—

CREDITS ROLL

END TEASER

 

ACT ONE

 

EXT. DOCKS - DAY (CHYRON: “DAY ONE”)

A CAR drives down the industrial docks of downtown Seattle. In the distance, through the now heavy rain, the Space Needle, the gray downtown skyline, the waters of Lake Union, all under a breathtaking, brooding sky. A city of contrasts, light and dark, sun and fog, where rain falls eight months of the year. A city surrounded on all sides by waterways, ocean, lakes. Stark beauty and dark underbelly.

The car pulls up to a crime scene. In her sweats and a raincoat, Sarah exits her car in the now intense DOWNPOUR, chomping NICACHEW. A UNIFORM guards the entrance of an abandoned factory, keeping a bunch of LOOKIE LOOS — sullen emo teens and a bug-eyed crackhead — at bay.

SARGEANT (O.S.)

Back behind the tape. Yeah, you heard me.

 

A Lookie Loo — male, pierced - catches Sarah’s eye. She holds his baleful stare.

Sarah ducks under the crime scene TAPE, met by a SARGEANT — 40s, grizzled, ex-boxer’s battered face—

SARGEANT (CONT’D)

Sarah, sorry ‘bout this. Lieutenant said you were on call so—

 

SARAH

Where’s the body?

 

SARGEANT

Conveyor shed. Homeless guy found her coupla hours ago. Jane Doe … No ID, wallet. Coroner’s en route. You’re the first one here.

(beat)

You gotta go up the stairs, follow the ramp, you’ll find her. You want me to walk ya through?

 

SARAH

No. I’m good. Thanks.

 

They stop in front a steel door. Sargeant opens it revealing a dark hallway, stairs — He gives her BAGGIES and a FLASHLIGHT over—

SARGEANT

You’re outta here, what? Friday?

 

SARAH

Nope. Today.

 

With a smile, she enters …

INT. FACTORY - CONTINUOUS

 … Heads up the stairs. Suddenly, the steel door slams shut, plunging her into darkness. It’d be easy to turn back but that’s not Sarah’s style. Instead, she turns on her flashlight — flickery, iffy.

Ahead of her, a ramp tilting up into blackness. Trash, graffiti everywhere. Rain pelts the tin roof, pigeons coo. She’s used to silent, secret places like this. Forges on.

Her light catches a dark SMEAR on one wall. Blood. Below it, a pile of trash. Baggie in hand, Sarah sifts through. Pulls out a sharp deboning KNIFE. Bags it.

Trains her flashlight on a faint trail of BLOOD. Leading to the top of the conveyor shaft, a room. Something in there …

INT. FACTORY - BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS

A large OBJECT, like a side of beef encased in plastic, hangs from a hook. Sarah slowly reaches up, rips it off—LIGHTS snap on, revealing a group of middle-aged male DETECTIVES in PARTY HATS, clutching a CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE,

Laughing at what’s hanging on the hook: a BLOW UP DOLL. Red mouth around a fake SPLIFF, San Francisco baseball CAP on its head, written across its torso: “BON VOYAGE SARAH”.

OAKES

(singing)

Hey, hey … For she’s a jolly good
fellow! For she’s a jolly good …

 

SINGING DETECTIVE

For she’s a jolly good fellow …!

 

They warble off key, the others clapping, hooting, blowing noise makers. They tease Sarah.

OAKES

Get her a glass …

 

Sarah laughing now, much loved, overwhelmed by it all …

EXT. ESTABLISHING AERIAL SHOT - CHINNTENDEN LOCKS - DAY

The waterway connecting Lake Union with the vast Puget Sound. Through the RAIN—

INT. SARAH’S CONDO - DAY

Sarah enters, BLOW UP DOLL under arm, rain coat sopping. Takes in the sterile, empty condo. Packing boxes everywhere.

SARAH

Rick? Are you still here …?

Rick …?

 

As she moves through the barren rooms CAMERA FOLLOWS. Someone watching, closing in …

SARAH (CONT’D)

Rick …?

 

Suddenly, Sarah spins around—

SARAH (CONT’D)

Boo.

 

Getting the drop on RICK FELDER — salt-and-pepper sexy, established man’s confidence mixed with a former bad boy’s heat—

RICK

I so had you …

 

SARAH

Charlie Brown with the football—

 

RICK

I think Lucy needs a spanking.

 

He grabs at her. Laughing, screaming, she fends him off with the blow up doll. As they tussle—

RICK (CONT’D)

(re: doll)

I’m not even gonna ask.

 

He flings it to the side, grabs her, they kiss. Visceral, electric, heating up. Over—

SARAH

Where’s Jack?

 

RICK

Dropped him off at school…

 

SARAH

Was he mad?

 

RICK

He’s 13. It’s his job to hate us.

 

Sarah sighs, worried, rests her head on his shoulder.

RICK (CONT’D)

He’ll come around. Or I’ll make him.

(beat, then re: blow up doll)

What does Candy Cane feel about Sonoma?

 

SARAH

(smiles)

Pop that damn thing before Jack sees it.

 

RICK

Okay.

 

SARAH

What time’re the movers coming?

 

She goes to an open moving BOX, digs around. Pops a NICACHEW out of its box.

RICK

In an hour. Oh, Regi called, said she wanted to take Jack for a spin on the boat before you leave.

 

SARAH

Maybe she can give me away at the wedding. What’ll your parents think about that?

 

RICK

Who cares. What about you, you ready to do this?

 

SARAH

Do what?

 

He laughs. Kisses her.

RICK

Sell the condo, quit your job, move your kid away from his cool friends … Marry me.

 

She kisses him. Deep, passionate—

SARAH

You know I’m not one for words.

 

RICK

It’s a good thing you only need two of ‘em.

 

They kiss again, heating up. Their need for one another bottomless. BEEP BEEP—

RICK (CONT’D)

That’s me, ahhh—

 

Rick disengages and moves toward his bags.

SARAH

Why can’t you fly down with us tonight? Candy Cane wants to play, argg—

 

Sarah grabbing at him.

RICK

Yeah. Okay.

 

He laughs at her playfulness. Grabs his bags. Makes his way to the front door.

RICK (CONT’D)

Tickets on top of the fridge, flight’s at nine thirty.

 

SARAH

I do.

 

RICK

What?

 

SARAH

Want to marry you.

 

This moment honest. No jokes. No masks. They smile.

RICK

Tickets on the fridge, flights at nine thirty.

 

Rick exits. A beat as Sarah sits in this empty place, her smile fades. She spots the TICKETS on the fridge. As she takes them down, a PHOTO — pinned underneath — flutters to the ground. Sarah picks it up, smiles, tenderly kisses the photo. Pins it back on the fridge.

We see the PHOTO: Sarah and her 13-year-old son, JACK, smiling into camera. Mom and son against the world.

Only thing left in the empty kitchen. She carefully straightens it. Making it perfect.

EXT. SEATTLE PD - DAY

Sarah seen in her office window, cleaning up. A UNI walks past.

SARAH

 … We’ll have a few hours before the airport, Regi … Yeah, it’d be great …

 

INT. SEATTLE PD - SARAH’S OFFICE - DAY

Musty and cramped, mismatched steel filing cabinets, Sarah, in sweater and jeans, tosses manila FOLDERS into cardboard boxes, chewing gum, mid-convo on her cell phone—

SARAH

 … To take Jack out on the water—

 

Her office door bangs opens, revealing Det. STEPHEN HOLDER — 30, ex-narc, dark circles under his eyes. Startled as she—

HOLDER

(overlapping)

Ahh, this is a bad door. Sorry, what … what are you doing here—

 

SARAH

(overlapping)

A who … Can I help you—?

 

HOLDER

Yeah, this is my office—

 

SARAH

Who are you—?

 

HOLDER

I’m Holder, from County. You Linden?

 

REGI (O.S.)

(from phone)

Sar? You there …?

 

SARAH

(into phone)

Yeah, I gotta go. I’ll see you tonight, Regi.

Sarah hangs up, takes him in: cardboard BOX in his arms. Fish out of water in his Fubu and baggy jeans. Amused—

 

SARAH (CONT’D)

Yeah. I’m Linden.

 

HOLDER

I thought you’d be outta here by now. But if you need more time, I can wait outside.

 

SARAH

No, it’s okay. No, no, come on in. I’m almost done.

 

Not much room to navigate. He drops his box on the desk, knocking over her box, spilling files everywhere.

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