MYSTERY WOMAN

“AT FIRST SIGHT”

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SYNOPSIS

The romantic attention of handsome eye doctor Ben Stafford (Eyal Podell) would be very welcome if mystery bookstore owner Samantha Kinsey (Kellie Martin) weren’t so anxious about some recent vision problems and a recurring nightmare about a frightened woman and a crying baby that she fears might be somehow related. Since there is no history of eye disease in her family, Stafford assures her that there probably is no serious problem. It’s likely just eye strain. But, as Samantha explains to her best friend, Assistant District Attorney Cassie Thomas (Nina Sziemasko), that diagnosis is a serious problem in itself: she is adopted and doesn’t know her family medical history. She found out about the adoption by accident and has discussed her discovery with no one, not even her adoptive parents.

After Cassie does a little research, Samantha drives to the mountain town where she was adopted and, with the help of the son (Charlie Schlatter) of the lawyer who handled the placement, finds out that her birth mother, Hannah McPhillips (Kathryn Harrold), still lives nearby. Meanwhile as Samantha tries to find the courage to meet her, Philby (Clarence Williams III), the bookstore’s enigmatic manager, is jumped by a mysterious stranger he has followed into a back alley.

Samantha plans to tell her birth mother Hannah that she is from the Retinitis Pigmentosa Research Fund, but Hannah is so hostile that Samantha isn’t able to say much of anything before four deputies, led by Sherriff Powell (Scott Michael Campbell), surround them with guns drawn. Inside Hannah’s house, Samantha sees the body of a man lying in a pool of blood. Then a distressed young woman shows up. She is Hannah’s daughter--and Samantha’s half-sister -- Francy (Christine Lakin). Both mother and daughter claim to have no idea who the victim is or how he had gotten into their house. To the distress of both of her daughters, Hannah agrees to go to the sheriff’s station for further questioning.

Back at the bookstore, Philby sits down to tea with his captor (Michael Cole), who turns out to be Garrett Desmond, an old friend and partner from his days as a covert agent. Desmond is in town looking for George Rebeta, (Gerald Brodin),  a psychic whose services had been sought by every intelligence service in the world. Philby supposedly took out Rebeta years ago. In fact, it was why he was dismissed from the agency. But somehow the dead man has resurfaced in Walden, under an assumed name, and Chief Connors (Casey Sander) is holding him for drunk driving.

Powell arrests Hannah on suspicion of murder when he discovers that Hannah knew the victim, an insurance broker named Van Jefferson, very well. In fact the two of them had done jail time for grand theft auto 28 years ago.  Reluctant to believe her mother could be a murderer, Samantha suspects Hannah’s husband, Mark (John Aprea). Jefferson was killed with an antique gun and, as Samantha discovers, there appears to be one missing from the collection that McPhillips keeps under his floorboard. She gets Hannah to tell her that Jefferson had threatened to reveal her felony conviction to the insurance company where she works. Meanwhile, Francy urges Powell and Samantha to check out Jefferson’s business partner, Carl Delsohn. When Samantha breaks into Jefferson’s office looking for evidence, she finds Francy breaking into Delsohn’s. They are both interrupted when the burglar alarm sounds and someone starts shooting.  Back in Walden, Philby smashes the window of an antique store. After Philby is arrested, Desmond dons a flamboyant purple overcoat and transforms himself into Philby’s gregarious attorney.

Cassie discovers that Jefferson and Delsohn had a lucrative business brokering insurance claims over “accidents” that appear to have been deliberate.  While Francy insists she saw the murder weapon in Delsohn’s office, Samantha still has doubts about McPhillips. She follows him to a parking lot where she witnesses his violent confrontation with Delsohn. When Delsohn’s goon, Bodie Waxx, shoots McPhillips, Samantha daringly rescues the wounded man from his assailants.

Cassie e-mails Samantha her latest worrisome discoveries.  Jefferson was a lady killer who used his good looks to swindle women, none of whom ever pressed charges against the handsome con man. But worse, she has found out that several of Jefferson’s biggest claims targeted wealthy drivers insured by the company where Hannah worked. Samantha realizes that her mother has more secrets to reveal. Reluctantly, Hannah confesses to her that she had been providing Jefferson with information about the company’s most affluent policy holders for several years. Meanwhile, back in Walden, Connors discovers Rebeta’s true identity through a buddy at the Department of Defense and announces that a full file on the psychic is on its way to him. Philby and Desmond realize they have to put their plan into gear immediately.

Samantha enters Delsohn’s office disguised as a janitor and finds the murder weapon. But Bodie sees her and calls his boss.  Samantha is talking to Sheriff Powell as she drives down a rural highway when a truck and an SUV try to drive her off the road and into a ravine.  Tires squeal, brakes skid and there is a loud crash of metal as Samantha swerves into the truck. She suffers minor cuts but Delsohn is killed and Waxx is under arrest. Powell seems satisfied that Delsohn is the murderer but Samantha is still uneasy. Why did Delsohn use McPhillips’s gun and how did he and Jefferson get into the house?

When Samantha returns to Hannah’s, she is greeted with brownies and tea.  But Samantha has come to confront her mother not celebrate. Hannah stuns her by revealing that she knew from the moment she saw her that Samantha was her daughter.  She also tells her that Jefferson, a man with whom she had been wildly in love as a foolish kid, was her father.  Samantha was born in prison. Hannah had given her up to get Jefferson out of both of their lives.  Samantha realizes then that Hannah was prepared to go to jail for a crime that her daughter Francy had committed.  Samantha is torn between her duty to the law and to her sister. 

Just after Cassie advises Samantha to do what she knows is right, smoke begins pouring out of the sprinkler system in her office and the fire alarm sounds. Cassie runs to Connors’ office and finds him engrossed in Rebeta’s file while smoke flows around him.  As Cassie runs out, she encounters Desmond heading for an exit with his trademark purple overcoat drawn over his head.  Cassie rushes into the jail where she finds Philby and Desmond calmly playing chess and George Rebeta’s cell empty.

When Samantha confronts her, Francy admits to shooting Jefferson. She had lured him to the house hoping to pay him to keep away from her mother. But he had only laughed at the sum. Then he had turned threatening. In her panic, she shot him with the gun she had hidden behind a pillow on the coach. Samantha urges her to turn herself in and explain to Sheriff Powell that she had killed Jefferson in self-defense.

Samantha returns to Walden to visit her real mother, the woman who had raised her.  When she gets back to the bookshop, she is puzzled to find the mysterious stranger whom she had noticed snooping around before she had left having tea with Philby. Philby pretends they are discussing book business. Samantha knows Philby is withholding information, but she will have to put her latest investigation on hold.  Dr. Ben Stafford is waiting to take her to dinner.

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