Witch One Did It?

I made it to Round 2 of the NYC Midnight Screenwriting Challenge. My assignment? An 8-page mystery with a vandalism and the mayor as one of the characters. This is my interpretation of the challenge.

Disclaimer: Transferring from my script writing software to the blog is horrible on formatting, so apologies!

Witch One Did It?

When Sheriff Dan
Foster receives a call that someone committed vandalism and witchcraft on the
mayor’s property, he must use his investigative skills to solve the crime.

FADE IN:

INT. BEDROOM – MORNING

A man and woman are asleep in a king-sized bed when a cell phone on the nightstand buzzes. The sound rouses DAN FOSTER,
an older man with gray hair and a tanned
face etched with too many lines
for his age. He grabs the phone,
looks at the screen, then
answers it.

DAN

Sheriff Foster here. This better be worth
waking me up on my day off, Deputy, or your
ass will be patrolling the road to the dump for the next month.

Dan listens
to the caller. He sits
up and rubs his hand over the stubble
on his chin and sighs.

DAN (CONT’D)

Witchcraft? Tell the mayor I’ll be there in
fifteen.

Dan sets the phone down. He turns
on the lamp next to him and picks up
the pair of pants
he had dropped on the
floor the night before and pulls them on.

EXT. LARGE FAUX ANTEBELLUM BRICK
HOUSE – LATER

Dan pulls his cruiser up to the house.
MAYOR SHANTWELL, a balding man in his early sixties
with a slight paunch, stands on the steps.
The mayor has a bathrobe tied
tightly around his waist and old, paint-splattered sneakers on
his feet.

JOSIE WHITAKER,
a tall woman wearing jeans
and a Grateful Dead t-shirt,
stands off to the
side with her arms crossed.

Dan steps out of his car and walks over to them.
Mayor Shantwell looks pointedly
at his expensive watch.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(scowls)

About damn time you got here, Dan. I want that woman arrested.

The mayor stabs his finger
towards Josie.

DAN

(sighs)

What did she do this
time? The mayor’s face darkens
with anger.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(sputtering)

What did she do? She not only vandalized my property, but she put a curse on me, too. The Bible says thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live, and it was talking
about her! This town doesn’t need
her or her granola-eating
cronies.

Josie
uncrosses her arms and takes a step towards
the mayor.

JOSIE

Listen, you
pompous little toad! This isn’t the Dark Ages, and no one
did jack shit to you! I want
you to arrest him
for being a stain upon humanity and Mother
Earth!

Dan steps between
Josie and the mayor. He
puts his hands up to stop
them from moving closer to each
other.

DAN

Both of
you calm down. I’m not arresting anyone until I find out what happened.

(turns to Mayor Shantwell)

You tell me what’s going on.

Mayor Shantwell gives Josie a
triumphant look.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

I woke up
around 5:30. I like
to take a morning swim, so
I walked outside to turn
on the pool heater. That’s when I saw the Satanic
mumbo jumbo. She painted a pentagram on my new pool house!
She’s cursed me!

Dan holds up
his hand to stop
Mayor Shantwell from saying
anything else.

DAN

Satanic symbol? Did you actually see Josie paint it? Was anyone
else at home?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(angry)

That woman and her dilapidated shack are a
menace to this town. She and her
kind need to go.

(MORE)

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

Are you going to take care of this, Dan, or do I need to endorse
another candidate for sheriff come
fall?

JOSIE

My kind?
You mean organic farmers? Beekeepers?
Or women in general? Which is it, Shantwell?

(beat)

I was on
my property feeding my chickens
when you buffaloed your way through, trampled my herbs,
and called me a witch. I’ll
sue you for defamation
of character!

The mayor sputters
again and clenches his
fists, but Dan pulls him aside before he
can do anything else.

DAN

Show me the damage.

Mayor Shantwell
gives one last glare at Josie
before turning and walking
towards his backyard.

EXT. BACKYARD – CONTINUOUS

Dan and the mayor walk to the
huge swimming pool and pool house. Behind the pool house is a line
of oak trees.

Dan looks around
at the extensive landscaping.
Shrubs are precisely trimmed. The lawn is a lush, almost
unnatural, green. There are no weeds
visible to the
naked eye. PHILIP, a young man in
a blue work uniform is
trimming the hedges.
The mayor stops at the
back of the pool house.
There is a crudely sprayed black pentagram
on it. The mayor gives Dan a triumphant
look.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

As you
can see, that woman spray- painted my pool
house with the symbol of Satan.
She did that, too.

The mayor turns and gestures to the row of
trees behind him. Small, white
objects swing from the branches.

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

Witchcraft! What are you going to do about it?

DAN

Now, hold on. Anyone else around who
might have seen anything? Your wife? The gardener?

Dan nods toward
Philip who has been moving closer to the two of them
while they spoke.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(shaking his head)

Wife’s been
out of town for weeks.
She’s visiting some ashram trying to find herself or
some other foolishness. Philip got here right after I discovered the damage. He’s a good
kid. Punctual. I gave him a job when his daddy died last year. I’m telling you it was
Josie Whitaker.

Dan leaves the mayor’s side and
walks over to Philip.

DAN

Hello, Philip. The mayor tells me you got here early this morning. Did
you see anyone or anything?

PHILIP

(stutters)

N-no, sir. I d-didn’t see anything. Miss Whitaker was outside
feeding her chickens.

(leans in and whispers)

But I don’t
think Miss Whitaker d- did
it. She’s a n-nice woman.

EXT. ROW OF OAK TREES – MOMENTS LATER

Beyond the
trees is a woven wire fence that surrounds an old farmhouse with peeling paint. There is
a small field filled with
vegetables and herbs.
Beehives line one side of the field. Chickens with funny tufts of feathers at
their neckline peck along the fence.

Dan walks over to the hanging objects. This close, he sees
they are white eggs with small stick figures
wrapped and hung with twine. Dan
looks closely at each
of them. He walks to
the fence and gazes at the farmhouse. After a moment, he squats
down and grabs a handful of
grass and holds it through
the fence to a hen.
She snatches it from
his hand. Dan puts a few pieces
of grass into his pocket then stands.

Dan returns to the mayor.

DAN

I think I’ve got all I need from here, sir. Can you tell me why
you think Josie is behind this?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(smirking)

That fence beyond my trees marks my property line as
well as the town limits.

The mayor points to the fence.

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

She’s pissed
off because the council wants
to incorporate her farm and the surrounding properties into the town limits. That will change the
zoning from agricultural
to residential. Great opportunities for new subdivisions with HOAs.

Bigger tax base means growth.

DAN

(nods slowly)

She won’t be
able to have her chickens or
beehives. Don’t you own the land to the
west of her property,
too?

The mayor gestures
for Dan to walk
with him back to the house.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

I do.

(beat)

Dan, you have to have vision as
a leader. Cedar’s Edge might be a small town now, but it could
become a bedroom community for the city.

Bigger and
better. It will
be great. It could mean new patrol cars and officers for
you.

Dan doesn’t
respond to the mayor’s
thinly-veiled hint. Instead, he
looks down at the grass.

DAN

You’ve got a really nice lawn.

The mayor beams with pride.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

It’s the special
fertilizer and weed killer mixture I use. I’d be happy to
mix you up a batch.

DAN

Hmmm. Probably
not good for organic produce or bees.

(beat)

Listen, I sure could use a cup of coffee
while I figure out
my next step.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

Sure. Come on into the house, Dan.

INT. MAYOR SHANTWELL’S KITCHEN –
MOMENTS LATER

The kitchen
is a gleaming testament to a
designer’s dream of modernism from the stainless steel appliances
to the white marble counter tops and black cabinets. It’s spotless.

The mayor opens a cupboard and grabs two black coffee mugs. A state-of-the-art
coffee machine sits on the counter. The
mayor pushes a few buttons,
and moments later, he hands Dan
a mug of hot coffee.

DAN

You have any creamer or milk?

The mayor gestures
towards the refrigerator. Dan opens it and looks around
the nearly empty interior. He pulls out a small carton
of creamer and places it
on the counter, a hint of a smile
on his face. Checking to make
sure the mayor can’t see, he reaches into
his pocket and pulls out the tuft of grass.

DAN (CONT’D)

Oh, hell. I’ve got grass on my pants.
I don’t want to track
it all over your house. Where’s your trash?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

In that
tall cabinet to your
left. The maid comes today, so no worries
about the floor. She’s
paid good money to clean it.

Dan opens the indicated cabinet where he sees
a stainless steel trash can. Popping it open, he
looks in, then he drops
the grass into it.

DAN

I won’t be
pressing charges against Josie.

The mayor slams his cup down on
the counter.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

Josie Whitaker and her farm are a thorn
in my side. If you won’t
do it, I’ll find someone who will.

DAN

You don’t want to do that. You wouldn’t want
the truth about today to come to
the attention of the rest of
the town, would you?

EXT. LARGE FAUX ANTEBELLUM BRICK
HOUSE – LATER

Dan and Josie walk to Dan’s car. Josie turns and
shakes his hand.

JOSIE

For just a moment, I thought I was going to
jail.

DAN

My wife
would make me sleep outside
for a month. She loves that herbal tea
mixture she gets from you.

Helps her insomnia
better than those pills from Doc Calvert.

JOSIE

Sometimes the old ways are more effective
than the new. Tell Anna to come
see me on Saturday at
the farmer’s market for a new batch.

Josie starts
to leave, but she hesitates. She turns back to Dan.

JOSIE (CONT’D)

I don’t get it. How did you know I didn’t do
it? The mayor’s a powerful, wealthy man who
runs the show, and I’m…well, I
know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.

DAN

I never assume
guilt or innocence based upon a person’s income or lifestyle.

(MORE)

DAN (CONT’D)

You’re no
more a witch than I am. I know you love your herbal remedies and organic produce, but that makes you more of a
hippie than a witch.

JOSIE

(nods)

It still
doesn’t explain how you knew it was the mayor.

DAN

(holding up
three fingers) One, he was
fully dressed under his robe and had his watch on despite
saying he swims first thing. Two, I spotted black
paint on his shoes.

Three, the eggs were white.

JOSIE

(smiles)

Ah. My flock of
chickens saves me
from the slammer.

Dan laughs.

DAN

Your Aracauana
chickens only lay blue and green
eggs, not white. His refrigerator contained creamer and a takeout
container of Chinese food.
Nothing else, not even condiments, yet he had an empty egg carton on
top of the trash.

JOSIE

Why frame me?

DAN

Your farm stands
in the way of progress as
far as he’s concerned. He wanted to discredit
you in front of the
town council to push
through his expansion
and rezoning plan.

Dan opens his car door but stops
and turns back to Josie.

DAN (CONT’D)

I guess you can take the lawman from
the farm, but you can’t take the farm from the lawman.

FADE
OUT.