Novel Scenes
10-Oct-09
	1	Jeff: The first scene of the book is Jeff Talbot in Rivermont Memorial Hospital 
	realizing he's in some kind of coma where he can hear everything that's going on 
	Friday, October 2, 2009	around him but he can't speak, can't let his family know that he's aware of them 
	and what they're saying. The accident happened at 9:30 p.m. Thursday night, 
	October 1, 2009. It happened after the first in a series of grief workshops that Dr. 
	Talbot was giving at Rivermont University.
	2	Leslie: The second scene of the book is Leslie Davis in the hospital.
	Friday, October 2, 2009
	3	Jeff: The third scene of the book is Jeff Talbot, hearing his mother and his 
	daughter Celia in his hospital room talking with him.
	Friday, October 2, 2009
	4	Leslie: Leslie is in her hospital room telling her brother Todd about what 
	happened. After her family leaves, Leslie goes to visit Jeff again.
	Friday, October 2, 2009
	5	Jeff: Jeff hears Leslie come in to say good night to him  His mother and his doctor,
	 Dr. Davenport. are in his room. Celia is there also. Jeff's Mom, Marge Talbot, 
	Friday, October 2, 2009	decides she wants a second opinion about her son's condition -- she's not happy 
	with Dr. Davenport's treatment of Jeff.
	6	Leslie: Leslie can't sleep so she takes her laptop and the new Ridley Pearson 
	mystery she's reading and goes down to the lounge.  Marge and Celia Talbot are 
	Friday, October 2, 2009	in the lounge getting ready to spend the night. Leslie decides to leave so that she 
	won't disturb them and ends up telling them who she is and that Dr. Talbot saved 
	her life.
	7	Jeff: Celia is visiting Jeff, to read to him from one of Leslie Davis's mysteries. It 
	was one of Gram's favorites that she had in her carryall and that she was going to 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	re-read. Death at Fall River. Leslie comes in to the room and Celia tells her what 
	she's reading to her Dad.  Leslie takes over the reading duty then they leave his 
	hospital room to go to the cafteria for lunch.
	8	Leslie: After lunch with Celia Mrs. Marge Talbot, Leslie goes back to her room to 
	take a nap. She's feeling this bone-crushing fatigue and thinks she should tell Dr. 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	Elise Carpentier about it. It turns out that Leslie is anemic and has to stay in the 
	hospital a few days longer. After her nap, she decides to work on her current 
	mystery, Murder at the the Reunion. She thinks there's a former rock star now a 
	recluse who's involved in the murder. She listens to a YouTube video of Michael 
	Jackson singing You Are Not Alone. He died a couple of months ago.She thinks 
	about the rock band she was in in high school -- the Riverdogs and how they 
	played a gig at their senior  prom. She thinks about Roger Grissom's book , that 
	was so bad. She Googles Dr. Talbot and sees the news item about his wife Miriam 
	Talbot being killed in the train derailment and realizes it was the same accident 
	that killed her fiance Matt Alexander.
	9	Jeff: Jeff thinks about how helpless he feels and how the only other time he'd felt 
	this helpless was when Miriam had died. He thinks about what a wonderful 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	marriage they'd had and that he probably had realized that at the time or 
	appreciated it at the time.
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	10	Leslie: Before Leslie can read the article about Miriam Talbot's death in the train 
	derailment, she hears a knock on her hospital room door. It's a man in surgical 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	scrubs, mask and cap who says Miss Davis? Miss Leslie Davis? Leslie calls the 
	operator to report a strange intruder in her room. He disappears and she gets out 
	of bed and follows after him. But she can't find any trace of him. She thinks about 
	incidents that have happened recently when she felt spooked. One of them was at
	 a Ridley Pearson book signing. There had been a couple of other incidents and 
	now Leslie thinks they may have all been the same man. She doesn't want to go 
	back to her room so she goes into the lounge and finds Marge and Celia there 
	watching theh Young and The Restless. They invite her to join them in their 
	decadence.  Leslie then tells them she's been visiting Dr. Talbot. She goes back to 
	her room and thinks about her health and about how she gave up drinking years 
	ago, afraid that she was an alcoholic and wanting to take care of it. Her 
	administrative assistant Natalia helped her through it, sharing her own experience 
	and being supportive. She talks about how she joined a church, was on the board,
	 and helped select Matt Alexander as the church's new minister. She thinks about 
	what she'd learned about her father and a death in Georgia. I'm not sure I'm going 
	to keep this in.
	11	Jeff:  Jeff tries to remember Leslie from the grief workshop but he can't even 
	remember the grief workshop. He hears another person come in the room. It's Dr. 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	Althea Derringer, the doctor that his mother has called in for a second opinion. He
	 thinks about how the three of them had mourned the loss of Miriam and had 
	shared their grief.  He thinks about the mission he'd gone on with a college 
	classmate Josh Williams after graduation where he'd met Miriam. He thinks about 
	the next time they'd gone on a mission when Miriam got sick and pregnant.
	12	Leslie: She reads the online articles about the train derailment and wonders if 
	Miriam and Matt had known each other. She thinks about Matt's death and about 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	the wedding plans they'd had.  She thinks about how she'd donated her beautiful 
	wedding dress to Goodwill and the Goodwill PR person had made the auctioning 
	of the dress into a major special event fund raiser in Rivermont. This is the scene 
	where Leslie talks about how she really began her writing career, with an Access 
	database and character, plot and locations templates. She talks about the roller 
	coaster plot line. She talks about the spreadsheet she'd created for the scenes, 
	starting with scene 1 and a synopsis of the action. She liked thinking about the 
	plot as the screenplay for a movie or TV show or soap opera -- her favorite 
	entertainment. She gets an idea for a mystery where she can use her new system - 
	Woman Returns from Her Worldwide Adventures and Finds Her Family Gone. 
	Then she gets another idea about two young boys who were friends. One grows 
	up to be minister and the other grows up to be a criminal. Their paths cross again 
	when they're adults. She thinks about how her first book got published. She talks 
	about meeting Lisa Adams, another writer on a St. Louis book tour. She talks 
	about Megan and Tom Carter. Megan comes from old St. Louis money and Tom 
	as a secret agent in the Army, under the guise of being a chef. Lear jet, lemon 
	meringue pie. Staying with Grandma Belle for two months to help her get over the 
	loss of Matt. Tom and Megan owned the Lear jet and employed the pilots.
	13	Leslie: Leslie is getting anxious to be discharged from the hospital. She sees Perry 
	Jones standing looking up at her hospital room window.
	Saturday, October 3, 2009
	14	Perry: Perry Jones stands outside looking up at Leslie's hospital window, thinking 
	that it's time to put his plan into action. Dr. Talbot is his hero, his idol. Jeff had 
	done marriage counseling. Leslie did the divorce. Perry has a spreadsheet with 
	data on Jeff and Leslie.
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	15	Jeff: Jeff realizes that someone came into the doorway of his hospital room and 
	stayed there for a few moments, then left without coming into the room or saying 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	anything. He puzzled over the mystery of that. His sister Gwen was on her way to 
	Rivermont.
	16	Leslie:  She thinks about the man she saw under her window. She can't sleep so 
	she goes downstairs to the two-story atrium and adjoining chapel. She thinks 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009-- 11pm	about the other times she saw the mystery man. She thinks about how the trip to 
	Las Vegas showed her the importance of exercise and especially walking. She tells
	 her parents about the three incidents with the mystery man staring at her. They 
	were concerned but Leslie convinced them it was probably nothing. She talks 
	about the grief workshop.
	17	Perry: Talks about why he hates Leslie -- she helped his wife get a divorce and he 
	wants to make her pay for that. He caused Teresa's mom's death. He beat Teresa 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009-- 11pm	regularly.
	18	Leslie: Thinks about how she helped Teresa get her divorce. It was one of Leslie's 
	last legal cases since she was so much into writing. One of Leslie's best friends, 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009--	Maria Adams, brings Teresa to Leslie for help with a divorce. After much to-do, 
	Leslie finally gets the divorce finalized but eventuallly Perry goes to Teresa's 
	boarding house and beats her and then kills her by crashing a chair over her head.
	 A police detective, Paul Walters, comes to interview Leslie about Teresa.
	19	Now, sitting in her hospital room, Leslie realizes that the stalker is Perry Jones. 
	She decides to call Detective Walters. She realizes that the accident was probably 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009--	not an accident and was intended for her. She calls Detective Walters and he 
	agrees to come to the hospital to see her. She has an anxiety attack and has her 
	favorite nurse, Angie, call her doctor, Elise Carpentier. Detective Walters tells her 
	he's going to arrange for a police guard. She tells him she wants to visit Dr. Talbot
	 and she asks him to walk her down to the doctor's room.
	20	Jeff: Jeff can;t believe what he's hearing Leslie say. He tries his best to wake up, 
	as he's been doing since first realizing he's in a coma. He feels he's on the edge of 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009--	consciousness and just needs a tiny nudge.
	21	Leslie: Mrs. Talbot goes to put a note on Leslie's door for the police guard. Leslie 
	talks to Jeff and tells him how much she likes his family and how she plans to stay
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	 in touch with them when they're both out of the hospital.
	22	Perry Jones: Perry sees Marge Talbot putting a note on Leslie's door. He's 
	dismayed to see that there;s going to be a police guard and knows he has to hurry
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	 if he's going to put his plan in place. He's grateful that Mrs. Talbot even gave him
	 the room number.
	23	Leslie: Mrs. Talbot comes back after posting the note and excuses herself to go 
	make a call to her daughter, Gwen, who's on her way to see Jeff. After she leaves, 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	the door opens and Leslie assumes it's Mrs. Talbot coming back for something 
	she'd forgotten. But it's a janitor pushing a large laundry cart. She starts to ask 
	him to come back later.
	24	Perry Jones: Perry  shoots Leslie with a taser gun. He considers not shooting Dr. 
	Talbot's daughter but then does. He stuffs Leslie in the laundry cart and covers 
	Saturday, October 3, 2009	her with a crumpled blanket so it looks like the cart is full of laundry. He takes the 
	cart to the freight elevator, intending to take it down to the basement of the 
	hospital. But there's someone else waiting for a down elevator. So he goes up, 
	planning to go to 4, and then come back down. But that plan is foiled because 
	there's someone in the elevator.
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