Through the Darkness, Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER 15

August, 2013

Blair got off the bed and headed towards the door.  She stopped when she heard Starr’s voice.  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

“No.  I won’t be okay until he’s back with me,” Blair said.  “But I can’t sit back and do nothing.  I’m going to help find your father.”

Starr saw the determination in her mother’s features.  This was the Blair Manning who never let life get the better of her, despite setbacks that would have leveled most people.  This was the fierce protector who never backed down from a fight, even against people like Marty Sayebrooke, Asa Buchanan or even Dorian Lord.    Starr smiled as she nodded her head.  “Jack’s already on that.”

“How so?” Blair asked, turning away from the door.

“The LPD was able to find Dad’s location when he was taken.  Bo, Jack and Brody are headed to Chicago,” Starr explained.

“Jack went?”  That heartened Blair as she smiled at the thought.  Todd had been trying so hard with Jack, from as far back as his return after eight years and Jack was now stepping up.

“Yeah, I think Jack put his foot down about it.  I can’t picture Bo inviting him along,” Star finished.  “I also told him to stay out of trouble.”

Blair kissed the top of Starr’s head, then laughed at a thought.   “A Manning man, staying out of trouble?  That’ll be the day. But you’re a good big sister to try anyway.”  She then took her daughter’s hand.  “Let’s go down and see if there’s any other news.”

The mother and daughter made their way into the Lord Library, finding most of the family there.  Viki saw her and immediately got up.  “Blair, Bo got a lead.  He left a little while ago.”

Blair nodded.  “Starr told me.”  She looked around the room.  “Is there any other news?”

Natalie and Jessica both shook their heads.  Than the redhead said, “I think I’m going to go down to the station and see if I can help with anything.  Even if it is just going over the little evidence we already have.”  She grabbed her bag and left.

“I’m going to go check in on the kids,” Jessica offered and she left the room.

Viki turned back to Blair.  “Do you want me to call Dorian for you?” she asked kindly.

Blair couldn’t help but smirk.  “You really want to get to Dorian before David does, huh?”

Viki rolled her eyes at that comment.  “I was thinking you need all the support you can get at this time,” Viki replied.  “My feelings about your aunt, notwithstanding.”

Blair shook her head.  “No, the last person I need here is Dorian.  But thank you for the thought.”  She turned to Nora.  “What I need now is to find my husband.  Nora, you said you were going to reopen some of the old cases about Todd’s disappearance.”

Nora nodded.  “I have my office compiling the files now.  God knows there are a lot of cases with the name ‘Todd Manning’ on them.  It’s a matter of sorting through the crimes he’s committed and the ones committed on him,” she said sarcastically.  Then she saw the looks from around the room.  All were various degrees of annoyance.  “Sorry, force of habit.  I’m going to head out, see how they’re going with that.”  And then she left.

“Can I get you anything, Blair?” Tina asked quietly.  She looked unsure of how to approach her brother’s wife.

“No, Tina, I’m fine.  I just need to feel useful,” Blair replied.  “I refuse to sit on the sidelines with this.”

“Honey, there are lots of people trying to find Todd.  I don’t know what else you can do,” Viki tried to reassure her.

Blair caught sight of Tea and Dani.  She knew that what she was going through, her sister-in-law going through too.  “How are you holding up?”

Tea offered her a sad smile.  “Not half as good as you are,” she replied.

Blair opened her arms and the two women embraced.  When they parted, both had tears in their eyes.  “What we can do is try to figure this out.  This isn’t something that just happened.  I think we need to go back over everything, going back to when Todd went missing from the crypt.”

Starr nodded in agreement, but added, “That’s a lot of time, Mom.  Do you think we’ll find anything from it?”

Viki stood up and joined her brothers’ wives.  “We have to,” she said.

Blair nodded in agreement.  “Then, let’s get started.  Let’s go through events, memories, anything.  There has to be a pattern here.”  With that, the women set to work.

**********

Bo, Brody and Jack were directed to the motel Todd had been staying at and met with the lead detective there.  “Nick Jobek.  I take it you’re the party from Llanview, PA?”

Bo nodded.  “Commissioner Bo Buchanan, my deputy, Brody Lovett and Jack Manning.  His father’s the one that disappeared.  What have you got here?”

“The room was registered to a Tony Lord, paid cash cash five nights ago,” Jobek said.

“‘Tony Lord’?” Brody asked.

“Probably an alias,” Bo surmised.  “Tony Lord was another son of Victor Lord, by another mistress, Dorothy Randolph.  If I remember correctly, he was born between Viki and Meredith.”  Bo pulled out a picture and approached the man at the desk.  After an introduction, he showed the shot.  “This was the man who went by Tony Lord?”  At an affirmative, Bo handed it over to the detective.  “Todd Manning, tabloid publisher and one of the heirs of the late Victor Lord.”

“I knew this guy,” Jobek said handling the picture himself.  “We played high school football together.  Man, he was brutal on the gridiron.  But I guess that was how he had to be.”

That perked up Jack’s ears.  “Why do you say that?”

As they made their way to the room, the cop explained, “It was our junior year, biggest game of the season.  He missed a tackle and we lost.  Well, after the game, I saw him with his dad and man, was he getting laced into by the guy.  Calling him worthless, a failure.  It got so bad, my own father was ready to step in.”

Jack recalled a conversation he had had recently, when Todd had tried to talk to him about the man who had raised him.  Peter Manning was never a subject that was brought up much when he was a child, but now, he figured that it may not have been as clear a memory to Victor.  “If you knew him, what was he like back then?”

“Moody, kept to himself.  Not so hot academically.  In fact, it was his football prowess that got him into college,” the detective answered as they approach the room.  Before they were let in, Jobek said, “He was a pretty good writer, though.  I remember seeing a grade from a writing class.  It was kind of for the jocks, real easy, but the teacher always gushed to him about his work there.”

Jack found that interesting.  He remembered his mother saying how good of a writer, even for a rag like The Sun, Todd was.  “Guess his talent showed early,” Jack commented.

Going into the room, it was obvious the place was the one seen in the video.  A glass-top table was shattered, probably where Todd had landed when the kidnappers entered.

“Bo, found the computer,” Brody said.  It was shot up and in pieces on the desk. 

“Bag it.  I want it looked at by CSU back in Llanview.”

Jack wandered into the room’s bedroom and found his father’s suitcase.  Bo followed him and began going through it.  Another note, with the same symbol as the others, was tucked in a pocket.  Bo opened it, and Jack read over his shoulder.

5316 West Gladys St.

Don’t fail us again.

“Did your mother mention this message?” he asked Jack.

Jack shook his head.  “No, just the three I gave you,” Jack answered.  “Where is West Gladys Ave?  And how would Todd know?  There’s no town mentioned.”

“That is a very good question, but the bigger one is, what do they want him to do?” Bo asked.

Jack figured it out immediately.  “Kill Victor,” he said.  When Bo turned to him, he went on, rolling his eyes that he had to spell it out for the police commissioner.  “Todd obviously didn’t kill him two years, or else he wouldn’t have been informed by them about it in the first place.  Then they told him he failed them when they recaptured Victor.”

Bo seemed to think about it for a minute than went back into the main room.  Jack followed and as Bo looked the scene over, he said, “We don’t know that --“

“But it makes sense.”  Jack’s tone wasn’t accusatory, just putting the pieces together.  “Almost from the minute he got back to Llanview, Todd’s had a gun trained on Victor.  He even pulled one on Victor at the premiere.”

Bo didn’t say anything, but Brody, overhearing it, asked, “Why would they want Victor dead and Todd to be the one to do it?  He’s got a long rap sheet, but killer has never stood out on it.”

“He has killed before, but the death was ruled accidental,” Bo informed the others.  “If your theory is right, Jack, someone would have to really pull his strings to do it.”

“Like threatening his family?” Jack suggested.  Then he took a breath and admitted, “He’d do anything to protect his family.”

Bo nodded.  “That’s why he went up against Mitch Laurence all those years ago.  Mitch was going after Jess and Todd was trying to protect her and Viki from him.”

“What happened all those years ago?” Brody asked.

Jack didn’t even know, so Bo explained how Mitch confessed to raping Viki and claimed Jessica as his daughter.  “Todd went after him, but disappeared.  Blair later claimed she overheard Mitch and his minions in the Lord mausoleum talking about Todd being in the crypt with his father’s body.  She tried to move the top but couldn’t and by the time it was moved, Todd was gone.”

“That was when Tomas took him out and brought him to Irene, right?” Jack asked, trying to follow.

“Yes, at least, according to Tomas, who is also missing.”  Bo saw Brody’s expression and explained about the engagement of Blair and Tomas and how Todd returned to Llanview briefly to assume that Tomas Delgado was the same man as a Lorenzo Alcazar.  “Tomas never came back and a CIA agent showed up and said he had been recalled.  Tea and Blair thought Todd had him kidnapped again.  I never heard how it was resolved, though.”

Jack spoke up.  “Mom and Tea went to DC to ask Dorian for help.  They came back a few days later and the whole thing was dropped.  Mom wasn’t wearing her engagement ring and she said she didn’t want to talk about it.  Tea kept looking for a few more months, but to Mom, the matter was closed.”

“Could he have factored into this?” Brody asked.

Bo shook his head.  “I don’t know, but I think that’s a lead we will be looking into.”  He turned to Detective Jobek.  “Thank you for all your help.”

The cop nodded, but said, “As this was a crime committed here, my commander wants me to continue to liaise with the LPD.”

“I think we can do that.  Most of this is going to be sent to our investigators though.  Why don’t you come back to Llanview with us?  At the very least, I know Todd’s family would like to know a little more about his childhood,” Bo said in agreement.  The other man offered a grimacing smile and they left.