"Y'all want me to take the wheel, Hank?" "No, no." "It's no problem." "I've driven halfway across the country with one hand." "Remember that cracker cop I told you about?" "Yeah." "Son of a bitch rode my ass for 20 miles, then tried to take me on the left." "He didn't know, of course, that I was a cop and I had a 350 supercharged under the hood." "I gunned it." "Took that cracker for the ride of his life." "We were doing 140." "And that's when I saw that son of a bitch reach for his blue strobe and plant it on the dashboard." "I couldn't believe it." "The guy was a cop." "He wanted to bust me." "I pulled over and acted like I was shaking in my boots, and he came swaggering over." ""Well, I guess I led you into that one, hey, boy?" ""But you see, I just knew you were gonna go for it," ""what with you looking in your rearview mirror like that." ""I knew you were gonna try and race me." ""Now, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to see your license and registration, son."" "So I pulled out my badge, and he nearly shit in his pants." ""I ought to run you in," I told him," ""for endangering the life of a homicide detective."" "You know, sometimes I'm really not sure who's worse, us cops or the fucking criminals." "Change that 1140 to an 1144, Havenhurst." "Two cars presently at the scene." "I read you." "What was that address again?" "That's 105 Crystal off Richmond below La Mesa." "You got two cars on the scene." "Okay." "We'll check it out." "What's an 1144?" "An 1144 is like somebody's dead." " Like very much dead." " Oh, okay." "This is gonna get serious, then." "All right." "Razzle them." "Dazzle them." " Razzle-dazzle them." " Excuse me." "Hey, McDougal." "Hey, hey, McNamara." "Hey-oh, that's it." "Attack!" "Want any more?" "Any more?" "Come here." "Come here." "Ah, that's right." "I always knew you were my eagles in drag." "First cup measures... 94." "94 inches south of the north..." " No." "That's north." " Oh, west." "Correction, west of the east wall." "Second cup measures..." " This was Mrs. McCullum..." " 72." "72 inches south of the north wall." " Yes?" " This was Mrs. McCullum's cup." " I see." " She was sitting right there." "I see, I see." "Third cup is approximately 12 inches west of the second cup." "We'll talk a little later." "It is noted that the coffee in all three cups is still lukewarm." "Time: 7:45." "Gary, did you take a shot of the cups in here?" "Yeah, I got 'em." "Okay." "Take 'em into evidence." "I'll get right on that." "Red matter on the sword... consistent with that of blood." "Position of what is most certainly the murder weapon tip pointing in a north-northwesterly direction." "Approximately... 3 feet from the decedent's right toe." " Hey, Hank you got a minute?" " Yeah." "This morning when you arrived, did you see a Caucasian male, approximately 6'4", with a coffee cup?" "Yeah, he walked right by." "He said something, I think." "Why didn't you arrest him?" "Should I have?" "Yeah." "That's our suspect." "Oh." "He said something strange." "Yeah, Brad." "He's been quite strange." "Brad who?" "Brad McCullum." "He did it." "He stabbed her." "Ever since he came back from Peru, he's been strange." "Well, not so much strange as... different." "It's the rainy season." "You don't kayak during the rainy season." "Nobody... nobody does it." "That's the challenge." "Well, can we at least go down the river and check it out?" "Yeah?" "Hey, stop meditating, okay?" "Open your eyes." "Look, this is the river." "This is reality." "Want people to think, come up with a coherent argument." "We have to do something." "I'm gonna try to talk him out." "Okay, but do it from here;" "otherwise, we can't cover you." "I'm positive I've seen him in there with a shotgun, and I heard him holler something about two hostages." "Mr. McCullum?" "Mr. McCullum!" "Can we talk a moment?" "Mr. McCullum... can we talk, sir?" "Mr. McCullum, can we talk a moment?" "Would you come outside, please?" "No." "No!" "You come inside if you want to talk!" "I think I can handle this." "You got to make nice with the guy, you know, like call him compadre or something." " Compadre?" " Yeah, yeah." "He's Irish, I think, maybe even Scottish." "Mr. McCullum, may I call you Brad?" "You can call me Brad." "You can call me Farouk." "You can call me any damn thing you like." "Hey!" "God is here." "He's in the house with me." "But I don't need him anymore." "I don't need God anymore." "Brad, you pestered me for years to get you this piano." "I got it for you, and you have never used it." "Then you wanted the drums." "I got them." "And you just sit there." "Mom, you were the one who tried to persuade me to want them." "What's going on here?" "We're having a problem with one of the residents." "I've got to go in there." "I've got to get to the McCullums' house." "I'm sorry, ma'am." "I can't let anyone through." "But, Officer, this is Ingrid Gudmundson." " She's his fiancée." " Whose fiancée?" "Brad McCullum." "The guy in the house." "Brad just called me a half an hour ago." "He sounded very urgent." "Has anything happened to him?" "Look, I'm his fiancée." "I think I can help." " Detective Havenhurst?" " Yes?" "Detective, I have a young lady here who says she's the fiancée of the suspect." "Don't let her go." "I'll be right over." "I'm Detective Havenhurst." "I'm in charge here, Miss..." "Ingrid Gudmundson." "Has something happened to Brad?" "Well... what can I say?" "Brad is our suspect in a stabbing that took place across the street from his house." "He has apparently taken some hostages and barricaded himself inside." "I don't mean to alarm you, Miss Gudmundson, but it's all a little strange." "You see, he's claiming his name is Farouk and shouts about God and tosses oatmeal at us." "It's all a little confusing." "Can you help us out?" "Well..." "I..." "I don't know where to begin." "You see, I've known him about two years." "We're supposed to get married next month." "You know, when he came back from Peru about a year ago, he would call himself Farouk once in a while." "He was different after that." "I mean, after the trip to Peru." "Did anything in particular happen to him there?" "Yes." "I mean... no, not to him." "He was with his friends, these rafters, these white-water rafters, and... he didn't go." "I mean, he didn't participate in the expedition because he told me he heard this inner voice telling him not to go." "And they were angry with him." "And they went into those rapids, and... all of them drowned." "Yes!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "Check it out." "It's perfect." "This is our river." "This is where we need to be." "I don't know." "We should go further down and see how it turns out." "Brad!" "Why are you acting so strange?" "I'm just looking at the river." "Well, that's our challenge." "I don't like your attitude, Brad." "Are you chickening out or something?" "It's as simple as that." "I'm not going rafting down that river." "What do you mean by that?" "I mean that I'm not going to take your vitamin pills." "I mean I'm not going to take your vitamin pills." "I'm not going to drink your herbal tea." "I'm not going to the sweat lodge with the 108-year-old Native American who reads Hustler magazine and smokes Kool cigarettes." "I'm not going to discover my boundaries." "I am going to stunt my inner growth." "I think I shall become a Muslim." "Call me Farouk." "And he was different after that." "He changed somehow." "He told me he would only follow this inner voice, no matter what." "And you couldn't talk him into anything after that." "And he spoke about God." "Often." "How he'd seen him." "Brad, darling... can't you see I'm trying to straighten the bed?" "Forget about the bed." "Listen to this." "My dear children, I hope I'm not disturbing you." "I'm just so happy for you both." "I'm so glad you two are together." "Here, dears." "I've brought you some brownies I just baked." "Brad, can't you see that Ingrid is trying to straighten the bed?" "You have to keep your eye on him." "You know how he is." "Can't she ever knock?" "You've got to listen to this." "I don't want to listen to that." "You need to listen to me." "You've got to move out of here." "You're too old to have your mom buying your clothes and serving you cookies" "Okay, okay." "But she means well." "Just for the night." "Thank you." "You've got to be patient, you know?" "She needs me." "She lost her husband when I was barely two years old." "Why do you never call him your father?" "Because I never knew the man." "Listen to this." "Subject of this song is, I'm born to preach the gospel, and I sure do love my job." "I'm born..." "To preach the gospel" "I'm born..." "This is it!" "To preach the gospel" "This is what I mean." "It's the real thing." "And I sure do..." "I mean..." "It's him." "Him who?" "Him." "Him." "Him." "Him." "God." "That's who." "I've seen him." "I've seen God." "Ever since I was a child, I knew he was very close." "Right here in the house." "Where?" "In the kitchen." "This is him." "This is... this is God." "This is what he looks like." "See?" "This is the face of God." "You see... how kind he is?" "Oh!" "Brad..." "I am so glad to see you back to low-fat foods." "I didn't think that bacon and eggs was doing you any good." "Yes, Mom." "You know, the next day he wanted to buy me a home?" "This is the house." "But I said to him, "Brad, this house is not for sale."" "So he just moved on to the next one over there." "Well, then I'm going to buy you this one." "Brad, darling..." "I know you mean well, but I don't want to live here." "It's too close to your mother's house." "Besides, we have to start our own lives." "Well, then I'll buy you this one." "It's further." "See?" "I don't know." "How about this one?" "No." "Brad, where will you get the money from?" "You don't have the money." "I plan to come into some." "Brad, this house isn't for sale either." "So what?" "So what?" "So what?" "So what?" "Brad, stop that." "I want you to stop that right-right now." "Wouldn't it be nice to live on the moon, with banks of television screens where we could watch the Earth transform?" "We would live in seclusion." "A honeymoon on the moon." "Brad." "Detective, why would Brad get up so early, urge me to come over right away, and then walk across the street and attack some neighbors that he barely knows?" "Miss Gudmundson," "I have to inform you... the suspect did not attack his neighbors." "He stabbed his mother, and she is dead." "His mother?" "Why his mother?" "I just..." "I don't understand." "He loved her so much." "I remember this dinner we had the other night." "Oh..." "Oh, you can do better than this." " Oh, no, Mom." " My goodness." "That's okay, I've had..." " Just one tiny, tiny, tiny..." " I'm finished." " I had two helpings." " Just one tiny..." "Thank you." "It was delicious." "It was." "And there will be a little something else." "I hope it's not Jell-O." "Oh, Mom, Jell-O." "It's very nice, but I just can't eat another thing." "But, Brad, you love Jell-O." "Be a good boy." "It's good for your bones." "No, Mom, please, I can't eat another thing, okay?" "Besides, this Jell-O looks hideous." "I think I'd better feed it to the flamingos." "Oh, come on, Brad." "You don't really mean that." "Mom, I'm sorry." "I was just kidding." "Really, I don't even know how to tell you how great I think you are." "You're... you're the greatest mother in the world." "Oh..." "Brad." "I wish your father were alive to hear you talk this way." "Tonight I'm gonna take my best girls out." "We're gonna go driving over Coronado Bridge at over 90 miles an hour." "Brad, you know your driving scares me." "You always drive too fast." "You know, last night I took Coronado Bridge at 130 miles an hour." "I wanted to know how it felt being in Star Wars, driving through the valley of the shadow of death." "Would you like some, Mom?" "Of course." "Enough?" "Almost." "Good." "There you go." "Hey!" "Hey, you guys!" "I'd like to order a pizza!" "And make sure you get me some transportation to Mexico... large enough for me and my two hostages." "And fast!" "So we ordered his pizza." "I got an idea." "What if we laced the pizza with some sleeping pills?" "If we put some hot chilies on it, he'll never taste it." "Thanks, Fargas, but it's not gonna work." "You watch too much TV." "So what are we gonna do about the getaway car?" "The classic thing." "Just play for time." "Besides, I'm not convinced about the hostages." "Who's he got in there anyway?" "We checked with the neighbors, and they're all accounted for, so I don't know." "There's two guys over there that want to get in, one guy with a pizza and another guy who said he just came up from Los Angeles." "He said Brad called him this morning." "Is his name Meyers?" "Yeah." "Lee Meyers." "I know him." "We've all been working on a play together." "This sword cuts deep." "Straight through the lungs." "And justice is flouted..." "And stomped in the ground." "The sword smith of destiny..." "Hammers the weapon." "A child is brought to this house to avenge." "Stay right there." "Freeze." "Who the fuck is gonna deliver this thing?" "I'm gonna do it." "Okay." "Your weapon." " Show him your weapon." " Okay." "Mr. McCullum, I have..." "Mr. McCullum, I have your pizza." "Mr. McCullum!" "I have your pizza." "Can you see my gun?" "Mr. McCullum!" "Can you see my gun?" "I'm gonna put my gun down." " I'm unarmed now." " Through the garage!" " I'm sorry?" " Through the garage!" "Okay." "All right." "I'm unarmed." "I'm walking up now." "Where do you want me to put it?" "The center." "The center, right here." "Okay." "Okay." " Closer!" " I'm putting it down right now." "I'm putting it down." " Closer!" " Okay." "Back off." "Back off!" "Okay." "I'm away." "Okay?" " Go away!" " Okay." "But why don't you let me try?" "I'm sure I could walk right in and bring him out." "He would listen to me." "He would listen to me." "Why else would he call me at 6:00 in the morning, desperately asking for help?" "You know I can't allow that, sir." "This is a police matter, Mr. Meyers." "And besides, we have a hostage situation here, and the special unit is running the show." "But I would like to ask you a few questions, if I might." "Can you tell me what the content of that call was?" "He was desperate, begging me to come right away because something terrible was going to happen." "He said to me," ""Lee, everything is crystallizing into one word:" ""'Now,' capital N, capital O, capital W."" "He said he was like a runaway train." "And then he mentioned something about a sword which he had used as a prop in our play." "He killed his mother with that sword, Lee." "Jesus God." "With that damn thing?" "Brad was obsessed with it." "I told him it is too dangerous for rehearsals." "But he insisted on using it." "I remember when he got it." "I was there." "He made a big fuss about driving down to his uncle." "He killed his mother?" " Hey." " Hey, Uncle Ted." "Hey, this is my friend Lee." " Hi." " Hi." "You haven't seen the new birds yet, have you?" "No." "Come on out here and let me show you." "You need to be careful, though." "They can be mean." "Think dinosaurs in drag." "Brad, I thought you said your uncle ran a chicken farm." "Was!" "You know, Lee, I think my uncle bred the largest chicken in the world." "Was." "It was the biggest." " Oh, my God!" " What?" " What?" " My glasses." "Out of my pocket!" "Doug, he got the glasses again." "Yeah." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "That's the animal." "That's it." "Take it." "This is disgusting." "Don't you do that again." "Brad, this is disgusting." "Maybe we should get away from the fence." "Good one, Doug." "Good one." "I had this one rooster, Ben, a behemoth." "This thing weighed 45 pounds." "It was bigger than any damn turkey you ever saw." "So you raised him for cockfights." "Fuck no, man." "For meat." "Why pluck 20 when you can pluck just one?" " Well, that's true." " But the beast." "The beast was Willard." "You remember Willard, don't you?" " Oh, yeah." " He was a monster." "Yeah, they got too large, too mean, too dangerous." "And could Willard kick." "He was angry." "You see these holes here?" "See 'em?" "To approach him, you had to hold this up like a shield." "And damn if he didn't jump up and kick holes in it." "And when I was down to my last can, that was it, boy;" "I'd had enough." "I'll be burning their spurs off with a blowtorch." "And where are they now, these big birds?" "Well, after Willard, they couldn't produce no more offspring." "I think they got too heavy to jump the hens." "Uncle Ted, I came about the sword." "Now... what exactly did you say you needed this sword for?" "We need it for a theatrical production." "A what?" "Brad, do you mean to tell me that you're serious about this acting shit?" "Yes." "Only faggots and Negroes with attitude become actors." "Are you a faggot now?" "'Cause you don't look like no Negro to me." "Look, Uncle Ted, you don't understand." "This is serious stuff." "We're doing a Greek play." "It's been around for 2,000 years." "A Greek play." "Well, the only thing that Greeks know how to play with is each other's balls." "Is this one of those Souvaki plays where the guys all get up and dance with each other like a bunch of fairies?" "There is a Greek guy, moved in not long ago right over there." "I had to lock my sheep up at night, made 'em so nervous." "A Greek play!" "Brad, does your mother know you're mixed up in shit like this?" "Brad... it isn't a Greek sword." "The style is all wrong." "So what?" "So what?" "So what?" "Brad... it's really not the right kind of sword." "You know what the book of Job has to say?" "About swords?" "Fuck, no." "About ostriches." "Job 39:13." ""The wing of the ostrich beateth joyously," ""but are her pinions and feathers" ""the kindly storks?" ""For she leaveth her eggs on the earth" ""and warmeth them in the dust." ""When the time cometh," ""she raiseth her wings on high and scorneth the horse and his rider."" "I knew he was quarrelsome and disruptive." "But we had to accept him the way he was." "At the same time, he was so talented." "But he did give me problems." "Let me warn you straight out." "These ancient Greeks were not just a bunch of philosophers and aesthetes pussyfooting around." "They were into the real thing." "So as I was saying before, we're dealing here with a trilogy." "You know that the king comes home from Troy only to be killed by his wife." "Then the son returns home to avenge him, to take his mother's life." "But there's a history to this curse that weighs on these people." "The killing goes on for generations." "Orestes is just the last link in a bloody chain." "It all starts with Tantalus, the one who spends his eternity in hell, chained to a rock by the gods, starving for grapes just beyond his reach." "He is the source of our word "tantalize."" "He is at the root of our own curse, lusting for something we want but we cannot have." "He challenged the gods, this Tantalus." "He wanted to see if they were real." "So he invited them for dinner." "And just as a test, he served up his son in a stew." "The gods puked up his flesh so he could still father more cannibals and killers." "It's like his own son Atreus who cooked the son of his brother Thyestes and then invited him for a feast." "I'm saying, to understand Orestes and the curse, you must feel the whole weight of this godforsaken Tantalid house, a dynasty of ruthless kings and diabolical queens who eat each other's flesh and fuck each other's wives... century after century, generation after generation." "And only Orestes can lift the curse." "But he has to murder his mother to do it." "So he's damned if he does, he's damned if he doesn't, and doubly damned if he wavers." "That's it!" "That's it." "Razzle them." "Dazzle them." "Razzle-dazzle them." "I'm the director, Brad." "You do what I tell you." "Lee, some people act a role." "Others play a part." "You know, one thing I could just never get out of my mind." "I never understood what he meant." "He clutched his sword, and he said to me," ""A bird was the largest animal I ever killed before I killed my mother."" "How long ago was that?" "Weeks, maybe a month." "But rehearsals went very well, especially when Brad had no lines and the chorus was performing." "You remember?" "In position." "In position!" "Concentrate." "Concentrate." "Let's go." "Earth breeds many things, begetting..." "Pain, terror..." "And horrors of suffering." "And the depths of the sea teem with..." "Murderous monsters." "And flaming comets stab down through the sky and blast creatures that fly." "And creatures that crawl." "And things more horrid still like the cradles of storms..." " Cradle of storms." " Cradle of storms." "But who can describe the audacity of man or the daring and passion of women that stop at nothing and lead to mortal ruin?" "The cruel bitch of female passion can break apart the yoke that joins a pair and force apart the dark embrace..." "Of beasts and man alike." "This sword cuts deep." "Straight through the lungs." "And justice is flouted..." "And stomped in the ground." "And the sword smith of destiny..." "Hammers the weapon." "A child is brought to this house to avenge..." "To lift the seeping stain of ancient blood." "Brought by her, we shudder to name the dark, brooding fury." "But there was always trouble whenever we rehearsed Brad's part." "What was the play about?" "About a son killing his mother." "Child... you have in mind to slay, and slay your mother." "Oh, no, you slay yourself." "You, not I." "Beware... your mother's vengeful hounds from hell." "I must heed my father's, not spare you." "Did she do it... or did she not?" "Bear witness here." "This robe... she dyed it in the blood that ran around her lover's sword." "Brad, this isn't a Greek robe." "This spurted stain has aided time to blur the many dyes that once adorned this robe." "I stand here now, made glad, made mad with blood, exalting... wailing." "Hear me, woven web that slew my father." "Stop it, stop it, Brad." "Enough, enough." "You skipped a hundred lines." "It makes more sense this way." "It does." "You're just standing there, delivering lines." "You're not acting." "And at this point, I told you to move." "Lee..." "I need to say something to you about basketball." "We all know you were a great player." "No, you see..." "I was a little short for the game, so I had to become the classic distance shooter, a 3-point man." "Now, in one of my games, it happened." "The ball is passed to me." "I jump;" "I look." "And in midair, I realize..." "I'm shy of midcourt, some 70 feet from the basket." "And I can't come down, because if my feet touch," "I'm traveling." "So I have to shoot." "I freeze in midair." "Then everything else around me freezes... so I shoot." "It was more of a shot-put than a throw." "And it just swished through." "No." "No, it hit the rim... hard." "It kind of rattled in." "That's enough." "That's ridiculous." "But I think I've found it." "What?" "I've found the still point." "The unwobbling pivot of the world." "Do you know what I mean?" "No." "Can we do it again?" "Please?" "Chorus, back." "Come on, quick, quick." "Get in position." "Position." "Concentrate." "A Greek play." "Let's go." "Earth breeds many things, begetting..." "Pain and terror..." "And horrors of suffering." "And the depths of the sea teem with..." "Murderous monsters." "And flaming comets stab down through the sky and blasts creatures that fly..." "And creatures that crawl..." "And things more horrid still, like the cradle of storms." " Cradle of storms." " Cradle of storms." "But who can describe the audacity of man or the daring and passion of women that stop at nothing and lead to..." "Mortal ruin?" "The cruel bitch..." "The rooster!" "The rider!" "A man on a rooster!" "The rider of the Apocalypse!" "The rooster." "The rider!" "The rider of the Apocalypse." "No, not the rider." "It was the horse owner." "It was the goddamn horse owner wouldn't let me have the horse." "Look, imagine it's the opposite time of the year." "There's no snow." "And this..." "this horse is fully grown." "And this little guy would be riding this, the smallest horse in the world." "And then Willard, my rooster, would be chasing him around the biggest tree on this planet." "Now, here's the thing." "The rooster would stand taller than the rider and the horse together." " God, that sounds fantastic." " Yeah." "There was gonna be a commercial." "It was gonna make a bunch of money." "It was gonna be great!" "A commercial for what?" "How should I know?" "But it was gonna be great." "Subject of this song is, I'm born to preach the gospel, and I sure do love my job." "Hey, Detective, have a look!" "Mr. McCullum, what is this?" "It's a flamingo that slammed into a tree." "Give it to my mother." "He kept talking about his mother..." "Mr. Meyers, please." "Please, it's safer here." "I understand." "He was obsessed with her." "When I'd play his mother and lay murdered at his feet, he whispered to me," ""Twitch your feet." "I wanna see my mother's feet dancing her to heaven."" "He disrupted our rehearsals so many times that I had to take him out of the play." "I hated to do it because he was really so very good." "It was really very sad." "He took it hard." "He just couldn't get it out of his system." "He just couldn't shake it." "When we took the play to Calgary, he came all that way with his mother just to see the performance." "That was the last time I saw him." "He was with his mother." "He seemed so caring." "And he really was taken with the city." "He was so fascinated by it:" "All those glass tubes." "Brad, where are you going?" "What are you doing?" "Can't you see it, Lee?" "This is the tunnel of time." "Wouldn't it make the perfect stage for a cosmic melodrama?" "Like a hound on the trail of a wounded deer, we will track him down by the drip of blood." "I snort, lungs bursting, from long man-slaughtering toil." "Ranging over every corner of this Earth." "In pursuit..." "Without wings, I have flown over oceans." "And now that this man is here..." " Somewhere..." " Cowering..." "The scent of human blood grins wide for me." " Look!" " Look!" " Look!" " Look everywhere." "Cast your eyes in every direction." "Don't let this mother-killer get away unscathed." "I now stand here, made glad, made mad with blood, exalting, wailing." "I slew her." "I deny no word hereof." "Hear me, woven web that slew my father." "This robe, she dyed it in the blood that ran around her lover's sword!" "Yes, you must tell the manner of your deed." "Drawn sword in hand, I lopped her head." "Who, and by craft of who, did urge you on?" "Fate and necessity made me do it!" "Brad, don't participate." "You're disturbing the play." "Just be quiet." "Draw from their killers blood to answer blood." "Brad?" "Brad." "Brad, let's go." "Brad, let's go." "Brad?" "Brad." "Brad." " Yes." " What is it?" "Lee, you don't need to give me such a close look." "Okay?" "Yeah, I admit I've been crying a lot lately." "But it's strange." "The tears only come out of my left eye... never my right." "How do you explain that?" "Why is everyone staring at the house?" "Why is the whole world staring at me?" "Why are the mountains staring at me?" "Why do the clouds look down upon me?" "Why are the clouds looking upon me?" "Why is everyone staring at me?" "Why is the whole world staring at me?" "Why is the whole world staring at me?" "All right, team one, up on the roof." "Team two, shore up the wall." "Team three, into that garage." "Team four, go long, perimeter." "Let's go, fellas." "Move out." "Lieutenant, we have a relative and close friend of the suspect here." "I think they can be useful." "All right." "Put 'em in the van." "Be there in a minute." "Joey, keep me posted, okay?" "In the van." "Come on." "Hi, I'm Lieutenant Brown." "Ma'am." "Look, try not to be... too distressed about all this, okay?" "Because right now, we're just assessing the situation, all right?" "Now, I appreciate if you stay here in the van so when I need you, I know where you are." " Can you do that for me?" " Yeah." "All right." "Stay with them?" "Same old thing." "It rings 30 times, but he doesn't pick up." "Let me try to get in there." "Look, I can offer myself up as a hostage." "He can take me in a swap." "No, you won't." "I can do it." "I can do it." "It's not protocol." "Look, my show." "I run it." "You take orders, or you get behind the perimeter." "Is that clear?" "Thank you." "I'm really sorry." "How totally inconsiderate of me." "Neither of you have had any coffee." "Here." "Thank you." "And forgive me for not thinking of it sooner." "You know, when we were up in Canada," "I realized that Brad was crying a lot." "He didn't like to talk about it or else made a joke out of it." "But I remember, one time, he turned to me, a little bit more serious, and said," ""I cried in the laundry room for four years until they renovated it and used it for something else."" "Yeah, it was only two days ago that he called me, desperate, from Tijuana." "He was crying, and he was telling me about this hotel room he was in and how he had placed prescription glasses around the light on his night table." "I went across the border the next morning to pick him up." "Now... did you buy all these prescription glasses?" "What do you mean by placing prescription glasses like this, Brad?" "This is my way of bringing heaven to Earth." "You see..." "No, no, no, no, no." "It's okay." "Oh, not today, not today." "But I'll take a card." "It's all right, okay." "Maybe later." "Okay." "Thank you, thank you." "No, no, no, no, no." "Not today." "No, it's okay." "Thank you." "As soon as we got back to the States, he wanted to go to the naval hospital in San Diego." "I was glad... because I thought he wanted treatment for his depression." "There." "You turn up here." "Turn right." "But that's..." "the naval hospital, Brad." "I want to go to the naval hospital." "Right." "Right here." "My father died here." "Sir?" "I would like to visit the sick." "Sir, who would you like to visit?" "The sick." "The sick in general." "Oh, the general." "Well, I'm not certain if he's in." "Why don't you just park your car over there, sir?" "One more time, sir." "Who do you mean by "the sick"?" "Madame..." "I mean the sick in general." "Sir, you can't visit the sick in general." "Can I at least buy a pillow for the sick?" "You can inquire at the gift shop about the... but, sir, please wait one moment while I make a call." "Hello?" "It's the front desk." "No, this man just came." "He's asking about a..." "I don't know." "Just stop him!" "He's asking about the sick or a pillow, I don't..." "Security, there's a man going to the gift shop." "Yes, civilian." "With a woman, right now." "He's behaving very strange." "Brad." "They're calling security." "Brad!" "Brad, let's..." "let's just go, okay?" "Look how beautiful San Diego is." "It's like the city of God." "Do you... mean to leave it here?" "Yeah." "I'm hoping some young future player will find it." "Did you see that, Ingrid?" "The whole world almost stopped." "What do you mean?" "Brad..." "I didn't see anything." "Excuse me, sir." "I'd like to give you this." "Your bag?" "Yes, as a gift." "I insist, please." "No." "What am I supposed to do with this bag?" "Just take it." "It's wonderful." "It's got all kinds of- see?" "Oh, wait, I've got to keep this one thing, but you can have the rest." "No, you know, I can't." "I don't know." "Enjoy it." "Thank you." "Okay, uh..." "Brad, all your glasses are in there." "Oh, it's okay." "I can read without 'em." "I'm just following this inner voice." "It feels so good to say good-bye to your things." "And then?" "After Balboa Park, I brought him home, to my place." "That was yesterday." "He slept for most of the day, and then at night, he got restless." "He started talking a lot about machinery, how much he hated it." "And then he disconnected all the clocks and the refrigerator." "And then he went outside and started banging on his car so hard that it scared me." "When he finally came back in, he had that pillow with him." "And he gave me this look that I'd never seen before, and that's when I got really scared." "I said to him, "Brad, I don't want you staying here tonight."" "And he just... he left without saying a word." "Detective, the Roberts woman seems to have recovered her speech." "She says she's feeling much better and she can talk to you now, sir." "I'm coming." "Miss Roberts, I know this is difficult for you, but could you tell me how it all started?" "Well, it all seemed so normal." "It was early in the morning, and of course, we were up having our coffee when Brad came across the street with his mother." "Actually, she was hurrying ahead, and he was following a few steps behind." "My mother offered her some coffee because she sensed that Miss McCullum wanted to talk to her about something." "So she said to me," ""Why don't you take Brad out in the back and show him your garden?"" "So I took him outside and showed him my dried-out flowers and all the dust, talked to him about the problems" "I was having with water shortage." "And he seemed to be very interested in all of this." "And then when he tossed his baseball bat at me," "I asked him, I said, "Brad, what are you doing?"" "No, but that was later." "No, let me tell the detective." "When they were out back, my daughter and Brad McCullum," "Mrs. McCullum leaned in and whispered to me..." "Brad tried to smother me with a pillow." "Oh, no." "He wasn't kidding." "I think we should call the police." " Oh..." " Now, this has gone far enough." "We've got... here he comes." "But I'm calling." "She's had so much trouble with this garden with no rain, you know, and everything, so..." "Adele, you sit here." "I want you to sit here." "Excuse me." "How about some coffee, Brad?" "I'll pour you a cup of coffee." "Oh, no." "No, wait, I..." "I got to go get my cup." "Can't start the day without my special coffee cup." "It took quite a while till he returned, about ten minutes or so." "We almost thought he wasn't coming back." "We were discussing whether or not we should call the police when he walks in with his coffee cup." "Mmm, boy, Mrs. Roberts, you sure do make the best coffee around." "Where's he going?" "He's going to his car." "He's got a bat." "Here." "Take it." " Brad, what are you doing?" " Hit me." "What?" "Kill me before it happens." "Kill me before it happens!" "Kill me." "What are you doing?" "Kill me!" "When he ran her through the first time..." "Ran her through?" "What do you mean?" "When he ran her through with the sword, she said calmly, "My son, my son, what have ye done?"" "That was the last time she ever spoke." "There was no screaming." "In fact, no one screamed, least of all his mother." "I was astounded at the silence." "Okay." "We're gonna give this a try." "You ready?" "You stay behind here, and no heroics." "Brad!" "It's me, Lee." "I came down from L.A." "Ingrid here is with me." "I'm here, Brad!" "Brad, it's going to be all right." "I promise you, nothing's going to happen to you." "But you have to come out, Brad." "Brad, it makes no sense keeping the hostages." "Let them go!" "Yeah!" "In a minute, Lee." "I'm still feeding them." "Brad, it's me." "Talk to me." "Tell me, who are the hostages?" "What are their names?" "McNamara and McDougal!" "Oh, my God!" "They're his flamingoes!" "They're his birds!" "What do you mean by birds?" "They're my eagles in drag." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Come on." "That's all right." "I hate it that the sun always comes up in the east." "Police!" "Don't move!" "Put your hands in the air!" "Turn around and face the wall!" "Put the weapon down slowly." "Now, walk, walk back towards my voice." "Keep coming." "Keep coming." "Slow down." "Keep coming." "Stop there." "On your knees." "Hands on your head." "I want to be left in the desert, in the wild." "I want to be taken south of the border." "I have taken a new vocation as a righteous merchant!" "Hi, Ingrid." "Hi, Lee." "Sorry, folks, I can't allow communication with the suspect." "Please step back." "Detective, do me a favor." "Can you include two things in your report?" "One, forget about flamingoes." "I see ostriches." "I see ostriches running." "And two... what ever happened to my basketball?"