As you might imagine, a condemned man cannot sleep at a time like this, and I have been quite busy trying to finish this film treatment. Soon, I will be sleeping for all time, with any luck in a bed with squishy pillows at God’s feet.
To be brutally honest, I feel I have failed in my attempt to package this incident as a good screenplay because according to Screenwriting: Yes You Can! my story lacks catharsis. What have I, Morty Martinez, learned? How have these incidents altered my worldview and my soul? I keep going back to the words in my family crest, the ones on the fountain in the courtyard at my La Paz villa and oddly also above the entrance to Grant’s much nicer Cabo San Lucas villa. Destino Ganado. Earn Destiny. I earned a firing squad for having restored a holy relic? Has He given me Gina—arguably one of history’s greatest beauties with one slightly imperfect nostril—only to cruelly take her away? Is there some lesson in this ironic punishment? In my dark hour, I await some word from God, some sign, some piece of the puzzle that puts it all together so I see His grand design. Yet like a child who stays up late on Christmas Eve, my blank stare into the cold fireplace begins to make me feel foolish.
I’m going to end this film treatment now and contemplate what lies ahead, not behind. Even if I am not a very good screenwriter after all, I hope that what I have written here compels you to tell my story, and that it can inspire others who have been framed by two insane rich people who were hell-bent to kill each other.
Go with God, amigos.
ALSO BY BRIAN M. WIPRUD
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
RINGER. Copyright © 2011 by Brian M. Wiprud. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiprud, Brian M.
Ringer : a crime novel / Brian M. Wiprud. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-60189-8
1. Mexican Americans—New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 2. Relics—Mexico—Fiction. 3. Billionaires—New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Conspiracies—Fiction. 5. Mistaken identity—Fiction. 6. Trials (Murder)—Mexico—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3623.I73R56 2011
813'.6—dc22
2011008724
First Edition: July 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-4064-1
First Minotaur Books eBook Edition: July 2011
Ringer Page 27
