INT. HOSPITAL PRIVATE ROOM - LATE DAY
Quirk is strapped to a hospital bed. His left leg is in a full cast held high in traction.
Quirk’s face shows cuts, bruises and contusions.
Judge Griffin appears he is wearing an expression of horror.
Quirk awakens.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Merciful God! ‘Tis a wonder you weren’t killed.
QUIRK
Last thing I remember I jumped a puddle and...
(Beat)
Who knows?
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Drunk, no doubt?
QUIRK
Good to see you too, Garret.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Alone?
Quirk tries to remember.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
By yourself, were you?
QUIRK
I think Phoebe came by earlier. I know Mal was here.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Phoebe’s going to America. Did she tell you?
QUIRK
On holiday? Josh Crawford arranges this, no doubt.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Not on holiday. I’m not sure. I stay out of these matters.
QUIRK
That boyfriend, ‘the prod’ Conor Carrington; done? Has he been given his marching orders?
JUDGE GRIFFIN
These mixed marriages, never work, aye?
The Judge fills his pipe. He thinks about lighting up but puts the pipe in his pocket.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Phoebe is... how old?
QUIRK
Twenty, in the New Year.
The Judge taps Quirk’s cast with his fingers.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
When you left my house, you were in a hurry?
QUIRK
Barney Foley at McGonagle’s. I’m sorry.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Something you don’t like about my whiskey? Is it my company you find intolerable?
QUIRK
Barney’s a chum. He’s been up against it. I arranged to...
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Barney Foley the former city tax accountant, is it?
QUIRK
Aye Garret!
T’was a long time ago.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Same Barney Foley, fancies rhyming his destain for the recently departed, is it?
QUIRK
‘Tis.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Same Barney Foley the drunken sot, steal you blind, whose wife left him for a Scotsman?
QUIRK
Come on, Judge. Barney’s a chum.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Was.... your chum, Barney Foley I read is no longer among the living.
Quirk is stunned.
QUIRK
What happened?
JUDGE GRIFFIN
What happens to old sots?
He’s drown in the Grand Canal.
Quirk is shaking.
QUIRK
I remember, we were being chased.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Mind me well lad. Ease up on the spirits. Aye that vacation? That would do you both some good, you and Phoebe.
QUIRK
Boston! Aye! See for myself what Mal’s up to with Josh Crawford’s money.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Malachi may be as dense as hickory but he’s a good man. Even you, must see that?
QUIRK
A young woman died,Garret! Another was murdered. I asked Barney to make inquiries...
JUDGE GRIFFIN
You’re not suggesting Mal is involved?
QUIRK
He was. He is. I told you he arranged for Christine Falls to be...
JUDGE GRIFFIN
I know what you told me Quirk. He’s my son. He would tell me, if...
QUIRK
You’re the Chief Justice, for bloody Christ!
JUDGE GRIFFIN
I see you’re not much of a believer, are you? The Lord stamps a seal on every soul, even one as black as yours, Quirk.
QUIRK
I’ve studied human anatomy. All those corpses I’ve cut open, I’ve never found a repository for the soul.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
We, all of us, Mal, Ben Costigan, Josh Crawford we are all obliged, duty bound, to make this world a better place.
The Judge tries to sit on the edge of the bed. The Judge slides off. He lands on his feet.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
You and Mal I hoped you would be like true brothers.
QUIRK
Mal was always jealous. So was I.
I wanted Sarah, I got Delia.
JUDGE GRIFFIN
Aye. And sorry you did, I know that. Go easy on Mal.
Quirk closes his eyes. Judge Griffin exits.
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