The sun had been up for just over an hour. As far as Jonathan could tell, he and Stephanie had evaded the men who had pursued them. They had sought shelter under a tree in a quiet corner of a city park. Jonathan had lent Stephanie his jacket and she was sleeping, her face streaked with dried tears.
He had to admit that for a Cassadine she had guts.
Of course, he acknowledged heavily, he was a Cassadine too. Even if he didn’t want to be one. Even if being a Cassadine meant that you were always being shot at and chased. Call him crazy, but so far in his short life he had discovered no benefit to being a Cassadine. None what so ever.
Except maybe having Stephanie for a sister.
Jonathan closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree. Okay, he told himself, if you want to be a Spencer you have to start thinking like one. What would Lucky do in this situation? What would his mother do? Neither one of them would have been stupid enough to use a telephone that was probably bugged. He should have figured that one out ahead of time. Of course someone like Helena Cassadine would want to keep tabs on her great-granddaughter. According to what his mother had told him, girls didn’t figure quite as high in the Cassadine point of view as boys, but a child was a child. A woman who would murder to get her great-grandson would have no compunctions about bugging the home of ther grandson’s inlaws.
None at all.
He felt again the stabbing guilt when he thought of what happened to the Stewarts. They had been nice. They had definitely not deserved what had happened. They were dead because of him. That brings the the death toll in his life up to four.....first Luke’s friend Sean, Helena’s goon who had tried to kidnap him, and now Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. Four people. He looks over at Stephanie. There will be no fifth person he promises himself.
The first thing he had to do was find a place for them to stay. At least for the day. That one was easy. There had to be a mall around here someplace. No one would notice two extra kids hanging at the mall.
Cancel that he thinks as he realizes that today being a school day two kids hanging out at the mall will attract exactly the kind of trouble he wants to avoid. He knows just the place.
The next step is to figure out how to contact Jason and Luke without tipping Helena’s men. He knows that neither Jason nor Luke will leave El Paso without him. They have to be looking for him. The trick is making sure that they find him and not those rejects from “Lethal Weapon 19.”
No problem for a Spencer. Even if he was really a Cassadine.
The El Paso Police Station
The first thing that Maxie Jones did when they got back to the police station was issue about a half dozen orders to uniformed officers who were just standing around waiting for instructions. There were neighborhoods to canvesses, names to cross-referances, physical evidence that had to be detailed, and a growing crowd of reporters that had to be dealt with.
The second thing she did was dig into the bottle of aspirin she kept on her desk, pull out four extra strength tablets, and down them with a chaser of Diet Pepsi. She could already feel her stomach complaining, but it wasn’t her stomach that she was worried about right now. It was her mind that had to cope with the mind boggling news that an execution style murder here in El Paso (how many miles from Port Charles were they?) was apparently the latest phase in the ongoing Spencer/Cassadine feud....or maybe just part 32 of the epic Helena Cassadine takes over the world. She looked up and met Jason’s intense gaze, suddenly aware that it is not only her mind or her stomach that its in turmoil.
Damn. This morning her only concern had been remembering to feed the cat she had neglected for three days while she pulled double shifts. Now she had to worry about a madwoman who wanted to take over the world and the two children who seemed to be caught up in the middle of it.
She sighed. Maybe it was time to take her dad up on his offer to join the WSB. She’d still have to deal with raving lunatics but at least she’d get to see the world. Not to mention totally freak out her mom and stepdad.
She looked around the busy squad room. It was 2015 but the room still looked like it belonged in reruns of that old cop show Mac used to watch all the time....NYPD Green or something like that. She also noticed the number of other detectives looking in their direction. It had probably taken them two minutes to figure out who Jason was. You would think, just think, that in his line of work Jason would learn how to be a little more discreet and blend in.
It’s time to earn your pay Maxie..while you are still getting paid and before the boss figures out that you have ties with the head of the most powerful “family” on the Eastern Seaboard. That once upon a time your cousin had lived with him. That once upon a time you fancied yourself in love with him. That once upon a time he broke your heart. That kind of information is exactly what police captains want to hear about their up and coming star detectives. Get a grip Maxie, play it cool. If he can stand there and pretend like nothing happened between the two you, then you damn well can do.
“Let’s grab some coffee,” she says wanting to get the Port Charles contingent out of the squad room and someplace where they can talk. “There’s a coffee shop next door. It’s not quite the Outback but its better than Luke’s.”
“I sent a present to your christening young lady,” Luke responded indignently. “And knowing Laura she probably remembered your high school graduation as well.”
“And I used to babysit Ruby when I was in high school,” Maxie led them to a diner next to the station. The place was pretty much a dive which explained why it was ignored by most of the El Paso police force despite the fact that it was next door to the police station.
“Okay,” said as she dragged out her notebook and started taking notes. “If I’ve got this right you think Helena Cassadine was responsible for what happened at the Stewarts. Her motive....all right what is her her motive? Or should I say who? I’m assuming the Cassadine girl was the target, but from the looks on your faces I’d say I was wrong.”
“My son was the target,” Lucky replied. Jonathan and Stephanie? How had they managed to hook up? That explained how Helena knew where the boy was. She probably had the lines tapped. Jonathan was probably beating himself up for not figuring that part out. I wonder what he thinks of Stephanie. Before Emily had returned to Port Charles, Lucky had spent a lot of time with his young niece, especially after losing Liz. Being around both Stephanie and Ruby had helped to heal the whole Liz left behind. “Helena had him kidnapped just about 48 hours ago from where Emily and I were staying in the Virgin Islands.”
“You and Emily Quartermaine?” Maxie lets her surprise show for a moment before getting back to business. “How old is your son? 5?”
The three men exchange glances.
“Jonathan is 12.”
“Twelve? But twelve years ago Liz was still alive and you...” Maxie stops, wondering briefly if everyone else’s life so closely resembles a soap opera as does her own.
“Let’s get back to the story. Why would Helena be interested in yours and “ Maxie cannot fathom that Lucky would have been unfaithful to Liz. “Emily’s son?”
“The kid isn’t Lucky’s. He’s a Cassadine. Nikolas Cassadine is Jonathan’s father.” This statement comes from Jason who is watching Maxie closely.
“Jason!” Lucky protests. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting to the point,” Jason replies calmly, his eyes never leaving Maxie. “She needs to know the truth if we expect her to help. We can trust her to keep this under wraps for now. Maxie Jones is always truthful and honest.”
His eyes bore into hers and Maxie feels herself flushing. “All I want is who’s responsible for the carnage we all saw this morning. I want those killers. And I want to make sure that no one else gets hurt.”
“Right. See I told you guys. Strictly professional,” Jason replies.
Luke looks at Jason and Maxie. What is going on between the two of them? They’d almost been family at one point. Where had all this hostility come from?
“I want my son back,” Lucky interupted the pending argument between Maxie and Jason. “That’s all.”
“Let’s assume that the two kids are together and hiding out. You know your son Lucky,” Maxie manages to focus on something other than Jason. “where would he take her? What would his next step be?”
Lucky tries to think. “Jonathan is smart. Really smart. And Em and I have drilled a lot of things into his head. I think he’d be leery about trying the phone again. He’d figure that by now Helena would have tapped into the lines of everyone he knows to call in Port Charles. My parent’s house. Jason’s. That’s the drill. I don’t think he’d try the phone again.”
“My phone is not tapped into.” Jason complains.
“How is Jonathan supposed to know that? He barely knows you? He definitely doesn’t know what you do for a living?” Lucky explained.
“Lucky him.” Maxie mutters under her breath.
“Excuse me?” Jason queries.
“I said continue Lucky,” Maxie covers. “If calling home is out of the question, what would he do next?”
“He’d know that we were here. He’d know that we wouldn’t leave without him. So he’d try to find some way of communicating with us here in El Paso.”
“You know, “ Maxie expels a long breath. “If you Spencers would just raise your kids to be normal kids who called 911 when they needed help, Lucky and Stephanie would probably be sitting at the police station waiting for us when we got back.”
“If Jonathan wasn’t a Spencer by training at least you would have four dead bodies back at the house instead of two.” Luke retorted.
“Okay, okay,” Maxie gave in. “I promise to limit the anti-Spencer remarks to no more than one hour.”
“Thanks darling....but feel free to make as many disparaging remarks about the Cassadines and Quartermaines as you want. They get lonely if you don’t.”
Lucky is barely paying any attention to the banter between Maxie and Luke. His mind is focused on Jonathan. He could still feel Emily’s pain when he had called her to tell her what happened. It was all he could do to keep her from getting on the next plane and coming to El Paso in person. None of this stress was good for Emily’s pregnancy. If things got bad, he could lose not just one child but two. He wasn’t about to let that happen.
His gaze landed on the newspaper a gentlemen at the counter was reading.
“That’s it.” Lucky turned to his companions. “A few years ago, the three of us snowbound in Utah for a week or so. There was nothing to do, but the hotel we ended up staying at had some old movies. One of them was Desperately Seeking Susan. You remember that really really old Madonna movie. I remember Emily made us watch it over and over again. Part of the movie is about this couple who communicate by placing ads in the classified.”
“You think Jonathan would..” Maxie began, but Lucky interupted her.
“Absolutely. There’s no way to trace it. He leaves a message carefully worded of course arranging a place for us to pick him up. End of problem.”
“Except classified ads cost money.”
“Jonathan doesn’t have to worry about money.” Lucky says. “He knows where to find money if he needs it.”
Maxie takes a long look at the three men. “I really don’t want to know anymore do I?”
“Nope,” Lucky answers her.
“Okay, assuming you’re right. I’m still going to put out an APB on both kids, just to cover my bases. I’ll also let you know what the lab boys find out. We work this together. That means we share information. You tell. I tell. And once the kids are safe, we’ll talk about how to bring Helena Cassadine down for the crime she has committed.”
“You know a lot of people have tried to bring down Helena Cassadine and failed, including your father.” Luke commented. “Even I have only managed to keep the wicked witch at bay.”
“Mac used to tell me,” Maxie smiles “that an elusive quarry only makes the hunt more interesting and fun.” She grins at Jason. “I believe he was talking about you at the time.” Maxie gets up. “I’m heading back to the station. I want to check some forensic reports.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lucky says. “Maybe I can use your computer system to find out some info. Jonathan’s description of the woman who kidnapped him has me curious.”
“I’d forgotten about that,” Luke said. “It didn’t sound like Helena did it?”
“No, but it sounded like someone else we know and I think its time I tracked down her whereabouts and see what I can find.”
“I’m going to stay here and make some phone calls. See if I can locate some contacts to help with the search.” Jason replies.
“You won’t find many,” Maxie’s voice is cool and assured. “El Paso doesn’t have a huge mob presence. It’s one of the things that attracted me to the place.”
The two exchange noticeable looks, before Lucky and Maxie head back to the police station.
Luke waits until the two are gone, before pouncing on Jason. “You want to tell me what is going on between you and the pretty young detective.”
“Nothing,” Jason’s voice is cold and determined. “Except for the fact that she and Robin were cousins, I have no interest in Maxie Jones. I do have an interest in finding my nephew.”
“You know,” Luke sits back and surveys his long time friend.
“That would be a lot easier to believe if you could say it without grinding
your teeth.”
El Paso Public Library
Jonathan sits at the computer while Stephanie keeps watch. There are enough children in the building, most of them being home schooled or something Jonathan figures, that he and Stephanie are unnoticed.
Jonathan quickly access the internet from the library. It takes him about two minutes from there to tap into the records of the local bank. Another two minutes and he has transferred a thousand dollars into an account at the local branch.
“Wow,” Stephanie says from over his shoulder. “How did you do that?”
Jonathan shrugged. “Before he married my mom, my dad used to design security programs for major companies. That bank is owned by ELQ, a company that my father used to do work for once in a while. My dad always left a back door that only he could get into when he did a job, just in case a virus or something invaded the system and locked everyone else out.”
“Can you only tap into banks?” Stephanie asks.
Jonathan shakes his head. “Most of the systems are designed along similiar lines. Some are easy to tap into, some might take a few minutes or so. My dad used to be the best in his field so most systems are built around what he designed.”
“Can you get into the library system?” Stephanie asks.
“Piece of cake, but why?” Jonathan asks puzzled.
“There’s a book over there that I want to check out.”
Port Charles
Spencer House
When the call came from Lucky about what had happened to Jonathan, Laura had realized immediately that she would need back up if she was going to keep Emily from heading to El Paso.
So she had called in the reserves. Or at least she had meant to call in only one reserve. Monica.
It hadn’t quite worked the way she had planned.
Which explained why Ruby Spencer came home to a house full of Quartermaines. More Quartermaines than she could ever remember seeing in one place before. She even thought their butler was there. All of them were hovering about Emily, trying to offer her comfort or quiet reassurances.
Personally Ruby thought they were driving her crazy. It took her less than a minute to decide to escape to the kitchen.
“You’re home?” Laura looked at her youngest daughter. Ruby coming into their lives had been a blessing. The child that symbolized the second time she and Luke had fallen in love. “Did you get suspended again?”
Ruby returned the look. “One time. I was in the sixth grade. One time and I’m branded a criminal forever. It’s a half day today. Something about giving teachers a break from students before they declare them legally insane. What are the Q’s or should I say my newly discovered in-laws doing here? Slumming?”
“Ruby.” Laura can’t quite hide her smile. “They are here to keep Emily company.”
“Why? Is something wrong? I thought Dad and Lucky were coming home with my never before seen nephew later today.”
“There’s been a complication.”
“Stop.” Ruby holds up her hand. “I have a feeling that knowing about this complication is going to stop me from living a normal teenage life. And it probably has something to do with tweedle dee and tweedle dum walking me home from school. Not that I minded that much since you at least sent the young and cute ones.”
“I thought you’d appreciate that,” Laura remarked. “And when you figure out what a normal teenage life is will you let me know.” Laura decided to give her daughter a break. “There’s some leftover pizza in the fridge. And I think I saw Micheal heading up to your room to escape.”
Ruby’s eyes light up. “Okay, if having the Q’s here means I get to see my favorite cousin, I’ll be good.”
Laura nods.
“And stay out of sight.” Ruby adds.
“Even better.” replies her loving mother.
El Paso Texas
Police Station
It’s been one hour since they returned to the police station from the coffee shop. Maxie had made a few calls to the local newspapers who were going to fax over their classified ads as soon as the copy was done, which meant they’d get the ads tonight and not tomorrow morning. More time to plan.
So far the results from the forensics were slow in coming, despite repeated threats and alternating bribes.
They hadn’t heard anything from either Jason or Luke.
Not that she was complaining.
Lucky was deep on the laptop computer Maxie had lent him. She had glanced over once, but the realization that he was using her police issued computer to hack into the FBI files had been too unnerving to watch.
Port Charles survival lesson number one. What you don’t know
might save you.
Maxie shakes her head. “It’s okay, Office Cummings. I know
this gentlemen. I’ll handle this myself.” Maxie motions to her corner desk.
“Have a seat and I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“Do you know who I am? I will not be kept waiting. My
daughter is missing. My in-laws have been murdered. I want to speak to
whoever is in charge of this investigation and I want to speak to him
now?”
“I’m in charge,” Maxie ignores the sexist implication of that
last remark. “And I know exactly who you are Mr. Cassadine. I realize
that you are very worried about your daughter and distraught about what
happened to your inlaws, but I will not allow you to speak to me or to the
officers under my command in such a fashion. You want to help your
daughter, then sit down Nikolas and shut up long enough for me to tell
you what to happen.”
“I’d listen to the Detective if I were you Nicky. A woman with
a badge should not be trifled with.” Lucky found a moment of pleasure at
his brother’s discomfort. Some habits died hard.
Nikolas Cassadine sat down in shock. He hasn’t seen his
brother in six years and now he shows up on the same day his daughter is
missing. What is going on here? He looks at the detective a little closer.
“Maxie?” Nikolas’s astonishment shows through. “Maxie
Jones? I used to help Robin babysit you when you were smaller.”
Great, Maxie thinks to herself , was there anyone in Port
Charles who didn’t babysit me? She didn’t realize she had said the
question outloud until both men responded in unison “no.”
Maxie takes two more aspirin before she settles down to fill
Nikolas Cassadine in.
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