03/07/2022             3.

As the ambulance is loaded up and screeches away, Ducker turns to a large group of suspects being herded by police to a waiting van. One of the three men who assaulted him in the cloakroom catches his attention.

DUCKER
One sec.

Ducker approaches the guy, staring intensely into his eye. The man stares back emotionlessly. Ducker shakes his head, before striding back inside the pub.

SERGEANT
Where are you going?

DUCKER
We’ve missed something.

CUT TO:

In the backroom of the pub, Ducker scours the walls, clearly looking for something. The police Sergeant watches intently.

SERGEANT
How can you be so sure there’s more?

DUCKER
He told me.

Ducker pulls something and there’s a loud click, before a section of wall pulls away with the heavy painting in front of it. Behind it a narrow chimney is revealed, with a ladder heading down.

4.

DUCKER
Looks like part of an old speakeasy.

SERGEANT
I didn’t know prohibition was a thing in this country.

DUCKER
It wasn’t, clearly someone was expecting the worst.

From what remains of his jacket, Ducker removes a dim torch, clicks it. The light barely reaches the bottom of the hole, yet Ducker proceeds to descend into the dark regardless.

DUCKER
Either that, or it served another purpose…

CUT TO:

At the bottom of the climb, the torch swings around wildly, before Morgan Ducker emerges at the bottom, checking his surroundings. A terribly dark corridor leads towards a heavyset, metal door. As the Sergeant joins the detective at the bottom, Ducker makes his way to the door, wrenching the locks from their slots. 

The inside of the room is perhaps darker then the corridor, with no windows or bulbs providing illumination. The two men stand in the doorway, Ducker’s lowly torch finally shedding some light on the room. As they scan the room, the small beam of light comes to rest on something and all the air seems to be sucked out of the room.

SERGEANT
Oh my God…

DUCKER
You’d better call for help…