Psycho me...

As is usual for my manner of writing, suddenly I'm lost in thought about a story outline I worked up over Christmas, back when I was trying to figure out what to do now that I'd finished A Place of Safety-Home Not Home. And I blame a quote by Lao Tzu I saw in an Instagram clip for it.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

It's not the quote that got me, so much, as how his name was spelled by the people who made the post. Loudsu! Check the screengrab.

Yeah, sure, that's how it's pronounced, but spelling it phonetically was way off the beam...and shows how stupid even smart people can be.

Anyway, that kicked my brain in an odd way...and I started thinking about Arrested, again. (Bad title. A Simple Misdemeanor would be better.) It's the story about Simon Halliwell, a man who claims he was arrested without cause or justification and won't take a deal, so the case goes to trial...and gets nastier and nastier.

A couple of the characters started talking to me -- Brian Walstead, the assistant DA, and Elissa Manville, his associate...but they were not talking with each other.

Brian realizes he fucked up, big-time, by prosecuting Simon based on Officer Paley's word...and it's coming back to haunt not only him but the whole team in the DA's office. He and Harver, the DA, are in an intense discussion over who to blame in order to minimize the damage this is causing.

Paley is now facing accusations of perjury and false arrest, and two of his fellow cops are accused of conspiring to commit perjury, to help him. Harver is pissed because if Brian hadn't gone through with the trial he'd have had just the false arrest to deal with and could have made it go away. But now IAD has to look into it, and the police department is furious.

Brian thinks blaming Manville might work, despite the fact she cautioned against him pursuing the case. His father did it once, blaming an intern for a late filing in a legal matter and saved not only the case but his own reputation...albeit at the destruction of the intern's chances of becoming an attorney. Harver thinks that might work.

However, neither of them knows Elissa is friends with Harver's receptionist, who's letting her listen in on their conversation via the intercom. And she's recording it on her phone. When the man calls her in to prepare the path to blame her for the growing fiasco, she uses that recording to protect her own position. I support my mother and my child, so don't try to fuck me over.

That's when Brian's father joins with his son and the DA, and they decide the best way to handle the growing crisis is to have Simon permanently disappear. Otherwise, they're all going down. But Mr. Walstead is even more pissed off at his son...and disappointed in him...and is letting him know it.

It's turning into a serious storyline, for me...and I do not want to let that go.