Chapter 30
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Jax waited as Jerry finished reading the file he gave him. When he was
done he glanced across the table. "When do you think you can go?"
"Me? I get to go?" Jerry smirked.
"Luke is a lot less likely to blow you off than me."
"How'd you find him anyway?"
Jax shook his head. "It wasn't that hard. Which makes me think either
Luke wanted to be found, or other people were looking for him, and
warmed up the trail for us. I'm going to check in with Marcus before
the evening is through, and see if he came up with anything."
Jerry nodded. "I'll leave now, before they know I'm coming. I'll call
before I go see them, and you can fill me in then. You'll take care of
things here?"
"Always do."
"That includes..."
"Miranda. I know. But she is *not* staying in my house."
Jerry smiled. "I wouldn't even think of asking....although..."
"Jerry, you aren't taking her with you, and you aren't telling her
where you're going. I'm giving a little, you give a little-your gift
is to tell Miranda the least amount of information you can."
"Don't order me around."
"It wasn't an order...it was a strongly worded request."
"Obviously you forget I'm older..." Jerry laughed, standing.
"Can you speak up?" Jax continued looking out the window of his
limosine as he talked to Taggert on the phone.
"I suppose." Taggert's voice went up a few octaves. "I'm trying to
stay quiet because if V knew I went above Mac's head, and broke so many
rules of the Sydney Police Department, she'd be a little upset....at
you and me both."
"Me?"
"I'm not going to take all the credit for this brilliant idea. Now,
where was I...oh yeah. There were three suspects, I narrowed it down
to this one."
"Why?"
"Because, this one has the most crimes reported, but the least
prosecuted for, and of those prosecutions, only served 6 months in
jail. Someone was pulling some serious strings-Moreno, Luke Spencer,
or Sonny. Spencer we know about. And a guy this important, you know
never works for only one person."
"Go on."
"Does the name Benjamin Harper mean anything to you?"
"No."
"If it did, would you tell me?"
Jax laughed. "At this point, possibly. Tell me more about Mr. Harper."
"He flew into New York City on Friday, March 24th. He flew out early
morning the next day, giving him plenty of time to come to Port Charles
and do his job. And back to Luke, remember when the Cassadines were
losing money here and there-Stefan and then Helena always complained it
was Luke, Luke always bragged that it was him, but no one was able to
prove it. During part of that time, Benjamin Harper was employed by
Luke, allegedly as a waiter. Luke only has waitresses, no men wait
tables at Luke's. "
"This is all in payroll?"
"Of course not, it's under the table. But when Harper came back to
Sydney he was arrested a few months later for some sort of misdemeanor
tax evasion, and the trial transcripts show your prosecutor...or
whatever they're called here, was certain that he was employed by Luke
Spencer in America under the table. Now if he wasn't a waiter, what
was he? His file has him listed primarily for fraud. And how did the
Cassadines claim to be losing their money? Someone was pretending to
be a long lost relative."
"I thought Luke took credit for that."
"Only for the first few months. After that, Lucky *died* and everyone
assumed Luke gave it up-hell, he was almost always accounted for, and
in town. But that's when Benny boy came by. Now I remember Hannah
telling me that Sonny planned to go to Luke's because he knew Keesha
was having lunch with him at the club. But something came up for
Sonny, and Hannah went instead. How did Sonny know that Keesha was
going to Luke's, unless Luke told him?"
Jax listened, somewhat amazed as Taggert's thought process continued to
flow.
"But Luke wasn't there...and probably had no plans on showing, since he
had Lulu with him at the last minute that day. And Keesha didn't get a
call about the date being broken?"
"No."
"Hannah knew Keesha was going, Hannah went and convinced Miranda to
go..."
"How?"
"Something about a note she wrote claming to be Sonny and needing to
see her."
"That's...never mind." Just like Miranda. Jax didn't understand
Miranda's reasons for aligning herself with Sonny in the first
place-even though she claimed to be an unwilling participant.
"Harper comes in, working for someone, and does his thing. The
question is would it be Luke?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"I don't know yet."
V eased away from the bathroom door. She turned off the water from the
shower she had finished long ago, but kept running so Taggert wouldn't
be wise to her listening.
All week he had been keeping something from her. And now she knew, it
was about the situation at Luke's. But Mac specifically told her that
Taggert was off the case during the vacation, so that meant he was,
again, doing something he shouldn't. Something that could get him into
deep trouble and compromise the whole investigation. And he wasn't
working alone.
She sighed.
V picked up the phone in the bathroom. "Hi Bobbie, it's V...fine thank
you...is Jerry there?...no...on business?....um no, I was just calling
to say hello...I hate postcards you know, I always forget to send
them....sure...thanks I will. Bye."
"Hello?"
"Hi Keesha, it's V."
"Oh hi V. How's vacation."
"Pretty good. Is Jax home?"
"No, he's not back from work yet. Did you try his office?"
"No, but I will. How have you been?"
"Me, fine."
"Any leads on Luke's."
"No." Keesha sighed. "But Mac assures me that they're still working
on it. I hope they find something soon."
"Yes, I'm sure it must be driving you crazy. Not to mention Jax."
"You know him."
"Yes." I do. "Tell him to call me, okay....okay...bye." Again V hung
up. She tightened her robe and walked out of the bathroom. Taggert
was already off his phone. She came over and smiled at him, kissing
him gently.
"What?"
"Nothing." V lied.
She hated being on the opposite side of Jax on something. And that
oppurtunity had only presented itself once, way back when they first
met and she thought briefly that he was a felon.
But she knew Jax. And Jax would use whatever methods to find out who
did this to Keesha. And if he was using Taggert, despite knowing the
trouble it could cause, that meant Jax thought Taggert was his only
chance.
Yet, despite understanding that on some level, the fact remained that
Taggert was her priority. She looked over at him and kissed him again.
Obviously she needed to remind Jax of that fact. Because this was
going no further.
"Benjamin Harper? Never heard of him." Luke puffed on his cigar. "Did
you bring Barbara Jean with you?"
"No. Now stop the lying and tell me what you know."
"You know I've never answered to anyone in my life, and I'm not going
to answer to you just because you want me to." he leaned back in his
chair. "But I will tell you this...if I knew a Harper, I don't want to
any longer, and that includes having the coppers connect him to me
somehow. Even if that means a little office redecorating. I'll tell
you something else. If I did know someone like Harper, he was canned
long before he skipped his butt back to your mother land. I don't
abide by traitors."
"Traitors?"
"That's what I said. Of course..." he laughed "I have so many enemies
as of late...a friend you know is sometimes just an enemy without the
cajones to say so. So basically, if you don't deal only with me, then
you don't deal with me at all. And that, man who will one day likely
marry my beloved sister, is all I *want* to tell you." Luke leaned up
in his chair again. "And I only told you that, because you helped out
my boy when he asked you. Though next time, run it by me, if you
please."
Jerry shrugged. "How is Lucky?"
"Fine." Luke got up. "Remembering things all the time."
"Really?"
"Too bad I'm old, and everything he told me...I forgot." Luke blew out
a puff of smoke and left the bar.
Jax ran a finger slowly up and down Keesha's spine. "Did you talk to
V?" she yawned.
"V? No, why?"
"She called looking for you, but you weren't home yet."
Jax now used his entire hand to gently sweep over Keesha's small back.
She began to fall asleep, and Jax's thoughts began to race. Hopefully
they would catch this bastard...or bastards as the case could
be...soon. So sneaking could stop and things could settle back to
normal, for everyone.
Shani]]>
