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SAFE PLACE
A Synopsis
by
Michael C. McPherson
Diane Mathews is a troubled school teacher. She is haunted by a sad
memory. Inadvertently, she kept a rowdy girl after school one day.
That same girl is killed by a motorist on her way home from a detention.
It is a memory Diane hopes to forget one day. She can't help but feel
somewhat responsible for Maple Stanton's untimely death.
Two years later while out shopping, Diane witnesses a murder taking
place in an alley. Reporting it suddenly changes her life. Now she is
forced to change her name and go in hiding with her young son, Timmy.
The man who committed the murder is a high-ranking lieutenant in the
Pastilote family of New York. Two months down the road, Diane is
expected to testify against him.
Keep Long is a special agent with the FBI. He has been assigned to
protect Diane and her son as they go undercover. He has Diane and her
son relocate to a fictional town in Montana called Bransford. Such a
move is not without its problems. Timmy hates the town and wants to run
away. He misses his friends and especially his grandfather, Paul Anson.
After a brief argument, he is allowed to phone his grandfather. He
tells the elderly gentleman exactly where they are staying.
Meanwhile, Anthony Scroff, the capo de regime being charged with the
murder in the alley, is not sitting still. Though he was told to remain
in his apartment and do nothing to warrant further investigations, Tony
is on the move. Everyone in New York, those he dares to trust, are all
doing their darndest to find out exactly where the key witness is now
living. Marty Joyce, a good friend of Tony's. He is indebted to him
and goes off in pursuit of Diane.
Diane's ex-husband comes into the picture. He has been approached by a
man to find Diane's new home. Pete goes and sees the grandfather. He
lies his way into the man's confidence. Pete, too, has a score to
settle. He wants his son back in New York with him. Paul Anson, after
learning from young Timmy where the boy and his mom are staying, takes
the next flight out. Diane and Timmy are in hiding, and he believes it
is his place to be there with them.
Jerome Stanton, a man who believes the New York school teacher was
responsible for his daughter's death, heads for Bransford. If he kills
Diane, he'll win favor with Anthony Scroff, be on easy street for the
rest of his days. Not only that, he has a score to settle. Diane and
her son must die. It would be only fitting in his daughter's memory.
Keep Long learns from his supervisor, Larry Decker, that Tony Scroff is
following orders and is remaining in his apartment. However, Keep knows
that Scroff is not a man to be trusted. Especially when it is discovered
that Paul Anson's phone has been tapped. Keep prepares to run.
Meanwhile, two other agents show up at his door to assist him in
protecting the woman and her son.
Marty Joyce arrives in town and kidnaps Diane's son. He calls her later
and makes arrangement to meet the distraught woman down by the Missouri
River. Diane is able to sneak out of the house and meet with the man
who has her son. Marty Joyce shoots her twice in the head.
Keep Long finds her and rushes her to hospital. There is a chance Diane
will live, but it is a slim one. However, to make matters worse, Marty
Joyce still has the boy. Keep begins to fear for Timmy's life.
Tony Scroff hears from an old girlfriend. She tells him about Pete
Mathews, that the man is on his way to Bransford to warn Diane about
Marty Joyce coming after her. Tony breaks all the rules and rents a
private plane. He too is going to Montana. Not to kill Diane, but to
end her ex-husband's life before he has a chance to spill the beans.
Timmy escapes from his kidnapper. While walking the streets of
Bransford -- afraid to go home, afraid to do anything -- someone pats
him on the back. He turns in fear. It's his grandfather. They travel
to Missoula to hide. Once there, they phone Bransford to talk to
special agent Long. However, Marty Joyce is the man who answers the
phone. Pretending he is the agent, he finds out where the duo are
staying.
While watching over Diane at the hospital in Great Falls, Keep Long
arranges a sting operation with the Bransford Sheriff. They'll put a
decoy in a room at the Bransford clinic and pretend it is Diane. Keep
Long is hoping it'll be a ruse that'll help keep the boy alive, if he is
still alive, the plan should draw the killer to the clinic. He'll want
to finish what he started. Once he gets there, they'll apprehend him.
Pete Mathews, knows his ex-wife Diane is in Bransford, but he doesn't
know exactly where she and Timmy are staying. Her phone is unlisted,
and he doesn't know where to get in touch with her without drawing the
authorities asking him a barrage of questions. He spends his time
haunting the bars, walking through Malls hoping he'll run into his ex-
wife and their son.
While in Missoula, Paul Anson and his grandson Timmy hear about Diane's
shooting. They rush back to Bransford, narrowly missing Marty Joyce
along the way.
Anthony Scroff cruises the streets of Bransford. He goes to a bar and
finds Pete Mathews. They fight in an alley, both men critically
wounding each other.
Jerome Stanton hears about Diane on the news, and believing the false
report, goes to the Bransford clinic to kill her.
Paul Anson and his grandson arrive in Bransford and go to the clinic.
While there, Paul sees a man go after Timmy. The man is intending to
cut Timmy with a knife. The old man pulls a gun and shoots the
attacker. Everyone believes the dead man to be the man who has shot
Diane. Everyone, that is, except Timmy. He knows different.
Keep Long gets to talk to Timmy. He finds out from the boy that Jerome
Stanton and the guy who kidnapped him are not the same man. But someone
else gets to Marty Joyce before Keep has a chance. It is a man who will
be paying Keep Long a visit.
Keep and his supervisor learn of Anthony Scroff's death. They try and
see a dying Pete Mathews. But before they can talk to him, he dies.
Larry Decker and Keep Long get into an argument in the hospital. The
agent's incompetency is mentioned. Keep, tired of the treachery within
the FBI, quits his job. While Diane remains in ICU, he goes to his
cabin to think things out. A man shows up. He is Rocco Silito. He
tells Keep it is time for the FBI to back off, that Marty Joyce, is
dead. Rocco Silito is Benny Pastilote's bodyguard and confidante. Keep
promises to reveal to the media the exact details behind Anthony
Scroff's attempted murder of Diane Mathews. It will absolve Pastilote
from any blame. In return, Benny Pastilote will warn all others to
leave Diane and her young son alone.
A year later, still recovering from head wounds, Diane enjoys a laid-
back vacation with, Timmy, Paul Anson, and Keep, at a cabin at Flathead
Lake, Montana. Larry Decker shows up to offer Keep his old job back.
Keep refuses, goes out of his way to point fingers at Decker, accusing
him of handing over inside information to the mob. Decker leaves in a
rage.
Keep and his new family look forward to a long and healthy life
together. They have Pastilote's promise that no harm will ever come to
Diane and her son. And from the time they are having, it is apparent it
is all they need.
* * * * * * *
SAFE PLACE is a crime story. Also, it is a story about people
overcoming major difficulties in their lives. SAFE PLACE is basically a
story of what could go wrong with a family under a witness-protection
program. A family divided, a family without direction.
SAFE PLACE also is a story of the human condition, people learning to
love and trust again, overcoming major obstacles in their lives and
benefitting as a result. Survivors, all.
To me, SAFE PLACE, is the story of a handful of people backed into a
corner, what they do to fight their way out of there and regain that
what most of us take for granted. The right to be free. The right to
think. The right to judge. Also, the ability to roll with life's
punches.
SAFE PLACE is a story of people coming together, finding love again in a
world seething, at times, with loathe. SAFE PLACE is not a story to be
taken lightly. It could be a tale in which anyone of us could play a
role.