A setting for a story

(I made this up in my head one morning, when I had awoken much too early to get up)

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Three men and two women are stuck in a broken-down lift in a busy hotel. We'll call them Bill, Fred, Andy, Mavis and Jane.

   Bill and Fred were bitter enemies several years ago (a love affair? a business that failed? a crime?) but had not encountered each other since. Now Bill recognises Fred, but Fred doesn't recognise Bill. (Is this meeting merely coincidental, or has Bill set it up? and if so, why?)

Andy is nervous, because he is carrying a bag containing something illegal (drugs? a gun?) The longer they are stuck in the lift together, the more likely it is that the others will remember his face and be able to identify him subsequently.

Mavis is middle-aged and has the appearance and manner of someone official. (a detective on her way to interviewing someone? a priest going to hear a confession?) She is increasingly impatient

Jane is the observer: we see the whole scene through her eyes. She doesn't know any of the background stories (and neither, at this stage, of course, do the readers), but she sees how Bill throws a series of savage glances at Fred, and wonders why. She also notices how Mavis keeps tapping her foot with impatience, and is puzzled that Andy seems to be trying to hide in a corner, with his back to the rest of the passengers.

There are several potential developments here. Is the setting in Britain, or somewhere else? Is it set in the present, or in an eaarlier decade? It would make a better story if they were somehow interconnected; but how? Is Jane merely an observer, or does she play a more active part? And, most importantly, what sort of a story will it be? A thriller, perhaps, with at least one murder?

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At this point, I throw the story open to the readers .