A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 18
This is the fifth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Today’s story: Mystery deaths… mystery package… mystery sender.
Marge Habib waved to her brother and sister as they rode past early that Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend in 1976. Her brother’s 16-foot motorboat was hitched to the back of her sister’s Mercury Cougar and they were heading to Plymouth for a day of fishing along with their dates.
“It was a beautiful day,” recalled Marge, who was working at a fruit stand on Route 9 in Westborough when the coast-bound foursome cruised by. “They were tooting and laughing and they were happy.”
That was the last time she ever saw her younger siblings, Danny and Elaine. The next morning, fishermen came upon Danny Kwiatkowski’s tri-hull Arrowglass motorboat floating partially submerged — but otherwise undamaged — about 6 miles off the coast of Marshfield. The people were gone, leaving behind only Elaine’s purse, two pairs of shoes, and some cans of soda.
The Coast Guard concluded that the four were probably dead — victims of the frigid Atlantic — but their families never believed it. They kept looking for the lost boaters, scouring the shoreline and islands of Cape Cod Bay, traveling the country on the advice of psychics, and appealing for help in every imaginable quarter.
But answers seemed lost to the vastness of the ocean and the passage of time — until the arrival last fall of one of the strangest packages ever mailed to The Boston Globe.
The worn-looking cardboard box, postmarked in Medford, contained skeletal remains from two human beings, including what appeared to be a human skull. Each was accompanied by a medical examiner’s note from 1978 indicating that the bones had been evidence in police investigations.
Also in the box was official paperwork suggesting some of the evidence may have been linked to the mysterious loss of Danny and his mates.
And then there was the letter. “This is not a Halloween prank,” read the Oct. 29, 2012, typed appeal, written by someone using the pseudonym “Veritas” — the Latin word for truth — who said he was a doctor.
This is a convoluted story with lots of twists and turns, so I’ve only excerpted the setup. If you’d like to read more, hit the link above. But this is all I need to hook my attention. I see at atmospheric cold open like the first 30 seconds of “True Detective,” episode 1:
Perhaps more of a suggestion of violence, but not entirely clear.
Cut to a family. Mom, Dad, two adolescent children, boy and girl. Quietly eating. But an air of discomfort. The parents, Gabe and Bev McCauley, slowly stop eating. They’ve been avoiding eye contact, but now their gaze lands on each other. And Bev starts to cry, a single tear trickling down her face.
Now the couple stands by a lake. Staring out across the still water as the sun grows low in the horizon. Motionless for several seconds, then they toss something onto the water. Flower petals.
Cut to a different couple in a motel. Older guy, young woman. Having wild sex. Then outside where a private investigator records the illicit affair. Digital recorder. Snaps some photos. The PI dispassionate. It’s just a gig.
Cut to morning. A package sits on a doorstep. O.S., the sound of a motorcycle engine. Revs and the roar fades away.
Later the McCauley family in typical morning chaos, snagging food, grabbing backpacks, preparing for school and work. A disagreement about something, probably a request by teenage son which parents are steadfast in refusing. Son mutters, shoulders open the door, starts outside, and trips, falling down. Looks. There’s the package.
Inside the house, Gabe and Bev unfold paper wrapped around the package. Curious as it has no postage, no return address, not even the McCauley address. Open the package. Inside… a human bone.
Accompanied by a note: “You deserve to know.”
Turns out the day before was the 7th anniversary of the disappearance of the McCauley’s oldest child, a son named Beau, 12 at the time of him going missing. The lake where they tossed the flowers holds some special meaning. We don’t know what.
The police have pretty much forgotten the case. Kids go missing all the time. The McCauley’s have gotten little in the way of the support they think they deserve. That will put them on an intersection point with the private investigator. Once he’s brought into the case to discover what the mysterious package means and where it could lead, that opens up a whole can of worms with one layer of corruption and deceit after another, surprising revelations, unfathomable truths.
But the first questions: Who dropped off the package? What significance is the human bone?
There you go: My eighteenth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!
What would you do with it?
Each day this month, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in comments (hit Reply to join the conversation). And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.
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