Run: 2026-03-11-01KKFMPMT3MYJ5JQYSZX7Z65WS

# ☕ A Brew of Trouble — Voice Sheet **INT. ALBORN CAFE — LATE MORNING** *The small-town hum of clinking mugs and murmured gossip fills the cozy space. Maria sits near the window, scrolling through photos on her camera — rolling green hills, a crooked barn, golden light over a wheat field. A half-eaten scone sits beside her coffee. Hunter enters, scanning the room with sharp, practiced eyes. He spots Maria and approaches.* **Hunter:** "Ma'am? Mind if I sit down?" *Maria looks up, startled. She blinks at him, uncertain, clutching her camera like a lifeline.* **Maria:** "...¿Perdón? No... no entiendo." **Hunter:** *He pauses, pulling out the chair across from her and sitting anyway.* "Right. Okay. Look — I'm Detective Hunter. Alborn PD." *He taps the badge clipped to his belt.* "I'm asking around about the festival setup last weekend. Anything unusual — people who looked out of place, strange cars, anything. You were near the town square, weren't you? Saw you with your camera." *Maria's expression shifts. Her grip tightens on the camera. She leans forward, words tumbling out rapidly in Spanish, her voice unsteady.* **Maria:** "¡Sí, sí! Estaba ahí... tomando fotos de las decoraciones, de la gente... y vi algo. Vi a una mujer — una señora mayor — caminar hacia el bosque detrás de la plaza. Estaba sola, pero caminaba raro, como si... como si no supiera adónde iba. Después ya no la vi. He buscado la foto, pero... no está. Está borrosa. Todo borroso. No sé si es un fallo mío o..." *She gestures frantically at her camera screen, showing a smudge of light between the trees.* "¿Qué me pasó? I don't —" *She catches herself slipping into English and stops, frustrated, pressing her fingers to her temples.* **Hunter:** *He stares at her, eyebrows furrowed, completely lost.* "I... did you say... 'bosque'? You keep saying that. Is that a person? A name?" *He pulls out a small notepad and clicks his pen.* "Can you— slower? Please?" **Maria:** *She exhales, shaking her head, then points at the camera screen — the blurred figure between the trees. She traces the outline slowly with her finger, then points to her own eyes, then sweeps her hand toward the window, mimicking someone walking away.* **Hunter:** *His eyes narrow, following her gestures.* "Wait — you *saw* someone? Going toward the woods? Last Saturday?" *Maria nods vigorously, relief flooding her face that he's finally catching on.* **Maria:** "¡Sí! ¡Sí! ¡El bosque!" *She mimes walking fingers toward the tree line outside the cafe window, then makes a gesture of someone disappearing — fingers opening, then closing.* **Hunter:** *He sits back, his jaw tightening.* "That's... that's the third one, then." *He writes something in his notebook, underlining it twice.* "The woods behind the square. That tracks. That damn well tracks." *Maria watches his expression darken. She reaches across the table and taps the camera screen again, then hands the camera to him, pointing insistently at the blurred image.* **Maria:** "La foto. Por favor. Mire — la luz. Es... extraña. No es normal. La luz hace eso cuando algo sale mal. *Something* wrong." *She winces at her broken English, then switches back to Spanish.* "La luz nunca miente. Soy fotógrafa — bueno, estudiante de fotografiá — y esa luz *no es natural*, detective." **Hunter:** *He holds the camera carefully, studying the screen. He can't understand her words, but the sharp intensity in her voice makes him take the image seriously.* "I don't know what you're telling me, but..." *He tilts the camera, catching the way the light bends unnaturally around the figure.* "...this doesn't look right. Even to someone who doesn't know cameras." *Maria taps her chest, then makes a writing gesture in the air.* **Maria:** "¿Puedo escribir? Escribir — con... pen?" *She mimes writing on a napkin.* **Hunter:** "You want to write it down? Yeah, go ahead." *He slides her a napkin and his pen.* *Maria takes them and begins writing in careful, halting English — clearly having to think through every word. After a long moment, she slides the napkin back.* *Hunter reads aloud:* **Hunter:** *"Woman... old... walk to forest. Not come back. Light... strange. I have photo."* *He looks up at her.* "You *have* the photo? Like, a clear one? Not this blurry thing?" *Maria nods, holding up one finger — "uno momento" — and swipes through her camera. After a few seconds, she finds it and turns the screen toward him: a woman in a lavender shawl, mid-stride, heading toward the tree line. Her face is turned slightly — enough to identify her. Behind her, just barely visible, is a second figure, half-hidden by a trunk.* **Hunter:** *He goes very still.* "Is that... who is that behind her?" *Maria shrugs helplessly, then points at the second figure and mimes a question mark with her hands.* **Maria:** "No lo sé. No vi a esa persona cuando tomé la foto. Solo después, cuando la revisé... apareció ahí. No sé quién es." **Hunter:** *He can't understand her, but the look on her face tells him everything — she's scared. He pulls out his phone and begins to photograph her camera screen, preserving the image.* "Okay. Listen — I need you to come to the station. I'll get a translator, or... someone. I need to hear everything you saw, properly. Can you do that?" *Maria understands the word "station" and his gesture toward the door. She nods, clutching her camera protectively.* **Maria:** "Sí. Sí, voy. Pero... detective?" *She hesitates, then speaks slowly, carefully.* "Tengan... cuidado. Esa luz... esa luz no es un fallo de la cámara." *Hunter's phone buzzes. He glances down — the screen reads **CAPTAIN DAWES**. He holds up a hand to Maria.* **Hunter:** "Hold on — I gotta take this." *He answers.* "Hunter. ...Yeah. ...What do you *mean* another one? When?" *His face hardens. He stands abruptly, already reaching for his coat.* "I'm on my way. Ten minutes." *He turns back to Maria, torn.* **Hunter:** "I have to go. Right now. But this—" *He taps the camera screen.* "—this matters. I'm coming back for this conversation. Don't delete that photo. Understand? *Photo. Stay.*" *He points at the camera, then mimes a "freeze" gesture.* *Maria nods, pressing the camera protectively against her chest.* **Maria:** "No lo borro. Te prometo. Ve — ve y haz tu trabajo, detective." *Hunter grabs his coffee from the counter — he'd forgotten to order one, but takes the one sitting there anyway — and strides toward the door. He pauses, turns back.* **Hunter:** "What's your name? I didn't even ask your name." **Maria:** "Maria." **Hunter:** "Maria. I'll be back, Maria. Don't go anywhere." *He pushes through the door and is gone, the little bell above it chiming once in his wake. Maria sits alone again, staring at the photo on her camera. She zooms in on the second figure — the one behind the tree. The face is still hidden, but the hand gripping the bark is visible. Pale. Trembling. Or maybe the camera shook. She isn't sure anymore.* *She sets the camera down and wraps both hands around her cold coffee.* **Maria:** *quietly, to herself* "...¿Qué está pasando en este pueblo?" **[END SCENE]**