"SKENSHAL:" "Everything in life is a riddle." "We each glimpse faces, places, fragments of truth." "Our lives are shaped by how we piece them together." "(CROWD CHEERING)" "Copy please." "Yeah, Mike Sullivan." "Start." "Unlikely Lad lived up to his name in the third at Boswell last night, beating 2-to-1 favorite, Danny Boy Trailing." "Stop." "New paragraph." "Hello?" "The favorite and second favorite, Achilles and Joy, quickly regained their expected positions." "Buy Rio Tinto-Zinc and sell yen." "Unlikely Lad made a remarkable comeback, passing three dogs in the final seconds of the race to win by a long nose." "Stop." "End." "Cheers, pal." "Yes!" "Up three quarters?" "Up your bum!" "Ophelia." ""Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered."" ""Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,"" ""and therefore will I forbid my tears."" " Done it yet?" " No, I'm still working on that one." "Take your time." "That nice Miss Elliot's paying for it." "That old cow." "I put in for a transfer last week to the crime desk." "She thinks because I report on greyhounds, I can't write on nothing else." "I'm going to go freelance." "What's that?" "Your front-page scoop?" "Here you are then," ""A box without hinges, key or lid, yet inside a golden treasure is hid."" "A doddle." "Don't go sticking your beak in." "Come on, spill the beans and I'll buy the sarnies." "It's an egg." "Don't you journalists read?" "It's in The Hobbit." " Two sarnies, 10 quid." " Hold on." "Double mustard on mine please, love." "I'll give you double bloody mustard." "Dwayne!" "Cowboy builders." "Oh, what a bloody mess!" "(CRASHING)" "(GROANING)" ""Dear reader, if you find this manuscript while I yet live," ""return it to me in person." ""Tell no one of its existence and you shall be well rewarded." ""If, as I hope, I am long dead," ""bring it to any publisher, your reward may be greater still." ""Yours faithfully, Charles Dickens." ""The 15th of March, 1858."" "Sadie!" "SADIE:" "Over here." "You all right, love?" "Dwayne, you pillock, I asked you to knock the wall down, not the bleeding pub." "Yeah, well, this wall is temperamental, but don't worry about it because I'll go to the yard and I'll get some timber, yeah?" "Go on then, sling your hook, both of you." "And take your bloody sandwich with you!" "Miss Merrill." "Tell me, Miss Merrill, what's a nice police press officer like you doing with a hack like this?" "My job, sir." "I'm sure Mr. Sullivan will be interested in our progress." "His only interest is in making a name for himself." " Tamron building site murder." " Who said it was murder?" "A worker falls 50 feet off a building site one day after getting death threats, what do you think?" " It's a bloody building site." " So was it an accident?" " I did not say that." " Well, was it or wasn't it?" "You get in my way one more time, and I'll make you eat your fancy newspaper, sports pages and all." "That went well." "Mike, you are the rudest reporter I've ever met." "You know how long it took me to get that interview?" "Yeah, I do know, and that's why I'd like to buy you dinner." "8:30 at Elviras, or is that out of your league?" "SADIE: "The Riddle."" "SKENSHAL:" "Written and narrated..." "SADIE: "By Charles Dickens."" "SKENSHAL:" "My name is Cedric Skenshal, and I was born in the town of Rochester, in the county of Kent, in a great dark house, which perched like a raven on the brow of a hill, frowning down on the city below." "Upon the vast oak door of the house was an ancient and fanciful knocker which gripped my childish imagination as surely as the claws of that old rook." "It showed a great fish or sea serpent curving down to swallow a rival's tail." "But all of that was years ago, and now, like my old friend the sea serpent," "I have returned to devour my rival's tail by telling a new tale of a man," "of madness and of murder." "Bloody hell!" "(TRAMP SINGING)" "SADIE:" "Oi!" "Oi!" "Fancy a sandwich?" " What kind?" " Don't you start." "Roast beef." "Beef!" "Beef!" "Dear lady, manna from heaven." "Come, cheer up, my lads" "Darling boy, what is this I hear about you looking into that tragic accident at the Tamron building site?" "So?" " Drop it." " Why?" " 50,000 reasons." "All of them pounds." " Going to put somebody else on it?" "No." "Look, you stick to writing your doggie stories." "It's what you're paid for." "So you're going to spike a perfectly good story about a guy that gets killed on a building site because his boss advertises with us?" "Pious little soul." "You spike your story, you'll keep your sports job." "Then I might let you try the TV listings, someday." "Or the obituaries." "That's a lovely view." "But you can stick it, and your obituaries, and your job." "Cheers." "I had left my humble beginnings far behind and was enjoying a new life in London writing about the great men of Parliament for the Daily Sketch." "I had a fine new home, and completed this scene of prosperity by taking to wife one Maud Abercrombie." "All went well." "At work, I busied myself in the recording of speeches on the want of thrift among the poor," "the need to extend our empire to the heathen, and the importance of the monarchy in the very fabric of our lives." "One day, while transcribing a minister's pronouncements on the need to set an example to the deserving poor by publicly flogging those who proved ungrateful to their betters," "I felt moved to inquire if the minister himself had ever experienced hunger or indeed the want of any material thing that might cause him to question the proper order of the world." "He gave me a quizzical look, but no reply." "Only when I repaired to my office did I discover I had been cashiered to the post of sub-editor as punishment for my intemperate outburst." "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" " Mike, I need a word." " Not now, Sadie, I'm working." "Sadie." "Sadie, my dear..." "You wouldn't believe that prick was junior minister of transport, would you?" "DWAYNE:" "Forsyth?" "He looks a lot older on tele, don't he?" "I'll have a large Scotch." "Tell me about Tamron." "Yuppie flats." "This job, gaffer says we have to finish early, so same amount of work but for two months less dosh, so we do an oily." "Come again?" "Olly Twist." "We ask for more." "Mickey says if they want the job finished early then we've got them by the short and curlies." "Now, a week ago, these two blokes stop him after work and tell him if the job ain't finished early, then he will be." "MIKE:" "Who were they?" "Some real hardnuts." "He told them to piss off, though." "And did they?" "Only next morning, he's lying at the bottom of the scaffold," "Humpty bloody Dumpty, with his head inside out." "Bollocks!" "I've got to go, man." " Sadie, Sadie, Sadie." "I love you." " Mike!" "Be a love, let his Lordship take the first one." "Come on." "I'm so late, it don't matter now, Sade, anyway." "It's very kind of you." " Pimlico, ta." " DRIVER:" "All right, love." "Make sure he gets in safe." " Good night, my darling Sadie." " Good night, darling." "Sleep well." " Good night." " Cheers." "Plonker, he is." "He's all right, just doesn't know when to stop drinking or talking." "Talking about talking, what did you want to say to me?" "Not now, love." "I've got this horrible lot to chuck out." "I'll call you in the morning." "All right, love." " KATE:" "Who is it?" " Kate, it's Mike." "I'm really sorry." " How did you get my home address?" " I'm a journalist, remember?" "Most journalists know how to keep an appointment." "Look, I'm really sorry." "I got the sack today." "Why?" "Elliot wanted me to drop the Tamron story because they're big advertisers." "So why didn't you?" "I don't know." "I'm just sick and tired of being pushed around, I guess." "Good for you." " Now can I come in?" " Good, but not that good." "You can buy me dinner tomorrow night instead." "Good night." "SKENSHAL:" "Some riddles aren't meant to be solved." "When I returned home, I found the house unkempt, my dinner unprepared, and my wife still in her bed." "There was, she said, no point in living when her husband neglected her, pursued other women, and would surely abandon her at the earliest opportunity." "Her mood was not improved by news of my disgrace at work." "Over the following months, her mind became ever feebler, filled with wild allegations of infidelity or abandonment." "Fearing for her sanity, I sent for her sister Alice, just 18, but of even temper and sweet nature, whom, I reasoned, might cure her sister's ill humor or, at least, assist in the running of the household." "It was to prove a very grave mistake." "SADIE ON ANSWERING MACHINE:" "Hi, Mike, sorry I was in a rush." "I've got a really great riddle for you." "Not before breakfast, Sade." "(CELL PHONE BUZZING)" "Hello." "Hello, Simon." "Missing me already?" "No?" "Elliot begging me to come back?" "I didn't think so." "Sadie what?" "She's not leaving you bloody riddles at the sports desk, too, is she?" "How?" "SADIE ON ANSWERING MACHINE:" "Best riddle of all time." "Now, could you find out if a Charles Dickens manuscript is a fake or not?" "I'll let you have a look but only if you can suss this riddle." "What sort of box is sealed with a knot and locked in the heart of a sailor?" "Call me when you get up." "I'm sorry, Mike." " The others say she was a friend of yours." " Yeah." "Willis, of all the pricks in all the world..." "Can we get down there?" "The arrival of young Alice should have been cause for celebration." "She was as bright as she was beautiful." "And her luster brought a new brilliance to our hitherto sad house." "Yes, the brighter shone this star, the worse grew my wife." "Gradually, Alice was forced to take over the running of the household, as her sister emerged less and less frequently from her bedchamber." "Aren't you supposed to be talking to the press, Miss Merrill?" " I am." " But you aren't." "A little birdie tells me that John Pilger here got the sack from The Courier." "Don't waste your time on him, love." "Just another piss-pot freelancer now." "You haven't got an editor to hide behind now, so get your arse off of my crime scene." "Any link to the body found at Limehouse yesterday?" "Or can't you think back that far?" "Junkie overdose, or is that too simple for you?" "Or maybe it was the CIA or Lee Harvey Oswald and Elvis." "Stick to the greyhounds, pal." "More on your wavelength." "What do you think it was?" "Burglary gone wrong or something?" "Pub wasn't touched." "Someone she knew?" "Sadie knew everyone." "Politicians, plod, us lot, even Ronnie White." "Shotgun Ronnie!" "Maybe he..." "No, he's retired, too busy talking about the good old days and how the villains used to look after their mothers." "Anyway, they were friends." "She called me last night." "She said something about a Charles Dickens manuscript." "You should tell Willis." "It might be important." "Tell that prick my best leads, you're joking, ain't you?" "You telling me makes me an accessory." "I could lose my job." "You want to tell him?" "Now's your chance." "Your journo mates over there told me you were very pally with the dear departed." "I'm sorry, Mr. Sullivan, good luck." " When did you last see her?" " Last night in the pub, closing time." " And you didn't think to mention it?" " You was too busy talking to listen." "Look at the state of my shoes." "Stupid cow." "Why couldn't she die at street level, like normal people?" "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" " How did you know where I live?" " I work for the police, remember?" " Where's your warrant?" " Better still, I have food." "I thought it might not be a good idea to be seen in a restaurant together." "Thanks." "Listen, if it's not convenient..." "No, no." "It's just a surprise, that's all." "Come in, come on." "It's a nice surprise." "Let me take that." "Take your coat off." "Make yourself at home." " Lots of space." " Yeah." "Lots of white space." "Yeah, you've got to start somewhere." "Tell you what, you carry on with this and I'll rustle up something to eat." "I don't imagine you're much of a Jamie Oliver anyway." "Okay." "All right." "(ANYTHING PLAYING)" "Dinner is ready." "Two minutes." "I don't think so." "(MIKE EXCLAIMS)" " You certainly can cook." " Thank you." "Makes a change for me from Sadie's dodgy pies." " How did you know her?" " From the pub." "We used to have this little competition, guessing riddles." "Dickens used to play it years ago, some kind of prehistoric pub quiz." "But Sadie was always hell bent on buying that place." " Did she?" " Yeah, she did eventually." "Anybody else would've spent a few quid tarting it up, got a younger crowd in, but not our Sadie." "She loved it just the way it was." "Sorry." "But if there's any way I can help, I will." "Well, if you're careful not to piss Willis off, you could have a ferret around." "Okay." "Well, talking of work, I'd better be getting home." "I'm covering the press office tomorrow, early." "You can always stay." "I'm better at breakfast than I am at dinner." "I might try one sometime." "Yeah." "(WATCH BEEPING)" "Bacon McMuffins." " I told you I was good at breakfast." " I'm a vegetarian." "Of course you are." "Here, try this one." "What kind of box is sealed with a knot and locked in the heart of a sailor?" "I give up." "Sadie's last riddle." "A knot as in string, a drawstring bag or sack?" "What's the other bit?" "Hello, sailor?" "No, locked in the heart of a sailor." "What does a sailor keep in his heart?" "Sea salt." "Davy Jones' locker." "Box." "Bag." "Lock." "A container?" "Container ship?" "I could ask at work." "Make sure you don't get in trouble over me." "If Willis finds out Sadie phoned me the night before she died," "I'm going to be getting a free transfer from my reporting desk to one of his cells." "What are you doing here?" "Taking a bit of a risk, aren't you?" " Why?" " Willis on the warpath." " Strict instructions not to talk to you." " Well, you're doing all right so far." "Lucky for you, Willis is a prize prat." " Pub landlady, anything to go on?" " Get togged up." "I'm not having you contaminating my dead people." "Suits you." "Sadie?" "My ignominious demotion had turned into a blessing, for it gave me time to write." "Even in this, Alice proved to be a muse." "When I came home, weary of currycombing the platitudes of politicians, she would become my scribe, writing out my sketches and observations as I spoke aloud." "But even these pleasant interludes would be interrupted, as my wife, at times quite deranged, would pall from her bedchamber, demanding attention, assuring us that she knew of some terrible wickedness which we were visiting upon her." "Indeed, upon reflection, I blame myself, for Alice proved to be all that her sister was not." "Seeking to ease her torment," "I brought her a mirror of all her imperfections." "Jesus!" "ROY:" "Arm wounds, defensive." "Repeated head wounds from blunt object." "Area and force suggest someone tall." "And then tipped into the Thames from a balcony." "No river water in her lungs, dead before she hit the river." "She must've known him to let him in." "Or else he hid and sort of sneaked up on her." "Not Sadie, she could hear the grass grow." "She'll be getting plenty of practice." "Sorry, gallows humor, goes with the job." " Life goes on, old boy." "Do you fancy lunch?" " No!" "Who's that one?" "Just a junkie we fished out of the river." "Kelly Robinson, on file as a prostitute and junkie." "Just out of custody." " She's pretty." " Pretty stoned." "Massive OD." "Suicide probably." "Was she dead before she hit the water, too?" "Not her." "Lungs full of old Father Thames." "Veins full of heroin." "Sort of team effort, bit like cricket." "I'll see you later." "Thanks." "Tom's an old friend." "He's been very helpful." "So, what did you find out?" "The suicide junkie, been arrested for possession, just small stuff." "But they get suicides and ODs every other night." " Nice way to earn a living, eh?" " Jumpers and dumpers." " What?" " Suicides." "Some of them wait till they see the police boat, thinking they might be saved, but the current gets most of them." " Dumpers?" " Just people dumping rubbish." "Tom said they stopped a boat a few days ago putting drums into the river, but it turned out to be legit, some water quality survey." "What about the riddle?" "What did PC Pugwash think about that?" "Or was he too busy trying to get you into his captain's cabin?" "His exact words," ""Tell your mate it sounds like a load of old bollocks."" " He would." "Come on." " Where?" "Hot date?" "First time, you stood me up." "Second time, it was a McMuffin." "Second time!" "Third time lucky." "So what is it?" "Dancing?" "Theater?" "It's a surprise." "(THUNDER RUMBLING)" "KATE:" "Nice surprise, bloody funeral." "MIKE:" "It won't be any normal funeral." "The full East End monty, black horses, the lot." "Shotgun Ronnie, in the flesh." "My God." "Isn't that..." "The Right Honorable Alistair Forsyth, Member of Parliament for Vodka West." "What's he doing here?" "Regular at the Blacksmiths." "He's the only transport minister to get on the tube and ask for the buffet car." "MIKE:" "Willis." " Step away." " He's already seen us." "Ladies and gents, we're here today to lay to rest the mortal remains of Sadie, a woman who touched us all in different ways." "We'll miss her." "Sadie's daughter, Veronica, has asked us to play her favorite song." "(SHARP AS A NEEDLE PLAYING)" "Mr. White, I'm Mike Sullivan." "I don't know if you remember me." "I remember you." "You were the only one who could stand her bleeding riddles." "I want to find out what happened to her." "Can't you get a living without poncing off Sadie's death?" "I'm here as a friend." "DI Willis is on the case, and he can't find his arse from his elbow." "You've got that right." "All right, son, I'll keep my ears open for you." "Sadie didn't have any enemies, you know." "Just a lot of blokes wanting to marry her over the years, but she married that bleeding pub." "What about Forsyth?" "What's he doing here?" "Sadie was very good to him." "Always around to shut him up when he was arseholed and blabbing state secrets." " And the porkpie?" " Him, I do know." "Harry the Hat." "Luckiest bastard south of the river, one of Sadie's old flames." "By the way, you were right about that Willis." "He's a right shithouse." "There's only one thing worse than a copper." " What's that?" " You'll find out." "Mr. Forsyth, Mike Sullivan." "I was a friend of Sadie's, too." "Yes, dear, dear Sadie, so unfair." "Do you know anybody that would want to hurt her?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Sullivan." "I'm too upset to speak now." "We've both lost a friend." "Bollocks." "Manna from heaven." "(EXCLAIMS)" " You dropped your pencil." " Sorry?" "It's easier to find a pencil on a beach than to enter the kingdom of heaven." "No, you keep it." "I threw it away." "Yes, that's how everything gets here, even us." "You know, this pencil could lie on the beach for 1,000 years, or float all the way to China." "I'm sure it could." "Thanks for the philosophy lesson." "Pleasure." "Could you spare a few pence?" "My usual source of sustenance seems to be indisposed." " And what might that be?" " Manna from heaven." "Cheeky bugger." "The gesture of a gentleman." "Hey!" "Excuse me." "Excuse me, sir." "When you said "manna from heaven,"" "do you mean food from up there?" "Roast beef sandwiches, fit for a king." "Who gave them to you?" "Her lady, a veritable ship's figurehead." "Sadie!" "When?" "Why, a great many questions for one small coin." "You tell me when and you'll have roast beef sandwiches for a month." "Last Wednesday, she dropped them into my hat." "Very fresh, though rather generous with the mustard." "She was a friend of mine." "What time was this?" "I'm not very good with time." "I'm better with tide." "Low tide, lunchtime, like now." "Look, this is all I've got." "Hope it'll do." "Well, throw in the pencil and you've got yourself a deal." "How do I reach you if I need to talk?" "I'm here and there." "Perhaps here is best." "SKENSHAL:" "Find my book." "What kind of box is sealed with a knot locked in the heart of a sailor?" "Come, cheer up, my lads 'tis to glory we steer" "To add something more to this glorious year" "Hearts of oak are our ships" "Song from Garrick's 1759 opera of the Battle of Quebec." "Hearts of oak are our men" "Heart of Oak referred to wooden ships and their fine sailors." "We always are ready" "So, steady, boys, steady!" "We'll fight" "Kate?" " Would you do me a favor?" " Try me." "When you said you wanted a hand, I thought you meant photocopying files." " Bloody James Bond!" " I've got you." "SKENSHAL:" "What sort of box is sealed with a knot?" "Sailors' knots." "Nothing." "Hey, look at this." "One empty box." " No hearts of oak." " And no bloody manuscript." "Come on, Sadie, where have you hidden it, love?" "Hold the table." "(MIKE READING)" "Here." "Kate!" "Swept you off your feet there, didn't I?" "Look!" "It's not the picture." "Look!" "Oak sealed with a knot!" ""The Riddle by Charles Dickens."" "To lighten Alice's burden, I undertook to bring her to the theater, and for one evening, both of us were truly happy." "But at the intermission, Alice commenced to complain of nausea." "As her condition worsened, we left the theater and hailed a carriage." "By the time the doctor arrived, her breathing had grown ever more shallow." "Without her uttering another word, the life went out of her so gently that it took the good doctor sternest entreaties to convince me that the worst had come to pass." "The doctor surmised that the exertions of caring for her sister had hastened her end, but opined that only a full post-mortem study would bear out his belief." "I would not hear of it." "Alice lay there, still warm, still perfect in form, like an angel fallen to earth." "To mar this perfection with a surgeon's knife was unthinkable." "Do you think you could get the lads to do a test on the paper and the ink, just on the QT?" "I'm sure my winning ways could work on the boys in the lab." "Hang on, I've just reached a good bit." "It'd better be Dickens." "I'm not getting ignored for a forgery, you know." "You, Mr. Sullivan, are so easy to wind up." "Mr. Roberts." "So, Mike, I had a chance to review your press inquiry." " Quite a story." " Thanks." "You've been talking to this chap who had the accident?" "Actually, he wouldn't speak to me." "I swear, if this gets out that I spoke to you, you're the one who's gonna need this crutch." "All right." "We were still on the go-slow." "Now, yesterday, a couple of heavies show up on the site and tell me to get the lads back to work PDQ." "An hour later, and it's me that's lying underneath a quarter ton of roof tiles." "See if you might inspect it, unnamed sources allege unnamed extortion for unknown motives." "It's not exactly very credible, is it?" "One man killed, another injured, not very credible." "Dangerous game, construction." "My sources tell me your company wanted the building finished early." "Why was that?" "Well, I would have thought as a journalist you'd recognize a deadline." "The sooner we finish, less we pay." "And talking of paying, we will sue anyone who makes allegations against us." "You fancy a coffee, Mike?" "(CLOCK CHIMING)" "(CRANSHAW MUTTERING)" "And there was just the one sheet?" "Yeah, it was in a box." "I bought it from a junk shop." "How splendid." "(CRANSHAW MUMBLING)" "So, if it's the real thing, do you think it'll be worth anything?" "CRANSHAW:" "Well," "(CLEARING THROAT) if it was from a draft of one of the novels, perhaps £50,000." "Unfortunately, I don't recognize the subject." "What is it?" "Well, perhaps just an idea he was working on." "Of course, if you did have more than the one page, say, the whole short story, it would be priceless." "Priceless?" "So, if it was genuine, how would we find out?" "Any author should be an easy one to match." "Looks like an early work." "So," "I would imagine Sketches by Boz, or a portfolio of Pickwick." "Do you know them?" "Well, sort of, I done Great Expectations at school." "Of course, Dickens himself started as a journalist, you know." "So how did he get his big break?" "He went from news to sketches to serializing Pickwick." "Of course, marrying the publisher's daughter helped." "Congratulations." "You're the owner of a genuine page of unpublished Dickens." "I slowly began to ascend the staircase." "Something my wife had said the previous evening, when I announced my theater engagement, had gnawed at my mind," "like the rats in the wainscot of my cold childhood home." "In my heart, I knew that the thing which had halted Alice's too good heart lay not among the fates, nor in her constitution," "but in the terrible deed of a mad woman who even then lay gibbering and cursing in our marriage bed." "What a story." "Poor old Cedric." "I've got enough trouble with real crime, let alone made up ones by Dickens." "(MUSIC PLAYING)" " Why Willis?" " Why Willis what?" "Why is a DI in charge of a hooker's suicide?" " He's not even Vice." " Drug squad." "She was a junkie." "When was the last time a DI investigated a junkie who's overdosed?" "Just don't make sense." "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" "Will you get that, babe?" "What did your last slave die of?" " It's Willis." " Stall him!" "Who is it?" "DI Willis." "Open up." " Inspector Willis?" " Yes." "Put your warrant card under the door." "You know it's me." "Now open the bloody door before I kick it in." "One." "Two." "I want the organ grinder, not the monkey." " Sullivan, down to station now." " What for?" "About the murder of Sadie Miller." "You coming or do I get to nick you?" "We traced the call from the pub to your place the night she died." "Nothing special." "Just a riddle." "What did she say?" "She said," ""A box without hinges, key or lid, yet inside a golden treasure is hid."" "And what the bloody hell does that mean?" "Nothing." "It's a riddle." " I want the tape." " Wiped it." " Destroying evidence." " No." "Not if I didn't know it was evidence." "John, will you give us a minute, please?" "I'm not going to murder him." "Look," "I think we got off on the wrong foot, Mike." "But I'm ready to give you another chance." "That's very nice of you, considering I'm innocent." "Well, a judge might not think so." "You can say ta ta to your career and your girlfriend's." "Or?" "Stay out of the pub case and the junkie's suicide, and I might not press charges." " So, what did you say?" " I said yes." "I didn't want to spend another week here as one of his suspects." " You're going to drop it?" " Am I, bollocks." "(CELL PHONE RINGING)" "Hello." "Who is this?" "He hung up." "It was a tip off." "They want to meet me on the foreshore by the pub." "Yes, darling, thanks for asking." "I am in danger of losing my job." "No darling." "Not worried at all." "SKENSHAL:" "When I confronted my wife, she confessed, silently." "She reached under her pillow and gave me a small vial with a glass dropper." "It was some tincture given to her nurse with strict instructions to take only one drop in extremis." "The bottle was empty." "As the enormity of her act brought its weight down upon her already enfeebled mind, she became a child, gibbering and crying of a hangman who stood by her bed." "For a moment, I also became that executioner, as I prepared to snuff out that sorry half-life that had robbed me of all happiness." "But, as I held the pillow above her, my anger dissolved." "Though I loathed her for her unspeakable act, it was plain." "She had long since left that bourn in which we can be judged for our actions by anyone other than God." "Then, like a lamp coming on in an empty attic, a new fear insinuated itself in my mind." "If the truth should come out, would a jury be so lenient?" "Was it not more likely they would see only the crime and hang the poor wretch or incarcerate her forever in some cell in Bedlam?" "The truth would not bring Alice back." "I resolved to ensure that Alice was buried with her secret, which I, in turn, would take to my grave." " Mike Sullivan?" " Have you got something for me, fellas?" "Fall down, for starters." "Give him the chloroform." "Stay down." "I like the first one." "Hearts of oak are our ships Hearts of oak are our men" "We always are ready" "Steady, boys, steady" "We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again" "Anchors away!" "(EXHALES)" "Where am I?" "London." "It looks like hell." "Oh, no!" "No, not Hades." "Not yet, anyway." "Manuscript." "Where is it?" "Calm yourself." "It's here." "I almost used it to fuel the fires of hell to make the tea." "But you were clinging on to it so tightly, I thought perhaps it was some sort of family heirloom." "That's a nice word, heirloom." "Heirloom!" "What happened?" "Well, your friend with the chloroform didn't like the look of my anchor." "And I didn't much care for the look of his knife, so I swapped you for his chum." "Very civilized, really." "And they sailed away on their little boat, the owl and the pussycat, with bruises." "Who were they?" " Who are you, for that matter?" " They're not very nice people." "Do you know I saw them last Wednesday stealing the river?" "As for me, well," "I don't recall, but I don't think I was a very nice person either." "You'll do for me, mate." "No biscuits, I'm afraid." " You live here?" " Yes, sometimes." "Not at high tide, far too many river rats." "Why did you help me?" "The lady in the pub was very nice to me." "I saw you get into the pub last night." "Glad you didn't call the police." "No, I'm not very keen on the constabulary." "I'm starting to think that way myself." "What was that you said, something about some fellas trying to steal the river?" "In their boat." "They were filling plastic drums, like this, full of river water." "Strange, really." "It's not very nice to drink." "It's good for tea though." "Oh, yes, now." "I've been saving something for you." "Let me see." "Here." "That's from Ophelia." "KATE:" "Wait, wait, just one second." "Roast beef?" "No, it's roasted butternut squash risotto." "(SNORING)" "(MUSIC PLAYING)" " That's him!" " Who?" "Baby Jimmy daCosta." "He's a local villain." "He got done for dog doping and fixing races." "Well, well." "Junkie Kelly and Baby Jimmy." "Too fat." " Maybe she liked fatties." " No, not him." "The locket." "Maybe they got bored of the greyhounds." "(CAMERA CLICKING)" "That's the big bastard that bashed me up by the river." "The one with the tie on is Baby Jimmy." "Finally a connection." "Junkie Kelly's Baby Jimmy's girlfriend and the others work for him." "Why beat you up?" "Apart from being a complete bastard who brings tramps home." "Don't put yourself down, darling." "Maybe Baby Jimmy's got the hump that I'm snooping into his girlfriend's death." "Then maybe it's time to hand it over to Willis." "Are you serious?" "We're finally in business." "This is like getting the first clue in the crossword." "But you're crap at crosswords." "Only because you won't stop talking and I can't concentrate." "That might be it." "Apart from yours truly, who's the only person that's been arrested recently?" " Junkie." " Six times in the last two weeks." "Maybe she was going to talk." "Maybe the police were leaning on her to grass on Jimmy." " I'll check it out." " Be careful." "I'm already on a warning for sleeping with the enemy." "I've come this far." "Anyway, it's my birthday tomorrow and just for once I'd like a date that doesn't involve McDonald's, funerals and drowning." "Think you can handle that?" "At first, I had the excuse of grief to cloak my unwillingness to dwell on the death or on my wife's affliction." "Then came a knock at the door." "Such a knock as I had not heard since the day" "Ezekial Graspett had breathed his last rattling gasp in the silence of my childhood home." "Just such a knock came to my London home that night as Alice lay cold." "I steadied my hand sufficiently to unbolt the great door, the servants having retired, and on this occasion, there was a presence." "A constable, clad in a dark cape that shimmered in the rain, stood there, saying not a word, staring at me with eyes that burned in a florid face like coals in a sea of ash." "This, I discovered by degrees, was Constable Frederick, sent to investigate Alice's untimely death." "What is it?" "I've got dead people waiting." "Could you tell if the Thames junkie injected herself or was injected?" " Very tricky." " What about the chloroform?" "If she was doped and then injected, do you think that would show up?" "Probably." "Depends on the dose." " Could you have a look again for me?" " Okay." "No one has claimed the body." "Then you better scram before Willis sees you." "Dickens." "Have you read Our Mutual Friend, about fishing dead bodies out of the river?" "No." " And what's that, a suspect or your lunch?" " Neither." "Urine samples." "I've told uniform 100 times, I just need a test tube full." "They send it by the jam jar, by the bloody bucket load." "He's taking the piss." "Now, this is more like it." "Roy said there was no chloroform found in the junkie's body." "And the bruises could have come from anywhere." "Not exactly a watertight case, is it?" "Thanks for not taking the piss." "That's it." "Taking the piss." "Roy said he only needed small samples." "What about the water?" "If you was testing it, you'd only need a small jar." " Not great big plastic drums." " Plastic drums." "The marks on her shoulders could have come from while they were holding her underwater." "But why risk drowning someone in public?" "Not if you're holding her under in the bath tub." "MIKE:" "One double, skinny latte." "I thought you said it was coffee." " That's rather good." " See." "Forgive me if I seem to be a bit slow, but when a purveyor of opium wishes to remove his concubine, why does he inject her and drown her?" "Well, with his record, somebody ODs in his apartment, Willis would twig it." "But a junkie turns up in the Thames, who cares?" "But what about your clever friend who fillets people for a living?" "Roy?" "Why's that?" "Well, wouldn't he know the difference between a body filled with Thames water and one filled with tap water?" "Well, they thought of that." "They filled the bath with the river water." "So that's why the boys were messing about on the river with the water barrels." "Look, I'll show you." "She goes back to the apartment, he greets her," ""Poor girl!" "Had a hard time at the station?" ""You're home now." "Would you like some free drugs?" ""I'll run you a bath."" "They put her in the bath." "The drugs kick in." "She struggles." "She gets her bruises while they're holding her under." "One problem." "We've got nothing to connect the heavies stealing the water to the drowning." "Perhaps we should call in and ask them." " Here they are." " Look." "And once they've gone, we'll try and get in." "Come, Watson, the game's afoot." "Wait!" "No." "Get back in here." "Get back." "Get back in here." " Hurry up, dear Watson." " Just hold still." " Will you stop with that Watson business?" " Well, make haste, my good sir." "Why?" "Do you think Baby Jimmy's in the Neighborhood Watch or something?" "But you, sir, are no sugarplum fairy." "Get back to the car and stay there." "It'll only take us five minutes, and I'll be back with you later." "Yeah." "So?" "(CLEARING THROAT)" " What?" " Pizza." "What?" " TRAMP:" "A pizza delivery." " What?" " £11.50." " Hey, Jimmy, you order a pizza?" " JIMMY:" "No, bollocks." " What you mean, bollocks?" "(TOILET FLUSHING)" "What's in it?" "Do you know I can't recollect." "It's very good." " It's half-eaten." " Oh, dear, how unfortunate." "Look, I'll tell you what, you can have it for free." "What?" "A half-eaten pizza?" "Piss off before I whack you one." "Yeah, you're quite right." "You deserve a fresh one." "I'll go and get it at once." "Family size?" "Anything your tawdry heart desires." " Jellied eel perhaps?" " Nice one." "Jimmy." "What sort of pizza do you fancy?" "SKENSHAL:" "Constable Frederick wasted but little time in examining her." "Then asked to be shown straight to her room, where he requested solitude." "For me, the seconds dragged like weeks and minutes turned to years as I waited and fretted by the fire in the drawing room." "When, after what seemed an impossible time, he had not reappeared," "I retraced my steps to Alice's chamber but found it empty." "Immediately, my heart turned to ice, and I hastened to the one room where I most dreaded his presence." "There, by my wife's bedside, holding her hand like a long lost relative, sat Constable Frederick." "One look at the dancing fire in his eyes and the cruel smile that flickered beneath them told me all I feared to know." "Immediately, and with the manner of a man conducting familiar business, the constable invited me to join him in my own drawing room." "There, over a glass of my best port, he outlined my options in the starkest of terms." "Either I could face a turn in court for attempting to conceal Alice's murder, facing the certain incarceration of my wife for that crime and the equally certain ruin of my career, or, for the consideration of £300," "I could be assured of his silence." "Such a sum, though not readily available, was not beyond my means to garner, and with my assurance that the money would be his in one week, he left, with as little emotion as if he had solved the theft of a penny loaf." "As he went," "I felt the door close, not just on my unwelcome visitor but on some better part of my old self." "(DOOR OPENS)" " Are you nuts?" " Willis seems to think so." "Mike Sullivan, you are..." "The rudest, most impossible, untalented journalist..." "Take back untalented." "The daCosta samples on the junkie's body all match." "Soap under the fingernails, hair DNA, the river water, the lot, we've got them." "SKENSHAL:" "Oftentimes, success and failure are like that brass knocker sea serpent, eagerly devouring a rival's tail, they arrive together, like Siamese twins." "In my case, the truth of my pen became my success." "But my well-intentioned lie multiplied like cholera in the streets, as I walked at night in search of inspiration or escape." "Yet, all this time, I wrote." "I wrote of what I saw around me, humorous stories of bloated merchants, addled nurses, corrupt politicians, scrivening clerks and vile lawyers, and the world recognized them and laughed." "And the more they laughed, the more they flocked to my tales." "Each year, I grew in celebrity." "Each year, I grew more secure in my finances." "And each year, the marrow of my soul shriveled and withered, hidden like a crab beneath the shell of my success." "And every year, on the same night as that first fateful knock on my door, came a visit from my nemesis." "Just as I had grown in fame, so the corrupt Constable Frederick had grown sleek and fat on my bribes, and I would wager on those of a good many like me." "Each year, he promised a final settlement of accounts, and each year he would return with a demand for more." "Big day tomorrow." "Willis is going to go ape when he hears you gave the bust to Homicide." "Well, let him." "Anyway, even the villains hate him." "Isn't that usually a compliment for a cop?" "This was real contempt." "It's like Shotgun Ronnie said at Sadie's funeral," " "Only one thing worse than a copper."" " What?" "He didn't say." "Jesus!" "It's like the riddle." "It's so bloody obvious." "No more riddles." "Willis didn't catch Baby Jimmy because he didn't want to." "What?" "Willis isn't a bad cop." "He's a bent one." " You're not saying he killed her." " No." "But I've got a bloody good idea who tipped off Baby Jimmy." "(CELL PHONE RINGING)" "Hello." "They know about Kelly." "Don't call, Jimmy's tapped." "See you in about 15, down where you sorted out that nosey journo." "Who is it?" "How's that then?" "Sir Larry Olivier would've been proud, sir." " Cheers." " Cheers." "Veronica, couple more, love." "Come along, don't dawdle." "Oi, you." "You talking to me?" "Hey, I'm talking to you." "Here we are, after you." "Jimmy, are you there?" "Jimmy?" "Jimmy, you here?" "Sorry to disappoint you, Willis." "Baby Jimmy's not here." "He's being questioned while you're out of the way." "It's nothing to do with me." "I know nothing about it." "Oh, really?" "So how did you know where Jimmy's boys roughed me up?" "Because I don't remember reporting it." "You shithouse, Sullivan, what's to stop me sorting you out right now?" "Nothing, apart from your internal crime boys in the office." "My ragged trousered mate outside with the sawn-off is waiting to blow your balls off if you as much as show your face out there without my say so." "There's nothing worse than a smart-arsed sports reporter." "You're not as smart as you think you are." "Oh, no?" "Solved daCosta, didn't I?" "Jimmy's little bath trick." "And the mystery about why you never caught anyone." "Makes it three nil, don't it?" "What are you, flaming Batman?" "You never found out who killed Sadie." "Well, enlighten me." "I'm going to get what I want because it's the only way you'll ever get what you want." "For someone who don't like riddles, you don't half talk a load of bollocks." "I've been saving for a rainy day, even keep my passport and pennies with me." "Yeah, and what do you think I'm going to do?" "Stand here and watch you waddle away into the sunset?" "No." "No." "What you're going to do, you're going to carry my bags." "Why?" "The one thing you want more than seeing me banged up is to find out who killed Sadie." "Now, if I go down, you'll never find out." "(MUSIC PLAYING)" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Yes, love, what can I get you?" "Crème de menthe and a lemonade, please." "Your lady love's arrived." "Babe, come 'round." "We're celebrating." "Hold on, hold on, everybody." "Be quiet, be quiet, it's on." "MIKE:" "Baby Jimmy." "There's that bugger that kicked me in the balls, look." "MAN:" "Look at that." "Look at that big animal." "Is he the one who smacked on Mike?" " Yeah!" " Yeah!" "Well, here's to success." "And here's to the bastard who let Willis walk." "MAN 1:" "He deserved that, mate." "MAN 2:" "All right, Mike?" "MIKE:" "Kate!" " Kate, I can explain." " There's no need." "Where did you say you were going again?" "Do me a favor, Michael, you don't think I just floated down the Thames on a banana boat, do you?" "You said we were in this together." "Willis was the only one that could tell me who killed Sadie." "It was just a trade off." "All right then, now it's time for you to stick to your side of the bargain." "Carry your own bleeding bags." "You'll never make a porter with that attitude, and you're looking for a big tip also?" "He was an accessory to murder and you let him get away." "Who killed Sadie?" "Forsyth." "The MP?" "City airport, boys." "Chop, chop." "Now, like you said, "Carry your own bleeding bags."" "It wasn't an easy decision." "Well, this is." "Goodbye, Mike." "Kate, come on, love!" "Let's have another pint." "Shall we?" "No, no, no, no, it's time I got home." "You know, I don't mind the odd night in a bed, but it's always good to get back to a nice wet cave." "SKENSHAL:" "At last came blessed relief, as the black knight of death finally carried off my wife without her ever, for one moment, regaining control of her so damaged faculties." "Then it seemed for a second that the pall of my misery was lifted." "For surely, with the cause of my secrecy gone, not even the bloated leech that had fed on me, so well and so long, would be able to continue his feasting." "In latter years, to pre-empt his suspicious visits to my home," "I would arrange with a local publican, a shrewd man who knew how to close his mouth for a shilling and keep it closed, to have access to his silent hostelry in the hours of darkness." "He assumed I knew that this was for some furtive carnal assignation that did not befit a celebrated writer, and I did not disabuse him of such an agreeable illusion." "The real meeting was always more loathsome." "I must be the invisible woman." "She's seen everyone apart from me." "I don't think anybody would think that, love." "Allow me." "Veronica, you got a minute, love?" "VERONICA:" "What can I get you?" "Dry white wine, please, and whatever the gentleman's having." "No, I'm fine." "You don't have to do that." "Oh, no, I insist." "I saw what happened to the last one you bought someone, not very fair." "Just a misunderstanding, that was all." "Well, I promise not to drown you, if you accept." "Go on, then, I'll have the usual." "Thanks." "Would you like a seat?" "Thank you." "So, what are you reading?" "It looks interesting." "Just an old manuscript, that's all." "I never find time to read these days." " Busy at work?" " Just a secretary." " You?" " Journalist." "Really?" "That must be interesting." "Well, it has been the last couple of weeks, I must admit." "So, Mike Sullivan." "You are?" "Margot." "So, what shall we drink to, absent friends?" "What about new friends?" " Cheers." " Cheers." "I was walking, right, and the bullets start flying all around me, I'm thinking, "Mikey boy," "(SEX PLAYING)" ""now you're really in it." "Now you've got some problems."" " They were..." " Whoops." "Be a darling, would you?" "If I go down there, I might not get up again." "I've got a cab outside." "If you finish your drink, I can give you a lift." "Sweet dreams." "SKENSHAL:" "Give me back my book." "MIKE:" "You're Charles Dickens." "What's in a name?" "Why are you following me?" "I think you'll find you followed me." "How could I do that?" "You're dead." "Not very good with funerals, are you?" "Why did you kill Sadie?" "You've been reading too many books." "(CRAZY PLAYING)" "KATE:" "Mike, darling, are you awake?" "Listen, I'm really sorry about the drink..." "Mike?" "All I remember is I was in the pub with Miss Gorgeous, then whammo, wake up with lipstick all over me chopper," "and a goodbye note from Kate." "Well, it must have seemed a little untoward, but you told her you were drugged." "What, a passing nympho drugs me, covered me from head to toe in love bites, and nicked me notes?" " I don't think so." " The idea is a bit of a stretch, I admit, but..." " What?" " It's true." "I just want her back." "You, sir, must win her back." "You must show her that the harpy was after your notes, not your crown jewels." "I had this awful dream last night about Dickens and some funeral." "What did I miss at Sadie's?" "Retrace your steps." "That's what I do." "She had an old flame who had a pub in the East End." "Henry the Hood." "MIKE:" "Harry the Hat." "The famous hat." "Sadie looks great." "She wouldn't marry me." "I thought it was 'cause I was skint." "I stopped backing the horses, started to save, 20 large." "She still said no?" "It wasn't about the readies." "She could see I was well gutted." "So she told me about this place in South East London, said I should buy it." "What?" "A pub?" "Consolation prize." "Grim old shithole, in the arse end of Greenwich." "I thought she was taking the piss." "Why was she so keen?" "Wouldn't say." "Just told me to trust her and put every penny I've got into it." "Three weeks after I bought the place, they started building the Millennium Dome next door." ""The Department of Transport today ended weeks of speculation" ""by naming Greenwich as the location for the dome," ""the country's flagship building project."" "Property prices went through the roof." "Did you ever ask her how she knew all this?" "'Course I bloody did." "She told me to keep it under me hat." ""The announcement was made" ""by Junior Minister for Transport, Mr. Alistair Forsyth, MP."" "Mr. Sullivan." "I'm going to give you a few minutes." "I have to get back to the House for question time." "Question one." "What's a drunk junior minister doing blabbing to a pub landlady about the new site for the Millennium Dome, three weeks before it became public?" "That's nonsense, and if you print it, I'll sue you from here to eternity." "Will you?" "Or will you have me bumped off like all the others?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "I suppose you've never heard of Tamron, either?" "That's right." "The firm that built half the new East End." "The construction firm you had 20,000 shares in." "I sold them years ago." "Give me a bit of credit, Mr. Forsyth." "You sold them to your wife, didn't you?" "And when they started getting government contracts, the shares tripled in value." "Is that why you killed Sadie?" "Was she going to talk?" "(SCREAMING)" "Sadie Miller was my friend." "Prove it." "Who killed her?" "The pub, Mr. Sullivan." "The pub killed her." "What does that mean?" "Tell me, Mr. Sullivan, have you never done anything you regretted?" "I would arrive at 2:00 in the morning, let myself in to the silent public house and proceed to count out on a table" "the hundreds of pounds destined for the constable's ample pockets." "He would arrive at half past the hour and count his money noisily and laboriously, more to savor my torment than in the expectation of short change." "Each year, he would inquire of the health of my wife like an old family friend, and each year, I would answer that she was much the same." "But this year, oh, joy of joys," "I told him as he thumbed and slavered over my banknotes that she was no more, and from that time forth, my payments to him were at an end." "He paused for the briefest of moments, as if I had made him stumble in his counting." "Then he recommenced with his sordid thumbing, saying as he did so that if I failed to pay up, he had enough evidence to put me in the dock for Alice's murder, and that the death of my wife was of no consequence." "ROBERTS:" "The union go-slow must not be allowed to delay the project." "Failure to meet the new deadline is not an option." "Fix it." "SADIE:" "Despite your increased offer, I have no intentions of selling my pub." "It is not for sale now or in the future." "Yours sincerely, Sadie Miller." "ROBERTS:" "Tamron has now purchased the adjoining properties to your pub and have offered you a very full price." "In order to reach agreement, I am authorized to increase our bid." "This will be our final offer." "(THUDDING)" "Don't do that unless you want to go to prison." "I'm calling the police." "Five to 10, Holloway, accessory to murder." "Murder?" "What murder?" "I got you drunk and made you look like a git in front of your girlfriend, that's all." "Didn't he tell you?" "Remember the pub where you spiked my drinks?" "Landlady got her head smashed in because she wouldn't sell to your boss." "They've got those ankle bracelets in Holloway, nice big heavy ones." " Fine." " That's better." "Now, what did Tamron want with a cheesy pub in Limehouse?" "Well, they own virtually everything on that stretch of the river." "They started buying it up on the QT about two months ago." " Why?" " Search me." "They've been paying way over the odds." "Your friend was about the only one who didn't bite their hand off to accept." "What about the steward that got killed on the building site?" "I don't know." "All I know is that Roberts started pushing them to speed up about the same time as they started buying up Limehouse." "Thank you, Margot." "You've been very revealing." "Not half as revealing as you were." "And the name's Tiffany, actually." "Well, whatever your name is, you're going to do one more thing for me." "Yeah?" "Are you going to make me?" "(PHONE RINGING)" " KATE:" "Press office." " Kate, don't hang up." "I've got somebody here who wants to talk to you." "KATE:" "Hello?" "KATE:" "Hello?" "That's an "L." Not very promising." "Is that why you're 50 points ahead, darling?" "I just think of you." "Weasel." "On a double word score." "I was the victim." "Margot told you that." "Poor lamb." "Miserable cow was only out to save her own skin." "Anyway, I thought you said her name was Tiffany." "What's in a name?" "An "R."" "That spells Cedric." "What about "R" for Roberts?" "You going to the police or are you going to let him go, too?" "What are you doing, you cheat?" "What's in a name?" "MIKE:" "Charles Dickens." "It's me, the man with the page." "It's also in the middle of the bloody night!" "Only it wasn't a page." "It was the whole novel." "And that's the story." "It's remarkable." "Come here." "There, there, there, there." "Beautiful, isn't she?" " Who is she?" " It's Mary Hogarth." "She's the younger sister of Dickens' wife." "She came to live with them, in this house, just after they were married." "Alice." "She died very young." "Dickens never really recovered." "I have a letter of his, years later, asking to be buried in the same grave as her." "That's odd." "Well, when she died, he kept her clothes." "Used to spread them out on the bed in the shape of a person." "You said the book could answer our question." "Yeah." "You see, Dickens wrote nearly every day of his life except for one particular period when he stopped." "It was the six months after Mary Hogarth's death." "How did she die?" "Heart failure, after a night at the theater with Charles Dickens." "Tiffany, hurry up, you're late." "She won't be coming." "She got a promotion." "She works for me now." "Well, I'd hardly call that a step up." "Don't worry about it, I'm good at shorthand." "So, where do you want to start?" "A letter to Sadie Miller, trying to buy her out, or maybe a threatening letter to your site manager at Docklands telling him to finish the building early?" "Tiffany, as you've probably realized, is an airhead." "Those letters prove nothing." "So I wanted to buy a pub, doesn't make me a criminal." "It's called good business." "And what's it called when you do business based on inside information from a government minister?" "Poor old Forsyth, lovely bloke, but loves a drink." "Shame he's in no shape to comment, isn't it?" "It's funny, people have a habit of expiring around you." "I'm just misunderstood." "Still, I could use a good PR like you, on retainer, say, 100 grand?" "100 grand." "The last time someone made me an offer like that, she had a view just like yours." "Take a good look." "If I was to take you up on your offer," "I'd want to know everything that's been going on." "My pleasure." "But if you change your mind, I'll deny everything." "Your word against mine." "Obviously." "See that?" "Lovely isn't it?" "That's prime real estate." "Now, imagine if it was cheap land, and imagine if someone wanted to build the Olympic Village right on top of it." "And imagine if you had a drunken minister telling his mates the location before it was announced." "Your mate Sadie had been listening to Forsyth's drunken ramblings for years." "She could've made a killing." "Is that what you was doing, Mr. Roberts?" "Making a killing." "It was unfortunate." "It was an accident." "And if I was to take you up on your offer, that's what I'd end up as, wouldn't I?" "Your next accident." "You print one word based on a conversation that never happened and I will destroy you in court." "Well, we're being watched." " Did you get it?" " Every word." " Let's get this back to the boys." " Come on." "Why the hell did you drag me down here?" "I told you I want the book." "So let's go to the office and talk." "Dickens' old manor, very appropriate." "So what do you want?" "Your job back?" "That promotion to the crime desk?" "Just think about it, Roberta, the only publisher in the world able to serialize the new Dickens novel." "Think of all those sales, that lovely money." "One million." "But I want exclusive rights." "And I want you to print that you'll never interfere with the editorial judgment of your journalists again." " Front page." " Oh, no, no, no, no, no." "Not for a million novels." "Forget it." "Pity." "One man's loss..." "I told my friend over there he could have the book if you didn't want it." "Who the hell is that weirdo?" "The Riddle by Charles Dickens." "Chapter, the first." " Page one." " Christ almighty." "Page two." " ELLIOT:" "Stop him!" " Page three." "Chapter, the second." "All right." "All right." "It's nice doing business with you." " MIKE:" "Funny though." " What?" "Somebody that publishes a million newspapers a day doesn't grasp the concept of a photocopy." "All's well that ends well, eh?" "Dwayne!" "What happened to the injuries?" "He made a remarkable recovery." "Wonderful health plan our company provides." "MIKE:" "You bastard." "Now, now." "That's no way to speak to a cripple." "Right, you lot, down on your knees." "You, too, Steptoe." "Join your friends." "Would somebody mind telling me what is going on?" "Mr. Roberts." "Tamron construction." "Tamron?" "Do you know who I am?" "Of course I do." "We spoke on the phone, remember?" "You were kind enough to sack a nosey journalist in return for a promise of more ad money." "Only problem is, the journalist stayed nosey." "Now down!" "This will make it..." "You're going to shoot me anyway, so I'm gonna have my say." "What do you think this is, fucking Columbo?" "Dwayne, finish him." "Yeah, go on, Dwayne." "I bet he got you to do all the finishing." " And your mate Mickey, as well..." " Shut up!" "That was an accident." "And Sadie?" "Was she an accident, too?" "All she had to do was sign a bit of paper." "But she wouldn't." "Not our Sadie." "Shoot him." "SKENSHAL:" "What's in a name?" "TRAMP:" "Bill?" "Bill Sikes." "It's me." ""Just flesh and blood, Bill," ""but, oh, such flesh." ""And so much blood."" "Shut up, you nutter." ""The sun, the bright sun," ""burst over the crowded city" ""in clear and radiant glory." ""Through costly colored glass and paper-mended window," ""it shed its equal ray." ""It lighted up the room" ""where the murdered woman lay." "It did." ""He tried to shut it out," ""but it would stream in." ""If the sight had been a ghastly one in the dull morning," ""what was it now" ""in all that brilliant light?"" "The end." "Dwayne, what are you doing?" "So much blood." "Fuck!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "No!" "(GUN FIRING)" "Come on." "Dwayne, what are you doing?" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "Dwayne!" "No!" "On second thoughts, no deal." "Hey." "Who are you?" "I think this is yours," "Mr. Dickens." "The deed that followed, though it took not a minute, had been 30 years in my mind." "I lifted a wall ornament, a small rusting anchor from a long drowned ship, walked silently up behind my tormentor" "and with blow after blow to his skull snuffed out his miserable life." "So much blood." "Opening the window, I saw that the Thames was in full tide below." "I tossed his carcass into the flood." "Three weeks later, after his bloated body had drifted many times up and down the river with the eddying tide, as if on one final patrol of his earthly domain," "he was discovered and recognized by his clothing." "The coroner, faced with decaying carrion, recorded an open verdict, and the case was no sooner open than, like the slamming of that old oak door," "it was shut." "Forever." "DICKENS: "Dear reader, if you find this manuscript while I yet live," ""return it to me in person." ""Tell no one of its existence and you shall be well rewarded." ""If, as I hope, I am long dead," ""bring it to any publisher, and your reward may be greater still." ""Yours faithfully, Charles Dickens." ""The 15th of March, 1858.""