" Ed." "No." " Peggy, come here." "This is..." "You're so outta line, Sheriff!" "Peggy, Peggy!" " You can't just ruin people's lives!" " Peggy, Peggy." "You come back inside." "No!" "Parade them around Main Street for something they didn't do!" "Falsely accused." "No." "Peggy." "No!" "You're not gonna prove my Ed did anything wrong." "It's unprovable!" "Heard about the fire." " You okay?" " You didn't have to come down." "Mrs. Solverson." "Ed." "I'm worried about you." "Feels like the top might just spin right off the globe these days and take you along with it." "What's that for?" "I'm just imagining you parachuting into the Mekong Delta, telling the black pajamas to leave your husband alone." "Shoulda." "Coulda saved a lotta lives if wives and mothers from both sides came and dragged their fool men home by the ear." "Anything I can do to help this mess?" "Yeah, you can take Noreen home with you." "Her place burned down with the shop and we both know she's just a kid, emancipated or not." "Noreen." "Hey, Ed." "I told 'em what you said." "Quiet now." "Both of you." "Come home soon." "We both know that's not likely." "Come on, dear." "Let's get you home and in a bath." "I'll make us some cocoa." "All right?" "She's a nice lady." "Shut up." "Time for your phone call." "Five minutes." "I was thinking about" "Elron the other day." "Before?" "His face, you know, trying to remember..." "I was 10 when they came." "Soldiers in uniform with that folded-up flag." "You were in Chicago, I think." "Mom says." "There's that picture in the hall, with you and all the kids, that winter in Bear Lake." "Everyone else in coats, but Elron's in a T-shirt, making muscles." "And what would he do now, you know?" "Now, with this." "'Cause he was the oldest, right?" "Not Dodd." "What?" "Uncle." "Charlie's on the phone." "What?" "I get it." "You don't have respect for anything." "But do you know what a whore's life is?" "Come on now." "I'm serious." "This is me looking out for you." "Some career advice." "A whore's life is five good years, five bad years, and then some half-dick sweat stain grinds you out like a cigarette." "Like a goddamn spent cigarette." "My son?" "You sent my goddamn son?" "Jesus!" "Will you cut it out!" "C'mon, Bear!" "Will somebody get him off me?" "You better stop now." "Okay." "You've been asking for it for days now, and now it's time." "Tell your man, "Walk away," and we'll see." "You're getting the belt, kid." "Strap or buckle?" "You think you're..." "Belt was dad's thing, and you're not..." "The kid said he was ready." "Said it should be family that pulls the trigger, which is true." "He's 17." "He's got a crippled arm." "Now see, I don't see that." "I see heart and will." "I see spirit." "I see Grandpa after the war." "Right, Pop?" "Grandpa, who stows away on a boat, comes to America and builds an empire." "Compared to that, what have you ever done?" "Or me?" "Arm or no arm?" "Now, you can have the strap or the buckle." "'Cause I can't have you knocking me around, not in front of the men." "Give me the buckle, you piece of shit." "That's my boy." "No!" "No!" "None of your bullshit!" "Not today." "You'll kill us all, you split this family apart!" "Now tell me what happened." "Bring back my grandson." "No excuses." "I'll call up to Winnipeg, tell 'em he's coming." "He can stay there till things cool down." "And you, while he's seeing to the boy, you take care of this butcher." "He doesn't live through the night." "Already dead, believe me." "He just doesn't know it." "This better be state-secret-level information." "They all left." "Who all?" "Dodd and Bear, and maybe half a dozen..." "Going?" "He called me a whore." "Well, darling, technically..." "It's my body." "I got every right to..." "Of course you do." "We're in full agreement, you and me." "A beautiful body and you can do what you want with it." "But right now I need you to tell me, your dad and the others, where are they headed?" "They're going to that town in Minnesota." "Where the judge..." "Luverne." "Yeah, Luverne." "And I want you to..." "You're gonna..." "Get the hell outta here." "Did I lose you there, sweetheart?" "You're gonna kill him for me." "Your dad?" "He's not..." "Ozzie was a dad." "On the TV, shit, Mr. French is more of a..." "How long ago did they leave?" "Just..." "Maybe half an hour ago." "Took a whole army, almost." "Okay, baby." "Any last message for your dad when I see him?" "Yeah." "Tell him, "Kiss my grits."" ""'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves" ""Did gyre and gimble in the wabe" ""All mimsy were the borogoves" ""And the mome raths outgrabe" ""'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" ""'Thejaws that bite The claws that catch!" ""'Beware the Jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!" "'" ""And as if in uffish thought he stood" ""The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame" ""Came whiff ling through the tulgey wood And burbled as it came!" ""One, two!" "One, two!" "And through and through" ""The vorpal blade did snicker-snack!" ""He left it dead, and with its head" ""He went galumphing back"" "I got coffee from this morning." "I could heat it up." "Please." "I'm gonna move these, okay?" "No!" "Actually, no, those are my." ". ." "No, no, put them down!" "No problem." "I just got that organized." "So, you collect these then?" "The beauty and travel mags?" "No." "Not collect." "I gotta stay up with the latest trends, you know, in my line of work." "Well, that explains the beauty mags." "Well, there's more to life than Minnesota, you know." "Do you think, uh..." "I know there's a lot of questions, but I got this seminar tomorrow." "Lifespring?" "And I gotta drive up to Sioux Falls first thing." "So..." "Um..." "Well, now, I got five dead since Saturday, including the one tonight in the burned-down butcher shop." "And your husband is currently in jail, so, I wouldn't count on getting there early." "No, I mean, that's terrible, but what can Ed..." "I mean..." "Attempted robbery and those two men at the shop..." "It wasn't a robbery, Peggy." "Those men came for your husband." "They came to kill him." "You don't know that for sure, Sheriff." "You're just trying to be dramatic." "Trying to scare me." "I assure you, I am not." "And when I say five dead," "I'm only talking about inside the city limits." "Reports are 15 more bodies, 15 more bodies, up in Fargo." "This is a turf war between the Kansas City mob and this Gerhardt family you've gotten yourself mixed up with." "Stop saying that!" "Me and Ed, we're just bystanders." "Not even." "Disconnected." "Him with the shop, and me, just trying to actualize fully, you know?" "Be the best me I can be, because these are modern times, you know?" "And a woman, well, she just doesn't have to be a wife and a mother no more." "She can be..." "There's nothing she can't be." "You're a little touched, aren't you?" "What?" "It's not that there's anything wrong with that." "Don't get me wrong." "It's just the time and place in which you're..." "Well, you know, if you mean I got dreams, then, yeah." "And maybe I don't see it all like everybody else, but I got plans." "We got plans and you can't just come in here and derail..." "Yeah, Peggy." "They tried to kill your husband." "I mean, they burned down his shop." "You think that's the end of it?" "Well, I mean, look, right?" "Ed, he really..." "He loved that place." "But life's a journey, you know?" "That's what John Hanley Sr. says." "He's the founder of Lifespring." "Life's a journey, and the one thing you don't do on a journey is stay in one place, right?" "So, maybe we'll, I don't know, go to California or..." "California... someplace." "Now that the shop's gone..." "Peggy, before you, uh, before you start making plans, you should know" "I got a forensic team coming down from the Twin Cities in the morning." "And I know it's been repaired, but we're gonna check your car for blood." "Microscopically, I mean." "Which you'd be amazed at what we can find on the atomic level these days." "No." "I mean, you can't do that, of course, without permission from the owner." "You know?" "So..." "Oh, we got permission about an hour ago." "You sold the car to Sonny Greer, didn't you?" "Earlier?" "At the body shop?" "And Sonny now is the owner on record." "And he was more than happy to." ". ." "No." "No, you can't." "That's..." "Hold on..." "Peggy." "Peggy." "I'm serious now." "Better you tell me before I get a fistful of evidence." "What happened that night when you hit Rye Gerhardt with your car?" "I'm the victim here." "Lou..." "Ed." "I mean, 'cause..." "I sat in your living room last night and gave you the chance, you and Peggy both, I gave you the chance to..." "I know, but you gotta understand." "We're just trying to..." "No, me." "I'm just trying to protect my family." "There was a cleaver in the man's head, son, which Noreen said was you." "Not to mention there's a war going on up in Fargo that you may have started when you ran over that Gerhardt boy in Peggy's car!" "You or Peggy, or both!" "This is all just so crazy." "And I can't stop thinking about that book, Noreen's book." "It's, like, stuck in my head." "What?" "What book?" "It's about this guy who, every day, he pushes this rock up this hill." "Like a boulder." "And then every night, it just rolls back down." "But he doesn't stop, you know?" "He just..." "He keeps going." "And he wakes up every day and he starts pushing." "By which, I guess I'm saying, it doesn't matter what they throw at me," "I'm gonna take care of what's mine." "And..." "These boys aren't gonna rest until you're dead, son." "Possibly Peggy, too." "I want a lawyer." "Lou, I need one." "I'm asking you for one." "Ed, that's not..." "No, I've seen the shows on TV." "No, you don't..." "I've seen the shows on TV." "Ironside and..." "This is all too important to make mistakes here." "So, get me a lawyer, a good one, and if he says, then I'll talk." "No, Sonny, they just called themselves plumbers, but what it was was a special investigative unit inside the White House..." "Hey, Karl." "Percy." "Got a customer for you." "A client, I guess you..." "Over at the station." "Ed Blumquist?" "Butcher's assistant?" "I guess he's mixed up in all the craziness." "You hear that, Sonny?" "There's a crisis at the highest level, so who do they call?" "The best lawyer in town." "Aren't you the only lawyer in town, Karl?" "Yes, but that's because I scared away all my..." "Great Caesar's ghost." "It would appear I'm a little unstable..." "You okay there, Karl?" "Want me to tell Lou you need a few hours?" "Fermez ton bouche, son." "I am sound in mind and body, and ready to run circles around the inferior minds of the Rock County Sheriff's Department." "Lou is a state cop, Karl." "Shut up, Sonny." "I will need you to drive, however." "My question for you is, how come after you hit that fella you didn't just drive to the hospital?" "Or wave down a passing motorist and ask him to call the cops?" "You say it like these things happen in a vacuum." "Like it's a test." "Check A or B." "But it's like decisions you make in a dream, you know?" "I'll tell you what, if it was me and we had to run," "I wouldn't look back." " For what?" "The dazzle?" " This house?" "This is Ed's house." "He grew up here, his mom washing his undies." "His father taking his paper to the commode." "You ask me how come I buy all these magazines?" "I'm living in a museum of the past." "Okay." "You stay here." "Sheriff?" "Go inside now, Peggy." "If you got a hiding place in the basement or the attic, go to that." "What about you?" "Go, now." "And don't come out, no matter what you hear." "Hi." "Hello." "Help you fellas with something?" "Hope so." "Ed home?" "Ed who?" "Oh." "Ed." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah, you just missed him." "A whole squad took him to the station about an hour ago." "And that's the well-guarded and impenetrable police station on Hazel Lane" "which, don't let the name fool you, is a fortress." "Or maybe he's inside and you think I'm stupid." "Son," "I could fill a steamer trunk with the amount of stupid I think you are." "But, no, that's where he went." "Yeah, that's what I thought." "Here we go." "No, Peggy, hey, hey..." "Said the butcher's down at the precinct." "Could be bullshit, take Polk and Carter." "I'll clean up here." "All clear upstairs!" "Here, kitty, kitty." "Come on, kitty." "Kitty." "Here, kitty, kitty." "Shut up." "Shut up, you fool." "Shit." "When I find you, darling, I'm gonna make you bleed." "Bitch!" "Hon." "Yeah?" "Don't leave." "Wanna talk to you about something." "Are you with us?" "When you say "us..."" "I mean the family." "All of it." "You don't get to pick and choose." "Sure, Grandma." "We all got a role to play." "You need to take my example." "Be a leader." "This is our time." "No such thing as men's work, women's work anymore." "We got just as much right to..." "Keep it running, Sonny." "I'll be back before the beer goes warm." "Greetings and salutations." "I have made the pilgrimage from the Hall of Veterans, as George Washington once forded the Delaware, steely in my resolve, prepared to battle unto my dying breath for the rights..." "Lawyer's here." "Hey, Denise." "For the rights of free men!" "Hey, Karl, Ed's in back." "Rights that were squeezed from British oppression like water from a stone!" "That all men are created equal, free from the jackboot tyranny and gulag magic tricks of nameless, faceless committees." "Hey, hope they didn't wake you." "Out of my way, tool of the state." "For I have come to comfort and counsel my client even as you seek to prison him!" "Yeah, whatever you're gonna do, you got 30 minutes." "Don't dictate terms to me, you rogue." "For the law is a light on a hill, calling to its breast all those in search of justice." "To wit, this poor, mottled wretch in front of me." "Hey, Karl." "Edward." "What a sad and fortuitous day." "You chained to that table and me..." "No, I'm not in cuffs." "Chained in thought if not action." "At the mercy of a cold and venal..." "I didn't do this thing..." "No, no, don't tell me." "The establishment has ears everywhere, even here." "Ears?" "Instead I shall simply ask, "G or NG,"" "and you, my client, will shake your head in the affirmative for the letter or letters that best describes your status." "So, I shake my head "yes"?" "Let's say, for the purposes of the cameras that are no doubt watching, that a negative shake, side to side, shall in this case be a positive affirmation." "Remember, only shake once." "G?" "Or NG?" "Well, son, rest assured, whatever your status, I shall defend you till your last breath." "I mean, my last breath." "Excuse the obvious death penalty snafu." "I'm slightly inebriated." "Still got 26 minutes." "And that, by no strange coincidence, is the amount of time it'll take me to rouse Judge Peabody from his bed and have him dismiss these unfounded charges." "No charges as of yet." "Held without charges!" "Even better." "Then I shall have to tell His Honor to boost my client from these baseless restraints you've shackled him under!" "Whoa!" "Hey, you're not driving, are you?" "My choices outside this building are none of your..." "But, no, Sonny valeted me here tonight." "But now, now I must bid you all adieu and admonish you to watch your proverbial butts, for I shall be back with the sledgehammer of justice, prepared to lay Joseph waste to these four walls, if you so much as touch a hair on my client's..." "Karl?" "The jackboots are upon us." "Deputy Bluth, I need you to lock the back door." "Do it now." "Garfield, kill the lights in back." "Denise, get on the horn to HQ." "Tell 'em we need every man available yesterday." "There's a lynching party outside." "Shouldn't call the sheriff first?" "Well, you can try, but somehow I don't think he'll answer." "If he does, tell him not to do anything heroic until reinforcements arrive." "You okay there, counselor?" "It's possible I soiled myself." "Here for my boy." "Doesn't have to get any more complicated than that." "Met you before." "At the compound." "So you know." "Already called for backup on the radio." "Nobody's coming." "No, they'll come." "State police up in Marshall or sheriff out of Nobles, 30, 40 minutes." "Maybe we got a trap set." "That's possible." "Just gonna keep coming, though." "After Wounded Knee?" "Hell, the governor may send in the National Guard." "Now, we got your son on attempted murder." "Took a shot at the local butcher." "The place burned down." "Where's that butcher now?" "No." "I know you got designs on him." "He inside?" "He's safe, guarded by armed men." "No." "No, he's not." "This kinda thing didn't work in Westerns and it's not gonna work tonight." "We got enough men and guns to hold you off till morning." "Maybe I got a trunk full of dynamite, blow my way in." "Either way, you got less than five minutes to send my Charlie out." "Who's this Charlie now?" "Karl, I'm serious, I need you to sit over there and stay out of the way." "Deputy, how we doing securing the back of the building?" "Well, I mean, I locked the door." "Well, let's barricade that, yeah?" "Shades down on all the windows." "We got any light bulbs?" "Light bulbs?" "I want you to take all the light bulbs we got, smash 'em up by the back doors and windows." "That way we can hear 'em if they try to sneak in." "Oh." "That's good thinking." "Need your help here." "I thought you had backup coming." "Closest men are outside Nobles, an hour away." "Plus, you're talking about farm boys who've never been face-to-face with a serious man before." "Whereas I stared down Chiang Kai-shek." "That, and I need someone who can talk some sense into the father." "Who better than his son's lawyer?" "Don't represent the son, though." "You do now, Karl." "Lou?" "I'm walking you out of here." "Am I released then?" "Well, let's call it that for simplicity." "Truth is, there's a lynch mob outside wanting to string you up." "What are you..." "Come on." "Stay close and be ready to run." "Sheriff, come in." "Sheriff?" "Come in." "Sheriff?" "Sheriff?" "Sheriff, there's a calamity up here." "If you're there, pick up." "Yeah, Denise." "I'm here." "Oh, Sheriff, thank God!" "There's an army of men outside." "They want Ed Blumquist and that kid from the fire." "Lou's got this plan to..." "Told me to tell you not to come till reinforcements arrive, which, sheriff's deputies are on their way from Nobles, so maybe 45 minutes, sir." "Yeah, okay." "Uh..." "Tell Lou to sit tight." "Can't have him getting killed without me." "Never hear the end of it at dinner." "Maybe they forgot we're here." "Yeah." "Gear up." "We're going in." "Hold on now." "We're allies." "Like Ho Chi Minh and the Red Chinese." "Arms in the air." "Karl Weathers." "That's my name." "I'm your son's attorney." "Don't need a lawyer." "He's going home tonight." "Send him out." "I'm done playing." "Yes, sir." "That's in the works as we..." "You mind if I..." "As your son's man," "I spoke with the constabulary at the highest level," "and they're prepared to meet your demands." "Send the boy out." "Processing him now." "But as his lawyer..." "Don't need no lawyer, I told you." "As his lawyer, I gotta advise you of something, which is this." "You're making it worse." "He's a minor, see?" "Only 17." "So, reduced sentencing applies." "Shh." "And, yes, witness puts a gun in his hand with a shot fired, but it's a miss." "You understand?" "A miss, so even if they convict him, it's attempted at best." "The maximum is 10 years, he's out in five for good behavior." "Done." "But this, you take him outta here now and he's running the rest of his life." "A wanted fugitive, shoot on sight." "But there's a way out." "Leave now, take your men, and none of this falls on the kid." "This is the deal I made." "He stays clean." "But you gotta go." "Now." "Maybe we leave Charlie, just take the butcher." "Well, now, that's a problem." "See, any movement there and they loop the kid in, make him an accomplice." "Kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, assaulting a police officer, or worse." "So, we're back to the best thing for the kid being a fast retreat on your part." "That's the clearest path of victory for you." "Think about it." "He's only 17." "Let's go." "I need to find Peggy." "Can't do that, Ed." "Not right now." "You're still in my custody." "Yeah, but what if they came to the house?" "I mean, they went to the station, what if they came to the." ". ." "Shh." "Come on." "Christ, man." "You look worse than me." "Smell better maybe." "No, don't tire yourself." "We know where he's headed." "Maybe you drive." "I'm seeing double." "I am a man of constant sorrow" "I've seen trouble all my days" "I'm talking about the camaraderie of men, kid." "That hard-to-define male bond, born in the age of the Neanderthal when men still hunted mastodon with flint and spears." "The place where he was born and raised" "For six long years, oh, I've been in trouble" "I'm saying you find that in wartime, that foxhole brotherhood." "Then when you come back, well, there's no civilian equivalent, not in peacetime." "...to help me now" "He has no friends to help him now" "So it's fare thee well to you, my old true lover" "I never expect to see you again" "You sure know a lot of words, Karl." "I'm an esquire, kid." "A barrister." "Defender of the common man, the misaccused."