you. i've seen you around the base. but you. that's it. you're that policeman with friends in low places. tell me, how's guissepe torres doing these days? those racketeering indictments must have really been a downer- i've done nothing wrong. i'm the victim here. my, my, my, how did things turn so hostile so quickly? if i didn't know better, i'd say you two were out to get me. what, "the truth"? please. there are degrees of truth, officer, always degrees. things are not what they seem. hardy stares at him for a moment and then gets up to leave. my father is a powerful man. over the years he's used that power to protect me, in one form or another, from certain. unpleasantries. i am a homosexual. he is not, shall we say, wild about the idea. he has asked me on numerous occasions to be more discreet about my proclivities, and i have done my best to oblige him. however, in the last four weeks, i began a relationship with another cadet. what do you think of that? the sergeant discovered this relationship and wanted me expelled. my father interceded, so instead, west sectioned me and made sure every other cadet knew that i was gay. he wanted more than that. yes. it was the regular tuesday night drill. he'd let us sleep for an hour and then wake us up, drag us out to the bayou, and work us all night, separate from the others. the door slams open, revealing west. maybe we shouldn't go. you ever been in a hurricane, mueller? we should tell him we're not going. "you're gonna die tonight, faggot" . clear as day. he whispered it in my ear. hardy scratches his temple. you said you wanted to know what happened- i'm telling you the truth. didn't kill him- i wanted to tell someone what he'd said, but i couldn't. mueller would just laugh. nunez and childs wouldn't care. pike and dunbar were okay, but. when west outed me, he isolated me. an outcast among outcasts. and i'd just been told tonight was the night i'd die. the chopper touches down on the edge of the bayou. the door rumbles open as west points out different team directions in the blackness. i knew childs a little, we worked at the px together. the wind is picking up and it's started to rain. their ponchos flap loudly against the elements. i started getting it in my head that maybe west had paid him, maybe he was the one who was supposed to give me a training accident- the roar of gunfire! kendall turns towards it, screaming for a moment. until he sees childs lower his smoking rifle, a shredded target on a tree in front of them. he looks down, noticing has his own weapon trained on childs. . childs steps forward, knocking kendall's rifle away. i'm- i'm sorry. . . all i could think of was west, out there somewhere in the dark. maybe watching the others, maybe watching me. and waiting to make his move. i thought i was gonna have an attack. go into a fit and bite off my own tongue in the middle of the bayou. childs could tell i wasn't right. maybe it was a trick. maybe this was when they'd get me, when i felt safest. but if i struck first and took out childs, then maybe i could make it out alive. kendall raises the rifle. sights childs' back. a moment of utter silence and then. maybe i shouldn't tell you that. maybe i should tell you i wasn't scared at all. but i was. enough to almost kill him. no. poetic justice, though. but that came later. what do we do? don't want to go- what's- he stops, seeing. oh, jesus. . west. literally spread out on the ground, dead. eyes open, face half blackened, he has been ripped in two at the torso. a horrifying sight. kendall stumbles back from it. did- did you- how can you not know- mueller comes at him, screaming: what about pike? there! the cabin -- wooden, one story, and large, it resembles a solidly built shack. it is being thrashed by the storm. poor fucker my ass. yeah and he doesn't know when- oh, you remember now- he was blown up by a phosphorous grenade, they don't exactly sell those at 7-11. maybe he's dead too. maybe you killed them both, mueller- right in front of us. mueller went after him but we held him back. pike surrendered and volunteered to be tied up. so we roped him to a chair and tried to ride out the storm. because he had a plan. don't think i want to hear this- you're sick, pike. he turns and walks away. pike watches him go. later on i.saw him talking to dunbar. they had been close. i was in another room when it happened. i don't think he meant to do it. it was just reflex - he'd already been gutshot. i must have passed out cause next thing i knew. and that's it. hardy is silent. staring at him. because he'd shot mueller. like i said, i was in the kitchen. when i came out, mueller and pike were dead, nunez and childs were hit and dunbar was gone. i honestly don't know. maybe to have someone to cover for him. and i wish i could, but there's no doubt in my mind he killed those men. silence. kendall's got nothing more to say. mr. hardy? hardy turns back. what did dunbar tell you? somebody emptied a full clip into him- hardy (v.o.} stop. so you took off your shirt? mueller, what the fuck- pike, please- oh. . my god. mueller lowers his arm, the pistol clattering to the floor. his face, as shocked as the others. you framed-him. okay- he is cut off as the wind outside roars - the hurricane mounting to it's full force - and the windows blow inwards, showering childs, mueller, and nunez with glass! dunbar's hand flies to his pistol, pulling it. mueller, screaming, trying to claw the glass from his eyes. childs, seeing dunbar move, pulls the trigger. . . and the cabin is filled with the thunder of gunfire as kendall goes down, clutching his arm. dunbar fires, hitting childs directly in the chest. childs, still shooting, falls back, his random spray of bullets punching into mueller who jerks like a marionette. nunez, drawing a bead on dunbar, about to shoot, when. a great crescendo of wood splintering and supports buckling overtakes them and the cabin's roof comes down on their heads. we've been making progress, i see. running out of time, are we? tick- tock, tick-tock, how long till your witnesses fly the coop? not much time to solve the crime. tell me, detective, how did it feel taking blood money from guissepe torres? did it weigh on your conscience or did you just not think about it? how many murders did you cover up? one? five? maybe an even ten. i think they're giving me the wrong medicine. this isn't a very good hospital, you know- epileptic attacks are murder on your system. rattle your internal organs like a paint mixer. no, but it got you interested, didn't it? got you to dig. inspired ray to tell you terribly sordid tales about drugs and creek beds and dead little sergeants who stuck their noses where they didn't belong. there's that word again. as i told you, i wasn't in the room when everyone started shooting. then he's mistaken. you know, i really don't think my father would approve of this line of questioning- so i should stay silent about his misdeeds? the guns went off, i ran in, childs shot me, pike and mueller were dead, and dunbar was running out the door with the smoking gun- no. i said dunbar. i believe your next line is "what are you trying to hide?" sorry to disappoint. i'm on painkillers for the injury - they cloud the mind. you're right, it was nunez. any more questions? hardy doesn't know what to say. that was his ace card. don't get me wrong, mueller and childs were quite the pair, the type of guys you didn't feel comfortable going to sleep around. completely capable of murder. but as i said, i didn't hear the exchange before the shooting. i wasn't in the room. osborne furrows her brow at this as hardy continues. then we'll leave it up to the courts - his word against mine. what does his father do again? steelworker? doesn't matter, i'm sure justice will be served. in any case, my father will definitely want to talk to you about all these questions, these accusations on his son. he's quite protective. i was just thinking of what's going to happen to your careers when my father gets through with you. hardy pulls the out microrecorder and hands it to osborne. you can't threaten me- didn't do anything- what? it won't work- wait- dunbar's telling the truth. we did get our stories straight, but not because we killed anyone. it was because i threatened him. because of what i saw. who really killed west. osborne holds up the microrecorder and starts the tape again. childs. because i was standing next to him. he pauses, taking a shaky sip of water. i was in on the px thing. he and mueller and me, we were making thousands. west found out. childs said we were just gonna scare him - use my dad's clout. i had this whole speech prepared about how if he ratted us, his career was over. we met him in the creek bed but before i said anything. i swear, i didn't know he was gonna do it. after, he told me we were gonna pin it on pike, one of our biggest customers. nobody'd believe the word of a black junkie ex-con against ours. childs gives kendall a look that says "stay quiet". he told me i'd better keep quiet, or i'd end up the same as west. pan over to dunbar, who binds his friend, sadly. dunbar didn't know anything about any of it. everything he told you was true, except after. i told him what had really happened to west. told him to keep quiet about it or i'd destroy him. because if it came out that i was involved with the whole px scam, my father would be finished. i scared dunbar into silence. he's been trying to cover for me the whole time. we got here, you came to see me. i didn't know if i could trust him with that kind of secret- he came after us. and i told dunbar he had to kill him. do it! dunbar's rifle erupts. and he did. i didn't- i don't know- maybe- f-f-f-f-f-f-fuh- fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh- fuh-fucking pike. and relapses into another fit as security guards drag hardy and osborne from the room.