Risk Capital

A seaside resort, a parallel present. In VO, 13-year-old truant ALICE debriefs the law about hitman FRANK - whom she'd unwittingly befriended recently. A flashback shows Frank (50) killing a local criminal for transgressions. But he's told to stay on, put the frighteners on government minister AMBLING (at conference there soon) for freezing the Organisation's equity when a PPP venture soured. As he plans, the loner, coolly efficient Frank accidentally collides with Alice. Later, photojournalist JUDY inadvertently gets him in a shot. With the collateral unexpectedly released, the contract is cancelled. But, against orders, Frank stays on.

As delegates arrive, Frank reinvents himself as late-season holidaymaker. He befriends Alice and breaks in to Judy's place, to retrieve his mugshot. He then also strikes-up with Judy, finding her desperate to dish dirt on the government - her partner having died of malpractice attributable to NHS cutbacks. When Frank liquidates colleagues sent to return him, his bosses anonymously tip-off security about his presence. But his association with Alice and Judy shields him. On the prom, Ambling even mistakes the threesome as a family unit - which they don't disabuse him of. Alice's horoscope reading reveal unsettling signs as to Frank's future. Affections deepening, he and Judy make love. But the proto-family fractures when Alice's father grounds her and Judy witnesses Frank killing a pickpocket who's sussed his real identity. Devastated at having been deceived, Judy turns informant.

Frank's hoax call misdirects security forces to seek a bomb at the venue. It allows Frank to get in and wrack Ambling in his hotel room. Escaping from home and rendezvousing at dawn on Central pier, to say goodbye, Alice reveals that she's in the employ of local gangs to seek out and take Frank down - his presence bringing so much heat on them. She uses the gun supplied her earlier. Her VO testimony takes up where the story opens. The law buys Alice's claim that Frank killed himself. She is released.