Framed

Title: Framed 

Genre: Drama

Gender: Two M

Characters:

 PLACIDO, a thirty six year old former soldier accused of serial murders came home to be with his family, and even though he’s used to the battlefield, he is a strong non-believer in unnecessary violence. Typically a confident person, he is not the type that you want to accuse of something.

YATES, a fifty year old homicide detective, is in charge of the case. He’s a veteran detective who lost his family and stays sane by putting killers away. You do not want to make him mad. 

Setting: A police interrogation room

Time: Very early in the morning.

Brief Description: PLACIDO is accused of serial murders and taken is taken to the station to be interrogated. YATES believes without a doubt that he’s guilty and is looking for a confession. But he doesn’t need it because he has enough evidence to nail him. Only what YATES thought would be a simple interrogation, turns out to be anything but as new evidence comes to light.

YATES enters the room, a folder under his arm. PLACIDO is sitting down at a table center stage. The room is empty. Yates sits down in front of him.

YATES

Thank you for coming.

PLACIDO

 Didn’t exactly have a choice.

YATES

You seem very annoyed. Are you annoyed?

PLACIDO

Well, let’s see. It’s three in the morning, you and your goons kicked open my door and dragged me down here, waking up my whole family, and not even telling me what the heck is going on!

YATES

It’s actually five in the morning. You’ve been here for a while. Now, it says here that you served in the military. Is that true?

YATES opens his file

PLACIDO (sighs) 

Yeah. Two tours in Iraq. One in Afghanistan, but what does that have to do with-

YATES

Why did you leave? The military. I mean, from what I can gather, most soldiers wouldn’t leave what they loved to do, especially as early in their careers as you did.

PLACIDO

 Got married. Had two kids. After that, there was just too much on the line.

YATES

I can understand that, I suppose. My own father served in Vietnam-

PLACIDO

 Ok, I need to call my wife. Please, she must be worried sick! 

YATES

 She should be.

PLACIDO

 What is that supposed to mean? I haven't done anything-

YATES

 My officers recovered several newspaper clippings and police reports from your residence. Meticulously organized, I might add. It seems that you’ve been following the ongoing Slasher Investigation. 

PLACIDO

It’s a small town, we have a serial killer. Wouldn’t be surprised if others are following the case as well. 

YATES 

Well, what do you know about it then?

PLACIDO

Five sets of killings. All have happened within about two weeks of each other. Affluent families. The press have been all over this, especially since the mayor’s cousin’s family was the latest round. 

YATES

You really have been following this case. Say, are you a fisherman, Mr. Placido?

PLACIDO

I’ve been going every weekend since I was a kid. My son can’t get enough of it.

(YATES shows him a picture of  a knife)

YATES

 You own a certain knife, a Dalstrong boning and fillet knife? Much like this one?

PLACIDO

That’s mine. Why?

YATES

Well, you already know this I’m sure. But the first set of Slasher murders occured about a month and a half ago. No signs of a break-in. Knife was long and thin. Similar to this blade, and the kills were precise. Military precise.

PLACIDO 

 Wait a second,  you think that I did that?!

Placido stands

YATES

Please sit down.

PLACIDO

 NO! I didn’t kill those people, and there are probably hundreds of other people who own that kind of knife besides me!

YATES

 That is true. But none of their knives have traces of human blood! So would you PLEASE sit down!

Placido sits

PLACIDO

 You’re crazy.

YATES

 Would you like some coffee?

PLACIDO

You just accused me of murder. Now you’re offering me coffee?

YATES

 Figured you’d need something to keep you awake.

PLACIDO

 Fine. I like it black.

(YATES disappears and then reemerges with two styrofoam cups. YATES hands one to PLACIDO then sits down.)

PLACIDO

 I’m done talking.

YATES

 Good. I just need you to listen. I’ll be honest, I’ve been doing this for a long time. But this case, well, this case is not like anything I’ve ever seen. We thought we wouldn’t catch a break. After the third set of murders, however, I noticed that they all had the same security system. Which had failed to work, unfortunately.

PLACIDO

And?

YATES

 Well, you did or did not install security systems for a living. Correct?

PLACIDO

 Before I enlisted.

YATES

 Right, so, along with the security system, we took note of the fact that, as I said before, the killings were all done with military precision. Then, we get a tip. The neighbor, of the fourth round of killings, that is, noticed that on that day their own security camera had blown over. Right into the Telesca’s front yard. And guess whose face we saw? Pause. After that it was easy, we’d already found unknown DNA in all of the houses. We just matched it to yours.

PLACIDO

 I want a lawyer. 

YATES

Another thing we found odd. Ann Telesca had owned a very large collection of jewelry. The entire box was emptied out.

PLACIDO

I know. Items of value were stolen at every single crime scene.

YATES

Your wife and daughter were in a car accident about six months ago, correct?

PLACIDO

What does that have to do with anything?

YATES

Your wife broke her jaw and a bone in her cheek. Your daughter received a compound fracture in her leg that has required multiple surgeries.

PLACIDO

Is there a point somewhere here?

YATES

Well, combined with the fact that your insurance company wouldn’t cough up the cash to help with the hospital expenses and that your car, which had no insurance, had been totaled, we’re just wondering how you’ve managed to get by.

PLACIDO

My uncle left me some money when I was younger. Never touched it until after the accident.

YATES

Of course he did. We will check that out. But in other news, the late Mr. Telesca was smart enough to leave the serial numbers on all of his wife’s jewelry, most of which included an emerald necklace, several diamond collars, a few sapphire rings, and-

PLACIDO

What. Is. Your Point?!

YATES

My point is that we found two of the diamond collars and the famous Telesca ruby necklace, stashed in YOUR garage, along with several other items from various other crime scenes. Which was also where we found the blood covered knife.

PLACIDO

Wha- How? No, there has to be some mistake.

YATES

Oh, there’s no mistake. We have enough evidence to put you away for life, as you can clearly see, and none of it is circumstantial.

PLACIDO

I’m not saying anything else.

YATES

If you confess now, you’ll have a chance at parole. But don’t make this worse on yourself, on your family.

PLACIDO

You don’t get to talk about my family.

YATES

 How old are your kids? Eight and five, right? Same age as the kids in the Telesca family.

PLACIDO

 I didn’t do this.

YATES

 How can you even look at them and not think of what you did?

Placido stands

PLACIDO

 I DIDN’T DO THIS!

Yates stand

YATES

 LIKE HELL YOU DIDN’T!

PLACIDO

 You think that what, decorated vet with a poor background comes home and tries to settle down, but the battlefield takes him over, and he decides to start killing rich people?!

YATES

 I don’t know, you tell me! Because we have YOUR FACE on the security camera and YOUR DNA-

At that moment, YATE’S  phone buzzes. He glances at the screen, walks over to downstage right, and answers.

YATES

What do you want?! I’m in the middle of an interrogation! What? And you’re sure he wasn’t? Wait, you’re kidding? You’re not kidding. Alright, pull the records, and see what you can find. No, no, I don’t think he knows, or he would have mentioned it earlier. Ok, I’ll tell him. 

YATES hangs up the phone and sits back down at the table

YATES

Unbelievable.

PLACIDO

 You’re damn right this is unbelievable, someone is clearly trying to frame me! And if you can’t see that, I will  say this one more time, I want a LAWYER!

YATES

 Sit down, son. We’ll get you a lawyer soon.

PLACIDO

My daughter is about to have surgery, for crying out loud! She does not need to be dealing with this, too!

YATES

 We now know that you didn’t do this. I just got a call from one of my fellow officers. You were nowhere near any of the scenes at the time the murders took place. But that still doesn’t explain why your DNA was there. Or your face on the security camera. You have one sibling, right? An older brother?

PLACIDO

 Yes. Michael lives in Nevada, away from all of this-

YATES

That’s not true. 

PLACIDO

 I’m sorry?

YATES

 You don’t have just one sibling. The only way that you could have wound up in two places at once is if someone who looks like you and whose DNA markers are identical to yours pulled it off while you were gone.

PLACIDO

 You’re not suggesting what I think you’re- 

YATES

 I’m not suggesting it. It’s true. You have a twin brother, and he’s trying to frame you for murder.

(Scene)

Alani McDeavitt '26

Placido is a former solider who's gone through a bit of a rough time now that he's home. It's about to get worse when Detective Yates questions him with overwhelming evidence that Placido is involved in a string of grisly murders.