My main charater father's was a loving dad and husband. He was a lab scientist his whole life then some day he came back home after work, appearing different. Even though he was trying to hide it, the man was devasted in sadness but would refuse to explain to the family the reason behind that. He then drastically changes, loses the job and becomes very agressive. After many physical abuses targeting his loved ones, the wifes gets the divorce. Daughter (main character) and ex-wife talk to him couple of times a year through the phone. After a series of unfortunate events happening to the dauguter (main character), she decides to investigate what happend to her father and finally goes to the lab to try and find something out. This is what actually happend and she doesn't t know: the father had an affair with a super hot and seductive female scientist who got in his head big time. When he discovers this world bending, revolutionary new pill the femme-fatale steals the idea, runs aways with it and "burns the recipe" in a way he would take decades to come up with it again. So like I said... three years after that, the daughter is investigating what happend to father and finds a away to sneak inside the lab after hours, she then finds a stash of this mistyrious pill which she takes home. So here is the thing. At this point I will not explain everything to the reader. The only thing I need right now is a plausible explanation on how she got inside the lab, and how on earth was she able to find the stash that no one knew it was there. Also where was the stash hidden after all and how did it get there and why no1 knew? So yeah, any ideas?
What kind of lab is it? Take it from someone who's worked in labs both with and without a budget: if the lab is underfunded, it's actually pretty easy to get inside. All your MC would need to do is go in during work hours, hide in a bathroom stall until closing, and they're golden on getting in. Seriously, the front desk was the first position to get let go when our funds were cut, but they left the front door unlocked during work hours anyway. We didn't have anyone watching the surveillance cameras, either, so unless your MC does something while she's in the lab that leaves evidence of her being there, it's unlikely anyone would ever watch the recordings before they were deleted. Most doors were only locked with a standard key (on the inside, a keycard was needed to enter the building after hours), so standard lock-picking could get her past any locked doors once the building's empty. If the lab has a budget, she'll either need some serendipity (good timing with when people aren't looking her way, maybe because they went to the bathroom) or she'd need a keycard to get access to the lab after hours. Government labs would be nearly impossible to break into unless she was already familiar with the security of the facility, or had help. As for finding a hidden stash of pills, maybe her father could have left a clue? Maybe your MC sees something of his that seems out of place and investigates it -- something that she knows has sentimental meaning to him. Unless he hid it in the vents or something, though, people would probably have found the stash as they would have gone through his work stuff after he left the lab. It might be easier just to hide the pills outside in a nearby location. This is assuming the stash is his, of course, and not your femme-fatale character's. If it's hers just stick it in a locked cabinet in her office. Office cabinets are always (in my experience) locked with standard keys; I've never seen one using electronic security.
Yeah but I want for the stash to have been forgotten there. So I need I good story to back that. No one knows the stash is there and it has been for 3 years. Is either the person forgot about putting it there, or it fell into that place somehow, or I don't know. I just need for it to be forgotten or maybe lost, maybe the father can't remember where he putted or the femme fatale hid there but then forgot about it. Either way, the daughter must find it after it got away from everyone else and I need a good explanation for that.
How hard it'll be to get in depends on the kind of place it is. My workplace is a university funded by the state so we have adequate security but nothing high-level. During day hours some labs are locked by key card. They're the one's with the more sensitive equipment. Others one can walk into at any time but since there are always people about, you'd be noticed quickly. Anyone can get into the buildings themselves, however. They get locked for the night (some from both inside and outside) but a person could hide in a bathroom stall or an empty computer pool. Security service walks a few rounds each night but if everything is dark and quiet, they don't look into the rooms. If there are a lot of "civilians" about like at a university, your MC need only walk in as if she belongs and hide until everyone's gone. How big is the stash? Thinking about places around here that haven't been touched in three years (no, not talking about the sys admin's privates), the big, heavy cases for mobile lab equipment come to mind. They have thick foam linings to keep the equipment save. A rather small packet could fit underneath I think. I have two of those sitting around my bureau and they haven't been emptied completely even once in four years. On another note - the woman who, rather than achieve something in her own right, uses her attractiveness to lure a man in, steal his work and destroy his life for her own benefit is quite the stereotype and not a good one. This doesn't mean it shouldn't be used but, if you haven't already, maybe question your reasoning for doing so.
I wouldn't put the stash inside the lab, the lab will have been repurposed within minutes of the father leaving. Maybe it could be in a safe deposit box or something like that, and then she finds the key in her fathers things at home. That aside I'm not sure how plausible it is for the femme fatale to burn the recipe... A scientist would be able to recreate what they were doing, plus they'd have oodles of notes, back ups etc, the lab techs would know bits and so on. May be she steals the credit for his idea ? Or gets him fired so he can no longer access his lab ?
She has once as a young girl visited her father at work. She had to spend an afternoon there because… her mother had to reebok a visit to her dentist or... Her father had at that time showed her this strange secret place. Could be a piece of some furniture, or the building, loose panel ,loose floor plank whatever.
Well, if we're just talking pills being stashed, I guess it wouldn't be too hard to stick a tiny pill bottle in some random crevice. Maybe inside someone's desktop? You could say she was trying to steal a disk drive when she found the pills. If you're talking about a big ol' jar of pills you're going to have a harder time, unless the lab is really old. Older buildings are more likely to have loose boards or small holes that have been covered up by furniture. That reminds me, actually, that the second lab building I ever worked was actually a refurbished elementary school. It was rather dilapidated and was bulldozed only a year after I started working there, but the entire floor of the building was false. When the building was converted to a lab they put in a new floor several inches above the old floor for nearly the entirety of the building. This let them run wires to every piece of equipment with minimal effort and cost, but it wasn't exactly a safe practice. It really wasn't a surprise the building was torn down. Still, it lasted several years in that state, so a jar of pills could easily be hidden in such a spot if you're good with an old, probably-slated-for-demolition style lab.
No, I would find your pill bottle instantly - based on that exact principle. Best to throw the bottle in a spawning river with some kind of microchip attached. Then, after only a day or so with my rod I would retrieve the Novachik/or the brilliant dentistry cocaine.
First, No one suspects the pizza guy. Seriously, the places I got into when I delivered pizza were surprising. Plain sight is often the best place to hide something, or alternatively: things get mislabeled all the time. Perhaps her dad used some sort of anagram on the label to key someone who knew what it was.
Thank you all. But the place where is hidden is actually the easy part. I'm I'm really looking for (and having a hard time) is coming up with a good story on how did the stash get there. Because I need it for it be well hidden somewhere where is lost, no one knows is there. It got there by accident or the person who hid it can no longer tell the place. Then years layer the girl finds it. I need need a plausible explanation for those things.
I think some people, myself included, are hesitant to answer because it sounds like what you're asking for us to come up with is potentially a major plot point for you. Like you said, asking for a good place to hide a pill bottle isn't asking too much. Asking us to tell you who hid the pills, why they hid the pills, and why they never came back to get them... that's asking us to write your story for you. I might be misunderstanding you, but it really sounds like you're asking for all of that. If I'm wrong, my apologies, but if I'm not, then the best advice I can offer is to first figure out the "who" and "why" problems, as they are closely related and lay a foundation for figuring out everything else. Who hid the pills, and why? If it's the lady, you'd need to come up with some deeper motivations. If it was the dad, maybe he didn't trust the lady completely. Maybe introduce a new character altogether who either realized something was up or just misplaced the pills because he didn't realize what they were and didn't care. Once you've got the who and why down, you'll have the hard part out of the way. The "who" lays the foundation for what options you have as to why the pills were never retrieved. Would the character who hid them be likely to forget about them? Would someone else have killed that character (or maybe the character committed suicide)? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself. This is your story, so these are questions you need to answer. We can give you advice and critiques, and can offer suggestions, but in the end the plot is your baby, not ours. Good luck.
If I'm understanding you correctly: You want a person who has no business being where they are (inside the lab) to stumble upon something no one knows exists, in a place no one would ever think to look for it. It's kind of a tall order. I think SolZephyr is right, you need the who and why first. You say the where is the easy part but that could depend on the person hiding it. What kind of access do they have inside the lab? The maintenance guy is going to choose different hiding places than the secretary, or a lab technician, or the CEO. Your character has to have a reason for looking where they found it. I'm curious to see what you come up with.
I think you have a coincidence issue, with the girl just happening to find the pills when she's searching the lab for no particular reason. Do the pills even need to be in the lab? Why can't they be in, say, her father's old desktop computer? Those things had a good cavernous space inside. She's selling his effects (is he dead?) and the guy who buys the computer calls her because he finds the pills. Maybe that's the trigger of her investigation, not the middle of it. The pills could, of course, be in her father's work computer, and found when the computer's being stripped for disposal (if the company has a lot of confidentiality concerns, I think they'd remove and destroy the hard drive). But I don't see a way to get them back to her in that scenario. Or he put them in something in his desk, and she gets them with the box of his stuff. They're inside the signed baseball, or the base of the snow-globe. None of this explains why they were hidden. You're pretty much on your own for that.
I have a suggestion when her father's will is read he left a letter for the daughter and it's a Manila envelope along with the letter. Is a key to his lab along with a set of instructions explaining where the pills are located. To keep the paper that the letter and instructions where printed on from becoming damaged or faded he laminated them. But she waits for 3 years to open it because her grief is so overwhelming she can't open it. or the father's lawyer tells her not to open it until her father has been dead for 3 years. because her father told him to tell his daughter this piece of information
Sub-plot, she's a master spy whose specialty is getting into places that are considered unbreachable. Also, she's a wizard. And she sings a rendition of Danny Boy that would make a grown man cry. On a more serious note, if you want to go through the will route, I'd suggest having a stipulation in the will that states that the lawyer will only give our protagonist the key to the lab three years after his death, in lieu of him telling her she can't open it for three years. This would also bring her memories of her father's death fresh to her mind, making more of an emotional impact.
