Port Charles Chronicles: Chapter 34

John walked into the squad room and saw Dante hunched over some paperwork. “Is that Manning’s case?”

           “No, this is Anthony Zacchara. He’s been missing for over a week and we got a call of shots fired at the Quartermaine estate, the day of his disappearance. We didn’t have anything to hold his wife on, but I just got word some bum stumbled on a partially buried body in the woods outside of town. There’s a possibility it could be his.” Dante closed the file “It doesn’t concern you, McBain.”

          “That’s the mobster who ran Starr and her family off the road. Starr’s a friend. It’s possible whoever shot at him that night might have finally completed the job. Anything that concerns Sonny and Zacchara concerns the FBI. When will you know who the body is?”

           “I should be getting something soon. I don’t think it’s the same shooter. We have Kate Howard’s confession, that it was her alter who shot out Anthony’s tires.”

           “I’d like to be kept in the loop. Were you able to get any more on the bullet used on Manning? I just got off the phone with his doctors, they almost lost him.”  

            Dante looked over at John, “We know the bullet is from a high-powered rifle, the kind snipers use. Our forensic team sent over their findings on the compound and are working with the hospital to pinpoint the hallucinogen used. As incapacitated as Manning was, he’s lucky the shooter wasn’t still targeting him.”

            John scratched his chin “I have a feeling the shooter wasn’t in any hurry. With a compound like that, the longer he waited the chances are it would do the work for him.”

           “Did you find out anything on your end. This doesn’t seem like a mob hit.”

           “I’m still gathering info. Some of the people involved in holding Manning have gone to ground. My FBI sources are coming up against a brick wall. Government red tape and all that.”

           John had some suspects in mind, but he hadn’t been able to get a trace on them. Baker had mysteriously disappeared after his arrest for kidnapping Tomas Delgado. Monsieur Calmar had also managed to vanish. Tomas had been all about accusing Manning and hadn’t been too happy when he had been acquitted. At the same time, he had been overjoyed when Manning immediately left town after the verdict came in. Was Tomas aware that Blair was back with Todd? “Excuse me. I just thought of something I want to check on. Let me know if the body turns out to be Zacchara’s, the FBI will want to be notified.” 

            He pulled his phone out as he left the building. “Blair, I have a question to ask you. Does Tomas know you’re in Port Charles?” He listened and then hung up. He recalled how Tomas had been one of his first suspects in Victor’s death, but his alibi had been backed up by Calmar. Blair had expressed doubt earlier that Todd killed Victor. Now someone just tried to kill Manning again. You might be onto something, Blair. His next call was to a good friend in the CIA.

****

           Tomas turned the key to his penthouse. No one had been in the place for years. He had had men keeping an eye on Skye and Lila Ray since they had left town. He also knew of Diego’s doings and on one of his undercover missions had put a stop to his son’s shenanigans. Diego had been shocked when he, as Lorenzo, had walked into his Colombian home. After a lengthy talk, Diego had agreed to keep his father’s secret and not draw any more attention to him. It was shortly following that encounter, that Tomas Delgado had taken up permanent residency in Paris.

           He looked around the room. Jason Morgan had almost succeeded in taking him out. If Calmar and the agency hadn’t been keeping tabs on him, he would have been dead. Instead, they set things up so Jason thought he had accomplished his mission and Lorenzo Alcazar had died. Tomas set his gun case down and opened the special panel in the wall of his bedroom. He pulled the one picture he had of Carly Corinthos Jacks out and looked at it for a moment. He had loved a number of women over the years and Carly had been one. Unfortunately, Carly had gone back to her mobster, Sonny Corinthos, and she had proven to Tomas once again that women were easily manipulated by some men. Sonny had used Carly until he was tired of her. Now Blair was in danger of falling into the same trap that had gotten Carly. “Don’t worry Blair, I’ll make sure you never have to worry about Todd again. If he hasn’t already self-destructed, he will soon and you’ll be free to love me the way you should.”

           Tomas put the guns away and opened the locked box that was behind the panel. He withdrew his Lorenzo Alcazar papers and IDs and stowed his Tomas Delgado ones. Locking the box back up, he closed the panel. From now on, while he was in Port Charles, he was Lorenzo. He walked to the closet and removed one of Lorenzo’s suits. It was time to pay Johnny Zacchara a visit.

****

            Blair walked into the suite containing Addie and her sons and right into an argument.

            “Listen, you little brat. Scarface killed your dad doesn’t that mean anything?” Jack was frustrated. 

            “You’re mean.  Uncle Todd was sick. He didn’t mean to hurt Dad. He told me so and I believe him. You’re not supposed to call him Scarface anymore. I’m going to tell Mom you did.”

            “You go ahead, I don’t care what Mom says and you don’t know anything. I was in the courtroom. Your precious Uncle Todd was lying. He was just trying to get sympathy. I don’t believe for a moment that he was tortured. He just didn’t want to be with us and when he decided to come home he found our dad in his place, so he killed him.”

           “John Cramer Manning, you stop that this instant. You have no idea how wrong you are. I’ve had about all I can take, and I’m through waiting for you to get over this chip you have on your shoulder concerning your dad.”

           Jack was stunned. His mother rarely used his full name. She was mad and also upset. and it wasn’t because he was arguing with Sam.

            Sam looked on in surprise. “Whoa, now you’re going to get it. Mom used your whole name.”

            Blair looked at her youngest son. “Sam, go find something to watch on TV. I need to talk to your brother in private.”

            “But Mom, when do we get to see....”

             Blair interrupted Sam before he could say Todd’s name. “Not now Sam.” She shook her head and Sam realized he had almost messed up. “Go, do what I told you. Starr should be back later. We’ll see her then.” She watched as Sam reluctantly took himself to his room and closed the door.

            Addie walked into the room. “Blair, you’re exhausted. This can wait. I should have stopped the argument, but you know Sam can hold his own.”

           “I know Momma, but this has got to be said now. It’s okay, I’ll rest later.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack trying to slip away. “Hold it right there, mister. It’s time you learned a few truths.” She turned her attention fully to her son and saw him squirm. After everything she had just been through, it tore at her heart when Jack said Todd was lying about the eight years in captivity.

            “If you’re going to talk about my so-called father. Don’t bother. I’ve heard the story from Starr.” He started to head out of the room but was stopped by his mother.

            “Well you’re going to hear it again and this time, you’re going to listen. Sit down.” Blair stared down her son and waited as he took a chair. “First things first. Your father is here in Port Charles. He came to help Starr.”

            “Wait a minute, you never said anything about him when you said we were coming here. You lied to me. You’re no better than he is.”  Blair almost slapped him and then caught herself. He wasn’t wrong. She had misrepresented the reason for the trip. “I didn’t lie, I just omitted that part of the story. Your sister does need us here, but your father needs us more. Your father wasn’t lying when he said he was tortured. He was, and he’s starting to have serious problems because of that torture.”

            Jack looked skeptical. “Yeah right. You’ve been here haven’t you, holding his hand. All this time, you said you were with Starr, and you weren’t. How could you go back to him? He killed Dad.”

            “I’m not so sure he did that. But this isn’t about what you believe he did to Victor, this is about him and what he’s been through. I’ve something you should hear. It’s the conversation, Irene had with your Aunt Vicki, your father, and Victor; the day we found out the man with the scar was really your father.” Blair reached into her purse and pulled out the recorder she had been carrying for months. She set it on the table between her and Jack and turned it on.

           Jack couldn’t believe what he was listening too. His whack job of a grandmother definitely had a screw loose. He frowned when she said she had ordered his dad be killed. He was surprised to hear that Tomas had been sent to kill him. Jack noticed his mother wasn’t surprised by any of it. Just how long had she known all of it? He continued to listen as his grandmother went into detail about brainwashing Victor with his father’s memories and then using plastic surgery to insert Victor into Llanview. What had Starr said? His father was kept alive because his grandmother wanted something. How had she put it? “He said he was in Limbo when he wasn’t being tortured. Jack was feeling uneasy when the recording fizzled out.

          A short time later she turned it off. “That was your grandmother and she did that to her sons. Then she callously shot your father while gloating that she had blown us all to kingdom come. Your father was trying to cope with finding his way back home only to have the rug pulled out from under him several times. Can you honestly sit there and tell me you now believe he was lying on the stand? You were so quick to protect Victor. Victor wasn’t fully innocent in all this. According to your Grandmother, Victor helped her with a number of shady issues. He hid all of that from us.”

           Jack could only sit there. He thought back to the time he met his grandmother and how creepy she had been. That very day, the bomb went off at Tea’s and Dani’s house. She had tried to kill them. He looked at his mother. “You saved his life after he was shot, but you went back to Tomas, the guy who sent him to his mother in the first place. How could you do that if you believed in him? You said he was lying, too.”

           Blair blinked as tears filled her eyes. “I was a fool. I kept seeing the Todd that had done all those terrible things to me when you were little. I knew that man and what he was capable of. So that’s the Todd I was looking for. When John arrested him for Victor’s murder I was convinced he had drawn me in, only to stomp on my heart all over again. I didn’t truly look at him and begin putting two and two together until the witnesses testified. Then I tried to rationalize it, thinking he had paid them to lie. It was something your father would have done a long time ago.”

          “Well, he did lie about killing Dad. He kidnapped Tomas, I still don’t see why you changed your mind.”

          “I kept going back to the night he was arrested. He tried to tell me something, but he couldn’t get it out. I think he was trying to tell me what he had done and in the end, just decided to take what he could get because he knew it was all falling down around his ears. He’s sick, Jack, He didn’t even realize the extent of the damage Irene had done to him. She played havoc with his mind for years and now it’s all coming to the surface. You heard him the night of the premiere. The only thing that kept him going all those years was his love for us: Starr, you, myself, even Vicki and Tea. At the end of the trial, all he had left was Starr and she had come here. He came here looking for the one lifeline he had left. But it hasn’t been enough. He tormented by those lost years and his mother Irene, and there’s no one to help him. I love him, Jack. I’ve loved him for a very long time. I can’t stand back and watch him disintegrate. I’m here to help him and be there for him, but he needs all of us. He needs you, too.”




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