 |
||
The Quintessential Q
Chapter Fifty Six
The Usual Suspects
Nik Cassadine glances down at his watch and then at his filthy jeans. Mrs. Lansbury was going to freak ... again. He rubs his right shoulder; real work might be satisfying but it hurt! Nik would still be working on the house if he hadn't been reminded of his Sunday dinner with Stefan. The launch had already been called.
"Nikolas Cassadine!"
Nik turns around to see who is calling him. "Lt Taggart?"
"I have a few questions for you about a pending criminal matter. Will you accompany me to the station?" Taggart asks in the form of a question but his tone is clearly a command.
"What is this about, Lt?"
"This would be easier down at the station."
Nikolas takes in Taggart's grim visage. Whatever's up is big. "Two seconds then." Nikolas pulls out his cell phone and calls a speeddial number. "Alexis? I'm on my way down to the police station with Lt Taggart. He's being very mysterious about some questions he wants to ask me."
"Nikolas, sweetheart, I was just about to call you...." Nikolas frowns at Alexis' soft pitying tones.
"What? What do you know?" Nikolas demands.
"Emily's missing." Nikolas hangs up the phone on his aunt and turns to Taggart
"Lets go. I want to know exactly what you're doing to get Emily Quartermaine back." Nikolas leads the way to Taggart's plain brown wrapper cop car and waits for the Lt. to unlock the front passenger door.
The Gatehouse.
Ned gathers the rest of Emily's files into his briefcase and Alexis grabs both of their coats. "Who was on the phone?"
"That was Nikolas; I told him about Emily."
"Tell me again why Taggart wanted all of this information? Sounds like a wild goose chase to me. This has to do with Jason. All the family kidnappings have to do with Jason's connections." Ned might love his cousin but he's under no illusion.
"Remember Michael wasn't kidnapped because of Jason's connections... at least not directly. Taggart needs the information to eliminate possibilities." Alexis bites her lip. "Honey, this might not be about Emily. It could be about the Judge's daughter and the trial he is sitting on now."
"I don't even want to think about that possibility. If they don't need Emily.... If this isn't about money...."
"Shush Ned." Alexis demands not even wanting to go down that path. Her mind had been racing in a million different directions since Ned got the call from Reginald after Edward left with Taggart. "We have to get down to the station. Taggart is probably trying to pin this on Nikolas as we speak."
"For once I wish this was something to do with your family." Ned says grimly.
"Oh be careful what you wish for. I know that Nikolas likes Emily and for once Stefan is not throwing up roadblocks but that in itself is a problem."
"Helena." Ned stops in his tracks "Oh shit. You don't think..."
"Stop thinking and start moving." Alexis plants a firm hand in the middle of Ned's back and starts pushing him out the door sorry that she had even planted the thought in Ned's head. "I'll call Stefan once we're in the car. He keeps tabs on Helena's movements."
Warehouse down on Courtland street.
Jason had called ahead and was cleared through to the duplicating facility. Bootleg copies of movies currently in theaters were made by the hundreds off of prints that their connections in the movie houses got them afterhours. The tapes were funneled through the network all up and down the eastern seaboard with scarcely a copy here in Port Charles. Jason and Sonny both were firm believers in keeping their own backyards clean. Jason hands the tape to a mild mannered type. "How many copies of this can you get me?"
"How many do you want and what quality?" The man retorts calmly.
Jason shrugs. "The best quality. But I need the tape back ASAP, the cops are going to want it for evidence."
"The cops?" The man starts to sweat.
"Don't worry about that." Jason demands. "Just get me a dozen copies of the tape and then I'll plant the original back where the cops can find it."
Johnny makes his way slowly down the dock in his van his eyes vigilant for any signs of trouble or past associates he can lean on for information. He pulls to a halt by the new dock kiosk when he sees Maddy's van there.
Maddy Reynolds looks up from the kiosk when she hears the door slam on Johnny's van. "Any word?"
"Then you already heard?" Johnny asks suspiciously.
Maddy nods. "My aunt got an early morning wake up call and I'm a light sleeper."
"Your aunt?"
"Dara Jensen." Maddy says shortly. She smiles at a customer as she hands him a tall coffee and newspaper while sending him on his way.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Johnny snorts. "Does your aunt know..."
"We have a don't ask don't tell policy at my aunt's house. She doesn't know what questions to ask and I'm not going to tell her." Maddy says confidently.
"What does she think you do for spending money?" Johnny shakes his head. Jensen had never struck him as an idiot. Dealing with idiots at the PCPD sure but not an idiot herself.
"She thinks I have a paper route for the Herald." Maddy smirks as she sets another bundle of the Herald out on the kiosk. Early morning coffee and newspapers go hand in hand. "And I have the paystubs to prove it. What happened to Emily and I hear a judge's daughter was with her?"
"My sister Rita." Johnny elaborates. "So far there are more questions than anything else."
"Your father is a judge." Maddy leans up against the kiosk and crosses her hands in front of her. "Really."
Johnny changes the subject. "Look, they disappeared after the horseshow yesterday. Everyone thought they were doing a sleepover at someone else's house-- Carly Benson, the judge, the mansion. So whoever has them has a head start."
"Have there been any demands?"
"Not as of this morning. I overheard Taggart saying he is going to have taps set up on the mansion and the judge's phones. That is probably already being done."
"What do you need from me?" Maddy offers.
"Keep your ears and eyes open... anything suspicious...."
"Already done. All my people know to keep their ears open. Anything else?"
"Do you know of anyone Emily might have been having problems with, anyone that might have been giving her stress?"
"Stress." Maddy laughs shortly, humorlessly, before continuing. "That girl has nothing but stress."
Rita paces the dingy rooms examining every nook and cranny for possible tools or anything left behind by the kidnappers. Periodically she looks over at Emily who had fallen into a restless sleep. She really wasn't looking too good. Em had freaked her out earlier. If the whole drug thing hadn't been bad enough, Emily had made her pinky promise if there was a chance for escape she'd take it. Emily insisted between her ankle and being loopy from the drugs Rita could get help faster without Emily slowing her down.
"Hey kid." Emily sits up and brushes her hair back. "Any clue how long I've been out?"
Rita shrugs. "Not really. It's still light outside. "
"They will be coming soon."
"How do you know?"
"'Cause they wouldn't have given me this crap if they weren't planning on keeping it up."
Alexis strides through the swinging gate of the detective bullpen. She looks around until she sees what she is looking for. Nikolas is in the interrogation room. Alexis steps up her pace and walks in brushing by the uniform that tries to get in her way. "Damn it, Taggart!" Alexis begins her role of family attorney automatically without even looking at her client. "You know better than to question without an attorney present. Anything my client said is not admissible...." Alexis tosses her briefcase on the conference table and looks at Nikolas for the first time. Dirty clothes, torn up knuckles. "Oh My God." Alexis turns on Taggart like a mama tiger. "You Neanderthal son of a bitch, I'll have your badge! I'll have your ass in front of a review board! You won't be able to get a job as security in a Seven Eleven." Alexis snarls.
"Alexis stop!" Nikolas rises to his feet and grabs his aunt from the back of her coat with a sharp tug he drops her into a chair. "Calm down. I was finishing up working on a project when Taggart found me. He didn't lay a hand on me." Nikolas takes his seat again and turns to Taggart. "My counsel is here. Will you start talking now?"
Taggart gives Alexis a smug grin. Reaching into a box he pulls out a cell phone. Nikolas leans in his eyes narrowed. "Do you recognize this?" Taggart asks. His expression and Nik's confirm that Nikolas does.
"It's a cell phone." Nik states the obvious but continues telling Taggart a certain cell phone number. "If it's that number then it's Emily's."
"It's registered to you."
"It's a present. It wouldn't be if it came with bills." Nikolas pauses. "Emily's grandfather was blocking her calls, reading her journal. I got her the cell phone so she could have some privacy."
"Privacy from old man Quartermaine-- sure. But what about you? Like you said... you get the bills. You'd know exactly who she was calling now, wouldn't you?"
"What are you implying, Lieutenant?" Alexis asks suspiciously.
"Just trying to find out how far the apple falls from the tree, counselor. Kidnapping is a family tradition, your family tradition."
"Only if the victim's last name is Webber-- Laura or Leslie." Alexis quips. "And that is not the case here. Come back with that line of questioning when either Elizabeth or Sarah go missing."
"Nobody has seen Sarah Webber for awhile now."
"What are you doing about getting Emily back?!" Nikolas grinds through gritted teeth.
Taggart's moment of levity falls away. "Right now we're in the gathering information phase. Where were you last night?"
Nikolas looks over at Alexis reluctant to give away his secret. "I was helping my brother move to new accommodations."
"Is that how you got so... disheveled?" Alexis asks curiously.
"Part of it."
"And you have witnesses for your whereabouts?" Taggart insists.
"I was with Lucky and Elizabeth until about midnight last night and then again this morning I was with Lucky and/or my construction crew."
"Your construction crew?" Alexis asks.
"Wait a minute. I'm asking the questions here." Taggart insists. "Your construction crew?"
"I'm in the middle of rehabbing a house." Nikolas gives the address. "If you insist on searching it I would appreciate if you do it without annoying the neighbors."
"So you are giving a consent to search?"
"Of course if you have the manpower to waste. Feel free to go through my cottage as well. But get it done quickly. The more time you waste on this is time Emily can ill afford. Are we done, Lieutenant?"
"For now. Don't leave town, Mr. Cassadine."
"I'm not going anywhere." Nikolas insists.
"I'd like to speak to my client privately." Alexis tells Taggart. She puts a hand on Nikolas' arm to keep him seated. Taggart shrugs and leaves shutting the door firmly behind him.
"You're building a house?" Alexis asks.
"I'm rehabbing an existing structure." Nikolas admits.
"Oh Lord." Alexis puts her head down on the table. Quite like Luke Spencer she specializes in pulling information from out of thin air. "Monica, Carly. Is The Family to have a new consort?"
Nikolas doesn't answer directly. "It shall be the priority of The Family to find Emily unharmed. Where is Helena?"
"Stefan is tracking her now."
"Good. If she had anything to do with this...."
"It will be taken care of."
"Yes, it will."