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Taggert frowned as
he surveyed the empty room. The blood had been mostly cleaned off the walls
and floor, but the club still reeked with death. It wasn't a smell, exactly,
but a feeling. The ominous silence did not help to ease his feeling of
discomfort. He leaned over the bar and noticed the cash register.
"What are you doing?"
a voice asked sharply behind him. Taggert whirled around and looked into
the Mac's face.
"Oh, Commissioner,
I was just-"
"I thought I told
you to get home and get some sleep," Mac said, his voice lighter. "You've
been at it for hours."
"I want to crack this
case."
Mac nodded his head,
admiring Taggert's determination. "Yeah, but you've been working since
yesterday evening. Don't you think it's time for a break?"
Taggert sighed. "Yeah,
I guess so. Let me just check this out first, okay?"
"What?" Mac asked
as Taggert walked behind the bar.
"The cash register
isn't closed all the way. It looks like it might be jammed." He opened
the drawer and looked inside. "Empty," he said, unsurprised. He saw a light
gleam of silver in the back and reached inside again. "Quarter," he said
over his shoulder to Mac. "Must've been what jammed it." He cursed silently
at the stubborn coin and pulled out a pocket knife, then knocked the quarter
loose. He quickly palmed the coin, then placed it in his pocket.
"Ah!" Mac warned.
"That's thievery, Detective."
"So?" Taggert asked,
shrugging. "Lock me up." Something caught his eye and he stared hard at
the floor, finally kneeling to get a better look.
"Did you find anything?"
Mac asked, leaning over the bar.
Taggert whistled quietly
and stood up. "Someone must have dropped this," he said, displaying a silver
pocket knife. He opened it and whistled again.
"Looks like a gutting
knife," Mac commented, and Taggert nodded.
"Morgan was shot-"
"Yes," Mac agreed.
"But THIS-" He took the knife from Taggert and held it up before him. "This
could place someone at the scene of the crime." Taggert watched him silently
as he placed the knife in a small plastic bag. "We should be able to find
prints on this," he said. "You didn't touch the handle, did you?"
"Only the very end.
When I opened it," Taggert added.
"Good. Then the owner's
prints will be all over it. Let's get this to the lab." He and Taggert
turned and left the club hurriedly.
Liz glanced at her
grandmother as she reentered the waiting room. "Where have you been?" she
asked, relieved.
"I had to check on
something," Audrey replied. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I was worried
about you. And Lucky," she added.
"Well," Audrey said.
"We're both just fine. And you seem to be in a better frame of mind than
when I left you."
Liz stared at her
in shock. "Lucky's FINE?" she asked in disbelief. "He just had a mental
breakdown."
"What?" Audrey asked,
and shook her head. "Where did you hear that?"
"I was there, Gram.
I saw what happened with him."
"He was just upset,"
Audrey assured her. "And trying to make everyone else upset as well. You
don't need to worry about him now."
"Gram!" Liz shouted,
jumping to her feet. "Why are you trying to get me to forget about
my Lucky. He's my best friend!"
"Best friend?" Audrey
asked. "This morning you hated him!"
"I didn't hate him!"
Liz yelled in response. HE'S the one who got so mad at me last night! I
went to the station to talk to him, because I thought if he was that worried,
he might apologize, but-"
Audrey interrupted
her, grabbing her shoulders and looking straight into her eyes. "He let
you believe that he hated you," she said calmly. "Whether he did or didn't
really feel that way isn't important. If he's going to treat you that badly,
then he doesn't deserve your friendship. Now, PLEASE come home with me.
It's late and you haven't gotten any sleep-"
Liz sagged against
Audrey's body and wrapped her arms around her. "I AM tired," she said quietly.
"Just promise me something." She pulled back from her grandmother and regarded
her seriously. "We come back in the morning. Just to see how he is."
Audrey felt a tightening
in her stomach, but smiled and agreed. She and Liz turned to leave the
waiting room, but were stopped by Gail Baldwin. "Audrey!" she said, her
voice a mixture of shock and anger.
"Yes Gail?"
"What is this Joe
Scanlon told me, about you telling him I gave you permission to see my
patient?"
"Well," Audrey said,
looking nervously to Liz. "I just wanted to-"
"I don't care WHAT
you wanted to do! He's a psychiatric patient and you had no right visiting
him. ESPECIALLY not without clearing it with me first."
"I'm sorry," Audrey
apologized, and started pulling Liz toward the exit.
"Wait!" Liz yelled,
pulling away. "What did you do?" she asked, looking at her grandmother
frantically. She turned to Gail. "What did she say to him."
Gail shook her head.
"I'm just going to check on him," she said. "I'll let you know anything
I can when I'm done." She walked away.
"Elizabeth-" Audrey
began, but was cut off at a look from Liz.
"I'm not going anywhere!"
Liz yelled, her eyes flashing. She looked away and saw Luke and Laura staring
at them. Laura's mouth was hanging open. "I'm sorry," Liz said to them.
"Sorry for what?"
Laura asked, confused.
"YOU haven't done
anything," Luke said, glaring at Audrey.
Laura exhaled heavily
and started toward the door. "Call me if you hear anything,'" she said
to Luke. "I'm going to pick Lulu up from Ruby's."
Lucky collapsed in
a chair outside. He dropped his heavy head onto his arms and felt the world
spin slowly around him. The cool air helped to combat the sedative the
doctor had given him, but his head hurt terribly. Every movement brought
a flash of pain in his head. He groaned loudly and cursed Dr. Scanlon
again for not giving him a painkiller as well. This thought was interrupted
as the door to the diner opened and Ruby poked her head out.
"I was wondering when
you were going to get here," she said. She waved him in. "Come on in. Your
sister is entertaining the customers." Lucky got up reluctantly and
walked to the door. Ruby frowned as he walked by her. "Are you okay?" she
asked, noticing his flushed face.
"Yeah, I'm just a
little tired," Lucky lied and walked inside. He spotted Lulu immediately.
She stood on a chair at a table near the counter, holding a salt shaker.
She was playfully dumping its contents on the table. "Lulu!" Lucky cried,
and hurried to her. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her cheek. "I
missed you so much," he said, near tears.
Lulu laughed in his
arms and gave him a wet kiss on the cheek. Lucky laughed and set her down
again on the chair. She smiled up at him as he sat in the chair beside
her. He smiled back, and just watched her for a minute before he remembered
something. "Ruby?" he called. Ruby came out of the kitchen and looked toward
him.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you have any aspirin?
I've got this headache-"
"Sure," she said.
"Under the counter."
Lucky got up, relieved.
He found the aspirin and popped two in his mouth, then returned to the
table and lifted Lulu in his arms. "We better get going," he said to Ruby
when she walked out again. "It's past her bedtime."
Ruby smiled at them.
"You're starting to sound like a mother, Lucky," she said with a laugh,
and waved them off. "Good night!" she called as Lucky left with Lulu in
his arms.
When they were outside
Lulu started squirming and asked to be put down. Lucky set her on the ground
and she started skipping in front of him. He watched her with a smile.
After a while she stopped and held her hand out to Lucky. Lucky grabbed
it and they walked toward the docks, hand in hand. They walked across the
docks and to the launch for Wyndemere. By the time they reached the launch,
Lucky's headache had gotten much better, and the dizziness was minimal.
He prayed this was a sign he was getting better, and that a good night's
sleep would complete his recovery.
Lulu just smiled at
him trustingly at him as they boarded the launch. She sat on his lap during
the trip across, and didn't ask any questions about where they were going
or why. Lucky smiled down at her and strained to remember the passage to
the house his father had told him about. He thought he could find it by
the time they reached the island, and he stepped off the launch confidently
and reached out to pull Lulu after him.
They walked up the
docks and the sprawl of the lawn at the front of the house. He led them
to the hidden passage and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it actually
was there. He crawled in, then held out his arms for his sister. She jumped
into them silently, only squealing a little when the door closed and they
were left in the dark. "Sshhh," Lucky whispered soothingly. "Don't worry,
I won't let anything happen to you." Lulu quieted down and they started
down the tunnel. Lucky held Lulu carefully in one arm, and felt along the
wall with his other hand. He had been walking for a few minutes when he
finally realized that he was actually IN the walls of the house. He laughed
a little, but stopped as fresh pain filled his head, but his laugh still
echoed softly through the chambers. He sighed and continued walking.
Gail walked toward Lucky's
hospital room, and was alarmed to see two guards sitting in the chairs
outside his room. She thought they were supposed to be inside. "What's
going on?" she asked as she approached them. "Why aren't you inside with
Lucky?"
One of the guards
looked at the other ruefully then looked back at the psychiatrist. "He's
gone," he said, with some shame.
"He's GONE?" Gail
asked in shock. PLEASE tell me you're joking!"
"No," the other guard
said, shaking his head. "He ran straight into us. Caught us off guard,
so we just kind of fell back-"
"You LET him get away!"
Gail wrung her hands desperately. "I don't believe this," she said despairingly.
"Why even bother with a psychiatric wing?" she asked herself.
"Doctor?" one of the
guards asked, a little worried.
"Oh, shut up," Gail
said with uncharacteristic vehemence. She looked up and saw Stefan Cassadine
and his nephew walking toward them. He stopped when he reached them and
looked to the shame-faced guards.
"There is a problem
here?" he asked.
The guard who had
spoken first to Gail nodded. "We're sorry we called you. We didn't, uh--
know who exactly to contact."
"What happened?" Stefan
asked shortly.
"Well-" the guard
continued. "A patient escaped."
Nikolas laughed. "Escaped?"
he asked.
"He's a psychiatric
patient," Gail explained. "He was supposed to be restrained." She frowned.
"I guess Audrey must've done that," she muttered, bringing confused looks
from Stefan and Nikolas. "Oh well," she said, then looked back to Stefan.
"We left his regular clothes on because we didn't want to wake him to change
them. So he could've walked out of the hospital as easily as you or me."
"Can you send out
a description to the police?" Stefan asked.
Gail laughed. "I can
do better than that," she said. "I'd better call Mac the station and let
them know he's loose, though. I KNOW I won't have to ask them to call for
a search." Stefan raised an eyebrow inquisitively and Gail figured he wanted
an explanation. "He's only a boy," she said. "Lucky Spencer." Nikolas and
Stefan stared at her in shock. "He had a breakdown early this morning at
the police station and we brought him here. Of course that was after Detective
Taggert hit him in the head with the phone."
Nikolas burst out
laughing, but quickly stifled it with the back of his hand. He was immediately
concerned for his brother, but the thought of Taggert hitting Lucky was
too much to bear. He thought back to their encounter with Lucky in the
elevator earlier that night and opened his mouth to say something to his
uncle.
"The elevator," Stefan
said before he had a chance. Nikolas nodded and Stefan continued, glancing
at Gail. "We saw him in an elevator on our way to the lobby earlier," he
explained. "He didn't look well." He paused, then frowned at Gail. "He
left the hospital," he said finally.
"Are you sure?" Gail
asked.
"We saw him leave,"
Nikolas said. "Like you said-"
"You couldn't tell
him form anyone else," Gail finished for him. "Of course not. He was wearing
ordinary clothes. She rubbed her cheek thoughtfully then started to walk
away. "I'm going to call the police station," she said back to them. "I'm
sure somebody there will be able to help us."
Nikolas and Stefan
glanced at the guards again, shaking their heads, then walked off together.
Mac and Taggert looked
up as V. Ardanowski walked in. She smiled at them and waved a sheet of
paper in her hand. "We got it," she said happily, and walked to them.
"Well?" Mac asked
eagerly.
"Well," V. said cheerfully.
"It was pretty easy because Felicia already had a good idea who the knife
belonged to-"
"Felicia?" Mac asked,
surprised. "What was she doing there?"
"Who cares?" Taggert
cut in. "Just tell us who the knife belongs to."
V. smiled again. "Well,
actually Felicia was wrong. She THOUGHT it belonged to Luke Spencer, but
it doesn't-" Mac started to interrupt her, but she held up her hand. "So
we decided to check the rest of his family while we were at it. We thought
if we could NOT run a match test, then it would be a lot quicker. Anyway,
it turns out it's LUCKY Spencer's, not his father's."
Taggert and Mac looked
at each other with equally shocked expressions. "This morning-" Taggert
started, and Mac nodded.
"That would certainly
help to explain his behavior," Mac said. "Even though his didn't really
lose it until after Liz Webber showed up, right?"
"Uh-huh," Taggert
said. "But he wasn't exactly normal when he came in with Mrs. Hardy either.
He was practically on another planet."
Mac frowned. "I still
can't imagine him killing someone," he said. "I've known Lucky for a long
time, and it just DOESN'T fit with him."
"You've got to remember,
Mac," V. cut in. "He isn't exactly himself right now. You said that a while
ago after he was arrested at his dad's club. SOMETHING happened to him,
kind of like Tony Jones, maybe-"
"No!" Mac yelled angrily.
"Stop it, okay! Just stop it! What happened to our original idea, anyway,
Taggert. Just because Lucky was at the club sometime since it closed DOES
NOT mean he was the killer. We don't even know he was there that DAY."
"He doesn't have an
alibi," Taggert pointed out.
"Forget it," Mac said
stubbornly. "We'll call General Hospital later and tell them we need to
speak to Lucky. He can tell us himself that he didn't kill Jason."
A young female officer
stood and looked around the room for Mac. "Commissioner Scorpio!" she called
when she spotted him. Mac, V., and Taggert looked over to her in unison.
"You have a call on Line one," she said. "A Dr. Gail Baldwin?"
Lucky stopped and nearly
dropped Lulu on the ground. He set her down as gently as possible and slid
down the wall. He made his arms into a cradle and dropped his head onto
them. His head pounded, and he felt his stomach churn. He lifted one hand
wearily to his head to wipe the sweat away and looked blearily at his sister
standing beside him.
"Lucky?" she asked,
putting a tentative hand on his arm. Lucky fought back the urge to push
the hand away, and instead pulled her closer to him.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"I just need to catch my breath real quick, okay?" He leaned harder against
the wall and was shocked to feel it start to slide behind him. "Hey," he
said, and forced himself to crawl forward. His eyes, now accustomed to
the dark, fell upon a dark piece of furniture as the wall continued to
turn. "Come on," he said to Lulu, and they hurried into the room before
the passage shut again.
The wall slid back
into its original position and Lucky surveyed his surroundings. The room
was small, and, looking out the windows, he realized it must be at least
the second story of the house. He thought back to their journey through
the walls, and could barely remember climbing a flight of stairs. "Huh,"
he said, and turned to look at the rest of the room. Aside from the couch
in front of the secret door, the furniture was all covered and most had
layers of dust and cobwebs on them. "They don't come up here much," he
remarked. He looked around for a while longer, than looked down at Lulu
and smiled. "We're home," he said, and swept her into his arms again.
Mac hung up the phone and looked
at Taggert angrily. "Don't say a word," he said. "Not a single word."
"What?" Taggert asked,
unable to hide his curiosity.
Mac took a deep breath
and glanced around the room. V and Taggert looked at him expectantly, but
he avoided looking directly at either of them. "Lucky broke out of his
hospital room," he mumbled.
"Lucky WHAT?" Taggert
exclaimed. He thought his ears were playing tricks on him. "That little--he
broke out! Of a guarded hospital room!" He paused and looked to V, who
was just watching Mac curiously. "How'd he manage that?" he asked finally.
"Wasn't he supposed to be restrained?"
"He was," Mac replied.
"Gail talked to Audrey Hardy. She took the restraints off when she went
in to see Lucky."
Taggert help up a
hand to stop him. "The security at GH must really stink," he said. "How'd
she get in past the guards?"
"Easy," Mac said.
"Joe Scanlon was Lucky's doctor when he was admitted. For the HEAD injury."
Taggert lowered his head slightly. "Yeah, well, she told him she had permission
and he just assumed she was telling the truth. I mean, wouldn't you--Audrey
Hardy?" Mac shook his head. "I still don't think he's our killer," he said.
V broke her silence
and turned to Mac excitedly. "Murder?" she asked, surprised. "You mean
the General Homicide murders?"
"No--" Mac said hesitantly.
"The Jason Morgan murder."
V was completely shocked.
"Jason Morgan was murdered?!"
Taggert and Mac looked
at each other, and, despite the gravity of the situation, broke out laughing.
"What did you think we were talking about, V?"
V crossed her arms
and stared in disbelief at them. "Well EXCUSE me," she said. "You asked
me to check out the fingerprints on a pocket knife. I didn't know I was
helping in a MURDER investigation."
"Well," Mac said,
his smile fading. "You are."
The General Hospital
psychiatric ward's waiting room was the picture of chaos. Liz had pulled
back when Gail reentered the room, flanked by Nikolas and Stefan Cassadine.
None of them had looked to happy. Not long after they entered, Audrey came
in, and Stefan had been all over her. Liz wanted to feel sorry for her
grandmother, but could not after what she had done to Lucky. She knew that
Audrey was largely responsible for Lucky's escape.
Now everybody in the
room was arguing and accusing each other, with the exception of Nikolas.
He stood a few feet apart from Stefan, watching and listening to a heated
conversation he was carrying with Luke and Bobbie Spencer. Liz frowned,
trying to remember when Bobbie had shown up. The thought was interrupted
as Nikolas started walking toward her. Liz groaned and looked away, hoping
he would ignore her and walk by.
"Liz," he said calmly
as he came to a stop in front of her.
"Look, Nikolas, I
don't want-"
"I know," Nikolas
replied swiftly. "Neither do I. I just want to tell you how sorry I am.
I may not a great admirer of Lucky Spencer myself, but I know he's a friend
of yours, and I know how it must hurt you to see him like this." Liz raised
an eyebrow. Every word out of Nikolas's mouth sounded like a practiced
speech. "Besides," he added after a slight hesitation. Liz looked at him
expectantly. "He's my brother, isn't he?" After saying the words, he heaved
a big sigh of relief, as if he had been storing the words in just for a
moment like this.
Liz stared at him,
unsure if the words had ever really passed his lips. She figured she had
just imagined them, and just stared at him, waiting for him to say what
he had actually intended to.
Nikolas stared back
at Liz, who seemed not to have heard him. "Liz?" he asked to bring her
back to reality.
"Huh?" she said, then
her face cleared a little. "That's the first time you've ever admitted
it," she said, realizing at last she had not been imagining the words.
"Even to Sara. She said you would NEVER admit it--out loud."
Nikolas shook his
head. "I admitted it," he said. "I just couldn't manage to bring myself
to say the words. It's not that I don't admit that he is my brother--of
course I do. You can't do anything to change the facts. I just--never acknowledged
it." He shrugged. "I just made him into another enemy. As long as I didn't
consider him my brother, I could hate him. It's when I start to think about
out mother and Lulu that everything gets confused."
Liz listened to Nikolas,
reluctant to interrupt him. He was practically pouring his heart out to
her, here in the middle of a hospital room full of people. She glanced
a little nervously around the room to check for prying ears or eyes. Everyone
seemed absorbed in their own conversations, so she look back at Nikolas.
He was staring at her as if he expected her to say something, but she couldn't
think of anything, so she just smiled.
Nikolas shook his
head again. It seemed the easiest thing to do-- a lot easier than admitting
any more of his feelings to Elizabeth.
Liz took one of Nikolas's
hand. "Have you ever admitted THAT to anyone?" she asked quietly.
"No," Nikolas responded,
and pulled his hand away. He was growing uncomfortable with the direction
of the conversation. "Like I said, I'm sorry. I hope everything works out
with you." He turned on his heel and left the room, before Liz could get
a chance to call him back.
She sighed after he
left, then waked over to the Spencers. Apparently they had broken off their
argument with Stefan, and the three adults stood staring silently at each
other. The silence was broken when Liz joined them. "Oh, hi Elizabeth,"Bobbie
said kindly. Her voice had a slight tremor to it, and Liz could see she
had been crying. "You must be scared to death, you poor thing,"Bobbie continued,
and wrapped her arms around Liz. "Don't worry about Lucky-- he'll be just
fine," Bobbie said soothingly, but she sounded as if she needed reassurance
herself. "He'll have to be."
Laura walked up to
Kelly's and walked in the door. It was not very crowded, so she expected
to see Lulu out front. She was surprised to see her daughter was nowhere
in sight.
Ruby came out of the
kitchen, then, carrying an armload of dishes. "Oh here," Laura said, rushing
to her. "Let me clear a spot for you," she said, and pushed a vase of flowers
over on the counter.
"Thanks," Ruby said
gruffly. "I'm a little short on help tonight," she explained. "All my waitresses
keep quitting on me."
"And your delivery
boys," Laura said, indicating Lucky.
"Yes, him too. I was
actually a little surprised to SEE Lucky tonight."
"Lucky?" Laura asked,
perking up. "Lucky was here?"
"Yes--" Ruby replied.
"He came to pick Lulu up. He got her and they-"
Laura's hand flew
up to cover her mouth in shock. "Oh no," she whispered hoarsely. "Did he
say where he was taking her?" she asked Ruby frantically.
"Well, no," Ruby answered.
"I figured he'd take her home, at this hour-"
"This hour? When was
he here?" Laura's questions were coming out more hurriedly and forcefully
now.
"An hour or so ago,"
Ruby replied. "I don't know for sure, Laura," she said, seeing the panic
on Laura's face. "I've been working all night."
"That's fine," Laura
responded, forcing herself to get a grip on herself. "Call me if you hear
ANYTHING," she said to Ruby, then ran out of the diner.
Lucky lounged on the
sofa, watching Lulu. She ran around the dusty room, pulling covers off
old furniture and laughing happily. Lucky watched her enviously; he could
not remember a time that he had been that happy or carefree. His mind drifted
momentarily back to his life before Port Charles, but he pulled it back
quickly. The mere thought of his parents made his head pound even more.
He was reminded again of his head. He had searched the room and the rest
of the hall for anything remotely resembling aspirin, but had found nothing.
The pain had mostly abated, but he knew it would be back in the morning.
He made a mental not
in his head that he had another reason to hate Taggert. His gaze, which
had been resting on an old dust-covered chandelier, returned to his sister.
She was entertaining herself with an antique doll that had been tossed
into a corner. Lucky watched with some disgust as a large brown spider
crawled across the doll's forehead and onto one of the glass eyes. He got
up to brush the spider away before Lulu spotted it, but was stopped as
a light scent filtered through the crack under the door.
Lucky breathed in
and gasped as he realized what he was smelling--smoke. He hurried to the
door and used the bottom of his shirt to protect his hand before gingerly
touching the door knob. He was relieved to find it had not even grown warm.
He pulled the door open and stepped out into the hall. He could see no
flames, but the smell of smoke was stronger, and he could see a little
gray eddying thickly through the air at the far end of the hall. He ran
back in the room and picked Lulu up, tossing the doll to the floor in his
haste.
Lulu wailed in protest,
but quieted as she, too, smelled the smoke. She sensed the panic in her
brother and allowed him to carry her out of the room without another sound.
Lucky ran down the hall in the opposite direction. He ran until he found
a long flight of stairs. He strained to see to the bottom of them, and
could barely see curls of smoke at the bottom of them. He glanced down
at the steps, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw they were not carpeted.
Lulu would be safe there--for a while at least.
"Stay here," he told
her urgently.
"Where are you goin'?
she asked, her voice barely audible.
"I have to call for
help," Lucky said. "Let someone know there's a fire. So they can put it
out."
"Oh," Lulu said, but
her face was doubtful.
"Don't worry, Lu,"
Lucky said, kissing her forehead. "I'll be right back for you." He started
back down the hall at a dead run.
Nikolas walked up the
path to Wyndemere and knew automatically that something was wrong. He quickened
his pace a little, and threw the door open to the huge house. He coughed
as he entered. There was smoke everywhere. It wasn't very thick, thankfully,
but the fire still must've been close, and spreading quickly. He waved
his hand in front of his face, and tried to clear his head enough to think
of something to do. He could not see any of the servants anywhere around.
He hoped they had gotten out of the house. "Nik-lus!" someone shouted then,
and Nikolas looked up in shock to see Lulu standing at the top of the stairs.
"Lulu!" he yelled,
and ran up the stairs to her. He hugged her tightly in his arms when he
reached her, then knelt beside her. "What are you doing here?" he asked,
smoothing her hair back from her face.
"Lucky," she said,
and pointed down the hall.
Nikolas looked in
the direction of her hand, and watched in horror as the hall erupted in
flames.