In His Corner-Chapter 7

Chapter 7

John had been up all night reviewing the notes for the rape of Carly Jacks.  At first glance, it looked like an open and shut case, despite the lack of physical evidence.  It was something that Todd Manning had done before.  Given the right circumstances, John could see him doing it again.

And yet, that fact was what bothered him the most.  From all he knew of the man, this man, his gut was telling him it was a false accusation.  The truth was, John didn’t know much about Carly Jacks.  He knew she didn’t like him, blaming him for breaking up Jason and Sam’s marriage.  That alone set them on opposite sides in their first meetings.  But Carly herself?  He would need to get more information on her.

That was why he had found himself at Sam’s penthouse first thing the next morning.  John knew Sam and Carly had a connection because of Jason, so he figured she could give him some insight into the blonde. 

Sam opened the door right away with Daniel in her arms.  The baby smiled at him and he couldn’t help return it.

“John, what are you doing here this early?” Sam asked.

“I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.  Can I come in?”  Sam stepped aside and let John in.  She put her son in his playpen and went to get them coffee.  John accepted it and took a sip.     

“What do you need to know?” Sam asked

“Whatever you know about Carly Jacks,” John replied directly.  Sam raised her eyebrows and John continued.  “I’ll tell you, Sam, what I know about Todd Manning, something about this just doesn’t fit.”

“How so?” Sam asked, genuinely curious.

John took a deep breath, as he was about to launch into one of the most convoluted cases of his career.  “Nearly ten years ago, Todd Manning vanished from Llanview after trying to take on a cult leader who went after his sister, his nieces and then Starr and Blair.  A few months later, he ‘returned’ with a new face claiming he had been beaten so severely he needed the major plastic surgery.  For the next eight years, he lived the life of Todd Manning, married Blair a few times and became father to a son when he himself was raped by a woman obsessed with him.”  

“In August of 2011 the man you know as Todd Manning returned to town saying he had been kidnapped and tortured for eight years.  It was a fantastic story to begin with.  He came to me for help, fearing for his life.  I ran a DNA test on him and obtained DNA on the man we all knew as Todd.  On the night the results came in, we all gathered at Todd’s house, but before we could read the results, it came out how Todd had come into possession of it.”

“A few years beforehand, the woman Todd had raped in college, Marty Saybrooke, had been presumed dead in Ireland.  She had, in fact, been found alive but suffering from amnesia.  Todd had rescued her from the care of a corrupt FBI agent who had found her.  He brought her back to a residence he had purchased for her and saw that she was nursed back to health.  He slowly revealed who he was, but not a thing about their past.  And slowly, Marty fell in love with him.”

“Okay, that’s kind of sick,” Sam said.

“His rationale was that he was trying to make amends for all he had done years ago,” John explained.  “But it had all blown up.  Todd had gotten off on any charges and life went on.  Eventually, he had married his lawyer, Tea Delgado, who had been his lawyer and wife after he had first married Blair years before he disappeared.”

“I don’t know if I see what you’re saying, John,” Sam said.

“This was all revealed to the Todd Manning currently here in Port Charles.  I was there and I saw his reaction to the story of those events.  He was appalled by the thought of anyone doing something like that to anyone, much less Marty.  He excoriated his family for not questioning the other man’s identity after that incident.  He said it was something he would never do.”

“Sam, something tells me that if that held true then, it holds true now.  I don’t think he raped Carly.”

******

When Blair, Viki and Starr arrived at the PCPD, they found Todd sitting in the interrogation room alone.  Blair could tell he was in full self-loathing mode by his posture and body language.  A part of her wanted to run up to him and kiss him in front of everyone.  She had to practice a measure of self-control, though, so she went at him from another angle.

“You really know how to pick ’em, don’t you Todd?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

Todd looked up at her, confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“I had a conversation with your ‘friend’ Carly Jacks this morning.  She’s a piece of work!  Whatever did you see in her?” Blair retorted.

“She didn’t look at me with disappointment in her eyes,” Todd informed her, looking from Blair to Viki to Starr.  “Yep, that’s the look.”

“But she’s more than willing to throw our family history at us,” Starr replied.  Viki turned to her, but she ignored her aunt’s look, choosing instead to plow on with what she had heard earlier.  “She compared you…to your father.”

Todd’s eyes slid to Viki and crinkled up in pain.  The last thing he wanted was for his crimes to be thrown back in his sister’s face.  “I’m sorry,” he said, his mouth dry.

“Don’t worry.  I defended the Lord family name,” Blair said as she sat across from him.  She placed her hand over his as a shot of memory surged through her.  She was again in the LPD from the time of the hospital rapist’s rampage.

“What did you do?” he asked, his voice cautious.

“I punched her, squarely in the jaw.  She went down like a sack of potatoes,” Blair said with a small measure of glee.

“Dorian may disown you for that, standing up for Viki,” Todd responded, trying to inject some levity into the room.

Blair merely shrugged her shoulders. 

Todd heaved out a sigh.  “Look, I do appreciate you all being here.  But, I made my bed, now I have to face up to all of it.”  Todd got up from his chair and walked to the back wall, his arms tucked over his chest.

“Todd, you said you didn’t do this, and we believe you.  We are going to stay and stand by you,” Viki told him in a firm voice. 

“Viki, you have two kids and two grandkids at home.  I really think you need to be there to stem any more Buchanan influence on them,” he replied.  Turning to Blair, he continued, “I’m sure Sam and Jack are wondering where you are.  And if I know Jack, he won’t be pleased with any of the turns this has taken.”  He nodded with his chin towards her ringless hand.  Then he turned to Starr, the sorrow evident on his face.  “I can’t ever make up for what I knew and never told you.  I tried to rationalize it, say I was only doing it to protect you so you wouldn’t go over the edge like you did with Sonny.  I tried to say I was exacting justice on Johnny by making his life miserable with Connie.  But I wouldn’t face the fact that I…I had screwed up with Tea and the baby.  I couldn’t hurt her any more by admitting the truth.”  Todd turned his gaze straight over his daughter’s head, willing himself not to look at her as his emotions overtook them.  “And in doing so…I hurt you.  My little Starr.”  The sob broke loose from him.

Starr walked over to him and pried his arms away from his chest.  Then she placed them around her and was shocked by the ferocity of the hug her gave her.  The top of her hair was growing damp as the sobs continued to wrack through him.

Then she felt another body close in from behind.  Her mother was whispering to him, trying to stem his pain.  The last time the three of them had been this close, she was preparing to leave for Los Angeles with Hope.  Then, it had been her mother that was an emotional mess.  Her father had remained strong and stoic in her presence.  But now, it was only fitting that the roles were reversed.  They needed to be there for him like he had always been for them.  Even for great distances, and time Todd Manning had always been there.

******

Time changed a lot of things, but not Kelly’s.  Scott Baldwin found that comforting.  He had seated himself at the counter and was enjoying a dish of pancakes when a familiar voice actually made him smile. 

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Luke Spencer said, a wary eye trained on the lawyer.

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Scott replied as he turned toward his longtime nemesis.

Luke approached him slowly.  “Why did you come back, Baldwin?”

“I have a client I’m representing here in my hometown.  Thought I’d also use the time to walk down memory lane,” Scotty informed him.

“What nut you have you as his lawyer?”

Scotty smiled at Luke’s jab.  As much as he enjoyed some of Todd Manning’s antics, Spencer had no idea he wasn’t that far off.  And Scott had a Pennsylvania jury to back him on that one.  “The same one I got an acquittal for this past spring.”

“You’re representing Manning in the rape case?” Luke asked.  “Peach of a client you got there.  He’s already a convicted sex offender.”

Scotty eyed Luke and took a step closer, coming almost toe to toe with the other man.  In a low growl, he opined, “Let’s not have you and me talk about rape cases, alright Spencer?  Still a touchy subject, even after all these years, and my client actually has paid in some way for his long-ago crime.”  Then Scotty took a step back.  “Besides, if memory serves, you and your niece aren’t exactly close.  Or has that changed in the years I’ve been gone?”

Luke took in a deep breath.  “No, but I don’t think even sweet Caroline would falsely accuse someone of that.”

“Why not?  She’s used people’s pasts against them before.  Ask AJ Quartermaine…or your own sister.”  Scott looked at his watch.  “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go meet with my client.”  Scott left Kelly’s without a backwards glance at Luke.

But he had planted a seed of doubt in the scoundrel’s mind.