The Coast

Act 1 Mike is a MET police detective who is currently on suspension for an investigation he helped lead that went wrong and led to a wrongful death. He brings his wife and two children on holiday to St Ives, Cornwall to regroup and reconnect. On arrival there is a suicide at Hell’s Mouth, a notorious jumping spot around the coast from St Ives, unbeknownst to his family Mike is on the scene being nosey, is the detective in him still at work? Mike’s attractive, precocious 18 year old daughter Jess and his uncomfortable, gay 16 year old son Tom start to fall for their surfing instructor, Logan, the popular and handsome St Ives local. Mike’s wife Jane also gets along well with Logan, in fact, everyone gets along well with Logan. This fact alone irritates Mike but he also gets a bad feeling about the ‘hunk.’ It’s at this point that we notice Mike is being messaged by an anonymous ‘MET’ investigator who tells him all is not as it seems and to look into Logan. Logan was raised by his reluctant now elderly (and sick) Grandmother, Margaret. Margaret raised Logan from the age of 3 when his Mum and Dad tragically died in a car accident on their way to pick him up from nursery, an event that Margaret has, at times, reminded him of, especially when he hasn’t ‘done as he’s told.’ Mike’s prompted messages along with his instincts and a need to prove himself has him looking into recent deaths in West Cornwall as he starts to obsess and unravel. Who is sending Mike the anonymous text messages and who is the grizzly looking local man that always seems to be at each event? Logan takes Jess on a date without Mike knowing, worried for his daughter he goes to find them at the beach. Logan is agreeable with Mike and tells Jess to go home with her Dad. The following morning a healthy, fit woman is found dead washed up with a surfboard on that very same beach. Act 2 After the recent beach death Mike is now at the point of no return, he was on that beach the night before it happened, as was Logan! Mike’s strange behaviour upsets his family as he tries to reassure them that he’s not up to anything and wants to be with them. He does a good job and takes them out, he watches them surf, whilst trying to get information out of the now suspect surfing instructor Logan, with no luck. He then takes his family to the gorgeous outdoor Minack Theatre and he genuinely wants to connect with his wife and kids but he’s troubled, he even tries calling his Dad but as always they are distant. Mike has so far followed Logan and surveilled his house, he also went to Margaret’s house and scared her, after he had waited outside a widows house a week after her partner’s suicide. Mike thought he was being covert in his proceedings. Logan has always been one step ahead of Mike’s actions, Margaret taught him well, Logan sets up obstacles for Mike and then lays low. In front of his family Mike gets arrested for stalking, trespassing, threatening behaviour and waiting outside a woman’s house a week after her partner died. His family in complete shock, they had no idea he had been up to all of this, they are heartbroken. At the police station, with no hard evidence, an overweight, ageing policeman releases Mike and also mentions that his nephew Chris Wallace, the recent suicide victim, was close to Logan. Mike’s family have up and left back to London and have blocked his calls. He hires a car and is now out of control and on a mission to find Logan but Logan is always one step ahead. Over tired and hunting the streets of St Ives Mike talks to two of Logan’s friends outside a bar, they trick him into thinking they will take him to Logan but after listening to Mike’s stories of murder they defend their friend, Mike tries to attack the big fella who counters the punch and beats Mike up badly. Logan’s friend then contacts him to tell him the news. Logan asks where Mike is and tells them to go home and ring the police about this dangerous Londoner who is out of control. Logan then turns up on the scene to help Mike but Mike doesn’t trust him, not in the slightest, Logan has to leave, leaving Mike in the dark street covered in blood, Logan goes back into hiding. Beaten and bruised Mike hits the road and continues his search only to hear the local radio (which has acted as a narration throughout) where they mention the dangerous man from London who has been tormenting the streets of St Ives and for everyone to be on the look out for Mike Smith, with a description of him and his hire car! Mike is devastated, depressed and on his last legs. Unprepared to give up Mike dresses in disguise and steals a car that gets him into even more trouble when a local gangster starts following the stolen car, Mike is in luck for a change as all the gangster wants is the bag of cocaine that’s in the trunk. Meanwhile, Logan goes to Margaret for guidance, we’ve not known the exact dynamic with these two but we’ve been suspicious they are up to something. Logan has been clever throughout, trying to befriend Mike at every turn but now he has to play the game, tactically he manipulates Jess and gets her to come back from London to Cornwall by train, where he plans to play her against her Dad. Act 3 Mike, on the verge of giving up lands on some information from people in the area that revs him back up with passion, one of the sources is the grizzly looking local (the stories red herring) who tells him that Logan was at Margaret’s yesterday. Also a petrol station clerk who gives dark, personal information about the quirky and mysterious Margaret. With Logan impossible to find Mike goes to the source, Margarets’s house, where he uses the information he’s gathered and pretends that yesterday, after she saw him, Logan divulged the fact that she taught him to be a murderer, guiding him on who to target. It’s a last ditch stab in the dark but the vulnerable Margaret let’s it slip that the information is true and details come out about how Logan kills whomever she tells him to. Shocked and sickened, Mike needs to kill Margaret and end this cycle but she tells him if he does anything to her Logan has been given instructions to kill Jess. Mike, now panicked, has to find Logan to save his daughter. After finding them and getting into a deep and relatable talk with Logan where they seem to find some common ground but underneath we can tell there’s a lack of trust. Margaret bursts in, she tells Logan to finish his job but he says no, never again, the already weak and vulnerable Margaret goes into shock and falls to her knees, as she starts to choke Logan sits and watches. Jess goes to help but is held back by Mike. Set up by Logan the police now arrive but Logan is silent, his Grandmother is dead, the woman who turned him into what he is has now gone, the police want an explanation, they go to arrest Mike but Mike has a video on his phone of the chat he had with Margaret two hours previous that tells everything. Jess and the police are in shock, Logan surrenders. As Logan, Mike and the policemen leave the house a man is looking on, it is the old local policeman who spoke to Mike at the station, he knew Logan was accountable but knew he would be a hard case to solve, being old and ready for retirement he was the man messaging and driving Mike from the start. Mike’s family come back to Cornwall and reconnect, Mike is excited about his future, for the first time ever. Logan is in jail, and although incarcerated he feels free for the first time in his life.