Port Charles Chronicles: Chapter 54

       Tomas lowered his rifle.  Todd had gone down, but he wasn’t sure if the shot had killed him.  Shooting through a glass window was always tricky. After leaving Johnny's apartment he had used his CIA connections to find out all the rooms the Mannings were taking up in the Metro Court.  Then he had found out from Calmar, that Flynn had taken Sam.  It had been easy to find a room across the way from Addie and the boy's suite.  Once Todd and Blair found out about Sam they would all end up there and all he had to do was wait.  Picking up his binoculars, he studied what was taking place in the room.  He watched as Blair went to Todd and then his eyes narrowed as he saw John McBain come toward the window.  McBain was blocking a lot of the scene behind him.  “Damn it, John, move.  I need to know if he’s dead.”  

       He saw John looking in his direction and backed away from the window.  John wouldn’t be able to tell exactly where the shot had come from.   He moved out of view but kept his field glasses aimed at the scene taking place in the Metro-Court.   He noted John talking to an EMT.  There were too many people in the room.  Something else had brought the EMTs, but now they would have a good reason to be there.   He was able to make out Blair standing once again, but John remained an obstacle.  Give it up, Delgado.  The longer you stay here, the more chances John will catch you. If you succeeded, you’ll see the result when the EMTs leave.

       He calmly started putting his equipment away, making sure he left no evidence of having been there. Now more than ever he wanted to get to street level.  So far everything that day had gone as planned.  What would put the cherry on top for him: was knowing Todd Manning was irrevocably out of his way.

****

When Michael and Molly arrived at the Lake House, Sonny and Alexis were waiting for them.  

“Molly, where have you’ve been.  I’ve been trying to reach you for the last couple of hours,” asked Alexis.

Molly looked through her bag and realized her cell phone was sitting in her room. “Mom, I’m sorry.  I went out and must have left my phone here.  What’s the matter?  Why is Uncle Sonny here?   Is something wrong?”

Alexis looked at Sonny and back to her daughter.  “Not really but we wanted to ask you about your question earlier this morning.  Where did you hear the name Lorenzo Alcazar?”  both she and Sonny saw the look that passed between Molly and Michael.  “Wait, what’s that look for?”

Molly cleared her throat.  “A friend of mine asked me about the guy this morning.  He was researching him and wanted to know more about him.”

“Friend? Do I know this person?” asked Alexis.  “By the way did you have a visitor earlier, you know how I feel about that?”

“Well, yeah.  But Mom, he wanted someone to talk to and so I invited him here so we could research Alcazar together.”

Sonny watched as Michael began to get restless.  He waited to hear more from Molly, but he had a sinking suspicion Michael knew all about this friend and what Molly had been up to.

Alexis tried to control her anxiety,  From the moment she had heard the name Alcazar that morning she had felt something was wrong and so she had gone to talk to Sonny.  Sonny had assured her Alcazar was dead, but they had agreed to check into Molly’s reasons for bringing him up.

“Relax, Jack and I just had a swim and then we decided to eat lunch at Kelly’s.   We ran into Michael and Starr and joined them for a short time.  Then Michael brought me home.”

“Jack?” Alexis looked at Molly.

“Jack Manning, he’s Starr Manning’s brother.   He’s only been in town a couple of days and when we met, well, I sort of helped him out.  He was looking for a good place to eat and I took him to Kelly’s.  He’s a nice guy and since he didn’t know anyone else in Port Charles, he looked me up on MyFace and we reconnected this morning.  He’s been going through something with his father and needed someone to talk to.”

Another look past between Molly and Michael, and Sonny decided it was time to step in.  “I get the impression from the way both of you are acting that a lot more happened than a casual afternoon.  Molly, why was Jack Manning looking into Alcazar?”

“Molly, just tell them.  They need to know what we found out.” Michael said.

Molly sighed. “Yesterday, Jack and I saw a man who looked like Alcazar going into Johnny Zacchara's apartment building.  On his way back to the hotel, Jack got another look at the man and was convinced it was a friend of his mother’s; someone named Tomas Delgado.”

“Wait.  Are you saying there’s someone in this town that looks like Lorenzo?”

Molly nodded.  “Jack and his sister were trying to figure out why this Tomas guy would be in Port Charles and he found a picture of Alcazar.  This morning, he wanted to know if I knew anything about the man and that’s when I asked you, Mom.”

Sonny turned to Michael.  “So there’s a guy in town that resembles Alcazar and goes by the name Tomas Delgado.  Is there more to this story?”

Michael wasn’t good at lying so he decided the best path to go was the truth.  “Starr called me this morning and asked me to meet her.  She, too, had questions about Alcazar.  I told her what I remembered about the guy.  After Kate’s trial, we decided to confront Johnny about this Tomas guy but he skirted our questions and seemed uneasy so we ended up tailing him.  That’s where we ran into Molly and Jack.  It seems they had found out about Alcazar's old apartment and had gone looking for him.  To their surprise, he was there.  They followed him and he headed for Johnny’s.  Dad, he was meeting with Zacchara and his lieutenants.”

Alexis turned toward Molly.  “What did he mean, you followed him?  Molly Lansing Davis, what were you thinking!?”

“Mom,  Jack just wanted to check out the address.  We didn’t know we were going to see the man.  Once we did, well I don’t know, we just wanted to see what he was up to.  Nothing happened.   We took some pictures and then took what we had to the police station.  We told John McBain about Tomas Delgado and Lorenzo Alcazar and then took Starr and Jack back to the Metro-Court and we came here.  I swear, they never even saw us.  Right, Michael?”

       “She’s right.  We snapped pictures and decided to leave it to the police to figure out what’s going on.  Dante knows the whole story, too.” replied Michael.

       Sonny rubbed his chin thinking.  “So what you’re saying is that you don’t know if it was Tomas Delgado you saw or Lorenzo Alcazar? Do you still have the pictures?”

       Michael pulled out his phone and showed his father what they showed to the police.

       Sonny looked at the picture and frowned.  Who is this guy?  “The authorities told us Alcazar was dead.  Whoever this Bozo is, he's treading in places he should stay out of.  I want you kids to forget this and stay away from it.  I’ll have Max do some checking into Zacchara.  Alexis, I need to go.  Don’t worry about this guy.  He isn’t aware we know he’s here.  We can keep an eye on him.  Michael, I’ll walk out with you.”

       Michael and Sonny were just stepping off the porch when their phones rang.  Michael read the text from Dante and turned to his father.

       Sonny answered the call. “ Dante?  Yeah sure, I can meet you?  What is this about?  No, that’s alright, you can tell me when I get there.  I’ll see you there.”  He hung up and looked at Michael. “That’s strange.  Dante wants to talk to me about something important but wouldn’t say what.  I need to go.  I want to talk to you about this Alcazar situation, but it will have to wait.”

       “Dad, I’ll go with you.  My call was from Dante, too.  A text.  he says it’s urgent and to meet him at the Metro-Court.  I don’t get it.  What does he need to talk to both of us about?”

       “I don’t know, but maybe he has news about Alcazar.  Let’s not keep him waiting.”

****

 Dante closed his phone.  It was done, Sonny and Michael were on their way.  Dante headed to find his mother  It wouldn’t be long before the police descended on the hotel.  “Mom, I need the records of all your new hires.”  

          Olivia was well aware why Dante was in her office.  She had been the one who made the final call to the police after her distraught desk clerk came to her about Mr. Manning’s call. “Dante, I don’t understand.  Are you saying that an employee assaulted Ms. Cramer?”

       “You know I can’t give you the details.  It will help with the investigation.  We need any pictures you may have on file, too.”

        Olivia moved to her computer and soon was printing up the information and pictures Dante had requested.  She had just handed them to him when she heard the ruckus happening in the lobby.   She walked to her office door and saw a number of policemen walking to the elevators.  “What’s going on, why did you call the extra police?”

        Holding the papers she had just handed him, Dante looked at his mother.  “Mom, don’t ask any more questions.  Just come with me up to suite 711, John has a few more questions for you.  

         After escorting his mother up to the room,  Dante returned to the lobby to wait for Sonny and Michael.  As soon as they entered, he joined them.

“Dante, we’re here.  Why all the mystery?  Is this about the thing the kids were mixed up in earlier? Because I‘ve got to tell you.  If Alcazar is really back, he’s going to wish he had stayed dead.”  Sonny looked at Dante, then he noticed a large number of police officers around.  “Seriously, Dante, what’s going on?”

“I just need you to come upstairs with me.  It will all be explained in a few minutes.”

****

          It took about five minutes for Tomas to clear the room he had used.  He walked out of the stairwell on the ground floor and spotted a couple of policemen entering.  Slipping into the nearby bathroom he opened the vent and pulled out the disguise he had stashed and put it on. Then he calmly walked past the cops and outside.  A few minutes later he found the perfect vantage point to watch everything unfold.    Tomas sat down on a bench across the street from the Metro-Court entrance and unfolded a copy of the paper.  Several minutes later he watched with glee as more police arrived at the Hotel.  There was a lot of commotion and a short time later, he observed the EMTs bringing out the gurney.  It was obvious to all eyes watching: death had happened at the Metro.  The person on the gurney was completely covered, and the police stayed close to the medics and kept the gathering onlookers at bay. 

         He calmly folded his paper back up and picked up his case.  He had done it, Manning was no more and he could work on providing Blair a shoulder to cry on as soon as he finished setting up Flynn’s organization.   At a signal from him, the limousine pulled around the corner and stopped in front of him.  He entered, sat back in his seat, and reached for the bar.  The champagne was still cold and he opened it.  He poured it and glanced at his image in the mirror overhead. To a job well done.   After toasting himself, he again settled comfortably and pulled out his phone to call and give his report to Calmar.  

       Across the street, Dante gave last-minute instructions to the EMTs and watched as they drove away, taking the body to the morgue.  He was about to head inside when he noticed a limo pull away from the curb opposite the entrance.  He recalled Jack saying he and Molly had watched Delgado sitting and watching the hotel earlier.  It seemed unusually coincidental that a limo would be there again?  It’s a pretty big leap, Dante,  There’s no proof that limo holds the guy.   Still, there’s no harm in checking it out.  Carly’s dead and someone is responsible.  He sent a text to his office phone and returned inside.  He wanted to get back to his family.

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