S1.E1 Fresh Meat - Scene 5

Ritual S1 - Episode1- Scene 5

The Los Angeles Police Department

Characters in this Scene

Angela Bassett as Ronnie Dupree

Kathy Bates as Celia Grey

Chaz Bono as Mike Maguire

the Chief

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Late afternoon, in the office of the Chief of the LAPD, detective Ronnie Dupree is receiving a dressing down. She is a dark-skinned woman sporting a wild Afro with a silk patch covering her left eye. She is dressed in a black leather jacket, leather pants and platform boots. The whole package gives her a dangerous, street-wise look. As the chief paces up and down she leans casually in her seat, a crossed leg swinging.

"Ronnie, you're breaking my balls," he complains.

"All I'm sayin' is give me a chance to get some more concrete evidence on this."

"I don't like where this is going Ronnie,"the Chief running his hands through thinning hair. , "I respect you as a detective, but honestly, this smacks of some kind of conspiracy-theory, crack-pot bullshit!"

Ronnie presses her lips together, "Chief, these are not suicides, these are homicides."

"Look, I can't afford any type of controversy right now, I have the mayor breathing down my neck and we still don't have any leads on those missing women."

"Chief?" a plain clothes officer pops his head round the door. "Councilman Richards is here for the tour."

"I'll be right there, just give me a minute!" the Chief barks. He turns to Ronnie, "Listen Dupree, just stay away from this. When I come back, I expect you to be gone from my office and assisting Bradford on those missing persons cases, capiche?"

"Yeah, whatever you say Chief," she holds up her hands in a gesture of surrender but her expression looks murderous.

Outside the Chief 's office Ronnie spots Officer Mike McGuire walking in a slightly dishevelled, middle-aged woman with long grey hair. He seats her in the interview room and brings her a cup of the acrid burnt-tasting coffee favoured by the station. He sits down at his desk and starts typing up a report form. Ronnie casually saunters over to Mike's desk and begins reading over his shoulder making him visibly nervous. She picks up his official police notepad off the desk and flips through the pages.

"Hey! Give that back, goddammit Ronnie!"

"My, my...now this is interesting," she says mockingly as she reads.

"Can you give me a break, I need to get this paperwork done so I can go home, and it's been one hell of a long day!" Mike reaches for the notepad but Ronnie snaps it away, out of his reach.

"So is that her then?" she nods in the direction of the interview room, "the psych?"

"Yes! Now please Ronnie, give that back!"

"Ok, calm down Mikey boy!" She slaps the notepad into his chest and wanders over to the interview room.

"Ronnie, you're not supposed to be in there by yourself."

"So, come with me," she calls over her shoulder.

"Ah Jesus," Resigned, he gets up and follows Ronnie to the interview room. He pushes in front of her, eager to wrap things up, but mostly concerned that she will start to question the witness in her usual attack-dog style. "We appreciate you coming down here Dr Grey, on such short notice." Mike is all politeness.

"I'm glad to help in any way I can. What an awful state of affairs." Celia blows her nose on a tissue.

"What were you treating her daughter for?" Mike questions.

"I can't reveal too much of course due to doctor-patient confidentiality." Ronnie snorts derisively, Celia frowns at her and continues. "All I can say is that she stopped coming to me three months ago, and I wanted to find out from Helen, Mrs Morcombe, why that was. I confronted her about it on the street just before-"she falters- "just before it happened."

"How would you describe Helen Morcombe as a person?" asks Mike.

"She was a quiet, thoughtful woman who tried to do everything she could for her daughter. She was very dedicated to her family, her husband and her other two children. She was a typical middle-class American housewife, really."

"Without breaking confidentiality, how bad is her daughter's condition?"

"Well, it's been very hard on the family. Joanie Morcombe can't really function in regular society, her behaviour is too erratic. I think Helen took it to heart the most."

"Was there anything unusual that you noticed when you spoke with her on the street?"

"No, nothing comes to mind," Celia shakes her head. Mike Maguire wasn't the only one who wanted to get away from the station that afternoon.

"Dr Grey, you confirmed that-" Mike refers to his notes flipping pages, "it would appear she wanted to kill herself. So, in your professional opinion this is clearly a suicide?"

"I meant that without assessing her properly I can only speculate, but from all outward appearances this is a suicide. I can't think why anyone would run into traffic like that."

Ronnie has been standing in the corner as an observer, but now she cuts in abruptly banging her hand on the table. "C'mon! A woman with a husband and three children to look after suddenly runs into traffic and just up and kills herself. It don't make a whole lot of sense to me!"

Celia turns to Mike, "Officer McGuire, who is your rude friend?"

"I'm sorry, this is Detective Dupree," he flashes Ronnie a warning look and says, "Dr Grey, will you excuse us for a minute."

"Certainly, I will excuse you Officer."

Mike ushers Ronnie outside and when the door is closed, he lets rip, "Ronnie, just relax and let me handle this! You are freaking her out."

"I'm tellin' you, that bitch is holding out. I can smell it on her."

"Well, could you just turn it down a few notches then, try not to be so aggressive. I don't want to be here all day." Ronnie nods, lips pursed as Mike holds the door open for her. Celia is sitting expectantly at the table.

Ronnie tries smiling, a friendlier approach "We get it, you know. You don't want to say anything that is likely to tarnish your reputation in this town as a top psych. I mean, who's going to want to go to a flake, right?"

"Oh please," says Celia unimpressed "Don't try to out-psych the psych, you can spare me the good-cop/bad-cop routine you got going."

Ronnie leans across the table, her voice low and menacing, "I can assure you lady, there's nothin' good-cop about me."

Celia sits back and touches her throat nervously. She turns to Mike, "So can I go now Officer, I believe I've answered all your questions."

"Of course Dr Grey, if you're positive you have nothing left to tell us, you are free to go," says Mike. His pager starts to go off and he fumbles with it, agitated, and excuses himself.

"No, there's nothing-" Celia begins. Mike is already out of the room, and when Ronnie reaches the door Celia continues- "at least, nothing that makes any sense." Ronnie stops with her back to Celia, a smug smile playing on her lips. She closes the door and drags a chair over to the table. Sitting backwards with her legs straddling the seat, she rests her folded arms on the back of the chair.

"So talk. Strictly off the record, just me and you," says Ronnie softly.

"Well, alright then," begins Celia hesitantly, "Helen said something odd just before she walked off and into the traffic. She said, He is coming. Now I don't really know who or what she was referring to. Now here's the bit that doesn't make sense," Celia pauses, slightly distressed.

Ronnie eyes her seriously. "No judgement here, go on," she encourages.

"The way Helen walked off into the traffic, it was almost as if she was controlled."

"How do you mean?" asks Ronnie.

"I work enough with hypnotic suggestion to know when someone is in a trance or not. It's like her conscious mind just checked out, like she was sleep-walking, which is totally different to the behaviour of someone who is suicidal and distressed. It was eerie."

"So you think that someone could have hypnotised her to do that?"

"It's a possibility, yes."

"Anything else?" asks Ronnie.

"Yes, I guess there was something else now that I think of it. Another person was around the scene of the accident, though I'm not really sure if it's relevant."

"Everything is relevant, even the smallest bread crumb. Where was this person, can you describe them."

"It was a man, driving a red car, an expensive one. A Porsche I think it was. He was slowing down and he was laughing at the accident, which is crazy right? What sort of a person would do that?"

"What did he look like?"

"Black hair, sort of greying at the sides. I couldn't see his eyes he was wearing sunglasses. To be honest, he gave me the creeps." Celia shudders at the memory of him.

Ronnie raises her right eyebrow quizzically, she takes out a battered leather bound note book from inside her jacket pocket and writes down a few notes.

"Hey, I thought you said this was off the record!" says Celia alarmed.

"Oh it is," says Ronnie scribbling. "It's completely off police records. This is just for my records." She winks at Celia and goes to open the door. She pats the notebook which is now tucked safely inside her jacket.

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