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Hook and Chain
Desmond drives a tow truck on the night shift. He is winching up an illegally parked sedan when its owners arrive in a hurry and start offering cash. Something about the car is wrong and he has to decide how far by the book he is willing to go.
Characters
- DESMOND (LEAD) - 30s to 40s, a tow truck driver, calm, tired, does everything by the book because the book has kept him safe.
- CALLUM - 30s, the car's owner, friendly until he isn't.
- VERA - 30s, with Callum, nervous and watching the exits.
- DISPATCH - any age, a voice on the radio, can be read offstage or cut.
Setting
A cracked parking lot behind a shuttered strip mall at two in the morning.
A cracked parking lot behind a shuttered strip mall. Two in the morning. A tow truck's amber lights turn slowly.
DESMOND, in a reflective vest, is winching a dark sedan onto the flatbed. Headlights sweep across him. A car stops. CALLUM and VERA get out fast.
CALLUM
Hey. Hey! That's mine.
DESMOND
(not stopping)
Evening.
CALLUM
Put it down. That's my car.
DESMOND
It's on private property with no permit after ten. Sign's right there on the pole. Big red one.
VERA
We were gone twenty minutes.
DESMOND
Sign doesn't say anything about twenty minutes.
CALLUM comes closer. DESMOND keeps one hand on the winch control.
CALLUM
Look. I'll pay the drop fee. Whatever it is. Cash. Right now.
DESMOND
Drop fee's ninety.
CALLUM
Fine.
DESMOND
Once it's on the bed it's not a drop fee anymore. It's a full tow and impound. Three-forty plus storage. And it's on the bed.
VERA
Then take it off the bed.
DESMOND
(evenly)
Ma'am, I'm gonna do my job the same way I do it every night, which is by the book, because the book's the only thing that keeps me from getting sued.
He tightens a strap. A soft, dull sound comes from the trunk of the sedan. Once. DESMOND's hand stops on the strap.
CALLUM
Suspension. It's old.
DESMOND
Sure.
He goes back to work. Slower now. He glances at his cab.
DESMOND
Where'd you say you were for twenty minutes?
CALLUM
I didn't.
DESMOND
Everything's closed. Nearest thing open is the gas station on Fourth and that's a walk.
VERA
Is this an interview?
DESMOND
Just making conversation. Long nights.
The sound from the trunk again. Twice. Rhythmic. DESMOND straightens up. He looks at CALLUM. CALLUM looks back.
CALLUM
(low)
Five hundred. You unhook it, you drive away, you never saw the plate.
DESMOND
I saw the plate. I photograph the plate. That's step one. It's already in the system.
CALLUM
Then delete it.
DESMOND
Can't. It goes to dispatch. Time-stamped. And that camera on my mirror there, that one, that streams. Live. To a woman named Rhonda who's been doing this nineteen years and doesn't like surprises.
VERA looks at the camera. CALLUM doesn't.
VERA
Cal.
CALLUM
He's bluffing.
DESMOND
Maybe. Wanna find out from the other side of a courtroom?
(beat)
Here's what I know. I know your car's been parked here since eleven-forty, because that's when the plaza manager called it in. So that's not twenty minutes. That's two hours and change. I know your suspension's fine because it rode up on my winch smooth as glass. And I know that whatever's in that trunk is knocking on the inside.
Silence. VERA takes a half step back toward their car.
CALLUM
You don't want this.
DESMOND
You're right. I don't. I wanna be home. I wanna take off these boots. I got a kid who wakes up at six whether I've slept or not.
(he steps to the cab door)
But I got a truck with a hook on it, and I got a radio, and I got a woman named Rhonda. And you got about four minutes of choices left.
He reaches into the cab and lifts the radio handset. He never takes his eyes off CALLUM.
DESMOND
Dispatch, this is Unit Six.
DISPATCH
(over radio, crackling)
Go ahead, Six.
DESMOND
Plaza on Marsh Road. Plate ending four-seven-one. I need police here. Not a patrol. Everybody.
DISPATCH
Say again, Six?
DESMOND
Everybody, Rhonda.
He sets the handset down and turns back to them.
DESMOND
(quiet, final)
I'd start walking.
CALLUM stares at him. VERA is already moving. After a long moment, CALLUM follows. Their car door slams. Tires. DESMOND walks to the back of the sedan and puts his palm flat on the trunk.
DESMOND
Hang on. Just hang on. I got you.
End of script