Suicide

President Van Deepriver

WOODS
Did you read the press release of President Van Deepriver?

LINLEY
No, I had to take care of some personal stuff today.

WOODS
President Deepriver expressed concern about the corruption allegations of Mayor Perk.

LINLEY
What did he say?

WOODS
President Deepriver said that he thinks that people lose trust in politicians because they are mostly seen through a negative lens. President Deepriver referred to Mayor Perk explicitly.
- I think that Mayor Perk should have come forward and cleaned house...!"

LINLEY
Cleaned house? But Mayor Perk admitted in his first interrogation by the police that he took bribes. Didn't he?

WOODS
Remember Mayor Perk changed his testimony after Mary Ann's death and put the blame on his staff.

LINLEY
Why is this President Deepriver's concern? Mayor Perk and President Deepriver do not belong to the same party!

WOODS
I asked around and some political insiders say that President Deepriver wants to forge an alliance in Congress to get some of his agenda passed.

LINLEY
But why Robert Perk? He is someone his own party detests.

WOODS
Yeah, but the party elite detests President Deepriver as well. Before Deepriver took office the socialists proclaimed that they would not see a common ground to work with Deepriver.
Speaker Liane Barren proclaimed on social media:
- The election of Deepriver to president is the worst thing that happened to the country.

LINLEY
But this could mean that Deepriver just wants to sow distrust among socialists.

WOODS
Maybe, but why would he back a man who has admitted to bribery? This is political suicide.

LINLEY
Does Deepriver know about Mayor Perk's first testimony and his admission of guilt?

WOODS
Well, he is the president! I could find out about Mayor Perk's testimony, and so could President Deepriver.

LINLEY
What is this all about?

WOODS
I looked into the life of Van Deepriver.
Van Deepriver grew up wealthy.
Deep river majored in economics and then taught in college. Later he was called into politics and served many years in the Senate until he was elected president.

LINLEY
Has Van Deepriver any connection to Mary Ann Ellis?

WOODS
It seems that President Deepriver does not have any connections to Mary Ann. He didn't even grow up or worked in the same region as Mary Ann. Deepriver is from the East Coast, but his son Charles Deepriver worked shortly in the junior high school Mary Ann hanged herself.

LINLEY
That's a coincidence, isn't it!

WOODS
And that's not all. I came across Charles Deepriver by accident.

LINLEY
How is that?

WOODS
I went to Norman Cold. He is the former school principal of the junior high school Mary Ann hanged herself. I wanted to find a connection since Mary Ann didn't attend the school she committed suicide in. I was pretty much taping in the dark.
So, I went to Mr. Cold, who lives in a retiree home. Mr. Cold's mind is despite his 80 years sharp. He remembers everything from his time as school principal.
I talked with him about Mary Ann and he didn't remember her:
- No, I have never seen this woman before.

LINLEY
Maybe Mary Ann visited a friend or a relative in her childhood in this town or something.

WOODS
This could have been the case, but I asked around and Mary Ann doesn't have any relatives in this town. She was the new girl.

LINLEY
Does Mr. Cold know that a woman hanged herself in his former school?

WOODS
He does!
- What a tragedy! I cannot wrap my head around why a young woman would kill herself.

LINLEY
This is indeed mysterious!

WOODS
Mr. Cold was visibly uncomfortable and troubled.

LINLEY
It is distressing!

WOODS
We concluded that Mary Ann must have had a connection to the school. The way she committed suicide indicates it.
So, I thought that maybe Mary Ann knew one of the teachers. It is quite common for teachers to change school, especially when they are new in their job.
I asked Mr. Cold about teachers who had worked in other schools before they came to work in his school. He knew the teachers and showed me them in the yearbooks. Mr. Cold has kept all the yearbooks from his time as school principal.

LINLEY
Did you find a connection? Which teacher taught also in the school Mary Ann attended in a different town?

WOODS
Mr. Cold told me that five teachers changed school or left his school during his tenure as school principal, but no one of them taught in Mary Ann's junior high school.
I scrutinized all the faces and then I saw a familiar name, Charles Deepriver, the president's son. I was surprised and asked Mr. Cold what this was all about and he responded:
- Yes, President Deepriver's son worked here once. It was for a couple of months. He had to leave school after he was diagnosed with cancer. He later died.

LINLEY
I didn't know that the president's son was a teacher.

WOODS
We don't know it, because this has happened a long time ago. We only know that the president's son died from cancer.

LINLEY
But then this makes sense! President Deepriver shows interest in the school his son worked at.

WOODS
Maybe. But then I found out a secret no one wants to talk about here in town. It was the reason why Mr. Cold was so distressed.

LINLEY
What is it?

WOODS
Richard Flask worked here as a teacher as well!

LINLEY
Who is that?

WOODS
Richard Flask is the pedophile teacher who abused children while he was teacher in this school. He and some other pedophiles drugged children so that they are more complacent and then recorded and filmed themselves while abusing children. They made and distributed child porn. The children mostly didn't remember what happened to them because they drugged the children thereafter with a drug that erases one's short-term memory!

LINLEY
And this happened in this school?

WOODS
Yes! It happened two decades ago, and it left the entire town devastated.
Mr. Cold told me:
- This happened right under my nose! I didn't notice it. I felt guilty that I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't work in that school anymore! I couldn't be a principal anymore. I had failed.

LINLEY
Then Mary Ann was a victim of Richard Flask!

WOODS
I looked into the police report. There were 7 victims. 7 children, but no one of them was Mary Ann.

LINLEY
If the children were drugged and didn't know what happened to them, how did they find out?

WOODS
The police found out about the child abuse videos and identified the children. Richard Flask then admitted guilt. He named 7 children, the very same the police had identified.

LINLEY
This scandal could be a reason why the public does know little about Charles Deepriver. The president does not mention him, only that his son died of cancer.

WOODS
We have to talk with Richard Flask. He is alive, in prison, and serves a life sentence.

LINLEY
What happened to Mary Ann?