i'm done here. do i come back to baltimore?
delmar? i never go out to california. that's a thousand miles from here.
i know.
maybe i'll swing around los ang gleez on the way.
roy?
roy? you asleep?
my god!
tell the doctor i work for bobo justus, and this is an emergency. don't worry, he knows who bobo is.
what? he's going to be all right!
well, make it stop!
you know who i work for.
my son will be all right. if he isn't, i'll have you killed.
roy? he's always crying.
i like you, too.
so what's your story today?
only one arm?
only one tooth?
come on, kid, let's see if there's any food in the house.
not quite. but i'm not sure who you are, mrs.  langtry, was it?
yes. i imagine you're lots of people's friend.
aren't we all?
roy. you're going to be all right.
i'm working down in san diego. just for a few weeks. thought i'd drop in on my long-lost son.
second time i gave it to you.
well.  you're all right now, i guess. i have to get down to the track.
don't mention it.
you always did.
should my ears be burning?
i heard those skirts were coming back.
just a little accident. i went by your place, picked up your mall. just bills, i'll take care of them.
whatever you say. the manager says your boss called. really pulled the wool over everybody's eyes, huh?
stop kidding me! four years in a town like los ang-gleez, and a peanut selling job is the best you can do? you expect me to believe that?
and that dump you live in! those clown pictures on the walls!
you do not! roy dillon? cornball clown pictures? commission salesman? it's all a front, isn't it? you're on the grift, i know you are. you're working some angle, and don't tell me you're not because i wrote the book!
that's me. that's who i am. you were never cut out for the rackets, roy, and if you --
you aren't tough enough.
no. and you have to be.
you asked me about this. you really want to know what happened?
my boss is a guy named bobo justus, back in baltimore. when a long shot gets too much action, i have to put money on that horse at the track, because it's the only way to get the odds down.
the first day of the delmar meet, there was a nag called bluebell. i should have been on it. but that was the day after you came in here, so i stuck around to see how you were gonna be.
that was my choice, nothing to do with you. i took a chance, and it didn't work out.
i sent bobo ten grand of my own money, like it was the winnings from my bets. i hoped that would cover me. it didn't.
hi, bobo.
well, i guess so. you're the guy i work for.
i'm not getting away with anything, bobo.
i was down on that horse, bobo. not as much as i should have been, but there was a lot of action on those--
i want to keep my teeth.
bobo, no, i --
my son --
my son was in the hospital --
he left home a long time ago. he was in the hospital, up in los ang gleez, real sick.
i never fucked up before, bobo.
you do buy it, bobo. i cost you, and i'm sorry.
it'll never happen again. i swear.
you're calling the shots.
no.
you mean, the insurance frammis?
you hit a person with the oranges in the towel, they get big, awful looking bruises, but they don't really get hurt, not if you do it right. it's for working scams against insurance companies.
it can louse up your insides. you can get puh, puh, puh.
permanent damage.
oh, thanks, bobo.
gee, i better not, if it's okay. i still gotta drive back up to los ang-gleez.
he's a good kid. a salesman.
from you? my folks didn't raise any stupid kids.
oh, well, you know. i just clip a buck here and a buck there. not enough to notice.
a person that don't look out for himself is too dumb to look out for anybody else. he's a liability, right, bobo?
or else he's working an angle. if he doesn't steal a little, he's steeling big.
you know, i like that suit, bobo. i don't know what there is about it, but it somehow makes you look taller.
well, you can tell them i said they're right. i better get going. roy'll wonder where i am.
i will. so long, bobo.
lucky! lucky! oh, am i lucky.! am i lucky!
he let me live. he let me be his friend.
you do if you're where i am. where you want to be. how'd you get that punch in the stomach, roy?
get off the grift, roy.
you don't have the stomach for it.
i just give you your life. what you do with it is up to you.
go away.
could i have some coffee, please?
your pal wants you.
yes.
oh! are you all right?
i shouldn't have hit him that hard. i guess i don't know my own strength.
i thought i did. you should take better care of your friend.
i'm sorry a lady can't eat in here without being bothered.
that sounds nice. pecan pie. thank you.
roy! what are you doing in san diego?
if you come out to the track, don't know me.
what's that?
roy, i don't want money from you.
you do?
no. that was the point.
no can do. have to dip in and out of my bag too much. besides, it'll heal in the air.
roy, take that back.
i thought.  i was hoping we could play it straight with one another.
after the meet. back to baltimore.
you, too, roy.
prick.
yes?
roy! an unexpected pleasure.
well, sure, roy. you want me to drive up --? okay, fine, come on down. it won't be a home-cooked meal, you know.
roy?
good evening. i'd like a single for tonight.
i'm a very light sleeper, traffic noise keeps me wide awake all night.
do you have something around back, facing away from the road?
sounds perfect. i can park my car back there?
fine.
and i'll want to leave an early wake-up call.
oh! roy! you scared me.
somewhere else, that's for sure.
oh, yeah? is the frame holding?
i've really got to --
not for long. not when they do a fingerprint check.
bobo won't be. he'll spend the money to make sure.
just for a minute.
she must have been the one that blew me off with bobo. i guess to get me running. did you tell her about my stash?
no, you wouldn't. that's what she was after, though. but why hit on me?
as though you do what i say.
roy, it was terrible. you read about people killing people and all that, but when it happens, my god.
she was in her nightgown, you know, the old grifter's dodge, nightgown and the ice bucket and she just got into the wrong room by mistake.
i sat in there with her, i thought, what do i do now? run and i've got bobo and the law after me. stay, and how do i explain?
it is, isn't it? and maybe it's a break for me after all. i've been wanting out of the racket for years, and now i'm out. i can make a clean start, and --
i'm sorry. i hated to take your money, but --
i need this, roy. i can't run without money, and if i can't run i'm dead.
just a few bucks.
her credit cards. how far am i gonna get with that?
at what?
a job? i've never had a legit job in my life!
roy, i know what to do with myself! it's a big world out there.
what?
roy, that's fine, but i don't have time for this. bobo --
bobo isn't after you! bobo's after me, and he's goddamn good! but so am i. i'm a survivor, roy. i survive.
and to survive, my way, i need money. bobo knows about the stash in the car, so i didn't dare touch it, not if lilly dillon's dead. so that leaves this.
you want a drink?
no, but i'm goddamn thirsty. ice water?
i'll get it.
take whichever one you want.
you don't know what i'd do, roy. you have no idea. to live.
i know what's bugging you, of course.
oh, really? you've got a legitimate complaint, roy, i don't deny that. i wasn't a very good mother when you were a kid.
a bad mother. by any standards. i've thought about it, you know, from your side, since then. i know just how bad i was.
i wonder did you ever think about it from my side.
no, i guess not. it was pretty lousy of me, i guess, to be a child at the same time you were. not to stop being a child just because i had a child. i guess i was a real stinker not to be a grown-up when you needed a grown-up.
and making you feel bad at the same time, huh? but that's the way i am, you know, the way i've always been. always picking on poor little roy.
i gave you your life twice. i'm asking you to give me mine once. i need the money.
you're getting off the grift?
that's good. you don't really belong on this side of the fence, you know.
if you stayed a crook, do you think you'd live to be my ripe age?
well, i guess i got it wrong, then. seems to me i heard about a guy just your age that got hit so hard in the guts it almost killed him.
sure, sure, that doesn't count. that's different.
and that's why you've got to get rid of this money. if you keep it around, it'll just make you think how clever you are. it'll be a temptation to get back into the game.
a future. the only future i've got.
) that's what it is, isn't it? keep me down. your turn to be in charge, have the power.
roy.  what if i told you i wasn't really your mother? that we weren't related?
you'd like that, wouldn't you? sure you would. you don't need to tell me. now, why would you like it, roy?
roy.  roy
i have to have that money, roy. what do i have to do to get it?
no? won't you give me the money, roy? can't i change your mind? what can i do to change your mind?
is there nothing i can do, roy, nothing at --