 |
||
The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Eighty Five
Worth a Shot
The happy family house.
Carly heads straight up to the bathroom after directing AJ to get Michael into the tub as well. Carly bags her clothes into a plastic garbage bag grimacing as she included the hiking boots that she'd finally gotten broken in. Sealing it up she jumps into the shower. Like a character out of the movie Silkwood, she scrubs from head to toe as hot as she can stand it for as long as she can stand it. "I'm overreacting." She thinks. "I know that my clothes protected me and we weren't in there for but a second. Michael will be fine. Damn. I should have smelled it from outside." Carly butts her head ruefully against the smooth tiles. "Damn, Damn, Damn." Climbing out of the shower and dressing in casual clothes, Carly puts on rubber gloves to get the bag out of the bathroom and goes to where AJ is cleaning up Michael. She gathers all of Michael's clothes and disposes of them as well, setting the bag outside to add Jordan's clothes to later. Using the technique she'd learned from nursing school, she removes the gloves being careful to not recontaminate herself. The front door bell rings. Carly checks the monitor before opening the door. It's Jason, Sonny and Johnny. "Make my day complete! Michael is fine."
Jason reaches over to Carly and pushes up one of her sleeves. He sees that her skin is red and irritated from the scrubbing that she had given it. "Good, I didn't know if you knew what to do." Sonny and Johnny follow the action curiously not quite sure what is going on.
"I'm not an idiot, Jason." Carly sniffs.
"Where was your bodyguard? AJ said that he was getting you a bodyguard?"
"Jordan was with me. He's with Taggart now checking the site out. I just wanted to get me and Michael out of there."
"This never would have happened if you and Michael were where you belonged." Jason insists.
"Don't go there, Bro." AJ interjects from the stairs where he stands holding Michael. "Carly is exactly where she belongs and anyone could have walked into the situation."
"It could have been worse." Carly bites her lip. "What if it had been boobie trapped?" She shakes her head. "Was it Moreno, Jason?"
Jerry comes out from the study. "His name wasn't connected to the property. But the people that own it are old and both of them are in nursing home. I think that someone was just taking advantage of a situation. It might have messed up our plans but this is may play havoc with Katherine Bell."
Carly gets where Jerry is going. "The water. If the water has been used for dumping and then goes down to the spa. It might be polluted. What a nightmare. I need a cup of tea. Anyone else?" Jerry nods.
"Coffee for me." AJ nods. Carly goes into the kitchen to get the drinks started. Jason and the guys follow AJ back into the study. Jason takes Michael from AJ and starts checking him out.
"If you can't protect her than you have no business being around her." Jason says calmly to not upset Michael even through his laser blues eyes are drilling into AJ.
"If we're using that as a criteria then you bowed out about the time that Carly shot Tony while you were suppose to be sitting right next to her. Or how about when you were playing house with Robin while Carly was going through hell in Ferncliffe?" AJ snaps back.
"Enough." Jerry says flatly. "Stuff happens. It seems to happen more frequently around Carly BUT... she deals with it. Carly didn't do anything wrong here. And you two getting into a spat is just going to make her think that she has. So whatever you two are thinking about each other just shut the hell up." AJ and Jason glare at each other but agree to drop it... for now. Johnny goes out to the kitchen to help Carly.
"Hey Carly."
"Thank God-- the sane one in the bunch. How's it going, Johnny?" Carly sets up the cups waiting for the coffee to drip through.
"Well my day was seriously sucking, kind of a relief to see that yours was going as well."
Carly shrugs. "Must be a full moon somewhere. AJ and Jason kill each other yet?"
"Nah, Mr Jacks got them to back down."
Carly decides to change the subject. "So what do you think of Rita?"
"She's a pain in the ass." Johnny shakes his head. "She ditched school to follow me and put herself in the middle of a drug bust at the warehouse."
"EXCUSE ME? I must have missed that at lunch. What drug bust?"
"Just Lt Taggart being Lt Taggart." Johnny shrugs. "Nothing for him to find."
"And I called that SOB to let him know about the meth lab." Carly shakes her head. "That's it-- I'm taking my business to someone else. His vendetta against Jason is getting ridiculous."
"Garcia's not much better since he has it in for Mr Corinthos." Johnny makes himself at home in Carly's kitchen getting snacks from the fridge to add to the tray.
"What's that one guy's name-- Rick? He seems pretty good. Kind of goofy but not bad. From now on I'm calling him. Taggart can go spit." Carly fills the coffee carafe and places it on the tray.
"You know, Carly, most people don't call the cops as often as you have in the last few weeks. Maybe you won't have to call the cops anymore." Johnny looks at Carly who looks back and both of them grin. "Well it was worth a shot."
"Anything you want to know about your new sister? Maybe Luke should give you a cigar or something... congratulations-- it's a girl." Carly grins. "She's a good kid, Johnny. And a pretty good rider. She rushes things a bit."
"No kidding." Johnny mutters picking up the tray.
"So where is she now?"
"The Judge had to go back to court. So he left Rita at the restaurant with Ma. Ma was terrorizing her and my chef when I left."
"OH MY WORD." Carly starts to giggle. "Don't think that she'll be ditching again anytime soon. I like your mother, I really do, but she's got that iron fist thing down."
"Yeah, she doesn't put up with much." Johnny concurs.
"Oh and let me guess, the Judge actually left Rita there so he'd have an excuse to come back later." Johnny just shakes his head. "I think that your life is about as complicated as mine."
"It didn't used to be." Johnny laments. "All I used to have to do was stand outside the door to the penthouse. Get in the Quartermaines faces now and then. I could save up all my energy for dealing with Ma. As soon as Jason decided to get out of the business it all started getting complicated."
"I like the restaurant, Johnny. I wasn't going to be impressed, not after eating at Cafe Matisse with their french chef..." Carly shudders. "But it was really good. And you've got a great location."
"Yeah, I'd love to be there fulltime." Johnny sighs. "Ma would love for me to be out of 'the business' all together. I'd love to get Ma out from under the Quartermaines but as long as Moreno..."
"Maybe we'll all get lucky and Taggart will find something that connects Moreno to the meth lab." Carly says wistfully. Johnny who notices that Carly had been favoring one arm picks up the tray and starts toward the study. Carly follows taking deep breaths not knowing what she is going to be walking into. Johnny sets the tray on the desk and lets everyone serve themselves after handing a cup of tea to Carly who takes a seat behind the desk. She'd decided that she needed the barrier between her and the testosterone trust that fills the room. Not knowing where to look or what to say she is relieved when the phone rings. "Carly Benson."
"You scored big on this one." Taggart confirms not identifying himself.
"So it was a meth lab then?" The men fall silent listening in to Carly's side of the conversation.
"Oh yeah, The hazardous materials team is out here now taking the cabin apart. Your guy, Jordan, and I been checking out the property for boobie traps. Found a few too."
"What about the stream? Did they pollute the stream?"
"No evidence of that yet but the haz mat team is going to be taking water samples for analysis. Jordan is on his way back to your place in a black and white."
"Oh great-- that will thrill the press." Carly groans. She says her goodbyes to Taggart and hangs up. The room is silent as all the men watch her. "Jordan is on his way back. It was a meth lab and Taggart doesn't know yet if the stream is polluted."
"I want to talk to you privately, Carly." Jerry insists. Carly rises and goes out the sliding glass door with Jerry right behind her. She closes the door and keeps her back to the watching eyes. "This might be enough. We were planning on messing with the water supply anyway." Jerry muses his eyes narrowing. "Whether it is polluted or not that would seriously impact with Bell's business. We don't even have to do anything or put out any money for this. And we'll be able to get both properties for a fraction of what they're worth."
"Jerry, it was a METH lab. They could be worthless." Carly protests.
"Or that could be what everyone else thinks-- what we want them to think. We'll get our own people out there taking soil and water samples. They'll work faster and better than any crimelab tech." Jerry shrugs. "You didn't want the cabin anyway; we know it's a total loss. If nothing else you could get the trees logged."
"Never! The trees were what I liked." Carly bites her lip. "AJ isn't going to go for this. And it is too risky for Michael." Carly reviews the investments mentally that she had worked out with Jerry. "Jerry, you're killing me here. We have time."
"Not really. It's never to early to start messing with Ms Bell's reputation to drive the price down. But if we're going to go for it then we need to get guys out in the field ASAP."
"You pay for the experts." Carly says decisively. "AJ knows the business writer for the Herald; he can drop a bug in her ear about the possible water troubles with the spa. If the analysis comes back good, I'll buy the property above the spa if AJ decides he wants to pass. If it comes back bad, I'll pay for half of the cost of the analysis. Bobbie will still be your front for the spa right?"
Jerry shrugs. "Can't make decisions for your mother. This might postpone things long enough for me to make the investment myself; my year is almost up as my brother pointed out to me today. It's going to make the spa longer to pay off." Jerry muses. "But the potential is still there for profit."
Inside the study Sonny studies the pair outside and asks curiously. "What are they doing?"
AJ and Jason look as well and answer as one. "Scheming."