Through the Darkness, Chapter Thirty Four

CHAPTER 34

August, 2013

Blair brought Todd to the hospital instead of the EMTs.  He refused most of the treatment they were giving him, but Blair wouldn’t let him off so easily.  Jack stayed behind with Victor to give a statement.  When they got to Llanview Hospital, unfortunately, they saw Viki first.

“What happened to you?” she asked, concern in her voice.

“Uh, I, um” Todd stuttered, unprepared for dealing with this sister.

“Well, Victor stopped by Todd’s office today,” Blair began.

However, before she could continue, Viki rolled her eyes.  “Oh, Todd, I had hoped you two could have waited to start with the fight over the money!  There are many more important things to worry about than the inheritance.”

Todd, who still wasn’t so peachy keen with his brother that he wouldn’t take advantage of a situation, grinned at that comment.  “That was what I said, but he attacked me, and may I say, it was unprovoked.”  Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Blair’s disapproving look.  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to press charges against him, though.  He did apologize for losing his temper before we left to come here.”

Viki continued with the disapproving look.  “I still have hope that you two will at least come to some understanding.  I don’t expect you to ever be close.  Lord knows Tina and I have had our issues over the years,” she said. 

Todd at least looked suitably chastened.  “I’m sorry, I really am.  You know, we are working on our relationship.  It’s just, it’s going to take a lot of time.”  Then he looked over at Viki.  “Is there any more word on Clint?”

“Yes, actually, he regained consciousness a little while ago.  The girls are in with him now,” she answered.

“Have you been in to see him?” Todd asked. 

She eyed her brother again.  “It’s more important for Natalie and Jessica to see their father, I think.”

A nurse then came over and Todd and Blair moved over to an exam room.  Larry Wolek followed them a few minutes later.  “You’re getting to be a regular here, aren’t you Todd?” he asked.

“Not by choice,” Todd grumbled as Larry examined his shoulder. 

“What happened now?”

“Rough housing with my brother?” Todd tried.

“Somehow, Manning, I doubt that,” he heard Bo say as he came in.  “I just got the report from the officer who was at the incident and, sorry, I just don’t buy it.”

Todd turned to Larry.  “Look, can you give us a minute?”  Larry looked between the two and left.  Todd turned back to Bo.  “I do need to talk to you…about some things.”

“Like the fight that was just reported to the station between you and Victor?” Bo asked in his usual suspicious tone.  “You’re going to tell me that it was completely unprovoked, right?”

“It was, Bo,” Blair chimed in.  “We may have gotten closer to some of what happened to both Todd and Victor.”

“Okay, then, what did you find out?” Bo questioned.

Todd gave him a rundown of the day’s events, with the exception of Jeffrey King’s possible involvement.  “Jack found the video of Carl Peterson’s speech and when Victor heard his voice, he got…weird.”

“Weird how?”

“He went rigidly straight when Carl was talking on the video.  I tried to get his attention, tried to shake him out of it,” Todd explained, waving to his limp arm.  “That was what the outcome of that was.”

“And once Jack shut the video off, Victor went back to normal,” Blair added.

“Well, normal for him, at any rate,” Todd commented snidely.

“What are you saying?” Bo asked, looking disbelieving.

Todd had to roll his eyes.  “I’m saying that right now, my prime suspect in all this is Carl Peterson.”

Bo turned around, trying to rein in his anger and collect his thoughts.  “You don’t even have circumstantial evidence at this point.  I still don’t even know what you are trying to say here.  What do you think Carl Peterson did, if he had anything to do with this, and I don’t buy that now?”

“I think he brainwashed Victor,” Jack said as he joined the group. 

Bo turned to Jack.  “Come again?”

Jack rolled his eyes, the very image of his father.  “When Victor heard the voice it was like a switch went on.  When I turned the video off, it went off.”

“And I tried to shake him out of it and he attacked me,” Todd said. 

“Todd, what you are telling me is fanciful at best, insane at worst.”  Bo began to walk away.  “Look, if you can bring me solid evidence, I can pursue it.  But right now, in a competition between you and Carl Peterson about who I believe, I’m sorry, it’s not you.”

When he was gone, Todd turned to Blair.  “Why does that not surprise me?”  Blair offered him a sympathetic smile.  “Well, I do have a reputation, as does Victor.  And I’m not so sure how much I want to awaken the Hulk to prove my point.  In fact, that’s my last option.”

“What’s your last option?” Starr asked as she came in. 

“Hey, Shorty.  Uh, we may have found something out about Victor today.  Unfortunately, I had to confront him about it and that’s why I’m here.”  Todd gave Starr a quick update as to the day’s events.  “And, shock of shocks, Bozo doesn’t believe me.”

“Well, this may interest you.  My lunch today, with Aunt Dorian, wasn’t just with her,” Starr said.  “Carl Peterson also joined us.”

“Well, that’s not a big surprise,” Blair commented.  At Todd’s looks, she said, “He’s being hanging with her for a while now.  They were seated together at the dinner, he bought her portrait for a quite frankly ridiculous sum…”

“The overly romantic one that used to hang at the top of the stair’s at La Boulaie?” Todd asked, making a face.  “Why would anyone want that painting?”

Blair chose to ignore his comment.  “She was also having drinks with Carl at La Boulaie and they went to DC together.  Also, he seemed overly interested in Victor Lord.”

“Yeah, he seemed impressed by the fact that Victor Lord was my grandfather,” Jack said with a measure of disgust.

“And he alluded to the fact that Dorian was married to him, which she did seem to want to forget,” Blair added.

“Well, on that one, I have to agree with Dorian,” Todd said.

“At lunch today, he kept harping on it too.  Like Victor Lord was someone who you should strive to be,” Starr said.  “To her credit, Dorian kept trying to steer the conversation away from that subject.”

Todd felt the bile threatening to rise in his chest.  He had been all too aware of how similar he had the potential to be to his biological father.  He shook the thought from his head.  “Look, Bo’s not going to even look at Peterson unless we find something solid.”  He then got a thought.  “I need to see Natalie,” he declared as he moved off the exam table.

“Hey, wait, Larry needs to finish checking you out,” Blair told him, holding her hands up to stop him. 

“Fine,” Todd grumbled.  “Let Larry fix me up.  But right after, I need to talk to Natalie.”     

  

Larry came in then and finished his exam of Todd.  Once it was over, Todd hightailed it to the waiting room.  He didn’t see Viki so he asked a nurse where she was.  The nurse pointed towards a room, where Todd found Viki sitting beside Clint’s bed.  A part of him didn’t want to disturb them, but he needed answers.  Putting on his most charming demeanor, he knocked on the door.  Viki saw him and beckoned him in.

“Well, it’s good to see you,” Todd managed to say without any sarcasm.

Clint didn’t look to be buying it.  “What do you want Manning?”

Letting out a breath, Todd answered, “Well, I wanted to check in on you.  I know…I know Viki was really worried about you.  Despite a lot of the craziness I heard went down, she’s really been worried about you.”  Viki looked at him wide-eyed.  “Come on, sis, like I said, you’re about as done with him as Blair is with me.”

“You and Blair?  Give me strength!” Clint exclaimed.  “What is it with you and your sister?  You just can’t get over your exes?”

Todd was usually loath to admit to having anything in common with Tina, but this time, he actually wanted to defend her.  “What can I say?  They’re in our blood, in our head, in our heart.”  Then he turned to Viki.  “Where’s Natalie?”

“She had to get back to the office and Jessica went home to check on the children.  Have you been looked at?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.  I got to go,” he said as he turned to leave.  “Look, Clint, I hope you get better.”

He walked back into the hall.  “Viki said Natalie went back to her office, so can you drive me there?” he asked Blair.

She nodded, smiling at him.  “I heard what you said in there to Clint.”

Todd gave her a bashful smile.  “Well, a wise woman told me it once and I guess it also applies to my idiot brother-in-law as well.”

Blair gave him a soft kiss on the lips.  Then, she asked him, “Why do you need to talk to Natalie?  You so often actively avoid her.”

“I need to get a phone number from her.  If Bo wants a formal case built, I know a cop who may be helpful in that.’”

“You know a cop?  Who would be willing to help you with that?  No cop on the LPD likes you.”

“Well, conveniently, he’s not on the LPD.  Well, at least not yet,” Todd said with an air of mystery.  “Come on, I’ll explain it on the way there.”  With that, they left the hospital.