Written in 61 minutes.

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Wednesday, October 2, 2024

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

“You can ask the question anyway you want, Commissioner. My answer’s still the same.” Dex shifted slightly, a bit uncomfortable under Anna’s gaze. “I wouldn’t have a reason to talk to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. We did nothing wrong—”

“Nothing wrong?” Anna pursed her lips. “You allowed a superior officer to dictate what was written down in a report—”

“The policy of the PCPD has always been to release an intoxicated teenager to their parents if it is proven to be a first offense,” Dex interrupted. “We have no record, even unofficial of either Rocco or Danny being brought in any point. Why would I treat them more harshly?”

Anna lifted the report. “There’s no mention of the weed—”

“The vape was empty when we found them, and there’s no policy to test every suspected user when the only crime is public intoxication. If we’d found them in a car, that would have been different.” Dex shook his head. “I’m sorry, Commissioner, that this ended up being a headache for you, but I ran the arrest report past my training officer and he had no issues.”

“And Detective Falconieri had no influence on your decision? None whatsoever?”

“He was there as a concerned and angry parent. I’d already decided to leave Aiden Webber out of the situation as he was clearly sober and had proof he hadn’t been with the others. He had photographic evidence as well as phone calls to back up his story. I handled this case the same way I would have handled any other.”

Anna pressed her lips together. “All right. You can go.”

When the rookie had left, she sat at her desk, considering the reports again, going over other similar cases. As much she might want to argue with the outcome, Dex had handled the case the same way she might have. That still didn’t change the problem at hand—

Her intercom buzzed. “Commissioner, Agent Caldwell is here to see you.”

“Wonderful. Just what I need.” She got to her feet as the agent strode in. “Caldwell. What do we owe this visit?”

“We just got the first trace back on the email that tipped off Reynolds about Webber’s kid.” Caldwell tossed a file on her desk. “You’re going to want to read this.”

“It came from one of my officers?” Anna lifted the report from the folder, sliding on her reading glasses, then furrowed her brows, looked back at Caldwell. “Is this accurate?”

“The email address was spoofed — one of those fake email generators you can get anywhere on the internet now. Pretending to be sent from the PCPD—but it actually came from an IP address here in Port Charles. That IP address is under the account of Sonny Corinthos.”

“This doesn’t make any sense. Why would Sonny try to—” Alexis stopped. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she repeated. She looked at the agent. “What are you thinking? Why did you bring this to me?”

“Because Reynolds thinks this is Morgan trying to screw with the case. They were planning to ask for bail revocation based on forensics — Diane Miller is too smart not to see that coming. So Reynolds thinks that they wanted to dilute the goverment’s case and bait him into using this  police report—”

Anna held up a hand. “Let me stop you right there. That is pure fantasy. I may have my doubts about Sonny or Jason’s innocence in this case, but I assure you — neither of one of them would go to this trouble. Particularly Jason. It concerns his son, putting his drinking on federal records. If Reynolds is going down that road, he’s lost his mind.”

“I tried to tell him that,” Caldwell said with a grimace. “But he won’t listen to reason. He’s fired his second chair, thinking that Morgan paid her to take the case. He’s got tunnel vision, Anna. He’s convinced Morgan orchestrated this hit, and he’ll find anyway he can to explain the evidence to support that theory.” He paused. “I’m not entirely sure he won’t fabricate it. He took a serious reputation hit on the Pikeman case, and he won’t stop until he takes down the man he thinks is responsible.” He looked at her. “Or woman.”

Anna exhaled slowly. Tread carefully, she thought. “Well, then I suppose we ought to find out why that email was sent from Sonny Corinthos’s computer, then shouldn’t we?”

Belle Forest Drive: Street

Chase watched Kristina slam the car door, and practically run up the stairs to her mother’s door, then fiddling with the keys before letting herself in. He’d parked a few doors down from Alexis’s home, but the tree-lined entrance  made things a little difficult. He’d assumed Kristina was  going home or to her father’s —

She’s at her mother’s, he wrote in a text to Dante. A moment later, his phone rang. “Hey.”

“Hey—I’m outside my dad’s restaurant. I was sure she was coming right here—” Dante grimaced. “But maybe I spooked her too much. If she heads to Alexis and talks to her — that’s her lawyer. We need her making more mistakes.”

“I know.” Chase paused. “Maybe it’s not a good idea to talk to your dad. This whole thing was a mistake—”

“No. I think—I think we can still do this. Just sit tight. Wait to hear from me.”

Chase had only just barely ended that phone call when another lit up the screen. “Hey. I thought we weren’t supposed to talk by phone—”

“Well, I just got removed from the case, and I’m probably a few hours away from being brought up ethics charges,” came Gia Campbell’s irritated response. “So it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“What happened?”

“Carly happened. You’ve lived in Port Charles long enough, haven’t you? She went off at me after the hearing, and Noah got curious. He did a little digging — he found my connection to Elizabeth. It’s just a matter of time before he finds out how well I knew her — engaged to her former-brother-in-law, we were in a car accident together—”

“What?” Chase demanded. “You never told me about that—”

“Because none of that matters. And—” Gia stopped. “Look, I put my ass on the line to get to the truth here. The only way I save my career is to make Noah look like an inept asshole, so tell me everything you’ve been holding back. You have a suspect, I know you do.”

Chase shook his head. “I’m not screwing up my case—”

“Detective, I don’t think you understand. Noah Reynolds isn’t listening to sense. You know the case he’s got against Elizabeth. It’s garbage. It’s dead on arrival as soon as those alibi witnesses get on the stand. He accused me of taking money from Jason Morgan to take this case. You’re either with him or against him. I need something to take to my superiors, some evidence he’s overlooking. Give me something I can use.”

Chase looked back at the driveway, at Kristina’s car. “Caldwell didn’t clear all the obvious suspects. Not thoroughly. There’s two that have no solid alibi, and they both have a motive.”

“Motive? Like what?”

“That’s all you’re getting from me. You go through your files, you’ll find some the trail we found. You come to me with a name, well, then maybe we can talk.” He tossed the phone aside, then gripped the steering wheel with clenched hands. Dante needed to  come through with something — because something was about to happen.

There was a rumble of the thunder, and Chase glanced out the window just as the skies opened up. “More rain. Great. Just what we needed.”

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Office

“Uh, hey, Dante.” Sonny got to his feet as his oldest son came in. “I didn’t—I didn’t expect to see you today.”  He came around the desk, gesturing at the door to the office. “You want some lunch or something—”

“No. It’s not that kind of visit — ” Dante closed the office door, then looked at his father. “I came to ask you if you know what Kristina’s been up to since her charges got dropped.”

Sonny’s hand fell to his side, and he lifted his chin slightly. “I don’t know. Isn’t she working at Charlie’s or her center—”

“Do you know what happened at Elizabeth’s hearing yesterday?” Dante wanted to know, watching his father carefully. “You’ve been keeping your distance from Jason, so maybe you don’t.”

“I know Diane didn’t get the case dismissed, but other than that—” Sonny lifted his hands. “I’m out of the loop on purpose, Dante. The last thing Jason or Elizabeth need is to be associated with me—”

“You know Rocco and Danny got brought into the PCPD a few weeks ago for drinking, don’t you?” Dante pressed.

“I—yes.” Sonny furrowed his brow. “What does that have to do with Kristina? Did she give them alcohol or something? Because she knows better—”

“Kristina was one of maybe five people that knew Danny and Rocco were arrested on Elizabeth’s property. And one of two people that might think it was a good idea to tell the U.S. Attorney so he could revoke Elizabeth’s bail and send her back to prison.”

Sonny grimaced, then scrubbed a hand down his face. “I did not know that,” he said quietly. “You think Kristina had something to do with it? And—one of two people—I’m guessing with Danny involved, the other is Sam.”

“Yeah. I—” Dante hesitated. “I already accused Sam, but I don’t think she did it. I think Kristina did it, thinking it would help Sam — and that it might even help her.”

“How—” Sonny stopped, tipped his head. “Dante, what are you saying?”

“I just want you to know how much all of this has affected my family. Affected yours. Rocco and Danny are now on federal record, drinking. I’ve been suspended because Anna thinks I used to make Dex change his report to be more favorable. To cover up Elizabeth’s involvement. We’re being accused of corruption, Dad. And that’s before we get to Danny being in court, hearing that his brother’s mother might be taken back to jail because he was drinking. This hurt a lot of people, Dad. And if it had worked — if Elizabeth were back in jail, well, everyone would be really distracted.” Dante met his father’s eyes. “I need you to know how many people are affected by what Kristina did. Because if you help her try to get out of this, you’re choosing her instead of me. Instead of your grandson. Your best friend and his kid. All of us who were just living our lives, trying to do our best.”

“Dante—”

“I’m asking you, Dad, that if Kristina did this — or something worse —” Dante shook his head. “Not to help her get away with it.”

Port Charles High: Parking Lot

Danny’s sneaker hit another puddle and he scowled, dragging his hood down further on his face. “This is some bullshit,” he muttered, weaving around cars with Aiden on his heels as they both followed Jake to the senior parking lot. “You could have picked us up out front—”

“And avoid all of us being drowned rats—” Jake fished his keys from his pocket, his wet, blonde hair hanging over his forehead. “Not a chance.”

“Oh, shit—” Aiden barely had time to react before someone darted out from between two cars and seized Danny’s arm.

“Hey, get off—” Danny froze when he realized it was his mother, her dark hair stuck to her cheek in strands, her long-sleeved shirt soaked and dropping. “Mom?”

“Get away from him,” Jake said, trying to get between them. “Aiden, get in the car, call my dad—”

“I just need a minute, please—I’ve been waiting an hour for you to come out—” Sam shoved her hair out of her face with her free hand. “I’m sorry. There’s no other way to talk to you—”

“Yeah, how do you think the court is going to like this?” Jake demanded.

“Mom, you can’t do this, everyone’s gonna  be so mad—” Danny’s voice trembled. “What are you doing here? You have to go—”

“Not until you listen. Until you tell me that you know I didn’t tell anyone about Aiden being there that night, about Elizabeth’s house—”

“Bullshit, no one else knows who hates my mother,” Jake cut in. “Danny, come on—”

“No! I know why you think that—” Sam released Danny, looked at Jake. “I know that I’ve done nothing but resent you all your life. I know I’ve done terrible things, but not this — I wouldn’t—”

“Wouldn’t try to have Elizabeth thrown in jail to get her away from me?” Danny demanded, having recovered from the shock. “I watched you do it like a week ago, okay? So shut up, you’re just lying again—”

“No, no, that was different—”

“Different because you couldn’t punch her again?” Jake demanded. He whipped around to look at Aiden, still standing frozen by the car door. “Damn it, Aiden, get in the car and call my dad!”

“Stop lying!” Danny cried. “Stop! You blame Elizabeth for everything! Who else hates her as much as you do? You tried to get her taken away, tried to keep me from talking to the doctor, why would I ever believe you again?”

“I didn’t do this. Danny, please. I can handle everyone else thinking it—but not you. Please—” Sam made another grab for Danny, but Jake put himself between them.

“You want to talk to my brother again, you go through the lawyers. Stay away from him—Danny, Aiden, get in the goddamn car!”

Aiden jerked the door open, slid into the backseat, but Danny stood there another minute, the rain pouring down around them, just staring at his mother.

“I want to believe you,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don’t want to think you’d do this, but how can I trust you? After everything—” He shook his head, got into the car and slammed the door.

“Danny—” Sam tried to move past Jake, but he shoved her back a step.

“Get out of here, or my next call is to the cops,” Jake said, and Sam shook her head. “Whatever you tried with this stunt, all it did was make our family stronger. More ready to fight. I hope that gives you nightmares, Sam. That everything you’ve done to keep Danny near you just pushes him away. You’re your own worst enemy.”

“I—” Sam’s eyes were anguished. “Don’t you think I know that? That everything I’ve done to you, to your mother, every damn wrong turn — no one believes me, and it’s my own fault. But I didn’t do this, Jake, okay? I didn’t. And I’m going to find out who did if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

Written in 56 minutes. Didn’t get as far as I wanted, but we’re okay. See you tomorrow!

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Wednesday, October 2, 2024

General Hospital: Parking Garage

“Diane knows she can call if they find something, right?” Elizabeth asked, rummaging through her purse for her ID. “Willow’s already offered to cover any time if I have to run out early, and—”

“Diane knows.” Jason reached for her hand, squeezed it. “You’re her first call. But—”

“But she told us not to expect a miracle today.” Elizabeth closed her eyes, leaned back against the car seat. “But we deserve one, don’t we? Why can’t Spinelli just open a file and the first thing he sees is my trunk opening when I’m nowhere my car? Why can’t the first video show someone planting the gun—” She broke off, took another deep breath, then looked at him. “I just want this over. I know that’s not brand new information. I know you feel the same. But I’m just—I’m tired of putting Cameron on a plane. I’m tired of going to Syracuse every damn week for a drug test. I’m tired of the ankle monitor. I’m just tired of all of it.” She bit her lip. “And none of that is your fault, so I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize,” Jason said with a quick shake of his head. He leaned over, kissed her, intending the embrace to brief, reassuring, but she threaded her fingers through his hair to draw him in closer. When he pulled back finally, slightly breathless, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I want the rest of our lives to begin,” he said softly. “But until it does, you don’t need to apologize for being angry. For telling me how you feel.”

“I just—” She smiled weakly, her fingertips brushing his temple. “I guess I’m just used to you blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. I know they’re coming after me because of you, because of Pikeman, but I don’t hold that against you. I would never blame you for this.”

“This is happening because of me,” Jason said slowly, and she wrinkled her nose, “but you’re right, that doesn’t make it my fault. It’s not easy to separate that in my head. Not when I think I should be able to fix it.”

“Sitting around, doing nothing, it’s hard for you, I know. We keep talking about it, but…” She stroked his hair. “I just needed you to know that I know it’s different this time. I can feel it. I can feel that it’s not just getting me out of trouble fast that matters. It’s making this over in a way that keeps us together. That keeps you with me, with the boys—”

“I love you,” Jason said. He kissed her again. “I’ve wasted too many chances with you. I’m not wasting another.”

“I’ll see you after work. I love you, too.”

Hanley Federal Building: U.S. Attorney’s Offices

Gia gestured for Noah to wait another minute as he stood near his desk, a folder in his hand and an irritated expression on his face, then turned her attention back to the phone in her hand. “No, I understand. I’m just hoping to get the analysis back sooner than that — is there anything we can to hurry it along — we’re really only interested in location data and the use of her trunk—okay. Okay. I’ll wait for your call.”

She set the phone back on the base, then twisted in her chair to face the other man. “The techstream data from the car is already with the expert you contracted, but he really can’t promise anything sooner than three to four weeks. The videos — we might get more information back sooner—”

She stopped when Noah dropped the folder on the her desk, furrowed her brow. “What? What’s this?

“Open it,” he said tightly. “And then you tell me.”

With dread in her stomach, Gia picked up the folder — it was thin — nothing more than a few sheets of paper at best. She lifted her gaze to his. “Noah—”

“Open it.”

She flipped it, then exhaled with some relief. It wasn’t some surveillance or tip report about her trips to Chase’s apartment —

It was an article about the Face of Deception contest more than twenty years earlier — with Gia and Elizabeth’s photos side by side, and a headline announcing Elizabeth taking the title.

“I told you, I lived in Port Charles. I’ve never hidden my time modeling.” She closed it, tossed it aside. “I knew Elizabeth briefly, but we haven’t talked in years. Not since I went to law school—”

“If it doesn’t matter, then why didn’t you say anything?” he demanded. “This is a massive ethics violation—and damn it, it’s more than just a modeling run-in. Carly Spencer recognized you. I knew there was something to it when she gave you a dirty look yesterday. I had no idea you had a history with our defendant—”

“A history that Elizabeth Webber knows very well, and if she had an issue with it, I’m sure her lawyer would bring it up.” Careful to keep her expression bland and uninterested, she offered a careless shrug. “I haven’t thought about any of that in years. Carly was running Deception at the time with the former mayor—Elizabeth won the title and resigned within a weeks. I took over and had a very short, successful career. There’s no bad blood there. Don’t you think Diane Miller would have mentioned it?”

“She doesn’t have the duty to the court—”

“Noah—” Gia sighed, rubbed her temple. “There’s no conflict here. I never represented her, we knew each other briefly in an ancient, closed chapter of both of our lives. Neither us are models now, are we?”

“Did Jason Morgan get to you?” Noah demanded. “Did he pay you to offer a second chair?”

Gia scowled. “No! Of course not! You can check my books — check anything you want! Are you crazy?”

“I’m crazy?” Noah repeated, his voice raising, pulling the attention of others around him. Her cheeks heated. “You’re cozy with the defendants in my murder trial, the same defendants that screwed us on Pikeman—”

“Knowing Elizabeth Webber twenty-four years ago has nothing to do with Pikeman, and I spoke to Jason Morgan maybe twice the entire time I lived in Port Charles — in fact, he wasn’t even living there at the same time! How dare you suggest—and he isn’t even a defendant in this case. That’s your goddamn bias, not mine! He’s not charged with this murder, Elizabeth is!”

“They’re the same person—”

“Not in the eyes of the law they’re not, and you damn well know it. You can’t prove these charges against her, not at trial. You only let her out on bail to catch Morgan in a cover up, but you have nothing! And you’re panicking—”

“You’re fired,” Noah cut in. “Clean out your desk.”

“You can’t fire me, I don’t work for you!” Gia shot back. “Go ahead. Report me. I can’t wait to tell Freedman everything I know. Do you really want her looking at your cases? At your tactics?”

Noah’s scowl deepened. “You’re off this case—”

“You’re wasting time and resources prosecuting someone you know didn’t commit the damn crime! Good luck getting anyone to help you.  Anyone who looks at it will know it’s a pile of shit.”

Bobbie’s Diner: Courtyard

Kristina sailed through the double doors, then stopped cold when she saw Dante near her car in the parking lot. She wanted to turn around, go back inside, to claim that she hadn’t seen him — but their eyes had already met, and she knew he wasn’t going away.

She didn’t know what to think the fact that she hadn’t heard from her mother or Sam all morning — she’d assumed if Alexis had thought about Kristina’s connection, that Sam obviously would.  But maybe she’d talked her mother down the day before — and maybe Sam didn’t think Kristina had anything to do with it.

But Dante had a look in his eye —

“Everything okay?” Kristina said, slowly approaching him. She shifted her coffee to the other hand so she could fish her keys from her coat pocket. “You look like hell.”

“Well, I got suspended, so we can start there.”

“Sus—” The keys fell to the ground with a plink of metal as she blinked at her brother with surprise. “What?”

“Yeah. Anna thinks I abused my authority to get Dex to cover up evidence.” Dante folded his arms. “So I’m under investigation until she can decide I’m clean.”

“I—” Kristina pressed her lips together. This was crazy! Everyone was getting in trouble — except for Elizabeth. What the hell was going on? “That’s stupid. Anna should know better—”

“She’s not the only one.” Dante lifted his brows. “Did you tell the feds about that night?”

“Are you kidding me?” Kristina rolled her eyes, then put her coffee on the hood of her car. “That’s so stupid. Why would I do that?”

“To help Sam get Danny back.”

“I—I didn’t have anything to do with it—”

“I don’t believe you,” Dante said flatly, and Kristina felt her heartbeat begin to pick up. He sounded so unshakeable. “You’re impulsive, Kristina. You don’t think—” He rapped his head with a fist. “You think — let me get rid of Elizabeth for Sam, but it doesn’t occur to you that there are consequences, that your one stupid little action ripples out to everyone else! Danny was in court yesterday, and now he thinks his mother has turned him in to the Feds for drinking and doing drugs—”

“Whose fault is it that he was there?” Kristina demanded. “That’s Jason, not giving a damn about anyone but  himself. This is exactly why Danny belongs with Sam! Jason and Drew are selfish bastards—”

“What about Rocco?” Dante demanded, and Kristina stopped, stared at him. “He’s in those reports, too. Did you even think about your other nephew? About me? About Aiden Webber? None of us asked for any of this.  We were all just trying to protect our sons — Elizabeth and Jason, too. Do you think Danny and Rocco having to testify and tell everyone Elizabeth never knew a damn thing — did you think that was a good idea?”

“I—” She licked her lips. “I didn’t do this—” But her protestation was weak. “I didn’t do this—”

“No one else knew,” Dante said. “No one else knew about Aiden and Elizabeth. Just you.”

“I—he was arrested. Dex knew—and Dex has betrayed you before—betrayed Dad—”

“Dex talked to Aiden that night. He knew Elizabeth and Aiden were clean. Why would he go after  her this way? He’d go to Anna directly. Someone wanted to hurt Elizabeth.” Dante stepped closer. “And that leaves two people in my book. Sam. And you.”

“I—” Kristina swallowed hard. “Sam was really angry—” She stopped when she saw Dante close his eyes, shake his head again. “She was—”

“All she’s done for you— all she’s sacrificed—and you’re going to stand here and blame her.” He shook his head. “Maybe you really thought this would help. Maybe you didn’t think past any of that. There’s part of me that really wants to believe that. But I can’t.”

“Dante, I didn’t do any of this—I didn’t,” Kristina insisted. “It’s not fair for you to accuse me with no evidence—”

“No evidence? Damn it, Kristina, no one else knew. Just the people involved, Dex and his partner, and you. The only question I have is—is getting Elizabeth away from Danny the only goal?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it, shook her head mutely. What was he insinuating? What could he possibly mean?  “I didn’t do this,” she said again.  “I didn’t—”

“You did. You know it, I know it, and pretty soon, everyone else will know it, too. And don’t think about going to Dad with this,” Dante said when Kristina stooped to pick up her keys. “He can’t save you. He won’t—”

“There’s nothing to save—” Kristina stopped, took a deep breath. “I did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong,” she repeated. “I don’t need Dad to fix things that aren’t broken. You’ll see. You’ll all see. Get away from the car, damn it. Go find out who really did this.”

Dante took a few steps back, said nothing else when Kristina got in her car, then backed out—the container of coffee left on the hood tipping over and going flying as she took off. He took out his phone, lifted to his ear. “She just left. Do you have her? Okay. I’m heading over to my father’s now.”

Written in 55 minutes.

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Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Port Charles Airport: Departures

Cameron turned to face his mother, his bag slung over his shoulder. “I told you Jason didn’t have to stay in the car. I’m not mad at him anymore.”

“He wanted to give us a little privacy.” Elizabeth brushed at an invisible piece of lint, forcing herself to smile. “I hate why you’re coming home so much, but I do love to see you. I like having all my boys at home.”

“I miss it sometimes,” Cameron admitted. “Even sharing with Jake—and don’t apologize for that. Danny needs his own space, and it’s not fair to move him when I’m in and out — and when I’m gonna get my own place when I get back in May,” he told his mother.

“I’ll just be happy to have you back in the same zip code.” Elizabeth lifted herself on her toes and kissed Cameron’s cheek, before hugging him tightly. “I love you, honey. So much.”

“I love you, too.” Cameron didn’t immediately release her, and she saved one more minute with her firstborn. It was so hard saying goodbye to him, even knowing it was temporary.

She watched until he checked in at the desk, then disappeared into the terminal. And then just one minute before leaving the terminal and sending Jason a text to stop circling the terminal and pick her up.

“Everything go okay?” he asked after she’d slid into her seat and buckled herself in. She sighed, leaned back.

“Yeah. I just wish it would stop raining. I hate the idea of them taking off in this weather—” She glanced up uneasily at the gray skies. “I’m not sure I remember what the sun looks like at this point.”

“He’ll be okay.” Jason reached over for her hand, squeezed it. “They won’t take off if it’s not safe.”

“I know.” But Elizabeth would be tracking the flight all the same, unable to rest until her baby boy wasn’t thousands of feet above them in the skies.

Port Charles High: Lobby

Danny hunched his shoulders, his fingers gripping the backpack tightly. “It’s like they all know,” he muttered, looking at the other students with narrowed eyes.

“No one knows anything.” Jake switched off his phone, shoved it back in his pocket. “Stay out of trouble, okay? And both of you -” He jabbed a finger at the school’s trophy case. “Wait right here after school for me.”

Without waiting for an answer, he headed down the senior hall way, and Aiden rolled his eyes. “They’re never going to let us take the bus again, are they?” he complained following Danny towards the freshman wing.

“Not in this life time.” Danny passed the bank of lockers where he’d usually find Rocco and forced himself to look away. Rocco was still suspended until the following Monday, and it was weird being here without him.

It would be even weirder when Rocco came back and was in a different first period class.

The warning bell for homeroom sounded, and Aiden jolted. “Oh man, Devers is gonna make my life miserable if I’m late again. See you at lunch.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

And Danny needed to haul ass too — he couldn’t get in trouble. Not again. There was too much on the line.

Quartermaine Estate: Parlor

“Man, did you  have to get suspended at the same time as me?” Rocco grumbled, flipping open a textbook on the coffee table and opening his school computer. “You’re not gonna sit there all day and watch me, are you?”

“Don’t tempt me,” Dante said with a scowl, then turned at the sound of footsteps. When he saw Chase in the foyer, he turned back to Rocco. “Stay here.”

Without waiting for Rocco’s agreement, Dante hurried to catch his partner. “Chase. Hey. Hey.”

“Oh—” Chase stopped, his hand on the door. “Hey. I was gonna try to set something up with you. We need to have a conversation.” He angled his head around to see Rocco watching the from the sofa. “Without an audience,” he said to Dante in a quieter tone.

“I figured. I guess you talked to Molly,” Dante said.

“Molly?” Chase furrowed his brow. “No, not since she recused herself. Why?”

“I just figured—” Dante stopped, turned to see Rocco at the entrance of the parlor. “Didn’t I tell you to stay there?”

“I am there.” The teen pointed down at the threshold, indicating that technically he was still in the other room. “You guys are acting like you’re talking government secrets. Is this about what Grandma and Ned were yelling about last night?”

“No—wait, what were they saying—” Dante held up a hand. “And why were you listening?”

“Dude, Canada could hear Grandma when she gets on a roll.” Rocco shrugged. “I guess someone is trying to blame Aunt Liz for what we did a few weeks ago or something, right?”

Dante grimaced. “No.”

“Yes,” Chase said, at the same time then winced when Dante sent him a dirty look. “He was there, Dante. And look — we’re trying to track the source — we got reason to believe that whoever tipped off Reynolds has a bigger role to play—”

“I don’t understand.”

“I can’t get into it,” Chase said with a shake of his head. “You know that, not the specifics. But we need to know who else knew all the details. You know, that Elizabeth and Aiden were involved.”

Dante hesitated. It would be so easy to turn this over to Chase, to just tell him about Kristina’s possible involvement. But he didn’t know for sure, did he? Talking about it with Molly was one thing — but bringing it to Chase was something else.

“Well, Aunt Kristina could probably help you.”

Dante whipped his head back to Rocco. “What?”

“Yeah,” Rocco said. “You were gonna pick her up, remember? That’s why me and Danny could just…get out without you checking with Aunt Liz. And she stayed over. I bet Aunt Kristina told someone. She sucks at secrets. Especially good ones.” He looked at Chase. “You should ask her.”

Dante exhaled slowly, then looked at Chase. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “You should probably check with Kristina.”

Miller & Davis: Spinelli’s Office

Diane paced the short length of the office, tapping a pen against her hand. “Sonny Corinthos finally grows a conscience and, of course, the information is unusable.”

“Not in a court of law—” Spinelli ignored Diane’s scoff. “But it closes out a hole in our theory, doesn’t it? Where does Kristina get an unregistered gun? ”

“The real question is why Sonny is handing this information over—” Diane pursed her lips. “Do we think he knows anything?”

“If he knew something, Kristina would already be out of the country,” Spinelli answered immediately. “He’s always regretted not doing more to keep Michael out of jail. If he thinks there’s a good chance you’ll win the case just on the merits—”

“And I will, but I’d rather not put everyone through a damn trial—” Diane nodded. “But I tend to agree with you. Maybe Sonny has a theory, but he doesn’t have any proof. Or maybe he really thinks one of his guys tried to do something and isn’t coming forward because it backfired.”

“Or maybe one of his guys is going after Jason for playing informant,” Spinelli said.

“None of which, again, I can do anything with.” Diane turned to face him, gestured at his desk. “You were expecting a data dump. Where are we?”

Spinelli sat down, flipped open his computer, tapped a few keys. “Car data came in raw, and I’ve already sent it to the analyst you want to use for trial. I’m gonna do my own run through and hope it matches something. I was hoping to find just the trunk pops, but it’s buried in all the data.”

“Can’t ever get a break, can we?” Diane made a face. “Security footage?”

“We got the neighbors on either side and one person across the street. I’m still waiting on two more neighbors to come through. Security company says by Friday, but I’ve got enough to start looking.” Spinelli looked at her.  “I already looked at the time stamps that match Kristina’s trip to Elizabeth’s, and all I have is her car. That doesn’t mean we won’t get more—”

“But it also just might mean she didn’t end up on tape. The neighbors we’re waiting on — any of them worth waiting for?”

“McCormick’s camera looks directly at the spot where Elizabeth’s car was parked that day, or at least where Elizabeth remembers it being parked.” Spinelli checked his notes. “He didn’t get back to his company right away, and it delayed the files a few days. Friday morning.”

“Well, let’s see if we can get those trunk pops. You make that your priority today. Jason and Elizabeth are coming by later today to talk about the bail hearing, and why don’t you let them go through the video? They’ll feel better doing something for a chance.”

“Are we ready to tell them about Kristina?” Spinelli wanted to know.

Diane stopped at the door, looked back at him, and hesitated, tapping her fingers against the door’s edge. “We find a trunk pop for the time she was at the house, yes. I think we tell them what we think is going on. But right now, it’s just theory. And I don’t know if I want to tell Jason that we suspect his son’s aunt, Sonny’s daughter, someone he’s protected for his whole life—well, once we put that thought in his head, I don’t know he puts it away. Let’s get something just a little more solid before we do that.”

Davis House: Front Entrance

Alexis sighed, stepped back to allow Sam entrance. “If you’re here to ask me to fix this for you—”

Sam scowled, whirled around to face her mother. “No, there’s no point in wasting my breath. No one is going to just believe me — not you, Dante, Jason, and probably not Danny. You all think I’m Satan—”

“Sam—”

“Don’t—” Sam pointed at her mother. “The only way to fix this is to find out who the hell did this because it was not me. I had nothing to do with it.”

Alexis didn’t speak for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I had a theory that perhaps Kristina pushed you into this because I know she’s been very supportive of you —”

“You make that sound like a crime. Kristina’s just listened to me, okay? Maybe she gave me bad advice—” Sam held up both hands. “I’m not getting sidetracked, okay? I think you’re on to something with Kristina. Because she was being supportive. And she definitely…well, she was encouraging me to attack Elizabeth in my therapy session. I can believe she might think getting Elizabeth out of the picture might have made a difference. I just don’t understand how she’d know to do—” Sam stopped. “Mom, why do you have that look on your face? What did you do?”

“I might have…in passing…mentioned that Diane was concerned about Elizabeth’s bail,” Alexis said with a wince, and Sam’s scowl deepened. “Well, I’m sorry! I never thought she’d do something like this! This hurts Danny—”

“Oh, but it’s absolutely something I would do, right, Mom?” Sam demanded. “Do you even know how insulting you sound right now?”

Alexis pressed her lips together. “You have been known to become so angry at Elizabeth that you were unable to hear your son in the same room begging you to stop. Let’s not pretend that you’re innocent in this situation, Sam. If Danny  believes you did this, it’s because you have made it very clear to him that what he wants doesn’t matter if it involves Elizabeth. And that is the same message Kristina obviously received if she had anything to do with this. Why do you think it was her in the first place?”

“We’re going to ignore everything else because I can’t—I can’t deal with that right now.  Because I have to find my idiot sister and make sure she didn’t do this — and if she did, then I have to get her to confess to about a thousand people so I can get my son back in my life. I do not have time to litigate my issues with you.”

“Well, you had better find the time, Sam, because maybe it’s natural for your ex-husband to think you did this first, but your current boyfriend, your mother, and your son also thought you were the most natural suspect. That’s not thing something you can overlook.”

Sam jerked the door open and threw her mother one last furious look. “No, it’s not. But believe me, we’ll deal with that after I clear my name.”