When Cassadines Fall ~ The Detour

Li hesitates and then takes a deep breath. Softly she raps on the door. Jason opens the door to his bedroom. "May I come in?"

Jason can read her intent in her face. "You don't have to do this."

"I know." Li plants a hand in the middle of Jason's chest and backs him from the doorway. As they clear the doorway Jason shuts the door over her shoulder. Li fists the fabric of his t-shirt in her hand and pulls down. Jason bends his elbow so he is leaning into the closed wall bringing Li back up against it. He slowly kisses her tilting her head back. The kiss is lingering and slow... testing.

And it's met with a kiss that is the same--slow, lingering, testing, deepening.

With a growl, Jason wraps an arm around Li's waist and drops it down around her hips boosting her up so that she is eye level with him. She wraps her legs around his waist. Li cups her hands around his face and tilting her head to the side, presses another open mouth kiss on her benefactor's parted lips.

Jason drops her on the bed and takes a step back, then another.

Li rises to her knees and watches him carefully. Reaching up she lets her hair down letting it tumble down.

Jason shakes his head. "This isn't right."

Li looks at Jason's crotch and then up to his face. "Parts don't agree."

"I don't let parts do my thinking for me."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why not?" Li undoes the belt of her robe. "I trust you. You are an honorable man." Jason groans. She isn't going to make this easy. "I understand. I work for you, but I don't have to work for you. I can work for another as long as the debt is paid. I don't have to pleasure you; it has nothing to do with the debt. I can seek pleasure with another. I would prefer it to be you. What do you prefer?"

Jason pulls his t-shirt off over his head and throws it aside. He takes a step closer to the bed, his knees resting against the side.

Li reaches for his belt buckle and unfastens it then starts working the buttons of the jeans.

"You girls get a move on! You might be on a sleep over but this is no vacation!" Cookie hollers up the stairs. "Breakfast is ready now. " There is the sound of feet racing down the hallway above and down the stairs. Rita and Mei are both dressed in their school uniforms. At the base of the stairs they drop their coats and backpacks. Mei follows Rita into the kitchen and having been prewarned stays to an almost imaginary line so she doesn't invade Mrs. Porter's space. "I hope you aren't expecting a poptart. We eat real food for breakfast." Cookie gives Mei a look.

"What's a poptart?" Mei half jokes. "I live with my grandmother. I have hot rice cereal every morning."

"Smart woman." Cookie gives a nod. She brings over an omelet that she has split for the two girls. There is slices of toast and glasses of juice. "After I drop you off, I'll be heading to the restaurant."

Rita nods. "Ricky will pick us up after school and drop us off at Daddy's at three. Daddy's got in custodies today so he'll take us to the library or to a movie if we finish our homework early."

"What's up with Ricky?" Cookie finishes cleaning up the kitchen and draws herself a cup of coffee. "He's skating."

Mei looks from Rita to Mrs. Porter. She'd seen some of it because Ricky was frequently called to chauffeur duty when Mrs. Porter was stuck at the restaurant or Judge Porter was hung up with a jury. And now that Uncle and Auntie are going to be living right across the way from Ricky this is something she has to know.

Rita looks at Mei and shrugs.

"Spill. Now." Cookie demands seeing the look. "Something more than Ricky. Start talking."

Rita bites the inside of her lip but then she starts with Ricky. "I don't think that the teachers expect Ricky to do anything. So he doesn't have to do anything." Rita adds in a rush. "He does all the reading and he aces the test that's why he's getting A's."

"Really." Cookie's eyes narrow and she nods. "Your father will handle that. I'd probably do just as well talking to his instructors as I did talking to your old teacher down at the idiot factory. What else?"

"My cousin Li is already in Port Charles." Mei bursts out. "We overheard Mr. Morgan talking to Father Frank. She's hiding. Which is okay I guess considering-- but she is hiding from us."

"And staying with Jason Morgan?!" Cookie counters.

"I told Ricky first 'cause I didn't want Daddy to have a conflict of interest. He's going to hire a lawyer for Li so she won't get in trouble for being illegal. He says Dara Jensen is the best one to help Mei's cousin since the Fed's owe her after what Agent Larkin did."

"Well that's true." Cookie looks at the clock. "Haul ass, kids. We have to hit the road so you won't be late." Both girls snag their last bites and swallow the last of their juice before heading up to brush their teeth. Cookie grabs their dishes and stuffs them in the dishwasher and starts it. "Start as you mean to go." Cookie mutters. She's never been the shy type. Johnny worked every Sunday, and Rita hasn't been. Wouldn't surprise her at all if maybe this Li has been showing up at the restaurant with Morgan. "You've got some explaining to do, Boy." Then she corrects herself. "Boys." Because Johnny and Ricky needed to be a bit more forthcoming.

Ricky gulps some of his coffee and then coughs. The last thing he expected to see on the PCU campus is Judge Porter. The Judge's few classes are night classes. And then just upperclassmen. Which he is not. He'd challenged out of a few classes but he'd also made a studious effort to avoid the Judge's classes just because the Porters were already too much in his business. "Judge."

"Ricky." The Judge glances down at his watch. "You've got time before your next class. Lets talk."

"Talk."

"It's me or the missus, kid."

"Let's talk." Ricky agrees quickly. "What's up."

"Cookie doesn't think you're being challenged. That you're flying under the radar here. The next term is coming up and you'll be picking your next classes."

Ricky sighs. "I've actually been expecting you. Your wife isn't going to bring it up at dinner but I saw her eyeballing me." Ricky waits until after the Judge gets his coffee from the stand outside of the PCU Library. Together they walk into the Library. Anyone that might say anything about the coffee takes one look at the Judge and looks the other direction. The Judge finds a study room and they pull up chairs. Ricky pulls out the well dog-eared catalog. He'd gone through it. Rita had gone through it, and Cookie had gone through it as well. "I'm just doing what you told me, Judge. A little of everything."

"But have you been getting everything out of it? Or have you been sitting in the back of the class going thru the motions? How are you going to figure what you want to do if you aren't front and center?"

Ricky winces. Evidently he's not the first person that the Judge has talked to on campus. He'd probably been the last after the Judge talked to all of his instructors and the TAs too! "You doing this for Viki too?" He goes for the deflection.

"We aren't talking about Viki. But yes, she's going to get a visit from Dad." The Judge puts on his glasses and pulls out the sheet of paper where Ricky has roughed out his next term's schedule. "I was leery about the accounting." The Judge mutters but then he looks up at Ricky. "It's not my thing. But this is the only instructor that says you've been active in class. You actually like this?"

"I don't know, Judge." Ricky shrugs. "It's a puzzle. I like the way it lines up and when it doesn't. Especially when it doesn't."

"You know Rita reads law." Ricky nods. The Judge continues. "If this is something you are interested in, really interested in, I think you need to do something similar. Find an expert. I can't believe I'm saying this."

"Who?"

"My son, Johnny's, accountant. Benny Abrams."

Ricky grins and nods. He knows exactly why the Judge is almost denying what he is saying. Benny Abrams is Sonny Corinthos' money man. If there is anyone that knows how to cook a set of books it's Abrams. If you could find numbers that didn't line up in a set of books created by Benny Abrams then you'd be top of the game. "We're not going to tell your wife about this right?"

"Oh no." The Judge agrees and then his eyes narrow. "Don't you think it's time you were doing more than driving Edward Quartermaine around?"

Cookie raps sharply on the penthouse door of the Harborview Towers.

Jason answers the door with a bowl in hand. "Not who I was expecting."

"Rita said you saw her at the school when you were talking about the Chow's girl with Father Frank."

Jason nods. Cookie is right. He should have been expecting this call. "Come in. I thought it was covered when Dara Jensen showed up at my doorstep."

"Where is she? And I don't mean Dara Jensen."

Jason looks at Johnny's mother and decides if he is going to answer or not. "Language school. She left about an hour ago."

"What is that?" Cookie can't resist asking because it smells great.

"Breakfast."

Cook takes it right out of Jason's hand and probably realizes how close she has come to losing a hand. "Doesn't look like breakfast. Mei says that her grandmother has her eating hot rice cereal for breakfast."

"Congi. Li fixes it for Michael on Saturdays. It's alright. Can I have my food back?" Jason takes the bowl back. "What are you doing here, Mrs. Porter?"

"Mei is staying with the Judge and me while her Grandmother goes to Hawaii. Whatever problem this Li girl has it's not with Mei or Rita. Time for her to stop sneaking around. You've got Dara Jensen on the case." Cookie steps into the penthouse and takes a look around. There are a few signs that Michael spends time there but other than the dish that Jason Morgan is eating nothing that says that Li Chow is living there.

"What did you have in mind, Mrs. Porter?"

"I'm just saying-- if this girl is ducking her family. They aren't in town. Got an apartment that needs furnishing. Got a store that needs to be personalized. Bring her to the restaurant when I'm working. I want to know how she made that." With that last order, Cookie lets herself out.

It wasn't often he got away from the courthouse for Lunch. Normally he just went to the diner across the complex. The food wasn't great. It wasn't even good. But it is close. Today he is on a mission. "Hi. Any chance of talking to my son?" The Judge asks the hostess.

The hostess bites her lip and looks around. The place was going pretty good. Nothing like a Friday night or anything but... "Wait here. I'll find out where Johnny suggests. The only way you might get two minutes with him is sitting at the family table in back."

"That's fine." JD shrugs.

"Okay. Well then follow me." The hostess leads the way thru the restaurant and back thru the kitchen. JD makes sure that he stays out of the way of people moving at one speed-- fast. There is a controlled chaos to the well run kitchen. Or at least it appeared to be chaos to anyone who'd never worked in a real Kitchen. "Here you go. Johnny will probably glance over in a sec; do you want me to bring you something to drink?"

"Coffee would be great. I have to go back to work later." JD smiles at the hostess, treating her the way he'd want Rita to be treated when she works.

Johnny is wiping his hands when he walks on over. "What you need, Judge?"

"Talked to your mother a bit ago. She's annoyed with you."

Johnny groans. "What did I do now?"

"She's not saying. Something about you not being forthcoming about something about our houseguest MeiMei Chow?"

"Ah." Johnny winces and then nods. "Okay. I'll talk to her when she gets in." His eyes narrow. "But I'd be talking to her anyway. What's up, Judge? Wait hold that thought." Johnny goes back into the kitchen and does what he has to do keep things moving and then grabs one of his prep cooks and whispers in his ear. Johnny plates up a special and brings it over to his father. "Here."

"Thanks." The Judge looks over the Linguini with Shrimp and Basil.

"I should have asked you... how are your arteries doing?"

"We won't tell your mother about this." The Judge takes a bite before his son is even tempted to take the plate away.

Johnny takes a seat across from the Judge at the family table where he can keep an eye on the Cook who is filling in for him. "What else?"

"You know the situation with Ricky Robideau." The Judge looks up at his son but is already twirling linguini and spearing a shrimp, getting another bite together.

"He normally comes in when Ma or Rita is working but yeah."

"Cookie thinks he's been skating thru his courses at college. I talked to his instructors and its true. The only course he is interested in is an Intro to Accounting course. He said he liked the way things looked when they lined up and especially finding when they didn't." JD tries to give the direct quote.

"He likes accounting?!" Johnny shakes his head in disbelief. "I guess somebody has to."

JD nods around the bite and waits briefly. "What I found interesting was the glint in his eye when he said when things didn't line up. While it's probably an extreme long shot that Ricky would ever go into law enforcement where there are a number of agencies that are in need of someone that can find out when someone is trying to embezzle or hide money."

"Why are you bringing this to me, Judge?"

"He isn't going to learn the skills he needs at PCU. Not really. Not quickly enough to keep him challenged. I want you to introduce him to Benny Abrams."

"I really don't think that is a good idea." Johnny is already shaking his head.

"I'm sure that Mr. Abrams has a number of ... interesting but legitimate accounts. Yours for instance." The Judge adds pointedly. "Maddy Reynold's coffee businesses."

"Judge, it's a political thing. Even if Benny totally toed the line there will be people freaking on all sides of the fence if it got out that Pete Robideau's kid was hanging out with Sonny Corinthos' accountant? We're talking FBI, Justice Department, ATF, IRS and every other Federal Government that can be abbreviated. It's not the way to keep Ricky out of the business. All those agencies that you'd love for him to go to work for would be targeting him. I don't think Snitch is what you had in mind."

The JD sighs and puts down his fork. "Well then I hope Cookie is having better luck with Plan B."

"Plan B?"

"Edward Quartermaine."

Cookie had walked right up to the offices on the Executive floor of the ELQ building. Nobody had asked her for ID or even her name. Maybe they remembered her face from the time she'd bailed Edward Quartermaine out of jail after he'd been caught breaking into AJ's house. Maybe she looked like she belonged.

"May I help you?" A suspicious voice asks from behind a desk a hand at the ready to call security.

"Your security sucks."

"Cook!" Edward strides down the hallway. "Saw you on the camera coming up the elevator."

"Well that's a relief. As many people who want you dead, Old Man, you need all the cameras and security money can buy."

The secretary starts reaching for the phone again. Edward waves her off. "What do you have there?" He demands seeing the white box.

"First we talk." Cookie holds it out of Edward's reach. He'd have to mug her to get it. And he had to know she could take him.

"This way." Edward points toward his office and puts a hand at Cookie's waist to usher her toward it. He looks back over his shoulder to give his order to the secretary. "We don't want to be disturbed." Edward seats Cookie in a chair across from his desk and then sits down in his comfortable chair. His eyes don't move off the pastry box. "Now what can I do for you?"

"I want to talk to you about Ricky."

That gets Edward's attention. "Ricky? What's wrong with Ricky?!"

"Nothing. But my husband didn't sponsor that man here in this this town so you could act out your own version of Driving Miss Daisy. Ricky is here to get an education."

Edward looks at the pastry box and then at his former Cook and then back to the box. If she had just wanted him to stay away from Ricky she would have brought her butcher knife. But she'd brought pastry. Which meant she wanted something. "What kind of education did you have in mind?"

"His favorite class at college is Accounting." Cookie shoves the box toward Edward. "I'm sure you have more than a few fat cats in this building who could really give him an education."

"But what is in it for me?" Edward slowly smiles.

"Ha! Don't give me that, Old Man. Just having Ricky around would drive AJ and Ned both out of their minds."

"True. Very true." Edward opens the box and pulls out one of the Boston Crèmes. He takes a big bite and finishes is with a discreet slurp to get a little more crème from the center of the confection. "I think we can deal."

"I think so too."

Ricky looks down at his cell phone. It’s set on vibrate and that’s the way it always is when he is at school. He winces when he sees who is calling.

"Who is it?"

"Cookie. And I don’t think she’s calling about picking Rita and Mei up after school. They have plans with the Judge."

"So what’s it about?" Maddy hands Ricky the Café Americano aka Coffee black. She is just filling in while her PCU gal goes to register for her next term of classes.

"The Judge showed up on campus today. I should have been expecting it. Cookie has been giving me an evil eye the last few times we’ve gotten together. She thinks I haven’t been-- making the most of my college experience." Ricky puts little quote remarks around the last of his comment.

Maddy gives him a look.

"Yeah, yeah. I don’t want to hear about it." Ricky protests. "So the Judge shows up and says I need to start doing things the way that Rita does."

"Excuse me?" Maddy offers Ricky a muffin.

"Munchkin has been reading the law since she’s been able to read. Her dad is basically training her how to be a lawyer. The old fashioned way. The way they used to do it before they had law schools."

"So he wants to hook you up with someone that is all pro in what?"

"Numbers. Can you believe it? The Judge actually suggested Benny Abrams. He’s got no clue."

"Oh I think he knows that Benny is ace numbers guy."

"But now what would happen if I started hanging with an Organization Numbers Guy up here in the North East." Ricky shakes his head. Just because his father didn’t want him in the business doesn’t mean he doesn’t know exactly how the business works.

"Well that explains something."

"What is that?"

"This was left for you." Maddy reaches under the counter for a manila envelope.

"And you’re just telling me now?!" Ricky takes it from Maddy and rips it open.

"I offer a lot of services. Mail isn’t one of them. What is it?"

"There is a post it on it." Ricky murmurs. "Have a little light night time reading. BA."

Maddy starts flipping back thru the journal. "Benny was here. He’s the one that left the package for you. Lena was going to wait until she saw you to give it to you. What is it?"

"It’s the books."

"For Morgan Corinthos?!" Maddy practically screeches and is already shaking her head in disbelief..

"Nah. For Enron."

"Isn’t that some power company or something?"

"Yeah. Why would a mob money guy give me the books for one of the hottest legit companies in the country?"

"A little light night time reading?" Maddy shrugs.

"Weird." Ricky starts thumbing thru the heavy document that is about the size of two phone books. "I wonder how he got hold of this. This isn’t just a quarterly report for the stock holders. This is THE books. Total insider trading stuff."

"It’s probably worth a fortune." Maddy tries to look over his shoulder.

Ricky’s eyes narrow. "The Judge wants me to start working accounting problems and all of a sudden the best book fixer guy on the eastern seaboard gives me a present of the books of a Fortune 500 company? A company that has a ball park named after them? A major Legit company?"

"I’m getting a really big bad feeling about this." Maddy mutters.

"You know he couldn’t give me a set of books that he’d fixed. Or would be anything that my father could use."

"But he’d give you... oh shit, Ricky. You don’t think...."

"I got some reading to do. Talk to you later, Maddy." Ricky is already gone.

"Hey Charlie!" Rita announces cheerfully. "Is anyone in with my Dad?"

"He’s signing a few orders but nobody else is in chambers." Charlie glances down at his watch. "I’m going to call over to the jail in about ten and order up the in custodies."

"Great." Rita nods. "That’ll give us time to say hi, get some money from him for the coffee shop and head off to do homework until he’s ready to take us to the movies. I’ve already seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but Mei hasn’t."

"And the Judge is going to go along with it?" Charlie’s brows go up.

"Daddy loves action movies." Rita informs her father’s bailiff. "Especially at matinee prices." Rita knocks on the door and then opens it at a growl from inside. "Hey Daddy."

"Hello Judge Porter." Mei says uneasily from the doorway. She is actually more comfortable with Cookie and her way of doing things than A Judge.

"Good afternoon, Girls." JD looks up from his paperwork. His day has already improved. Running around checking up on Ricky and Johnny had put him behind schedule. "Looks like a light day for the in custody arraignments. I should be able to get out of here in... oh 90 minutes. Have you decided... Bookstore? Library? Movies? Too much homework for any of the above?"

Rita looks at Mei and then back to her father and grins. "Movie. I think we can get our homework done in 90 minutes. If we had sustenance of the junk food variety."

"You live to get me in trouble with your stepmother." JD mutters but he is already reaching for his wallet. "Just the coffee shop. I want to be able to pick you up there when I’m done."

"You got it, Daddy." Rita reveals how much time she has been spending with Carly with the way that she makes the twenty dollar bill disappear.

"And don’t talk to strangers. Especially those who look like lawyers."

"Yes, Daddy." Rita grabs Mei by the arm and they head out of chambers and down the stairs to the coffee shop.

"Don’t talk to lawyers?" Mei hisses as she is adjusting her back pack and skipping down the stairs.

"Most lawyers like to hear themselves talk. We’ll never get our homework done if they start trying to butter us up to get to my dad." Rita explains. "It drives my dad NUTS. If he’s late it’s cause some lawyer got long winded on him." She goes thru the line and almost buys all the things that are bad for her and would have Cookie going berserk on her about real food. "It’s not fair!"

"What?"

"I never read the back of one of these until Dad married Cookie." Rita hands Mei a package.

"Umm... how do you pronounce this word? Is it a word?"

"Yeah, exactly. I have no clue. Artificial color. Artificial flavor. Preservatives." Rita snatches it back and then puts it back where she found it. She’d have to get creative in order to find something that didn’t make her think she was turning herself into a Twinkie. "It’s not like Cookie is the food police or something. She believes in butter. She believes in cream. She believes in salt... used sparingly. She believes in dessert. GAWD does she believe in dessert. But she believes in food- real food."

"You mean like the way she went off on poptarts?"

"Exactly. And I’m going to be in a horse show next month and I can’t get fat anyway." Rita sighs. Rita looks at the woman behind the counter. "Please, tell me what I can eat without my stepmother giving me grief."

"You’re Judge Porter’s girl?"

"Yeah."

"Ah." The woman looks at the counter. "Soup is real. Made it myself- no cans. No MSG. Salad is real. Take a slice of lemon from the ice tea supplies; squeeze that on the salad. I figure you do those things... you could probably splurge on a chocolate brownie." The woman looks from Rita to Mei. "And if you’re feeling guilty about the brownie you could always split it."

"That sounds great. That and two coffees."

"That stuff will stunt your growth."

"Too late already." Rita sighs. "Might as well enjoy it now." Mei and Rita make up a tray of food and pay for it with the Judge’s twenty. Commandeering a table in the corner then spread out everything that they will need to have after school snack/early dinner and get their homework done.

They are in the midst of everything when Dara and Agent Ford come into the coffee shop. Dara sees the girls first and winces. "This is a bad idea."

"Oh?"

"You were probably busy at the time but you recognize the little girl sitting in the corner of the café?"

"She looks familiar." Agent Ford frowns as he tries to remember exactly where he saw the little girl.

"And the one that has her back to us."

"Oh hell. Isn’t that the little girl I had pulled in for having a meeting with Sonny Corinthos? The courthouse. Double damn. That’s the judge’s daughter."

"Rita Porter and MeiMei Chow. They must be meeting Rita’s father. He has a standing date with her. At least once a week when the Judge takes the in custody rotation."

"And you didn’t know about this?" Ford protests.

"I’m not exactly working for the DA anymore- remember?" Dara grabs Ford’s arm and pulls him out of the café. "We’re going to have to find someplace to talk where we’re not going to run into anyone. Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Luke’s."

Johnny takes one look at his mother. "You hit me today, Ma and I swear I’ll hit you back."

"Keep believing it, Boy. There’d be two sounds. Me hitting you and you hitting the floor." Cookie snarls right on back.

"What did I do this time?" Johnny pleads.

"I got Li Chow’s cousin staying with me and your father. Rita’s best friend. You and Ricky both... I hear about it from Rita cause she overheard Jason Morgan talking to Father Frank down at School?!"

Johnny winces. "Sorry Ma. It was need to know and not my story to tell."

"Well need to know is now." Cookie puts her chin up. "I’ve already been over to Morgan’s penthouse and told him that I need to meet this girl."

Johnny blanches. He really hated the idea of his mother around Jason Morgan for any reason.

"The cat is out of the bag. Mei and Rita both know about her. I get it. Rita says it would be a conflict of interest for your father. Jerry Jacks is on his way to Hawaii with Mei’s Grandmother. I’m sure those folks over at the church will get the apartment set up properly but it will be Mei and Li who add the personal touches. And just cause it probably would be a conflict of interest for The Judge when you set up the dinner, set it up when your father has a jury and make it at the apartment upstairs."

"Ma, you and Jason Morgan...." Johnny takes a look at his mother’s resolve face. "Fine. Tell me when the Judge has a jury and I’ll set it up."

"Oh and you might tell Emily that I went to see her Grandfather today. Told him I want him to stop playing Driving Miss Daisy with Ricky and put that boy’s brain to work." Cookie stalks out of the room.

Johnny mutters to himself. "Wish I would have known that before I called Benny about that anonymous present to the kid."

He isn’t the dumbest kid on the block not by a long shot. He’d always had brains; he’d just never bothered to show them off. Nerd looked good on Bill Gates- sorta. Even with his father wanting him to have nothing to do with the business he’d seen more than one set of books on occasion. Hell if it were just basic adding and subtracting he’d been keeping track of his mother’s check book for ages if only to tell his father when to put more money in.

He’d also been the one to call his father and tell him when one of his mother’s party boys was dipping into the accounts. And the one to take the heat when his mother had thrown a tizzy and started ranting about how Pete Robideau was the reason for everything wrong in her life. Course Mom had too much self interest to actually bitch to Dad but rather had badmouthed him to her kid. He’d been the one there with the cancelled checks with the forged signatures. Mom hadn’t apologized. She never did. Neither did she plead for party boy’s worthless ass. There was always another tennis instructor, golf instructor, diving instructor.

The third floor of the library was for the folks that were serious about not being disturbed. And thanks to the set of keys he’d made it didn’t matter day or night. If he had the urge to do some reading then he’d read. Sometimes they’d do a walk thru to make sure the library was empty. Sometimes they’d just make an announcement. Either way was fine. He’d leave or not leave as he pleased. Rita is busy with her Dad and he didn’t have to be over to the Porter’s until Friday night dinner. Page one. Table of Contents. What did Benny Abrams want him to find? It had gotten to be a television cliché. Follow the money. There is a freaking lot of money. Which money and where? Fuck. This could take years. Page two. More Table of Contents. You could hide a semi of needles in this haystack. Page three. Table of contents. "I need their tax return. How do I get my hands on their tax return. Wait a second. Wait a second right now." Ricky sees something familiar and the flags go up. Sure there is a lot of legit reasons but it was awful convenient for hiding things too. "Caymen Islands. Tell me more tell me more. I think it’s love at first sight."

Ricky flips to the chapter on offshore accounting. It might not be where the money is hidden but it’s a start.

"So how was the movie?" Cookie asks as the girls and her hubby comes into the house and take up seats around the eat-in kitchenette. It’s a little late for dinner and the girls had to be in bed soon since it’s a school night but she doesn’t trust that they hadn’t loaded up on junk food. Need a little real food to dilute the garbage and do a little housekeeping on the fridge at the same time. She starts putting out the fixings for soft tacos onto the table.

"It was great!" Mei enthuses. "Grandmother is more into black and whites that star Raymond Burr."

"Raymond Burr?" Cookie asks curiously taking her seat at the table.

"Perry Mason." Rita is familiar with Mei’s grandmother’s addiction. She starts the containers of warm tortillas around the table.

"He also played Ironsides." The Judge nods. Catching his wife’s glance he adds more veggies to the monster taco he is creating.

"But she really liked him in Rear Window." Mei says. "Even though he was the bad guy. She likes Perry Mason but because of Raymond Burr she branched out to Hitchcock too. But I have to translate everything for her." Mei glances at the clock. Grandmother would have been in Hawaii for a whole day now.

"She hasn’t called." Cookie sees the glance. "But I tell you what. If I were walking in her shoes I’d probably spend the first day at the hospital and think of everything else after. She knows you’re fine."

Mei nods seriously. "I think so too. Grandmother will call this weekend... when the rates are lower and I don’t have school the next day." Then she looks from The Judge to Cookie. "And she’ll probably have Mr. Jerry call Father Frank first to check on my math test grade."

"I knew I liked your Grandmother." The Judge smiles at Cookie. "That sounds like something you’d do, Hon."

"Speaking of that..."

"I talked to Ricky today, Johnny too. Johnny doesn’t think it’s a good idea to get Benny Abrams involved."

"That’s fine. I talked to Mr. Q. He’ll be stepping up. Ricky can’t find a way to keep himself busy then Edward will.