YOU CAN'T KILL A DEAD MAN
A Vanessa Sterling Suspense Novel
YOU CAN’T KILL A DEAD MAN
Based on the Novel by Fran Blacketer
©2010 by Fran Blacketer
Contact: James Clois Smith Jr., Sunstone Press / (505) 988-4418
Log Line: A beautiful attorney flees the all consuming life as a Chicago corporate lawyer to start a new life in a sleepy fishing village on the rugged Oregon coast only to face her greatest challenge when her past reemerges to entangle her in a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal, the depths of which not only threaten her moral fiber, but her very existence.
ACT I
It is 2004 and VANESSA STERLING drives at breakneck speed down a pitch black coastal mountain road, fearing she will be too late to see her dying friend, KATE REMINGTON. Ten years has passed since she has last seen her friend, ten years since her divorce, and, worst of all, ten years since her eighteen-year-old son, MICHAEL THORNE, disappeared.
When Vanessa enters Kate’s hospital room, she’s stunned that her long-lost son is sitting in vigil. With Kate’s dying breath she begs Michael to tell Vanessa the truth. As Kate’s life ends, Vanessa’s life will never be the same.
Cut to:
Michael hesitantly reveals that Kate saved him from a life of heroin addiction when she happened to stumble upon him. Vanessa’s overwhelmed with shock and sadness that the people she loved would shut her out of their lives. As Michael tries to apologize for his absence, Vanessa can barely control the depth of her hurt and anger. When he asks to come home with her her anger melts away and she finds she’s actually pleased. Together they return to her beach cottage perched high above Little Whale Cove.
Fade to:
With little sleep, Vanessa tries to recapture the past. While Michael’s always been a temperamental kid, now his mood is darker. He struts to the cliff’s edge to flick his cigarette over the abyss to the sea below. Vanessa loves her cottage, but that cliff still scares her.
Cut to:
Michael decides to stay in the area. After all, he has nowhere else to go.
ACT II
While Michael searches for a place to live, Vanessa gets back on track as the overworked Lincoln County public defender, working tirelessly on the upcoming trial of a juvenile being tried as an adult for sexual assault. There’s no clear defense strategy until it occurs to her to enter a plea of insanity, based on the horrific abuse he’s endured at the hands of his step-father.
Vanessa hopes that the DA, STEVEN ADAMS, will dismiss the charges, but instead he pushes for a trial date. While fiercely adversarial in court, Steven hides his true feelings for her avoiding a clear ethics violation. However, for the first time, he sees a kink in her well-fortified armor when, in a rare personal moment, she speaks of having a son. He convinces himself they can avoid any ethical improprieties and asks Vanessa out.
Cut to:
While Vanessa awaits the predictably late Steven that evening in the restaurant bar, she notices several suspicious-looking men. Steven laughs off her concerns, blaming her overactive imagination. To change the subject he begins a “cross-examination” of the extremely private Vanessa, knowing nothing of her past until learning about her son. Vanessa wonders what’s brought on his sudden interest.
Cut to:
Meanwhile, Michael settles into a small cottage in Nye Beach. The next day he discovers WADE MACKEY, a scumbag he knew from San Francisco, living next door.
Cut to:
At the same time in San Francisco, NICHOLAS THORNE, ex-husband of Vanessa and father of Michael, learns of Kate’s death. He met Kate the summer after he and Vanessa got together. He seduced Kate that first night, but also wanted Vanessa. He knew Kate would settle for the lesser role of mistress, so he could marry Vanessa. After the divorce, when Kate came to be with him in San Francisco, he treated her much like he had treated Vanessa. Feeling neglected, Kate found other ways to fill her time and Nicholas was not pleased.
Fade to:
Back in Newport, Oregon, Vanessa worries about a possible relationship with Steven. Relationships meant complications. For the last ten years she’s avoided any such involvement, keeping her life quiet and uneventful. Back in college, when she met Nicholas, she was sure she’d found true love. But look where that got her.
Vanessa’s mind reels from the sudden impact of Michael’s return, Kate’s death, and Steven’s sudden interest, combined with a difficult trial. Nevertheless, when Michael calls, she sets everything aside to spend some time with him. She arrives at his place just as a black SUV pulls to a stop at the curb, its occupants none other than the men from the bar the night before. Michael seems to know the men and finally admits they’re associates of his neighbor Mackey.
Fade to:
Later that night, Michael trudges down the beach, regretting his decision to stay. Climbing back up the steps to the deserted street, there, waiting for him, are Mackey and his cohorts, who brutally beat him unconscious.
Cut to:
Infuriated with Michael’s evasiveness, Vanessa demands to know who beat him. Having no one else to turn to, he reluctantly reveals that Mackey and his thugs are responsible; that they seek revenge for the murder of their business partner, RHIO DIEGO. It seems Diego went out on his own, taking over some of the drug territory that belonged to the west coast drug kingpin, JOEY FALCON. Michael admits he was an eye witness to the murder. He pleads with his mother to hold off going to the police. They’ll kill him if she does. These men are so powerful they’ve framed another man for the crime. Vanessa can’t believe what she’s hearing. How did Michael get involved with these ruthless, lawless men?
Fade to:
Later that evening, while Vanessa awaits a visit from Steven, Mackey breaks in. Steven’s arrival scares Mackey off. Vanessa fills Steven in on Michael’s confession. This time she begs for time before Steven files a report.
Cut to:
Desperately trying to stay on track with the trial, Vanessa’s concerned that she hasn’t heard from the juvenile’s mother, a frequent victim of her husband’s abuse. Vanessa hurries to her home, a rusted trailer located down a desolate road. After a brief encounter with the woman’s husband, Vanessa flees, but not before catching a glimpse of the pleading eyes of the beaten and bruised woman through the trailer window. After contacting the sheriff, Vanessa feels a surge of anger, residual from her abuse by Nicholas years before. A surge of new-found strength, plus fear for the woman’s life, impels her to return to the trailer to find the drug-dealing husband with Wade Mackey. Vanessa manages to get the woman to safety, just as the sheriff arrives. He takes the two men into custody.
Fade to:
Vanessa, empowered by her recent act of bravery, is ready to face whatever mess Michael has gotten himself into. With the trial over, having successfully argued for her client, she leaves for San Francisco.
ACT III
Once in San Francisco, Vanessa goes to the trial of the man wrongly accused of the Diego murder. There Mackey’s buddies, the same two that beat Michael, see her enter the courtroom. She hurries back to the sanctuary of her brother’s house in Berkeley. Later that night a man breaks in and attacks her. Her brother, attempting to rescue her is wounded in the melee. Horrified to have inadvertently involved her family, Vanessa checks into a hotel in the city. Fearing for her own safety, as well as her family’s, she reaches out to Steven’s friend the San Francisco DA, but when he acts suspiciously, she hangs up before he can trace the call.
Cut to:
Using a secured portal, Vanessa researches Kate’s life in San Francisco. She’s able to locate the shelter where Kate took Michael for rehab. Through an interview with the director, it becomes clear that Kate and Michael lived with Nicholas. All those years ago, they left her, moved to San Francisco, conspired to lie and deceive her. But, what were they hiding?
Then the bombshell hit. Michael and Kate have a child, who now lives with Nicholas.
Cut to:
Vanessa becomes obsessed with seeing the child and manages to locate Nicholas’ townhouse. There she not only witnesses the child’s abduction, but emboldened by her recent act of heroism, sets chase and locates the hideout.
With her brother’s gun tucked in her pocket from the night before, she enters the house to rescue the child. While hidden, she hears one man depart, leaving the other to guard the child. Vanessa is shot during the confrontation, but manages to pull the gun from her pocket, defending the child and herself, and kills the man.
ACT IV
Back in Newport, Oregon, Vanessa confides in Steven, telling him all she’s uncovered, plus her gut feeling that there’s some connection between Michael, Nicholas, the Diego murder, and the notorious Joey Falcon. With so much happening, Vanessa neglects to tell Steven about her strange phone call with the San Francisco DA.
Cut to:
Michael encounters Mackey, released from jail, gunning for him and his mother. A struggle ensues resulting in Mackey’s death. Michael acts suspiciously, leaving Steven no recourse but to arrest him on manslaughter charges.
Fade to:
The tug-of-war continues between Vanessa and Steven as they struggle to maintain their budding relationship in the face of so much contention. While Vanessa sees Michael as a helpless pawn, Steven fears he’s playing her.
Cut to:
Michael finally acknowledges that he saw Joey Falcon murder Rhio Diego. Falcon has managed through the years to be so elusive that the police didn’t even have a description. Steven calls a long-time friend, a detective with the San Francisco police, to inform him he has an eye-witness to the Diego murder. The thirty-year veteran pores over cold case files all night until he amasses further incriminating evidence to put Falcon away.
Fade to:
Meanwhile in San Francisco, the street savvy detective is murdered shortly after revealing the evidence to the San Francisco DA. Before he was killed, the detective had Fed-Exed the information to Steven.
Cut to:
When Steven receives a bizarre message from the SFDA, informing him his old friend is dead, Vanessa tells Steven of her strange conversation with the same man.
Cut to:
Michael and the FBI forged an agreement to reveal Falcon’s identity in exchange for Michael’s freedom.
ACT V
Still free on bail, Michael sneaks off to San Francisco to warn his father, who, ten years previously, assumed the double identity of the mysterious Joey Falcon. Nicholas is furious that his secret identity will soon be revealed. He’d never wanted his son involved in the business, telling Michael he took him to witness Diego’s murder to prevent Michael from following in his father’s footsteps. Michael conveniences his father to hide out in Mexico.
Fade to:
The top news story the next day reports that Nicholas Thorne died in an explosion aboard his boat as he prepared for an extended trip to Mexico. The news of his death ripples through San Francisco.
Cut to:
That same day Michael returns to Newport, Oregon where he meets with Steven and the FBI Agent. He presents a notarized letter drawn up by Nicholas Thorne several years prior that reveals his true identity. Both Steven and the FBI agent are stunned by the revelation. Michael assumes, with the death of his father, that the issue is closed, but the agent cuffs Michael, holding him until they can sort out the whole mess. Always ahead of the game, Nicholas had planned for every contingency. Later that day, a federal judge dismisses all charges against Michael.
Cut to:
Before Steven leaves his office, he receives a mysterious phone call saying that Nicholas had faked his death. He is alive and determined to kill Vanessa. Steven rushes to warn Vanessa, but his cell breaks up as he approaches the summit of Cape Foulweather. Unable to warn Vanessa, he drives at breakneck speed to save her.
Cut to:
Meanwhile, with gun in hand, Nicholas suddenly appears at Vanessa’s home. He curses her for ruining his life. Darkness shrouds the cottage on Little Whale Cove. With no way to protect herself, Vanessa lures the unsuspecting Nicholas to the cliff’s edge. As her heel hits the rim she grabs a branch of a shore pine and swings herself to safety. At that same moment a shot rings out from beside the house. Nicholas careens over the edge to his death in the churning ocean sixty feet below.
ACT VI
Steven has resigned his position as DA so there will be no further conflict of interest as his love for Vanessa deepens. Michael flees to San Francisco, taking his new girlfriend, Jenny, with him, to be with his daughter.
Cut to:
One day that spring, the chilly afternoon wind shifts. Steven takes Vanessa’s hand while they stroll on Nye Beach, thankful that the last few horrible months are behind them. They wander into the café where, to their surprise, discover Jenny back at work. They realize Jenny was the one who called to warn Vanessa. She tells them Michael made the gut wrenching decision to save his mother and he’d shot his father as he hid by the cottage. Vanessa’s certain Nicholas fell to his death trying to kill here.
Either way, as everyone knows, you can’t kill a dead man.