REMINGTON HOTEL – SUNSET LOUNGE

(QUIET ECHOES, EMPTY BAR)

MUSIC: RAT PACK-ERA SWING

BIG MIKE
Ah, Bobby’s still here. Evening, Bobby. Didn’t expect to see anyone back here at this hour.

BOBBY
Just cleaning up a bit. Need to go make some actual tip money. And help Vera up at the front bar. This gig’s great, but when the cameras are off, I’m not exactly rolling in customers. Still, happy to pour for you, Mr. Dalton.

BIG MIKE
It’s just Mike. Big Mike, if you’re into stage names.

BOBBY
I feel you’re always on stage, sir. So I’ll go with Big Mike.

BIG MIKE
What’ll it be, son?

JIMMY
Um, at this point I don’t much care.

SOUND: BARSTOOLS

BIG MIKE
(CALLING OUT)
Can we have two MacCutcheons over here? The eighteen-year.
(BACK TO JIMMY)
Might as well enjoy ourselves.

BOBBY
You got it.

JIMMY
You and Wiktoria. Obsessing over top-shelf Scotch. You do realize you’re wasting it on me, right?

BIG MIKE
Never a waste to share a fine Highland single malt with an old friend.

JIMMY
A friend? Certainly seems I’m moving up in the world.

SOUND: DRINKS BEING PLACED

BOBBY
Here you go.

BIG MIKE
Thanks, Bobby.

SOUND: CASH BEING PLACED ON THE BAR

BOBBY
Thank you, sir. Now you two enjoy yourselves. I’ll see you tomorrow… Big Mike.

BIG MIKE
You be sure to give Vera my best.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS LEAVING

SOUND: DOOR OPENING, CLOSING

JIMMY
So what’s with the sudden social acceptance?

BIG MIKE
What are you on about?

JIMMY
The other night you were… Well, I got the impression that, professional courtesy and avuncular wisdom aside, I wasn’t really… part of your crowd.

BIG MIKE
Ah, don’t put much stock in tripe folks like me and Hutch start spouting after a long night. We old-timers get bent out of shape over everything that’s changing. I know you’ve got a proper respect for tradition. Want to see you do all right for yourself.

JIMMY
Okay… thanks. I really… that really means…

BIG MIKE
So I gather Wiktoria was behind this?

JIMMY
I thought so at first, but now it doesn’t look like it. I mean, one of her goons did do the car bomb, set this whole thing off. You know her people?

BIG MIKE
Son, I ain’t been ’round the Limelight in a while, and even when I was I made a point to steer clear of folks like Wiktoria. So no, can’t say as I know her “people.” Hell, mostly only reckon her by reputation.

JIMMY
Probably better that way. Anyway, I was looking into this group of investors trying to buy the hotel. Only I ended up going down this rabbit hole of people covering up a murder, and feds holding someone in witness protection, I guess. That’s what I’m trying to noodle out. God, I need to get some sleep.

BIG MIKE
(TAKING A DRINK)
Hate to burst your bubble, but there’s a reason cops do the investigation thing for a living. Liable to end up spinning your wheels hunting shadows.

JIMMY
I know. Gonna have to talk to them soon anyway. Especially after… well, everything that happened today. But right now they think Wiktoria’s behind the car bombing, and they’ll probably tie her to the rest of it. Unless I can find something that says otherwise, they’re not gonna listen to anything else.

BIG MIKE
The other night you were hell-bent on escaping Wiktoria’s vile clutches. Now you’re aimin’ to clear her name? Life’s dealer just pushed you over a monster stack. Count yourself lucky and cash out.

JIMMY
Except I think she may actually be innocent on this.

BIG MIKE
(CHUCKLING)
One thing that hellcat ain’t is innocent.

JIMMY
I know, she’s done plenty of shady crap. Probably deserves to go down. But they killed a friend of mine with that bomb.

BIG MIKE
(BEAT)
That I am truly sorry to hear.

JIMMY
I got him into all this. Didn’t mean to, but it happened. And now I don’t have any choice but to make sure… well, not just him, but everything he was trying to help with, this dancer…

BIG MIKE
Suppose I can understand your predicament. Let’s look at it a different way. What’s your game plan?

JIMMY
Excuse me?

BIG MIKE
What’s your game plan? You thought things through? Say you do somehow manage to get your evidence. Or something of it, leastways. What do you do with it?

JIMMY
Well, I guess I was hoping I could take it to the police, get them to listen.

BIG MIKE
Strikes me as a mite short-sighted, ain’t it? Think about more than the immediate near term here. Bigger. All the double-dealing in this town, it’s gonna take a lot more than hope. Again, what’s your game plan?

JIMMY
Please, like you’ve got a plan.

BIG MIKE
You don’t get where I am, at my age, without a plan.

JIMMY
I don’t know, all right? Okay, I don’t have a plan. At the moment, I don’t know enough to make a plan. So yeah, tomorrow’s gonna have to take care of itself.

BIG MIKE
That’s kind of my point. Son, I’m not one to be all Mr. Negativity, but you think this is sounding kind of familiar? Kind of how we were talking the other night, ’bout how you’ve been just acting, day by day, without a thought to your future. How’s this different from how you’ve been living —

JIMMY
Because I’m choosing it. Deliberately. Look, like you said, I’ve been skating along, thinking somehow everything’ll go back to square. Get one real break and make it all right. Maybe it took all this to wake me up to reality, but I know that’s a delusion. My life’s not magically going to fix itself.

BIG MIKE
Sounds like a revelation.

JIMMY
Well, you’re not the only person trying to tell me that. Eventually, I guess it had to sink in. Now I know I’m gonna have to deal with a hell of a lot of crap for a hell of a long time. Still, I’m choosing to concentrate on this one thing. Then maybe I do run away. Or I stay and… I don’t know, work with Wiktoria. Or try and patch things up with my ex. Whatever I do, if I want to be able to make any decisions about tomorrow, I have to take care of today. That’s step one. And I’m taking it.

BIG MIKE
All right, son, all right, I hear you. Calm down. Ain’t up for startin’ a fuss. So what do you have?

JIMMY
Ah, nothing on the car bombing. A little on what’s going on with the feds, but nothing concrete on the dead woman. Just a bunch on their witness. Here.

SOUND: RUSTLING PAPERS

(A MOMENT OF SILENCE)

BIG MIKE
Jesus… They got Pete Sokolov.

JIMMY
Heh. He’s the mysterious “money man” I’d been looking for. Nothing to do with buying the Limelight Hotel.

BIG MIKE
(ABSENTLY)
UIGEA violations… state’s evidence… tomorrow…

JIMMY
So you know this guy?

BIG MIKE
Hmm? Oh, no, sorry… Just… just business… stuff.

JIMMY
You okay, Mike? I didn’t mean to go off on a rant. Clearly, I’m a little loopy. I just need some sleep. After that I really hope to pick your brain on how I can put together this whole big picture.
(TAKING A DRINK)
Oh, another thing. Peeps said you’re actually doing really well. Saving up for some big investment or something. So how come you told me —

BIG MIKE
Reason they call that girl “Peeps.” Talkin’ out her ass, as per usual.

JIMMY
(DEFENSIVELY)
Hey, Peeps is… Rachael is all right. Way better than I ever gave her credit for. I owe her a lot.

BIG MIKE
All right, all right. In any case, you want to find out the whole story — an’ I ain’t sayin’ I buy into your little theory — seems your first step’s to go back to the bombing. Track down this Watson character who killed your buddy Will. Someone put him up to it, you might be able to get him to tell you… What’s the matter, son? Look like you’ve seen a ghost.

MUSIC: SUSPENSE CUE

JIMMY
I… I didn’t tell you his name.

BIG MIKE
What? Whose name? Like I was saying, you’ve got to —

JIMMY
Watson. Wiktoria’s flunky. I never said his name. Come to think of it, I never mentioned Will either, to you or Hutch. And it’s not like you knew him.

BIG MIKE
What? You must have mentioned something. Like you said, you’re a mite loopy. Memory’s playing tricks. Happens to the best of us. Look, you go ahead to the production rooms, get your shuteye, and sure I’ll help you figure out where to go from there.

SOUND: STOOL PULLING OUT

JIMMY
Mike, I’m a professional poker player. I… I may not be a big-time veteran like you, but I’ve done all right for a reason. The hand I knocked you out with at the oh-nine Horse event. How’d it play out?

BIG MIKE
What the hell are you on about? I don’t —

JIMMY
Three of us in the hand — you, me, and a guy from Oklahoma. Flop’s king-eight-seven. Turn’s a two, river’s a three. Oklahoma checks and you go all-in. Somehow I just knew you’d been drawing for the straight and missed, and now you were trying to push me out. So I call. Oklahoma folds, even though he’s holding a king. I just had jack-high, but that held up against your five-six. You were out. In all honesty, that was the moment I knew I had what it takes to play for real. But more importantly, I remember the hand. Exactly.

BIG MIKE
All well and good, but what the hell does that —

JIMMY
Peeps may have crazy pattern recognition skills, but observation and memory — that’s what I bring to the table. Loopy or not, my memory doesn’t play tricks. And you know it.

BIG MIKE
(SIGHS)
Well, son. Guess you’ve got me there. Suppose this puts a little wrinkle into the situation, doesn’t it?

SOUND: GUN COCKING

JIMMY
Whoa, Mike, what’s with the gun?

BIG MIKE
Reserved for special occasions. And, unfortunately, this qualifies.

JIMMY
What the hell?

BIG MIKE
Colt eighteen fifty-one Navy cartridge conversion. Reproduction, sad to say, but damned accurate. Got it as an award, at a tournament in Texas. Don’t think they figured I’d end up using it for real. But, then again, it was Texas.

JIMMY
Well earned, I’m sure. Rattlesnake grips are a nice touch. Classy.

BIG MIKE
Relax, Jimmy. We just need to chat a bit. But I need to make sure I have your undivided attention.

JIMMY
Consider me attentive.

BIG MIKE
Son, you have no idea what kind of hornet’s nest you’ve kicked up. And right now, I don’t see a clear pathway out of it. For either one of us.

JIMMY
And yet you’re the one holding the pistol.

BIG MIKE
Yes, I do believe I am.

MUSIC: CLIFFHANGER MUSIC CUE