Inherent Danger: A Mountain Murder Mystery Series Big Sky Community Theatre

So. Where were we? Ah yes. At the end of last week’s episode, Elliot Steele--also known as Ellie Copper--was presumed dead, having been buried in an in-bounds avalanche. Was he the fourth victim of the local serial killer, the Sprucedale Sicko?  So many questions; so many crimes to unravel.  Executives at Spruce Mountain had been caught paying off ski patroller Sandy Jones to tamper with evidence at accident scenes. Sandy Jones was being blackmailed about her past.  And, at Atlas Mountain, the trigger-happy patroller who set off the slide that killed Elliot Steele has just come into a boatload of cash. To untangle this web and expose the murderer, or murderers, Deputies Sam Lewis and Janet Bukowski have just set a trap and are now awaiting informants at their headquarters in a base area ski patrol shack at Spruce Mountain. Who will walk in?

Written for Big Sky Community Theatre by Barbara Rowley

Last week, we left Deputy Sam Lewis and his new Assistant Deputy Janet Bukowski  standing over a snow pit dug in a field of avalanche debris. They were staring at what appeared to be the first sign of suspected-blackmailer Elliot Steele, buried in the snow. Was the piece of fuschia-colored clothing Elliot, or yet another dead-end in their investigation of the serial murderer now known as the Sprucedale Sicko?

Written for Big Sky Community Theatre by Barbara Rowley.

Last time, our intrepid investigative team determined that the money ski patroller Sandy Jones had been using to pay off her blackmailer had been coming from two members of the senior leadership team at Spruce Mountain Resort. It was an illegal attempt to limit financial liability for the resort. But while the two admitted they were corporate criminals, they claimed to believe that the accidents were actually accidents—and that they had no reason to cause them.  In fact, the opposite was true.  So who did it?  That’s the question that continues to drive Chantal Dubois, FBI and Sam Lewis, Ski Patrol Rookie turned Deputy.  First stop: An interview with blackmailer Elliot Steele, who they believe is now operating under an assumed name: Ellie Copper. 
Written for Big Sky Community Theatre by Barbara Rowley

When we last left our story, FBI Agent DuBois and Deputy Lewis were hurriedly making their way back from Pot Springs to Sprucedale, where blackmailing suspect and critical witness Elliot Steele had recently been spotted after having been missing for three days. DuBois and Lewis are eager to find Steele and speak to two ski corporation suits who might be behind the pay-offs for the accidents—and maybe even the murders. But there’s one thing slowing them down from getting the answers to their questions:  Snow. A lot of snow.  

Written for Big Sky Community Theatre by Barbara Rowley

Last week, FBI Agent Chantal DuBois and her local deputy, Sam Lewis, uncovered evidence that strongly suggested that 1) Ski Patroller Sandy Jones is being blackmailed and 2) Based on financial records from the bank and an eyewitness at the Post Office, Elliot Steele is likely the culprit in this crime. But many questions remain: Was the blackmail connected to the serial murders? What secrets could Sandy Jones have that she’d pay to keep secret? And how could a ski patroller have enough money to pay a blackmailer anything? When we left DuBois and Lewis they were at the Wayfair hotel, and had just determined that one primary source of answers to these and other questions--Elliot Steele--is missing. We join them now at their daily press briefing at Spruce Mountain.

In the last episode, Los Angeles FBI Agent Chantal DuBois and her newly deputized assistant investigator, Ski Patrol Rookie Sam Lewis, had successfully uncovered evidence that three recent ‘accidental’ deaths on Spruce Mountain were likely linked-serial murders. The common denominators in all three incidents: snow, skis, and Sandy Jones.  When we left off last week, Sandy, a ski patrol investigator and former police detective had just requested a lawyer, right as her employer’s counsel and Spruce Mountain’s corporate risk manager burst into the room. 

Written for Big Sky Community Theatre by Barbara Rowley