Chapter 10:
As soon as Valentin returned, Stella found him in the kitchen as he was telling the chef to prepare Lulu a special dinner. "Sir, she is asking questions about your relationship."
"Did you tell her what we discussed?" Valentin asked.
"Yes I did. I think she believed me. I told her that her last boyfriend had cheated on her and then she met you."
"Good. I will go see her now, is she in her room?" Valentin asked.
"She is. The guards had said she hasn't left."
"Good I am going up there. See to it that we are not disturbed."
After they finished at the police station, they returned to Dante's loft. "The exhumation is going to happen first thing in the morning," Lucky said.
"Then we will know for sure," Nikolas said. "Why are we here I mean there is something else that we have to be doing or something."
"Someone is coming to help us. He should be here any moment."
As if on cue, the elevator doors opened up and Spinelli came out. "Greetings to the loved ones of the Blonde One, why did you request the presence of the Jackal the Assassin of Cyber Space this late hour?"
"I take it that you have not heard the news yet," Lucky said.
"What news? Is there any information on the people that were responsible for the bombing?" Spinelli asked.
"On a hunch, I had the body's bone marrow tested against mine," Nikolas asked. "We didn't get the results until today."
"What did the results say?" Spinelli asked.
"That the body that we buried yesterday was not Lulu's. We don't know who is in the grave," Dante said.
Spinelli whipped out his trusty computer and set it on the coffee table. "I will assist in anything that would help us find the Blonde One and bring her back home safely! She is the Jackal's best friend."
"We were hoping that you were going to say that. Start with the surveillance videos from the buildings near by the night of the explosion," Dante said. "Hopefully there is something there. I don't want to waste time getting a warrant. The more time we waste the more time the person who has Lulu can hurt her."
Valentin knocked at Lulu's door and entered. She was sitting on a chair on the balcony watching the waves crash on shore. "I am back," he announced.
"How did your meeting go?" Lulu asked over her shoulder.
"It went very well. I am glad it is over because I can spend more time with you. Have you decided what you want to do this evening?" Valentin joined her on the balcony.
"I am getting a little cabin fever being cooped up in this house and on this island. Is there a place nearby that we could go walk around and soak in the sights?" Lulu asked.
Valentin panicked. If Lulu wanted to leave the island and go to the mainland, there had to be arrangements made. She could not be seen on any camera. No one needed to know that she was really alive.
"It might be dangerous right now, my enemies promised me that they will go after things that are important to me to get back at me. They already almost blew up in the car and caused you to lose your memory. I don't want anything to happen to you, Lulu."
"I can put on a dark wig, sunglasses, and a baseball hat or something. That could hide my identity. I want to go someone where else other than this island. Can you please do that for me, please Valentin?" Lulu asked.
Valentin sighed. He didn't want to disappoint Lulu. Then again he didn't want any of her friends or family to find out that she was alive. "We'll go but we are going to take all sorts of precautions, okay?"
"Okay I can deal with that."
Spinelli easily hacked into the cameras of the surrounding buildings. "This one has a great view of the parking lot. Look there is Fair Lulu pulling into her parking spot." He pointed to the screen.
"Speed it up until you see Johnny blocking her in," Nikolas said.
Spinelli did what he was told. "There is the Mob Prince. I am going to fast forward until I see something."
The images on the screen sped up until something caught Lucky's eye. "Wait go back. There stop and play it back."
Spinelli played the scene back. A tall man dressed all in black went to Johnny's car, drawled underneath it, and then disappeared into the night. "That is most defiantly the degenerate that planted the bomb that took our Fair Lulu away from us."
"Can you get a face?" Lucky asked. "There might be a reflection in of the cars."
"No, I cannot Good Detective Spencer," Spinelli said. "I failed."
"Just keep the video playing until Lulu leaves Jake's. Hopefully we will get a look at the person that took her and stashed the body into the car." Dante's were on the screen, not moving.
"As you wish." Spinelli typed a few keys. "Wait there is something. There is Lulu she comes out and sees her car is blocked in and goes back inside."
Someone dressed all in black a little taller and better built emerged from the shadows. Then the cameras went to snow just as Lulu reappeared on the screen.
"Damn it!" Dante shouted. "Our lead is shot to hell. We don't even have a good look of that guy! We don't know who he is! I mean this person went through a lot of trouble to get to Lulu. I mean he had to be watching her for awhile. He had to stay far enough away for her not to notice she was being followed."
"We had to get her out of town somehow," Nikolas said.
"On it looking for…" Spinelli trailed off. "Whoa this is perplexing to say the least…"
"Can someone translate that?" Dante asked. "I don't speak Spinelli."
"It means he got something," Lucky explained. "What do you have?"
"The small airport just outside of town had a private jet land in the early morning hours the day of the explosion and it left about twenty minutes after the bombing. There was no flight plan filed."
"It's an airport there must be some cameras there, right?" Dante asked.
"Yes it's likely that it does but Deceptive Detective, this airport caters to the unsavory crowd. It might not have the highest quality of equipment." Spinelli stated.
"I don't care, look!" Dante shouted. "There must be something there!"
After a few more key strokes, something appeared on Spinelli's computer screen. "Oh dear god."
From his vantage point, Dante should see the man dressed all in black carry an unconscious person with long blond hair in his arms. Dante felt his heart swell, even though he was not able to see her face he knew that was Lulu. "She is hurt but other than that she..."
After he left Lulu's room, Valentin met up with Helena in his office. "She wants to visit another island. She is sick of being cooped up in his house," he said to her.
"I know I overheard you talk to her. It's getting worked out. You need to keep her from reading the newspapers the story of the bombing and her demise actually made the news out here. You must keep her in disguise the entire time she is in public."
"I had one of my men buying her a black wig and several other things. Her identity will be concealed. No one will know who she is," Valentin explained.
"I hate to say this, Valentin but it seems to me that you don't want her to go anywhere. You want her to spend all her time with you, don't you? It seems to me that you have fallen for the blonde waif. You are just like your Uncles Stravos and Stefan. He wanted Lulu's mother for himself so he took her, " Helena warned. "History is repeating itself."
"I am nothing like Stravos or Stefan. I wanted revenge against the Spencers and I got it with Lulu and her unborn child. It is going to drive her father insane to think his baby girl had a baby with his enemy."
"That is the second time you said that, are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Helena asked.
Lulu held on to Valentin's arm as they navigated the crowded marketplace full of vendors and tourists. They blended in so well. If anyone noticed them they would have thought that they were on their honeymoon. Lulu had a waist length black wig, a big floppy straw hat, and a big pair of sunglasses. She was wearing a bright green sundress and a pair of platform sandals. Valentin thought that she looked beautiful and told her so. He even bought her a large bouquet of red roses which he carried with his free hand,
"Thank you for the complement and this." She gestured around her. "Not that don't like your island its get rather lonely when you leave for business."
"Well then I will have my business come to me then." Valentin wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. "I hate being away from you." He kissed her lightly on her lips.
As his lips touched her, Lulu had another memory flash of the mystery man. They were ice-skating on a frozen pond. They were laughing, trying to stay balanced on the thin piece of metal of the skates. He pretended to fall and hurt himself. When she went to tend to him, he greeted her with a passionate kiss. The kiss was some much more passionate than the kisses that Valentin was giving her.
"Lulu?" He looked intently at her. "Are you okay?"
She snapped back into reality. "Sorry."
"Did you remember something?" Valentin asked. "If you did you can tell me you know."
Like hell she will, Lulu thought. "No I thought I did. It was nothing. Come on!" She tugged on his hand. "Let's go exploring on this island!"
Valentin clasped her hand in his. "There is a really nice bistro just off the beaten path with killer sea bass. Let's go check it out."
"Think!" Dante shouted. "There has to be someone out there that would want to hurt Lulu! You are a freaking Cassadine! You have enemies all over the world! I bet you can think of over fifty people offhand that would want to cause you harm!"
"Shouting at us is not going to make us think harder!" Lucky pointed out.
"I am a Cassadine and Lulu is a Spencer. There is someone that wants to harm us both. He is so lethal that even Helena is afraid of him," Nikolas began. "Lulu is the perfect target for him to go after she is his enemies only daughter and my little sister."
"Who?" Dante demanded.
"My Grandfather's bastard son Valentin Cassadine."