LITTLE TOKYO STREETS

(MID-AFTERNOON CITY BUSTLE)

MUSIC: POP/ROCK MUSIC

JIMMY
Whoof. Forgot how crazy hot it still is out here. Like hitting a brick wall walking out into this.

ROBIN
News said there’s a storm might hit tomorrow. Big one, apparently. Something called a “North American monsoon.” Could finally break the heat.

JIMMY
In July? That’s crazy. Never rains in July. Still… here’s hoping. Union Station’s not far, I think. We can catch the red line to Studio City. Go back through the White Bluff files… maybe find something we missed.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS

ROBIN
Sounds as good a plan as any. So… Eleanor…

JIMMY
Yeah, she’s… wow, I don’t know how to describe her. Really, we just met a few days ago, but…

ROBIN
(DISAPPOINTED)
I… see. Well… she clearly has a thing for you, too.

JIMMY
What? Really? You think?

ROBIN
Saving the day’s more than professional courtesy.

JIMMY
Yeah. Hey, Robin, this isn’t… I mean we’re not…

ROBIN
No, no. I get it. I just thought maybe…

JIMMY
Robin, last night was… well…

ROBIN
You and I have… history. Some pretty intense history. Water under the bridge, I thought, but this time…

JIMMY
(LIGHTLY)
This time you show up at my doorstep pointing a gun at me. I think that pretty much maxes the intensity level.

ROBIN
Hah. Okay… You… you said before how much changed for you this past year, and… a lot changed for me, too. Not the superficial stuff, what we talked about last night. More… I’ve… lost some… things.

JIMMY
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be… What lost?

ROBIN
I… I need to tell you something. I wasn’t… totally honest when I came to see you, that first night. I don’t mean anything important, not about… all this.

JIMMY
What do you mean?

ROBIN
I said… the person who called me back at the start said it’d be in my father’s interests for me to look into this. Then you said if they really wanted me to do what they said, they wouldn’t have gone that angle.

JIMMY
Right, so we figured maybe it was a blackmail thing.

ROBIN
We got into the whole… investigation, whatever this is. You didn’t ask more about it, so I let it drop. Truth is… I haven’t spoken to my father in more than a year. And I… I don’t think that’s going to change.

JIMMY
Whoa. I… I didn’t know that. Is it because of…?

ROBIN
It’s not about you. That’s actually what… what I was trying to tell you last year. When you went out to Las Vegas. You left a message, middle of the night. And I thought… I could really use someone to talk to. But when I called you back, started to tell you what was going on, you got mad, started berating me about being “Daddy’s little girl,” and I couldn’t… I couldn’t…

JIMMY
I am so sorry. I had no idea.

ROBIN
It’s okay. I probably wasn’t expressing myself clearly. And you assumed I was… well, it doesn’t matter.

JIMMY
No, it does matter. I was so wrapped up in my own… drama I didn’t even listen. Still adjusting to being a basic human being at that point, after all that time… by myself. Isolated. Spending my time online, to the point I didn’t know how to interact with other people.

ROBIN
Well, it’s done now.

JIMMY
So… what did happen? If you don’t mind my asking.

ROBIN
No, I brought it up. It wasn’t one big moment, it was… gradual. I mean, there’s the politics, and seeing as that’s literally what he does for a living, not like we could ignore it. But it’s… family. You avoid certain topics, dance around. Put the blinders on to get along. Honestly, him being mad about you I got.

JIMMY
Gee, thanks.

ROBIN
You know what I mean. That’s him being protective. Paternal. But… it was a bunch of little things, over time. Calls. People he was meeting. Little hints in things he’d say. I don’t mean “coded language” things, though there was a lot of that, but more… sinister. For the longest time I… ignored it. Rationalized it. Because if that’s who he was, what did that make me?

JIMMY
No, you can’t… you can’t think that way.

ROBIN
Finally I couldn’t ignore it any more. It wasn’t that we were different, or we disagreed, but he was really… horrifying, I guess is the best way to put it. Involved in something… awful. And I… couldn’t be part of that. That’s when I bought that gun. I wasn’t sure if the stuff he was into would come back on me, or even what he might do if he got… possessive.

JIMMY
Wow. I really am sorry.

ROBIN
Anyway, I don’t know why I said I got pulled into this because of him. Guess maybe I thought that’s something you’d understand. And if I told you what they really said… you’d get the wrong idea. Or the right idea…

JIMMY
What… what did they really say?

ROBIN
They said… it would be in your interests for me to look into this. If I didn’t, you would be in danger. Real danger. They did mention Wiktoria Sałkiewicz — that was true. I just didn’t… want you to get hurt.

JIMMY
I see.

ROBIN
Yeah, only once David Turner got killed, and the others started disappearing, I started to wonder if it was all some kind of sick joke. Hence… showing up at your doorstep unannounced. With, you know, the gun. Sorry.

JIMMY
Water under the bridge, like you said.

ROBIN
Only… this has been just a roller coaster…
(SHIFTING GEARS)
Look, what say we just concentrate on today’s problem. Deal with the rest… later. What are we still missing?

JIMMY
Okay… Sorry… neurons firing a bit slow. Painkillers are kicking in. Or the heat’s getting to me. So… awful as that experience was, we now know the what, where and how: Faking property values in Boyle Heights using the Assessor, this Santoro guy, as their tool for doing it. We’ve got the proof, been there and seen for ourselves. But we don’t know the who or the why.

ROBIN
We know Parker Wells is involved, because of the alias.

JIMMY
We suspect he is. If we can confirm the other names are aliases, we’ve got something to work with. Don’t need to have it all locked down, but enough so the cops or whoever can take it home. Well, not cops, since the guy who made my hand a pretzel is one of them — even if we managed to find a clean cop, Malone might intercept anything we bring them. Assuming he’s not… out of the picture after Eleanor ran him over, which… I wouldn’t count on. Not that lucky. Anyway, not a chance cops’ll go after one of their own. So… DA’s office, maybe? The fact there’s flat-out murder involved probably makes it appealing, so long as we paint a clear enough picture. Don’t suppose you know anyone there, do you?

ROBIN
Not personally, no, I don’t think.

JIMMY
Okay… while we figure things out, maybe we also do some research, find out who to bring this to.

ROBIN
Someone we can trust.

JIMMY
Or who has a common interest in bringing it to light. Ambition might be more useful than trust.
(BEAT)
Wow, Union Station’s way farther than I thought. Remind me not to offer to walk in ninety-degree heat again.

ROBIN
They’ve been trying to put a station in Little Tokyo here, got a location and everything. Just haven’t been able to work out a deal with the current owner. There’s talk of using eminent domain if they can’t work it out.

JIMMY
“Eminent domain”? That sounds… familiar. What’s that?

ROBIN
Where they seize property for public works projects.

JIMMY
Oh, right. I remember now, at least… vaguely. Just thought it was something the federal government did. For highways and stuff. Didn’t think about it being local, city. They do that a lot?

ROBIN
Sometimes. That whole Yoshino Crossing complex a couple blocks over was started with land seized by eminent domain, to revitalize Little Tokyo.

JIMMY
Guess it sucks to be the owner when the government can just come in and take your land whenever they need it.

ROBIN
Well, they still have to pay you fair market value for it. Might not be what you could get if you —

JIMMY
Wait a second, wait a second… Holy… Eleanor said something earlier, about them tearing down the Sixth Street Viaduct, the bridge…

ROBIN
You didn’t know? Yeah, flaws in the concrete. Have to take it all down or it’ll collapse with the next big quake. There’s some competition to design the new bridge to replace it. Gonna be huge, apparently. Not just expanding the old bridge, but adding parks, public spaces, the works. Biggest civil engineering project since they built the Stack back in the fifties.

JIMMY
Do they have a finished plan picked out yet?

ROBIN
Don’t think so. Not like I’ve been following it. Just something I heard about a couple months back. Think they’re supposed to have an announcement out this fall.

JIMMY
Work with me here. If they announced this… design competition a few months ago, then they’ve known about the problem a while, right? So… they’d probably also know how much space the new bridge and everything around it’ll take up, at least roughly? Or someone with inside knowledge would. Someone like Glen Chambers.

ROBIN
The real estate guy who was meeting with Joe Santoro.

JIMMY
And who’s working with Kreitzer, on his Seventh Street Bridge project. Kreitzer did say Chambers had contacts in city government…

ROBIN
So… they buy property that’ll benefit once the new bridge is built. Like buying land near a future highway exit. Once it’s in place, you get all that business.

JIMMY
Except that’s not what they’re doing. Think where that cold storage place was. Pretty much right in the path of where any new bridge’d have to be. They’re buying land that’ll be worthless once the bridge is built.

ROBIN
What? Why the hell would they do that?

JIMMY
Because it’s all land the city’ll have to seize to actually build the damn thing.

ROBIN
What? Best case, it’s a wash. You spend the money to buy it, you get back the value… Oh my god.

JIMMY
Exactly. They get back fair market value. Which, thanks to faked property assessments, is now — officially, in the city’s own figures — ten times what they paid.

ROBIN
But won’t somebody…? Someone would find out, right?

JIMMY
Who? The LA County Assessor, Santoro, is in charge of giving the city the info on the land’s value. The numbers they use to negotiate. And in the end, it all gets demolished, built over. They just need to hold out until the evidence is all buried under a shiny new bridge span and fancy green spaces.

ROBIN
They’ll make millions…

JIMMY
Millions they’re clearly willing to kill to protect. They can’t afford anyone getting even a whiff of this, or the whole house of cards comes crashing down.

ROBIN
So what about… what about Kreitzer? Is he part of it?

JIMMY
I don’t know. Way too much to be coincidence, so he’s got to be part of it somehow. But what part? Way he talked about his plans for the Seventh Street Bridge… Reading people’s a big part of what I do. And I’ve gotten better the past couple years. He seemed genuine.

ROBIN
So you think he doesn’t know?

JIMMY
Could be they’re just using his money. Maybe Chambers is using the project as a smokescreen, to justify the land purchases. Make Kreitzer think it’s about that.

ROBIN
Jimmy… he may be sincere about fixing up the Seventh Street Bridge and still know about this. Maybe use the proceeds to fund it. It doesn’t prove he’s innocent.

JIMMY
And I already know he’s got other schemes going on. That’s what Eleanor and I were working on for him.
(EXCITED)
Still, hot damn! We cracked it!

SOUND: EMBRACING, CLOTHING RUSTLING

ROBIN
Jimmy… um… stop.

JIMMY
What? I thought we were… I mean, did I totally…?

ROBIN
No, you didn’t… misread anything, I just… I had some time to think while you were getting patched up. This… isn’t going to work. Us, I mean.

JIMMY
What? I thought we were… you know. Robin, I —

ROBIN
No, Jimmy. The past few days we’ve been… living in a bubble. It’s been terrifying, exciting… mostly terrifying. But really, I just want it to be done.

JIMMY
So do I!

ROBIN
But you really don’t. I don’t mean you don’t want to help, get to the bottom of this. I know you do. But then… you’ll go off to the next crisis, or whatever. This thing you’re doing with Kreitzer, or finding out about your friend Will. Then there’s… Eleanor.

JIMMY
What are you talking about? I barely know her.

ROBIN
I think you know her well enough. But that’s not the point. You don’t want me. Not really. I think you want me to want you, but that’s not remotely the same thing. Like you said back when this all started, I know you. You’ll never take the safe choice over the risky one. I knew that rationally… but today it hit me for sure.

JIMMY
That’s not true! Not at all. I just…
(RESIGNEDLY)
Wow… You… you really do know how to sum up a man’s whole life in one sentence. Robin, I don’t know how I —

SOUND: CELL PHONE RINGING

JIMMY
Damn. I’m… sorry, I have to get this… It’s Margaret Florian, runs the poker game I told you about… Dammit, can’t… Hard to do this with one good hand…

SOUND: CELL PHONE PICKUP

JIMMY
Margaret? How are you doing?

MARGARET
(FILTERED, ON PHONE)
Quite well, Mr. Harmon. I have you as tentative for our game tomorrow evening. Will you be able to attend?

JIMMY
Wow, tomorrow’s Thursday already? Um… I really did have a fantastic time, but I’ve got… a lot going on. I don’t think I’m up for… Wait… You know what? Scratch that. I will absolutely come.

ROBIN
What?

MARGARET
Excellent. We’re at the Beverly Palm once again. Suite three twenty-seven, starting at eight. And I hope you understand while you are establishing credibility —

JIMMY
Credibility’s not the same as credit. I’ll bring cash.

MARGARET
Thank you for understanding. We’ve had some unfortunate misunderstandings in the past. I have to be especially careful where financing is concerned.

JIMMY
I know the feeling. Got a boatload of money tied up in… never mind. But yes, looking forward to it… Wait a second! Sorry, just thought of something. At our last game, Saturday, you said some players use aliases, to stay anonymous. Does Parker Wells ever use an alias?

MARGARET
(CAUTIOUSLY)
Someone of Mr. Wells’s… celebrity could hardly fool anyone with an artificial identity. Not for very long.

JIMMY
No, of course not. Silly question. So… anyone else?

MARGARET
(BEAT)
Mr. Harmon… I hope you understand discretion is a requirement for someone in my role. It would not be my place to breach the players’ trust. And even were I so inclined, my position can be… precarious.

JIMMY
Sorry. I get it. On some heavy pain killers at the moment, so I’m babbling a bit. I saw how Parker treated you the other night. Not someone you want to tick off.

MARGARET
Let’s not… Let’s not rock the boat, all right? So we’ll see you tomorrow evening?

JIMMY
You’ve got it. See you tomorrow.

SOUND: CELL PHONE DISCONNECTING

JIMMY
Robin, I… I don’t know what to say.

ROBIN
Then don’t. Really, I’m fine. Will be fine. But thanks for not getting defensive. Not too defensive. But… you’re going back to that poker game? What if Parker Wells is involved in this? Or Kreitzer? Anyone there?

JIMMY
That’s why I’m going. The game’s not public, but it’s relatively… open. Finding information’s why I joined in the first place. This is our best shot.

ROBIN
I’m just worried about you. I always was. Still am.

JIMMY
Yeah, I… I know. And I do appreciate it. But… we still need to lock down the who behind it all.

ROBIN
And there’s no better way to do that?

JIMMY
Maybe… Why don’t you head back, go through the files again. Find anything else we can use. I’m… going to make a call, see if… someone is willing to talk.

ROBIN
I… think I know who you mean. Just… be careful. Seriously, not just in a “she might break your heart” kind of way. More “bullets flying through the air.”

JIMMY
Believe me, I’ve had enough bullets. And I’m… sorry.

MUSIC: TRANSITION MUSIC FADES IN