I Shot The Sheriff by Gary O. Bennett
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM
The assistant district attorney, PERRY, is questioning VICKI,
who slumps in her chair. Perry places a small hand
taperecorder on the table. He presses the record button.
PERRY
You are Vicki Vass.
VICKI
Voss. Vicki Voss. V-O-S-S.
PERRY
Address?
VICKI
Who’s?
PERRY
Your’s.
VICKI
Don’t have one.
PERRY
Where do you sleep?
VICKI
None of your business where and who I
sleep with.
PERRY
At night, where do you make a home for
yourself?
VICKI
Last night I was here, in your cell.
PERRY
Ms. Voss, you don’t have to answer any of
my questions if you don’t want to.
VICKI
You mean I can have a lawyer?
PERRY
Yes.
VICKI
I don’t want a lawyer. Lawyers are part
of the establishment. The same part of
society you come from.
PERRY
So you are willing to tell me what
happened yesterday afternoon?
VICKI
Yes.
PERRY
In your own words, what happened?
VICKI
I shot him.
PERRY
Where did you get the gun?
VICKI
From him.
PERRY
You took it from him? By force?
VICKI
No. He gave it to me.
PERRY
Sheriff Gretsky gave you his gun?
VICKI
Yes.
PERRY
Why did he do that?
VICKI
I asked to see it. I wanted to touch it.
I never held a gun before.
PERRY
Had you and Sheriff Gretsky known each
other before yesterday?
VICKI
No.
PERRY
So he just handed his gun over to you.
Just like that.
VICKI
We made love first.
PERRY
Oh.
VICKI
Well, if you call a blow job making love.
PERRY
You gave Sheriff Gretsky a blow job?
VICKI
He promised not to come in my mouth, but
he did.
PERRY
I see.
VICKI
I don’t like when men come in my mouth.
It’s disgusting. Don’t you think?
PERRY
I wouldn’t know.
VICKI
I got angry. So he got angry.
PERRY
This is not making sense. If there was
tension between both of you after the
sexual encounter, then why did he hand
over his gun to you? Why would he hand
over his gun to you when you were angry?
VICKI
Oh. I didn’t tell him I was angry. That
would have been stupid. You never tell a
man when you’re angry with them. It’s a
tip off. You never tip off a man.
PERRY
A tipp off of what.
VICKI
Of your next move.
PERRY
And so you’re next move was to manipulate
Sheriff Gretsky into giving you his gun
so you could shoot him?
VICKI
Don’t be silly. My next move was to
leave.
Sheriff Grestky had a temper, and he
fingered his gun, grabbing it like it was
his cock when he came in my mouth. So I
knew when I asked him if I could hold it,
it would be like asking him if I could
hold his cock. That’s how I diffused his
anger.
PERRY
So just gave you his gun?
VICKI
And I rubbed it and rubbed it and rubbed
it, and the asshole came again all over
himself. Then he started to cry.
PERRY
Cry?
VICKI
I then he said he wanted me to shoot him.
PERRY
He wanted to die?
VICKI
No. He said he was wearing a bullet
proof vest or something under his jacket,
so that he wouldn’t be hurt. He said it
would be fun for me to fire a gun and
shoot a man without actually killing him.
Just a game, he said.
PERRY
But he was crying?
VICKI
Yes.
PERRY
Didn’t you find this suspicious….like
maybe he wanted to die…that he was
lying about the bullet-proof vest. Did
it occur to you that he was lying?
VICKI
It was a happy cry.
PERRY
A happy cry?
VICKI
Haven’t you cried when you were happy?
It was happy cry.
Anyway, after I shot him, he had a smile
on his face. I gave him what he wanted.
s there a crime in that?
PERRY
You murdered a man.
VICKI
I killed a man. There’s a difference.
Doesn’t intent have anything to do with
this? I intended to please him, not to
kill him. He tricked me into killing
him.
PERRY
I don’t believe this whole story.
VICKI
I’m you’re only witness. Plus, you have
to find a motive.
PERRY
You have a rap sheet, Ms. Voss. You’ve
been in trouble before. Drugs, theft,
prostitution.
VICKI
I’m reformed. I’m a Republican. I go to
church. I boycotted the Brooklyn Museum.
You should like me. Do you like me?
PERRY
Something’s not making sense here. You
said you got angry, so he got angry. But
then you said you didn’t show him you
were angry. You contradicted yourself.
VICKI
1647 New Lots Avenue.
PERRY
What’s that?
VICKI
Sheriff Gretsky’s address. Check out the
basement. There’s a hidden room behind a
bookcase. His wife and two kids are in
there. He shot them a few days ago.
Shot them dead.
PERRY
How do you know this?
VICKI
After I shot him, but before he died, he
told me what he had done. Blood was
coming out of his mouth and he was
ticking off the names of his kids and
wife. He was crying and spitting blood.
It was a mess.
PERRY
So did Sheriff Gretsky know you were
angry, causing him to get angry, which
led you to take his gun for the purpose,
as you said, to defuse his anger?
VICKI
Cause and effect. Jump from fact to
fact. Connect the dots. Fill in the
empty spaces.
Vicki leans in and turns off the recorder.
VICKI (cont’d)
(holding back tears)
I can’t help you with the empty spaces.
Except. Except to tell you that Sheriff
Gretsky deserved what he got. I did you
a favor. And if you continue to obsess
about this, all you’ll find at the end of
the tunnel is me, a fucked up junkie with
AIDS who probably has no more than a year
or so left. There’s more to Gretsky and
me. But it doesn’t matter
anymore…because there’s no one around
who cares. He gave me AIDS. And then he
gave it to his wife. And by the time you
find out all the other details, I’ll be
dead and buried alongside my daughter.
There is a pause.
VICKI (cont’d)
Not every story is worth telling. So
give it up, and let me rest in peace.
OK? OK Officer Perry?
Perry doesn’t respond.
THE END.
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