The System

Put your hands up!

Halt!

Gee, just a kid!

What do you know?

A water pistol.

Not much of a yarn for you, Jerry.

Nothing that'll stop your presses.

- Is he DOA? - Yeah.

Caught one in the stomach

and one in the chest. - Armed?

With a toy pistol.

Fool kid!

- Local?

Don't know. I've got his prints

upstairs, no make on him yet.

You see him before?

Yes.

But never like this.

Sorry to call you at this hour, Chief.

Nonsense. It's only after two.

Come in.

I don't suppose that

City Desk could handle it?

It isn't just another story, Chief.

Then I suppose it

couldn't wait until morning?

Well, maybe it could but..

I couldn't.

Before I retired last night,

I congratulated myself.

Roger, I said..

You smoked eleven cigars yesterday,

today it was only ten.

You're winning your fight.

Eleven.

Mr. Stuart, I've been

working for the paper..

I've been working for you..

a good long while now..

- Take a drink.

Thanks, I don't need it. It..

- Take it!

While attempting to burglarize the

Travelers Jewelry Company on

East Main Street at 12:27 this morning,

a man was shot and killed by

officers B. Lamb and F. Miller.

Police reports stated that

the unidentified burglar was armed

with a toy pistol.

I just identified that body.

It wasn't a man.

It was a boy! 18 years young!

You knew him?

- Since he was that high.

Name? - Don't mean nothing to you.

Gerber. Ricky Gerber.

His father runs that small

bakery over on Ostermeyer.

Just got out of Winauski High, last year.

Wanted to go to State U

with my kid this year.

Mr. Gerber said no. He needed

Ricky to help out around the bakery.

I just saw Gerber.

I had to tell him where to go

to pick up what's left of his son.

It wasn't easy.

- I can sympathize with the father.

It must have been a terrible blow.

We found out the kid

had been gambling: horses.

Hooked by some two-bit book.

Kid couldn't pay off.

Book let him double up.

Sucked in him over his head.

Kid was afraid his father might hear

about it. Panicked, hit the jewelry store.

18 years old!

The same age as my kid! The same

age as a 1,000 kids in this town!

Alright, Alan, make your point.

Gerber made it for me.

The way he looked at me.

He asked he, "Why, Jerry?"

"Why'd you let this happen to my boy?"

He meant me.

He meant you.

He meant the paper.

I'm no crusader, Mr. Stuart.

You know that.

I've always figured

crusades were for young men,

who give no thought

to personal consequences.

Now I know they're for old men too.

Old men who want to do one

decent thing before they check out.

What do you want to do? - I want go

after the Clarkton gambling syndicate!

Yeah.. - Smash it wide open.

Force the authorities to take action.

Root this corruption out at the source,

before it creeps into our

homes and threatens our kids.

How much do you know?

Really know?

I can wreck the whole operation.

- How?

By going after Johnny Merrick.

Alright.

Go ahead.

Write the first piece.

Slant it toward Merrick.

- Slant it?

Maybe you don't understand, Mr. Stuart,

I want to name Johnny Merrick.

Break up Merrick

Enterprises dollar by dollar.

I know.

But not just yet.

Not to begin with. - But if we go,

we have to go all the way.

I can't do that unless I'm free to

name names and places and things.

I agree.

But for now..

I just want Merrick worried, anxious.

But Johnny Merrick isn't the kind

of the man you just threaten.

Either kiss him or kill him!

I assure you, I have no

intention of kissing him.

Believe me, Alan,

I have a very good reason for

not mentioning his name just yet.

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