LIKE PULLING TEETH
In 1910 a New York City dentist accidently finds himself with a second job as a private investigator, and when, during a simple divorce case he eavesdrops on one of the biggest country-changing secret meetings, he becomes a dangerous loose end.
The dentist is set up in business by his father-in-law. The large third floor corner office is only a block from a large private detective agency. The dentist learns a lot about the detective business from his detective patients.
The 1907 financial panic dries up any help for the dentist from his father-in-law. Business also dries up as people stretch their budgets.
The dentist’s solution is to subdivide his office. It’s easier to rent someplace that is not vacant, so he paints detective agency on the door and the front window, adds furniture.
Along comes a detective client and the dentist is backed into becoming a detective. Soon his dentist office is collecting dust as the detective work picks up.
A banker’s wife walks in, looking for a detective to find the goods on her philandering, master hunter husband. That is the only way to get a divorce back then.
Dentist starts following the banker, becomes obsessed. He closes the dentist office, sleeps days, shadows the banker at night. He knows banker is up to something.
Late November, 1910: Banker furtively leaves his office with a suitcase and a gun case. He changes cabs twice, ends up at a train station in New Jersey. He enters a private railway car with its shades drawn.
The dentist steals aboard the train. The train trip ends in Brunswick, Georgia. Out come 7 bankers carrying a few shotguns. They speak hunting talk when locals are nearby.
They boat out to Jeckyl Island. The dentist makes his way solo to the island. He discovers the purpose of their meeting. There are plenty of heated discussions.
One less banker leaves the island. Dentist tries, fails to find the banker. Dentist takes the train, heading back home. At the Washington, D.C. transfer, the New York paper headline is “Banker missing in hunting trip to New York’s Five Fingers Lakes”.
The dentist could unset that tale, and finds he is now a loose end to be dealt with. THE END
My dark comedy thriller, set in Duluth and Ohio, THE FAT LADY SINGS, is now also a novella. Sequel AFTER THE FEDORA is also in print.
Co-wrote and helped edit a true story pod cast series, DECEIVED.
Wrote short film JUST A TIC, which has been in festivals, TV, Amazon Prime, and Vimeo VOD.
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!Triggered
After a failed assassination attempt on a populist politician, two mismatched London detectives uncover a conspiracy using augmented-reality glasses to manipulate ordinary people into violence, pushing an already divided Britain toward civil collapse.
Fish Fetish
What happens when you mix compulsion with alcohol? A horrific, fast paced story of abuse and revenge inspired by "Tales From The Crypt"
Eternal Blessings
After suffering a head injury that leaves her suspended in an altered state, a woman with a troubled past time travels back to 1980 to warn her younger self of the dangers ahead.
Lucy vs. The HOA
After uncovering a million-dollar fraud in her neighborhood HOA, a precocious 11-year-old enlists her Private Detective father to help finish the investigation her deceased mother started years ago.
Wounds of Love and Conspiracy
After an accident cripples his civil rights activist wife, a guilt-ridden young man becomes obsessed with earning her love by helping change America—until his fixation on JFK and civil rights draws him into a delusional quest to stop the President’s assassination.
Virgin, Warrior, Priest, Hero
Across three decades, one actress embodies Lucy as virgin, warrior, and priest—a woman who repeatedly transforms suffering into identity, reinventing herself to survive a world that misreads and confines her, until she finally achieves redemption by saving someone other than herself.
Keep The Doctor Away
When an anonymous graffiti artist smokes weed from an apple and has a premonition of a wildfire that will destroy Los Angeles and leave her dead on her golden birthday, she must become famous enough for the city to take her seriously—before she turns 22.
Rebecca Saves the Human Web
In a fractured future where aggression and hate spread like viruses, seventeen-year-old Rebecca, afraid of the violence inside her, reaches across time to the gentle grandmother she never knew - and discovers that their bond is humanity's last defense against an emotional apocalypse.
Lab Rats
An anonymous organization uses an ***AI Bot*** to moderate a Focus Group on the topic of ***Fake***.
She Curses Like a Sailor
A thought-provoking view of women and cursing is entertained at this art opening in New York.
