Brief

‘Playing A Dangerous Game’ is a story about a Chicago City employee who is falsely accused of sexual harassment. At his hearing, another employee befriends him and they team up to make their accusers confess to falsely accusing them, but things go terribly wrong when bodies began to turn up.

What We Liked

- The story is intriguing and full of sex and violence. The lead gets embroiled in a scenario that is hard to break out of and has to defend his innocence against fake charges of sexual harassment by a disgruntled employee - and the reader gets a good sense of his frustration since he is innocent. There is a major twist wherein another one of the accused is a psychopath and this adds a new element of interest.
- There's a strong lead character who encounters major adversity and must navigate a system that is not in his favor to save his job and his relationship with his girlfriend. There is a lot of sex and interesting events in the Chicago club scene. A major twist sends the story in an unusual direction and there is a surprising but inevitable conclusion.
- Key points: Sex; Crime; Violence; Mystery; Revenge

Synopsis

Chicago, 1991. A burgundy Oldsmobile is speeding toward Hyde Park. Police cars and helicopters are in pursuit. DETECTIVE HARTWELL, 40, is with a SWAT team at the door of a condo. They blow the door then are shocked by what they see inside. DEMETRIUS DEXTER, 50s, is having sex with his girlfriend, LINDA BRINGHAM, 40s. He surprises her with tickets to a music festival in New Orleans. At his job in airport custodial administration at O’Hare, he writes up ABBY, 30, for not being on the job. Demetrius and Linda dress up and go out to a busy club and watch a stripper do her thing. Back at work, Demetrius gets a letter to meet his big boss - he’s being accused of sexual harassment. When he goes home, he tells Linda, who is very upset and thinks he’s guilty. He goes to downtown Chicago to meet with MR. THORNBERRY and his accuser, Abby. In the waiting area, NICK tells him he’s going to lose. In the conference room, Thornberry reads off a list of questions that are all sexually suggestive things Demtrius allegedly said to Abby. He gets angry and yells at Abby to tell the truth. He proclaims his innocence and storms out of the building. Downstairs on the street, Nick invites him to coffee. Nick tells him that since the Anita Hill hearings, sexual harassment claims have gone up and that his accuser will get $250k if he’s found guilty. Demetrius sees Abby walking out of the building and goes over to her and asks her what the hell is going on. She tells him to leave her alone and he starts yelling at her. Two cops break them up and he takes a video of the license plate as she drives away with someone. Back home, Linda has left a note saying she has to go to her father’s to have some space and think.

A mystery blonde woman watches “Disclosure” and snorts some lines of coke. Demetrius goes to an office and pays for a lie detector test for himself. He passes. At O’hare, he finds out Nick is his new boss and Demetrius gives him the file on Abby. Walking back to his office, SHERRY, a co-worker, tells him that she was there when Abby thought up the scheme to frame him. He asks if she’ll put this in writing and she says yes. He mails the letter to the sexual harassment office. He calls Linda but she doesn’t pick up. SYLVIA is walking to her car from her job as custodian at O’Hare. Someone comes up and cuts her throat. DECARLOS, Demetrius’s brother, visits and Demetrius tells him about the lawsuit and that Linda has left him. DeCarlos can’t believe it and offers to help any way he can. At an after hours club, HALLE, beautiful and fit, approaches him and invites him home with her where they have sex. Nick and his brother BRYON come by and take Demitrius out for a drink. They go to a huge club with an array of people: gay, straight, trans, etc. Three weeks later, Nick and Bryon both get termination notices in the mail. They’re really pissed off and vow to come up with a plan to get back at these women and have them drop the sexual harassment charges. A woman is killed in a parking garage by the mystery woman, weidling a large knife.

Nick and Bryon pick up Demetrius and they can’t believe he didn’t get fired too. Then, they wait outside an upscale gym, and BARBARA comes out. They tell Demetrius that she is the brothers’ accuser and recounts a story of how she seduced them both at the same time. They have a plan, but Demetrius wants nothing to do with it and goes home. Linda comes back, and Demetrius proposes marriage to her and she says yes. Detectives HARTWELL and BIGSBY work the crime scene of the woman who was murdered. Bryon and Nick get a van and kidnap Abby and Barbara off the street wearing Nixon masks. The two brothers take them to their father’s cabin in the woods and tie them to chairs. They ask why they had them fired over a fake sexual harassment charge and the women refuse to confess. Nick takes out a cage with a giant boa constrictor inside. When it slides around Abby’s leg she kicks it away. Bryon goes to lay down in a bedroom and hears a strange woman’s voice and investigates. In the kitchen, Nick gets angry and stabs Barbara in the stomach with a big butcher knife. She gets the knife and stabs him in the back and then she falls down dead. Outside, some Boy Scouts make their camp.

Bryon goes into the attic where there are news clippings of a mentally ill boy and his mentally ill sister. On a bed with a chain on its ankle is the corpse of a badly decomposed body with blonde hair. Bryon talks to her as his sister MARILYN, then starts dressing in her clothes, complete with a wig and makeup. She/he goes into the kitchen and sees her dead brother and dead Barbara. She takes the hood off Abby’s head, and Abby screams. Marilyn (Bryon) asks her why she killed them, then he chops off her head. Outside, the Boy Scout master sees Marilyn coming out of the cabin covered in blood. Marilyn tries to start the van but it won’t, so she goes to the car covered in the garage and starts it up and peels out. The Scout Master snaps pics the whole time, then goes into the cabin, sees the dead bodies, and calls the police. Marilyn talks to her/himself and Bryon answers. She says she’ll never let them take them alive. Back at the cabin, cops flood the crime scene. A chopper starts following Bryon’s car. In Chicago, Det. Hartwell puts the pieces together and speeds over to the scene. Bryon ends up back at his condo and by the time the SWAT team breaks in he has shot himself in the head. He has Abby’s head in a plastic bag. Demetrius and Linda get married, while Nick watches the proceedings from a distance.

About The Author

Everett Wair, Sr. is a retired Amtrak employee who has three sons and lives in California.