STILL LIFE
The year is 1930. Dapper private investigator J.P. McGonacle becomes the lead player in a deadly drama when a major Chicago crime figure dies.
Immediately following the shooting death of Angelo Farantina, the windy city's mob boss, a mysterious package arrives at McGonacle's office. He opens it to find a painting, a still life study of flowers and fruit. Subsequently he learns that the artwork has been willed to him by Farantina.
Even as NcGonacle tries to make sense of this development, Lieutenant Martin Bristow and Detective Sergeant Jethro Phelan of the Chicago police department pay him a visit. During the course of their conversation it is revealed that a scrap of paper containing McGonacle's name and phone number was found in the coat pocket of the dead gangster. He professes not to have known the murdered mob boss nor how his name and number came to be in the man's pocket. When the two policemen leave, McGonacle is left to study the painting and ponder its meaning for him.
The next day McGonacle meets with Boots, his leg man, in the hopes of learning about the painting and its purpose. As they talk a pair of mob types enter unannounced and threaten McGonacle with violence if he doesn't relate his dealings with the late Angelo Farantina. He manages to convince the two mobsters that the fromer crimeboss had no relationship with him.
A few nights later McGonacle is working late in his office when Teresa Lynn, a night club singer, comes calling. The attractive woman confesses to being Farantina's daughter and claims he intended to leave her a substantial amount of money. To this end she arranged for the erstwhile mob boss to contact McGonacle with information as to where his inheritance could be found. Suddenly a dark figure darts into the room, fires several shots and leaves. In the resulting convusion the girl slips away leaving McGonacle to wonder at the odd turn of events.
Given some research through the newspaper archives of the Chicago library system McGonacle learns that Farantina, as a younger mobster on the rise some 20 years earlier, took part in a multi-million dollar robbery of an armored car service. He deduces that the stolen money which was never recovered most likely comprise the inheritance intended for Teresa Lynn.
From this juncture McGonacle, at considerable peril to himself, determines that the still life painting contains the answer to the secret whereabouts of the long-missing robbery loot. Now the suspense builds to a surprise ending as he manages to find the hidden cache and unravel the riddle of the accompanying murder. Fast-paced entertainment for audiences of all ages playing out on a single set.