Dance with the Devil: Chapter 25

As John, Viki, Starr and Jack had made it to the Sun offices, a burly man came barreling out of the publisher’s office. John ignored the man as Starr and Jack went in. “Hey, Mom, Dad, John’s here. He needs to talk to us about the case,” Starr told her parents.


John entered silently. Todd looked at him. “Please tell me I don’t have to worry about anyone else shooting me in the back now. I mean, besides anyone else I may be firing,” Todd said, pointing to where the man had just exited.


John looked at him curiously. When he realized what Todd was talking about, he shook his head. “What I have to tell you both isn’t about your shooting,” he proceeded cautiously. “It’s about the shooting of Victor Lord Jr.”


Todd was taken aback. “Victor’s shooting? The one I was arrested, charged and stood trial for, not to mention found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, that one?” He looked at Blair, then noticed how uncomfortable his two kids and sister looked. “You guys know what the hell he’s talking about?”


“Look, Manning, I need you to go over again for me everything you remember the night of your brother’s shooting,” John said. “From the time you got to his house to the time you left, I need to know it all.”


“As your lawyer, I’d advice against it,” came Ric Lansing’s voice as he entered the office.


Starr looked from the new arrival to Todd. “Dad, it important you answer John’s questions,” she implored him.


Todd saw the look of worry on his daughter’s face, then turned to Ric and John. He made his decision. “The night of the shooting.” He closed his eyes as he searched his memories. There was still only one there from that night. “I remember pulling the trigger then saying ‘You take my life Victor, I take yours.’”


John paced the room. “You don’t remember getting there, getting into the house, leaving after pulling the trigger, anything like that?”


“No, John, I don’t!” He saw that Starr and Jack were nervous, Ric was edgy and Blair and Viki were concerned. “What’s this have to do with my shooting? We all know I killed that SOB, why bring it up again?”


John opened a tablet he was holding and called up the park footage. He handed it to Todd, who watched it with Blair on one side of him and Ric on the other. The image showed a man and woman in the park, the woman pushing the man in a wheelchair. A younger girl came by and was eventually shooed away. Todd was confused. “What the hell is this?” he asked.


Starr moved over to her father and, after touching the screen, the images zoomed in and the faces of the first two people came more into focus. When the image played again, Blair gasped audibly and looked up for confirmation. Both John and Viki nodded. Todd played the image back again, a third time, a fourth time. Then he dropped the tablet on the desk. “It’s not possible,” he stated, almost too quietly. “It’s not. I remember clearly shooting him.” He looked down at his right hand. “I can still feel the gun in my hand, the pressure of the trigger. I killed him.”


“Not according to this. He’s very much alive, though we’re unsure of his condition. According to the witness seen in the video, he may be heavily drugged,” John said.


Ric spoke up. “I want to talk to this witness, to verify what we are seeing.”


John nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem for you, since it’s your daughter,” he told Ric.


When the attorney looked at him, it was Jack who answered. “She had just left me and my little brother Sam at the park. When I saw her later in the day, she told me about this encounter, that she had done some research on her own and found out it was my uncle,” Jack explained in a hurry.


Ric moved off to the side of the room. “I’m going to call Molly. I want to hear from her exactly what happened.”


As he made his call, John’s phone rang. Looking at it, he let out a huff and walked out into the outer office to take his call. With both men occupied on their phones, Blair and Viki turned to Todd, who was staring at a freezed image of Victor on the screen. Viki bent down to him. “Todd, are you alright?” she asked gently.


“I shot you. I remember it clearly,” he said to the screen, ignoring Viki’s question. He squeezed his eyes shut, reliving the memory.


Starr came over to him. “Dad?” she asked. He was in a trance-like state, so she raised her voice. “Dad!”


He opened his eyes and looked at Starr. “How can he be alive if I remember?” he questioned. “Am I losing my mind?”


Starr looked at her mother, whose hands were clasped in from of her face and tears were running down her cheek. She turned back to Todd. “Dad, when did you remember killing Victor? You told me when you came to see me in the jail here that you didn’t remember but then you did. When did you start remembering?”


Todd closed his eyes again. “It was up in Viki’s cabin. After I was shot, Irene started…appearing to me. She prodded me to remember that night and I did,” he said, his voice shaky but certain.


“You were seeing Irene?” Viki asked, a chill running down her spine.


Todd nodded. “Yeah and I saw her again on Halloween. Perfect time of the year for a haunting, wouldn’t you say?” He finally seemed to be back with them completely. “She kept taunting me, telling me I’d eventually lose everything, everyone.”


Blair wrapped her arms around him from the back. “Todd, you won’t lose anyone. We’re here for you.” She kissed his cheek then signaled Viki off to the side. Jack moved closer to his father to try and offer comfort as Starr joined the women. “I think we need to get him to a doctor. I don’t like the way he looks.”


Viki nodded as Starr said, “When he was still in the hospital, the night we had that family talk, I spoke with a Dr. Keenan. Something Dad said that night, about not remembering then remembering, made me think. So there is a doctor here who is at least aware of Dad’s situation.”


Blair moved back to Todd as John and Ric finished their calls. Ric spoke up first. “I’m going to go talk to Molly, see what she has to do with all this.” He threw a dirty look at Jack, suspicious of the young man as he added, “I’ll be back in touch with you.”


After he left, John explained who was on his call. “Nora and Bo are flying up here now. Commissioner Devane notified the DA’s office in Llanview and Nora wants to personally view this footage, as it pertains to her case.”


“I’m sure I’ll be getting an apology from District Attorney Buchanan,” came Todd’s sarcastic reply, even if it was half-hearted. When John threw him a look, he held up his hands in surrender. When John left, though, Todd visibly deflated. He went back to staring at the shot of Victor from the park.


Blair saw Todd and said to him, “I think we need to get you to a doctor. I’m worried about your mental state,” she said.


She was ready for a fight from Todd but he surprised them all. “Yeah, I think, I think I need to see someone.” He looked up at them all. “For eight years, all I had were my memories. I had to keep them all with me to not go crazy. Of all of you, I needed to remember it all. Now, I don’t know what I remember.”


The family, except for Viki, made their way to the hospital. When they got there, Starr found Nurse Webber. “Hi, that doctor I spoke to a few days ago, Dr, Keenan, is he available?” she asked.


Elizabeth looked up. “I’ll have him paged for you.” With the page, Dr. Keenan arrived a short while later.


“I’m Ewen Keenan. I was told that you needed to speak to me,” came the Australian accented voice.


Blair was about to begin, but it was Todd who spoke up. “Yeah, doc, I think I may be losing my mind,” came Todd’s response.


The doctor smiled kindly. “I doubt your losing your mind, Mr. Manning,” Ewen said. “I read about you in the paper and your daughter and I had a brief discussion before. But what seems to be the problem?”


Todd took a deep breath. “My dead mother told me I killed my brother but now, I don’t even know if he’s dead.”


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