Original Opening to “The Caribbean Blue” (working title)……

Chapter 1 Beginnings….

On that fateful morning as I walked down the damp city streets, I knew it the moment I pulled the trigger. Behind me were my past and my future all at once. What would bring a person to such a point in their life? A hundred yards behind me under the layers noise and light is the answer in a single bullet buried in a man’s chest. . It was him or me. Considering I’m walking away from a crime scene that I created with a single bullet from a sniper rifle one might ask why I am even walking away at all. Why am I not being questioned by the police officer I just walked by. Indeed, they saw me leave the same building that I used as a sniper’s nest. I vanish. I cease to exist. I join a shadowy underground who’s thirst for revenge is equal to their need for redemption... I don’t fucking care….Marni is dead.

"Marni?"

"Huh? No!" Marni Gasped and jolted up from the chair. Her eyes flooded with a stale white light from florescent ceiling fixtures.

A nurse stood before Marni, a woman about her own age. Her face was tender yet held the confidence of experience and weathering of life as an Intensive Care nurse. She had piercing green eyes and they studied Marni.

"Marni, you need to come with me." the nurse met Marni's steely blue eyes and Marni knew the moment had come. Marni's gaze fell to the floor and the nurse put her hand on her shoulder.

"Come now" she said softly.

They made their way into the Unit down a long brightly lit corridor with frosted glass windows. With each step Marni felt her heart grow heavier.

She tried to comfort herself and shot a side glance to the frosted window panes trying to guess the bleak outlines of unknown objects behind them. Marni tried to find comfort in anything: The highlights in the nurse's hair, to the soft thump of their footfalls on the carpeted hallway.

They reached a set of large wooden doors and small windows. Through it the bright, open air feel of the hallway gave way to a dark, dank, and heavy atmosphere and the chirping of medical equipment and the low murmurings of other doctors and nurses nearby. The Unit was a single long room with beds on either side shielded by privacy curtains, still others sealed off by glass doors along the far wall. They made their way to one bed and the nurse pulled back the curtain.

A frail looking man lay in the bed, surrounded by monitoring equipment, now turned off. The man stirred slowly

"Dad" Marni's voice cracked. She tried to keep a brave face for her father but the strain of his sudden illness was written all over it. Marni’s thoughts betrayed her.

How could this happen to him? He was a healthy man. They don’t know what it was. Why? He’s so young.

“Marni,” Her father spoke. His eyes trembled, “I haven’t got much time left…. Where to start...”

“Start with the most important thing”

“I love you”

Marni’s eyes welled with tears

“I love you too dad”

“Don’t cry, be strong. You’ve always been strong; they can’t take you away from me”

“Did they do this to you?”

“It had to happen,”

Marni felt disbelief and anger well from within her, “Had to happen Who did this to you?”

Her father seemed to muster every last bit of energy within him. It only appeared to make him weaker.

“Marni, do you remember the game we used to play when you were a little girl?”

“Yes,”

“Give me your hand”

Marni held out her hand flat. Her father pointed a shaking index finger and began to draw into her palm. She could feel how weak he was as his finger drew letters.

“D”

The nurse began to watch them intently. Marni peered over at the nurse and shook her head

“O”

His hand grew limp and he sunk back into the bed.

“Dad!” Marni yelled held him and began to cry. The nurse comforted Marni.

Marni rocked slowly back and forth as the nurse embraced her.

A single seabird meandered across the skyline. A backdrop of cool blue haze silhouetted the bird as it dipped and rose in the distance. Marni blinked. Her eyes followed the bird’s path. She sat at the corner of the city downtown bistro on a deck overlooking the bay Oblivious to the humming, churning city pulse that surrounded her senses. A cool evening breeze pushed by her. Salty ocean air mixed with a hot, dank stew of city smells. Her bit of solitude flew away into the invading darkness of the night. She began to trace the letters her father drew into her hand just before he died just three days ago. D. O.

The clock tower began to chime in the distance sullen and low. Marni gazed at her watch. At that moment, her mother appeared from the doorway to the inside of the café.

“Marni, dear” Her mother smiled yet appeared she’d been crying. She walked over to Marni and sat at the table. They had both been to her fathers funeral earlier that day.

Marni stirred the ice in the glass in front of her.

“He’s gone Mom.” Marni shook her head.

“I know dear”

Her mother reached into a bag she’d brought with her.

“Marni, your father wanted you to have this”

She produced a key.

“Its to your fathers office. Marni, I know you’ve been waiting on the application to Quantico.”

Marni interrupted

“Mom, there’s something like a 10 year waiting list. I’ll be lucky if I get there before I’m an old woman.”

“Then take the key, Marni. Your father knew if the FBI didn’t work out you could always continue his business.”

Marni leaned back and inhaled the cooling evening air.

“What do I know about being a private investigator? I’m pretty good at trimming bonsai trees.” Marni grinned slyly.

“Marni, you’re a smart, strong woman.. Maybe you could just tie up the loose ends and let your father’s junior partner handle it.”

Marni sat up.

“Junior partner, Since when did he have a junior partner?”

“Marni, well, if you didn’t get into Quantico –“

“What are you taking about?”

Her mother went into the bag again and pulled out an envelope.

Marni’s heart sank.

“It came to our house by mistake, Marni”

Marni read the envelope on official FBI letterhead.

“You opened it?”

“I was searching for some bit of good news today.”

Marni reached across and put her hand on her mothers.

Marni stopped reading.

“Goddamn it” Marni hissed under hear breath throwing the letter on the table.

“When will I catch a fucking break?”

“Marni, what’s gotten into you? You are never like this”

“I’m so sorry mom. I haven’t been myself.”

She took the key off the table.

“What have I got to lose now?”

“It’s a new start for you.”

“Mom, remember when dad used to play that game with me?”

“the one where he would write something in your hand you mean?”

“yeah, He wrote two letters… D. O.”

“D. O?”

Marni leaned back in her chair again. The stars began to burn through the leftover daytime haze.

“No Marni. I don’t know.”

“So , who’s this junior partner?”

“His name is Manheimer.”

Across the bay downtown Stanley Manheimer sat at his desk looking at photographs. Still dressed in a black suit and tie from the funeral he had attended earlier that day the tie now loosely hanging around his neck like a boxer’s towel. He peered down at each photograph under the light of a green shaded banker’s lamp. The phone rang.

“Manhemier.”

“This is Stevens.”

“Stevens. What do you want?”

“So what do we do about the daughter?”

“What’s her name, Marni? I saw her at the funeral.”

“You think we can bring her in?”

“She’s a wild card, Stevens.” Manheimer rubbed the back of his neck and shot a glance at the clock across dimly lit room.