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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Fifty Five
Point of View
"Emily, wake up!" Rita shoves Emily's shoulder.
Emily groans. She tries to straighten and moans in pain. "Anyone get the plate number of the truck that hit me?"
"It wasn't a truck; it was a van, and it didn't hit us. It cut us off." Rita reminds in a rush. "This is all my fault. Daddy told me, don't ditch the bodyguards. They're there for your protection."
"We didn't ditch anyone." Emily sits up on the "bed". She stills holds her head with both hands and has her eyes closed. "We just didn't have time to tell them we were leaving. I really didn't want to go another round with Vicki."
"Daddy's case goes to the jury next week." Rita frowns.
"These are the same guys who sent the bomb to the house?"
"Lt. Taggart's still working on that I think."
"How long was I out?" Emily mutters.
"You were awake after you put the bike down. You told me to run like hell. But the guy caught me as I was running toward the woods. When he hauled me back you were out. He stuck a pillow case over my head and tied my hands up. Next thing I know we're dumped here."
"Next thing you know? So they didn't change vehicles or make any stops or anything?"
"No. No stops." Rita cuddles in next to Emily for comfort. Emily offers her, her hand. Rita takes it thankfully and squeezes hard. Knowing she wasn't alone anymore freed her mind from the numbing fear. "So how big is the gas tank of a van anyway?"
"I have no idea. You'd have to ask Johnny." Emily half smiles.
"He's looking for us." Rita says confidently. "My brother can do anything."
"And my brother, Jason, who can also do anything is looking." Emily agrees. "So all we have to do is hang tough." She looks over at Rita and smiles reassuring but the smile fades as she sees the concern in Rita's eyes. "Rita?"
"Em, there is something wrong with your eyes. They look really weird."
Em glances around the dark room and sees the darker shadow of the another room. Rising to her feet, she almost collapses as she puts weight on her right leg. "Oh sonovabitch. And the hits just keep on coming."
"We should look at it and see what's wrong." Rita offers.
"Later. If it's busted what are we going to do about it anyway?" Emily looks around the room. "The closest thing to a cast here is the boot it's already in. Help me into the bathroom." Rita tucks herself in next to Emily's weak side and helps her hop into the bathroom. A bathroom where you'd be afraid to touch anything. The mirror is broken and the frame holding it is rusting out. Emily leans in to the mirror and looks at her reflection. Without another word she shucks her leather jacket and shoves up the sleeve of her turtleneck. As soon as she realized what she was looking for, the aches and pains had separated from the ones caused from dumping the bike to a the nagging pinch on the inside of her elbow. Emily knows what she is going to find before she even shoves up her sleeve. A fresh needle mark.
Rita also looks at Emily's arm. "They took blood?"
"They didn't take anything out. They put something in." Emily says grimly. "This might not be about your father's case." Em leans up against the wall by the chipped, sagging sink for balance. She takes first one of Rita's arms and then the other shoving Rita's sleeves out of the way to examine them closely. "Did you feel any pinches? Anywhere? Between your toes, on your neck? Anywhere? It doesn't have to be a vein; it could be just under the skin."
"No." Rita insists. "I was awake the whole time. It's drugs, isn't it?"
"Yeah, baby. It's drugs." Emily looks around. "We have to get out of here."
"But you said Johnny and your brother were coming to get us." Rita protests.
"And they are. I'd just as soon meet them outside." Emily looks around the bathroom. There is a window there but high up and too small for anyone to crawl through. "Rita, hop up there and see what you can see."
Rita does and tries to open the opaque window. "It's stuck. Painted shut."
"Can you see anything outside?"
"Not really. Just light and dark."
"Come back down. Lets check out the rest of the room." Rita hops down and takes Emily's weak side again. Looking at the rest of the room wasn't encouraging. A single mattress on the floor with a couple of army surplus wool blankets on top. Boarded up windows with scarcely a fraction of an inch of light showing through. Running her hand along the wall for support, Emily tries the door. "They don't build them like this anymore." Emily quips with a gallows humor. "Solid as a rock. And look the only thing bright, shiny and clean is this lovely deadbolt lock."
"We're screwed." Rita says glumly.
"Maybe. But we know they didn't spend their time cleaning this place to get it ready for us. Maybe they missed something. Something that can work to our advantage. Something to pry open the window... something to unscrew the hinges to the door. Anything." Emily leans up against the wall. Rita searches the room with renewed enthusiasm. Emily glances over to the mattress on the floor. One mattress, one room-- two hostages. Maybe both of them weren't suppose to be here. Wrong place wrong time. But the van had cut off the bike, her bike. Emily bites her lip. Damn it was hard to focus. All she wanted to do was lay down. Emily collapses back onto the mattress. It's hard to be graceful with a bum ankle, nodding out and with a mattress on the ground. She edges back against the wall and stretches her legs out. "Rita?"
"Yeah," Rita looks up from what had been a kitchenette before all the appliances were removed. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just really tired. Rita, you have to know this may not be about your dad. Someone with a really sick sense of humor is at play here too, someone who at minimum knows about me."
"Why do you say that?"
"The drugs. It was my motorcycle they dumped. I was the one they shot up with drugs. Remember how your sister called me a drug addict?"
"Yeah?"
"It's true. I had, have a problem with drugs. Before it was weed, marijuana, a little hash, and weed laced with heroin. I checked into treatment after smoking something that was laced with PCP. I started thinking I could fly and tried to fly out of my bedroom window."
"But isn't that like on the second or third floor?"
"Exactly." Emily replies grimly. "I'll take full responsibility for the pot, and the horse. I was going through a place where I really hated being me and drugs made me not care. If Matt had told me that he laced the pot with PCP I might have even have smoked it anyway. That was my friend's name... Matt, he died of an overdose after I was already working on a recovery program. I learned a lot in treatment... things you need to know. For one thing I can't drink alcohol now or even after I turn 21. Heroin works on the same places in the brain as alcohol does. Because of what I did I might just as well consider myself an alcoholic now and be done with it. And if these bastards did what I think they did... I'm going to be hurting soon, hurting bad. Because when you start up with drugs again you don't start from scratch like you never had a problem before-- you start up where you left off."
"So you think they gave you the drugs on purpose."
"That widens the field of suspects and narrows it too. This wasn't random some guy off the street looking to score some easy bucks from the Quartermaines. Either the people know me or they have done their research. Monica and Alan kept what happened to me as quiet as possible but that in itself is BS. When a quartermaine screws up, even one by adoption, if it isn't in the papers then it's gossiped about behind closed doors. If this is about me rather than you... if could be about enemies of Jason..."
"Then they would be enemies of Johnny too." Rita reminds her loyally. "Johnny jumped all over me because I blew his cover about being my brother. He knew if would be safer for me if nobody knew."
"Enemies of my family: could be ELQ, could be somebody at the hospital, could be somebody I met modeling. I travel in a lot of circles. I never realized how many." Emily muses. "If Taggart had any hair he'd be pulling it out on this one."
Taggart runs his hand over his chromed dome and tugs on his ear. This was getting so complicated. Why couldn't it be a simple Morgan/Corinthos connection?
The interview with Judge Porter. "The case goes to the jury next week. The verdict should follow shortly after. I've made no pretension about the way I feel about my family. They made their first threat with the bomb at the party. A wedding gift from these maniacs. Has anyone checked on Victoria over at the sorority house to make sure she is okay?" JD claims.
And the interview with Carly. "This is all Katherine Bell's doing. Emily showed her up big time and made her ashamed to show her face. Nicolas Cassadine picked Emily over Katherine... you know, the woman scorned thing."
"Money, it's all about money." Edward had informed Taggart in his interview. "She is my dearest treasure next to Lila and any moron who could read a paper would know the family will pay any amount to get her back. But I learned my lesson with Michael. You just say when and I'll be there with the money for the reward, airtime, front page of the Herald. We can flush these cretins out. They'll rue the day they put their hands on a Quartermaine. There isn't a rock they can hide under." Edward threatens.
AJ shakes his head over his interview. "I couldn't even tell you all the things Emily is involved in. Ned has charge of her portfolio."
"Portfolio?" Taggart winces.
"Emily has pieces in probably a dozen different companies. She is hands on with ELQ and Deception. But Ned and Jax could tell you more about that."
"How is she involved with ELQ?" Taggart asks.
"She has been instrumental in the prominade project. She's a very positive spokesperson for the company. I'm sure you've noticed that Grandfather has the habit of ticking off the unions... hell anyone.. if he's in a room long enough with them."
"Are you having any union difficulties now?"
AJ laughs without humor. "ELQ is always in the midst of some labor/management crisis. Now that the docks are fully operational there have been layoffs. Most of the workers have crossed over to the prominade project but not all of them. I'm still fighting in ELQ Jakarta. Carly and I were there almost a year ago and they've had three governments since then. It's a constant state of brinkmanship over there and anything can shift the balance."
"Like taking the sister of the CEO hostage?"
"Yeah, Like that."
The real surprise had been the interview with Johnny Porter. Not unexpected he had clammed up when Quarterbrain or Rico Suave were brought to the table but he'd been a font of information when it came to conversations he had, had with Emily. "Em is working on simplifying her life, streamlining it. She's been having problems with some of the girls at school. Girls who know about the problems she had with Matt and Dorman, the blackmail over the doctored internet photos by Tom Baker. She is ready to get out of modeling. Her last gig she covered for some chick who got busted for heroin. The whole thing started looking sick to her. Her family is the most important thing to her-- her parents, Carly, her brothers, Michael, Lila and even the old goat. I don't think she likes business really but she is good at it: Deception, ELQ, the coffee kiosks down at the prominade. The business is about the relationships. Deception/Ned, ELQ/ the old man."
"and the Kiosks?"
"Me. Me and Maddy Reynolds."
Taggart looks around for his final interview. "Jacks, Jerry Jacks?"
"Yo! Right here Lt." Jerry comes out of the kitchen stuffing his face with a piece of fruit. "You wanted to talk to me?"
Inside the kitchen, Jason prepares to leave having heard all he needs to and with an avenue of investigation Jerry had given him moments ago before being called back into the dining area by Taggart. Jason finishes up his call to Sonny. "Let the guy in the video dup lab know I'm coming. Jerry Jacks gave me the original video he shot at the horseshow. He said he did some crowd shots too. It's a gamble only Mike would take but it's what we've got. Taggart is going to find out about the video soon and we need to have copies before Jacks has to turn it over."