When Cassadines Fall ~ The Detour

It’s just going to be one of those days. Jerry knows it-- might as well get used to it; it just is. Not that he had ever worked an office job but it would probably be like coming back to work after a three day weekend. The workload isn’t any less it’s just divided by four days instead of five. Multiply that by every day that he and Bobbie had been gone. He and Bobbie were doing the exact same things in their own way. After Lucas was off to school, Bobbie headed to the hospital to catch up on anything she might have missed there. And here he is at the property above the Deception Spa. The stables office is the closest thing he has to an office. Catching up on all his phone calls and emails. He’d put it off as long as he could. Back when he’d been working at J&J, the computer work had fallen to Jax and good riddance. He and John had been more into field operations.
After cleaning out the stables and putting out fresh bedding and feed for the horses, putting on the kettle for tea and only after finding nothing else to do, does Jerry turn on the computer. Emails first and then start surfing his favorites to find out if there has been any nibbles to the bait he’d left out there. “Really need to get Carly to be doing this.” Jerry mutters as he starts deleting the spam that had built up since last he checked.

“Get Carly to do what?” Carly asks from the doorway. Michael is running around somewhere but would be in the office as soon as he realized that his beloved grandpop is there. The kettle whistles and Carly goes over to the hotplate and sets the tea to steeping.

“You’re up early.” Jerry says with a sigh. He blocks a whole section of emails and deletes them. Spam.

“You’re ducking me.” Carly retorts and then repeats. “Get Carly to do what?”

“The computer work so I won’t come back to a mountain whenever I go out of town.”

“I’ve kept up with my stuff.” Carly shrugs with no sympathy whatsoever. She can’t imagine going a day without checking email let alone two weeks-- even AJ knew better than that and he’s awful with computers. “Doing pretty well this quarter. Michael’s investments are doing very well. Oh! You need to talk to Ricky Robideau.”

“I talked to him last night at the Chows.” Jerry says absently as he scans thru another email committing what he needs to memory before deleting it.

“No, you need to talk to him. Rita says he found out something about Enron. He blamed that for missing one of her games. If there is something wrong there, I really need to know. They’ve got fingers in some of the stuff I’m into.” Carly brings Jerry a mug of tea. She takes a seat on the couch with her own mug and takes the first sip. This is her caffeine for the day and she really has to savor it.

“They’ve got their fingers in lots of things.” Jerry frowns. He does a quick search on Enron on the computer. What could Ricky have found? The company is running about $80 a share that’s down a little bit from where they were at the end of 2000 but that had been a bang up year where they’d doubled their estimates. Considering the energy crunch going on in California should be just fine. “I’ll talk to him at the basketball game.” Jerry makes a mental note and then goes back to dumping email.

“Are we going to talk about Lucas?”

“Why? You already handled it.”

“That’s IT?! That’s all you have to say?! Jerry!”

“Thank you for taking care of Lucas while your mum and I were out of town. We had a great time and knew he was in good hands. He came back with no scars, marks or tattoos. Your job is done.”

“This is not funny!”

“Carly, I’m not going to lock the boy in the cellar because he did the right thing the wrong way. You handled it. It’s done. Your mum and I already talked about it in Seattle on the layover when we found out what happened.”

“What do you mean when you found out what happened? Who told you?” Carly asks suspiciously.

“There were messages from everyone but...” Jerry decides on the fly to not mention his mother. “...Taggart filled us in on the situation. Lucas screwed up. The principal is an idiot for even thinking of getting childrens services involved in the situation. You handled things on the mark and thank you very much.”

“Your mother...”

Jerry interrupts. “I’ll be talking to her at lunch.”

Carly huffs. “Okay. Well then fine.”

“Now can we get down to business?” Jerry practically pleads. “The last thing I want to be doing is emails all frigging day.”

“Grandpop!” Michael hollers from the door. He slams it to keep the cold air out and runs toward Jerry.

“So much for getting down to business.” Carly snickers but decides to give her stepfather a break. She sets her tea on the coffee table and leverages herself out of the couch. “Come on, Michael. Grandpop has to work on the computer. Lets go see Thunder, Mr. Man.” When that doesn’t appear to be working and Michael starts with the pout lip, Carly goes for the big guns. “I think you can probably ride him today. If you’re a good boy.”

“I’m a good boy!” Michael declares.

Carly holds out her hand. “Then lets go see him.”

Down on Mariners row, the neighborhood is on the move. Students head off to school. Office workers climb into their cars with their travel mugs of coffee in hand. In the Victorian that has been converted to apartments, Crazy Larry is the first one up and out bundled up and with Cinnamon by his side he walks toward the river and Maddy’s coffee kiosk on the docks. Mei’s grandmother is on the phone to Mei while Yuen tries to make breakfast. It’s slow going. While there is plenty of food in the apartment everything is unfamiliar from the location of specific food items to the appliances.

“What did he want?” Grandmother demands.

“He says he has a new job and wants you to do the curtains, and cushions too I think. He called a couple of days ago and left a message. Maddy told him you were out of town with Uncle Harry. He’s going to try to get hold of you today.”

“I will call him.” Grandmother nods. “What else?”

“I’ll stop by the apartment after school and pick up all the mail to drop off when Ricky brings us by. Do you need anything from the apartment?”

Grandmother has her mental list ready and gives it to Mei. Only once she can’t remember any more things does she give her granddaughter a final admonishment. “You be a good girl at school and study hard.”

“I will. Bye Grandmother.”

After she says goodbye and hangs up, Mei’s grandmother is already on the phone calling Partner to see why he had been tracking her down. He’s turned into one of her best customers ever since she’d completed the curtains for Nikolas Cassadine’s house.

“Oh Thank GAWD you’re back.” Partner’s relieved to find out who is calling him. Even though the Chinese woman’s English isn’t all that great or maybe because of it he puts emphasis on the words that he wants to convey. “I have a rush job that I NEED you on. I can be at your apartment with the details in an hour.”

“Not at my house. I not there.” Grandmother counters. “Be at my brother’s corner store in hour.” She hangs up the phone and then rubs her phone ear. She might not speak English all that well but she isn’t deaf.

“What was that?” Yuen asks. It might be considered curiosity but there is a distance in her tone as if she is not quite connecting.

“I have a job. He’s always in a hurry. Needs yesterday.” Grandmother rolls her eyes. “I told him we’d meet him down at the store. That way we’re not waiting for him because he is always late. Start doing something and....” She makes a fluttering motion with her hand. “Rush rush rush. Wait wait wait. I’ll watch this if you want to go check on Harry.” As soon as her sister-in-law is out of the kitchen, she checks on everything that Yuen had tried to put together and makes sure that nothing is left off or out.

Down the street, Lesley Weber is out power walking finally able to get both of her arms into the stride to get the full effect. Course it doesn’t count as aerobic activity when she runs into Louise who stops to congratulate her on the missing cast.

“You’re out of your cast! That’s great!” Louise calls out as she walks up to the sidewalk.

“You’re telling me.” Lesley marches in place for a little while but then gives up with a sigh she can tell by Louise’s face that this isn’t going to be a short conversation.

“You’re just out of yours and now we have a new neighbor and poor Mr. Chow’s in a cast. Left hand– just below the elbow to finger tips.”

“Must have taken out the hand itself.” Lesley nods. “If it would have been the wrist the cast would have been above the elbow. He’s got my sympathies.” Lesley nods again. “I’m going to be doing physical therapy for who the hell knows how long to get all my strength back. And that quack of a doctor told me I have to do weight training anyway so I don’t end up with osteoporosis. Yeah, like he’s seen a treadmill in the last decade. Family history of heart problems you’d think he’d be minding his own backyard before starting in on mine.”

“Who is your doctor?!” Louise is fascinated by the flow of information that is coming from Nikolas’ grandmother.

“Alan Quartermaine. He works at the Elm St. Clinic where I volunteer.” Lesley shrugs. “I’ve known him forever. Even dated him way back when his wife was cheating on him with my husband. Never really was much of a swinger but things were different back in the seventies.”

Louise’s eyes get really big at that. She’d had few conversations with Lesley really but enough for Nikolas to have to explain that his grandmother had been in a *state* for the longest time and when she came out of if she came out blunt. That’s what Nikolas had said. Course it ended up being blunt to the point of Tourettes sometimes. There isn’t much Dr. Weber wouldn’t say. “Really?” Louise decides to change the subject although it would definitely be interesting to hear more about the Quartermaines. “I ran into Nikolas and Leiney last night while they were out walking Mir. That is a big dog.”

“Why do you keep calling her Leiney?! Her name is Madeliene and everyone calls her Maddy. Leiney is the name of a stupid character on a soap opera.” Lesley doesn’t slow down but continues on to answer Louise’s comment. “Lulu’s in heaven with that damn dog. Uses it like a damn bear skin rug while she’s watching one of her stories. Driving Lucky nuts because the fencing guys have been showing up every morning to put in the new security stuff. They have to practically use a jackhammer to dig the holes for the new gate– ground is still frozen solid. He isn’t getting any sleep. We’re just fortunate there are no bell towers around and that he doesn’t own a high powered rifle cause I think he’s going to lose it. Lack of sleep will make a person psychotic.”

“Um... postal.” Louise inserts carefully. When Lesley gives her a blank look she explains. “They call it going postal now. Because there was so much trouble with the post office employees snapping and doing crazy things.”

“Well Hell. Maybe it’s a good thing that the mail man is refusing to deliver the mail to the house anymore because of Mir. Don’t have to worry about that.” Lesley nods. She knows that Louise will keep talking for as long as she stands there so she starts walking away.

Louise opens her mouth to try to explain that the guys that had gone postal had done it at their post offices. You were safer to have your mail delivered but decides there is no point in it since everyone at Wyndemere Lite had already lost their mail service. It would just be mean.

“Hey.” Maddy sneaks up on Nikolas and gives him a quick hug and kiss.

“You’re cold.”

“You’re not.” Maddy grins up at him.

“Ah so you’re not actually happy to see me, you’re just using me for my body heat.”

“Bingo.” Maddy lies cheerfully and cuddles in closer and enjoys Nik rubbing his hands up her back.

“You finish your rounds?”

Maddy nods. “Everything is set up for the day. Just need to go over the logs and return all my calls. Anyone calling me now is going to get charged big time.”

“Oh?” Nik asks her blankly.

Maddy laughs at him. “Oh you’re kidding. Your girlfriend is going to chew you a new one. Valentine’s day? Next Wednesday? Flowers, chocolate, candles– heavy emphasis on the chocolate. It’s one of my busiest days of the year. Mostly phone calls because I contract out most of it. Only a few of the requests really need a specialist– tickets, jewelry or reservations.”

“I need to get going.” Nik says abruptly. “I’ll see you at home later.”

“Niknik?” Maddy calls out as Nik is almost at the door.

“Yes?”

“You’re on your own but I’ll only charge Lucky double if he still needs to get something for Elizabeth.”

“You’re all heart, Maddy. I’ll let him know.” Once out in the Jag, Nikolas pulls out his cell phone. There is still a week to go really. Valentines is next Wednesday. And it isn’t Maddy or even Lucky that has him concerned. “Uncle? It’s Nikolas. Did you know that next Wednesday is Valentine’s day?”

There is silence on the other end of the line.

“I just thought you might want to know for Dr. Ryan.”

“You are on your way to the hospital?” Stefan asks changing the subject.

“I should be there in about 15 minutes.”

“Good.” Stefan hangs up the phone.

“He didn’t remember either.” Nik mutters feeling a little bit better. “I did know about this.” It’s just that he’d been so busy doing things that he forgot the date on the calendar. “Guess that is what keeps Maddy in business.”

Maddy watches Nikolas from the picture window at the front of the store. First while he is making the phone call and then as the jag pulls out. “That was just mean, Reynolds.” She shakes her head. “After everything he’s done putting a fence up for you.” Maddy leans over and gives Mir a pat on the head. Since Mir wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t either handed to him by her or put in his dish at home there are no worries about having him in the store. Course the only thing that is ready to put up are tins and other things with long shelf life.
The perishables wouldn’t be delivered until there is a firmer open date. Now there just needed to be someone here to take deliveries and put things away. Well that and go thru the coffee kiosks logs and make calls. Maddy walks back into the office. Might as well be comfortable. Mir follows after her and finds a corner to curl up in. Even curled he takes up half the space. But at least this way he isn’t visible from the front door. The delivery guys are more than a little leery of Mir. As long as he stayed behind the counter and she stayed behind the counter with him and the delivery guys didn’t come behind the counter– well then everything worked out fine.

“Maddy, you here?” An elderly oriental voice calls out from the front door.

Maddy drops what she is doing on the desk and comes out behind the counter. “Grandmother! I heard you were back.”

“Last night. You no come by.” There is a clear rebuke in the comment.

“Too many people already. Besides I had Mir with me.” Maddy points to the floor by her side.

Grandmother comes over and looks over the swinging door that divides the space behind the counter with the rest of the store. Her eyes get wide and she takes two steps back. “Mir?”

The dog sweeps the floor with his tail.

“Eat more than he’s worth.” Grandmother grumbles but she doesn’t come any closer. She hears the sound of a throat being cleared behind her and flushes in embarrassment. “This is my brother, Harry, and his wife, Yuen.” She finishes the introduction in Chinese. “This is Maddy.”

Harry takes the lead. “We are very pleased to meet you and thank you for all of your help. Your father has been most kind.”

Maddy blinks at that. Father? Oh Jerry. Is it worth it to try to explain? Is it any of their business? “It’s good to meet you two finally, Brother Harry, Mrs. Chow. I’ve heard so much about you from your sister and Mei. Let me show around the store.” Maddy comes out from behind the counter but tells Mir to stay. And he will-- unless someone else comes in the store. Maddy looks at Mir and shakes her head ruefully. She goes over to the front door and locks it. Just have to keep an eye out for any delivery guys. “I’ll try to answer any questions you might have. And what we can’t translate back and forth I’m sure that... Mei will help out if you just write the questions down.”

“Who owns this store? Who will be our employers?” Harry asks as he looks around. This little market bares little resemblance to his store back in China. Everything is new and shiny but also barren. There is no character.

That’s another question that has Maddy blinking and she is a little slow in answering. “I was commissioned by Jason Morgan to find the store and get it ready so technically-- he does.” Or he will as soon as I get the final check from him for everything put into it so far. “I know he did it specifically for you. You’ll have to negotiate with him how the transfer of ownership happens. But it’s my understanding this is your store.”

“Who is Jason Morgan?” Harry asks next. While he is asking questions Yuen is wandering down the aisles of the small store examining the boxes blocking the aisles next to empty spaces on the shelves. Each box is labeled with Chinese characters and has a price on it. She opens up one of the boxes labeled corn and examines a can with a picture of corn on it. She picks up a pricing gun and examines it.

Maddy walks over to Yuen and takes the pricing gun. She runs a finger over the price written in Sharpie marker on the top of the box and shows Yuen how to adjust the pricing gun. Then she slaps the pricing gun against the top of one of the cans and puts the newly priced tin on the shelf right above where the box is in the aisle. Maddy hands the pricing gun back to Yuen. “If you have questions about Jason Morgan you should really be asking Father Frank.”

Just then there is a knock on the door and Mir starts barking. Maddy walks to the front of the store to see Partner standing there with his portfolio under his arm. “Grandmother, I think it’s for you. Hush Mir!” Maddy unlocks the door and lets Partner in.

“Where is she?!” Partner demands without so much as a howdy do. The questions about Jason would just have to wait.

“Hello Lady Jane.” Jerry leans over and gives his mother a kiss on the cheek. They are having lunch at the Port Charles Grille. Porter’s would have better food but the PC Hotel is actually more convenient for their next appointments and anything said here would be less likely to make it’s way back to Maddy.

“Jerry!” Lady Jane tilts her head so that her cheek is better exposed to Jerry’s kiss and hug. She studies her eldest carefully. He’s tanned and relaxed. Marriage to Barbara is definitely agreeing with him. “I can tell you had a lovely time in Hawaii.”

“Two weeks of peace and quiet and then I turned my cell phone back on.” Jerry takes a seat across from his mother. “What did Jax do now?”

“Now Jerry....” Lady Jane jumps to the defense of her youngest.

“Mum, there is no way in hell Jasper would be flying Stefan Cassadine overseas. So what is going on?”

“As far as I know...” When Lady Jane starts her sentence like that Jerry is already wincing. “...all Jax had planned was a trip to Monaco with V. They ran into Cassadine and Dr. Ryan at the airport. Dr. Ryan was the one who told V that they were grounded with mechanical difficulties.”

“Mechanical difficulties.” Jerry snorts at that one. “Right.”

“V and Dr. Ryan compared notes and decided that they could all fly to Europe together.”

“Lady Jane, you do realize how ridiculous this sounds?! Both Caroline and Lucas can take a plane apart and put it back together. They would already know how to manufacture Mechanical Difficulties and they haven’t even finished ground school yet! Neither of them would have any interest in tampering with the Cassadine plane, Jax on the other hand....”

“Jerry, there is what I know and then what I know.” Lady Jane says firmly then changes the subject. “And what I want to talk about is this devil dog Stefan Cassadine gave Madeliene. Oh never mind it will just ruin our lunch. I’ll talk to Maddy tonight about it myself.”

“Excuse me?”

“Lady’s night at Luke’s.” Lady Jane shrugs. “We have to have something to do while you boys are at your basketball game.”

After school, Mei sets the pricing gun carefully and then starts marking tins of beef stew before moving on to the corn beef hash. Maddy had found another pricing gun so it’s her and Auntie Yuen making short work of these boxes. The shelves are already starting to look better; the place is actually beginning to look like a store. Uncle Harry had left with Maddy to do market research– literally. They were going to be going to every grocery store and convenience mart around. Then make a swing thru Chinatown in case he needed anything for the apartment. Grandmother had left with Partner to pick the fabric that would be needed for the rush job. “Ricky would have stuck around longer but he had to get Rita home so she could get ready for her basketball game.”

Yuen doesn’t seem to be listening.

“It’s a good thing that Ricky is friends with the Judge Porter’s family. He’s all alone here in Port Charles. His father lives down in New Orleans and his mother is...” Mei shrugs. She’d never quite been able to figure out exactly where Ricky’s mother is. “The only way he gets a home cooked meal is if Judge Porter’s wife makes him something otherwise it’s this.” Rita holds up a can of the beef stew she is about to put on the shelf.

Yuen doesn’t seem to be listening.

“And that’s even if he remembers to eat. He’s very smart and going to the university. When he gets involved in a problem, Ricky forgets everything. To go to school, to eat, to take a shower. Last time it was three days. The only thing that brought him out of it was Maddy needed a key to your apartment to move some things in. She thought he was going crazy but it’s more crazy genius than crazy crazy.”

Yuen flattens the box she has finished and opens up another one. She adjusts the pricing gun carefully and starts putting up cans of tuna fish.

Mei sighs. This isn’t going to be easy.

The Queen of Angels Girl’s Basketball team have the early games. The guy’s team gets the later games. It’s kinda embarrassing in a way when half the crowd clears out after the Girl’s game is over. Sure there had been a few comments on how the girls should play in the guy’s league. But it isn’t that so much as all the girl’s teams are competitive and the boys teams aren’t. Queen of Angel’s boys team suck. Not even divine intervention could help them with Port Charles Prep. Well maybe divine intervention but that is about it.

Jerry walks up the stands to where Ricky and Edward Quartermaine are sitting waiting for Rita to get out of the showers so they can go to Porter’s for post game dessert. He takes a seat next to Ricky. “So I hear you have something on Enron?” He keeps his voice low.

Edward still hears him and stiffens. He looks around to see if anyone is listening and then he leans toward Jerry to hiss. “If everyone finds out about this we might as well take it to the SEC!”

Ricky starts to explain. “Cookie got this idea that I’m bored at school.”

“Are you?”

“No, I’m having fun. There is a difference.” Ricky defends himself. Okay so he picked classes that for the most part it didn’t matter if he was out dancing until the bars closed. But social is part of college. “So Cookie talks to Mr. Q here. And the Judge has a word with Johnny.”

“Why Johnny?”

“Benny Abrams.”

“The JUDGE was interested in Benny Abrams?!” Sonny and Jason would be climbing the walls.

“Yeah, yeah, Johnny kinda straightened him out on that. But I get this package dropped off for me at one of Maddy’s kiosks. It’s the Enron books.”

“And it wasn’t from me.” Edward interjects just to be clear although he wouldn’t mind having someone at ELQ that could get their hands on the books of potential takeover opportunities.

“So I figure Benny wouldn’t be giving me the books if there wasn’t something to find. So I went looking.”

“Looking where?”

“Well I started with the offshore accounts.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Jerry agrees. Go with what you know.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg, man. Tip of the f’ing iceberg.” Ricky nods. “It’s so bad I got bored with it. Once I figured out what I was looking for with the offshore stuff I started seeing it over and over again in other divisions. And comparing it to what they are telling their stockholders? To the IRS? That company is more inflated than a parade balloon and it’s going to be ugly when it goes.”

“You think they’re going to find out about it?”

“Depends on who you mean by they.” Ricky shrugs.

“They’ve ticked off a lot of people with the fast and loose they’ve been playing with the California energy. It’s affected the economy for the whole west coast. Even the tree huggers are getting into it because they use of the hydropower. They’ve been using that to supplement and it’s messing up the fish runs.” Edward interjects. He’d been doing his own research since Ricky told him what was going on. “Politicians getting involved. Consumers with electric bills higher than their mortgage. It’ll take awhile but...” Edward nods.

“Sounds like time to buy.”

“Excuse me? Sounds like time to sell.” Ricky counters.

“No, Jerry is right.” Edward would normally never admit Jerry being right about anything but this is a teaching tool for young Robideau. “You can make just as much money in a company circling the drain as you can one on the up and up. You just have to know how to do it.”

Jerry reminds wryly. “Yeah, that’s why they have rules against insider trading. Because it involves getting all you can and then leaving someone else holding the bag.”

“We get the gold; they get the shaft?” Ricky goes for the other analogy.

“Pretty much.” Jerry agrees. “Are you in?”

Ricky looks from Jerry to Edward. “What do you want me to do?”

“Prove that company is more crooked than their logo without the information that Benny gave you. Cause if we make as much money as I think we’re going to then the feds are going to be crawling up our asses with microscopes wanting to know how. We have to prove that all the info is out there; we’re just the ones that put the dots together.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Well then we’ll still make money.” Edward laughs. “Just not quite as much.”

Meanwhile over at Luke’s at the Lady’s Night.

“So this young punk at the brokerage keeps wanting me to short stock.” Mrs. Levitz puts out her next play at the mahjongg table. “That’s my nest egg. I lose that and I’m living on my social security! You started betting that a stock will go down and then it goes up– it’ll be cat food and hot water instead of tuna and tea! Give me some nice mutual funds, a few stocks that pay dividends, a couple of bonds. Little here a little there. I guess you could say I don’t put my nest egg all in one basket!”

“I think you need to get online.” Elizabeth suggests as she carefully picks which tile she is going to play. She isn’t as green as she was last week. Maybe in a few weeks she’s actually be ready to put money on the game. “When Lucky got all that money from the old stocks, oh he was furious because it is a hassle to take care of that much money. I mean if Lucky wanted responsibility he’d get another dog. He wants to be able to pick up and go. And people telling him what to do?” Elizabeth shakes her head. “Not in his nature. One too many calls from those Swiss bankers that take care of the Cassadine Money and Lucky was ready to just figure it out himself. Online the fees aren’t so high. The trades are quicker and you can set it up that you’re only getting advice when you’re asking for it.”

“Computers?” One of the other old ladies from the courthouse days protests. “I don’t know about that. My grandchildren keep trying to get me to get a computer. I want to know is it just that much bother to pick up a phone?!”

“Oh I don’t know.” The fourth at the table puts out her tile. “I found a lovely site on the computer.” She pauses and leans in to convey her excitement. “Ebay. Those people are crazy! I go to garage sales all summer and then sell it off all winter long. I picked up a vase for two dollars at a garage sale. Waterford. Bidding War. I gave myself the works up at the Deception Spa. It was worth every penny. I was a new woman for the new year.”

Emily happens to be up because she is putting more music on the juke box and has heard the last few comments. She comes over to the table. “Did you know that Ebay is traded on the Nasdaq? The stock has already split twice since it was initially offered a few years ago. My grandmother says that you should always follow your passion.”

“Really. Well isn’t that interesting.” Maybe I’ll just bank a few auctions and buy some stock!

Maddy joins Emily over at the Juke Box. “Maybe we should be adding some informal classes to ladies night?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Computers for the seriously phobic.”

“Or one of those investment clubs?” Emily shrugs. “If we pooled the brain power in this room...”

“I like it. Lets float the idea with the ladies and see what they have to say.” Maddy agrees.