Dance with the Devil: Chapter 13

It was later in the evening when John looked up from his desk. After talking to Manning this morning, they had a better picture of just what had gone down the night of the births. As much as John hated to admit it, Todd wasn’t looking as guilty as the cop had hoped. On top of that, he sensed the man’s sorrow for what he had done. When they had arrived back at the station, Anna had interview both Sonny and Jason again and their stories remained the same as before.


For someone who had suffered severe brain injuries in the past, Jason’s memories of the night of Sam’s baby’s birth was remarkably clear. This, coupled with the ability to pinpoint a call Jason had made after leaving John at the motel and but before finding Sam at the shack had led them to see a twenty minute time elapse from when Todd had left the shed with Tea to when Jason had arrived to find Sam.


It sounded far-fetched to John, but the threads he had been seeing come together had made him wary to discount anything. He rubbed his hands over his face as a redhead approached him. He smiled as he reached for Natalie’s hand.


“One of those days, huh?” she asked.


“I started out the morning questioning Todd, then learned that the baby who died couldn’t have been Tea’s. Then I’m sidelined again when they brought in Sonny and Jason for more questions and now I’m working on the most ludicrous theory imaginable,” he said as he laid out all of his information for her. “I really don’t know what to do about this case.”


Anna came in as his finished his sentence. “You can take the rest of the night off. With everything we’ve gathered today, it’s no surprise we’re grasping at straws. Your girlfriend and little boy are here, you’ve been working nearly two days with no rest so I’m ordering you to leave. Take the night off and recharge.”


John nodded his head and proceeded to gather his things to leave. Natalie threw Anna a grateful look as they walked out of the station together. After stopping off to pick up Liam from the hotel babysitting service, the small family headed for Kelly’s for dinner.


As they sat and ate, Jack threw open the door. Natalie was somewhat surprised to see her cousin. Although she was well aware of the animosity between her uncle and his son, an animosity that went back to his birth, the last few day had indicated some degree of thawing. He had at least made the trip up and John had mentioned that he had, with a slip of the tongue, referred to Todd as ‘Dad’. Yet from his manner, it seemed the angry teen that had wrecked havoc around Llanview last summer was back. “Jack, hey, what’s up?” she asked.


He gave her a nasty look and ignored her. John caught on to the kid’s attitude and slip over to the counter beside him. “You want to tell me what’s up?” When he too was ignored, John decided to be a little bit more forceful. “I’m not leaving until you talk.”


“Fine, you want to know? My parents are going to get remarried and once again, my mom is hooking up with a psycho.” He finally looked at John and in an accusatory tone, told him coldly, “If you had done your job right, he’d be in prison, away from my mom and Tea would have her baby.”


John nodded. “You’re right about the first part. I didn’t see him going with the insanity defense, especially since he’d tried it once before. And I didn’t think the jury would go for it for the same reason. That one got away from us. But I do believe he did everything possible to save Tea’s baby and he is sorry for everything that happened.” It was obvious from Jack’s comment that he was unaware of the information Tea had learned earlier in the day. He decided to keep it that way. “I saw Tea earlier today. She has made peace, in a way, with Todd about the baby, so I think you oughta lay off him for that.”


“I spoke to my mom earlier. He needs a risky surgery and I know your mom’s going to need your support when that time come. Far be it for me to say anything positive about Todd, but he has been affected by everything that’s happened,” Natalie offered.


Jack may have heard them, but chose not to acknowledge anything that was said. John looked over at Nat, but she shook her head sadly. They finished up and left the diner. As they stepped outside, Natalie said in a low voice, “Right now, he won’t hear anything you just said. It seems he’s in a ‘Todd’ kind of mood.” When John gave her a confused look, she elaborated. “It’s Mom’s term when he’s acting as stubborn as his father. Despite all appearances, he’s a chip off the old block.”


As Jack was having a silent fit at Kelly’s, Molly was putting on a brave face in front of Todd Manning. The man squinted his eyes at her when she repeated, “Why did you take Sam’s baby?”


After a moment, Todd understood. “You’re Sam Morgan’s sister?” At her nod, he looked shamefaced and Molly’s angry bravado lessened. “It was a series of events that started bad and rapidly went further downhill.” For the umpteenth time it felt, he relayed the events of that night. He could tell the girl grew more sympathetic as he went on. Todd end with, “Your sister will never understand how terrible I felt. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody and, once again, I hurt everyone.”


“I’m so sorry for your sister-in-law’s loss,” Molly said. She pulled over a chair. “I was coming to bring you some books from my uncle’s library and I saw Jack. He told me what happened, that you and his mother are getting remarried and he seemed pretty mad about it.”


“How mad did Jack seem?” Todd asked with concern.


“I tried to calm him down but he just pushed me away,” Molly explained. Todd’s eyes widened, but Molly shook her head. “He just pushed my arm away. Then he just seemed to, I don’t know, shut down.”


Todd smirked at the thought. “He won’t admit it, but he is just like me.” Todd faced Molly again. “You’ve befriended him?” he asked.


Molly nodded as she gave him a dazzling smile. “I’m sorry, where are my manners? I’m Molly Lansing-Davis, Mr. Manning,” she said. “And you’re a newspaper publisher, right?”


“Wow, you folks in this town really do do your research. Yeah, I’m a publisher. I just bought that poor excuse for paper you folks have here, as well as Crimson.”


Molly grabbed a book off the pile. “I found this on one of the shelves. I thought because of you being a publisher, you may be interested in it. It’s called Lord of the Banner by Sloan Carpenter. The subject, Victor Lord, was a publisher in--”


“I know who he is. He was my father,” Todd said with surprising gentility. When Molly seemed in awe, he turned away. “Sadly, this book left a lot of stuff out.” He received a curious expression, but sidestepped it by say, “I read it when it first came out, so I don’t need to re-read it.”


When he turned away, Molly finally noticed the scar on his cheek. “How did you get that?” she asked, pointing to it.


“You are a nosy thing, aren‘t you?” When Molly didn’t take the hint, he merely said, “A lead pipe kind of ran into me.” She looked like she was about to continue this line of questioning when Blair and Starr returned.


“Hi, Molly, right?” his daughter asked.


Molly nodded. “And you’re Starr Manning? I met you the other day at the pier.” She pointed to the books she had brought. “I thought that your father could use something to read.”


“Oh that is very kind of you, isn’t it Todd?” Blair said sweetly.


Todd nodded. “Thank you, Molly. I’ll see that they get back to you.” he replied. There was something about this kid that he liked, even if she was too nosy for her own good.


Molly was about to say something when her cell phone rang. Looking down at the ID, she said, “I have to take this. It’s my dad.” As she turned to leave, she added, “I’ll keep an eye out for Jack, if he needs someone to talk to.” With that she left the room and as she made her way out of the hospital, answered the phone. “Hi, dad! I haven’t talked to you in a while.”


“I know, honey. I’m sorry about that. There was this big case I was working on near Philadelphia and then the client had additional business for me. But I have good news,” her father said as he looked around the lobby of the Metrocourt Hotel and added “My client recently relocated to Port Charles and now, so am I.”


“Oh, that’s great, Dad! Are you in town now?” she asked, getting excited.


“Yes I am. Want to meet me at the Metrocourt for dinner?” the question came over the other line.


“Yeah, listen, I was just visiting at the hospital, but I can be over in a few minutes,” Molly said. “Then, you can tell me about the case and the client. Well, as much as you can tell me. Attorney/Client privilege and all.”


“I can’t wait to see you.” With that, Ric Lansing hung up the phone, awaiting his daughter’s arrival.
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