NaNo 2017 outline revision 3

Laura goes about her daily life, planting her garden. Bailey runs by with a bone in his mouth.
Chad comes to investigate what is going on
Melinda gets involved, telling Laura no good can come of her looking any further into this. It is unclear if Melinda knows anything about what happened, but she knows what can happen when dirt is dug up in small towns.
The body is sent to the regional forensics office
1.Laura and Chad start to dig around to find out what might have happened. Jed tells Laura to back off
2. The body is identified as Sandy Prescott, a stoner kid from 30 years ago. He worked at the Long Branch cleaning the bar and stocking before it opened each day. He lived above the bar. He also did odd jobs around town, but never amounted to much.
3. Chad looks into Sandy Prescott’s past and finds out he was charged with DUI. He finds out it was the accident in which Elaine Thomas was killed.
4. Laura approaches Jed about the accident and he gets belligerent with her, telling her, again, to let it go. She should just drop it, he says.
5. Somehow, Laura and Chad need to run across some evidence, or someone who knows, that it was Jorgensen who was in the car, and that he was driving. Beld was with him. Maybe something happened to Beld, he moved away, etc. Maybe his conscious is bothering him and he comes back to town. He would be in danger as well.
6. Something happens, or almost happens, to Laura. She will be almost the victim of an accident. Maybe something happens while she is unloading the truck in the alley behind The Land Before Time. Maybe someone sideswipes the truck. Maybe something “falls” from the roof as she is entering the building. Something happens.
7. Laura and Chad continue to look into the Beld/Jorgensen connection. They find Beld and start to interrogate him. He will eventually crack. This isn’t going to happen now. Beld will come to find Laura in the Motel in Sandberg. She will think he is there to do her harm. He is just trying to help
8. Now Beld is in danger as well. He and Laura are almost run off the road when she goes to pick him up one day.
9. Jed and Laura’s relationship seems like it will never be glued back together. He refuses to talk to her and doesn’t want her in the bait shop anymore. Laura is crushed.
10. Digging further, Laura finds a connection in the Sheriff’s department. Captain Bill Davis, who is Chad’s mentor on the force, as likely involved. Chad refuses to believe this. His relationship with Laura is strained as she looks further into this - Chad refuses to believe it could be true.
11. Laura and Beld are now both living out of town. Laura is crushed by the loss of her best friend and now, likely, her boyfriend. This is where Beld comes to find Laura. He reveals the trumped up rape charges he was charged with to keep him quiet. He was charged with first degree sexual assault, for which there is not statute of limitations in Wisconsin. So, no matter when he turns against the Jorgensens, he can still be brought up on those charges. And he knows they will make them stick.
12. The hotel Laura and Beld are staying in will become an arson scene. The fire is set in such a way that the two should never be able to escape the end of the hallway where they are staying.
13. The hotel is in an adjacent town, but Chad is on duty the night of the fire. He will respond, knowing Laura is there and she is likely the target. On his way to the fire, Davis comes on the CB and tells him he is needed at a car accident on the other end of the county. Chad does not want to do. Davis demands that he go. Chad tells him Laura is in danger. Davis does not care. He said she is better off dead anyway. This is when Chad starts to believe Laura’s accusations.
14. Chad saves Laura, but Beld is hospitalized for the burns he sustained trying to get both of them out of the hotel.
15. Chad confides in Laura that he believes Davis could have been involved.
16. In the hospital, a 24-hour guard is placed on Beld. Somehow he dies of non-life-threatening injuries sustained in the fire. It was listed as some infection in his blood that caused issues - and, with nothing done, he would eventually die. If Beld dies he will have had to have given Laura enough information to get to the bottom of all of this. Many of the town’s records are kept in the basement at The Land Before Time. There might be something there that will help Laura and Chad.
17. With Beld gone, Laura is scared, but she knows she must continue to find the truth. Chad helps her, but cautiously. He will get suspended from the force, they will say, because of absences incurred while he was taking care of Laura directly after the fire. Chad realizes he, too, could be in danger.
18. Bob (nursing home guy whose last name I have to look up) gets involved from here. He tells Laura she is on the right track. He knows it was Jorgensen who killed Jed’s wife. His son Cooper does have memory of the night in question. He may also know something about Prescott’s death. Chad and Laura will go talk to Cooper. He may still be scared, but he lives far enough away that he might not care anymore. Or something may have happened in his life that he just doesn’t care what happens to him anymore. He wants his mother’s killer brought to justice. And he wants the people who killed Sandy to be brought up on charges, too.
19. This is as far as I’ve gotten with the storyboard to date. I am not sure what will happen in the end or how they will bring Jorgensen to justice. An outside entity will have to get involved - state investigators of some sort. I will have to look more into that.
20. Laura and Chad will sneak back into town. They will likely bring Cooper with them. They will find the information they need in the old town records, but it will take a few days. They will have to hide somewhere in town, but they have no one they can trust.
21. They will find Michael Jorgensen somewhere – somewhere on the outskirts of town, maybe walking out of a tavern with his mistress. Laura and Chad will approach him. He denies everything – until Cooper gets out of the back seat of the car.
This ending will change somewhat – based on what Riley would say before he died. Also, Cooper’s story will bring an end to things, but I think the Department of Justice gets involved in the investigation. They will likely take MJ down in the end, but Laura and Chad may find him first. Just as he is ready to run, he will be apprehended.