A13 Klansmen

Dinny: You wanna mix it with me, nigger?

Zadie: The term nigger does not offend me.

Dinny: Yah!

Zadie: A corruption of Negro, and I am certainly that. And I have already mixed it with you, with something more powerful than my fist: the law. [He pulls a paper out of his jacket] Now, take all these back. Later we'll itemise the breakages, and you can pay for them. [Dinny prepares to hit him] I'd like you to hit me. I already have you for harassment. I'd like to add assault to that. I really would. You did the right thing calling me, Mr Culver. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right from now on. [He leaves]

[Dinny spits after Zadie. Hulton emerges from the watching crowd]

Hulton: As though they own the world. I saw him making you back down. I didn't like that. Neither did you. You'd like to do something about it, wouldn't you?

Dinny: You're damn right, I would.

Hulton: Well, you can. [He hands Dinny a card] Come to this address tonight, and if you know anyone else who feels the same way as you do about... all this, bring them, too.

---

Crowley: I don't like it. I hate it. I revile it.

Doyle: It's still police business, Sir.

Crowley: Not any more. I'm making it our business. My business.

Bodie: That's over-reacting a bit, isn't it? I mean, after all, all they did was plant a cross in a spade's garden.

Crowley: Bodie. You're taller than me, you're bigger. But if you ever use that word again in this office, you'll find out that you're not tougher. All right, so I'm over-reacting. But I've seen and fought prejudice of one kind or another all my life, and I intend to keep on fighting it. Yes, I'm over-reacting all right, but, by God, somebody's got to! Me, you, all of us! Any questions, Bodie?

Bodie: No, Sir.

Crowley: They lit a torch last night, a small one. But fire spreads fast, that's why this is a CI5 job. We're the fire fighters. Now get to it and stamp it out.

---

Doyle: Well, you played that nice, really nice.

Bodie: I didn't say a word.

Doyle: You didn't have to. Where are you, Bodie? This is England, you know — now! Don't look behind you, 'cause there's no gunboats and Victoria's long gone.

Bodie: You see his car? More than I could afford. And the house, more than I could ever afford. And he's a spade. And I'm saying it outside of Cowley's office. Where are we going?

Doyle: Black Town.

Bodie: Where in Black Town?

Doyle: Well, Zadie held up five evictions from property held by the Miller Trust. Maybe they can tell us what happened last night.

---

Cowley: Terrorise one black man, then escalate and kill the next. And, before we know where we are, it's them against us, black against white, and not unconfirmed.

Zadie: Arthur Pymar. Arty, the man who was pushed. He called my home minutes before it happened. My wife took the call. He was trying to warn me about something.

Cowley: [to Doyle] Where's Bodie?

Doyle: Checking on the dead man.

Cowley: He took off fast.

Doyle: Maybe he had something on his conscience.

---

[Bodie is taken by ambulance to the hospital. Doyle walks by his side as he is wheeled to treatment.]

Doyle: Oh, Bodie, you half-Irish son of a bitch. What'd you wanna go and do that for?

Bodie: Ray?

Doyle: What?

Bodie: Tell Cowley a couple of spades did this. Two big black spades.

---

Cowley: I'm pulling you off the case.

Doyle: No, you're not.

Cowley: You're too keyed up, too involved.

Doyle: You pull me off, you suspend me, and you'll have to put a bullet through me because I shall still be there. Do you understand me, Cowley? Mister Cowley?!

Cowley: Well, I wouldn't want all that hot air working against me. All right.

Doyle: Thank you. And I'm sorry.

Cowley: So am I. Bodie was a good man. Is a good man, even if he will call a spade a spade. Here. [He hands Doyle a glass and pours him a scotch] I'm Cowley the Cow. Well, just you remember: a cow gives milk. A cow looks after its young —

Doyle: Heard that before.

Cowley: Well, good epigrams merit repeating. So does good malt scotch. [Doyle holds out his glass for another] No, you've got to keep a clear head.

---

Jax: Why didn't you move in and bust 'em?

Doyle: For common assault? I'm gonna bust this lot with murder.

Jax: You wanna get in, right?

Doyle: In like Flint.

Jax: That was before my time, Ray.

Doyle: Mine, too. Ah, don't worry. I won't hit you anywhere it shows.

Jax: The face? My colour, nothing ever shows. You fix it up, and I'll be there.

Doyle: Thanks, Jax.

Jax: How's Bodie?

Doyle: No change.

---

Doyle: It wasn't the Empire Society.

Zadie: A Klansman was seen running away.

Doyle: A man in a white robe was seen running away. What does that mean? It wasn't Hulton's mob; I was with them all evening. While that man was getting gunned down, we were spraying walls with paint. Who was the dead man, anyway?

Zadie: Alfred Carter, my partner.

Doyle: I'm sorry; I didn't realise. It wasn't Hulton's mob.

Zadie: You don't know that.

Cowley: No, he doesn't. We know about the Empire Society, but not that much about it. Could be another group, a higher echelon doing the real dirty work.

Doyle: Killing's not on their agenda.

Zadie: They told you that?

Doyle: Yeah, they told me that.

Zadie: And what else do you expect them to tell a raw recruit?

Doyle: All right, I'll find out some more about the society.

Cowley: How?

[Doyle taps his nose and leaves]

---

Doyle: Who are you, then?

Tommy: Doesn't matter who I am.

Doyle: I'd like a name. I might want to mention you in my will.

Tommy: Tommy. I'll tell you what, you need a snort of scotch. I've got most things here.

Doyle: [Offers bottle out to Tommy] You?

Tommy: Hell, no, never touch the stuff. I have to stay fit. You're some kind of cop, aren't you?

Doyle: Yeah, some kind.

Tommy: Boy, they were good. The best. I've never seen anyone so nicely beat up. They went over you like a roller.

Doyle: Yeah, they were good.

Tommy: You're going to have an eye blacker than my arse. Are you the kind of cop that handles murder, or are you just traffic? You're not traffic.

Doyle: Why, who got murdered — apart from me?

Tommy: My business partner. No, he was my friend, too. Arty was my friend.

Doyle: Arty Pymar? What do you know about Arty Pymar? Look, Tommy. You say Arty was your friend? Well, I had a — I've got a friend, too, and he was trying to find out who pushed Arty off the roof. But somebody slid a knife between his ribs.

Tommy: That happened right here.

Doyle: Listen, what--what do you know about all this, eh?

Tommy: Well, Arty did a job, one of those silly little break-ins. Along with the usual stuff — radio, typewriter — he grabbed an account book. I don't know why, but it was important, important enough for them to come along and take it back and push Arty off the roof.

Doyle: Who? Where did he do the break-in?

Tommy: The Miller Trust.

Doyle: The Miller Trust.

---

Tommy: You gonna shoot someone? You gonna kill him?

Doyle: I don't carry a gun to kill people.

Tommy: No?

Doyle: No. I carry it to stop them killing me. Go home, son.

---

Tommy: This Mister Cowley — is he white or black?

Doyle: I forgot to ask.

---

Tommy: Mr Cowley?

Cowley: Yeah? What are you doing here, son?

Tommy: I'm Mr Doyle's assistant, temporary, honorary, and therefore unpaid. Here are my credentials. [Gives Cowley the paper] He told me to tell you that he's gone to Rossmire Road. They've laid a trap for Mr Zadie.

Cowley: [to Jax] Rossmire Road, APB all units. Get over there yourself, Jax. Doyle needs all the help he can get. [to Tommy] You'd better go home, son.

Tommy: Not on your god damned life.

Cowley: Eh?

Tommy: And miss the payoff? Arty was a friend of mine, and so is Ray Doyle.

Cowley: Ah, sit over there, quietly. [to Dinny] Doyle's angry at you. That's bad. That's the worst thing that could happen to a man. In a moment, I'm going to dial Mr Miller's number, then you're going to talk to him. You're going to get him here. You're going to bring him here to me.

Dinny: Why should he do that, eh? Mr Miller is a top man. He won't come running just for me.

Cowley: You've never met Miller, have you? He's just a voice on the end of the phone. I think it's time you did meet him.

---

Cowley: [to Dinny] You don't even know why you were doing this, do you? Slum tenements falling apart at the seams, but nevertheless home for some people. And Zadie has stood between you and eviction many times. But, if you could get them out, every one of them, the land is worth nearly a million. Many men have killed for a lot less, a whole lot less. You didn't know what you were doing or who you were doing it for. That's the supreme irony. A dyed-in-the-wool black-hater like you has never met Mr Miller. [Sound of outside door opening] Good evening, Mr Miller. Do come in. [Mr Miller, who is black, enters] We have so much to talk about.

---

Bodie: I'd like to thank you.

Doctor: You have, by being up and around again.

Bodie: No, you know what I'm trying to say. Doctor, you know when I was thrashing around back there, did I say anything?

Doctor: Nothing I haven't heard before.

Bodie: Yeah, well, you won't be hearing it again from me.

Doctor: Well, goodbye and good luck.

Bodie: Thanks, doc.

Doctor: You need it.

---

Doyle: Jax?

Jax: Yeah?

Doyle: First thing is a drink.

Jax: Yeah.

Doyle: Then we plan our campaign.

Jax: Campaign?

Doyle: Yeah. How to get rid of some of these damn whites!