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turning to page one
Laroche parks. Kaufman parks behind him. Orlean gestures with her gun for him to get out. As Kaufman comes around the car, he sees Donald on the floor of the back seat. Laroche emerges from his van with a flashlight and a rifle slung over his shoulder. Orlean prods Kaufman to follow him. Kaufman shakes and whimpers as they all step down into the thigh-high water. They slog through silently. Laroche stops.
LAROCHE
This spot looks good.
(thinking aloud)
Now how do we do this? Hit him in the
head with a rock first? Keeping in mind
we can only hit him once and only with as
much force as would be created by him
slipping and falling onto the rock.
Laroche paces. Orlean finds a place to sit on a hammock. She unwraps a small square of paper and snorts something out of it. Kaufman shivers. Orlean's drugs kick in.
ORLEAN
Holy Jesus. Holy... Hey, baby, hey...
Orlean trails off. Laroche talks to the spaced out Orlean.
LAROCHE
Should we drown him, then hit him on the
head? Uh-uh. A body bleeds different if
the heart's stopped. These new forensic
guys are very smart. We really have to
know our corpses to stand a chance: rigor
mortis, lividity, putrefecation, ocular
changes.
Maybe you think we hit him on the head
and force water into his lungs after he's
dead? No, darlin'. They'll know he
didn't drown. See, contrary to popular
belief, the lungs do not -- do not --
fill with water in a drowning. What
happens is, choking causes an irritation
of the mucous membranes. This creates a
shitload of mucus in the windpipe.
Efforts to breathe turn the mucus into a
sticky foam which may or may not mix with
vomit. It's the presence of this white
foam that indicates drowning. There's a
lot to be aware of, Susie. Shoeprints,
hair, microscopic fibers. Tire tracks.
They all tell a tale to today's forensic
scientists.
(to Kaufman)
What do you think? You're a writer. How
would you do it? What's a good way to
kill somebody?
KAUFMAN
I don't write this kind of bullshit.
LAROCHE
Don't get all huffy, I was simply --
Suddenly Laroche gets whacked in the back, flies forward into the water. Orlean looks up, spaced. She's confused by a second Kaufman standing there with a bag of potting soil. Donald grabs Kaufman and they run back toward the road.
Laroche pulls himself from the water.
LAROCHE (cont'd)
Fuck!
ORLEAN
(receptively)
Yeah, let's, baby.
She staggers moonily toward Laroche. He pushes her away.
LAROCHE
Not now. We got to kill that guy. And
now I guess that other guy as well.
ORLEAN
(disappointed)
Ohhh.