"I've been trying to call here for the last two hours." "What the hell have you been doing?" "Studying for the bar exam." "Oh, you're funny." "How come you ain't answering the phone?" "The phones were out again." "The just came back on." "What kind of mood's he in?" "He's still spinning that shit-kicking stuff." "This is your Big Daddy Dix on KWOK in the Oklahoma badlands." "And here's the flip side of "Two in a Row" from Johnny Lee and Tex." "Something I'm feeling right now." "Yo, where's Geo?" "He's feeling a little under the weather." "He's drunk again, isn't he?" "Look, Dix." "I know this ain't fair." "You don't know shit." "I just sat in this fucking sweatbox all afternoon because Junior is too cheap to fix the motherfucking air conditioner." "J.W. doesn't like to be called Junior, Dix." "Hey, fuck him." "Motherfuck his whole goddamn Okie-ass family." "I'm out of here." "What am I supposed to do, Dix?" "Geo was going to cover till sunrise." "Get Rhonda to do it." "Rhonda?" "Are you crazy?" "Rhonda ain't no radio personality." "Ain't nobody out there listening to that old shit anyway." "That ain't true." "KWOK goes across the Red River into five states." "Dix!" "I'm begging you." "J.W. ain't too happy with me lately." "Slipping ad sales and all." "He's losing faith in me as a station manager." "Dix." "I can't lose this gig." "Please." "Well, boys and girls, it looks like Dix is going to be with you all through the night one more time." "And that means we're going to have to dig into Big Daddy's personal bag of your oldies but goodies." "The first one goes out to my boss, Junior Craven, and all the rest of you beer-guzzling, tobacco-chewing hillbilly dipshits out there." "Can he say that?" "He just did." "What's wrong, baby?" "Get your shit together." "We're getting the fuck out of this kiddy circus." "Are you serious?" "Do I look serious?" "God dammit, Earlene, why can't you clean up this mess?" "You want to sit on your ass and paint your goddamn toes." "I just want to look pretty for you, Witt." "You know, when you walk around here half naked like you do, trust me nobody's looking at your fucking toes!" "You have no right coming at me because you had a bad day." "A bad day?" "You think I'm having a bad day?" "We're fucking broke, Earlene." "We ain't got two nickels to rub together." "Hell, we're three payments behind on the Caddie out there." "You'll find a way." "You always do." "I got fired." "That fuck-face Otto just canned my ass." "Well, maybe he'll change his mind like he did down in Tallahassee." "Earlene how did you know Otto fired me down in Tallahassee?" "You told me." "No." "No, I didn't." "I didn't tell nobody." "You must have." "Earlene, look at me." "How did you know Otto fired me down in Tallahassee?" "How did you know!" "Don't scream at me, God dammit, I did it for you!" "You did what, Earlene?" "What did you do for me?" "Well, he said if... if I..." "If you what, Earlene?" "He said if I let him... you know... then he wouldn't fire you." "You fucked Otto?" "I'm Big Daddy Dix on 98.7 KWOK, and here's a little blast from the past." "You know, I didn't let him kiss me." "I don't want to talk about it." "What's going to happen?" "I got a guy in San Antonio..." "I mean about us?" "I don't know, Earlene." "What do you know?" "Some farmer found her." "We figure she's been here at least nine hours." "Which puts the time of death at two, give or take an hour." " Skokie." " What?" "She's got the exact same cutting pattern as the Skokie Ripper two years ago." " Have you ID'd her?" " Her name's Margaret Chinook." "She left Grand Island this morning on her way to visit her sister in Scott City." "She was driving a Mercedes." "Whose vehicle's this?" "It's registered to a Linette Wolmer from Illinois." " Did you talk to her?" " I talked to her brother." "He reported her missing three days ago." "We think she's probably the other body they found near Maywood, Nebraska yesterday morning." "You know, you head due west from Chicago on 80 you go straight through Maleen, North Platte, and then due south to Maywood." "You keep doing down 83 you end up where we're standing now?" "Yes, ma'am." "Well it looks like our boy is back and he's joyriding across America." "Exchanging vehicles at every kill." "Straight down to I-10, then east to San Antonio or west to Ozona and Fort Stockton." "You better call the Texas bureau." "Will you please shut that noise off, Bonnie." "It's giving me a splitting headache." "I used to play that song all the time when we were first dating." "That explains a lot." "It means it explains why Carl is 42 and works in a bakery." "What could possibly be the logical connection between listening to that music and working in a bakery?" "Your husband Carl listened to drug music and took God knows what." "Because of it, he ended up with banal liberal arts degree and a tiresome job in a second-rate pastry shop which he owns, but still works at 70 hours a week." "My husband, Leonard, on the other hand, only listens to classical." "He never participated in any of that proletarian bullshit and ended up with a law degree from a prestigious university and a full partnership at 32 years of age." "That's the most asinine thing I've ever heard!" "It's times like this I can't believe we're sisters." "Facts are facts, Bonnie." "What are you doing?" "Giving this guy a ride." "Are you out of your mind?" "He looks like he could use a ride." "No, he looks like he could cut our throats." "I'm not kidding." "Now, get out of here before he gets to us." "The poor guy's out in the middle of nowhere, Marcy." "Maybe his car broke down." "Look." "I am all for helping people, Bonnie, but if you want to play Good Samaritan then let's do it with someone less dangerous looking." "Yeah, and it's the only fucking thing I want bleeding." "Now get the hell out of here!" "Come on!" "Hey!" "You're late again, Lorraine." "I had to wait for Jake to give me a ride." "TV says there's some whacko out there slicing and dicing women on the highways." "Yeah, it's probably some drunk Navajo." "Now get your ass in there." "Louise is up to her elbows in chicken-fried steak." "Put it on my tab." "Evening, partner." "What can I get you?" "Just a fill-up." " Black?" " Yeah." "Keep an eye on the gimpy squaw for me, will you?" "It'll just be a second." "I got a fresh brew heating up." "Fine." "Why don't you go ahead and take care of her?" "Ah, she can wait." "Do you want to wait, miss?" "She doesn't want to wait." " Is that it?" " A can and some gasoline." "I ran out down the road." "There's a $50 deposit on the can." "That's an awful lot for a gas can, ain't it?" "Yeah, but I'm tired of losing them to these reservation rats." "Now, you want it or not?" "Tell you what." "Charge her for two gallons." "I'll loan her one of my cans." "Whatever you say, partner." "How far down the road did you run out?" "A few miles." "Betty and me will give you a lift." "Betty's your wife?" "My wife died about a year back." "Betty's the truck." "No." "No reason for you to do that." "We'll give you a lift." "Sounds like we might be in for a bad one." "It's just wind." "No rain." "How do you people know that stuff?" "Well, I heard it on the radio." "Oh." "I wish we could have kept the media out of this a little longer." "You know, it says here that the guy that discovered the body says the radio was still playing." "The battery was dead by the time we got here." "Yeah, well." "Let's hook a good one up." "I want to see what station he was listening to." "Let's see what musical taste our boy's got." "By the way, my name is Odell Parks." "Reba Twosalt." "That's a pretty name." "Where you from?" "Tahachi." "I appreciate what you did for me back there." "Where were you headed when you ran out of gas?" "Corpus Christie." "Ah, that's a ways." "What's down in Corpus?" "My grandma wants to see the Gulf of Mexico before she dies." "What is it you do, Reba?" "I'm a teacher." "Fifth grade." "That's what my wife was." "Third grade." "We couldn't have children of our own, so them kids were a real big part of her life." "The night she was killed, she was coming home from the school Christmas play." "Drunk driver." "I'm sorry." "One minute everything's just rolling along the way we had planned..." "Wham!" "It's all gone." "So, what about you?" "Is there a Mr. Twosalt in, what did you say, Tahachi?" "No." "What?" "A nice-looking woman like you?" "Probably a mess of them standing in line, though, huh?" "There's no line, Mr. Parks." "Well, there should be." "And you can call me Odell." "Mr. Parks makes me sound like a minister or a lawyer or something." "Or worse yet, a politician." "Here you go." "KWOK." "It's a small super station in Oklahoma." "It's the only thing you can get out here at night." "And one of the troopers says it's usually country, but when he went for supper tonight they had it on, and the jock started playing a mixed bag of blues and R and B." "Well, let's find out what was being programed at the time of her death." "Why?" "Do you think there's a connection?" "I mean, he might have just left it on by mistake." "Maybe." "Maybe not." "I'm back, Grandma." "I got a little tired." "That's okay." "I brought something to eat." "And Mr. Parks, here, helped me get some gas." "I'll go get the gas and put it in there for you." "He has gentle eyes." "You just won't give up, will you?" "You know, back there when you said that she wanted to see the Gulf before she died" "I thought you meant well, you know." "Maybe she should see a doctor." "She's seen one." "He said she's dying." "Seems like a real tough thing to have to handle on your own, Reba." "Is there anybody in your family who could help you?" "They all think she's crazy." "Nobody knows why she wants to do this." "I'm going to fix us something to eat, Mr..." "Odell." "It's not much, but you're welcome to share it." "I wish I could, but I have a load to fill in El Paso before ten o'clock and I'm late as it is." "I sure hate to leave you out here by yourselves." "We'll be fine." "Really." "I guess, then, I'd better be pushing off." "Here." "You keep the can." "I've got another." "It was a real pleasure, though, meeting you, Reba." "You, too." "And thanks again for everything you did." "Any time." "Hey!" "Where is this Tahachi, anyway?" "About 20 miles north of Gallup." "I go through Gallup all the time." "If I was to drop by some time and say hello how would I find you?" "Just ask someone." "Well, what about you and that little trapeze slut down in Tampa?" "That is not the same thing." "Oh, bullshit!" "How come it's never the same when a man does it?" "You know, it's just not fair." "I'm sitting here thinking how you should be down on your hands and knees thanking me 'cause of what I did for you." "You think I enjoyed laying that big greasy pig?" "I almost puked all over him." "You know, maybe if you got your fucking act together and you didn't get your ass canned from every God damn show this season, none of this would have happened." "You don't know shit, Earlene." "That's your problem." "The only reason I got canned was because I set a higher standard for myself than those other assholes." "Oh, brother, here goes the Slivers Oakley speech." "Slivers Oakley was the greatest God damn clown who ever lived." "Nobody's come close to his clowning." " Except you." " Damn straight." "That's exactly right." "He was a master of the blow-off." "Hell, he wrote the damn book on it and I studied every fucking move he ever made." "Those other assholes." "They just don't appreciate the craft anymore." "It's an art form, God dammit!" "To them, clowning is just about acting silly." "Slivers once did a one-man baseball game." "Stopped the circus." "Twenty thousand people just watched." "And laughed." "So, how come he went off and killed himself?" "I told you, God dammit!" "They went and cut out the clown solo and Ringling put him in the walkaround." "The greatest fucking clown that ever lived in the fucking walkaround!" "Nobody gives a shit anymore." "It's just about acting silly." "I'm really sorry, baby." "You got to believe me." "I only did it for you." "I swear to God." "I know." "Hey." "Remember that time in Dallas when we took all our clothes off and drove naked?" "Yeah." "You want a road willie?" " No." " Yes, you do." "All right." "Now, don't go driving off the road like you did last time." "And tell me when you're going to pop." "I don't feel like swallowing it." "I'm leaving now." "He's going to get us all fired." "I'll get that, but then I'm out of here." "God dammit, Dix!" "J.W.'s going to hang us both up by our balls." "Why care if he can't take a joke?" "This is no joke, Dix!" "Look at you!" "If the FCC knew you were doing drugs on the air, fuck, they'd shut us down!" "I won't tell if you won't tell." "You're crazy!" "You are really crazy!" "Come on, Floyd." "Lighten up a little." "Hell, Junior don't even listen to the radio." "The phones have been ringing off the hook all afternoon because of what you've been playing." "Please, do not open the talk lines." "J.W. does not like it when you open up the talk lines." "I'm back and you're listening to 98.7 KWOK in Oklahoma." "The phone's for you, Floyd." "Guy says he's the FBI." "What's your problem?" "I don't know, it just quit on me." "Well, if you've got AAA, we've got a car phone." "I can give them a call." "Listen, are you going to Abilene?" "'Cause, I don't know" "I'd rather not wait out here in the middle of nowhere." "I got family in Abilene." "They could help me if you give me a lift." "Just a second." "His car broke down and he wants a lift into Abilene." "He's got family there." "Well, he looks okay, huh?" "Well, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be stranded out here alone." "Oh, great." "Thank you." "Let me just lock up the car and get my suitcase and bag." "Thanks." "Now, aren't I glad that I talked Leonard into buying the Lexus instead of the Mercedes." "Maybe we should stay the night in Abilene ourselves." "Hi, I'm Marcy Duggan Rice and this is my sister, Bonnie." "Hi." "Alan Defaux." "I noticed you had Illinois plates." "Yeah, I'm from Chicago." "Really?" "So am I. What part?" "North shore." "Oh, we should have guessed." "Lake Forest." "My husband's law firm is in the Time-Life." "Maybe you've heard of them:" "Magnum, Loetz, Howard and Rice?" "He's the Rice." "Yeah, that rings a bell." "Yes." "They handled the Gerish case." "Largest settlement awarded in a medical suit in Chicago history." "Are you from Chicago, too, Bonnie?" "Bonnie lives in a small town in Kansas." "Garden City." "She and her husband are in the restaurant business there." "We own a bakery." "Actually, it's one of a franchise, like a Winchell's." "It's nothing like a Winchell's." "Winchell's is a donut shop." "That's what we sell." "Donuts." "And other things." "So, Alan, do you have family in Abilene?" "Yeah." "Do you?" "That's where you're headed, right?" "No, we're going on to San Antonio for our father's funeral." "Oh, I'm sorry." "I was, of course, going to fly but my older sister here refuses to set foot in a plane." "Yeah, well I'm not real keen on flying, myself." "Actually, I'm quite enjoying the drive." "It's given us a chance to catch up, hasn't it, Bonnie?" "Really?" "All we've talked about since we left Garden City is how to throw Dad's will into probate so you could challenge his new wife's claim to it." "That is not true!" "We've talked about many other things, Bonnie." "What line of work are you in, Alan?" "Psychiatry." "I never would have guessed." "You seem more the corporate type." "So, is there a Mrs. Defaux?" "No." "I used to have a gay friend who became a psychiatrist." "Do you remember Gregory, Marcy?" "For Christ's sake!" "Just because the man is a psychiatrist and not married, doesn't make him gay!" "I didn't say Alan was gay." "Well, that's what it sounded like." "You must excuse my sister, Alan." "She hasn't mastered the fine art of conversation." "I'm sorry." "I didn't mean to even imply..." "Look, I'm not gay." "Of course you're not." "Anyone can tell that just by looking at you." "Sometimes you really amaze me." "RADIO:" "Area code 405, the number is 554-6552." "And yeah, Big Daddy's with you..." "Would turn that shit down and find another station!" "Well, look what the cat dragged in." "Where you been, Odell?" "I been running the I-40 the last couple of months." "You miss me?" "Is a snake's ass close to the ground?" "What kind of cut you want tonight?" "How's the sirloin tip?" "Second-best piece of meat around here." "I'll have sirloin tip." "Rare as you can get it." "Sirloin tip!" "Just cut off the horns and wipe its ass." "How about a cold one?" "No, I'm driving all night." "Just some mud." "Coming up." "Hey, did you hear about that guy out there cutting up women?" "Yeah." "The gal on the TV said he takes their hearts out." "Man, they got some weird fuckers out there." "Well, with all the God damn toxins and shit they're putting in the water it's a wonder we ain't all crazy bastards." "Louie says he thinks it might be a trucker." "Louie's an asshole." "What are you hauling?" "I'm filling hydro here in El Paso." "Oh, man." "I hate that shit, Odell." "One wrong move and it blows your ass to Bumfuck Egypt." "That's why they give you the big money." "Yeah, well." "Money ain't everything." "So, you're off like a toupee in the wind?" "Yeah." "I'll catch you next time around." "Adios, Red." "That rig jockey's one hell of a lover, but he ain't much of a tipper." "So, who is she?" "Who's who?" "Your new woman." "Becker said he passed you coming down and you had a woman riding shotgun." "Man!" "Not much slips by you, does it?" "I was just helping her out." "That's it." "And?" "And nothing." "She ran out of gas." "I gave her a lift." "No big deal." "Was she pretty?" "Yeah." "I guess so." "Oh, that's too bad." "They don't mix well with us." "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" "I mean, every time we talk about them, it's like we're talking about somebody from." "For someone who was no big deal, she certainly got your tit in the wringer." "Well, it just burns my ass, is all." "When push comes to shove, they ain't no different than us." "All right." "I like her." "She's smart, nice to talk to and, God dammit!" "I'm lonely." "You're one of the good ones, Odell." "It breaks my heart to see you like this." "I'll tell you something, Rosalee." "Life ain't worth much if you ain't got somebody to share it with." "The bellagonna is still in your thoughts, isn't he?" "He never asked me about my leg." "Most men I meet ask me what happened to it." "Maybe he was more interested in your heart than your legs." "He'll come see you." "He's Anglo, Grandma." "When I was 16 I was sent up to a Mormon school in Utah." "There was a young bellagonna boy." "He fell in love with me." "And I fell in love with him." "I've never heard anyone speak of this before." "When my family found out they took me away from the school and I never saw him again." "But I never forgot about him, either." "So, they found me a husband." "Did you ever love my grandpa?" "Of course, I loved him." "And his memory." "As much as my heart would let me." "But not as much as you loved the bellagonna." "Mute that thing, will you?" "Now, what's the matter?" "I just got off the phone with the FBI." "When are you going to learn?" "It's probably just some joker messing with you, man." "No, believe me, it was the fucking FBI." "And they were asking me what you were playing today between noon and three." "Why?" "They didn't go into details." "It was just something about..." "They're chasing some serial killer and they thought he was listening to your show this afternoon, that's all." "No shit." " (BEEPER)" " Dammit!" "It's J.W." "You're telling me that there's no forwarding number." "No new number." "Well, fuck me very much!" "Duke doesn't live there anymore and there's no new listing of a number." "When was the last time you talked to him?" "I don't know." "Six or eight months." "How much money you got left?" "Eleven bucks, maybe." "Great." "That's 23 and change." "Well, how much money do we need to get to Vegas?" "About 150 in gas, maybe 100 for food if we drive straight through." "You now the old Laredo Highway out near Lackland?" "Yeah." "I know a place that we can make that kind of money in no time." "Doing what?" "I know exactly what you're thinking, Dix." "Please, don't do this." "Just relax, Floyd." "Don't tell me to relax!" "Listen, I just got off the phone with J.W." "He said you either shut down the phone lines now or you're fired." "Hey, you can tell Junie to kiss my black ass." "So, there's a killer on the road and he's squirming like at toad." "If you're still listening to me, you freak, give me a ring and let's chat." "Maybe I can help you out with your little problem with women." "Dammit!" "The joke's over Dix." "Where are they?" "Dix!" "Open the door!" "This is 98.7 KWOK." "I'm Dix and you're on the line." "Hi, Dix." "I'm Monty from Amarillo." "I just want to say I think this country's going to hell in a handbasket." "And why do you think that that's happening, Monty from Amarillo?" "Because there's too many people that don't belong here." "They're taking all the jobs from us true Americans." "And who's fault is that, Monty?" "Well, I guess I'd have to say it's the government's." "And I'd have to agree with you if I actually thought we had a government." "But government is just a hand puppet for big business." "And that's who really benefits from all of these people." "Please!" "No, don't." "I want to hear this." "First, you're a worker." "Then you're a consumer." "You make enough money so you can buy a TV then they..." "Open the door, Dix." "Programs so they can sell you things." "The only thing I watch on TV is sports." "Come on, Monty." "Every time a sports figure opens their mouth today it's either to take their foot out of it or to sell you something." "And if you can't afford it, they give you credit." "Nothing down, and nothing to pay for six months." "And pretty soon you realize that everyone owns a piece of you." "And you've got to have more money to keep them from tearing you apart plus, they can't afford to pay you that kind of money anymore so they go looking for someone to work cheaper." "Someone who may not be a true American like you, Monty." "I never really thought about it like that." "Yeah." "And you know what the really sad thing is, Monty?" "We've spent so much time trying to make our lives easier we forgot how to make them better." "Excuse me." "I mean, if wasn't for big business we'd still be trading beads with the Indians." "Instead of stealing their land." "Oh!" "It's the same old leftist rhetoric, Bonnie" "I mean, the poor working class against big business." "That argument really is passe." "Even for some hayseed disk jockey like this guy." "Don't you agree, Alan?" "The only thing I know about the poor working class is that" "I don't want to be one of them." "Spoken like a true capitalist." "So, what kind of psychiatry do you do, Alan?" "It's sort of a docetic approach." "Getting people in touch with their spiritual side." "Making them speak with their hearts rather than their minds." "That sounds fascinating." "Wouldn't do you any good." "Everybody knows you don't have a heart." "Very funny." "There's a rest stop up ahead." "I got to go." "Abilene can't be that far." "Can it wait?" "Excuse me a moment of crass behavior but, no, it can't." "If I don't pee, I'm going to explode." "That crack about Dad's money was a cheap shot." "It's the truth." "It's not the truth." "I just don't think it's fair, that's all." "What's not fair?" "That some white trash he meets in a bingo parlor who's 20 years younger and who doesn't have a clue about what he's put us through all those years, cashes in on what's rightfully ours." "You don't know she's white trash." "The fact is, you don't know a damn thing about her because you never took the time to find out." "Why are you always defending him?" "I mean, this is his fourth marriage for Christ's sake!" "That explains why he married their maid Lupe eight months later." "After she disappeared back to Mexico with half the furniture and all the sliver and china then he takes up with a cowgirl in some shithole town in Texas." "She wasn't a cowgirl." "She was a rodeo rider." "Yeah, and after she rode off into the sunset, then he met his bingo queen." "I can't hear you." "Sorry." "I didn't mean to frighten you." "That's okay." "Bonnie!" "Oh, God." "I look like shit." "Bonnie!" "Bonnie!" "Alan!" "Come on, guys." "If this is your idea of a joke, I'm not amused." "Shit!" "Gentlemen, let's put our hands together for a lovely lady." "Just a reminder, gentlemen, that we have a new and sexy lady, Earlene dancing for you in our VIP room." "All right, Earlene, that's enough." "Let's go." "Are you nuts, I'm making a lot of money here." "What you're doing is getting naked." "No shit." "This ain't a Wal-Mart." "Tell them I changed my mind." "Come on." "Let's go." "Come on." "Let go of me!" "What the hell you doing, pal?" "You son of a bitch!" "He may not stay down." "Let's go." "Is somebody there?" "Saw your hazards on so I stopped." "You got a problem?" "No." "Sensor light came on, I just checked it out." "You want me to call in a tow rig?" "No." "It's probably just a bug in the system." "I'll get it checked down the road somewhere." "What you hauling'?" "Hydrogen." "But look, something strange." "When I arrived there was a car sitting' just where you are now." "Now, I thought it was abandoned 'cause there wasn't anybody around." "Must have been in the women's restroom." "Yeah." "I guess you're right." "You be careful." "Winds are pretty bad up ahead." "You bet." "EARLENE: 61, 62, 63, and five." "68." "68 lousy bucks is all I could make before you barged in." "Another couple of hours and we would have had all the money we needed." "I told you to stay in the damn car." "That guy was looking right up your name and address." "That's why men go to strip clubs, to see women strip." "And maybe you forgot, but strip club is where we met." "That's different." "There you go again." "It ain't different." "They paid to see my ass, just like you did." "Well, let 'em pay to see someone else's!" "Your ass is mine now." "Alright, let's get something straight right now, Mr. Wit Roy." "My ass is not yours." "It is mine." "And I just let you enjoy it from time to time out of the kindness of my heart." "So if you got a problem with that you better stop this car and let me out right here." "Could have been a little less enthusiastic in there." "No matter what the good book says, the meek shall not inherited the earth." "I swear, sometimes you scare me." "Sometimes I scare myself." "What?" "Let me in." "DIX:" "You promise to stop buggin' me?" "Yeah." "I don't wanna fight no more, Dix." "You're right." "It's your show and you gotta do whatever you want to do." "If it ends up gettin' us all fired, so be it it." "Look here," "Junior ain't gonna fire anybody." "Hell, who in their right mind would take these jobs?" "You on the rockin' 98.7 KWOK, and we're back at the phones." "ALAN:" "You feed the lust of materialism, seducing with hours upon hours of endless temptations." "Music that arouses their desire then commercial after commercial, product after product, to be prettier, to look younger, to smell better, to find pleas..." "I don't know what the hell you talkin' about, partner." "I'm talking about the problem and the answer." "The answer to what?" "To the agony that you and the legions of Satan and the wages of your sins have spread amongst us." "Only through God can we take back our houses for He is the light that shines in the darkest of all regions." "And He is the answer." "And exactly who are we talking about taking these houses back from?" "From the darkest of hearts." "The godless whores." "Don't touch that." "Just cut this guy off." "And once we get 'em back, what are we supposed to do?" "Give them to the likes of you?" "To the great Christian guard out there in the heartland of America, the ones who spit fire and brimstone from the pulpit on Sundays and molest our children the rest of the week." "Or maybe the ones who clog our airways with that mindless religious crap while they fleece the life savings from the old and the sick." "And then end up in jail for porking their secretaries." "May God have mercy on your soul." "Even if I did believe in your God" "I still wouldn't want him lighting up anything in my life." "ALAN:" "You are gonna rot in hell, my friend." "I was born and raised in redneck Mississippi, you moronic dipshit, it couldn't be any worse than that." "This one goes out specially to my friend and all those other God-fearin', Bible-totin' brain-dead neo-Nazi sheep-humpin' rednecks out there." "The day will come when women become your problem too." "And you will beg His forgiveness." "(PHONE HANGING UP)" "That was him." "(MUSIC PLAYING)" "I feel creepy." "(DOG BARKING)" "Oh, look at you, girl." "Hello, sweetheart." "Come here." "I won't hurt ya." "Come here, sweetheart, come here." "MECHANIC:" "What you need?" "Uh, my oil sensor's come on." "But I don't see any leakage." "You want to take a look?" "Sure." "Howdy." "Your boy's out there looking at my rig." "You got any coffee, anything to eat?" "There's some still hot." "All we got is some chips and candy there in the machine." "Thanks." "You happen to know who that dog belongs to out there, real friendly little pooch?" "It ain't nobody's." "Just some stray showed up here a couple of days ago." "She looks like she could use a good meal." "If she ain't gone by tomorrow I'm gonna fetch my 12 gauge and put her out of her misery." "(DOG BARKING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "(DOG WHIMPERING)" "Hey!" "What are you doin' that for?" "For fun." "I don't think the dog's havin' any fun." "You find something wrong with my oil gasket?" "No, must be the sensor like you said." " I can fix it for you if you want." " No, I don't have time." "Do I owe you anything?" "Nah." "Here, girl." "Hey, pooch." "Come here!" "Hey!" "Come here, see what I got for you." "It's only me." "Nobody's gonna hurt you, come on." "Look at this." "Oh, you're gonna like this." "Sausage biscuit." "Come here." "(DOG WHINING)" "Come on." "Nobody's gonna hurt you." "Atta girl, come on." "Here you go." "Yes, come on." "Oh, see?" "I knew you'd like that." "Here you go, try another one." "This is mighty dog stuff." "Look at that." "Yeah." "One more, last bite, come on." "Yes." "Well, okay, that's it." "I haven't got anymore." "Okey doke." "(DOG WHINING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "No." "I can't take you with me." "I got no time for a dog." "(WHINING)" "And if I were you I'd be movin' on too." "(WHINING)" "(DOG WHINING)" "Shit." "Alright, come on." "(DOG BARKING)" "Must be out of my mind." "EFFIE:" "Have you ever seen the ocean, Reba?" "Once." "When I was eight or nine." "Your grandfather never wanted to see it." "I think it scared him." "And you're not afraid?" "A little." "But I need to drink its water to wash my heart clean of an old shame." "When I was a young girl in the Mormon schools they used to make fun of us." "They called us little oxes, dumb ones." "Because we hadn't seen anything of the other world or been anywhere." "And then one time when my Mormon mother took me to the trading post." "I saw a picture book of the Gulf of Mexico." "It had the most beautiful sand" "and water the color of the sky." "So the next time they made fun of us" "I lied and told them that I had been to the Gulf of Mexico." "I know I seem like a crazy old woman to you and the others but in my whole life it's the only lie I ever told." "And if I can see the water now" "it won't be a lie any longer." "No one thinks you're a crazy old woman, Grandma." "(MUSIC PLAYING)" "You're listening to the Dix man on all night KWOK and I'm gonna slow things down with the blues." "You think he's gonna call back?" "Don't know." "But it does give you the creeps, huh?" "I just got off the phone with the FBI." "They said if he calls back..." "You're livin' dangerous in your old age, Floyd." "I got a feelin' it's going to be my last night here." "Might as well go out with a bang." "Man." "He could really sing." "How'd you get into the radio business, Floyd?" "Actually, I wanted to be a baseball player." "So what happened?" "Oh, got married." "Had a kid the end of my senior year." "Had to get a job." "They needed a stats guy at a local sports radio station and." "I was their boy." "Were you any good as a ball player?" "I was damn good." "You know I never batted below 300 my entire life?" "Strong arm." "They used to call me the Rocket Man." "Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I kept playing ball." "I love my family, and I wouldn't change that for anything." "But, every once in a while I wonder." "You know," "where I might have ended up." "Hm." "Life's a funny thing." "I was headed where my God-given talents were takin' me and then, for some reason," "I made a turn." "Just a little one." "Just enough to change directions." "Just enough to take me someplace else." "Then I made another turn, and then another," "and then, one day," "there was no turning back." "We're a couple of sad mother fuckers, ain't we." "Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug." "That was the blues from my main man." "And you're talking with Dix." "What's on your mind?" "ALAN:" "The fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God."" "Alright." "That sounds like something from the Bible." "What's your point?" "ALAN:" "You don't believe in God." "DIX:" "I said I didn't believe in your God, the one that leads crusades, that gets a kick out of enslaving millions of Africans," "gassing' Jews and gypsies." "You know the one I'm talking about." "The one that likes to kill in the name of pro-life and ban books and hang out at Klan meetings." "You still there?" "ALAN:" "Be careful." "Your inequities have separated you from me." "Your sins have hid my face from your eyes." "Your lips speak lies." "Your tongue hath muttered perverseness like all the others who have come before me and have begged for the Lord to heal their blasphemous thoughts like yours." "Their thoughts are thoughts of outrage, trespass, greed, covetousness and the vile sin of the flesh in all its degradation." "(SIGHING)" "And I am their savior." "And I am your savior." "For I alone can reach into you and can touch your very soul." "And in return you will offer your heart up unto me." "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "And I will give you rest." "Floyd, this is fuckin' radio." "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "Hey, did you know there's some lunatic near hear killing' women along the highway?" "I ain't taking no handout from your sister." " Half-sister." " Whatever." "Well, you got a better idea?" "Yeah, maybe." "You want something to munch on?" "If you got a plan, Stan, why don't you let me in on it?" "All in good time." "Well, we are down to our last 60 bucks, I'd say the time is right as rain..." "Do you want something to eat or don't you?" "Yeah, right." "Get me a Pepsi and a bag of Fritos." "(BELL DINGING)" "Alright, grab a piece of sky, mother fucker, or I'll blow your goddamn face off," " I swear!" " What?" "Put your hands up." "Hands up, hands up!" "No hurt, no hurt!" "Please." "I'll give you anything!" "Alright, now give me all the money out of the register." "Come on, register, register!" "Anybody else here besides you?" "No." "No, just me, just me." "Alright, don't do anything stupid and nothing will happen, okay?" "Okay." "Holy shit." "Is that it?" "What?" "Do you have anymore money?" "You got a safe in here?" "You got a safe?" "Fuck." "Isn't that fucking convenient." "What the hell are you doin'?" "Damn, will you get back in the car?" "What's it look like I'm doin'?" "You're out of your goddamn mind, Wit!" "Great, now he knows my name!" "Well, it ain't gonna matter because you're gonna give him his money back!" "And you're gonna forget this whole thing every happened, right, mister?" "I'm very sure." "Yes, very sure!" "God damn it, Earlene, get back in the fucking car." "I'll send the money back to him when we get to Vegas!" "Oh wonderful!" "Now he knows my name and exactly where we're goin'!" "Get back in the fucking car!" "No!" "Now, I've done a lot of shitty things in my life but I never stole a goddamn thing from nobody!" "And I ain't gonna start now!" "Now, you give the man his money back." "Or I'm gone!" "I mean it!" "Alright, hold on, hold on!" "(BELL DINGING)" "I'm sorry." "Here." "There, there, I gave it back, you happy?" "When did you become a goddamn thief?" "The gun's not even loaded." "Well, what if he had one?" "He could have killed you with it!" "What the fuck were you thinking?" "I don't know!" "I got desperate, alright?" "I was gonna send the money back when we got on our feet." "I don't know what else to do." "You are the best damn clown since Slivers Oakley." "You make people laugh." "That's what you do." "Oh, Earlene." "But a clown ain't shit without a big top." "You just had a run of bad luck." "That's all." "Things will change!" "I love you!" "Come on." "Oh, wait for me in the car, I gotta do one thing." "Ah, listen." "Ah..." "No, no, no, I'm sorry." "I just need a Pepsi and some Fritos." "(POLICE RADIO STATIC)" "KRICH:" "I'm Krich." "This is Caloca." "CALOCA:" "Call me Cole!" "And this is Special Agent Ellen Deene." "You think it's your boy from Chicago?" "I don't know." "I'll see what you got." "(DRIPPING)" "(COUGHING)" "Who found her?" "A family on their way to Fort Worth." "The wife walked into this with her nine-year-old daughter." "The victim's purse was still here." "Name's Rice." "Chicago address." "We just talked to her husband and he said she was driving a Lexus." "Her and her sister were on their way to their father's funeral in San Antonio." "Is there any sign of the sister?" " Nope." " (PAGER BEEPING)" "I got it." "He's a skillful cutter." "Our profile says a possible physician." "Nice touch with the heart." "Kind of like some weird offering." "How do you kill like this?" "Killing's easy." "Living with it's the hard part and he seems to have mastered that." "So, how many does this make?" "Nine confirmed." "First one showed up in Chicago." "For five more." "We've had nothing for two years." "Any leads?" "Well, we had three possibles who fit the profile back then." "One's in lock-up, one's dead." "The other is Dr. Alan Robert Defaux, a psychiatrist." "He disappeared from Chicago about a week ago." "How'd you profile him?" "His named popped up when we were pulling covers on juvenile arrest sheets." "Animal mutilation." "What do you think set him off again?" "Packer called." "He's been monitoring that radio station." "A little while ago a guy calls in, a religious fanatic," "One of the lines he uses is, "And in return they offer their hearts up unto me."" "That's him." "How do you know?" "Because it's the exact same phrase that he used in the first victim's blood." "He wrote it on her kitchen wall." "He's gettin' sloppy." "Leaving IDs on the last two, calling radio stations." "Well, maybe he wants to get caught." "No." "Three of his last five victims were cut open while they were still alive." "Believe me, this guy's not dealing in guilt." "And he's not getting sloppy." "He just doesn't care." "He's feelin' lucky." "He's feelin' invincible." "He'll make a mistake." "They always do." "That's not true." "For every one we catch there's ten out there that we don't." "And I'm telling you somethin'," "I got a real bad feeling about this guy, because he's smart and he's lucky and unless his luck runs out, he's gonna slip through the cracks." "I'm tellin' you, gentlemen." "This one's gonna slip through the cracks." "DIX ON RADIO:" "Is anybody out there?" "Come on, somebody's gotta be out there in this wasteland." "Where'd you all go?" "How 'bout you, killer?" "What's the matter?" "You all talked out?" "You put all your hatred to bed for the night?" "Already curled up with your $20 leather-bound Gideon and your eight by ten glossy of Jesus." "Man, it's gettin' lonely in here." "Don't make me beg." "I know someone's out there on them highways and byways tonight." "Tell you what I'm gonna do." "I'm gonna give $50 to the person with the best story." "Make that the saddest story you've ever heard." "And I mean something sadder than my life up to this point" "(COUGHING)" "DIX:" "I'll make you 50 buckaroos richer." "So come on, light up these phone lines, you sorry-ass night owls," "I know there's gotta be someone out there listening." "Someone out there with a story that's so damn pitiful it's going to make me feel better just for listening to it." "Jumbo." "What's a jumbo?" "Jumbo the elephant was the greatest circus attraction in American history." "So what ever happened to him?" "Towards the end of the season of 1882." "Jumbo was gettin' lonely." "Elephants are weird like that." "Like humans, in a way." "He didn't get along with any of the others except for this one little dwarf elephant named Tom Thumb who was actually a she." "It didn't take long for the big fellow to lose his heart to that little lady." "Last show of the season, it was in St. Thomas," "Jumbo's trainer was walking him and Tom back from the big top on the railroad tracks" "as westbound express freight 151 came roaring into the yards and caught 'em by surprise." "Those that witnessed it said the wheels on the locomotive locked, a deafening screech of metal, a blinding shower of hot sparks the size of a man's fist." "Jumbo, racing as fast as he could, roaring like he knew the danger they were in." "Of course, little Tom couldn't keep up with her midget legs." "Just as the freight train was beginning to bear down on her she let out a frightened shriek, stopped Jumbo dead in his tracks." "He turned around, full of rage, and went back to save her." "He wrapped little Tom in his massive truck and gently moved her to safety a split second before the train slammed into him," "driving one of his mammoth tusks up through his brain." "Poor old Jumbo was still conscious, groaning in agony when they got to him." "Everyone just stared in heart-breaking silence as Jumbo gently took Tom's tiny trunk in his" "and quietly died." "That's the saddest story I ever heard." "Blowin' pretty bad, girl." "(DOG BARKING)" "Helen would have really have liked you." "That's one thing she was always after me to get:" "A dog." "So, what are we gonna call you, huh?" "What's a good name?" "How 'bout..." "Lucille." "(WHINING)" "You don't like that one, huh, girl?" "(DOG BARKING)" " Girl?" " (BARKING)" "Alright, okay." "If that's what you want," "I'll call you Girl." "(BARKING)" "But, uh, not much of a name, really." "There's a town just up ahead." "I think we should stop there for the night and get some rest." "If you're tired." "I want you to promise me something, Reba." "What's that?" "I've got some land that was left to me by my mother, up near Train Rock." "I'm giving it to you." " Grandma..." " No, just listen to me." "I want you to promise me that you'll take the money and spend it seeing as much of the world as you can." "Your blood is my blood." "And your eyes, my eyes." "I want to live in you and see some of the things I never saw." "Will you promise me this?" "Yes." "And one more thing." "Promise me the next time a man is interested, whether he's Denare or not, that you won't run and hide." "I don't run and hide, Grandma." "Yes, you do." "Tell me the truth:" "How many men have you been with?" "You know what I'm talking about." "The truth." "One." "(LAUGHING)" "Believe me, Reba, when I tell you one is not enough." "(LAUGHING)" "(COUGHING)" "(HORN HONKING)" "(TIRES SCREECHING)" "Are you okay, Grandma?" "I think so." "Nothing seems broken." "We'd better see what happened to that other car." "You stay here." "Hello?" "(GASPING)" "I'm sorry." "I didn't mean to frighten you." "I, I guess I need some help." "Is your truck still running?" "(STUTTERING) I'll see if I can start it." "(REBA GROANING)" " Come here!" " No!" "Come here!" "(BARKING)" "(TRUCK HORN BLOWING)" "Ah!" "(TIRES SCREECHING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "(SCREAMING)" "WIT:" "Get down, get down!" "(CRASHING)" "(BARKING)" "(DEBRIS FALLING)" "Reba!" "REBA:" "Just stay in the truck!" "(DOG BARKING)" "(BARKING)" "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "(BARKING)" "(CHOKING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "Shit." "Are you alright?" "Are you an angel?" "No." "Then I ain't in heaven?" "No, you were in a really bad accident." "Jesus H!" "We made it!" "Goddamn." "I love you, Wit Roy." "You saved my life." "I think I know the man that's in that truck." "Help me, please." "I got a real strong pulse here." "Be careful, honey." "There you go." "You know, for a second there, Wit," "I thought I'd died and gone to hell." "I don't think they got soul music in hell, baby." "Oh!" "(SIRENS WAILING)" "I was gonna come visit you." "I really was." "(POLICE RADIO)" " He's dead." " Who's dead?" "Our boy Defaux." "He was killed in a car wreck outside Ozona, Texas, about an hour ago, driving a Lexus." "And Bonnie Mimms' body was there." "We're gettin' all the rest of the information right now." "We got lucky." "His luck ran out." "Just ran out." "You know what they call this?" "They call it dead air." "There's nothin' goin' on." "Nothin' happening." "No moment." "No flow or movement." "No resonance." "No color." "No mood or change." "And if you listen real hard you won't hear any tone," "pulse or rhythm" "just nothin'." "That's what my life's become." "Dead air." "There was a time when I was a pretty good jock." "Big game, the big game wasn't just knockin' on my door, it was tryin' to kick the mother fucker down." "I had the whole nine yards by the buck and tail and I let it go." "I let go 'cause I didn't have the brass balls to move it on the fast lane." "And that's okay for some folks who don't need the speed, but, you know, the truth is." "I do." "Just once I want to run with the big dogs." "So," "I think it's time to say" "adios, muchachos." "And make a clean exit stage left." "In fact" "it's time to move over over" "and let" "Jimmy take over." "(MUSIC PLAYING)" "Keep swinging, Rocket Man."