1. INT.  MAX’S CAR

Max is on his way to the police station driving. Halfway toward his destination he gets a phone call.

SONIA

Where are you going honey?

MAX searching for his phone in his pockets.

MAX

(exited)

Oh my God. It is you. You are  live. Are you ok? I am gone crazy. I had this detective asking me all kinds of questions. My gun is missing. My life is hell. Where are you?

SONIA

Where are you going Max?

MAX

(nervously)

I am on my way to the police station downtown. There was a cop questioning me about where I was last night and my gun. I was scared and nervous and I told him I was with you.

SONIA

(in a calm voice)

Calm down. Calm down. Where are you right now?

MAX is looking around to figure out the crossroads from inside of his car.

MAX

I don’t know. Stopped at a red light –hold on –
I am on 6^th St and Rooger. Can you come with me?

SONIA

No. But turn around and drive to 15^th and Copper Rd. There is a coffee shop in the corner. I am inside.

CUT TO

2.  INT.  MAX APARTMENT

Max and Sonia have been arguing for a while and Sonia is fed up with it and is walking out.

MAX

Where are you going? That is my TV.

SONIA

(angry)

I am taking the TV with me. And the DVD player!

MAX

(persuasively)

But you bought that DVD as a gift for my birthday.

SONIA is walking out of the apartment.

SONIA

Yes. But Now I am taking it with me. I will pick the TV up later. I will bring my brother Jack to help me take it out of this hell. Just wait here till we come back. Don’t you wonder off like you always do?

DISSOLVE TO

3. INT. MAX’S APARTMENT

Max is laying down on his bed day dreaming about how his life, work and everything that is happening. There is couple of loud knocks on the door that jerks Max off his day dreaming.

PORTER

This is detective Porter. Open the door.

MAX is walking toward the door.

MAX

(whispering)

Detective? What the fuck he wants?

MAX opens the door.

Can I help you officer?

PORTER

Can you tell me where you were last night around 10:35pm?

MAX

I was… I was… here. With my girlfriend. Watching TV.

PORTER

Can I come in?

PORTER walks in without hesitation.

MAX

Well, I suppose…

PORTER is inside MAX’s apartment snooping around.

PORTER

(jokingly)

TV eh? Which one?

MAX seems nervous and talks in snippets.

MAX

Well. Not TV, but we were just here hanging

out here?

PORTER

Hanging out?

MAX

May I ask why are you here asking me questions? I haven’t done a thing.

PORTER

Let me be the decider on that. Where did you say you were last night?

MAX

Here in my apartment with my…

PORTER cuts MAX off in the middle of his sentence.

PORTER

Yes. Yes. Can your girlfriend confirm this?

MAX

Of course!

PORTER

Where is she?

MAX

May I ask what this is all about? If there is nothing else I can do for you officer, I suggest you leave.

CUT TO

4. INT. QUICK LOANS OFFICE

MAX is trying to borrow some money from Quick loans.

MAX

I need to borrow about $400.

CASHIER

Please fill this application and bring it back. Once you are done. You need two forms of ID and your latest pay stub.

MAX fills out the application on one of the tables sitting around the office/store and walks back to the CASHIER and gives her the paper work.

MAX

Here, I am done. Here is my driver’s license, social and my pay stub.

CASHIER

Thanks. It will be a minute.

MAX goes back and sits on his seat.

CUT TO SCENE 3

5. INT. MAX APARTMENT

Detective PORTER is still in MAX is apartment asking questions.

PORTER

Does she live with you?

MAX

No. Not anymore.

PORTER

(puzzled)

Not anymore! You said she was here with you last night. WATCHING TV. Correct?

MAX

Well she was here, but she doesn’t live here.

MAX is tired by now and seems no longer interested.

I need to wake up early in the morning detective. If you do not have anything else, I would like to go back to sleep.

PORTER

Sure. I won’t be long. Just couple more. Do you have her phone number? An address?

MAX

Why? I was here last night just like tonight and the night before that. There is no need to get her involved in this useless interview!

PORTER

Perhaps you like to go downtown and answer a few more questions there?

MAX gets nervous and does not like the sound of going downtown at this point.

MAX

2625553450. That’s her cell number. She might be asleep. But you can call her in the morning. She can tell you. I was right here with her.

CUT TO

6. INT. MAX APARTMENT

MAX is sitting around drinking a bud light beer. The detective has left and MAX is nervously walking around his apartment mumbling nothings. His cell phone rings.

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Is this Maximus Biltmore?

MAX

Who is this?

The voice on the phone is unfamiliar to MAX. He wonders how someone knows his full name and cell number.

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Is this Mr. Biltmore?

MAX

Yes. Who are you?

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Yes. This is Joanne with the police department. There is a lady here who says that the gun we found on her belongs to you.

MAX

Yes this is Max. It is not here. My gun. It is gone.

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Sir, we would you like to come down here. We like to get this thing cleared up as soon as we can.

MAX is upset. He does not want to leave his comfortable apartment at this time.

MAX

Now. Can it wait till tomorrow?” Max answered expecting an OK from.

VOICE ON THE PHONE

No sir. It cannot wait. Detective Porter is here waiting for you.

CUT TO

7. INT. INSIDE MAX’S APARTMENT

MAX and SONIA are relaxing watching TV and goofing around the apartment. SONIA is looking around for something and runs into MAX’s gun sitting inside the drawers.

MAX

This is my baby. Please don’t touch it. It is Sacred.

SONIA

OK. I wasn’t going to anyways. Let’s watch TV. I like this TV. It is much better than that old piece of shit you had.

MAX

That was a gift and I like to keep gifts around. They have a certain sentiment value to them.

SONIA does not pay any attention to what MAX is saying she is busy changing channels.

SONIA

Damn it. Nothing is on. This basic TV channels don’t show anything. I like to watch HBO –that one show. Oh yeah that ‘Six Feet Under’. I heard it is pretty cool.

FADE IN

8. INT. INSIDE A COFFEE SHOP (LATE NIGHT)

MAX and SONIA are sitting inside the coffee shop. MAX is upset over the bad night he has had. He is meeting SONIA to ask her to go with him to the police station.

SONIA

Max, I have to tell you something.

MAX

(angry)

What is it Sonia? Are you gonna tell me why you left me? Is there another man? I need to be in the police station right now and I do not have time for this.

SONIA

Well, I need to tell you that you don’t have to go to the station.

MAX

What? Why not? I have to see some detective Porter or something. There is a witness waiting. Some girl. I thought it was you. This is just too much. I have to go.

MAX gets up from his seat and starts walking toward the door.

SONIA

Max! Please sit down. I need to tell you something. It is very important that you hear me!

MAX stops and slowly turns toward SONIA.

MAX

What?

SONIA

Gotcha!

FADE OUT

“Where are you going honey?” Max’s girlfriend Sonia asked him in a soft lovely voice over the phone.

“Oh my God. It is you. You are alive. Are you ok? I am gone crazy. I had this detective asking me all kinds of questions. My gun is missing. My life is hell. Where are you?”

“Where are you going Max?”

“I am on my way to the police station downtown. There was a cop questioning me about where I was last night and my gun. I was scared and nervous and I told him I was with you.”

“Calm down. Calm down. Where are you right now? ”

“I don’t know. Stopped at a red light –hold on – I am on 6^th St and Rooger. Can you come with me?”

“No. But turn around and drive to 15^th and Copper Rd. There is a coffee shop in the corner. I am inside.”

~~~

“Where are you going? That is my TV.” Max told his girlfriend. They had been arguing for awhile now and no one remembers who started it and for what reasons.

“I am taking the TV with me. And the DVD player!” Sonia told Max wrapping her hands around the DVD.

“But you bought that DVD as a gift for my birthday.”

“Yes. But Now I am taking it with me.” Sonia ended the conversation there and walked out with the DVD player. “I will pick the TV up later. I will bring my brother Jack to help me take it out of this hell. Just wait here till we come back. Don’t you wonder off like you always do?”

“Hell!” Max thought to himself. “It is not hell, it my house.”

~~~

“Which one honey?” Max asked his girlfriend Sonia pointing to a line of TV’s in the Best Buy. “I don’t know. Just pick one. That one, pick that one.” Sonia shouted pointing to a 27″ Magnavox. Max had wanted to buy a TV for the last month, but he never came up with the money to pay for it. He job barely covers the rent and groceries. Since Sonia has moved in -things have been better. Now he has a better TV. Much better than his 13″ Zenith -and that was a gift from Mom’s when he moved out long time ago.

They were both happy with the new TV. It was color, big –in fact 27 inches. Max never had a TV of his own.

One day when they were both hanging in the house Sonia was looking for scissors around the apartment. “Wow. Why do you have that?” Sonia said looking at Max’s gun -a 38 Special. The gun was just sitting inside the drawers on top of Max’s socks. “I have had it for a while now. It is a Big City. Need protection.” He exclaimed proudly. “Everyone has one. It is like almost the law to have one of these babies now-a-days.”

“Really.” Sonia asked rolling here eyes. “One day this baby of yours can get you in trouble.”

~~~

“How did that happen?” Max was thinking to himself lying back on his bed staring at the stars decorated by his ex-girlfriend Sonia on the ceilings. She had recently left him for “it is not you, it is me…” reasons after a big fight and had taken the TV and the DVD player with her. His mind was busy thinking about how he could lose the TV. After all , he had paid for it with his own money -the money he borrowed from the Quick Loans down the street.

Bang. There was a loud knock on the door that jerked him off the bed. He stood up.

Bang, Bang. Another two knocks on the door.

“What the fu… “, he wasn’t finished with his thought that he heard ” This is detective Porter of Police Department. Open the door.”

“Detective? What the fuck he wants?”

Bang. Max approached the door and opened it hesitantly.

“Can I help you officer?” He asked nicely.

“Can you tell me where you were last night around 10:35pm?”

“I was… I was… here. With my girlfriend. Watching TV.”

“Can I come in?” Detective told Max pushing thru the door.

“Well, I suppose…” and the detective was already inside snooping around.

“TV eh. Which one?” He asked as if there were too many to choose from.

Max remembered that the girlfriend had taken the TV with her when she left him.

“Well. Not TV, but we were just here hanging out here.”

“Hanging out…” The detective mumbled growing ever more suspicious.

“May I ask why are you here asking me questions? I haven’t done a thing.”

“Let me be the decider on that. Where did you say you were last night?”

“Here in my apartment with my….”

“Yes. Yes.” Detective cut him off. “Can your girlfriend confirm this?”

“Of course.”

“Where is she?”

“May I ask what this is all about? If there is nothing else I can do for you officer, I suggest you leave.”

~~~

“I need to borrow about $400.” Max told the cashier standing in front of the Quick loans counter.

“Please fill out this application and bring it back.” The cashier told Max as she was slipping him the application from behind the tick bullet-proof glass. “Once you are done. You need two forms of ID and your latest pay stub.” She finished.

“Here, I am done.” Max told the cashier after he was done with the application. “Here is my driver’s license, social and my pay stub.”

“Thanks. It will be a minute.”

“Thank you.” Max told the cashier and walked back to the chair by the door.

~~~

“Does she live with you?” Detective Porter asked Max.
“No. Not anymore.” Replied Max in a low disappointing voice.

“Not anymore! You said she was here with you last night. WATCHING TV. Correct?”

“Well she was here, but she doesn’t live here.”

Max wanted to end the conversation and the night and just go back to sleep or at least lay back on the bed and stare at the ceiling -reminiscing times when Sonia was around. But he was here stuck with this detective who is asking questions one after another with no ending.

“I need to wake up early in the morning officer. If you do not have anything else, I would like to go back to sleep.” Max said yawning.
“Sure. I won’t be long. Just couple more.” Responded the detective coldly.

“Do you have her phone number? An address?”

“Why? I was here last night just like tonight and the night before that. There is no need to get her involved in this useless interview!”

“Perhaps you like to go downtown and answer a few more questions there?”

“262 - 555 - 3450. That is her cell phone number. She might be asleep now. But you can call her in the morning. She can tell you. I was right here with her.”

“Leave that to me. Thank you. You will be hearing from me.”

Max was confused as to why the police was asking him questions. Was he a suspect in some robbery? Murder? What was going on?
“No way. That is not possible. They got the wrong guy. They are mistaken.” He thought to himself. He wasn’t sure what to do or what to think. Perhaps he could call his cousin Adam who is a lawyer for advice. But what for -if Max is innocent and has done nothing -then he doesn’t need a lawyer or his freaking advice.

“Don’t you ever call me or contact me you bastard!” Those were the last words Sonia had uttered before leaving with Jack and the TV. Max had no idea why she would break up with him over a lousy argument. “Couples argue and fight all the time -it doesn’t make sense.” Max had thought in frustration the day he lost his TV, DVD player and his girl. The detective was gone and had left Max confused and full of anger and frustration. Thousands of thoughts ran thru his mind as to why, what, where, who -what had he done that attracted suspicion toward him. He is just an ordinary guy who works at the bakery down the street and mingles with some co-workers after work and then strait back to his apartment.

~~~

“I need a favor dad.” Sonia asked here dad sipping on a cup of tea standing in the kitchen. She had gone to visit him after a year. He lived in a different city about an hour away from her, but she never had visited him since she left town.

“Any thing for my doll.” He replied. He was a retired police officer.

“Well, I lost a bit to Jack and I need your help in paying it.”

“You lost to Jack.” He asked surprisingly. “But you never have before. Jack has been the one paying you all these years and now after all this time.”

“Yeah I know. But I lost this time and need to pay it. It is sort of, well, odd. My boyfriend has a gun and he always talks about how he needs it for protection.”

“Yes.”

“After Jack met him one day he told me that Max wasn’t such a tough guy and he just acts that way around me showing off his gun. I told Jack that Max is just that way and he doesn’t need to show off to anyone anything. Somehow we ended up betting on how scaring Max and seeing how much he can handle, I guess.”

“That is odd.”

“Well. I told Jack that we’ll play a game on Max and see how he carries himself. And to prove him wrong about Max. He is a good guy and not what Jack thinks.”

~~~

Ring. Ring. Max’s phone rings. “It’s late. Who the hell this could be?” Max thought to himself as he walked to answer his cell.

“Is this Maximus Biltmore?” The voice on the phone was unfamiliar.
“Who is this?”

“Is this Mr. Biltmore?”

“Yes. Who are you??” Max asked forcefully.

“Yes. This is Joanne with the police department. There is a lady here who says that the gun we found on her belongs to you. We checked it again the city records and it is confirmed.”

Max was surprised. His heart rate went up like a F16 jet and his stomach filled with butterflies.

“Yes this is Max.” He answers as he runs to the bedroom and checks his drawer. “It is not here.” He mumbles.

“I am sorry. What was that?” The voice on the other side repeats. “What did you say?”

“Nothing. Yes I am Max. My gun is missing. I had it in my drawer. Now it is not here.”

“Sir, would you like to come down here for some questioning. We like to get this thing cleared up as soon as we can.”

“Now. Can it wait till tomorrow?” Max answered expecting an OK from.

“No sir. It cannot wait. Detective Porter is here waiting for you.”

“Fine. I am on my way.” Max hanged up the phone. He was nervous. His gun could have been used for anything. He didn’t even know who the girl was at the police station. Could she be Sonia? Did she steal his gun before leaving? It had been a week or so since Max had opened the drawer’s door. He always felt the no one would touch his gun.

~~~

“This is my baby.” Max told Sonia shutting the drawer door close. “Please don’t touch it. It is Sacred.”

“OK. I wasn’t going to anyways. Let’s watch TV. I like this TV. It is much better than that old piece of shit you had.” Sonia answered sedately jumping on the bed.

“That was a gift and I like to keep gifts around. They have a certain sentiment value to them.”

“Damn it. Nothing is on.” She was clicking the remote and surfing thru the channels. “You need to get cable.” She continued. “This basic TV channels don’t show anything. I like to watch HBO –that one show. Oh yeah that ‘Six Feet Under’. I heard it is pretty cool.”

~~~

“Max, I have to tell you something.” Sonia told Max sipping on a cup of tea. “What is it Sonia? Are you gonna tell me why you left me? Is there another man? I need to be in the police station right now and I do not have time for this.” Max responded in angry voice. “Well, I need to tell you that you don’t have to go to the station.”

“What? Why? I have to see some detective Porter or something. There is a witness waiting. This is just too much. I need to go.” Max stood up and started walked toward the door.

“Max. Please sit down. I need to tell you something. It is very important that you hear me!” She stood up and looked strait into Max.

“What?” Max answered carelessly.

“Gothcha.”