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When Cassadines Fall ~ The Detour
"Good Morning!" Maddy announces cheerfully as she walks into the corner store to be.
"You’re in a good mood." Nik gives her a kiss and breathes a little easier when Maddy doesn’t pull away. Maybe whatever had been bothering her had worked itself out?. "I guess I didn’t screw anything up too badly last night when I did the rounds. How was your Ladies Night out?"
"Great. Although I’m sure Luke wouldn’t agree." Maddy snaps her fingers. "He showed up like that when Mrs Levi brought out her knitting."
"Knitting at Lukes." Nik snickers. It isn’t really in the Cassadine nature to snicker but some images are too much to resist. "He’s more used to drive by shootings."
"I think it’s going to end up being a regular thing. Thursday nights in the back room at Luke’s. Granny Sophia is going to love it when she comes to visit. The ladies loved the Juke Box. It’s Emily regular night off from Deception. She ended up bringing Miz Lila and Jane Jacks."
Nikolas stiffens. "How did that go?"
"Well she wasn’t hounding me like she did following me around the kiosks. She kept things... civil. Jerry is in Hawaii with the Chows of course and evidently Jax flew off to Europe. She was over visiting Miz Lila when Em received the call."
"Oh really." Nik hasn’t talked to his uncle since he’d flown off to Poland but he knew something was off since he’d been updated on the maintenance, security issues with the planes. "I guess that is a step in the right direction."
"Lucas is probably taking the heat off of Carly and me. He goes over to their house everyday and shovels the walk when he takes care of the brownstone."
"How do you know that."
"Jane said." Maddy refills her travel mug and grabs the journal on the project. She touches base with everything that has gotten done and everything that is supposed to happen today. They are doing great where the inspections are concerned. Getting a liquor permit is going to be a bitch considering the Chows aren’t even in country. That is going to have to wait until they arrive and get situated.
"Hello?" There is a heavily accented hesitant voice at the door.
Maddy recognizes the small woman in a quick second. "Bonjour, Li."
"Jason says I should... check things here and apartment?"
"Li, this is Nikolas Cassadine. Nikolas, this is Li Chow."
"Bonjour." Nik keeps his hand at Maddy’s waist. He is very careful to give nonverbal clues that he is with Maddy and is no physical threat to Li. Part of being the volunteer Coordinator at General Hospital is that while he didn’t personally do it, he had gone thru the training regarding physical and sexual abuse. General Hospital provided advocates for women and children in urgent situations until someone from Ward House or the DA’s office arrived in a more official capacity. "I think that your Aunt has the only key to the apartment."
"Yeah, right." Maddy snorts. "Ricky, the neighbor across the hall from your parents place, will have a key and I’m sure he’ll be happy to make you one if you need it."
Li looks from Maddy to Nikolas. That had gone by a little fast. Nik does a quick and dirty translation. "Okay. What do you need from me here?"
"Lets show you what we’ve done. You’ve actually come at the perfect time. The mechanical stuff is in so now it’s going to be about picking colors and personalizing it so that it will work for your parents." Maddy takes the lead and goes thru everything step by step making sure she is touching whatever she is talking about. Nikolas throws a word in edgewise as needed.
Li just takes everything in until they get to the checkout counter. And then she starts shaking her head. "No work."
"Why? What do you mean." Maddy asks.
Li goes behind the counter and pantomimes as if working the register as she’s seen her friends down at the grocery do. She can hit the keys easy enough but Li can’t see the total unless she is standing on her tiptoes "Mama shorter than me."
Maddy’s jaw drops. "You’re kidding?! Your dad runs the register though right?"
Li shakes her head. "Always Mama. Father buy/sell. Mama take money." Li looks around and sees the same book as Jason had used when she got her bank picture. She grabs the phone book and throws it on the floor by the register. Then when she steps back on it she still has to stand a little straighter to see the total but she isn’t on tiptoe. "See."
"Three inches."
"Four would be better." Nik counters.
"Does your mama work the cases too?" Maddy points back to the newly installed and absolutely perfect meat case in the back of the store.
"Is okay. Is okay." Li says reassuringly. "Except for... balance?" She looks at Nikolas for the translation.
"The scale. Same problem. Wouldn’t be able to read it if it is on top of the case." Nik explains.
"Scale. Yes, scale." Li nods her agreement.
"Oh man. Easy enough to fix. Just touch base with Larry and see if it would be easier to put in a... running board or maybe lower the register?" Maddy looks from Li to Nikolas.
Maddy had harped on security so much in previous conversations about the store that Nik answers, "It might actually be better to recess the register into the counter. It’s mounted onto the counter but I think it would be more difficult to access if it was in the counter."
Maddy nods. "That’ll work. Have to figure out something for the scale. The customer has to see it or that is just not going to play." She sighs. "Okay. Lets talk paint chips. I’ve got the drawings back in the office."
"Elizabeth said you were here when I called." Luke walks into the motorcycle shop that is just down the street from his club.
Lucky looks at the clock. "You’re up early." He closes up the program he is working on. "What’s up?"
"Do you know what your girlfriend did?!"
"Told you where I was working?" Lucky rolls his eyes and goes over to the coffee pot. He holds up a mug and the pot in a nonverbal offer.
Luke nods. Taking the cup after it’s poured, "Knitting. Lucky. Knitting. In a BLUES club." Lucky has his back to his father putting the coffee pot back. Luke doesn’t see his sympathetic wince. "They’re talking about making it a weekly thing, Lucky. Jane Jacks called this morning to rent the back room next Thursday! My back room."
Lucky turns back around. "You want me to arrange for Taggart to make a raid?"
"Bite your tongue. It’s bad enough that Caroline has baldy on speeddial. That girl has always been a disappointment."
"Saying stuff like that, Dad, is the reason why you spend major holidays with Jerry Jacks now." Luke winces. Lucky pauses long enough to let that set in before continuing. "I did talk to Elizabeth this morning before she took Grandmother to the clinic. She said they had a great time. That the ladies really know how to party."
"Knitting, Lucky."
"Martinis, Cosmos, Highballs. Every song on the jukebox in back. Gambling. Thursdays are dead." Lucky hits all the high points that Elizabeth had shared with him.
"And your sister had a really good time. Damn. This is not what I had in mind when I envisioned a Ladies Night." Luke sighs.
"I know, Dad. I know." Lucky commiserates. "But at least this way you don’t have to have Fabio wannabes stripping to bring the Ladies in." Lucky gets serious. "How is Lulu doing?"
"She kicked me out of my own back room." Luke says proudly. "Ran the room: snacks to drinks kept them all happy. I’m going to have to put her on the payroll. One thing about having the Old Broads- they all want to be home by seven in time for Jeopardy. So LesleyLu wasn’t even out late enough for your mother to complain about."
"Mom was complaining about Lulu being out late?" Lucky looks down at the computer and doesn’t meet his father’s eyes. He doesn’t want Luke to see the hope in his eyes.
"Your mother would complain about any kid being out late on a school night. You know that, Cowboy. You remember the ration she gave both of us before finally giving in about going to see BB King on a school night?"
Lucky grins. "Yeah. But that was a great concert."
"The best, Cowboy. The best." Then Luke grimaces as he gets back to the here and now. "Son, being at home is... work for your sister. Don’t get me wrong. She loves her mother."
"I know that!"
"But Lulu gets it now. Laura doesn’t know her." Luke adds quickly. "They get along alright. You’ve seen that yourself when you and Vlad jr come by to drop the Princess off."
"Say the word, Dad and she’ll be living with Grandma. Wouldn’t be the first time..." Mom dropped Lulu on Grandma to go off and do her own thing.
Luke gives Lucky a corrective gaze and sharply rebukes what Lucky hadn’t said. "Your mother doesn’t remember doing that either. Or running off to Switzerland or Timbucktoo to get away from SteFAWN’s blackmail. We’re the ones that remember... not Laura."
"Fine, we’ll continue as it goes now. Lulu stays with us on Saturday. Ladies Night on Thursday. But crap memory or not, Dad, Mom is an adult. She can remember back to being an adult. Lulu is a little kid."
Lulu is the only third grader sitting with the sixth graders at lunch. It’s a sign of Lucas’ status as a PC Elementary- BMOC. She’s tolerated as mascot but even some of the older kids had figured the way that Lulu could fill in the missing details on whatever plan they had going.
Lulu’s lunch is a perfectly balanced meal packed by Laura. Lucas’ is a quickly but carefully crafted collection picked up at the grocery store on the way to school. It hadn’t been a good morning for Carly. And AJ just didn’t have it in the cooking or lunch packing department. But between the two meals they manage to pool something edible for the both of them. They have their heads together to talk about what had happened the night before.
"So all the ladies were playing mahjongg. It looked kinda like dominos but they were playing for money lots of money- not just change but dollars too. And I was helping Mrs Quartermaine play cause her hands don’t work so good. Elizabeth brought her friends from the police station. And Emily didn’t just bring Mrs Quartermaine she brought Mrs Jacks too."
Lucas wants to make sure that it is perfectly clear. "And Maddy was there. She didn’t get mad and leave."
"They were talking and everything." Thanks to her time at Wyndemere Lite, Lulu is up on all the extended family politics even if she didn’t have a clue as to the whys and wherefores.
"That’s good. That’s really good." Lucas leans in. "Carly thinks AJ is picking me up. And AJ thinks Carly is picking me up. I’ll be able walk home. Then go over and see Lady Jane and shovel her walk for her. Her husband can’t do it because of his heart."
"Mrs Jacks said both of her sons are out of town and her husband is down in the City on business."
"She’s all by herself!" Lucas is now ticked. And he knew that Jerry was going to be mad too just as soon as he called him. Lady Jane hadn’t said anything the last time he was over.
Lulu nods. "I think that’s why Maddy didn’t get mad. Where are you going?!" Lulu demands as Lucas stands up and starts packing his bookbag.
"I’m the boss when Jerry isn’t here. I’m going to take care of Lady Jane right now."
"Okay." Lulu starts packing up her stuff too.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"Going with you."
Sure enough Ricky had a key to the Chows’ apartment. The boy is nothing if not predictable. Maddy looks around the apartment for the first time. Her priorities had been Larry downstairs and the store on the corner. This has been up to Emily and the rest of them. Li is the one that is going thru cupboards in the kitchen and muttering to herself as she takes out a little notebook out of her bag and starts taking notes.
"Now I know she’s definitely been hanging with Carly." Maddy mutters.
Li looks over curiously.
Maddy pantomimes going across the hall.
Li nods and waves. "Jason be here at 2. I fine."
"Okay. Thanks for the help down at the store." Maddy goes across the hall and raps on Ricky’s door.
The door bursts open. "What?!"
"I didn’t want to say anything in front of Li. Not that she would have probably understood although her English is probably way better than when she moved here. But you look gawd awful. Are you sick or something? Do I need to call Poppi? An ambulance?"
"Will you mind your own freaking business for once?!" Ricky snarls. "I’m fine."
"Yeah, right. I can tell. You can either tell me what the HELL is up or I’m going straight from here over to Porters and talk to Johnny’s mother."
"Do you want something to drink?" Ricky walks away from Maddy.
"Whatever." Maddy follows Ricky and takes a look at his apartment for the first time. When she and Li had arrived he’d met them out on the landing and wouldn’t let them in. It has been kind of freaky. When she hits the living room, Maddy stops her in her tracks. "Oh my good gracious, you’ve gone insane." The furnishings had been limited in the living room. One wall-- an entertainment center with the best stereo in town and a really comfortable chair but that was about it. Now it looks as if a tornado has hit it. Except for a dry erase board on the wall?! And it isn’t like the one over at Wyndemere Lite that they used for messages back and forth. This thing looks like it belongs in a classroom. And it is filled with notes.
"I’m not crazy." Ricky hands Maddy a soda. "And if you have stock in Enron get out of that bitch now. They can’t keep that house of cards together forever."
"This is about that package that Benny left you." Maddy realizes. "Have you been working on this the whole time?! Why am I asking? I can tell by your smell this is all you’ve been working on."
Ricky lifts his sweatshirt and takes an experimental sniff and winces. "Fine. Fine. I’m going to hit the showers. Don’t touch any of my stuff. I’ll know."
Maddy walks over closer to the board. "Oh man. This is freaky." She sees the report that Ricky received but this looks nothing like it had just a few days ago. It looks like it has been thru a war. She flips thru the pages. There are sections highlighted. There are penciled notes in the margins. There are little post-a-note flags on certain pages. She’d been with Ricky back in New Orleans long enough to know he would notice if she touched his stuff so she puts it back exactly where she found it and goes on to the next thing. These are copies of other companies filings that are connected with Enron’s offshore dealings. Then she finds something else the size of a book. Enron’s tax filing?
Ricky comes out into the living room dressed only in a towel. "I told you to leave my **** alone. You’re going to mess up my system."
"Isn’t this stuff confidential under federal law or something?" Maddy puts the tax forms down and steps away from the system.
Ricky just gives her a look. Finally he answers. "Yeah, And your point?"
"What in the hell happened?" Maddy asked somewhat bewildered. She’d never seen Ricky like this. Ricky was the guy that didn’t carry books and was too kewl for words. He could be a cold son of a bitch. Colder even than people accused Poppi of being. Even when she wasn’t dating him back in the day, she’d seen him. She couldn’t avoid him between Granny Rosa and Poppi. "Lucky gets like this now and then when he is working on a computer problem. Like when he was trying to find Larkin’s money."
"My Dad handed them Larkin’s money on a silver platter." Ricky reminds.
"Poppi gave it to Alexis, Aunt Dara's attorney. He didn’t give it to Lucky or The Cassadines." Maddy replies. "And I guess Nik was kind of like this when he was working on the house. But he remembered to take a shower- everyday."
"Why are you here?" Ricky is really starting to get annoyed.
"Do you even know what day it is?" Maddy reads his blank face. "It’s Friday."
"Ah hell." That gets Ricky’s attention. He’d missed Rita’s basketball game yesterday. He is in deep trouble. "Oh man! What time is it?"
"Noonish."
"Oh man." And he’d missed a midterm. Which meant that Cookie was going to be down on his ass like white on rice in about nothing flat. He goes over to his phone. He can barely remember turning the ringer off and just letting the machine get it. There are 15 messages there and a rapidly blinking light.
"Maddy?" Nikolas raps on the door and then just walks in. Li had told him that Maddy had gone across the hall to Robideau’s apartment. "There is a situation." He doesn’t continue as he takes in the disaster area of an apartment. Maddy standing at one end of the room and Robideau standing there in a TOWEL.
"What’s up?" Maddy comes over to Nikolas.
"I just received a call from the school. Lulu is missing."
"Excuse me?! She’s eight. How can she be missing?!" Just then Maddy’s phone rings. She can see from the caller ID that it’s the school. "They must be calling everyone that has ever picked Lulu up from school." Maddy frowns because actually she’s done a lot of things with Lulu but she’d never picked up or dropped the kid off at school. Nik or Elizabeth had always taken care of that when Lulu had been staying with them. "Hello?"
"Ms Reynolds? This is Principal Hayword at Port Charles Elementary. You’re listed as an emergency contact for Lucas Jones."
"What? Since when? Nevermind. What is the emergency?"
"Have you seen Lucas? Perhaps picked him up and taken to him to an appointment without going thru the office?" The Principal asks hopefully.
"No." Maddy’s answer is terse. "Do not be telling me that you lost a twelve year old DIABETIC little boy?!"
Nikolas snatches the phone away from Maddy. "Principal Hayword, this is Nikolas Cassadine. Is there any possibility that Lulu and Lucas might be together?"
"They were seen having lunch together. That was the last time anyone can remember seeing them."
"We’re on our way." Nikolas hangs up the phone and hands it back to Maddy. "I think they’re together. Lucas and Lulu."
"Great. Your Granny, and I don’t mean Granny Lesley, his nutjob father -- both of them with a history of kidnaping. Great. Calling us they should have been calling a cop!" Maddy starts moving toward the door allowing Nikolas to usher her out. She is already hitting the speeddial on her cell phone as she is walking. "Carly? You already get a call? Nik and I are on our way to the school. Lulu is missing too. You already call Marcus? Great. Save me a call."
"Maddy." Ricky calls out to get her attention before she is out the door and down the stairs.
"What?" Maddy looks back over her shoulder and around Nikolas.
"I’ll check the brownstone. See if Lucas headed over there for some reason."
Maddy nods and keeps moving. "Lets take my van. More room than your jag and when we find them there is plenty of food and blankets and things." At Nikolas’ nod and adjustment heading toward Maddy’s van, Maddy tosses him her keys and stays on the phone. Next step is calling all the kiosks and getting her people to keep an eye out for Lucas and Lulu. "Next?"
"Mrs Lansbury. She can spread the word with the Cassadine local network: Reese, the boat pilot and the rest. She can also get us an update on Grandmother." Nikolas keeps his eyes on the road but as they near the elementary school also keeps his eyes moving looking for any sign of his little sister. Maddy makes the call. She is just hanging up when they pull into the driveway for the school. She can tell by the parking lot that Carly is already there, as is Lucky. Lucky’s beater truck is parked right next to Carly’s SUV.
"Next?" Maddy still has the phone out.
"I need to call my Aunt Amy. She’ll be able to find out Tony Jones whereabouts."
Maddy hands the phone over. Amy isn’t someone that she has on speeddial.
"Well hello Lucas, and Lesley Lu isn’t it?" Lady Jane answer the door to the two children. "I wasn’t expecting to see you until later, Lucas."
"Why didn’t you tell me yesterday that Jax and Mr John weren’t around?" Lucas cuts right to the chase. "Jerry is going to be mad. You shouldn’t be staying here all by yourself."
"Lucas, that’s very sweet.... but I’m a grown up. I’m fine." Lady Jane smiles at the very earnest very serious young man.
"You could fall on the stairs or on the front walk since I can’t get the snow off until after school. And you don’t even have one of those alarms like Rita has that call Arrow Security."
‘Maddy has one too. Hers calls the police. She uses it when she is working all alone." Lulu interjects helpfully with a nod.
"Your Grandpa John calls me every morning, Lucas. We talk for an hour while we’re both on the treadmill. It’s just like he’s here." Jane attempts to reassure Lucas.
"I don’t know why you didn’t go with him. Mom went with Jerry. Jerry doesn’t leave Mom or me alone while he’s gone."
Jane can see that Lucas feels he is absolutely right in this situation and isn’t going to be budged. "Aren’t you supposed to be in school?"
"We got out early." Lucas looks at Lulu. "Keep Lady Jane company. I’m going to get the walks cleared." Lucas goes to where the snow shovels are kept. Lady Jane invites Lulu more into the house. Together they watch from the living room window as Lucas starts shoveling the walk and drive way.
"My brother Nikky has a snow blower and the big boys by his house use it to clear off the walks." Lulu announces.
"Really?"
"They do it for money."
"Well Lucas normally does this for hotchocolate. I think I should put the kettle on."
"Okay." Lulu follows Lady Jane into her kitchen.
"I talked to your father this morning about having Ladies Night be a regular Thursday Night thing."
"Daddy doesn’t do mornings." Lulu replies by rote. It’s nothing but truth. Daddy had told her often enough. "You probably talked to Claude. He’s the boss of things when he isn’t fired."
"You called Child Protective Services on me?!" Carly rages. "ON ME!"
"It is standard procedure, Mrs Quartermaine, when a child’s parents are unavailable. We were unable to get hold of Lucas’ mother or his stepfather."
"They are on vacation! In Hawaii. And they didn’t take Lucas because he was SUPPOSED TO BE IN SCHOOL. He wasn’t lost on my watch. He was lost on YOURS. I trusted you with my little brother. Now where the HELL is he?!"
Nik and Maddy can hear Carly from the time they walk into the office despite the closed doors between them and and everyone else.
Lucky sees them walk in and comes out to the office leaving Carly to tear the principal a new one. "Dad actually had his cell phone on for once when the school called about Lulu."
"They’re together." Nik says positively hoping it’s true.
Lucky nods. "Probably. And Dad isn’t too worried right now. Evidently Lulu was running the show last night at Ladies Night and showing off her Spencer. He figures she just went for the ditch."
"She’s eight." Maddy protests. "And Lucas is diabetic."
"I already searched the homerooms. They both have their back packs with them. Which means Lu has running money and Lucas has his kit. I was Lucas’ age when I traveled cross country solo. And Elizabeth wasn’t much older when she ran away from Colorado to come to Port Charles."
"Elizabeth was old enough to drive. So was I!" Maddy’s phone rings interrupting Maddy’s rant before it can get going. "Yeah, he’s right here." Maddy hands the phone over to Nikolas. "It’s Amy Vining."
"Aunt Amy, what did you find out?" Nik listens carefully to his Aunt’s hushed secretive tones. "Has he been out of the hospital for even 20 minutes all day? Okay. Great. That helps a lot. Keep your eyes open." Nik is about to hang up when his aunt has a suggestion. "You can do that? What am I saying? Of course you can. Do it. Oh and Aunt Amy... This is a FAMILY matter." Nikolas uses the key phrase that had been developed between him and his Aunt as a reminder for her to fight her naturally social tendencies and hold all information as confidential. "If you see Aunt Alexis have her call. I left a message for her but she hasn’t called me back yet. She is probably in court. Thank you. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything."
"What did she find out?" Maddy demands.
Nik hands the phone back to Maddy and keeps a hand at her waist while he relays the information to his brother. "Tony Jones has been accounted for all day. Just to be on the safe side Amy has offered to get his call log from the office so we’ll know exactly who he has talked to."
"Go Aunt Amy." Lucky declares with a knowing grin. "Course this means even if she treats it as a Family matter we’ve got figure this out quickly before the dam breaks and she spews this all over the hospital grapevine."
Nik goes over to the principal’s office door and takes a deep breath before entering. There is a slight lull in the conversation as the door opens and he takes advantage of it. He looks straight at Carly and announces. "Dr Jones whereabouts have been accounted for all day at the Hospital and I’m in the process of having his work phone logs pulled."
Carly rubs a hand over her protruding belly and her shoulders slump a little as one of her greatest fears has just been eliminated. Tony had kidnaped Michael when he was a baby. Had threatened to kidnap Lucas. Things had really not gone his way the last time in court. Judge Porter had reemed him good about wasting the court’s time. "Where is Taggart? I want Lt Taggart here now. These idiots called CPS. They should have been calling a cop!"
Luke winces at that. "Settle down, Little Mama."
"You just shut the hell up, Old Man!" Carly snaps back at Luke. "They turned their back on Lucas and he’s GONE!" This is feeding into her worst gut feelings and having Tony off the suspect list only made her feel a little better. There are a lot of psychos out there.
"Carly." Maddy butts in. "Were you up at the stables when you were called?"
"Yes, getting some work done since Michael is with AJ today."
"Any chance that the kids would have gone there? Lucas has the show coming up. Nik has been giving Lulu riding lessons."
"If he did then I’m going to kill him." Carly already has her phone out and makes call to the Vet Student up at the stables, her manager at the Deception Spa at the foot of the property and then just cause she’s thinking about it, to the airport where the plane Jerry had bought the family is hangered. "If he ditched and didn’t tell me about it, I’m going to kill him."
Luke nods at that in perfect understanding. Ditching isn’t that big of deal. Not to a Spencer. Specially if there was something more important to be doing. But not sharing the fun... that was a deal breaker.
Ricky has already gone thru the Brownstone from top to bottom. Really going to have to have a talk to Jerry about those French doors off the family room. Course maybe he should just tell his dad since Jerry always managed to sneak up on him whenever he was visiting down in New Orleans. No sign of Lucas.
"Freeze! Put your hands up. Now turn around slowly." Taggart demands.
Ricky is wincing. He wasn’t going to get in trouble for this but getting caught is always a bitch. "Look I can explain."
"Robideau. Why am I not surprised." Taggart does not put away his firearm or tell Ricky to put his hands down.
"Maddy got a call about Lucas Jones being missing. She’s at the school with Cassadine. I told her I’d check the house to see if he was here."
"And you have a key to this house."
"I didn’t need one. And believe me I’ll be talking to Jerry about that when he gets back. Looks like you had the same idea."
Marcus Taggart shakes his head in disgust. "Yeah." He holsters his weapon. "Put your hands down."
"Maddy was putting all kinds of kidnaping conspiracies together: Cassidy’s grandmother, Lucas’ father."
Taggart grunts in disgust. "Both possibilities."
"Carly losing it?"
Just then Taggart’s cell phone goes off. "Yeah, I’m on my way I was just checking some leads first, Carly. Will you stop doing my job?! Just sit down and sit tight. I’m on my way. And I swear if you call me one more time...." Taggart tries to come up with a suitable threat. "Nevermind. I’m on my way." He hangs up the phone and mutters. "Why oh why couldn’t her husband be with her?!" He looks over at Ricky. "I’ll walk you out."
"Sure." Ricky shrugs easily. He knows that he can get in anytime he likes. "I’ll just do a little drive thru the neighborhood. See if I see anything, you know? I’ve got a couple hours to kill before I pick Rita up from school and have dinner with the Judge." Ricky makes sure he plays up all his legit connections in Port Charles.
"Right." Taggart hears it loud and clear. "Stay out of other people’s houses unless you’re invited, Robideau, or the Judge will be setting your bail." Taggart goes out to his plain brown wrapper detective car and heads over to the elementary school.
Ricky walks a little more slowly. He passes his car parked at the curb and heads out into the middle of the street. There is something off about this street. Something that doesn’t fit. Something in the puzzle is just tweaked. He walks up the street and then stares at one house. Neat and tidy place. Looked an awful lot like Jerry’s place. Freshly shoveled walks. Freaking Freshly Shoveled Walks. "You have got to be kidding me." Ricky plays the long shot and walking up to the front door raps on it.
"May I help you?" Lady Jane asks in her mild Australian accent.
Maybe not such a long shot afterall. Ricky recognizes the accent. "Maybe you can. Is Lucas Jones here?"
"Ricky? Dude, what are you doing here?" Lucas has heard the familiar voice and comes to the door.
"The question is, Dude, what are you doing here?" Ricky already has his cell phone out and is dialing a number. Before he hits enter. "You Lulu?"
The little girl nods.
Ricky looks from one to the other. "Maddy thinks the both of you have been kidnaped and Carly has already called the cops."
"Oh hell!" Lucas makes a run for Lady Jane’s phone and starts dialing frantically. He is in big trouble and he knows it.
"Maddy," Ricky says into the phone. "Got someone who wants to talk to you?"
Lulu takes the phone. "Maddy?" She says in a really small voice.
Lady Jane blanches and automatically defends herself when she realizes what has happened.. "I had no idea! The children said they got out of school early."
"Oh they did. It’s just that school didn’t let out early."