A Deadly Affair

The story begins when prominent Beverly Hills psychiatrist, Dr. Joel Steiner, is shot and killed by an unknown intruder, on Steiner’s luxury yacht, the Sirocco. LAPD Det. Joe Kellermann and his partner, Det. Rick Ramirez, begin an immediate investigation into Dr. Steiner’s murder. Supposedly, “happily married,” the detectives soon learn Steiner was having a secret affair with one of his patients: a mystery-woman, know only as “Rita.” Upon further investigation, the mistress Rita Chandler, is found living in a beach-front bungalow on P.C.H. in Malibu. During the interrogation, Miss Chandler reveals that her affair with Steiner had become the ultimate fatal attraction. He was totally obsessed with her. When she tells him the affair is over, primarily because she has fallen in love with another man, Steve Ryan, he loses it; in a fit of rage he tells her: “If I can’t have you…nobody else will!” Steiner even threatens to kill her.

A scene with Steve Ryan reaffirms Miss Chandler’s testimony that after the break-up, Steiner constantly spied on her, stalked her, made obscene phone calls, etc., finally forcing her to leave her Santa Barbara apartment. At the end of this scene, we are shocked, when Ryan reveals that Rita Chandler is HIV-positive. She has AIDS.

In a scene, following, Kellermann’s superior officer, Capt. Frank McElroy, already has a list of four possible suspects: Rita Chandler, her boyfriend, Barbara Steiner, the “grieving widow,” and Steiner’s business partner, Dr. Sydney Zellman. This scene ends with a surprise visit from Diana Marlowe, from the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office. She is here to see Kellermann with vital information concerning the Steiner case.

Miss Marlowe reveals that about three months prior, Rita Chandler came into her Santa Barbara office and filed a complaint against Steiner. As incredible as it sounded, Miss Chandler was positive, Steiner had injected her with the deadly AIDS virus. Pregnant (with Steiner’s child) she had an abortion. Upon further investigation, the D.A.’s office learned that Steiner was treating three AIDS patients, including a gay man, named Larry Mosely. Genetic analysis of the virus that infected Miss Chandler, was shown to be identical to Mosely’s. Dr. Steiner was arrested, arraigned and released on $200,000 bond. His trial was scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks. Miss Marlowe explains, word “leaked out” of the D.A.’s office; Mosely’s gay and HIV status became public. He was suing Steiner for doctor-patient confidentiality. Kellermann immediately adds Larry Mosely to his possible-suspect list. Within 48 hours later, Kellermann is informed by Beverly Hills detective Gregg Juarez, that Diana Marlowe has been reported missing. She walked out of her hotel and hasn’t been seen since. This is followed by a $50,000 ransom hoax, perpetrated by an ex-con, Marlowe had “sent-up.”

A sequence of events follows, wherein the detectives try to “flush out,” Larry Mosely. They learn that Mosely is “holed-up” in an L.A. Skid Row hotel. In the interrogation scene that follows, we see that Larry Mosely is dying. As the detectives wait for the hotel elevator to take them back to the first floor lobby, they suddenly hear a single gunshot from Mosely’s room. They discover he has committed suicide. Ten days after her disappearance, Diana Marlowe’s body is discovered in an Echo Park self storage locker; a single bullet wound to the chest. A ballistics report states that the weapon Mosely used to kill himself with, was the same one used to murder Miss Marlowe.

The big break in the case comes when Bill Bradshaw, with the Los Angeles D.A.’s office contacts Kellermann. He states that a man, Tony Lesniak, being held prisoner a the Men’s Central Jail, has vital and important information concerning Dr. Steiner’s murder. For that information, Lesniak wants the D.A.’s office to cut him a deal. Lesniak states emphatically that on two separate occasion