2
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - NIGHT
Suzie sits in a chair in front of a white wall. She smiles at someone off-screen. "This has to be embarrassing for you guys, huh? I mean you know and I know this is a load of shit, but at least I don't have a captain with his dick in my ass making me play along. That has got to suck."
"Are you done?"
"Do you work for a broad? That would have to be the worst." Suzie sighs sympathetically.
"Are you done?"
"Still, I guess dignity is a small price to pay for medical and a pension. A small pension, mind you, but a pension nonetheless."
They drilled us all night. Somebody was pissed about that truck getting knocked off and the cops had nothing. They were hoping somebody would slip. Give them something to go on. They knew we wouldn't fight it because they knew how to lean on us. They'd been doing it forever. Our rights went right out the window. It was a violation. I mean disgraceful. They went after Suzie first. She was a good girl. Crazy though. A top notch entry man…. Woman… you know what I mean.
"So where'd you dump the truck?"
"What truck?"
"The truck with the guns, fucko."
"You kill me, you really do. Where's my phone call?" she laughs like they are all playing.
"Right here. Suck it out."
"Clever guy." Suzie snorts.
"You want to know what your buddy Owen told us?"
Suzie snorts, "Do I look stupid enough to fall for that? Jesus Christ. Beat me if you gotta, but no more of the candy-land tactics, man."
"WHERE'S THE FUCKING TRUCK?"
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Now Owen is in the seat. He sweats profusely.
"I want to call my lawyer. I don't know about any truck. I was in Connecticut all night on Friday."
"That's not what Suzie said."
"Who?" Owen asks with surprise as he looks up at the ceiling where the speaker is for the weird voice.
"Suzie. She told us another story altogether."
"Was it the one about the hooker with dysentery I swear, she never mentioned money until I came."
"She told us about the truck"
"To be honest, it was more like a mobile home. She made a lot of money."
"Who took the guns off your hands?"
"Hey, are we talking about the same thing?" Owen cants his head as he tries to understand the questions.
"I'm losing my patience."
Owen always worked with Suzie. She was a real tight-ass, but when it came to the job, she was right on. Smart girl. A gopher. Got whatever you needed for next to nothing.
He now knows they are lying, she would not do him like that, "You guys got nothing on me. Where's your probable cause?"
"You're a known hijacker. You're sweating like a guilty motherfucker. That's my p.c. Save us the time. Tell us where the truck is."
Owen knocks on the table. "HELLO? Can you hear me in the back?"
He looks under his chair. "Where is it? I'm lookin'. It's not happening. What's going on with that? I want …"
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Sato's turn in the chair. She laughs it all off. "… my lawyer. I'll have your badge, cocksucker. I know you. You don't think I know you're on the take. This whole fucking precinct is dirty. You don't have a fucking leg to stand on."
Sato was just a bad bitch, shocking to have a potty mouth when she came across like a little porcelain doll. A lot of men made the mistake of thinking she was one. Her act was good you have to give her that … Flawless lady. Good with explosives. Mean as a snake when it mattered.
"You think so, lady? I can put you in Queens the day of the hijacking."
"I live in Queens. What the fuck is this? You come into my store and lock me up in front of my customers. What the hell is wrong with this country? Are you guys gonna charge me or what?" she laughs.
"You know what happens if you do another turn in the joint?"
"I'll fuck your father in the shower. Charge me, dick-head. "
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Now Jack sits in the chair, cool and indifferent.
Jack was the real prize for them, for obvious reasons.
"I'll charge you when I'm ready."
"With what?" Jack snorts, "Dangerously dressed? It's called fashion. Having a killer arse does not make for a charge."
"You know damn well, dead-man."
"Hey, that was your mistake, not mine. Did you ever think to ask me? I've been walking around with the same face, same name - I'm a businessman, fellas." Jack opens his arms to show indifference.
"What's that? The restaurant business? Not anymore. From now on you're in the getting fucked-by-us business. I'm gonna make you famous, cocksucker."
Jack shows just a flicker of contempt. The threat has hit home. "Like I said. It was all your mistake. Charge me with it and I'll beat it. Let's get back to the truck."
A FIST flies into the frame and connects with Jack's jaw.
His head snaps back, blood flowing freely from his mouth.
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Jack is brought in to a holding area where he joins Owen, Sato, Ianto and Suzie. He sits in a corner and keeps to himself. Owen is in mid-tirade.
"Somebody should do something. What is this shit - getting hauled in every five minutes? Okay, so I did a little time, does that mean I get railed every time a truck finds its way off the planet?" Owen rants.
Suzie is silently staring at Jack, who sits on a bench, looking away.
"These guys got no probable cause." Toshiko snorts.
"You're fuckin' A right, no P.C. Well screw P.C. No right. No goddamn right." Owen is pumping his arms as he paces with a wild sneer "You do some time, they never let you go. Treat me like a criminal, I'll end up a criminal."
"You are a criminal." Toshiko point out with amusement as she tucked her legs under herself to watch him rant.
Owen swings to gape at her "Why you gotta go and do that? I'm trying to make a point."
"Then make it. Christ, you're making me tired all over." Jack flops back with annoyance.
Suzie looks at Jack. "I heard you were dead, Jack."
"You heard right." He deadpanned, "I have a habit of it."
"The word I got is you hung up your spurs, man. What's that all about?" Toshiko asks.
"What's this?" Suzie frowns.
"Rumour has it, Jack's gone straight - cleaning house. I hear he's tapping Rose Tyler." Toshiko explains to her.
"Who?" Suzie settles next to her, just two girls gossiping.
"She's a heavy-weight criminal lawyer from uptown. Big-time connected. She could erase Dillinger's record if she tried. I hear she's Jack's meal ticket." Toshiko stage whispers then turns to Jack who is pretending to ignore them "Is it true?"
"What about it, Jack? You a lawyer's wife. What sort of "retainer" you giving her?" Suzie snorts and Jack shoots Suzie a fiery glare.
"I'd say you've gotten on his main and central nerve, Suzie." Owen says clinically.
"Do your friend a favour, Owen, keep her quiet." Jack says with a dark glare.
"You're clean, Jack? Say it ain't so. Was it you that hit that truck?" Suzie pokes at him.
"Forget her. It's not important. I was trying to make a point." Owen waves a hand at her as he addresses Jack.
Jack is ignoring Suzie as he says to Owen "This whole thing was a shakedown."
"What makes you say that?" Suzie demands.
"How many times have you been in a line-up?" Jack asks mater-of-factly "It's always you and four dummies. The P.D. pays homeless guys ten bucks a head half the time. No way they'd line five felons in the same row. No way. Let's not forget the male to female ratio here. And what the hell is a voice line-up? A public defender could get you off of that."
"So why the hell was I hauled in and cavity searched tonight?" Owen asks then looks at the others, "Tell me you lot were cavity searched too. Right? Huh?"
"It was the Feds." Jack rolled his eyes as he explains calmly "A truck load of guns gets snagged, Customs comes down on P.D. for some answers - they come up with us. They're grabbing at straws. It's politics - nothing you can do."
"I had a guy's fingers in my asshole tonight." Owen snarls, waggling a finger in the air.
"Is it Friday already?" Tosh gasps with glee.
"Fuck you. I'll never shit right again. So who did it? Own up."
"I don't want to know." Jack holds his hands out. "I don't' think any of us classifies as a male/female team."
"Nobody asked you, workin'-man." Suzie laughs.
Owen steps in front of Jack "Fuck who did it. What I want to know is, who's the gimp?"
ALL EYES suddenly turn on Ianto. He has been quietly listening the whole time without uttering a word.
"He's alright." Jack dismisses him.
"How do I know that?" Tosh demands as she unfolds to stare at Ianto "How about it, pretzelman? What's your story?"
"His name is Ianto Jones. I thought you guys knew him." Jack answers for him.
"Ianto?"
"Ifan really. Ianto is the childish version like Billy for William" Ianto sighs.
"We've met once or twice. Last time was in..." Jack struggles to remember.
"County. I was in for fraud"
"You were waiting for a line-up then, too. What happened with that?" Jack remembers.
"I walked." Ianto shrugged "Ninety days, suspended."
"So you did it?" Owen demands.
"What? Murder at the Disco? Or are you angry that we all seem taller ... even Ms Sato there" Ianto looks away from Sato, awaiting a violent response.
Everyone slowly starts to laugh. Owen looks as if he is about to boil in his own skin.
"Let it go." Jack warns and Ianto smiles at Jack appreciatively. Owen stands and walks to the toilet in the corner of the cell. He starts taking a leak.
Suzie starts talking "Look, we've all been put out by this, I figure we owe it to ourselves to salvage a little dignity. Now Owen and I got wind of a possible job –"
"Why don't you just calm down" Jack demands as Owen continues to glare around. "What do you care what he says?"
"Yeah, I'm just talking here, and Sato seems to want to hear me out. I know Owen is with me" Suzie argues then looks to Ianto "How about you, guy?"
Owen finishes pissing.
"I'm interested, sure" Ianto says as he looks at Jack who sighs and leans back again.
"There, so you see, I'm going to exercise my right to free assembly." Suzie taps the bars of her cell and the others LAUGH.
"I'm not kidding. Shut your mouth." Jack warns softly.
"You're missing the point." Suzie wants to push him.
"No, you're missing the point. Shut up. I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I don't want to know about your "job". Just don't let me hear you. I want nothing to do with any of you " Jack spits "I beg your pardon but all of you can go to hell."
"Jack Harkness, gone the high road. What is the world coming to?" Suzie and Jack stare at one another for a long and tense moment. Finally Suzie turns to the others.
"Forget him then." She tells them "Now I can't talk about this here in any detail, but listen up..."
Everyone but Jack gravitates toward Suzie's cell as she begins to speak in low, hushed tones.
And that was how it began. The five of us brought in on a trumped-up charge to be leaned on by half-wits. What the cops never figured out, and what I know now, was that these people would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody... Anybody.