Written in 60 minutes.

---

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Miller & Diane: Office

Diane strode in to Spinelli’s office, a tablet in one hand and her reading glasses in the other. She flicked her eyes over the corkboard, then nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you, I appreciate you doing what we discussed.” Before the tech had a chance to respond, she donned her reading glasses and peered at the tablet. “Does the name Gia Campbell mean anything to you?”

Spinelli hesitated, then frowned and shook his head. “I’ve heard it before, but I wouldn’t say I know where or when. Why?”

“She’s been added as second chair for the government — she filed the response.”

Spinelli turned to his laptop, then keyed in a few strokes. “Gia Campbell works in the U.S. Attorney’s office, for the last decade — and prior to that—” He lifted his brows, looked at Diane. “There’s an article here about the model turned lawyer. She was the Face of Deception about twenty-five years ago.”

“She’s from Port Charles? Well, isn’t that interesting? And Deception, if I remember correctly—” Diane swiped from her PDF reader application to the browser on her app. “Yes, Laura Spencer was running the company at that time—and—will you look at that—” She turned the tablet to face him. “An article about the Face of Deception from 2001. But that’s not Gia.”

“That’s Elizabeth—” Spinelli began to type furiously. “I pulled up the archives for the Sun — there was a competition for the Face when Laura and — the Valkyrie? — they took over the company. They wanted to restart the company with a splash—” He continued to skim. “Gia and Elizabeth were the finalists — and there was some tabloid gossip because they were dating Laura’s sons.”

“Oh, this is very interesting.” Diane sank into the chair. “I had no idea Elizabeth ever worked as a model!”

“Short-lived. She won the competition, did one ad campaign, then quit. Gia took over and was successful until she retired to go to law school.” Spinelli turned his laptop around to reveal a photo of Elizabeth dressed in a strapless black dress and an up swept hair  style. “For lipstick.”

“Audrey Hepburn,” Diane murmured. She drew the laptop screen towards her. “Elizabeth beat Gia for this competition, and then this former model shows up two decades later prosecuting her? I find that fascinating.”

“And Gia Campbell doesn’t just know Elizabeth — she’s Taggert’s sister.”

Diane removed her reading glasses, her lips pursed again. “I could understand Reynolds turning to her for insight if she’s from Port Charles and if she knows the players. But putting her on as second chair when there’s a possibility of bad blood? He must know I could file one motion and have her removed.”

“What if Gia didn’t tell him?”

“That’s a possibility. A simple search would bring up the history, but perhaps he wouldn’t bother.” She tapped her lips with the folded glasses. “Or perhaps she’s keeping it to herself, hoping we won’t push the subject. Maybe she and Elizabeth ended on good terms, and she’s hoping to help her. I certainly don’t want to get rid of an ally.” Diane got to her feet. “Get me a complete work up on her. I want to know everything about her time in Port Charles and her career. I want to know more before I bring this up to Elizabeth.”

District Attorney Suite: Robert’s Office

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice,” Chase said, shaking the hand Robert had extended to him. “This shouldn’t take long.”

“Well, I’m curious to see what you wanted from me that Molly couldn’t handle.” The older man gestured for Chase to take a seat. “She’s in charge of this case—”

“I know. And she’s doing a great job. It’s just—” Chase took a beat. “We have some suspects that we can’t eliminate — and Dante and I wanted to make sure we exhausted every possibility before we brought it to Molly.”

Robert took a seat, leaned forward. “Are these suspects related to Molly?”

“Yes. Kristina and Alexis.”

The district attorney was quiet for a long moment, his faded blue eyes locked on Chase. “Her mother and sister. And if I’m not remembering incorrectly, Dante’s sister.”

“Yes. Dante’s not happy about this either, but I’m handling that side of the case. We’ve done our best to make sure neither of us have direct contact with anyone we’re related to in this case, but it hasn’t been easy.”

“No, and I’ll be frank with you — if I had any one in this office or at the department that would be willing to take this on, Molly and the pair of you would not have been my first choice for handling the case.” Robert paused. “Talk to me about why they’re suspects and what does your gut tell you?”

“The motive is obvious, I would think. The victim was targeting Kristina for attempted murder charges in a federal case. Kristina was furious, and so was her mother. Neither of them have a good alibi for the time of the murder. I think Alexis probably would have been able to get Kristina’s charges dismissed, but Kristina might not have known that for sure.” Chase hesitated. “So we have motive. We have opportunity.”

“And a better motive than Elizabeth Webber,” Robert said. “For her to be guilty, you’d need a lot of people to be lying about alibis.” He nodded. “Anything else pointing to either of them?”

“For Alexis, she’s not a stranger to taking the life of someone who’s wronged her. She pleaded insanity to a murder when Kristina was an infant — Luis Alcazar. But before that, she sat back while Jason and Brenda Barrett were wrongly convicted and nearly sent to prison.”

Robert’s brows lifted. “That’s interesting.”

“I’m pulling more of that case file to get a better sense of it, but Kristina —” Chase paused. “Elizabeth’s security footage has her coming to the Webber house the day after the murder. I don’t know why she was there, but she came back to the door after Elizabeth left, and left again.”

“Putting her in the area during a time when someone might have planted a gun. I can see why you can’t eliminate her.” Robert stroked his chin. “Those are good facts. But what does your gut tell you?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m having trouble thinking the same woman that fell under the sway of a cult leader would be able to pull off a murder like this — and then frame an innocent woman.” Chase paused. “But that’s bias, because Willow was victim to that same cult and I know how strong she is. If I put that aside, honestly, Mr. Scorpio, I think Kristina or her mother or both of them did this. I can’t prove it yet, but there’s just something I can’t shake about it.”

Robert was quiet for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “I don’t get involved in my attorneys’ private lives, but I know that the loss of Molly’s daughter was devastating for her. And that there’s been tension with her sister because of it. I can commend Dante for not looking away from his sister as a suspect, but from here out, you’ll be the contact point for this line of investigation, reporting directly from me and keeping everything we learn confidential. Where can we start?”

“Subpoenas for security footage at Kristina’s apartment.” Chase paused. “And for any traffic cameras between her mother’s house, the Quartermaine estate, and her apartment building. I want to track her movements that day. And phone records. Whatever we can get without her knowing about it.”

“Let’s get started.”

Webber House: Living Room

“Hey, sorry to just show up like this,” Michael said as he passed Jason at the door, stopping when he saw Elizabeth on the sofa. “Or that I have to do this at all.”

“What’s wrong?” Elizabeth got to her feet, and came over to join Jason by the door. “You never have to apologize for coming over, but you look upset.”

“That and pissed. I just don’t know who to be more angry at.” Michael dragged a hand through his hair. “I did what you suggested, you know,” he said to Jason. “I set up some extra cameras so we could track Rocco better on the estate. Willow saw me doing it, and I didn’t think any of telling her. I mean, I trust her. But she didn’t agree with what we decided to do—”

Jason exhaled slowly. “She told someone—”

“Drew overheard us arguing, and she told him. I tried to talk him out of doing anything, but all he cares about his damn reputation and this campaign. I don’t understand why Willow—but that’s my problem, and not yours. Drew said he was on his way to talk to Dante. Said he wanted to talk to him father to father.”

“Why would he do that? Didn’t you tell him we were trying to protect Danny’s trust?” Elizabeth demanded. “Drew should know better—”

“I told you. He can’t see anything but himself. I don’t know what the hell happened to him in prison or when he was kidnapped—” Michael’s expression was grim. “I tried to at least get Drew to say it wasn’t from Danny, but maybe that we just caught him or something—but he’s refusing to lie. Says Danny and Rocco are bad influences on each other, and maybe this will keep them from being near each other—”

“That’s not true!”

The cry from the stairs had all three adults turning to see Danny practically flying down the last few steps, with Aiden and Jake following — matching guilty expressions.

“You said you wouldn’t tell!” Danny’s face was flushed, his chest heaving. “Rocco’s never going talk to me again!”

“I’ll call Dante,” Jason started, digging in his jeans. “Maybe we can try to get to him before Drew can—”

“But why did you tell anyone?” Danny demanded. “I told you because you said I could trust you and that you wouldn’t say anything—”

“I couldn’t do nothing,” Jason said, but Danny wasn’t listening. He turned, and rushed back up the stairs, shoving Jake out of the way.

“I’ll talk to him,” Jake said, but then he paused at the base of the stairs, looked at their father. “It was an asshole move to lie to him even if you did the right thing. Just so you know.”

“Jake—” Elizabeth started but their son had already disappeared out of view and his footsteps were thudding towards the third floor, Aiden on his heels. She looked at Jason with worry.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know they were listening—” Michael started. He scrubbed both hands down his face. “I’m sorry.”

“Michael, none of this is your fault,” Elizabeth said.

“It’s mine,” Jason said. “I should have told Danny I wanted to get Rocco caught.”

“We both signed off on trying to sneak it past him,” Elizabeth interrupted him. “I could have argued with you. I thought it was the easiest way for everyone. Danny was just starting to trust us.” She pressed two fingers against her lips. “We couldn’t do nothing.”

“But we should have been upfront what we were doing. I’m not sorry I did it. But I should have just gone to Dante,” Jason admitted. He focused on Michael. “But for now, let me get a hold of Dante and see if I can stop Drew from making everything seem worse.”

Penthouse: Living Room

Sam jolted off the sofa as soon as Dante came through the door. “Hey. I was hoping we could talk—”

“Can it wait?” Dante dumped his keys and jacket on the desk, rubbing his eyes. “It was a crappy day, and I just want a shower and a beer—”

“I mean, I just—” Sam bit her lip. “Yeah it can wait, I just—Danny sent me a text today.” She stared down at her phone. “He thanked me for signing the papers.”

“Oh.” Dante furrowed his brow. “That’s good news, isn’t it? He’s reaching out?”

“I thought so, and but if he’s thanking me, that means he knows I refused at first—” Her eyes glittered with tears when she met his gaze. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought he was being forced into this, but what if Jason was right? What if Danny really did want this, and I was standing in his way—”

“There was always that possibility—” Dante stopped at the rapid knocking on the door. He pulled it open, grimacing when he saw Drew on the other side. “What do you want?”

“Is Scout all right?” Sam demanded, coming to Dante’s side. “Where is she?”

“At home. Where she should be safe,” Drew bit out. “Except your son brought drugs onto the estate — and is still drinking and getting high.”

“What—” Dante began, but Drew was already glowering at Sam.

“And your son is still protecting him. What kind of mother are you? Don’t even bother to answer that question,” he added when Sam opened her mouth to protest. “I’ve already called my lawyer and filed for permanent custody.”

← Flash Fiction: You’re Not Sorry – Part 47 |