Deepwater Landing

Dusk on a dark damp Oregon highway, a lone traveler is fighting the elements and his junkyard Pontiac. In the nearby forest a woman is running for her life. His car stalled on a lonely stretch of highway, and unaware of the brutal murder that is being committed only yards from him, Steven Fletcher, an aging and unemployed musician with immigration issues, sets off on foot for the scattered and barely welcoming lights of Deepwater Landing.

Taking shelter at Irma Nielsen’s pizza restaurant, a shrine to the greats of the music world, Steven’s past as the keyboard player for rock band Red Delirium spike’s Irma’s interest and stirs the Englishman’s vanity. After the discovery of Lynda Patterson’s decapitated body near Steven’s abandoned vehicle, the absent driver becomes of considerable interest to the odious and overweight Sheriff Mulholland, who relies for his position on the patronage of the unethical and politically corrupt software producer, Pragmatix – the only major business in that dank backwater.

But it soon transpires that, aside from being the sheriff’s sole murder suspect, the washed-up musician has other troubles brewing. A fight with his former bandmates over royalties is not going his way, and Irma’s willingness to go out on a limb to protect him from the sheriff’s clutches comes at a price. Swamped by financial difficulties of her own, and frightened by the return to Deepwater Landing of her vindictive former partner, Jason and estranged son Bryant, she latches onto Steven as a ticket to her own musical success and independence. And, as Steven will discover, she has a tenacious grip and an obsessive focus.

Into this maelstrom strides Frank Schneider, a creationist pastor with a dubious past and a passionate dislike for the scientists at Pragmatix, and in particular one Dr. Rajesh Chopra. When Steven discovers leaked Pragmatix documents that Lynda Patterson was about to deliver to Schneider on the eve of her murder, so begins a scorpion’s dance of alternating mistrust and mutual need that plays out between these two men in and around the decrepit church house where the pastor rails against established scientific reasoning to his motley congregation.

As Steven tries to identify Lynda’s killer, clear his name, and claw his way to freedom, he is never sure whom he can trust. Almost everyone he meets seems to have a skeleton in their closet. In desperate need of a friendly face and a ticket out of Deepwater, he pleads with his old band’s guitarist, Jeff Stanton, to help him. Jeff, still living the life of a rock star is not inclined to take Steven seriously; only the lure of a royalty waiver persuades him to come to his fellow musician’s aid.

As the story moves toward its climax, attempts on both Irma’s and Steven’s lives serve to make each more determined to achieve their very divergent ends. The situation seems hopeless, but slowly and painfully, the forest that encircles Deepwater Landing yields its secrets, and Steven gathers his evidence—frequently with one step forward and two steps back. He plans to expose the corruption at the heart of the community, and point fingers at those responsible for Lynda’s death, through a hastily arranged band reunion concert, where he believes the presence of the media will guarantee his safety. However, things don’t go according to plan. Steven is forced to flee the concert after Irma makes a stunning debut, and it is only by chance that he stumbles finally onto the missing pieces of the Deepwater Landing jigsaw.