This is the synopsis of a movie script by Swiss writer NICHOLAS ROBERT which I translated into english:
THE BLACK DOVE
(Geneva, the Hotel Beau Rivage, June 2001)
0645 a.m. Marie Piana, an attractive woman in her 30's is in bed. She opens one eye and shuffles her body backwards towards her husband Melvin. But he is not there.... She gets up, there is nobody in the bathroom. Melvin's clothes and gun are there. Nobody was seen going out by the hotel's reception. She telephones the French
Embassy, identifying herself as an officer from "Quai d'Orsay" (Paris police HQ)
and asking for immediate assistance. Three hours later the hotel has been searched from top to bottom: still no trace of Melvin. How could he have disappeared, apparently
completely naked? The officer in charge orders Marie back to Paris against her wishes, she may also be in danger.
(University Hospital, Lyon, a few days later)
2 am. Alex Malkin, a young emergency ward doctor (UK =
casualty dept) working the night shift is taking a break. He goes
downstairs towards the operating theatre, deserted at this hour of the
night. He takes off his white coat, revealing a tuxedo (UK = dinner jacket). He
enters into the operating theatre where his fiancee Alice awaits him
dressed in a wedding gown. With the help of friends, the two
lovers have a morbid desire to celebrate their union "on the other
side", they want to take a forbidden passage into momentary death. Two
medical friends inject them with neuroleptics and soon their hearts
stop beating. Three minutes later reanimation procedures are put
into action and Alex starts breathing again quickly. But Alice fails to
recover. Alex tries everything to revive her but in vain. Alice could
not, or did not want to come back to life.
(Castres, three years later)
Alex is now working as a medical examiner (UK = pathologist)
in an obscure small town hospital. One day he has to inspect the
corpse of a young woman found drowned in a river. He is shocked to
discover the body is that of the best friend of his sister Sophie, the two girls
were supposed to be holidaying together in Ireland! Investigating further, he concludes that this is a case of a murder disguised as a suicide and
detects a suspect fingerprint. It is identified as that of MelvinPiana.
Marie Piana arrives soon after in Castres and sparks fly when
she meets Alex. Today is the anniversary of Alice's death and he has
other matters to think about than her story of a missing husband.
He remains obsessed with a single idea, to summon up the nerve
to join his fiancee in death.
But when he learns from Marie that his sister Sophie never
went on the planned trip to Ireland, he considers himself obliged to join
forces with Marie to find his sister, and to find out whether Melvin
is alive, perhaps he is the the killer.
The investigation takes them to an isolated house where the
two young women were staying. Marie gets there first and finds Sophie
dying. In spite of advice provided by Alex over the phone, she is unable
to save her. It's a double shock for Marie when it is discovered that Melvin's
fingerprints are all over the house. Even in the face of this
evidence, she refuses to believe her husband is gulty. As far as she is concerned,he is dead and his silence proves this must be so.
Alex is devastated, he is tormented by guilt for not having
been there when it mattered to save his sister. For him, a doctor who
saved numerous anonymous patients, it is doubly mortifying that he
proved incapable when it came to the death of somebody close to him.
He vents his anger against Marie, unlike her he is convinced Melvin is
the killer. His determination soon results in the discovery of several new
pieces of evidence. Since Alex can't carry out an autopsy (UK = post mortem) on
his own sister, he begs Marie to do it under his supervision. Thanks
to the procedure she carries out, it is established beyond doubt that
Sophie was murdered.
However during Alex's absence to attend his sister's funeral, an
unknown hand destroys all the evidence gathered in connection with the
two murders. Alex accuses Marie, she has destroyed the evidence to
clear her husband.
Inspector Salomi is the officer who is supposed to be in charge
of the case. Up to now he has been somewhat distracted by a torrid
affair with a local woman. However he does now intervene to take over the
investigation following Marie and Alex's misconduct. But Marie is
convinced there is something suspicious about the inspector,
she pretends to help him and deploying her feminine charms,
manages to find the truth: Salomi himself is involved in the murders! Salomi
attacks Marie and leaves her for dead. Fortunately Alex has been on
her trail, convinced that she is the guilty one. Arriving on the scene,
he manages to revive Marie. For him this is an amotional moment, at last
he has succeeded in saving a loved one from death. As for Marie, she
realizes that Alex has saved her life and her attitude towards him
changes.
Inspector Salomi, believing Marie to be dead, blithely carries on
his life. He is getting ready to move out of town. But Alex and
Marie are watching his every move. Salomi meets a succession of shadowy
individuals to obtain a substance with which he injects
himself. Surging into action, Marie and Alex give chase to Salomi who finishes by
passing out as a result of the substance he took. Moments before losing
consciousness he appears to say enigmatically to Marie that Melvin may
be alive, yet dead at the same time...
When Salomi is brought to hospital, it is determined that he
had injected himself not with a drug, but with a lethal dose of
insulin, enough to kill a horse. What's more, he is suffering from
terminal cancer. Alex is puzzled, he doesn't believe Salomi committed
suicide because the officer had packed his bags and was all set to
leave town in a hurry. It seems more likely he was poisoned by his dealer..
Salomi's manipulations have shed a fog of confusion over the trail. In addition it seems clear he could not have been the murderer because he had an alibi for the night Sophie was killed. In the house where the two women died, a cheque is found from a cosmetics laboratory. Before their death, it seems they volunteered to take part in an
experiment for cosmetics. It is discovered that Inspector Salomi had a link
with the same laboratory
Marie decides infiltrate the laboratory by posing as a young
woman who has volunteered fto take part in the experiments. Inside, she thinks she catches a glimpse of Melvin but he gets away. It seems therefore that
he is alive after all, and involved in this mysterious
trade...
Still posing as the girl, Marie sets a trap in which she is the bait,
under the watchful eye of Alex who is becoming increasingly
attracted to her. They spend the whole night waiting and during the
hours spent together they are honest about their feelings for each other.
Marie admits she is attracted to Alex. He still has not abandoned
his morbid ideas of dying to rejoin Alice.
Suddely the trap is sprung, and Melvin himself is caught. The hour ofreckoning has arrived. Is he Sophie's killer? Why did he vanish three years earlier? Melvin has become a zombie, he is obviously very ill and refuses to answer their questions. Under pressure from Alex, Melvin admits there is a body buried in Inspector Salomi's cellar. In return for giving this information, he demands to be released, he hasn't killed anyone and he is
already "dead". But Alex refuses to let him go. The body turns out to be that of a young woman who died of severe cancer: tests show she is
highly radioactive.
At last Melvin starts to talk when left alone with Marie. He is dying of cancer and nothing can save him. But if she agrees to let him go, he can save other girls who are in danger. Marie isn't sure, but without telling Alex, she releases him. Alex is furious and organises a raid on the laboratory. That is where the key to this mystery must lie. As if to prove his suspicions right, Marie vanishes during the search of the lab. She is a prisoner in the hands of the murderer! The reality of a ghastly traffic in
human body parts dawns on her, and the latest victim is tto be Marie herself.
The story descents towards the darkest of conclusions, revealing the
cynical and machiavellian course taken by certain persons who are
dying of incurable diseases who will stop at nothing to prolong
their lives.
(end)