The man who strode into Mac Scorpio’s office at five till nine
on a Monday morning did so without knocking and was accompanied
by Ric Lansing.
Two wrong moves right off the bat, Mac groused to himself.
You just didn’t barge in on the commissioner when he’d
spent the previous evening arguing bitterly with his youngest daughter,
Georgie, about her boyfriend and her curfew and her responsibilities.
When there had been yet another interminable night spent sleeping
two doors down from his beautiful ex-wife without a single conjugal
visit. And following closely on the heels of those two disasters
had been this morning’s three-hour marathon meeting with the
mayor where Mac was promised no additional funding for the police
force this year.
All of it had conspired to give the commissioner a mammoth headache
that he was currently self-medicating with high-octane doses of
precinct coffee while slumped behind his cluttered desk. And he’d
planned to do that in peace and quiet. Long story short: Mac was
in no mood to deal with Lansing or the suit he’d dragged with
him this morning.
“What?” Mac demanded as Ric drew to a halt in front of
his desk.
“No ‘Good Morning’? No ‘What can I do for you,
DA Lansing’?”
“Stuff it, Ric. You walked into my office uninvited. And you
always have an agenda. So what do you want?”
Ric gestured to the man beside him. “It’s not my agenda
today, Mac. This is Federal Prosecutor, Jack Grayson. He has some
pretty important business to discuss with you.”
Mac’s eyes lit on the stranger as he sized him up in one long,
intense stare. He was tall and thin…too thin…the buttoned
up type…a guy with mousy brown hair, darting eyes one would
be a fool to trust, and a lip that curled a little too easily into
a condescending smirk.
Ivy League wanna-be who’d gone into civil service by default,
Mac sneered inwardly. Frustrated politician. Frustrated something.
Mac disliked him at first sight.
The commissioner leaned back in his chair now, setting his coffee
down and folding his arms across his chest. This should at least
be good for a laugh, he decided.
“Fire away, Mr. Grayson,” said Mac. “I’m all
ears.”
A thick manila file folder dropped noisily onto Mac’s desk.
“That may look like just another pile of legal documents,”
Grayson intoned, “but what I really dropped there is Sonny
Corinthos, gift wrapped and on a silver platter.”
Mac’s expression didn’t alter. He’d heard this promise
a million times. He’d lost count of how many arrests Taggert
had racked up on Corinthos. Not to mention the failed federal charges
from the FBI during the Hannah Scott debacle. And who could forget
former DA, Scott Baldwin’s weekly laundry list of allegations
filed against the dapper don. Corinthos had always found a way out
of the noose before.
Correction: Alexis had always found a way out of the noose for
him, Mac amended with a grim smile on his face.
“So what’s the charge this time?” he queried.
“Attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, and conspiracy to
commit murder,” stated the prosecutor, his small eyes glistening
with excitement. “That’s why my office is involved, as
kidnapping is a—”
“A federal charge, yeah, I know,” Mac interrupted brusquely.
“Just whom is Corinthos supposed to have kidnapped and tried
to kill?”
“One Alan Quartermaine, JR. About two years ago.”
This time, Mac could not disguise his reaction. He was genuinely
surprised. The plot itself was not news to him. He’d heard
back then that Sonny had actually contemplated making an order against
AJ when the man had married Sonny’s baby sister. But there
had never been a shred of evidence that Sonny had actually done
it. And of course AJ was still very much alive and well.
Idly, Mac reached forward to leaf through the fed’s file folder.
Sure enough, the charges were spelled out in stark, black ink. The
evidence outlined neatly and clearly. Signed and properly sealed
by the Justice Department. The second page of the document leapt
out at him.
One of the would-be hit men was talking! Mac swallowed convulsively.
He simply couldn’t believe what he was reading.
“As you can see,” Grayson said, “we have the assassin.
But he’s only testifying to save his own butt, so obviously
a more significant witness would shore up our case. Someone who’ll
play better to a jury.”
The Fed reached across Mac’s desk to point into the file. “We
believe she’s the lynch pin; she’s the one who’ll
get us a conviction. She knew about the hit and didn’t report
it.”
Mac looked down at the name Grayson was indicating, expecting to
see Carly Corinthos written there. Or even Courtney Morgan. Any
name but the one he saw. His heart sank into his stomach.
The name was Alexis Davis.
“Absolutely not,” the commissioner said, shaking his head.
“Sonny putting a hit out on AJ…that’s believable.
But there’s no way in hell Alexis knew about it.”
“How can you be so sure, Commissioner?” Grayson replied.
“We have a source in the Corinthos organization, and rumor
has it the attorney was there just as the fee was paid for the hit.
We hear she’s the one who talked him OUT of it. If she never
reported this to the police, Mr. Scorpio, she’s guilty of a
crime. And if we pressure her and offer her a deal, she’ll
talk. She’s got a kid, after all. Then presto: Sonny Corinthos
in Statesville.”
Mac was still shaking his head. “I’m telling you: Alexis
Davis is an honest attorney,” he fired back. “She’s
stand up. She’s been well-respected as a lawyer around here
even when she had Sonny’s sorry ass as her client.”
Ric rolled his eyes. “You’ll have to forgive Mr. Scorpio,”
he told Grayson. “He’s a personal friend of Ms. Davis.”
“I actually thought you were, too, Ric. And so what, that just
means I know her well enough to see that she’s a good woman
with pretty solid character. Yeah, there were a few errors over
the years—”
“Oh, you mean like faking DID and killing an arms dealer?”
Ric quipped. “Acting like a man to gain illegal access to her
child?”
Mac stood to his feet, a little sick of the man’s self-righteous
tone. “Yeah, I’m sure the prosecutor here knows Alexis
has made a few bad mistakes to protect her daughter. I wonder if
he also knows YOUR history. Didn’t you WORK for that arms dealer
you just mentioned? And let’s not forget Carly, Sonny’s
WIFE, in whom you took a little bit of an unhealthy interest, huh,
Ric? Two words: panic room. Baby stealing. Ring a bell?”
“Unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo,” Ric retorted. “And
you’re bordering on libelous charges, Mac. I’d watch that.
But we digress: this is about getting Sonny.”
“Really? I kinda think it’s about you NOT getting Alexis,”
Mac muttered under his breath.
“Excuse me?” Ric’s dark eyes spit fire at the commissioner.
Mac simply grinned. It had been widely observed by their colleagues
that sparks flew between the DA and his opposing counsel that weren’t
exclusive to the cases they tried. Perhaps this was just as much
about Sonny as it was about Alexis, Mac mused. This idiot
really was relationship challenged.
Ric sighed, exasperated. “You’re protesting an awful lot,
Mac,” he snapped. “I thought you’ve wanted to bust
my brother for like…what is it…ten unsuccessful years
now? The whole time you’ve been commissioner of police? Or
are you in love with Sonny, too? Maybe you and Alexis need to go
into therapy together.”
Light dawned in Mac’s mind and he nodded, a bitter smile crossing
his face. “Ah, your agenda is showing,” he said. “A
little angry at Ms. Davis, are we? What did she do, shoot your romantic
plans outta the water? So now you’re gonna help the Feds force
her to destroy Sonny, huh? That’ll really make her love ya.”
An ugly silence descended upon the room and Mac watched as emotions
chased across Ric's face. He saw something dark and haunting pass
there: hurt…deep and wounding. The next moment, though, it
was gone, replaced by the arrogant smirk he wore like armor.
He and Sonny were more alike than they knew, Mac mused.
There were even odds of each one crashing and burning in a fit of
self-indulgent rage one day. The sad thing was that each in his
own way seemed determined to bring Alexis down with him.
“I don’t have any agenda as you term it,” Ric flared.
“This is a federal action. It’s my job to assist.”
Mac chuckled disbelievingly and downed the rest of his coffee.
“Gentlemen, this personal drama has no impact on the case,”
the prosecutor said. “Like it or not, Commissioner, we have
every intention of pressuring Ms. Davis until she breaks. With her
testimony, we WILL get Sonny Corinthos.”
Mac met the other man’s steely gaze. “Look, I know you
have evidence against Sonny. Bully for you. But the woman…she’s
a single mother with a toddler, for God’s sake. Isn’t
there any way you can leave her the hell out of it?”
“Are you asking me to ignore knowledge of a crime, Commissioner
Scorpio?” the prosecutor demanded. “Because if you are,
that’s a breach of ethics.”
“All I’m asking is whether ruining Alexis’ life is
absolutely necessary to the success of this case,” Mac persisted.
“To get Corinthos? I might even sell my mother out for that,”
Grayson drawled.
Mac’s stomach clenched. Alexis was in for the ride of her
life…
“We’ll be in touch with indictment paperwork,” Ric
stated and the two men exited his office. “Keep the details
under wraps until we’re ready to go forward.”
Mac waited for the two of them to be out of earshot before he gripped
the phone in his hand and dialed a cell number. Sure he’d keep
the details under wraps…from everyone but Alexis.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, it’s Mac Scorpio. There’s trouble. Major trouble.”
“Cassadine?”
“Corinthos.”
“Mac, you know that I no longer handle his—”
“Alexis, this most definitely affects both YOU and Corinthos.
There’s no time for dialogue. Get down here fast.”
Mac hung up the phone and closed his eyes for a moment. This day
had gone from bad to hellish. To finally nail Corinthos…to
make a big public arrest…to get positive media attention for
his brothers and sisters in blue for once…to maybe win back
some of the funding that had been cut…these were his greatest
dreams.
But to have Alexis go down as part of the package? A damn nightmare.
