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.”

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