INT POLICE STATION - DAY

[A grubby police headquarters in Los Angeles. CHIEF PEMBROKE sits behind his desk, talking on the phone.]

PEMBROKE: What? Are you sure? Really? Okay, I’ll put my best man on in. [He hangs up.] God help us all. Rice! Get in here!

[Police Detective CONDOLEEZZA RICE enters, followed by her partner, OFFICER NICK FODDER.]

RICE: Yes, Chief?

PEMBROKE: We’ve just received word that Eduardo Redd has escaped from prison. I don’t need to tell you what that means, do I?

RICE: Of course not.

FODDER: Who’s Eduardo Redd?

[Pause. Rice shifts uncomfortably.]

RICE: Tell ‘im, Chief.

PEMBROKE: LA’s most desperate killer - gang connected, deeply psychotic, and responsible for multiple homicides. And now that he’s out, he’s likely to want to take revenge on this department.

RICE: Interesting theory, Chief.

PEMBROKE: Theory? He left a message on the precinct’s answering machine this morning…

[The chief hits a button on the precinct’s answering machine…]

VOICE: Hi, this is Eduardo Redd. I’m out of prison, and I’m coming for you, pigs.

RICE: Hmm. that’s a little too vague to be useful. But I’ll get right on it and write feasibility analysis to determine how we should apportion our departmental resources and -

PEMBROKE: Rice, just get out there and FIND him!

RICE [rolling her eyes]: Yes sir.

[CUT TO:]

[EXT FILTHY ALLEY - LATER]

[Rice and Fodder have JIMMY THE SNITCH pinned against a wall.]

RICE: Spill it, Jimmy.

JIMMY: Look, Redd is out. He’s planning on taking revenge on Chief Pembroke. And right now, he wants to kill some people just as a warm-up.

RICE: How do you know?

JIMMY: Because he just told me.

[Jimmy points to the other end of the alley, where a shadowy figure is exiting while drawing a gun.]

FODDER: Let’s go, Condi!

RICE: We need to get more info first, Nick.

FODDER: But he’s about to kill somebody.

RICE: We don’t KNOW THAT, Nick!

[From about a block away, we hear a loud “BANG!” Rice and Fodder exchange a glance. CUT TO:]

INT POLICE STATION - LATER

[Rice and Fodder stand in the Chief’s office.]

PEMBROKE: You didn’t do anything!?

RICE: With all due respect Chief, we didn’t have a lot to go on.

PEMBROKE: Your informant TOLD YOU that Redd was about to kill someone.

RICE: No sir, he said “wants to kill.” And that’s hardly actionable. Think about, sir - Redd’s a psychotic killer, of course he wants to kill someone. No, Jimmy’s info was only good as historical data. Background.

PEMBROKE: Why -

[The phone rings. Pembroke picks it up.]

PEMBROKE: What? Are you sure. [He hangs up.] Oh dear god. My wife’s been kidnapped by Eduardo Redd. She’s being held in a warehouse by the shore.

RICE: Geez, Chief. NOW it all makes sense.

PEMBROKE: What does?

RICE: Jimmy’s info. The answering machine message. The calls into the station this morning asking for your wife’s schedule. The unsigned note I got this afternoon reading “I’m out, and I’m gonna kidnap your Chief’s wife.”

PEMBROKE: WHAT!? Why didn’t you tell me?

RICE: There was nothing to tell, Chief. Just a couple of drops in the sea of information that comes into this station daily. What I propose is that we do a department-wide reorganization. A few structural changes will allow us to better manage the flow of info-

PEMBROKE: Later, Rice, we have to get down to the docks!

RICE: Sir, I have a Powerpoint presentation on effective communication that might be just the thing-

[The Chief has left. Sighing, Rice follows. CUT TO:]

EXT WAREHOUSE - LATER

[Rice, Fodder, and Chief Pembroke are barricaded behind a car and surrounded by officers. Penbroke hoists a megaphone.]

PEMBROKE: Come out of there, Redd.

REDD [O.S.]: No way, Pembroke. First I gotta kill your wife.

PEMBROKE: Oh god. Rice, get in there.

RICE: Not yet, Chief. Let’s see if we can learn more.

PEMBROKE: He’s gonna kill her!

RICE: We don’t know that, sir.

REDD [O.S.]: Yes, I am. For I enjoy killing people and intend to do so at this very moment.

PEMBROKE: Rice!

RICE: Sir, you’re not thinking clearly. We have to wait!

[We hear a loud BANG! Pause.]

RICE: Wow, that was unexpected. Nobody could have foreseen that coming.

[Pembroke collapses in grief. REDD emerges from the warehouse and runs towards the docks.]

FODDER: There he is! Men - get him!

RICE: NO! HOLD YOUR FIRE!

[The police lower their weapons confused. They watch as Redd limps slowly down the street to the docks, speaks to a boat rental guy, pays with a personal check, waits for bank approval, buys a few souvenirs and supplies, and finally hops on the boat and pulls away. Pause.]

FODDER: Condi - we coulda HAD him.

RICE: No, their were too many unknown factors, Nick. Besides, we’d just be swatting at flies. Redd’s not the problem, not really. To solve him, you have to solve LA’s gang problem, and to solve that, you need to regulate the flow of drugs and weapons. And to do that, you need to crack down on the various Latin American cartels whose money and power are at the root of… the things at the root of the problem. No, Nick, we need to enact some proactive bureaucratic changes that will ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. It’s too late for your wife, Chief…

[Pembroke whimpers, stunned.]

RICE: But we can take steps to see that it never happens again. Men, back to the headquarters…

[Rice steps forward for a dramatic CLOSEUP.]

RICE: …We’ve got some reorganizing to do.

[Blackout.]