Adam scene from Law & Order: SVU, practice script

STABLER

You killed Caroline.

ADAM

No. She was my friend.

STABLER

Good-looking girl... never tried to bang her?

ADAM

We were partners. That’s all.

FIN

How’d you work it?

ADAM

We’d play separate clubs, then switch every few months after sharing information about the regulars there-- habits, tics, weaknesses. (Beat) That was her last night at Riley’s. We were gonna switch the next night.

STABLER

You two don’t come from much. Where’d you get the startup money for your poker partnership?

ADAM

We saved six hundred bucks from our campus jobs. After four months we’d turned it into eighty thousand. Imagine what we could have done in a few years.

STABLER

Caroline was paying her tuition with the winnings. Where’d your money go?

ADAM

Living the good life, you know. Buying things, going to nice places: Concerts, restaurants and clubs.

FIN

You spent all that money on nightlife?

ADAM

Going to college isn’t just about the education. It’s about making connections. I can’t make the right friends with a rusted bike and a job in the cafeteria.

STABLER

Then they’re probably not the right friends.

ADAM

I’m not going back to LaGrange to work in the warehouse with my dad. I want to be here.

FIN

What’s stopping you?

ADAM

City kids don’t look at you unless you’re rich. Only way to roll with them is to spend money like they do.

STABLER

The debt would cut off your stream of new income. That’s why you killed her.

FIN

Hundred and fifty grand in the hole, no more living the high life.

ADAM

Do you have any idea what it’s like to come from nothing and go to school with kids who have everything? These jobs we work in the cafeteria, the athletic center, the laundry... poor kids have to serve rich kids just to go to these schools.

STABLER

Hudson’s not the only college in the country, why not go somewhere else?

ADAM

It’s where the right people are.

FIN

Your new dough let you into their club.

ADAM

(With real emotion)

It was an amazing feeling. I was free. (Beat) Either of you ever spend time with people so well off they don’t have a care in the world? Yeah, me neither.

STABLER

But Caroline jeopardized your new carefree life when she got herself into trouble with the house at Riley’s game.

FIN

And no one knows you’re partners.

STABLER

If Caroline goes away, then so does your problem. You killed her to erase the debt.

ADAM

It was an accident.

FIN

Pretty hard to accidentally strangle someone with your bare hands.

ADAM

I didn’t mean to. I can explain--

STABLER

Explain it to the judge.