Dance with the Devil: Chapter 22

The family had finished their dinner and gone their separate ways. Starr, Sarah and Jack had decided to go to the Haunted Star and hang out there. Natalie went to put Liam to sleep and check in with Llanfair. John had received a message from the station and went to go look into it. That left Viki, Tina, Cord, Todd and Blair alone. Todd was finishing up his drink when he noticed everyone looking at him. “What?” he asked perturbed.


Viki grew concerned with her brother. He had seemed fine since everything had begun, but she knew that underneath, he really wasn’t. “I’m still so worried about you,” she finally said. “After everything you’ve been through, you’ve been far too calm.”


“And how would to like me to react?” he asked. “You want to know the truth? I’m freaking out inside. About the surgery, about the physical therapy. I’ve gotten away pretty scot-free in my life with injuries. I recover pretty quickly. Yeah, sure, Ireland took a little longer, but no real long-term effects from it. And now,” he sighed, “I guess this is the only way I can react.”


“Well, the therapy will be hard, but I’ll be with you every step of the way,” Blair said.


“Yeah, about that, would it be okay if Carly was my therapist?” Todd asked, hoping to get a reaction for Blair.


The only thing Blair did was look confused. “Carly, as in Carly Jacks?”


“Yeah, she told me that when she first came to town, she was actually a physical therapist. You know, before the whole, marrying the mob, marrying the corporate raider, hotel magnate thing,” Todd said with practiced nonchalance.


Blair raised her eyebrows. “That‘s really a generous offer. I don’t see any problem with it.” When Todd looked disappointed by her response, Blair caught on. “Oh, you wanted me to say no. You wanted me to be jealous of the time you would be spending together, working out.”


Todd merely shrugged. “Well, yeah, I figured I could get a little entertainment out of it. You know, nothing boost morale like a man seeing a cat-fight.”


Blair had to laugh. “Nice try, but you were never good at the baiting game. You’re especially bad at it now, after putting this on my finger,” she said as she flashed her diamond at him.


“Yeah, I was so bad at it, you two were going at in the harbor,” he smiled devilishly at her. “While I admit that you were the master at it, I got some good shots in over the years.”


They shared a laugh as Viki smiled at them. “You know, I think this is truly the happiest I’ve seen you two since you got married at St. James’. I feel comfortable now about leaving,” she said.


Todd looked at her. “You’re leaving?” He almost felt hurt by the notion.


“Todd, as much as I love you, I have to get back home. I have a paper to run, children to see, a housebound fiancé.” She looked back at him. “Don’t give me that look. I won’t be leaving you alone forever. I’m going to be coming back up frequently to check on you. I’ve already found an apartment to rent while I’m in town. I can see now that you have a life here, but you won’t lose me completely.” She turned to Tina. “Besides, Tina will be around here still. She’ll have the job of trying to keep you in line. God help her with that!”


Now Todd was really annoyed. “Her? She can barely take care of her dog, much less me!” Todd couldn’t believe his ears.


Tina looked offended by Todd’s words, but Blair interrupted her before she could say anything. “Todd, you’ll also have me and Starr and the boys.”


As he harrumphed, he noticed Sonny Corinthos walk into the restaurant. The mobster noticed him as well and decided to go over to the table. “Manning,” he said shortly.


“Corinthos,” Todd replied, just as shortly.


Tina pointed her finger at the newcomer. “Oh, I saw you at that restaurant from the other night!” she said excitedly.


“Ah, yes, Polluzo’s. I own it,” he said charmingly. “Sonny Corinthos. And you are?”


“Oh, Tina Lord Roberts and this is my husband Cord.” She pointed to Todd. “He’s my brother and this is our sister, Victoria Lord. I figured I would do the introduction because my brother is so very rude.” After another pause she added, “Please complement the chef on that pasta puttaneseca. It was fabulous.”


Before Sonny could answer, a blonde woman came to his side. “Sonny, is our table ready?” She then turned away from Sonny and her eyes set on Viki. “Mrs. Lord, I heard that you were in town for your brother.”


“Yes, you must be Kate Howard. I have a friend who reads Crimson all the time,” Viki replied.


Kate became nervous. “I was wondering, could we have lunch? I’d like to discuss something of a personal nature with you.”


Viki looked at her. “I guess. I was planning in leaving tomorrow, but I can put off my departure for a day. How is eleven-thirty sound, here?”


Kate swallowed. “That would be lovely.” With that, Kate and Sonny walked off together.


Todd turned to Tina. “If you stay, I have one rule for you. No more eating at his place,” he said fiercely.


“And why not? I’m going to need more places for dinner that just here,” she said, exacerbated.


“Because, Tina, both Todd and Starr aimed guns at him. We thought he was responsible for the accident in this winter,” Blair explained to the redhead.


They could tell the light bulb had gone off in Tina’s head. “Oh, that Sonny Corinthos!” She gave her brother a look. “Well, he is very charming.”


Todd would have lunged at his sister if he could move his legs and Viki and Blair weren’t sitting between the two of them. After that display, Cord thought it wise to remove himself and his wife from the eatery, saying their goodnights. Once they left, Todd gave his eldest sister a pleading look. “You’ve gotta stay. I’ll kill her if she hangs around town any longer.”


Viki looked skyward, almost pleading for help. When she turned back to Todd, she said, “You know, I’ve been thinking more and more about Merrie and how she would have fit in with all of us as we are now.”


Blair gave her a sheepish smile. “I don’t think I ever really heard you speak of her, even in all the years of being involved in your family.”


Viki returned the smile. “Think of Merrie as a halfway point between Tina and myself. She has always remained, at least in my mind, untouched by anything bad in the family.” Viki sat back, engrossed in a memory. “It’s funny, when Jessie was in St. Ann’s a few years ago, after we thought Hope had died and after Victor and Marty, I went to the crypt and screamed at Father. About how his darkness had finally touched even Starr. I want to know why Merrie was spared, why I was left with all of it. Charlie found me trying to take apart the tomb and eventually he recommended how to do it…more appropriately.”


“Is that why it’s not there anymore?” Todd asked.


“Yes it is. Charlie got in some workmen to take it apart,” Viki explained. “We reburied the bodies in an area of the cemetery. But, it had to come down.”


Todd nodded. “I still remembered that night I spent there, before we got remarried.” He looked at Blair and his mind flashed back to his younger self, tossing stones at the tomb in the center of the room. “Some father we had.”


“I think we have all come to grips with Father’s crimes. We just need to move on. Maybe this is how you do it. Leaving Llanview and bringing your family with you. Setting down roots here,” she said as she got up from the table. She walked over to her brother and gently kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”


When she left, Blair took Todd’s hand. “You ready to go?” When he nodded, they left, heading back to their room.


At the police station, John sat at a monitor with Anna beside him. “Why do you need me to look at security camera footage with you again?”


He pulled out the paper with Victor’s picture on it. “I need a second pair of eyes to verify something crazy for me,” he explained. Then he told her the story that had been told to him earlier. It was as that was ending that the video came up. “Okay, there’s Molly Lansing-Davis at the park entrance.” Coming into the frame was the woman pushing a wheelchair. He enhanced the scene as much as it could go and then the image cleared. It was unmistakable. “You are seeing the same thing as me, right?”


Anna looked at the screen and at the paper. She typed in a few commands and the face on the screen was compared to the scanned picture of Victor Lord, Jr. It came back as a positive match. “That is the same man.” When she turned to John, he was pinching the sides of his nose. “That’s not a good thing?”


“Well, for Tea Delgado and the Lord family, it may be. It may also open the LPD up to a wrongful arrest lawsuit, because if I know Manning, he will be out for blood.” John then proceeded to bring up the face of the woman on the screen and run a facial recognition check on it as well. It, too, came back as a positive match for Allison Perkins.


As John sat in silent contemplation, Anna brought up Perkins’ rap sheet. “Well, she’s a colorful character. Kidnapping, shooting, there a whole list here. Plus being in and out of mental institutions for years.” She raised her head to John. “She’s a suspect, I gather.”


“Yeah, she was a follower of a cult leader Mitch Laurence. They both had a sick fascination with the Lord family,” John said. “This past New Year’s Eve, she shot Viki after revealing that her daughter, Jessica, Natalie’s twin, is really Clint Buchanan’s. It was previously believed for years that Viki was raped by Laurence and he was Jessica’s father. But a DNA test was run and it show she was Clint’s.”


“But why would this woman want to hold Victor Lord, Jr. prisoner? What would be her gain in a scheme like that,” Anna asked.


“I don’t know,” John concluded after a moment. “But tomorrow, I need to tell the family this news. Maybe there’s something we’re missing that they can add.” With that, he made a call to Natalie, who, after hearing the latest news, agreed to gather the family together in the morning. The Manning/Lords had been through a lot in the last year and this would be maybe the most shocking thing to happen.


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