Chapter 17 (The SURFACK Club)

Chapter 17 (The SURFACK Club) is the seventeenth chapter of The Clearwood Murders: Episode II - The SURFACK Club and the thirty-third chapter of the overall Clearwood series. It was written by Donald Newton and is expected to be published on October 3, 2020 along with Chapter 18.

Plot
Skiface reveals himself and the full truth of his knowledge of Clarence's past.

Full Chapter
INT. CARTER RESIDENCE - BASEMENT - NIGHT

Charlie and Iris are cuddling on the couch (now that everyone else has left the basement) and watching TV. They don't notice as Skiface quietly sneaks down the stairs and finds them. He sneaks up behind the couch.

They finally feel his presence and turn around. They're so horrified that they don't react at first. This gives Skiface an opportunity to make his move to stab them. But as he does so, the couple realize the danger and move out of the way.

CHARLIE: RUN, IRIS!

Iris goes to run. But Skiface slaps her, which throws her to the wall. Iris hits her head on the wall and falls unconscious.

CHARLIE: HEY!

Charlie goes to tackle Skiface. But the Killer punches him in the face. With Charlie grabbing his face in pain, Skiface stabs him in the stomach and throws him to the wall. Like with Iris, Charlie hits his head on the wall and is knocked unconscious. But with a stab wound to the stomach, we must asks ourselves -- Did Charlie Rodriguez just die or will he survive? Both of them look dead.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Skiface just moves on back upstairs.

INT. GUEST BEDROOM

Nick and Madison are having sex. Through the passion of it all, Madison is having strong feelings for Nick again and has made a decision.

MADISON: I want you back.

NICK: I want you back, too.

MADISON: Good. Let's be together.

They continue on with the sex. Skiface walks in without being seen or heard by the couple due to their loud moaning. He walks up behind Nick, who is on top of Madison, and stabs him in the back. Nick grunts and groans in pain. Madison screams in horror. Not wanting anyone to hear her screaming, Skiface, hoping that Nick has died, quickly throws him aside and attacks Madison.

Skiface throws a pillow over Madison's face to cover her screams. She tries to scream louder and attempts to fight back. Then Skiface makes a hard stab into the pillow -- Madison goes silent. Blood seeps through the pillow. Madison Morgan is dead.

Skiface checks on Nick, who appears to be dead. So Skiface leaves the bedroom.

INT. LORRAINE'S BEDROOM

Lorraine is lying on her bed and playing with her phone. She hears movement coming from outside her door. Curious about this, she gets up to see what it is. She opens the door -- SKIFACE STANDS THERE.

But before we see anything else happen, we CUT TO --

INT. PRICE RESIDENCE - DAPHNE'S ROOM

Andrew and Daphne are making out on Daphne's bed. DING! Andrew pulls out his phone and finds a text message from -- SCOTT. It says, "COME HOME! NEWS ON KILLER!"

ANDREW: Oh, this is good. We need to get back to my place.

DAPHNE: Okay.

They jump off of her bed and rushes out of her bedroom.

DAPHNE: Maybe they caught the killer.

INT. CARTER RESIDENCE - NIGHT

Andrew and Daphne walk into the Carter house from the back sliding glass door and walk into the living room. They gasp in horror upon finding -- Clarence, Kathy, Lorraine and Scott tied up. They approach them and wake them up. Scott is the first to wake up.

SCOTT: The killer..he got me.

ANDREW: Where is everyone else? Iris? Charlie? Nick? Madison?

SCOTT: I don't know.

Scott begins to cry, believing them all to be dead. Clarence, Kathy and Lorraine, who have now regained consciousness, sees somebody walking into the living room.

CLARENCE: Andrew.

Andrew and Daphne turn around and finds Skiface walking in.

ANDREW: Who are you?

Skiface removes his ski-mask and reveals himself to be -- GERALD DIXON! Andrew, Scott, and Daphne are shocked upon seeing this.

SCOTT: Gerald?

GERALD: Hello, my friends. It's been fun. But the game is over.

ANDREW: Why? Why would you do this?

GERALD: I can't explain everything by myself. I need a little bit of help from my father.

EVERYONE: Father?

GERALD: Yes. Somebody special for you, Mr. Carter.

Clarence takes a moment to think. Then remembers what...or who he saw just before being knocked out in the garage.

CLARENCE: NO!

GERALD: Yes.

Another SKIFACE enters the living room and quickly removes his mask to reveal himself to be -- BILL TANNEN.

CLARENCE: (shocked) What the...

Tannen puts on an evil grin over seeing the shock on Clarence's face.

TANNEN: Didn't see it coming, Clarence? I knew you wouldn't.

SCOTT: What the hell is going on here? Why are you doing this?

ANDREW: Does this have anything to do with Francis?

TANNEN: Well, Young Man. We're not related to the Francis murders. No. We have two different stories here. You see, my son...Gerald...and I...we're proxy killers. We kill for money for other people. People who want to get away with murder. They hire us to do the work that they can't do.

GERALD: Right. You see, we were hired by two separate clients. One client wanted the SURFACK dead.

TANNEN: And the other wanted Clarence dead. When we realized how close the targets were, we decided to play it together.

GERALD: That's why I joined SURFACK. To get close to them. And then I was the one who insisted that we have your friends join SURFACK. Kill two birds with one stone.

SCOTT: Why did someone want you to kill the SURFACK?

GERALD: You know how Derek and his group were survivors of the Reinhart Witness Attack?

SCOTT: Everyone knows that. But didn't the entire Reinhart family die?

GERALD: The Reinhart clan had one survivor. The eldest son. But wanting to avoid getting into trouble, he hired us to do the work. So right now he's staying clear of Clearwood with a good alibi. Nobody will suspect him. So that is the reason we were hired to kill of the SURFACK.

ANDREW: So why did someone hire you to kill my Dad?

TANNEN: Oh, I think your Dad knows why.

They all turn to Clarence, who is very reluctant to bring up the past. He knows why. But now is the time to speak about the truth.

CLARENCE: It's about Susan Baines Connors.

This name doesn't mean anything to Andrew, Scott, and Lorraine. But it does to Kathy.

KATHY: What does she have anything to do with this? She's a woman that Clarence had an affair with and then she killed herself after he ended it.

Andrew, Scott, and Lorraine are shocked to learn about this affair. But now they're curious about her story being part of the murders.

TANNEN: Your husband broke her heart. She left behind a loving family. A father who couldn't bare the loss of his daughter. For years, he tried to figure out why his daughter killed herself...since Clarence scrapped all evidence of their affair. But last year, he found a private journal that Clarence never knew about. In that journal, she wrote about her affair with Clarence and how much it hurt when he ended it. She wrote in her very last entry that she planned to kill herself over him rejecting her. That is how Mr. Connors discovered the truth about his daughter's suicide. And seeing that the man in charge of investigating her death covered this up and moved on without even considering her feelings made him want his blood. So that is why we were hired to kill Clarence and his family. To take away what he loves the most before killing him last.

CLARENCE: You're never going to get away with this. The police will find out the truth. Dr. Bill Tannen, a murderer.

TANNEN: They can try. But they won't. You see...Dr. Bill Tannen doesn't exist. I've been murdering people and getting away with it since before I was Gerald's age. Nobody knows my real identity. I never use it. Hell, I'm starting to forget my own identity. I'm who my clients need me to be.

Clarence is shocked by this. Tannen and Gerald will get away with their murder because of how good they are at covering their tracks.

TANNEN: No more talk. It's times to get the show rolling. It's time to die.

GERALD: And we're going to start with...you.

It's revealed that Gerald has chosen Scott. Lorraine is horrified at the thought of Scott being killed.

LORRAINE: No.

Gerald pulls out his knife and raises his up. Scott is tough but scared. He closes his eyes as he attempts to accept his fate. Gerald swings the knife -- WE CUT TO BLACK.

Did Gerald kill Scott? Find out in Chapter 18.

Deaths

 * CD = Chapter Death (Deaths in the chapter)
 * SD = Story Death (Overall deaths in the story)
 * SRD = Series Death (Overall deaths in the series)

Trivia

 * Bill Tannen and Gerald Dixon are revealed to be the Skiface killers and that they are a father and son proxy duo. They kill on behalf of other people for money.
 * Bill was hired to kill Clarence by Susan Baines Connors's father for his part in her suicide.
 * Bill and Gerald were hired by the last surviving member of the Reinhart family to kill the original SURFACK members in their part of putting the Reinhart family away, leading to their executions.
 * Bill and Gerald reveal that they never use their real idenities and that they have slowly forgotten their own real names, which means Bill and Gerald are NOT their real names and never reveal it. Author Donald Newton never thought up real identities for the characters and just use the names they used for their mission to kill SURFACK and the Carter family.
 * Bill Tannen is not a real doctor.