Not Nice

Not Nice weaves a story of corporate corruption, political maneuvering and kidnap victims who escape into California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Nineties couple Carol and Roger Steadhold live in the corporate world and participate in local politics. As mayor of Danville, Carol understands what it takes to make things happen. Against the wishes of her party's stalwarts, she makes plans to run for Congress.
Roger, Vice President of Engineering at Canby International, develops suspicions about VP of Finance Shade Nettle. These suspicions came from Roger's friend, Tsing Kung, Director of Finance. Nettle finds his timetable upset when several company employees raise questions. He cannot afford to have Steadhold, or anyone else, nosing around. What does Roger know?
Nettle transfers Tsing out of the country. He bullies blackmailer Jake Hartig, but Nettle decides he must eliminate Roger Steadhold.
Nettle gives the order, then becomes impatient when nothing happens immediately. He assumes the plan to kidnap Roger has been abandoned and decides to take action himself. Two plans to trap Roger, Nettle's and Hartig's, unfold concurrently.
Nettle's actions sabotage Hartig's scheme. Surprised in the Steadhold home, Hartig's two losers sent to kidnap Roger learn that he has flown to the East Coast. They take Carol Steadhold and Diane Lind instead. They don?t know what else to do. They can't reach Hartig. Nor does it impress them that they have grabbed two minor political officials. The kidnappers hold to their plan. They leave the women tied up in a derelict houseboat in the delta.
After pizza and beer in Livermore, one of the kidnappers realizes he needs to think for himself. He decides to cut his losses. He plans murder. Nothing deters him, not even the empty houseboat the next morning.
Roger meets with Canby CEO Evert Johns in New York to discuss his suspicions. While the women escape into the delta, someone takes a shot at Roger Steadhold in New York. Roger is hit and wounded when he returns to his hotel.
Carol Steadhold finds hiding in the silt-laden, mosquito and snake-infested delta an unimaginable horror. Diane Lind loves the delta. Fear drives the women to work their way west. Earlier political differences cannot match the tensions that develop as the women flee. Carol gets sick of Diane's Girl Scout attitude. Diane set a trap of her own before she left the houseboat. It's a long shot.
When an explosion rocks the quiet morning, Diane Lind knows the answer to the question Carol asked her a week earlier. Could she kill someone?
New York authorities intercept Nettle. Hartig has a nervous breakdown. Roger recovers. Nettle goes to jail. Carol wins her congressional race. Diane retires. Crime does not pay, except in certain ways for a politician here and there.