I've been twisting another scenario idea around and around. I think it's good, but I can't quite figure out how to implement it. The idea is stolen from one of my favorite O. Henry stories: A Retrieved Reformation. The story goes like this:
A gifted safe cracker is pardoned very early in a lengthy prison sentence thanks to his criminal connections calling in a few favors from politicians. He collects his tools from where he'd hidden them, commits a few quick robberies for travel money, and vanishes. The detective who caught him the last time realizes the new burglaries followed the pardoned man's M.O. and starts tracking him.
Jump forward a few months and the safe cracker shows up in a small southwestern town planning on robbing the town's sole bank. He scouts the bank by depositing some money and lying about looking into business opportunities. After that, he walks into the hotel and immediately falls in love with a young woman he sees. That young woman just happens to be the bank president's daughter! His life then changes almost as fast as he fell in love.
Several months later, he's running a prosperous shoe business thanks to having been trained as a cobbler in prison. He's also engaged to the bank president's daughter. He's still got his specialized safe cracking tools on hand though, decides to sell them to an old friend who is still in that line of work, and sends him a letter making the offer.
Thanks to the letter, the detective learns the whereabouts of the ex-safe cracker. He travels to the small town, noses around, learns the ex-safe cracker is living openly, is running a business, is engaged, and is considered to be a leading citizen.
The day the detective arrives, the ex-safe cracker's future father-in-law is showing off the banks new time vault to friends and family. A little girl slips away and shuts herself in the vault. The vault's tumblers haven't been set and it's clock hasn't been wound, so there's no way to open the vault before the little girl suffocates.
No way that "straight" people know about that is.
After his fiance unwittingly begs him to do something, the ex-safe cracker goes to his rooms, collects his tools, and returns to the bank. When he's walking back, he meets the detective who knows about the little girl. Neither man says anything to the other.
The ex-safe cracker walks into the bank, unpacks his collection of specialized tools, and goes to work. The vault is cracked, the little girl is saved, and everyone stands staring at him. He walks out of the bank to where the detective is waiting and starts to give himself up. The detective stops him, pretends he doesn't know who the safe cracker is, and walks away.
Windhoek is the ex-safe cracker, obviously. The soon-to-have-a-Vilani-name Gavery is the police detective. In the scenario, Windhoek would drop his disguise in order to perform a heroic act and do so in a manner which would guarantee his capture only to have Gavery choose not to arrest him at that time.
It would be a great scenario if I could only figure out the details!
