Donovan Manor, London
Next day
Shane leaned back in his chair wearing a frown. This was Patrick's third email since the original reached him last night saying that Tony was adamant about speaking to him and had refused to take no for an answer. What the hell was so earth shattering that it couldn't wait another day or two until he reached Paris? "Stupid question, governor," he murmured, rubbing the stubble on his jaw line and let his head sink back against the soft leather and shut his eyes. After all, he'd been the one to send the recording of Andre's testimony to Salem, as though he'd needed to add any more fuel to the fire.
The only question now was, which one of them was going to crack first, Tony or John…
Given the last couple months, he'd worried primarily about Tony's state of mind as evidence continued to pile up linking John's past to events that might have robbed Tony of far more than an adulterous wife.
Perhaps that had been an error in judgment on his part.
Tony might know more about John's past than this brother at this point, but the mind was a mysterious instrument, and lack of conscious memories didn't wipe them away completely. Buried or not, they could still influence John's actions and each piece of the puzzle only served to emphasize his reckless behavior in ways Shane could no longer excuse or rationalize. And the reports coming in from Ops only served to multiply Shane's anxieties.
As he'd told Kim, Ops' assignment was to proceed exactly as he'd done so far, help John catch Tony doing anything illegal, hence, the need for Tony's purchase of Echelon, though another purpose for Ops' presence did exist in Shane's mind…not the one Kimberly had accused him of exactly, playing interference, but he'd requested the agency send someone and he'd handpicked the man himself. At the time, Shane told himself it was oversight. John tended to play by his own set of rules and given his past, Shane could sympathize but he wasn't about to be blindsided either, especially after John's actions at the DiMera compound the previous November.
So, John had received the assistance he'd requested in the aftermath of the performance Tony had given at Colin's wake, along with a watchdog, And John knew right away Shane's purpose in sending the man.
"All of the sudden, you don't trust me?" he'd questioned Shane, within a few hours of his first meeting with Ops. "Tony DiMera slithers back into this town and is doing his damnedest to upset my marriage, and carry on his father's grudge against your children's family, but I'm the one who needs someone up my ass in case I fly off the handle and murder the bastard?"
"It was an agency decision, John, not mine personally."
"Don't pull that bureaucratic bullshit with me, Donovan. We both know exactly the influence you can exercise, and the kind of pull you have with your boss, not to mention just how badly the ISA wants DiMera. The real question is, why are you fighting this?"
Shane had arrived home from a long day and hadn't been in the mood for dealing with John's lopsided view of the situation, or his temper. "Fine, you don't want my help? The agency is always short of men and I have no doubt we can find a use for Ops in some other area of the world where there are actual terrorists who pose a threat to public safety." And without waiting for a reply, he'd hung up.
Of course John hadn't sent Ops back or called Shane's superior to complain. Instead, he'd taken advantage of the resources at his fingertips in ways meant to deliberately irritate Ops, as John figured the way to get around his problem was to give the younger agent all the grunt work. But Ops was creative too, and observant. His reports to Shane were right on the money when it came to John's fears and how they were motivating him, so when the agent confided in Shane just a few weeks or so after John and Marlena's return from the compound that John slipped a bug into his wife's purse, it set off an alarm in Shane's head.
He'd known John to manipulate a situation in order to get what he wanted, but there'd always been limits he stuck to, most notably when it came to Marlena, and Shane found such a decision unfathomable…John was spying on her. That smacked of a man trying to catch his wife in the act of something provocative instead of doing all in his power to keep her safe.
And as if to confirm his fears, right on the heels of this news from Ops, came his conversation with Tony. Once his partner shared the information he'd learned from Ellie Torricelli's brother, Shane had to face the unpleasant implications. What if Torricelli was right? What if John had followed Ellie to Paris all the years ago and discovered her and Tony together? No matter how John tried to convince himself that he trusted Marlena, his subconscious might be affecting his decisions in ways even he wasn't aware of or able to explain and it was clear she wasn't too thrilled with the reasoning he'd come up with thus far. In fact, she'd taken matters into her own hands and gone to Roman, asking for a bug sweeper.
If things kept up this way in the Black household, John was going to lose it and either do or say something that would in turn, make Tony react. Badly was Shane's guess.
Hoping to alleviate the problem to some degree, Shane concocted a scenario so that Marlena would find out about her husband's plans and the fact he'd come back to the ISA and why. He couldn't be certain of it improving their relationship. Getting it out in the open would however make them talk about it, and Tony, and just how the hell they were going to come to terms with the reality of the twins in a way that didn't necessarily include lies and finger pointing, and if it didn't work, at least Shane could tell himself he'd not left Marlena completely in the dark.
He detested not being able to tell her everything almost as much as he hated lying to Kimberly but whenever the temptation took hold of him, the image of her face and the heartbreak he'd witnessed the year they'd first gotten to know each other would quickly change his mind. If he was forced to ruin her husband's reputation in her eyes, he needed solid, irrefutable evidence.
Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, he checked his watch again. It was still rather early in Salem, but Shane's instincts told him Tony would already be up and waiting, pacing the floor like some caged animal or more likely, taking out his frustrations on Bart.
With a sigh, he punched in the number on his speed dial.
"Well, it's about bloody time."
Though he'd been expecting this sort of welcome, Shane snorted. "Remind me when you and Anna go on vacation that I need to invent some dire emergency to interrupt at the most inconvenient moment."
"The way things are going, I very much doubt such an opportunity will arise."
Shane didn't like the sound of that, or the fact that it was uttered without any semblance of humor whatsoever. "Okay. You've had the recording for a week now so is there something John and I missed?"
"Andre wrote a will," Tony informed him.
"Yes, I know."
"And did you subpoena a copy?"
"Of course we did and read the damn thing from cover to cover," said Shane, trying to keep his irritation under control. "There was nothing."
"Apparently yours was missing the key ingredient."
Shane had rather his fill lately of people accusing him of shoddy work or ulterior motives and had to pause to control his anger. "I don't see how since the copy we acquired was the original," he explained in a stiff voice, "and still sealed."
But Tony wasn't impressed. "Andre was probably counting on that, considering he planned in advance there would be a trial and fabricated the copy he wanted you or the court to see."
"Meaning the actual will was kept secret? But that would have called its validity into question, causing any number of legal difficulties for the executor."
"The last thing Andre or any other DiMera would want is for the agency to get an accurate picture of the family's holdings and how they are structured…what they are being used for, legally or otherwise."
"Okay," said Shane, not sure he agreed completely since Andre's purpose in Aremid seemed to aimed at Stefano as much as John, giving him plenty of incentive to betray his uncle's operation to the ISA, though it was possible he'd had more confidence in surviving than either Shane or Tony has assumed up to this point, and dreamed all along of taking over the business himself, or perhaps, leaving it intact for Colin, and given the last two scenarios, a second will would not only be likely, but a document Shane wanted to see firsthand. "Where did your copy come from?"
"Raymond Grant's sequestered files," said Tony, with an annoying but understandable hint of amusement in his tone.
"I see. Pinched it from the Salem Police Department. How exceedingly efficient, not to mention risky after the lengths we've gone to keeping Bo and Roman in the dark."
"Nice to see someone still respects the Brady brothers' rather questionable law enforcement capabilities."
Shane ignored Tony's sarcasm. "And?" he prompted, trying to get the conversation back on track.
"He left Stefano a personal message, a bit cryptic but one that definitely laid out his intentions where the family was concerned," and without waiting for Shane's comment, proceeded to read him Andre's note from beginning to end.
Like Tony, Shane recognized the last quote from Yeats immediately and the implication Andre was making. Was it possible? Since his trip to Haiti and his conversations with Eugene, he'd done his share of speculating as to Stefano's motives where Roman was concerned and his reason for choosing John as the one to replace his old nemesis, though up to now, Shane's questions had centered around John's possible link to Roman. What if they'd all been paying attention to the wrong person? What if the link was to Roman's father instead of Roman himself and worse, what if the event tying Shawn Sr. and John to each other went beyond the trumped up death of Colin Murphy…Colin who was the same age as Tony's dead twins would have been if they'd survived, all three of whom had died in precisely the same manner, within months of each other, or….
"Shane?"
"Ah yes, I'm here."
"And?"
"You have, I must assume, noticed that Eleanor Torricelli's death, most notably the date of the funeral we have now, falls between Colin's birth and when he turned three months old."
"Yes," came the terse reply and then silence.
"Quite a coincidence…"
"Coincidence my ass. There is no such thing as accidents in my family and as for luck…" but he didn't finish whatever he meant to say.
"So you suspect your father could have fabricated the entire story as to how and where Eleanor died?"
"If he had something to hide, I believe he would have done it without a second thought, and," Tony said in a tight voice, "so do you."
"Damn," muttered Shane, "that's what I was afraid you were going to say."
Tony didn't comment and the silence that seeped through the line was anything but comfortable, each of them wary of pointing out the nature of the beast that had taken up residence all of the sudden.
"It is possible we're jumping to conclusions here."
"Possible yes, but even you can't truly convince yourself of that after Shawn's behavior towards me since I came back to Salem," Tony said. "Shawn's own words to Colin all but confirm that we're on the right tract here. I mean, what is guaranteed to destroy both families if not the murder, or at least the death of a mother and her two completely helpless children?"
"No," choked out Shane, "not the Shawn Brady I know…."
"Everyone has their secrets, even Shawn Brady and we already know for a fact that he faked his nephew's death, and kept it secret all these years, not to mention the bombshell that is Colin's paternity..."
"Yes, to protect his family, especially Colin."
Tony's exaggerated sigh whispered softly but the fact its volume barely registered did nothing to lesson its impact, or the keen edge of the sarcasm that followed.
"If it isn't my father's favorite cliché."
Shane knew he had that one coming but still he could feel his frustration level beginning to reach its limits. "You've known Shawn Brady even longer than I have. Are you telling me you actually think him capable of the cold blooded murder of children?"
"No…"
Silence took over as Tony's voice trailed off and though Shane had an idea what he was going to hear, he decided to ask anyway. "But?"
Tony took his time replying to Shane's inquiry, choosing his words more carefully now. "I'll grant you that this all seems to have all started as a result of Shawn's desire to provide Colin with a better life, but once the cycle of violence ignites, control is an illusion that can easily swallow up innocent people whose only fault is being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Which your father would not consider accidental."
Another short pause, and then, "No…if those innocent parties were his grandchildren, he would not."
"And John?"
"What about him," Tony asked, his tone irritated and sounding rather defensive all of the sudden.
"If Shawn's complicity was accidental, why couldn't John be just as innocent of any premeditated or criminal intent?"
"No."
There was a finality behind that single word that said everything Shane needed to know about Tony's feelings on the matter. He was convinced John's role in the death of Ellie and their children was anything but accidental."
"And if you're wrong?"
"I'm not," came his partner's stubborn reply.
"What, based on your cousin's word, a man who hates you even more than your brother and has tried to kill you on how many occasions?"
"It's not a matter of what Andre has said and you already know that as well as I do. There's Stefano's behavior and his statements to me, and Ellie's brother, who certainly has no reason to lie about the past."
"That you know of."
"Alright, you think it impossible for John to have allowed his emotions to take control of him?"
"It didn't say it was impossible, I…" but at the last second, Shane stopped himself before he allowed his temper to lead them both down the path to an argument that would solve nothing and possibly create a rift they couldn't afford at the moment. "I just think you're jumping to conclusions based on something other than the facts."
"Call it what you like," said Tony in a tone growing more belligerent by the second. "I'm still the one who's had to deal with his behavior over the last several months and my intuition says that John's past is affecting his behavior, and not merely towards me, but Marlena and worse, the twins."
"Because he feels they're a threat, but that doesn't…"
"So why is he suddenly behaving as though he'll do anything in his power to help them, especially when it provides him the opportunity to make me look like an complete ass?"
"Well, you didn't expect him to make this easy, did you?" And barely an instant later, he heard what sounded like glass shattering against a wall and he waited for Tony to explode, or hang up on him. Neither of those two things happened. In fact, for several minutes, absolutely nothing happened, and there was silence between them that soon became awkward and with a sigh, Shane tried again, using a little more tact this time. "I've already told you that I suspect John's actions to some degree were intentional but for heaven's sake he was eighteen years old and shoved into the middle of an impossible situation by your father."
"We don't know that the marriage to Ellie was forced on him."
"No, but he would have felt obligated to do as Stefano asked of him and marry the girl."
Grudgingly, Tony agreed.
"He was manipulated, just as you were and I seem to remember that you didn't react all that well in a similar situation."
"That doesn't mean I took it out on those who were manipulated along with me."
"You didn't try and kill Andre?" countered Shane.
"Andre was NOT manipulated or used. He was going to be rewarded with my life for following through and doing Stefano's dirty work and that included murdering me."
"Okay…do you believe John did likewise?"
Tony didn't jump in with an answer right away, which allowed Shane to breathe a little easier. "Based on Stefano's behavior towards the Bradys, and towards John, I suspect that he holds John to be directly responsible for whatever took place," said Tony finally. "As far as Shawn is concerned, Stefano has gone after the man's children to make him pay for the past…an eye for an eye, which is Father's typical response but the way he handled John was altogether different. It was personal. He didn't go after his family or his children or even his wife simply as a way to hurt the man since going after Marlena was never truly about John as far as Stefano was concerned."
Though he didn't like the end result of Tony's logic, Shane could see his point and there was a certain pattern to Stefano's behavior when it came to revenge. He did enjoy creating a scenario to fit the crime. There was however another angle to this that Shane felt Tony was ignoring. "Stefano could have treated John differently because he considered John's betrayal to be personal. The Bradys were strangers but John…he was a child your father raised, lavished his attention on, and trusted. Stefano was willing for him to marry Ellie and raise her children, his own grandchildren."
"And if he was responsible for their deaths, even accidentally, my father would have meted out his retaliation based on the trust he'd offered, and which he felt John betrayed?"
"Yes."
Again Tony stopped to consider and then, "I see what you're saying, but there is one small detail missing…in order to cover up the true circumstances of Ellie's death, if as we suspect it all happened in Ireland instead of the coast of Spain, Stefano would have already been aware of the details…of anything accidental on John's part that led to the explosion before the funeral and yet, according Lorenzo Torricelli, Stefano made it clear he believed John blameless in the entire affair, and even after the funeral, their relationship remained unaltered. It was John who chose to leave. If for even a moment, Stefano knew of a reason to hold John responsible, my brother would have been trapped in Tuscany. Permanently. Instead he fled to the US and entered a seminary."
Shane felt a migraine coming on and pulling himself up out of his chair, wandered over to a window and a view of the gardens just in time to see Andrew and Kimberly appear at the far end in the midst of a ride it seemed. Both of their horses were drinking from a stream as mother and son chatted. She had yet to accept the invitation of a ride from Shane since their arrival and he had to suppress the pang of jealousy that watching the scene aroused. Damn this job. "Alright, let's say the explosion which killed Ellie took place in Ireland and was somehow precipitated by whatever scheme Shawn cooked up to fake Colin's death, and that John was there. Who else?"
The question seemed to take Tony unawares and he hesitating before answering, "Andre? He had to have been in Ireland within that year busy making the mischief in the first place and I can't imagine anyone else pushing to take Colin away, or handling the situation so badly that Shawn or the rest of the Bradys would feel threatened enough to react with such violence."
"How about you?"
"Me."
"Yes you," snapped Shane impatiently when Tony acted surprised. "Didn't Torricelli tell you that Ellie purposely sought you out in Paris to tell you the truth only a matter of days before her death?"
"I suppose but what reason would explain any of us, including me, or Ellie and John ending up in Ireland?"
"Well, what was Andre doing there?"
"You're asking me?" laughed Tony. "I don't even remember Ellie coming to Paris, let alone anything else going on at the time."
"Great. I feel like we're talking in circles."
More frustrated silence passed between them and then Tony collected himself. "There are other pieces to the puzzle…the rest of Andre's note to Stefano for instance, and the fact he and Stefano, and Lorenzo Torricelli have all linked John to my grandfather's St. Christopher medal that was lost, conveniently in Ireland."
"The one with the Latin inscription that John recited at Ellie's funeral?"
Tony didn't bother answering Shane's question but came up with a more disturbing one of his own. "What if the medal itself is no longer missing?" He paused, waiting for a response that didn't come immediately and added, "That could have been why Stefano reacted as he did at the funeral."
"But that would mean…"
"Someone in the family, perhaps even John, was privy to who murdered my grandparents."
