Tangled Web, Part Nine
"The lab says the Coke was full of thallium." Josie told Paulina, "It’s deadly poison! Did you swallow any of it?"
"Just a sip." Paulina said, "I feel fine."
"You’d better go to the hospital anyway," said Josie, "Don’t take chances with that stuff! I’ll take you over there as soon as I’ve put out an APB on Zoe Nikos."
As Josie left the room, she brushed past Joe. Paulina looked at her soon-to-be-ex-husband, but said nothing.
"Is it true?" Joe asked, "Is Stark Alexander Nikos?"
"It’s true, all right." said Paulina, "He’s threatening Rachel’s life again – thanks to you! Cass will be serving you with divorce papers, and a custody agreement giving Me sole custody of Dante. Sign them, and let me get on with my life!"
"You think I’m gonna just hand my kid over to you?"
"If you don’t, the whole world will know that you’re a dirty cop who took a bribe!" Paulina hissed.
"I thought you were better than the rest of the Corys!" said Joe, "But you’re just like them!"
"And proud of it!" said Paulina. "Don’t worry, Joe," she added, "I won’t cut you off from Dante; he loves you – though at the moment, I can’t imagine Why!"
**
Meanwhile, at Felicia’s suite:
"Alexander loves me!" she said, "I Know I can get him to stop this whole insane plot!"
"Insane being the operative word!" said Cass.
"I am going to the Lumina Foundation – Alone!" Felicia went into the bedroom.
Cass followed her. "Fel-"
CRASH!
**
Meanwhile, at Lumina:
"You have betrayed me!" Nikos was saying.
"I couldn’t do it!" said Remy, or rather, Zoe, "There’s no reason to hurt Paulina! She’s always been really nice to me! I like her!"
"The police are probably searching for you."
"You mean, for ‘Remy Woods’! So I guess I better go back to Europe – right, Daddy?"
"I will make the arrangements."
**
"OOOH!" moaned Cass, regaining consciousness to find himself face down on Felicia’s bedroom rug. She had been waiting for him, behind the door. A shattered vase lay nearby; that was probably what she used to knock him out.
Cass tried to get up, and discovered that he was tied, hand and foot, with a couple of Felicia’s feather boas. The gag in his mouth kept him from yelling for help, but he tried anyway:
"MMMM! MMMM!"
**
Rachel and Amanda entered Paulina’s hospital room at a run.
"Darling, are you all right?"
"Yes, I’m fine! Don’t worry about me." said Paulina, "The doctors are keeping me overnight so they can flush out my system. They say thallium isn’t something to take chances with – even a mild dose causes nausea, burning pains in the hands and feet, hair falling out in clumps-"
"Good grief!" said Rachel, "Your lovely hair!"
"They think they caught it in time." said Paulina, "It usually takes about forty-eight hours for the symptoms to kick in. It’s funny," she added, "I finally get Joe out of my life, - and now I need his help!"
"I always thought you had a wonderful marriage!" said Amanda, "And a perfect husband!"
"That’s what I kept telling myself!" said Paulina, "Right now, I can’t imagine what I ever saw in the jerk! How could my feelings have changed so completely, just like that?"
"The same thing happened with me and Grant." said Amanda, "One minute I was totally in love with him and the next – as soon as I found out he was sleeping with Lorna- I realized that I didn’t love him any more! In fact, I’d stopped loving him weeks earlier! I just wouldn’t admit it to myself, because then I would have had to admit what an idiot I’d been to marry him!"
"We are Both idiots!" said Paulina.
"You’re smarter than I was!" said Rachel, "Nothing made the scales fall from My eyes! I stayed infatuated right up to the day he died."
"Are you talking about Carl?" said Amanda.
"No, Darling – about Steve Frame – Jamie’s father."
**
Meanwhile, Gary was making the rounds of the docks, talking to the down-and-outs. One of them turned out to be an old acquaintance.
"Ozzie?"
"The Marines have landed!" (Since they had first met just after Gary had gotten a buzz cut, the old derelict called him ‘The Marine’.) Ozzie looked around. "Where’s Lady Blue?"
"Josie’s at work." said Gary, "what are you doing here? I thought Social Services found you a place to live."
"Too many damn rules!" said Ozzie, "do this – don’t do that! Then there was the tv; I wanted to watch Cooking with Joe-Bob, but the rest of them voted for Passion Beach – so I left."
"Listen, Ozzie, I’m looking for a friend of mine – an English guy, with long grey hair, probably in a ponytail. Have you seen him?"
"You mean Andy?"
"Andy?" (Gary knew that Carl’s full name was Carl Andrew Hutchins)
"Andy, Candy, Puddin’ and Pie/Kissed the girls and made them sigh."
Gary shook his head; when Ozzie was like this, there was no sense to be gotten out of him.
He put a couple of dollars in the old man’s hand.
"Thanks. Go buy yourself something to eat."
**
Felicia entered the lobby of the Lumina Foundation.
"I’d like to see Al – to see Jordan Stark." She told the guard at the reception desk.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"I think he’ll see me if you send my name up – Felicia Gallant."
As the guard mumbled in this telephone, Felicia looked up at the security camera.
"Here I am, Alexander!" she said.
**
Cass’ attempts to free himself had failed; who would have thought that Felicia knew how to tie such strong knots?
He wriggled over to the bedside table, and managed to hook the phone cord with his chin. He yanked it, and the phone fell to the floor.
Thank goodness for touch-tone phones! Cass thought, as he punched 9, then 1, then 1 again, with the tip of his nose.
"911 Emergency!" said the operator.
"MMMM! MMMM!"
**
When Rachel and Amanda arrived home from the hospital, Amanda went straight upstairs. Rachel went into the darkened living room. When she turned on the lights, Matthew jumped.
"Oh! Darling, what are you doing, sitting in the dark?" said Rachel.
"I’ve been thinking." said Matthew. "I’ve always taken it for granted that I’m one of the good guys – but I’m not!"
"Of course you are! I can see the white hat from here!"
"I’m serious, Mom! How can you say that, after the way I hurt you? I wasn’t even sorry! I took your forgiveness for granted!"
"It’s true that you hurt me very deeply." said Rachel, "But I still love you."
"I don’t think I’ve ever really loved anyone – until Jasmine was born." said Matthew, "I thought I loved Donna – and then Sofia – but if it came to choice between my life and theirs, well, too bad about them! But I’d die to protect Jasmine. I wouldn’t even hesitate!"
"That’s what love is." said Rachel.
"Is that – the way you felt about Carl?"
"Carl’s my husband, not my child, but – Yes."
"I could see that Carl made you happy – why wasn’t that enough for me?"
"I’ve asked myself that question, many times." said Rachel.
"For a while, I got along with Carl," said Matthew, "I could have kept on doing that; I didn’t have to start plotting to get him out of your life. It was just pure selfishness on my part!"
"Yes, it was." said Rachel, "If you had a second chance, would you do the same thing again?"
"No, Mom! I swear I wouldn’t!"
"Are you sure? If Carl came walking through that door, you wouldn’t act like a spoiled child all over again?"
"I promise you, Mom, my days of acting like a boy are over. It’s time I grew up."
"Good!" said Rachel, "I’ll hold you to that!"
**
Meanwhile, down on the docks, Gary approached a group of bums.
"Have you seen Andy? Old guy – grey hair?"
One man turned and scuttled away. Gary recognized him from his days with BCPD. "Wally?"
Wally ran into an ally. Gary followed him. "Wally?"
An arm went around Gary’s throat from behind, while a familiar voice hissed: "Looking for me?"
NOTE:
Thallium Poisoning: You many have heard of the ‘Mensa Murder’, in which the Carr family in Florida were poisoned, and the mother, Peggy Carr, died, after drinking Coca-Cola which their neighbour (a member of Mensa) had laced with thallium.
The story appeared on Medical Detectives, and there was also a book called Poison Mind. More recently, history was made when the friends of young woman dying of a mysterious illness in China put out an appeal on the internet listing her symptoms, which turned out to be those of thallium poisoning.
In the Florida case, it turned out that adding thallium to coke makes the drink change colour. The killer, a chemist, was able to overcome this problem by adding a second substance (which the police are keeping secret, to discourage copycats) – but of course, Remy/Zoe didn’t know about that.