Sarah Luger synopsis All content copyright 2018 by Sebastian Corbascio. All rights reserved. On the night of April 4th, 1984, Sarah Luger, 15, a volleyball star at Altamont High School is stabbed on her front doorstep. The assailant escapes. Sarah gets into her house, crawls to the kitchen to the phone and calls 911. The police and ambulance arrive, she is rushed to the hospital, but is dead on arrival. The Aurora county Sheriff and the Fidelis City Fathers kick the investigation into high gear; Fidelis itself sets up a tip hotline; they set up a reward fund for $50,000 for any tip leading to an arrest; the going theory is that Sarah met up with a girl from out of town, things went sideways. there simply aren't any kids in Fidelis who are capable of killing. After a few months, dozens of interviews, hundreds of vehicles and hundreds of police man hours, law enforcement comes up with nothing. Fear strikes Fidelis, some of the kids are harassed, city hall needs to do something, and fast. Detective Lieutenant Charles Sariano and Detective Tom Harper have been called in to solve the crime. Detective Sariano is famed for capturing the Capricorn Killer in San Francisco twenty years earlier. Sariano and Harper try all sorts of triangulation techniques, including jacking up the local drug dealer to smoke out the killer out of hiding, who they theorize must have been on drugs at the time of the murder, or is a heavy drug user. Aside from sending Trent to a mandatory prison sentence, this tactic yields no leads. Sariano plants an undercover narcotics officer, Rose Padilla, into Altamont High. She quickly getsasked to join the Legionaires, the exclusive girl's club that Sarah was pledging before she was killed. Rose undergoes some bizarre and cruel hazing rituals, but comes back empty handed. Sariano's team interviews Karin Berardo, who matches the perp's profile, who has a flimsy alibi, and who's father owns a Blue Honda as a spare utility vehicle. Karin takes a lie detector test. She passes with flying colors. Reaching an impasse, Sariano has an idea: profile the victim. Sariano conducts extensive interviews with two girls who were Sarah's closest friends before she died. Both were recent arrivals to Fidelis. Carmen D'Amore's family moved from the Aurora for better schools, safer streets, and for the Altamont Arts program. The D'Amores are very unhappy in Fidelis. The value system which underlies the local culture goes against theirs'. Carmen befriends Sarah after Sarah "fails" an audition and she finds her crying. Carmen takes her under her wing, and they go on adventures. These include riding on bus back bumpers, and hitchhiking. One day, Sarah severs all contact wit Carmen, for no apparent reason. Carmen doesn't pursue and explanation. Fidelis code mandates that Carmen not seem weak. Sarah's friend Patti, also moved to Fidelis recently. Patti, a heavy-set girl, finds love and popularity in Fidelis. She also becomes bulimic. She embraces her bulimia. Bulimia gives her a sense of control, she is in the driver's seat of her own body. Sarah becomes more and more envious of her. She's a "fat girl" who gets a boyfriend and gets popular seemingly without having to make any effort whatsoever, while Sarah is getting little traction. The tension between them blows up at a pool party. Sarah races away from the party. Patti goes to Sarah's home to make amends. She finds Sarah in her bedroom, still in her wet bathing suit. Astrid follows Patti upstairs. Astrid demands to know what is going on, impersonating Sarah as if she were a mentally disabled person. Patti realizes that Sarah is emotionally and psychologically abused at home. Patti runs out of the house, but not before telling Astrid to burn in hell. Two weeks later, Sarah is dead. Harper, Sariano, and Rose are out of ideas. Harper taps an old PD buddy who now is in a leadership position at the FBI VICAP labs in Quantico, VA. A few weeks later, the VICAP profile returns what the team always knew: the killer is in Sarah's peer group, accomplishment oriented, and can display a lack of remorse. Sariano goes home early, and collapses into bed. He dreams about playing chess with Sarah, and she whispers the name of her killer in his ear. He wakes up suddenly. His wife Linda comes in and embraces him. The Capricorn Killer, Martin Colson, who Sariano caught fifteen years earlier was executed in Huntsville, Texas that day. Sariano rushes to the phone. Sariano had promised Colson to request an autopsy and have his brain examined to help science figure out why he had murdered thirty or more people. Sariano is told by the State DA that he could put in a request, but it would be too late before they cremate Colson. Sariano hangs up the phone, and realizes who Sarah's killer is. He gets Harper on the phone and asks if someone lacking remorse can pass a lie detector test. Harper isn't sure, he'd have to look it up. An arrest is made. The kids at Altamont narrow down the list of absentees, and Karin Berardo's best friend, Christine Love, suspects the worst. Karin Berardo's trial commences. The court plays back her confession: what happened the night of April 4th. It started out as a scheme to get Sarah to the Legionaires party, impress the older girls that she showed up in a "borrowed" car, and get her stock with the Legionaires, and at Altamont. On the way over, the tension overwhelms them, and they get into a punching match. Karin bloodies Sarah's nose. Karin goes to a gas station and gets Sarah a cup of ice for her face. When she returns, they drive towards their destination, but get lost. They pull over and Karin gets the map out. Sarah asks a question, Karin looks up, and Sarah cold cocks Karin in the face, slams her head five times into the steering wheel, punches her in the breasts, and flees the car. Karin follows Sarah with the car to Howard's doorstep, and then Howard's Volvo when he gives Sarah a ride home. Karin finds a knife in the glove compartment and stabs Sarah on her front door step, then flees. The court room is silent except for some sobbing. Karin is remanded to custody. As she lays in hercell, she flashes back to the day after the murder. Karin wakes up the morning after killing Sarah. The cops have not come, they have not arrested her. In the weeks and months following, she gets to the brink of confessing many times, but does not. She has night terrors where Sarah comes back and stabs her. Karin is wide awake and feels Sarah plunging the dagger into her. Karin is called in for an interview for the third time; her mother Winnifred realizes that Karin is the killer. By that time, Sariano has her triangulated. Karin confesses. Karin is sentenced to ten years. Harper has disappeared. Sariano goes to his apartment, and it is cleaned out. A few days later, Harper calls and tells Sariano that his handlers were getting red flags, so he and "Stephanie" had to make a run for it. He tells Sariano that he is the best cop he has ever worked with. Witness protection or no witness protection, Sariano tells Harper that he is always welcome in their home. A few weeks later, Sariano gets a file on Harper. His real name is Devon Harper. He had shot two made Bonasera men in the face escaping a bar after his partner was stabbed. Harper was a part of the legendary rogue Eleventh Precinct in NYC, a vigilante precinct that had to be taken over by the Justice Department. Sariano doesn't read on. He shreds the file. He goes to church, and says a prayer for his friend. THE END