1952. When a mysterious widow slits the throat of aging San Diego fortune teller MADAM ZORBA, it pushes the mettle of errant homicide detective JACK POOLE, 40 something, to the very edge. Why? Because he’s immediately smitten with his number one suspect, MARY BARNETT, 25, an intoxicating blond whose allure leaves him wanting more than just the facts.
When Jack’s Gullah-bred Godmother, LULA CHARITY, 60 something, realizes Zorba’s murder is identical to black magic, ritualistic killings committed by African rain makers to eradicate invoked demons, she warns him, “Only God can defeat this kind of evil.”
Fighting suspicion and attraction, Jack suppresses evidence implicating Mary in yet a second gruesome murder. Straddling impropriety, he visits her under the guise of ‘official’ police business to ask questions. She acknowledges an interest in the occult, but nothing more. As Jack leaves, he catches her undressing in her Hotel Del Coronado bungalow.
Pallor settles over the city. Despite gruesome similarities, brass denies the two crimes are linked, rank and file clam up and the media prints lies about the truth.
CARMINE BARONE, 25, an understudy who wears drag in a local play, is brought in for questioning; he was overheard whispering death threats against the second victim. Stressed, Jack sleeps with a mysterious, late-night waitress, RUBY, 25, who uncannily resembles Mary Barnett. She spills a chilling new fact about both murders - they have the same signature and modus operandi as Jack the Ripper – a case gone unsolved for over 65 years.
Slips of the tongue, a photographic memory and an eye for detail, lead Jack north to a murder in L.A. and to the dark power behind his investigation - JEDDEDIAH STEPHENSON, an old, wealthy creep whose been trailing Mary for years. He reveals that she possesses the ‘secret’ that his grandfather discovered practicing black magic back in Africa. He tortures Jack for information, but Jack escapes and learns that Stephenson’s grandfather was an actual Ripper suspect back in 1888.
Returning to San Diego, Jack finds that Barone and Ruby are lovers and have been paid by Stephenson to get Mary's whereabouts from Jack. Failing, they attempt to kill Jack, but Mary, whose been following them, kills the two and saves Jack’s life.
Mary drops a bombshell. She reveals that her real name is MARY KELLY - Jack the Ripper’s last known ‘victim’ back in 1888. She explains that the Ripper’s murders were part of a black magic ritual to rid him of a water spirit, that when it enters the magician, keeps them young like the fountain of youth, that’s why she looks 25. However, if you die with it, you’re cursed to hell. Via ritual, Jack the Ripper put the demon in her, and she's been trying to find a way to eradicate the spirit since 1888. But she’s found that the only way to get it out, was to duplicate the ritual herself, including the killings.
Reeling from this confession, Jack whisks Mary to Crystal Pier for safe keeping so he can figure out what to do. But Jack’s partner, GUS ALLESANDRO, 40, looking for a payday, betrays their hideout to Stephenson’s henchman, LIEB, who in turn kills Stephenson. Lieb wants Stephenson's money and the youth spirit for himself. But Providence has other plans. Everyone, but Jack is killed, even Mary, but not before she releases the youth spirit into Lieb who dies with the demon in him.
Before she succumbs to her injuries, Mary finds grace through Jack’s prayer, which saves her mortal soul and ends the evil legacy.
©
2024 Bret Bordeaux.
All Rights Reserved.
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