Hidden

     a feature screenplay by Kevin Jaxon

A charming, newly appointed small town sheriff’s identity begins to unravel just as a dogged FBI agent arrives in town to investigate another crime.   

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis:

In the spring of 1999, VINNIE FROST is a womanizing loser on his last chance as a slightly too old Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) police cadet. Expelled from the academy mere hours before graduation, Vinnie meets a powerful politician, (GARY COMERE) and becomes his head of security. When Comere’s teenaged daughter (JENNY COMERE) is murdered a block from his home, Vinnie becomes the prime suspect. Upon release from an early morning interrogation, Vinnie hops a freight train for Corps, Kansas, the last town in America without a computer. (At this moment it is intentionally unclear in the story whether he is guilty or even capable of murder.) Onboard, he witnesses a hobo (RAY NATHAN TAYLOR) get fatally beaten beyond recognition. Vinnie notices his own resemblance to the man’s driver’s license photo and swaps identification to aid in his fresh start in Corps.

In Corps, as Ray Nathan Taylor, Vinnie is content to remain hidden but catches the eye of the town’s prettiest hooker (AMY) and her barbaric boss (MAYOR WILDE). Ray/Vinnie begins to distract Amy, raising the ire of crime boss Wilde. Wilde soon discovers Ray’s secret and plots to use it against him. A well respected older woman is murdered; followed by Amy killing her pimp (TAN), just as FBI agents (JOHN RYAN and SATCH MORGAN) arrive after discovering the corpse of the real Ray Taylor on the train tracks leading into town. He has Vinnie’s ID. The feds have raised the stakes by threatening Amy with arrest for her killing of Tan. Ray struggles to remain cool when confronted but posits that he can better control the situation by accepting the vacant Corps sheriff position. The game of cat and mouse with Agent Ryan is in full swing as Mayor Wilde dangles revealing Ray’s true identity on the other end of the rope. As Ray has now fallen for Amy, Wilde kidnaps her and directs him to steal and deliver evidence (confiscated money) for her safe return. He does and she is freed with the FBI in hot pursuit. But rather than joining Ray, she flees town on the same train that brought Ray in. Ray hits bottom personally but is just clever enough to serve up Wilde to the feds during the ransom exchange.

Agents Ryan and Morgan have confirmed who Ray is and only need to hear him say it aloud. The moment Ray makes the difficult decision to return home to Los Angeles to clear his name, Gary Comere arrives to avenge his dead daughter. In a life or death struggle, Ray subdues Comere but spares his life in a moment of clarity. Amy returns just in time to witness his mercy. Agent Ryan arrives to take him back. Ray convinces Agent Ryan to stop on the way to give closure to the widower of the elderly woman who was murdered upon Ray’s arrival in Corps. For the first time in his life, Vinnie Frost has done the right thing for the right reason.

Kevin Jaxon 312.497.0295 kjaxent@yahoo.com