Race Read Online Free Page B

case.
    (A phone rings. Henry answers it. Into phone:)
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    Yes. (Listens)
    JACK (To Susan) : Can one win this case?
    SUSAN : You said one can win any case.
    JACK : And the addendum?
    SUSAN : “If one only takes on cases one can win.” (Pause) I’m truly sorry if I did wrong.
    JACK : I know you are.
    SUSAN : I’m truly sorry.
    JACK : It’s called a “mistake.” (Reading) Copy of the indictment. The report of the first responding officer, room report, report of the chambermaid. Report of the floor supervisor . . .
    HENRY (Hangs up the phone) : Clerk of the court has called. He’s listed us as the Attorneys of Record. And we are to appear with Mr. Strickland tomorrow.
    JACK : Who’s the judge?
    HENRY : Before Judge Johnson. To enter a plea.
    JACK : That’s great.
    HENRY : I say we plead him.
    JACK : He won’t plead.
    HENRY : How do you know?
    JACK : ’Cause he just told us. (Pause) Okay. What do you do on Dead Ground?
    HENRY : “On Dead Ground, Fight.”
    (Jack passes one of the newspapers to Susan.)
    JACK : Read it. (She starts to read; pauses) Just fucking read the thing.
    SUSAN (Reads) : He threw me down. He ripped off my red sequined dress . . .

    JACK (Referring to another piece of paper) : What is this?
    SUSAN (Looking at it) : Hotel. Floor supervisor’s report . . .
    JACK : Read it.
    HENRY (Reads) : “ . . . the chambermaid Rosa Gonzales . . . Room fourteen twelve . . . disarray, disarray , liquor. Spilled . . . cigarette butts . . . ” (Pause. He looks up; Jack looks at Henry) What? What?
    JACK : Where are the sequins? (Pause) Floor supervisor’s report. Room all torn up, chambermaid’s late making it up.
    HENRY : Yes?
    (Pause.)
    JACK : Cigarette butts. Disarray . . . (Pause) No mention of the sequins.
    HENRY : I don’t . . .
    JACK (Of Susan) : She knows. He ripped the dress off, the room would be covered in sequins. It has to be. Tell him. A sequined dress, you look at it wrong, they start to fall off. You walk into that room, that would be the first thing you see. (Pause) “He threw me down, he ripped my dress off.” (Pause) It’s impossible that room would not be covered in sequins. (Pause) It’s impossible. (Pause)
    HENRY : So he didn’t rape her?
    JACK : How do I know. But, we’ve got a case . I like it. I fucking like it.
    SUSAN : He called her “you nigger bitch.”
    JACK : The couple next door said .
    HENRY : The couple next door heard “you nigger bitch.”
    SUSAN : . . . can we impeach them?
    HENRY : You impeach them and you lose the jury.
    JACK : Alright. You want to be bold?
    (Pause.)
    HENRY : Old married couple, one of them’s a preacher, Jack . . .
    JACK : You want to be bold?
    HENRY : . . . tell me.

    JACK : How do you draw attention from a shameful act?
    HENRY : “By admitting to a more shameful act.”
    JACK : They didn’t hear “you nigger bitch.”
    HENRY : They’ll swear they did.
    JACK : Uh-huh.
    HENRY : What did they hear?
    JACK : They heard “ My nigger bitch . ” (Pause; to Susan) Anybody ever call you that, while he was fucking you? Crazy with love? (Pause) White man, to say that? Admits to that in a courtroom, that’s so shameful every fucking person on the jury will have to believe him. “I’m going to fuck you now my little nigger bitch.”
    SUSAN : This isn’t about sex, it’s about Race.
    JACK : What’s the difference?

SCENE TWO
    Henry and Jack in the office. Henry is reading a report.
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    HENRY : Hotel room: “Condition, as to be expected, lamps broken, linens in disarray, cigarette butts, liquor bottles . . .”
    JACK : This is the maid . . .
    HENRY : The floor manager.... her report recapitulates that of the maid, bit better English. No mention in either . . .
    JACK : And the crime scene report . . .
    HENRY (Perusing) : No mention of sequins.
    JACK : No mention.
    HENRY : No.
    JACK : First