Guilt

MAX: I've always needed something more, something deeper.

When I was younger, it was fear, then fear turned to greed.

Max?

MAX: In prison, I tried guilt, but it didn't work.

Guilt's about looking back.

What I needed is something that can help me now.

It's revenge.

(thunder claps) (whimpers) (click) ERIN: I'm not one for sentiment.

It's not in my genes.

But I suppose the occasion deserves it.

It's a year since Adrian went into that place.

Which means that it's a year and two weeks since Adrian said he was going to Waitrose and then got home a fortnight later, having lost two stone and gained a tattoo.

(guests laugh) People underestimate the dietary value of cocaine.

(guests laugh) MAN: What's the tattoo?

Geronimo.

It looks like Jimmy Krankie.

WOMAN: Where did you lose the two weeks?

Oh, it's not really about the immediate surroundings with that stuff... No, it's about the glamour of it.

Which, in Adrian's case, meant a fortnight off his (muted) in a Travelodge.

(guests laugh) Oh!

It was a Premier Inn.

(guests laugh) I can't help feeling this speech has gone off the rails just a bit.

ERIN: If I was one for sentiment, then I'd not thank Adrian-- that's a bit much-- but I would acknowledge that, one way or another, you've managed to pull yourself up to somewhere near normality.

I'm glad you got there, and I hope you stay there.

She means "stay boring."

(guests laugh) Yeah, I do.

So...

Here's to boring.

ALL: To boring.

ALL: Mm.

ERIN: Do you like the wine?

(group talking softly) (engine humming) (engine revving) (keys jingling) (keys jingling) (objects clattering) You're as high as a (muted) kite.

It's over, obviously.

Look at this.

There's 100 grand.

Easy.

Where have you been?

I, uh, I couldn't sleep.

Clearly.

I went out, and one thing led to another, but the important thing is that this was an accident.

I saw an opportunity, and I took it, and, and this is it, Erin.

This is us getting out of the hole.

I wasn't aware that we were in a hole.

Well, you know, my, my rehab's still on the credit card.

And there's another, a few, um... (clears throat) Look, this is it.

The way out.

You're pathetic.

I'll sort myself out, I, I promise.

This is what I needed-- a clean slate.

You've never wanted for anything in your life, and that includes clean (muted) slates.

This is different.

You know, Adrian, people like you, you grew up with so much safety that you think danger is exciting.

Well, it's not.

It's pain, and misery, and desperate men doing desperate things.

(stammering): I, I don't, I don't, I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do next.

That's how it starts.

(glass shatters) (footsteps tapping) (exhales) (door creaks) (whispering): Go, go, go, go!

Big mistake, buddy.

Big mistake.

(gun fires) (gasps) (body thuds) (shouts) (grunts) (gun clatters, Joe gasps) (coughs, moans) (panting) (groaning) Okay.

Listen.

(panting) No... No!

(gun fires, Joe gasps) (gasping) (grunts) (breath trembling) (inhales) (Joe choking, coughing) (gasping) (breath trembling) (coughing) (light switch clicks, door closes) ("F-'oldin' Money" by the Fall playing) I went to the bank just to get a little money When he told me their requirements I started feeling funny They said "You ain't got a house You ain't got a plot" I ain't got a window and I ain't got a job But it takes a lot of blue-backs to satisfy my honey If I could get my hands on some f-'oldin' money Well, I went to the Social Just to get a little pension I was sorely in distress, I was needing some attention They said, "You don't get qualified You don't get a dime" That's when I broke his jaw That's why I'm doin' time But it takes a lot of blue-backs To satisfy my honey If I could get my hands on some f-'oldin' money (mail sliding on floor) (song stops) (sniffs) (bag drops) YVONNE (voiceover): I don't have a story.

Not yet.

I sit here and I watch you tell your stories, and I'm grateful, because you let me sit here, without speaking, and count another meeting, another day.

Now I've done 100 days, and... Maybe I'm close to the one where I tell a story, too.

Thank you.

(all clapping) (clapping continues) YVONNE (voiceover): How do you do it?

Sit there and offer up your worst moments?

Well, offering them up robs them of something.

I don't think about who I was before I came here.

(chuckling): Neither do I, but the more I talk about who I was in there, the more I leave him in there.

Give it a go, when you're ready.

(car alarm chirps) Nice motor!

(chuckling): It was his pride and joy.

Divorce, you know?

Little victories.

(chuckles) Where are you parked?

Uh, uh, 'round the corner.

Maybe sometime we could, I don't know, meet up and do what people do when they don't drink.

(exhales) Tea... (laughs) Oh.

(laughs) Is that what people do, meet up for a cup of tea?

(stammering): Uh, we, we can't meet up.

Um, not away from here.

Oh, right, um... Yeah, it's sort of, um, sort of frowned upon?

Yeah, I get it, yeah.

You, you can call me, if you like.

I'm only just in the door myself, in the grand scheme of things, but...

I'd like that.

See you later.

See you.

(door closes) (engine starts) (scoffs) (knocks) MAX (voiceover): It is important, Roy, to recognize that things have changed.

Very good.

I accept the fall.

Well, the fall was deserved.

And perhaps, at some level, the fall was needed.

(chuckles) What I cannot accept is, how far it is being suggested that I have fallen is disproportionate-- it's not right.

I see.

Because there's another way it could have gone.

A way where I would have barely fallen at all, but others would have, Roy.

You would have.

But I didn't pursue that option.

I kept quiet.

I sat in that cell for two years with a lunatic for company and kept quiet.

So I'm asking you, with respect, to soften the fall.

Two years?

The game's crooked.

I'm a lawyer.

Were.

And now you're out, and wounded, and bitter.

And greedy!

This is not greed.

It is many things, but it is not greed.

I've already granted you the greatest favor I can.

I've allowed you to continue to breathe the rich air of Edinburgh.

And you'll continue to do so.

As long as you're... (chuckles): ...irrelevant.

I just need a piece.

Of what I had, of who I was.

Just a piece, and I can get myself back from there.

No matter who you are, Max, you come out of there and you find that your old life has run for the hills.

Except that it hasn't run very far, though, has it?

I mean, this was my business, and you owe me.

For this, for everything.

(scoffs) Even if that were true, I can't engage with you.

Not now that I'm legit.

Not now that you're dirtier than ever.

You are still falling, Max.

You have yet to land.

And if you're looking for salvation, you should aim a little lower.

Damage.

The damage you do.

I wasn't exactly spared damage myself.

How was it?

It was dispiriting.

Jake?

Chicago.

That's where the keys came from, anyway.

To his flat.

Where, astonishingly, I currently reside.

No note?

The keys were the note.

Kenny, you once suggested to me that we work together as partners.

It's a cause of not inconsiderable surprise that that idea now makes a sort of sense.

On a business level.

And on another.

I feel guilt, Kenny.

For the way I treated you.

This is a chance to rectify that.

I've heard you're doing okay.

Now it's time for you to do even better.

(inhales deeply) Let me tell you how I've spent the last two years.

A morning meeting, a day's graft, and evenings at Sighthill College.

Now I'm two years dry, I get the kids every other Saturday, and I've got an HND in legal services, which, as you and I both know, means I'm licensed to produce legal documents.

And you're not.

You're disbarred.

So you want to produce legal documents on my license, that's all this is-- there's no guilt.

(laughs): That's not an emotion you would entertain.

(exhales) An HND leaves you somewhat lacking in legal expertise, which is why you're working out of a (muted)hole in Leith and have made the catastrophic decision to name your business Burns Investigations.

It's my name.

It sounds a little niche.

Well, we've had the odd misunderstanding...

Still living in Pilton?

Pilton Borders.

Remember this moment, Kenny.

This is when your life turns.

Me and you.

Legal services for the good people of Leith.

Your license, my knowledge.

Start small, get bigger.

And get out of Pilton.

(exhales) If you're working under my license, you're working under me.

With you.

As partners.

This is your last resort, isn't it?

Coming here.

That's you all over, Max.

Thinking too much of yourself and too little of me.

What are you saying, Kenny?

I'm saying you're right.

(clears throat) This place needs a bit of work.

So maybe that's where we start.

A wee trial run.

("Burn the Heather" by the Lounge Society playing) I hear the tales of both cities Of light pockets and heavy hearts Where fresh meat's red And unchained souls are torn apart (murmuring) (song playing loudly in other apartment) (people arguing in apartment above) (sighs) (song playing clearly) (brush clattering in empty can, brushing drily) (muted) (screams) (muted) (phone ringing and vibrating) (phone ringing) WOMAN (on television): I'm not going back with you.

(phone ringing) MAN (on television): You better stay out of this.

(phone ringing) (sighs) Yeah.

KENNY (on phone): Did you do it?

I did.

So you're serious.

(dance music blaring) MAX: Yeah.

KENNY: I never thought I'd see you like this, Max.

I share your surprise.

(music continues in other apartment) (sighing) I want a better life.

I can give you it.

(music continues, people talking loudly) You'd be working for me.

I'd be working for you.

(music and talking continue) (phone button clicks) (phone ringing) Hello.

ERIN (on phone): Dad?

How are you?

ERIN: Well...

I'm calling you.

(traffic humming in background) (door creaks) (lock turns) It's good to hear from you.

A shame about the circumstances.

You're hearing from me because of the circumstances.

Tell me about Adrian's family.

(sighs softly) They gave up on him.

A few rehabs ago.

But I presume they'll come looking eventually.

A police detective will file a missing persons report, which will say that Adrian left suddenly, that he had a troubled private life, that he took his passport, emptied his account, and was sighted at the airport.

And why would a policeman do that?

Because I'll suggest he does.

Tell your friends he relapsed, you kicked him out.

You're sad, but it's hardly the first time, and you've got to move on.

And what about...

The other one?

He has a regimental tattoo and smells like a brewery.

Ex-Army, full of drink, and owns a gun.

We can make that look the way people would expect it to look.

The money...

I don't want it.

Not like that you don't, but cleaned up, legitimate, it becomes something else.

It becomes enough to repair the damage he's done, and to give you a break from men like him.

I don't want it.

And I don't need it.

Really?

(dishes clanking) I heard about your business.

And cocaine's expensive.

This isn't going to be what you hope it's gonna be.

I've managed without you for a long time.

How's that working out?

(dishes clanking) I couldn't help noticing, when I was down there, that the other one hasn't been dead as long as Adrian.

Are we finished?

Go to bed.

There will be some coming and going, but you stay up there.

It'll be daylight in three hours, give it four for safety, then come downstairs, and this is all gone.

A new day.

Thanks.

For calling me.

I don't know anyone else who does what you do.

You won't believe me, but...

I don't do this anymore.

(huffs softly) (inhales) ("Anthem" by Father John Misty playing) The birds, they sang At the break of day "Start again" I heard them say Don't dwell On what has passed away Or what is yet to be Ring the bells That still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack In everything That's how the light gets in (song fades) YVONNE: Thursdays.

They were the problem.

Then Thursdays got so bad that on Friday, I had to drink just to get past them.

Then the fear of Thursday took down Wednesday, but... That was okay, sort of, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, less than half the week.

Then my colleague got promoted over me.

That made Mondays hard, going back to that.

So Monday went, then the thought of it took down Sunday, and, I mean, Tuesday was just sort of hanging around feeling sorry for itself, so I put that out of its misery.

So that's six days-- not great, but it was okay, because of Saturday.

I ran on Saturdays.

Up Arthur's Seat-- it's, like, ten miles.

Then, one Saturday, I was at the top of Arthur's Seat, looking out over the city, and... (chuckles sadly): Feeling halfway good about myself, and there she was-- my ex's wife.

In Lycra with not a drop of sweat on her, and talking about the healing power of clouds, and that was Saturday gone.

That was when, that was when I started drinking in, in a way that had to take me somewhere and...

I'm glad.

I'm glad it took me here.

Thank you.

(group clapping) KENNY: Feel good?

(sighs): Yeah.

Particularly when I got to slag her off.

Mm.

That's what this place is all about.

Slagging folk off and (muted) coffee.

(chuckles) (exhaling): Christ.

(people talking in background) (quietly): Maybe we can, uh, meet up, you know.

Not here.

Really?

I, I...

It'll be fine.

"Fine"?

(both laugh) Good, it'll be good.

It'll be good.

(door opens, closes) There we go, Max, honest toil.

Nothing like it.

The work is its own reward.

Conan Doyle said that.

(exhales) Did you know he grew up in a flat on Picardy Place?

(sighs): Yeah, there's a rather large statue outside of it.

Now, I was thinking, our priorities... Oh, here we are!

Right, I thought I'd do my bit to kick us off.

A niche.

That's what we need.

Something to get people's attention.

Get them in the door.

And what I landed on, for our niche, wills.

Wills?

�99.99-- 100 quid will.

Can you imagine it?

Is that a hard thing to imagine?

But that's just to get them in the door, you see?

Because when people think about their wills, that's when it all comes tumbling out.

Estrangements, kaput marriages, money disputes.

So they hear about our deal on wills, right, they come in, they take a card, and soon enough, they're back for more.

More paperwork for you to draw up, a wee bit of the old investigatory for me.

What... (clears throat) What's going on here, Kenny?

That's an owl.

I can see the owls.

I'd struggle not to see the owls.

The owl, as you should really know, was the Roman symbol of justice.

They'd have them, they'd have them caged in their courtrooms, which is a wee bit cruel, right enough, but... Yeah, my issue with the owls is that they are so plentiful.

Now, now, Max, let's stay positive.

Conan Doyle grew up in a one-bedder with no shoes on his feet and a dad in the Royal Asylum, and look where he got to.

It's a terrible thing, getting old.

All the things you thought were dealt with, they come back stronger just as you get weaker.

And maybe that's it.

Maybe I'm going soft.

Either way, you're right, Max.

I owe you.

A lot of men lose their nerve in that place.

But you didn't, so... A wee gesture.

And, uh, a bigger one.

Clean it, take your usual cut, give it back.

I thought you were legit.

I am-- that's why I'm here.

Where's this come from?

I, I'm not involved in this.

You're looking well, son.

Considering what happened the last time you were in my vicinity.

Let's keep you looking well.

MAX: This isn't help, Roy.

This is something else.

I just haven't worked out what yet.

Clean it and give it back.

KENNY (voiceover): We're not doing it.

I can clean it in a day.

Our cut would be the first step to setting up properly, uptown.

This isn't what this is gonna be, Max.

Me, you, this place isn't gonna be this.

I agree, and it won't be, after this.

The thing about Roy asking you to do something is that he isn't really asking.

(sighs) Well, if he's legit, then the money isn't his.

And this looks like the kind of money that people'll come looking for.

Well, he can't lose.

We clean it up or get caught with it.

Well, whoever's money it is, they don't know it's missing yet.

How do you know that?

Because they're not here.

It's a tracker.

So why don't we see who comes looking for it?

(chuckles) (television playing) (phone ringing) (film pauses) (ringing continues) Hi.

There's debt I didn't know about.

He's been forging my signature.

Well, at least he had one talent.

If it's safe, I'll take it.

I thought you might.

It's in motion.

(phone button clicks) How are you doing?

(places phone down) (places phone down) (car horn honks in distance) (door closes) Leith Legals.

Should be busy.

Yeah, you'd think so.

Are you done?

Yeah.

How clean is it?

Spotless.

Send it here.

Not directly.

I know how it works-- I invented how it works.

You're running your own messages now?

Do you like Westerns, Max?

No.

Escape.

That's what they've been for me, since I was a boy.

At the Alhambra at the Foot of the Walk.

Sunday double bill.

The good stuff, you know?

John Ford, Howard Hawks.

Men that knew their way around a story.

And I still escape into these stories, just like at the Alhambra.

But last night, I couldn't.

Because I kept thinking, why did you ask me that?

Why did you ask me where the money was from?

When you know how it works.

It was because of him.

Kenny.

It's his license.

I feel, um... Oh, I don't know, I feel... ...responsible for him, I suppose, to a degree.

Not many men go inside and come out better.

Well, I couldn't have come out worse.

Where is he?

A.A.

So that's what's wrong with him.

Oh, you should have seen him before.

Do you trust him?

More than I trust you.

(door opens) (door closes) I used to feel sorry for people-- normal people.

I convinced myself they were all living these empty lives.

Like, I'd be walking about half-cut, freezing cold because I'd lost my jacket three pubs back, trying to find the bus fare home, thinking... (laughs) "Look at all these poor bastards with their boring lives and their nice, warm jackets."

(laughs) I have to go to work.

Same.

Legal services.

Got my own practice.

Right.

You, you don't have to, um... You know, we, we share what we want to share.

I'd like to do this again.

So would I.

(doorbell rings) The thing about blind trusts... ERIN: Do you have a card?

Blind trusts are supposed to stop conflicts of interest, to maintain purity and honor.

(clears throat) (chuckling): But law is no match for humanity.

And so there is another form of blind trust, which is about diversion.

Confusion-- building a maze.

That's what they tried to do with your blind trust, but they didn't do it very well, which is why I know it's yours.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

You're the sole beneficiary of a blind trust stuck together by a bunch of hack lawyers working for a man called Roy Lynch.

I see.

Is he an associate of yours?

No, he's not.

I didn't think so.

Is your husband home?

No.

I used to have a house like this.

(sniffs) They come with pressure.

The kind of pressure that might lead your husband into hiding things in your name.

The kind of pressure that might send him to Roy Lynch.

We're separated.

This is my house.

So, tell me, in what capacity are you here, in my house, asking me these things?

I'm setting up the trust.

This is my due diligence, making sure that everything's aboveboard.

(chuckles) Should I speak to the police?

Lothian Police?

Christ, they couldn't get a cat out of a tree.

(laughs) No, no, no, I'll, uh, sort this out myself.

(grunts) You're a long way from Leith.

And your owl sanctuary.

My partner designed those cards.

He's an alcoholic.

Thanks for your time.

What moves you to act the way you are?

What moves you to fall into their arms?

What moves you to wish each other harm?

What moves you to act the way you are?

What moves when you beat each other down?

What moves when you act the way you are?

What moves you to fall into their arms?

What moves you to beat each other down?

(song fades) You diddle me.

With your dealing.

(laughing): I don't know how you do it, but you diddle me.

I called him.

Dad.

I saw him, I'm sorry.

You must have been desperate.

It won't happen again.

Just because I don't have anything to do with him doesn't mean you shouldn't-- he's got his uses.

I don't, it was just...

It won't happen again.

But you'll be pleased to hear that Adrian's gone.

(exhales) How can you tell me that, love, and expect my old heart to take it?

No, he wasn't...

He wasn't a bad man under it all.

Under the trousers?

What kind of Scotsman rises in the morning and decides that his very best option is to spend the day cutting about town in a pair of red trousers?

Well, I'm happy you're happy.

It's all right to aim upwards, love.

God knows I wish I had, but you don't have to settle for that.

It won't happen again.

(telephone ringing in distance) STEVIE: Can you write these up, Yvonne?

(folders drop on desk) Sorry, I've been up to my ears all day.

I'll be here all night.

Well, that'll keep you out of trouble.

How it's going?

With the other thing?

Fine, thanks.

And you're being careful?

In this job, anything like that, any weakness, folk can use it against you.

I'm aware of that, Stevie.

I'm being careful.

Well done, pal-- I'm proud of you.

You're not taking my money.

You're getting something out of him.

A silver lining.

For what he took from you.

For what he made you do.

I spent so much time trying to get away from you.

And here I (muted) am.

Growing up in this city, with my name, if you'd been a boy, you'd have maybe been proud, or a wee bit gallus with it.

But you were embarrassed.

You thought running away from me would make life easier, but you got that backwards.

You should have embraced who I am.

Because that's who you are.

People used to say to me, "Do you wish you had a boy to pass it on to?

", but...

But it's not about sons and daughters.

It's deeper than that.

It's about what's inside.

And you're forged from steel, Erin.

I saw it in you from when you were a wee girl.

And I see it now.

And I saw it when I was down those stairs back there.

Thinking about what I told you when you were young, that we don't call the police, and how that's still there, inside you.

You are me.

And I'm getting old.

And there is a kingdom.

And it requires an heir.

Thanks for the money.

I'm watching you, son.

Sorry?

I'm watching you.

Scouting around.

Picking off stragglers.

What are you suggesting?

It's the weak ones, isn't it?

I mean, we're all weak, but even then.

I saw you at Moira's yesterday.

She's half-cooked with dementia.

What can you be peddling that's gonna help her?

I'm not peddling anything.

I'm offering a highly attractive property investment that will offer financial security to some of your fellow residents.

New flats at Leith.

Ah.

They're yours to sell, are they?

Yeah.

Which means I'm busy.

(softly): Which means wind your (muted) neck in.

Best of luck to you, son.

("Tastes Good With the Money" by Fat White Family playing) (dog barks) Ornamental kindness Heats both of my hands Oooh (weeping) It tastes good with the money (weeping) Tried to figure my way home Via the Hollywood Hills Mmm It tastes good with the money (song playing faintly) Is he still here?

What do you think?

What's up?

Well, he's filed a missing person, but he's cocked up the registration.

Hm.

(chuckling): Been too long out the trenches, that one.

What's he doing his own filing for, anyway?

I don't know.

Here, I'll enter it again.

How'd he get it?

The D.I.

position, over you?

He used what he had.

(song continues faintly) (full volume resumes): I'll never look at a tower block The same way again Ooh (car approaching) It tastes good with the money And one more faith Bursting into flames (song continues faintly): The air up there... He'd no have done it.

Suicide.

Coward's way out.

He wasn't a coward.

That's what I'm saying.

Sketching ruins in the dark (song fades) (exhales) (breathing heavily): Nice dog.

(exhales) In 1588, a ship from the Spanish Armada was wrecked on Skye, and the only survivors were three white dogs.

The Clan Donald took them, fed them, kept them away from the local mongrels, and bred them for centuries.

They called them West Highland Terriers and they kept them a secret for 200 years.

You can keep anything secret if you work hard enough.

Someone told me yesterday I wasn't capable of guilt.

And he was right.

Feelings like that.

Guilt.

Love, happiness.

They don't touch the sides.

I've always needed something... ...more, something deeper.

When I was young, it was fear.

Fear of being found out.

Being discovered in worlds I didn't belong in.

I didn't have the breeding for.

(film playing on television) MAX (voiceover): Then fear turned to greed.

And that did a decent job for me, too.

In prison, those first few weeks, I was lost.

I was twisting in the wind.

And I tried guilt, don't get me wrong.

How could I not?

Late at night, lying in a cell in the dark, you'll try anything.

But it didn't work, because guilt's about looking back.

And what I needed, what I've always needed, is something that can help me now.

Something to drive me.

Something to grant me purpose.

Because a man like me, he needs something to run on.

A man like me, he needs some heavy fuel.

And then you came to see me.

And I found it.

What I needed.

(laughing): Thank God, I found it.

Revenge.

("Into the Valley" by Skids playing) It's revenge.

(song fades) (click) YVONNE: The one bit of honesty was my job.

What you do today, that's who you are.

MAGGIE: Just don't close your mind to opportunity, however it arrives.

(trunk closes) MAX: Roy took away my whole life.

I'll get you what you need.

And I'll get what I need.

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Ahoy!

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