caption by peritta - Synced and corrected by chamallow - www.addic7ed.com -
Good morning.
Elena Medina, Miami Herald, checking in.
Hi, this is Elena Medina in room 544,
and one of your room-service staff,
Hidell something, was supposed to bring me up
some extra towels and K-cups.
Yes, uh, Alex Hidell. That's it.
Um, could you, uh, send him up with that?
Thank you.
Good morning, ma'am.
I have your towels and Keurig refills.
Uh, yeah, could you put them on the bureau?
Yes.
Ma'am?
You're new here at the Grand Daymark, aren't you?
Ma'am, please unlock the door.
I'm Elena Medina from the Miami Herald.
Unlock the door.
I have nine more of these
in my purse if you'll talk to me.
What is it you want to ask me?
Interesting name you have, Hidell.
It's Austrian, isn't it?
Yes. You don't look Austrian, my friend.
Where are you from?
Paraguay.
Asunción?
Villarica.
My grandfather was Austrian, from Salzburg.
Where the hills are alive.
He went to Paraguay after the war.
Yeah, a lot of Austrians did, and Germans, too.
Yes. Did he ever talk to you about the war,
your grandfather, or why an Austrian national
would pick a landlocked shit-hole like Paraguay
as a retirement spot?
No.
No, probably not,
not with Nuremberg and Mossad shooting to kill.
My country is beautiful.
Why don't you live there?
You wanted to talk about my grandfather today?
No.
I wanted to talk about what happened here,
what you might have seen
on the sixth floor last Tuesday night.
Nothing much to speak of.
It was busy.
That man running for president was here.
He still is.
I have it on good authority that there was a party on that floor
with maybe a dozen room-service calls.
There was a party, but on the fifth floor.
Oh. Getting up there was very hard
because the Secret Service was managing the elevators.
It was making guests angry.
Who told you all of this?
Oh, I can't reveal sources.
Um, hotel staff must have known that there was an incident.
Fire and police logs have a record of a 911 call
coming from here.
This hotel is for very rich people,
people who come here for vacation, to party,
to cheat on spouses, to be anonymous.
Those people pay my bills,
buy my clothes, and feed my wife and baby.
I have nothing to say about anything or anyone here
at the Grand Daymark.
- You have a family? - Yes.
What's your wife's name?
- Imelda. - Aw.
Uh, my blood is Mexicana, but I was born in Georgia.
Georgia?
Migrant workers.
Picked peaches in summer in Georgia
and grapes in California in the fall.
Why are you recording this?
Oh, I told you, I'm a reporter.
Did you and your family come to the States together?
I came first.
What does this have to do with what you want to know?
- Legally? - No, but I'm a citizen now.
Your wife, too?
Look, I'm not comfortable talking about my family.
They're not the ones you're talking to.
You're talking to me.
Okay, Alex, I'm just trying to get to know you.
The policy speech on global warming in Hattiesburg.
Is it a bridge too far at this point?
Uh, what do you mean?
I mean, you know, as much as we'd like a seven-state sweep,
Mississippi won't be a deal-breaker in the general.
Look, it's perception, Senator.
The media's predicting a sweep,
so the voters think you're an electoral god.
Hmm. Any hiccup, even in a small red state,
could crack the mirror.
We're going.
You'll crush it and we'll get drunk on the plane.
Okay.
Oh. Thanks.
Shit.
What is it?
"Last evening, while en route
to Washington's Reagan International Airport,
the car carrying senior Georgia senator
Isaac Dellahunt was involved in a car accident.
The driver of the car that hit Dellahunt's limo
was believed to be traveling over the limit
and ran through a red light.
Senator Dellahunt, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries,
was admitted to George Washington University Hospital for observation.
The driver of the other car was cited for
driving under the influence and arrested."
We should send flowers.
I really have to get back to work, miss.
No, you don't.
It's Sunday and it's not tourist season.
Just a few more questions.
What gives you the right to treat people
with such disrespect?
Poverty?
You know that's the only thing I hate about America?
The arrogance of the ruling class?
There is no class system here, Alex.
Wasn't that made clear on your citizenship exam?
Class isn't only determined by money.
It's an emotional state of mind as well.
Oh. You're educated.
Three years of night school at Miami Dade College.
What did you study?
Political science and philosophy.
- Graduate? - With honors.
I'm taking the LSAT next spring.
Just what the world needs, more spic lawyers.
You're one of those first-generation racists, aren't you?
No, I... I'm a citizen, born and raised.
I'm not an immigrant.
Your last name and the brown in your skin still mean
that you can also get a disproportionate jail sentence,
an unfair voice in the courts, detention centers,
which are more like rape centers,
and that your son jaywalks,
he'll be treated like an unwelcome dog.
It's a free country and you're free to leave any time you want.
At least you're transparent in your ignorance and bigotry.
That's refreshing.
And this is not a free country.
It came at a very high price
through revolution and civil war.
What did you study in college?
Alcohol.
You know, the bigots, racists, and xenophobes might be
the minority in this country, but like cancer cells,
which start with just a few, they kill the body.
This democracy will not survive your kind.
Who would you have rooted for in 1940?
My grandfather, probably.
The FBI is onto this case.
Did you know that?
I've heard rumors.
Oh.
I'll feed you to them, and they're relentless.
I gave up fear for Lent.
Brave talk.
See this?
Customs Border Protection.
I've got them on speed dial.
Who are you threatening?
I'm threatening to call the CBP
and have you and your family detained
to find out if any of you are legally here,
and if not, to have you sent back to Paraguay.
Ah.
I'll leave it right here, kind of a visual aid.
You act like you have nothing to lose,
but that's not true, is it?
Uh, we all have something to lose.
Yeah. Makes you say that?
Your desperation.
What am I desperate for?
- The facts of that night. - Yeah, that's all I'm asking.
I came to work, I did my job, I went home.
That's not gonna fly.
What are you doing?
You're not helping me?
I'm getting your fucking family bounced.
Hey, Martin, it's Elena Medina here.
Good, thanks.
Listen, I wanted to check on the status of a mother and her son.
Uh, Paraguay.
Their names are...
He's calling back.
Not my family.
I don't care about your family.
I need what I need.
How bad is he?
He'll live.
Few bumps and a stitch.
We clean on this?
Not even a little.
I mean that existentially.
It's a fucking shame it came to this.
Hey, hardball is hardball.
What are his people saying?
What's that ass fissure Jeremy Oster telling the press?
We got, "Simple car accident, bad luck.
We're all praying for one of the greatest senators
Congress has ever known."
He is great.
Can we not backtrack down Memoryville?
Nah, you don't get it. You weren't there.
My first day in the Senate chamber, I was...
I was sitting in the back where the slave attendants
used to sit before the Civil War,
waiting to clean up the cigar ash,
spittoon spittle, and the food crumbs
that the senators would casually drop on the floor
for them to clean up.
Freshman senators are treated like chattel the same way.
He endorsed my campaign for the senator of Wisconsin.
He came out to Madison, put an arm around my shoulder.
I won.
My first day in Washington, he...
He br... he brought me down to his podium pretending
to brief on the bill at hand, but really,
he just wanted me to be closer to the front so that
the majority leader would take notice of me and recognize me.
That's sweet, and I'm moved.
Uh, but right now, he wants to shoot this campaign
in the heart and make soup from your bones.
I know. I know.
What did you do to crack that hornets' nest
of a Georgia cracker?
Started thinking for myself.
I left him twisting in the wind
on a couple of big bills he needed my support on.
Hardball.
He's gonna ice the bumps, bandage the stitch...
and come down here.
That's canon.
Yes.
What do you suggest?
Fuck him.
But be gentle.
Charge the flowers to the campaign,
not to my Amex.
World loves a Judas. Come on.
Talk to me.
First promise to lay off the CBP threats.
I will not.
I'd do anything to protect them.
I'd do anything for the story.
Oh...
Sit down.
Okay... kay.
Okay, okay.
This is my visual aid.
We've got problems to sort out, don't we?
You're not just a busboy, are you?
Hmm.
I can't...
I can't focus with that thing pointed at me.
Well, I can understand why.
If you kill me, your life falls apart.
If I kill you, my family are safe.
I don't care what happens to me.
You need to understand that I mean that
and that I have a poor sense of humor.
If I promise not to...
Hey, hey, hey, you are a bullshit person.
Your word means nothing to me.
You would sacrifice my wife and child for pornographic details
which in the end would mean nothing.
You would not be missed.
I told you, I have a son.
Ah. I pity him.
Well, then stop threatening to kill me.
I have a meeting. I have to go.
I thought you said you had to go to work!
How can you have a meeting?
A union meeting.
How... how... how is all this going to end?
I think I've made it pretty clear
that if you tell me what I want to know,
I... I'll be out of your life forever.
But you need my corroboration, no?
Yeah, but I don't have to use your name.
I just have to tell my main source
that her story was supported by this interview.
Her?
Yeah.
You mean the woman I saw that night on the sixth floor?
Yeah.
Look, about 11:30 at night,
I saw a woman in the hallway on the sixth floor.
Did you see her face?
Vaguely.
What did she look like?
Tall, blonde.
I guess you'd call her sexy.
Could you identify her if you saw her again?
Maybe.
Look, I... I saw her enter a suite next to the senator's.
I heard a... scuffle, glass breaking,
a thud against the wall.
Did you hear her scream?
I heard someone being beaten.
And you think it was that woman?
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Did you see her leave that room?
No, no, I went back down to the kitchen.
Did you report this?
No. Why not?
I've seen and heard worse here.
Who called 911?
No idea.
About an hour later is when police and paramedics showed up.
An hour? Not right away?
Shit.
_
Alex. It's Sturgis.
I'm in the lobby.
Where the fuck are you?
Okay, Alex, what's going on here?
I'm done with you here.
No, please.
Shit!
I shouldn't be here.
I have to go.
Who's calling you? Why are you so scared?
They know that I'm up here.
Who?
Do you really think men like Senator Faulkner
don't have enemies?
These people will do anything to try and stop him,
and all because I saw some random woman
enter a... a room by accident.
Fuck!
I need to get home.
They're probably scaring Imelda right now.
Do you work for them?
Look, I work in food services at the Grand Daymark Hotel.
Yeah, right.
Lots of food-service guys carry guns.
You should be very careful when you leave here today, all right?
You shouldn't take your usual route home.
Alex, what's going on?
They came to me in the CBP detention center in Homestead
when I was arrested for entering illegally.
Who is "they"?
Look, I'm just talking out loud!
I've got to...
Shit!
Am I in danger?
Yes.
Why?
Coup d'états, assassinations, hanging chads?
You know, there are ghosts who we never see who run the world,
run this country?
We have no chance against them.
Alex.
You can talk to me.
I can help keep you safe.
Alex.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
Shut up. Shut up.
Get down.
Okay. Okay.
- Shut up. - Okay. Okay.
Sh... shut up.
Okay! Okay!
Shut up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut up!
Ahh!
Leave me alone.
Are you getting my fucking point?
What the fuck is wrong with you?
You see?
I know where you live.
I can go there any time I want.
I can watch you and your son
mow the fucking lawn and playing catch.
- Oh, please! - Look, I gave you every chance
to understand how bad this all was.
I gave you a chance to leave me alone.
All right, instead, you locked the doors and you bribed me.
You fucking Americans have no idea how you break people.
All right, your arrogant, soulless corruption costs lives!
Geez.
Calm down.
Just calm down, Alex.
I'm not the enemy. I don't want to hurt you.
It's too late.
- The police can... - Can do nothing.
All right, these people are bigger than the police.
They're bigger than governments.
Fuck.
I should just accept what's coming.
What are they gonna do to you?
I'm so tired.
May I have my license back?
Thank you.
Today never happened.
We never met.
Okay.
I... I wish I could help you.
I did this to myself. Only I can end it.
That why you carry a gun?
I... if you read that I'm dead, you must leave Miami.
Leave this country.
I mean...
we are insects to these people.
These people who are after you...
take the money that I brought for you and go somewhere.
I can't. They'll find me.
It's a big country. Get on a plane.
You ever seen one of these?
What is it?
Handcuffs.
- Locator chip? - Yes.
It was the price of my wife's life and my freedom.
I had to let them do it.
Who the fuck are these people?
They're not people as you and I understand the term.
Why are you so important to them?
I just am.
You're not a very good reporter.
What makes you say that?
You never asked me whose suite it was I saw the woman enter.
Whose was it? Who was it registered to?
Madeline Faulkner.
The Senator's wife.
Oh, my God.
Be careful, Miss Medina.
Hey, Carlyle.
It's Mommy. I'm just checking out. I'll be home soon.
What nice man came to the door?
Is he still there?
caption by peritta - Synced and corrected by chamallow - www.addic7ed.com -