A businessman accidentally kills a colleague who beat him to a promotion, but the only thing that might suggest his guilt is an e-mail he sent straight after the event.

SYNOPSIS:

Harry Sterling (mid-30s) is a large and bullish character who works at an advertising company in a medium-sized city. He works hard, but this is partly because he has little else in his life as he was orphaned as a teenager and has no partner or family. He can come across as aggressive in his manner, and is not always good at taking responsibility for his mistakes, but he is actually quite vulnerable. His boss Peter (60s), a head of department, is about to retire and Harry is determined to have his job as such opportunities come up very rarely. Harry believes he should be the favorite to get it, but is fearful of another employee in the department, Jed Quantrill. Jed is in his mid-20s, is smooth and handsome, and always comes across as relaxed and approachable.

Just before Peter retires, Harry and Jed jointly lead a presentation to win a new client and it turns into a battle of egos as each tries to outshine the other. They succeed in securing the deal, however, and in the celebrations in the pub afterwards Peter congratulates Harry on his performance, leading Harry to think he is certain to be Peter’s successor. Also in the pub, Lloyd (about 30), a worker in the company’s Information Technology department, raises with Harry some errors that he made in his presentation. In the process he highlights his own pedantic character, but also his vast knowledge of the department that Harry works in.

Harry is annoyed and tells Jenny (about 30), another worker in the office, that he would love Lloyd suddenly to disappear. He is not being serious, but he then goes on to hypothesise on how if he were ever to kill someone, the chances are he would not be caught. He has no intention of killing anyone really, but the fact he has thought so hard about all of the ways in which he might be caught, or conversely escape detection, reveals much about his obsessive character.

At Peter’s retirement party, Peter himself, to everyone’s surprise, announces his successor, and it is not Harry but Jed. Jenny tries to comfort Harry but even she loses patience when Harry blames Jed for betraying him when, in fact, he had previously rescued a project that Harry had messed up. Putting a brave face on things at the party, Harry asks to see Jed in private, and alone in a stairwell congratulates him on his promotion. Harry says he wants to show Jed something and, although Jed is reluctant to leave the party, he ends up driving with Harry to a bridge that overlooks the city.

Harry tells Jed the bridge is a good place to stand and reflect, but when Harry invites Jed to stand on the parapet with him, Harry grabs Jed tight around the collar and, gripping him firmly, holds him over the river. He does this several times, saying he wants Jed to feel as horrible as Harry currently does for having been ‘robbed’ of a job. His aim is simply to scare Jed, but as Harry holds him over the river for the final time Jed’s shirt gives way and rips, and Jed falls to his death.

A shocked Harry immediately returns to the party and makes a point of showing he is there by asking people what the time is. He then goes to his office and writes a congratulatory e-mail to Jed so that, if needs be, he can show he was at the party around the time when Jed died.

A week later the police are questioning Harry in his own office. He says he last saw Jed in the stairwell and does not know what happened to him after that. After the police leave, Don Webster, the head of the company, thanks Harry for stepping into Peter’s role and Harry says it is tough as he is practically doing Peter’s, Jed’s and his own job. He also says he fears he is a suspect, but Don says if Harry was one he would have been questioned at the police station, not simply in his own office. He also says that from Jed’s body, which has been found, they can work out roughly what time he died and people can remember that Harry was at the party then.

Don says that looking at where the body was found it seems likely Jed fell from one of the two bridges on the east side of the city. He assumes that Jed, feeling on a high after getting his new job, jumped on the bridge’s parapet and lost his footing. Don also sees Harry is stressed so suggests they meet in the pub that evening to unwind and relax.

Lloyd then sees Harry, as Harry wishes IT to grant him access to the files that Jed was working on. Lloyd raises the fact he has seen the e-mail that Harry sent on the night that Jed died, and suggests that it seems very strange. The tone and language are totally untypical for Harry’s e-mails, leading Lloyd to wonder what it signifies. Harry manages to dismiss Lloyd on this occasion, but Lloyd says he is sure they will speak again soon.

Harry waits in the pub for Don, who does not arrive. An attractive girl (mid-20s) called Clarissa sees Harry looking glum, and tries to cheer him up. They start drinking together, and, after it becomes clear Don will not be appearing, she suggests they go back to her hotel room for another drink.

By the time they are in Clarissa’s hotel room, Harry is extremely drunk and bursts into tears at the kindness Clarissa has shown him. When she asks him what the matter is, she is so persuasive and he is so drunk that he starts describing Jed’s death. However, even in his drunken state, he suddenly realizes telling anyone the truth is not a good idea so he tells her that the pair of them were on the bridge together but that Jed was dancing on the parapet in triumph and fell. Harry says that he panicked and did not tell the police he was with Jed at the time of his death, so if they were to find out now that he was, they might think the worst.

Harry also tells Clarissa about the e-mail he sent, which Lloyd has identified as suspicious. Clarissa tells Harry that many companies have policies that when an employee dies they wipe all of their files and e-mails as a mark of respect, so that they do not then find anything that could embarrass the family. She suggests Harry should speak to IT about this. She also says the two of them should not contact each other again as by law she should go to the police to tell them what Harry told her about the events on the bridge. She says she is not going to, but as a result it must never occur to anyone that they have ever met.

Harry speaks to the Head of IT who agrees to wipe all of Jed’s files and e-mails immediately. The next day Harry is happy as he believes he is definitely in the clear now, but suddenly Jenny shows him that the e-mail that Harry sent Jed on the night he died arrived in her inbox that morning!

Harry aggressively confronts Lloyd who readily admits that he set up a programme so that on the first day the e-mail will be sent to two accounts. The next day each of those will forward it on to another account and so on, so that each day the number of e-mails out there will double. Harry offers Lloyd $500, then $1,000 and then $5,000 for the e-mails to stop but, after dismissing these offers, Lloyd tells Harry to think long and hard. He then adds insult to injury by highlighting a piece of work that Harry has done that looks a mess.

Harry tells Jenny (who naturally assumes Harry is innocent) that he fears the more people see this e-mail the more people might examine it closely, and the more rumors might abound that he had something to do with Jed’s death. Jenny says he should not worry as a congratulatory e-mail reveals nothing and very few people will look closely at the e-mail to examine its style, in the same way as Lloyd did. Jenny suggests Harry would do better simply to focus on his day job.

As Harry walks through the open plan part of the office, he imagines everyone is staring at him and talking about him. Harry finds his job is overwhelming. Don realizes he is stressed and, anxious that nothing should happen to the one person left in the department with any real experience, gives him some tips on how to lighten his workload. These involve neglecting important, and legally compulsory, requirements in several of his projects. Harry is genuinely shocked at what Don is suggesting, but when he tells Jenny she says she has long been suspicious that the company has only survived by pursuing shady practices. Another work colleague, Dave (30s), also tells Harry he has received the e-mail that Harry wrote to Jed, leading Harry to work out that at this point sixteen people will have received the e-mail, but only two have taken the time to tell him. He fears what the other fourteen are thinking or doing.

Clarissa calls Harry. He is confused because he never gave her his number and she had said they should have no further contact, but when she asks if he wants to meet up he enthusiastically says “yes”. Clarissa tells him that when there seemed to be danger she had to give a simple message that they should never contact each other, but that now the danger has passed she can revise that message. Harry says there is still danger because, although Jed’s files were wiped, this one e-mail is now out there. Clarissa suggests Harry should not assume Lloyd is interested in blackmailing him for money, and that if Harry just talks nicely to Lloyd he might be surprised at what he finds. She also shows affection for Harry, telling him that she sees a very sensitive and thoughtful man beneath the bullish exterior. Harry tells her that she seems to be the only person who does.

Harry meets Jed but the conversation does not go according to plan. Harry does, however, ascertain that Lloyd has as yet said nothing about his suspicions to Don, the police or indeed anyone in the office. Harry ends up resorting to trying to bribe Lloyd once more, this time offering $10,000 for the e-mails to stop, but Lloyd refuses. Harry asks if this will continue until everyone in the office has the e-mail, but Lloyd says he is wrong to assume the e-mail will remain internal to the company. He also reprimands Harry for being sluggish in another piece of work he has done.

Don sees Harry and says that Jed’s family has asked if he, as his closest work colleague, will lead one of the tributes to Jed at his memorial service. Harry is extremely reluctant, and suggests that if he simply delivers some sugar-coated words they will sound false as everyone in the office knows the pair were very competitive. However, Don tells Harry he cannot upset an already grieving family by refusing, and at the service Harry impresses everyone with his words by suggesting that his and Jed’s apparent rivalry was really a mark of mutual respect.

At the wake afterwards, Jed’s wife thanks Harry for his tribute but also says it was Don, and not her, who came up with the idea that Harry should give it. She also introduces her two children, who will now grow up without a father, which leaves Harry feeling especially guilty.

Harry tells Clarissa that since the memorial service he no longer feels as if everyone in the office is looking at him wondering if he killed Jed. He is naturally relieved and she is pleased. Harry asks Clarissa if she would like to go away for the weekend. She sounds enthusiastic about the idea, but when they sit down to fix a date she tells him she is tied up every single weekend in the coming months and quickly leaves.

Harry walks into the office to see that everyone is staring at him, and this time it is definitely not in his imagination. It transpires that, with the e-mails doubling every day, now everyone in the office has received it. Dave sees Harry again and admits that he finds something strange about the tone of the e-mail, at which point Harry decides it is time to get out. He phones the manager of another advertising company to ask for a job. It is smaller and less prestigious than the one he currently works for, but the manager has always been keen to secure Harry’s services. However, when Harry meets with this manager he proves reluctant to offer him a job. It transpires that he and several others in the organization have also received the e-mail, and it has left him feeling uneasy about employing Harry.

Harry approaches Lloyd offering him $50,000 for the e-mails to stop. Even with such a large sum on offer Lloyd is adamant that he does not want Harry’s money but rather the truth. Lloyd explains that the channels were not open to him to prove the suspicions that the e-mail aroused in him. He therefore hoped that by disseminating it, it would attract the interest of someone who would be in a position to gather appropriate evidence. Lloyd ensured that it only went to a few people at a time, hoping that the mere threat of someone researching it further would inspire Harry to confess, meaning the police would go easy on him. Harry still refuses to admit to anything but in the conversation that follows he refers to Jed falling from the Leighton Bridge. Lloyd picks up on this as Don and everyone else had suggested he fell from the other bridge nearby, the Belmont, and the Leighton actually has a camera on it.

Lloyd tells Harry he will go to the police at midday the following day to tell them to look at the footage from the Leighton Bridge camera. This will give Harry the opportunity to go to them first and confess.

Harry tosses and turns in bed all night, knowing he must confess, but the following morning he does not go to the police station but rather to Don. Don does not even want to hear what he has to say, but when Harry blurts out that he killed Jed, Don admits he was fairly certain of this all along. He took the view that nothing would bring Jed back so he was faced with the choice of retaining Harry, or seeing the whole department collapse as Harry went to jail.

Don therefore took steps to control what the police did by sounding cooperative and suggesting they could get everything they needed by interviewing everyone in the workplace in one visit, thus ensuring Harry was not asked down the police station where he would likely have been interrogated more thoroughly. Don also invented, and subtly fed to the police, the narrative that Jed fell from the bridge while on a high, and that this was the Belmont Bridge because he knew there were no cameras there.

Don also explains that he suggested that Harry lead a tribute at the memorial service to throw people off the scent. After all, no one would ever imagine that Jed’s killer would put his head above the parapet by performing so public an act.

Don wanted to be certain that Jed’s death was an accident though, so he could be sure there was no chance of Harry killing any more employees, so he hired Clarissa to get him drunk and find out what really happened. Although Clarissa was suspicious that Harry had not told her the whole truth, she read between the lines and concluded that it was indeed an accident and that Harry was genuinely sorry. Harry is left feeling stupid that he ever thought a beautiful 25-year old girl would be going after him.

Don also tells Harry that he has put a stop to the e-mails, and sacked Lloyd, pretending he was responsible for fraud and embezzlement. This is so that the police will never believe Lloyd if he goes to them. Don, however, also says he is pleased to see the back of Lloyd because he insisted on doing everything by the book, which slowed the company down and thus cost it money. Harry is genuinely distressed to think that he did wrong, and yet Lloyd is the one paying the price, but Don tells him just to be happy that he does not need to confess to the police and won’t be going to jail.

Clarissa manages to catch up with Harry after he fails to return her calls, and she apologizes to him. She explains that, although she was hired by Don, she really has developed feelings for Harry. Harry asks why she tried to wriggle out of a weekend away with him, and she explains that she would love to go on one but all of those weekends really were full. Harry is pleased to hear she holds him in such high regard, but feels that if he is to be the good man that she sees him as, there are other people in the world that he also needs to show responsibility towards.

Harry asks Clarissa if she would wait for him for eight or ten years, if he had to go away, before realizing it is unfair to ask her this, and telling her to go and live her life. He does, however, ask her to promise that if he were suddenly to walk back into her life in ten years, and she happened to be single then, to remember how she felt about him today. Clarissa promises to do this.

Harry telephones Don telling him he is outside the police station, and is about to turn himself in. He says that because it was an accident he could be out in eight years, with a good lawyer and behaving himself inside. However, he feels he needs to show some responsibility towards Jed and his family by confessing his guilt. Don pleads with him not to do so, but Harry promises Don that if he reinstates Lloyd then he will not tell the police that Don knew all along that Harry was guilty. When Don points out that without Harry, his department will collapse and other people will lose their jobs too, Harry explains that Lloyd will not be returning to his old job but instead taking his. Lloyd has shown over the past few weeks that he has an excellent grasp of the department’s affairs, and Harry looks forward to him sweeping away a lot of the corruption in the organization.

Harry ends the call with a despairing Don, and walks over to Clarissa. They embrace with tears in their eyes, but their faces reveal resolve and a sense of understanding of what Harry must do. Harry walks to the door of the police station and enters.

THE E-MAIL