TromboneAl
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2006
- Messages
- 12,880
I'm currently outlining a book that will come out next year. I got such good ideas on my threads concerning some subplots that I decided to get comments/suggestions on the main plot. Here it is:
Thanks!
Surfers see a man fall off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean. The ocean is stormy, and his body isn’t recovered. Suspicion falls on the man’s wife, Carly, who is deaf (caused by a disease in infancy). Carly turns to her twin brother, Garrett, who is an attorney (not deaf).
Security camera footage turns up which shows Carly having a discussion in sign language in a cafeteria. In it, Carly talks about how she’d like to kill her husband (he was apparently having an affair). The police arrest her. The trial process begins.
A crabber reports seeing the body out in the ocean. He noticed a prominent tattoo, but when he tried to bring the body on board using a boathook, the body sank.
A DNA analysis of the material on the boathook confirms that the body was that of the husband.
Parking lot security cam footage shows that Carly had also parked her car near the cliff (it’s close to their home).
Note that at points in the trial, Carly’s lipreading skills gives them an advantage.
Garrett suspects that the husband faked his death. The crabber seems to be lying. Garrett's investigator finds that he was in financial trouble and that he got a large sum of money just before the husband disappeared. The husband had had the tattoo recently. The DNA from the boathook isn’t degraded as would have been expected.
Garrett determines that the husband was having an affair. A search of the girlfriend’s house uncovers a heavy dummy (they planned to throw it off the cliff?).
It turns out that the husband had traveled to Havasu where he took lessons in cliff diving. Also, the husband was involved in some illegal activity.
Just when it seems clear (mid-trial) that the husband faked his death, his body washes up.
Garrett still sets out to suggest that the husband meant to fake his death, but died anyway (fell wrong or something). By bringing up this reasonable doubt, as well as the possibility that hubby’s criminal friends killed him, Carly is acquitted.
Carly later confesses to Garrett that her husband was indeed trying to fake his death when she saw him and went to him on the cliff. She was angry at him, and she pushed him while he was getting ready to jump. As a result, his fall was mistimed with regard to the ocean swell, and he died.
Security camera footage turns up which shows Carly having a discussion in sign language in a cafeteria. In it, Carly talks about how she’d like to kill her husband (he was apparently having an affair). The police arrest her. The trial process begins.
A crabber reports seeing the body out in the ocean. He noticed a prominent tattoo, but when he tried to bring the body on board using a boathook, the body sank.
A DNA analysis of the material on the boathook confirms that the body was that of the husband.
Parking lot security cam footage shows that Carly had also parked her car near the cliff (it’s close to their home).
Note that at points in the trial, Carly’s lipreading skills gives them an advantage.
Garrett suspects that the husband faked his death. The crabber seems to be lying. Garrett's investigator finds that he was in financial trouble and that he got a large sum of money just before the husband disappeared. The husband had had the tattoo recently. The DNA from the boathook isn’t degraded as would have been expected.
Garrett determines that the husband was having an affair. A search of the girlfriend’s house uncovers a heavy dummy (they planned to throw it off the cliff?).
It turns out that the husband had traveled to Havasu where he took lessons in cliff diving. Also, the husband was involved in some illegal activity.
Just when it seems clear (mid-trial) that the husband faked his death, his body washes up.
Garrett still sets out to suggest that the husband meant to fake his death, but died anyway (fell wrong or something). By bringing up this reasonable doubt, as well as the possibility that hubby’s criminal friends killed him, Carly is acquitted.
Carly later confesses to Garrett that her husband was indeed trying to fake his death when she saw him and went to him on the cliff. She was angry at him, and she pushed him while he was getting ready to jump. As a result, his fall was mistimed with regard to the ocean swell, and he died.
Thanks!
