The Man I Saw

                                                         1


                                               FADE IN:

INT. FAMILY MEDIATION CENTRE - ROOM THREE - LATE
AFTERNOON

A room designed to prevent escalation. Round table.
Soft chairs. No objects heavy enough to throw.

NOAH VALE, 48, sits between a DIVORCED COUPLE. Quiet
suit. Quiet hands. The kind of face people lower their
voices for.

A digital recorder blinks red.

                   MOTHER
         He threatened me in front of Mina.

                      FATHER
         I did not.

                   NOAH
         What were the exact words?

                   MOTHER
         "You will regret this."

                   FATHER
         I meant the lawyer. The fees.

Noah writes without looking down.

                   NOAH
         Then the record can say: "He
         warned me there would be legal
         consequences."

                   MOTHER
         That is not what it felt like.

                   NOAH
         We are not recording what it felt
         like.

He turns a page. A child's handwritten statement has
been clipped to the file.

                   NOAH (CONT'D)
         Mina wrote, "Dad scares me when he
         gets angry."

The father looks wounded. The mother looks relieved.

                                                         2


                    NOAH (CONT'D)
          I suggest: "Mina becomes anxious
          when voices are raised."

                    MOTHER
          That is not what she said.

                    NOAH
          It is the version that can survive
          a room like this.

A beat.

The father signs. Then the mother.

Through the narrow window in the door, LEO VALE, 17,
watches his father gather the pages into a perfect
stack.

EXT. SCHOOL YARD - EARLIER THAT DAY

Sunlight. Noise. Leo sits on a low wall with DANI, 17,
sharing one pair of earphones and a bag of something
bad for them.

                    DANI
          Say it in his voice.

                    LEO
          No.

                    DANI
          Come on. Do the thing.

Leo sighs. Straightens. Becomes his father: the
stillness, the folded hands, the patience.

                     LEO
                (as Noah)
          I hear that you are upset. Let us
          find language we can both live
          with.

Dani howls.

                    DANI
          That is horrible. That is actually
          horrible.

                                                         3


                   LEO
              (dropping it)
         He does it at breakfast. He does
         it at funerals.

                   DANI
         Does he do it to you?

Leo takes the earphone out. Winds the cable around one
finger.

                   LEO
         He does it about me. There is a
         version of me he tells people. It
         is very nice. He is very proud of
         it.

                   DANI
         Is it true?

                   LEO
         It is close enough that I cannot
         argue with it.

The bell goes. Dani gets up, takes the crisps, offers
a hand.

Leo does not take it -- he stands on his own -- but he
takes the crisps back. Dani laughs, shoves him, and
they go in.

An ordinary Tuesday. Nothing in it that anyone will
remember to write down.

INT. FAMILY MEDIATION CENTRE - CORRIDOR - LATE
AFTERNOON

Noah exits with the file. Leo waits beside the
elevator, backpack on one shoulder, a BLUE DOCUMENT
ENVELOPE under his arm.

                   NOAH
         You were meant to be at home.

                   LEO
         I was meant to be a lot of things.

Noah notices the envelope.

                   NOAH
         Where did you get that?

                                               4


                   LEO
         Granddad's cabinet.

                   NOAH
         That is private.

                   LEO
         It was evidence.

                   NOAH
         It was a closed complaint from
         thirty-one years ago.

                   LEO
         A man died.

The elevator DINGS. The doors open.

Noah does not enter.

                   NOAH
         You are upset. We can talk when
         you are less committed to
         misunderstanding me.

                   LEO
         See? I say something. You tell me
         what I meant.

                   NOAH
         I am trying to keep you from doing
         something irreversible.

                   LEO
         You were seventeen when you did it.

That lands.

                   NOAH
         You do not know what happened.

                   LEO
         You said you saw him.

Noah's eyes move to the envelope.

                   LEO (CONT'D)
         You were across town. The school
         register proves it.

                   NOAH
         Registers are not memory.

                                                       5


                   LEO
         No. Memory is whatever you need it
         to be.

Leo steps into the elevator.

                   NOAH
         If you walk out with that file,
         you are choosing what happens next.

                   LEO
         That is what you always say when
         you want your choice to sound like
         mine.

The doors close between them.

The floor indicator changes: 4... 3... 2...

Noah watches until it reaches G.

INT. NOAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Order without comfort. One plate in the drying rack.
Two chairs aligned under the table.

10:46 P.M.

Noah stands in the doorway to Leo's room.

The bed is untouched. Drawers open. Charger gone.

On the desk, a framed photograph: Leo at twelve
between Noah and ELEANOR. Leo leans into her. Noah
looks into the camera.

Noah calls.

Leo's phone goes straight to voicemail.

                     LEO (V.O.)
         Leave it.

BEEP.

                   NOAH
         Leo. Call me. This has gone far
         enough.

He ends the call before his voice can change.

A KNOCK at the front door.

                                                        6


INT. NOAH'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - LATER

DETECTIVE KARA REED, 43, practical and unsentimental,
sits opposite Noah. A uniformed officer photographs
Leo's room in the background.

                   KARA
         Last confirmed contact?

                   NOAH
         Five forty-two. At my office.

                     KARA
         Argument?

                   NOAH
         A disagreement.

                     KARA
         About?

                   NOAH
         Family papers he had no context
         for.

                   KARA
         What did he say when he left?

Noah looks at the red light on her recorder.

                   NOAH
         That he needed air.

Kara studies him.

                   KARA
         Did he say where he was going?

                     NOAH
         No.

                   KARA
         Did he say he was leaving you?

                   KARA
         Who does he call when he does not
         want to call you?

                   NOAH
         His mother died four years ago.

                                                       7


                   KARA
         That was not my question.

                   NOAH
         There is no one else.

A beat too long.

                   NOAH
         Teenagers use permanent language
         for temporary feelings.

Kara's phone VIBRATES. She checks a still image.

CCTV: Leo at a bus stop on RIVER ROAD, speaking to a
man beside a white delivery van.

SAMIR HADDAD, 39. Dark work jacket. Tired face. One
hand raised, mid-sentence.

                   KARA
         Seven oh-three. A traffic camera
         caught them together.

                      NOAH
         Who is he?

                   KARA
         We do not know yet.

                   NOAH
         Release the image.

                   KARA
         We will ask the public to help
         identify him.

                   NOAH
         Say he was the last person seen
         with Leo.

                   KARA
         We do not know that he was.

                   NOAH
         Then what do you know?

                   KARA
         That your son spoke to him for
         forty-one seconds.

She pockets the phone.

                                                         8


                      KARA (CONT'D)
            Mr. Vale, forty-one seconds is not
            a crime.

INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - WASHROOM - NIGHT

Fluorescent light. Noah alone at the basin. Beyond the
door: cables dragged across tile, a lectern tested, a
single electronic tone.

He looks at himself.

                      NOAH
                 (quietly, to the mirror)
            I saw a man speaking to my son.

He dries his hands, one finger at a time.

                      NOAH (CONT'D)
            I saw a man with my son.

A tap DRIPS.

                      NOAH (CONT'D)
            He had a hand on my son's shoulder.

He waits.

                      NOAH (CONT'D)
            Leo pulled away.

The test tone beyond the door stops.

                      NOAH (CONT'D)
            My son was afraid of him.

He straightens his collar.

A YOUNG PRESS OFFICER opens the door.

                      PRESS OFFICER
            Two minutes, Mr. Vale. Whatever
            you can manage.

                      NOAH
            I can manage.

EXT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - PRESS AREA - NIGHT

Rain needles through white television light.

A row of cameras. Reporters. A large screen displaying