Romeo Is Bleeding

You ever seen a ghost?

There's this guy, comes in here every May 1st.

Every May 1st, every December 1st.

Like clockwork.

What's he want? Well, frankly, I ain't exactly sure.

He had the strangest story to tell.

He left this here, and I keep it for him.

How do I know he'll be back?

What's that? A woman was involved?

Mmm. Just fits.

I was married once myself.

Hmm. Beautiful girl.

And by the way, I'm Jim Daugherty. I run the place.

His name? Sure.

His name is Jack Grimaldi.

Hey, there he is now.

Jack was a romantic guy.

Big dreams.

Problem was, there was always a little daylight between his dreams

and his wallet. See, he was a working stiff.

Hey, Billy.

Fifty-six grand a year and never made it past sergeant.

And every day, he looked at a little of this,

and then he looked at too much of that.

And all the time, he was thinkin'...

I bet you know what he was thinkin', don't ya?

You'd have done just what he wound up doing, I'll bet.

Honey, I'm home.

He walked around, just like anybody.

But inside, he wasn't like anybody.

'Cause he was doin' somethin' about those big dreams.

Something only your true love would understand.

Something you'd whisper to her in the middle of the night

and then hold her tight.

That's the way it used to be with them.

He could've told her anything.

Hey! Hey, wait a minute!

I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.

Pretend you didn't see that. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah.

Anyway, his little plan was workin'.

He was doin' great

until the day things started to go wrong.

See, he was watching the feds hiding a mobster.

A guy named Nick Gazzara.

And tomorrow, Nick was supposed to testify against the Mob.

So we put Tommy and Louie in the trunk,

and we drive it over to Hunt's Point Market.

You know, where the dump is over there?

So Ray says to me "Let's burn them."

I says, "Here?" He says, "Yeah." I say, "Okay."

So we go to take Lou out of the trunk, because he was bleeding all over,

and all we had was this, like, shower curtain thing. It was a mess.

So anyway, just as we're about to take him out...

Lou makes this little move like he's still alive. Hmm?

So this makes Ray go crazy, right?

And he starts chopping at him and chopping at him and chopping at him.

And he's calling him all kinds of names. He's calling him a bastard...

This is very good. You wanna taste it?

- No, thanks. - Okay.

So finally, we take Lou out of the trunk,

and Ray pours gasoline all over him and he sets him on fire.

So Ray turns to me, real happy-like.

He was a crazy son of a bitch. I miss him. I really do.

And he's got this real happy look on his face.

And he says to me, "Don't Lou make a nice fire?"

Don't Lou make a nice fire?" That kills me.

We parked the car over at La Guardia.

In a week, they still hadn't found him. Stank like a motherfucker!

Gazzara's at the Monte Carlo, room 515.

Plaza post office, box 1740. Paid in full.

A quarter goes into a phone booth, and 65,000 comes out.

Could you ask for better odds at Vegas?

Thank you.

Now, tell me who you are.

Marilyn Monroe.

It's too corny.

All right. I'm Madam Curie.

And what did Madam Curie do?

I forgot. Jack, you were supposed to take me away for the weekend.

I was in court. Try again.

All right. I'm one of them girls in a Budweiser commercial.

You know, with the big, soft, round, creamy tits.

And long tanned legs.

Who am I?

I had a dream about you last night, Jack.

What did you dream?

Hey, Sheri, let's go! It's nuts out here.

I'm still on my break! Fuck off!

I dreamed you had a wife.

Yeah? And what did she look like?

Me.

Who am I?

Paul Newman.

In what movie?

Hud.

You never saw Hud.

So? I know what happened in it,

and I know that he was the prettiest thing there ever was.

Come on.

Jack, you know what the best part about making it with a cop is?

What?

- You got two guns. - Huh?

One for me, and one for them.

Yeah?

Jack, when I'm walkin' down the street, you know,

and all them guys are lookin' at me,

and I always think to myself "You guys are assholes."

'Cause no matter what they got, my guy's got better.

You know, like they say, a man don't always do what's best for him.

Sometimes he does the worst,

he listens to a voice in his head.

But what do you know? Too late.

He finds out it's the wrong voice.

That's what love can do to ya. That's what it did to him.

Oh, Jack.

Jack. Oh, Jack.

What else did she say? Huh? You fuckin' Romeo.

How come nobody loves me like that?

I don't know. I don't know. What are you doin' today?

I'm gonna follow Frank Malacci out to Aqueduct, like yesterday and last week.

He's gonna meet with nobody and do nothin' wrong.

And I'm gonna go home, and tomorrow,

I'm gonna do the same thing.

Last night, I got fed up.

Me and Joey wired the guy.

What'd you get?

You really wanna know, Sergeant?

Here it is.

11:00 pm. Malacci to Reilly,

"Where do you wanna eat, Pat?"

Reilly to Malacci, "I don't know, Frank. Where do you wanna eat?"

Malacci to Reilly, "How about the Riviera?"

Reilly to Malacci, "That place is full of shit. How about the Paradise Diner?"

"Oh, no."

The feds want this guy? This guy is a killer?

This guy ain't a killer, Jack. This guy is an eater.

2:00 am. Malacci, "Let me stop by here a minute. I wanna pick up some rolls."

Reilly, "Hey, Frank, try the place on the corner."

Hey, hey, Lorraine. All right?

Nick Gazzara got popped.

Boom, boom.

They think what's-her-face, uh, that Russian bitch, Demarkov, did it.

- What they got on it? - Multiple murder. Adds that touch.

Smell like a meat market Easter week.

- Well, what do you want? - Give me a sandwich. Somethin'.

Feds ain't got Gazzara no more.

They gotta make Demarkov talk.

Yeah.

Lorraine, you got somethin' for me?

Yeah, Jack. This.

Hey, how about we go out this weekend?

Eddie wouldn't like it, Jack.

I don't get it. Ever since I sent her husband away, it's like she don't know me.

- Where'd they get him? - A hole-in-the-wall in Williamsburg.

- Monte Carlo. - That's right.

They set him up with a new name, the whole thing.

They were shippin' him to Arizona.

Phoenix. Holiday Diner.

Red velour, right?

Fuck him. He's better off dead.

Those feds didn't come out too good.

She sprayed the place. If you hadn't known, you'd think it was a drug war.

Shit.

Just winged him. The fuck.

So...

It's in the box. Same as always.

She took down that whole room.

It's a new world, right?

They were gonna wait until he got out into the car.

Well, she didn't wait.

No way Nick was gonna make it back to the stand again.

Don Falcone on down, we're looking at life. Ah, couldn't happen.

There's gonna be a lot of heat.

- So? - So?

So you made me a cop killer.

A bullet's a bullet, Jack.

Taking anybody else with him wasn't the deal.

Hey, what are you, out of the business now or what?

You wanna keep him safe, just keep him at home, all right?

Come on.

So this girl, this Demarkov, she's very modern.

She doesn't give a fuck about nothin', except for you-know-what.

Falcone would've given it all to her, too.

She wouldn't wait. Ah, too bad for her.

How much time she lookin' at?

That ain't the point, Jack.

It's not her talkin' Falcone's scared of.

She wants it all. You know the kind.

You gotta take her out before she takes him out. So...

Want the job or not?

What's the money like?

Same as always.

Nobody else gets hurt this time, huh?

Yeah.

Take it.

Like the fall of Rome out there.

Streets gonna be filled with animals.

You keep breathing, huh? See ya next time.

So, what? They playing with new rules now?

More cops' blood?