MacGuffin Thoughts?

[Selena_Kitt]

I'm writing a sort of mystery, and I'd love to hear your ideas about the what the deal is with the MacGuffin in this story.

Basics: woman rides the bus every day, and she starts seeing a man on the bus every day as well. He carries a red briefcase/bag every day. It's a very distinctive bag. He brings it on the bus every day, but when they ride the bus home, he doesn't have it. This happens over and over. He gets on the bus with the red case/bag, but doesn't have it on the way home.

The MacGuffin is obviously the red case/bag. Why does he get on with it, but it's gone when he comes home? How does it return to his possession every day? And the obvious question... what's in the case?

Thoughts?

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

Is it red leather, red canvas, red metal, or red plastic?

Backpack, valise, satchel or messenger bag?

How is he holding it? Casually, or protectively? Does it sit on his lap or does he set it on the seat next to him?

Whore red, crimson, blood red or rose red?

I've got some ideas but I need some more details first.

Ok so I'm anxious and started without you

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/making/whospy/images/budget.jpg

He carries it casually at his side, but sits with it on his lap, both hands firmly on the top. He acknowledges the other riders but never initiates the conversation, and responds in short brusk sentences. He is not quite friendly but not mean or rude either.

Inside the case is $300,000 in $100 bills. The bundles are stacked 3 high, 5 wide and 2 rows.

Every day he watches the world, finding those people who need a special gift. The unexpected bill is paid, the larger than normal tip to get a waitress through a tough day, that $100 bill found on teh street corner. He is the one behind it all. At the end of each day he drops teh case off at the bank branch and every morning before a armored car brings him a new one filled another 300,000.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Is it red leather, red canvas, red metal, or red plastic?

Backpack, valise, satchel or messenger bag?

How is he holding it? Casually, or protectively? Does it sit on his lap or does he set it on the seat next to him?

Whore red, crimson, blood red or rose red?

I've got some ideas but I need some more details first.

Great questions... don't know yet... what's your idea?

 

[epiphany65]

Maybe it's not the same case she sees daily. He could have a stash of them at home in which he transports something to someone, returning empty-handed. What's in the case -- that's the real McGuffin, but only after protagonist discovers he's using new cases. This is done one day when she gets close enough to him to scratch the case (scratch the plastic or vinyl) then discovering the next day that the case is pristine. This prompts her to repeat the process, just to be sure, or starts her quest to discover the man's secret.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

Great questions... don't know yet... what's your idea?

Look up

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Look up

Love it!!

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Maybe it's not the same case she sees daily. He could have a stash of them at home in which he transports something to someone, returning empty-handed. What's in the case -- that's the real McGuffin, but only after protagonist discovers he's using new cases. This is done one day when she gets close enough to him to scratch the case (scratch the plastic or vinyl) then discovering the next day that the case is pristine. This prompts her to repeat the process, just to be sure, or starts her quest to discover the man's secret.

Ahhhhh... not the same case... interesting!!

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

Love it!!

A friend of mine who has greater than average expendable income regularly gets a few rolls of quarters and walks down the street feeding parking meters, just for fun.

This is just taking it to a Warren Buffet level

 

[unregistered]

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The bag is used to drop collect samples from a doctor's office. The man works in a lab processing lab tests (blood work, etc.). On the way to work he stops and picks the bag up from a lock box outside the doc's office. The bags are returned by another route each afternoon along with the previous day's results.

Hm. Has possibilities.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The red case is a dummy for the Red Box that connects the President with NORAD. He's simply one of many curriers who always are switching the boxes around so that no one knows which one will really unleash Armegeddon. Only the President knows . . .

 

[Samandiriel]

He's a serial killer transporting body parts. Cryo-wrapped parts that he deposits all over the city in places no one would look into.

 

[Stella_Omega]

The bag is used to drop collect samples from a doctor's office. The man works in a lab processing lab tests (blood work, etc.). On the way to work he stops and picks the bag up from a lock box outside the doc's office. The bags are returned by another route each afternoon along with the previous day's results.

And one morning, the samples are horribly different. Plague, or Alien, or something that sets off the chase.

Or;

Someone is using this system to ferry diamonds from to a confederate in the lab... Is this guy innocent, or the mastermind?

 

[DeeZire]

The guy is a writer. He buys red cases by the case. Ever day he puts a copy of his new manuscript in a new case and drops it off at a different publisher or agent's office. He leaves the red case as an incentive for the agent or publisher to actually read the manuscript instead of just tossing it in the trash the way they do with most of the unsolicited material they get.

Here's where it gets complicated. The manuscript is the first person story of the writer guy seeing the woman on the bus every day. In a David Lynch style time warp, he has written the ending which is yet to unfold. Unfortunately, the ending does not bode well for the lady on the bus.

Finally, some handsome, up and coming agent dude is having a slow day so he reads the manuscript and realizes the woman is in danger because he's seen her on the bus before (since he can't afford a car.) Desperate to save her, he's riding the bus to transfer to her route when he gets to the last page of the story and sees that the ending does not bode well for him either. OMG! What will he do?

Driven by an urge he doesn't understand, he continues on his quest to find the doomed lass. Just when he's about to give up, he finds her on her bus and drags her off and into an alley where they have hot sex. It is only after they have hot sex that they discover they are long lost brother and sister. In a fit of shame, she stumbles back out onto the sidewalk, only to run into the red-case-guy.

The red case opens. A sheaf of papers tumbles out. As they fly off into the wind like pigeons, the red-case-guy pulls a knife from the case. The agent-guy is running, desperate to save his slut-sister-lover so they can have more forbidden sex in other alleys, or perhaps even in a bed. As he's running, he's crumpling up the last page of the manuscript, the one that did not bode well for him or his sister.

Let's see... was that too much information?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Have your agent get in touch with my agent.

 

[3113]

Is this mystery story erotica? 'Cause if so...shouldn't it be filled with sex toys for the rich and famous? Especially politicians with a lot of kinks? He invents exotic, strange, highly expensive and kinky sex toys, each one made special and to specifications. He arranges them within a red case which serves as both delivery bag and carrying case for the items. That's why it's not with him when he returns. You buy the sex toys, you get the case thrown in

There's a confidentially clause between him and his clients and no one can know what this man is delivering or to whom. Anyone who finds out will be in real trouble.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Is this mystery story erotica? 'Cause if so...shouldn't it be filled with sex toys for the rich and famous? Especially politicians with a lot of kinks? He invents exotic, strange, highly expensive and kinky sex toys, each one made special and to specifications. He arranges them within a red case which serves as both delivery bag and carrying case for the items. That's why it's not with him when he returns. You buy the sex toys, you get the case thrown in

There's a confidentially clause between him and his clients and no one can know what this man is delivering or to whom. Anyone who finds out will be in real trouble.

Yeah, it's erotica... preferably a romance-ish type... but mystery/suspense... think Hitchcock.