Down in the Hole

From Sean @ fivegalloncan, Sydney Australia to Dave, UK

Working Title: Conventional or “Down in the hole”.

A middle aged barrister (public prosecutor) called Mathew is preparing
for a cross examination he is to perform the following morning. He is
working in his apartment (typical bachelor pad – harsh
lines/spectacular view from floor to ceiling windows), Mathew is
looking over the file, drinking malt whisky. He looks introverted,
haunted as he looks at the photograph of the boy of 13 (Paul) that he
is to cross examine. The boy is up for murder having stabbed another
boy his age in a street fight. Mathew’s eyes darken as he looks at the
photo and sips his whisky.

The next morning Mathew tears Paul apart on the witness stand, in a
blistering attack the boy is reduced to rage filled tears. Paul
asserts it was self defence. The jury doesn’t take any time at all to
agree that he is a liar and a killer. Mathew asks for the maximum
sentence. The boy is lead away like an empty shell. Mathew watches the
boy as he leaves, the same dark look as before.

Later, Mathew gets a call from his mother. Her best friend’s son
(Brian) has died and there is to be a funeral on the weekend. She
wants him to come, reminding him how close they were when they were
boys. Mathew clearly says he doesn’t have time. Mother guilt trips him
(hasn’t seen him in so long), Mathew is firm. The mother begs, she
tells him how Brian died. That he was drunk and got lost alone down in
the caves whilst pot holing. The coroner ruled it death by
misadventure. He died of thirst.

Mathew is shaken by this. He agrees to come.

The turnout isn’t great, Brian was an alchoholic with few friends
outside of the pub. No one knows why Brian went down into that cave
with no equipment or company. The gossip is that he was a drunken
loser. Mathew knows better. Mathew knows he was trying to find
something down there, something hidden long ago.

But what, Dave, what?

A body would be too obvious, we could lead them down that path but it
wouldn’t be very interesting if it ended with a little pile of bones.
I feel it has to be something more peculiar, more Lynchian.

One idea is that Mathew hid a African Devil Mask down there. Having
just bought an Optimus Prime mask for my Nephew Tom I have seen the
strange effect that masks have on children. They gleefully abandon
their identity and take on the role of the mask – become something
other, more powerful.
If the boys were already up to something, perhaps the mask could have
escalated it, especially if its weird voodoo nature had some sort of
power (imagined or not).

The draw back of this idea is Jim Carey, has enough time passed?