Drawn To Death

Stanley Tobias is a gifted but tormented painter. His insatiable need for success is undermined by his constant struggle for inspiration. He is leaving a gallery where his portfolio has just been rejected by Adrian Brody, gallery curator, and patronizing online art critic when he witnesses Detective Mac McCormick, with three citations for valor and five uncorroborated allegations of excessive force, brutally beat a would-be carjacker to a pulp. The attack so moves Tobias that he paints his best work ever. Titled “The Encounter”, the piece depicts a brutish assailant towering over his battered victim lying unconscious in a pool of blood. Tobias’ sister Mischel considers the painting a masterpiece. Using Nemesis, his online avatar, Tobias posts the painting where it is soon trending and amassing followers and likes. When Brody posts a disparaging critique of “The Encounter”, Tobias becomes enraged suggesting that Brody be confronted. Michel disagrees citing Brody’s thousands of followers. Their bickering ends when renown art buyer, Li Tan, Curators International, offers the buy “The Encounter”. Cybercrime Officer, Detective Kate Reid spots “The Encounter” on an art enthusiast Website. Recognizing both Mac and the John Doe lying in ICU, she brings the painting to the attention of her boss, Captain Edmond Dowd. When confronted with the painting, Mac plays dumb but his scuffed knuckles betray him. Hoping he will back up self- defense, Dowd orders Mac and Reid to track down Nemesis before Internal Affairs gets wind of the painting and Mac loses his shield just weeks before his retirement. Seeking links to Nemesis, Reid reviews Mac's personnel file only to find a twenty-year-old mystery - wreckage at the bottom of a ravine, a dead wife, and a missing child - Alexa. At dinner with Michel and Tan celebrating the sale of “The Encounter”, Tobias reveals his fear that the painting is a fluke. Tan reminds him that Art is pain. When Mac is recognized as the thug in “The Encounter”, he is persuaded to return to the gallery in search of Nemesis only to discover Brody's mutilated body and Tobias in retreat. Mac arrests Tobias but fearing the optics in the media, Dowd assigns the case to Reid. Mac fumes. Virgil Hickman, a local farmworker, discovers his drivers-side window smashed and his cell phone missing. Tobias is interrogated before Dowd has him released for lack of physical evidence. Mac discovers Reid with Alexa’s evidence box. Reid convinces Mac to let her take a second look at the evidence. Nemesis posts a grotesque depiction of the Brody crime scene entitled “The Critique”. Tan buys it for $250,000.00. Stanley's online fame ignites. Seeking leads in the Brody murder, Mac and Reid attend a fetish festival, Freakshow Friday, where Michel narrowly averts a confrontation between Mac and Tobias. Reid dives into the Alexa missing person case. Mac is called to the scene of a fire while Reid begins her search for Alexa. A homeless man has been set ablaze. His assailant, Gerard Sorenson, a feeble-minded refugee from a group home, suffering third-degree burns and murmuring gibberish about an ‘inspired artist’, dies in ICU. When a smash and grab gang is busted, Hickman’s phone is found and discovered to contain encrypted text from the ‘inspired artist’. Hickman is swatted and arrested. Mac threatens to quit if not allowed to interrogate Hickman. It’s a drop mic moment when Hickman points out the obvious - thousands received the ‘inspired artist’ text. Mac is spanked. Hickman is released. Reid inches closer to Alexa. Drawn to Death - © 2020 David Welsh/David Gwinn, All Rights Reserved. Page 2 Nemesis posts a horrific depiction of the charred body of the homeless man entitled “Sizzle”. Tobias is arrested and again grilled by Mac – this time with feeling - before again being released for lack of evidence and placed under police Surveillance. A flash mob targets the police station. Nemesis is laughing at Mac. Reid narrows her search for Alexa. Social media is in meltdown over “Sizzle”. Someone is leading Nemesis to kill sights. Nemesis is shunned online and banished to the forbidden zone. Under virtual house arrest and failing to summon the inspiration for the piece that will redeem him, Tobias slips out over rooftops to troll crime scenes, auto accidents, and cockfights. Discovered sketching at a fight club, he is beaten and violated before being released. Now, in free-fall, Tobias returns home and attempts suicide, only to be rescued by Michel. Tobias is now broken. Reid finds Alexa. But an active shooter, seeking fame and likes, interrupts Reid’s attempt to break the life-altering news to Mac. Mac takes down the active shooter. Reid tries again to give Mac the news on Alexa, but takes a last-minute meeting with Tanto to tie up Nemesis and Brody loose ends. Tan kills Reid, then takes Tobias hostage. Bo Jie, Tan’s lethal arm candy, kidnaps Mac, revealing that Tan is the source of the ‘inspired artist’ texts. All four rendezvous at an abandoned warehouse. Tan, attempting to instill inspiration into Tobias, tries to force him to kill Mac. While Tobias collapses in tears, Mac torments Tan until Jie is forced to shoot him. A squatter appears stunning everyone. Mac seizes the moment to kill Jie with a length of chain. Tobias then kills Tan with a palette knife. Tobias uses Tan’s phone to call 911. Dowd visits Mac to deliver the Alexa news, but let's slip that he saw Mac beat the carjacker. Mac realizes that Dowd killed Brody. Dowd confesses that he went to the gallery hoping to avert a scanda,l but that Brody went ballistic and he was forced to kill him. Dowd dies. Suicide by cop. Mac meets his long-lost daughter, Stanley paints “Still Life”, a depiction of Tan’s death. Michel sells “Still Life” for six million dollars. Tobias donates the proceeds to the fight against Internet addiction and goes into seclusion. Mac takes a night watchman gig guarding the gallery.