Knock, Knock
I smiled as I saw Skye standing in the half open door. I was beginning to wonder when she would show up. I expected to see her last night. Tori and Sam said that she was in the hospital, but she never came in. After Tori filled me in on what happened while Felicia and I were in surgery, I have an idea why. I smiled at her, lifted my hand and motioned for her to come in. "I bet this isn't what you imagined your first 24 hours as head of a new company would be like."
Skye gave me this really cute you have got to be kidding look. "Don't even joke about it, Frisco. That's the type of excitement that I can live without."
"So you would rather not hear my jokes on having turned your club into a war zone less than an hour after promising that I wouldn't." I noticed a sad look in her eye, before she turned away and pretended to look out the window. "You didn't stop in to see me last night. Tori said you were here."
"I wasn't sure that you would want to see me. After all, I was the reason that you were shot."
"Skye, this wasn't your fault."
She turned to face me. "How can you say that? If it wasn't for me and my obsession with showing everyone what a nut Brenda really is, she never would have hired someone to kill me and you and Felicia wouldn't be in the hospital right now."
"Okay, when you put it that way, you're right."
For just a moment, Skye's jaw dropped. Damn, I wish I had a camera to take a picture of this. I have a feeling that a speechless Skye is a rare sight. "What? You expected me to argue with you in your current mood? What good would that do? You obviously feel like kicking yourself. No matter what I say, you came in her ready to argue you're guilt to your last breath in this matter. So let's try looking at this from another point of view. Maybe you're right. If you hadn't gone digging in Brenda's medical history, Felicia and I probably wouldn't be in the hospital right now. Instead that psychotic lunatic would still be on the streets. No one would have cared enough to check her mental state. Sooner or later, something would have happened. It could have been something real or a product or her delusional imagination. She would have acted on it and someone else would have been in this hospital. Only that time, maybe that person would be dead and you would be blaming yourself for not following your instincts to find out what it was about Brenda's story that didn't sit well in your mind."
"I should have acted sooner."
"And she might have acted out sooner. I should have, what if I, for every alternative action you can think of that you could have done to fix or stop this, I can think of something that could have gone terribly wrong. Skye look at me. You didn't do this. I'm here because some psychotic nut who shouldn't have been allowed out on her own had the connections to hire killers to live out her fantasy."
"So what? It's Alcazar, Sonny, and Jason's fault for giving her access to those connections?"
"No, if she hadn't had them, she probably would have gone out and bought a gun and done the damage herself." I shook my head. "You still aren't getting my point. A guy walks into a cult and starts convincing people that the cult leader is wrong. The cult leader gets pissed. He hires someone to kill the guy before he spreads anymore of his wisdom. Who's to blame? The messenger for spreading the truth and pissing off the leader, the killer, or the cult leader?"
"You forgot the followers."
"Huh?"
"They enabled the cult leader and gave him the position to believe he was powerful in the first place."
"My, you do want to spread the blame around."
"I get what you're saying. It's the cult leader's fault for having the idea to kill in the first place. Brenda would be your cult leader for this story. You're comparing me to the messenger. The followers would be all those lunatics who have been worshiping the alter that is Brenda since she arrived in town."
"Amazing, I've heard you blame everyone but the person who pulled the trigger."
Skye shook her head. "He does have some blame for the way he makes his living, but for him it isn't personal. He wouldn't be able to make his living in that fashion if people like the cult leader didn't exist. He's just a tool. Do you blame the tool or the person who wields it?"
"Skye, I'm absolutely astonished at how your mind works. You give less blame to the person who pulled the trigger than you do to yourself. Maybe I should send you in for a couple of classes in WSB criminal psychology 101."
Skye made a face and shuddered. "Please don't go there. Between my mother, the fake miss fix it and my own stay in the nut house, I've had more exposure to that field than I have ever wanted."
I decided to let it go. "So shouldn't you be at the office bring down Jax's latest company or have you thrown in the towel now that you and Jax are talking again."
"There's a problem."
"I knew it. You no longer feel comfortable taking companies from Jax."
Skye stood there a moment thinking before she shook her head. "No, that isn't it. Jax once told me that it was only business and that I needed to learn to keep business and personal completely separate." Skye had this strangely pleased smile on her lips as she zoned out for a moment.
"Earth to Skye?"
She looked at me startled. "Huh, Sorry, I was just imagining to expression on Jax's face the next time I take one of his companies."
"He's not going to be happy."
"Hopefully he will even feel somewhat betrayed. I want to spout those bloody words right back in his face."
"I thought you were getting back together?"
"No, I said that I would give him a second chance, and I will. But I stamped down a lot of emotions when I pursued Jax. Looking back, he put me through hell. Knowing how it would hurt me, he gave away ELQ and put my position there in jeopardy. You can't tell me that was strictly a business decision. He took a heavy loss. He did that to hurt me. He has always called me on every little thing, but no one has every really called him on how his actions have hurt the people around him."
"You plan to call him on it."
"He once told me that he didn't want to deal with my insecurities. I was so scared to loose him that I tried to push them aside. I've come to the conclusion that all that repression is very unhealthy. If he wants me, then he is going to have to take me on, faults, insecurities, schemes and all. I have no intention of making it easier for him."
"Good for you. Now what about that company we were going to take off of Jax's hands?"
"Someone burnt it down."
"Someone what?"
"Someone gutted the offices and burned down the adjoining warehouses. Jax is in New York right now dealing with the authorities. Which brings me to you. I need your permission before Harry will dig into the matter. He just wants to wait for the reports from the local authorities."
I shook my head. "Warehouse fires are usually handled my local authorities. Besides, Jax is there and it was his company that was burnt down. I'm sure that he won't let any stone go unturned. If he finds anything, he will let you know."
"He didn't even tell me about the fire. He just told me that he had to go to New York on business. He knew I was after that company and he didn't say a thing. His people are being equally tight lipped."
"Can you blame them? You did just take over a few of his companies. You had to expect that."
"I suspect arson."
"I still haven't heard anything that would convince me to do more than keep tabs on what the authorities turn up."
"I don't know how to explain it to you. I just have this feeling. It's like someone is nagging at the back of my mind saying that here is something that we are missing, some essential piece of the puzzle that just isn't there."
"A feeling? You want me to authorize it on a feeling?"
"Why do I have to justify this anyway? Wasn't your helping me out from time to time part of the deal? Why do I have to justify the expense like I am one of your field agents?"
"A field agent is assigned to an area and given a list to memorize on what assets he has available to him. Your agendas, unlike a field agent, didn't come out of a folder that someone higher up has already justified the expense for. You have a lot more leeway than a field agent. You get to make your own agenda. The assets available to you are far more extensive than any agent out in the field. So yes, while we will help you out from time to time, you are going to have to justify the reason. We aren't just going to send our people into a situation that could be handled just as well by other resources such as the local authorities. They are a resource that we rely on to handle quite a few problems. We don't just rush in and stand on everyone's toes. Everyone would be so busy bickering over territory that we would never get anything done."
"Okay, okay, I get the point. I won't ask you to dump a lot of resources at this. I just want Harry to do a little digging. Just a couple of hours with his rather talented fingers on a computer board looking for information. If he doesn't find anything odd with all the resources he has on hand, I'll let it go."
"You will let it go?" I looked at her in disbelief."
"Well at least as much as I'm capable of letting something go."
"In other words you would file it away as a future I told you so."
"Now would I do that?"
I sighed. "You have my permission to borrow Harry for a few hours, but if you don't find anything..."
"I will drop it. I understand."
"Anything else you want to discuss?"
"You're construction people are busy, how should I put this, redecoration. Or at least that's how I explained it to the remaining employees as Deception. They say that they will be done with their modifications at the end of the week. I gave all non-essential people the week off. Which really wasn't that difficult since most of the staff had left after Laura was committed. That just leaves Elton, three others and me. I had them temporarily relocated to the hotel while your people are doing their work to avoid any questions they might have on your upgrades."
I nodded. "Can any of them be moved out of the company headquarters?"
"The accountant has family on the west coast. I think that he would be willing to transfer there. The publicist would probably leave if he had a better offer. In fact, I would prefer that he did."
"I can arrange something."
"Wil and Elton are another story. Elton has become a prominent member in this community. He can't be moved out without raising to many eyebrows. Wil is a retired executive that Laura talked out of retirement to show her the ropes. In fact, he's the only reason Deception didn't fall into Bankruptcy after Laura disappeared. But Laura only gave him limited authority to make changes so there was only so much he could do."
"You want to keep Elton and Wil."
"Elton I need for appearances. Only an idiot would get rid of Wil."
"How about the rest of the staff?"
"A couple are approaching retirement. Laura was smart in hiring people who new what they were doing. I think that had a lot to do with Wil. Most of the rest are locals going to the community college. Then we have Lucky Spencer."
"Laura's son."
"He's the photographer and he's good."
"We have other good photographers."
"He's been making quite a name for himself here. He's starting to be recognized."
"We have lots of good photographers who won't ask nearly as many questions."
"I like his work."
"He has a reputation for being a pain in the ass."
"Thanks to Nicolas Cassidine, his work with Gia has international exposure. You did say that you wanted to go international."
"He'll be a nosy pain in the ass."
"You haven't even met him yet."
"I don't need to. He's a Spencer. More importantly, he's Luke Spencer's kid."
"So you're saying that you're not up to the challenge?"
"I'm saying that I'm making him your problem. Keep him away from us."
"I can do that."
-- I looked at the black scared ruble that used to be my warehouses. Damn it. How could no one have seen anything? It's a complete loss. It's professionally done, just like the others. All I can do now is have someone clear away the mess. I watched as some kids walked by and threw some stones at the remaining structure. I'll have to put up the usual precautions to keep the kids and the homeless out. The usual precautions, I've dealt with enough problems related to fires now that I probably could write a handbook regarding securing a location after a fire. I learned the hard way that we can't just put up tape and signs. The kids just run past them on dares and homeless go in on purpose. A burnt out warehouse to them is an abandoned warehouse, therefore shelter. The problem is, the remaining structure was weakened during the fire. I've found that I need to have the area patrolled to keep everyone out until I can have them torn down.
Damn it, who is doing this? And why? Beyond the fact that they belonged to me, none of the businesses had anything in common. They aren't even located in the same countries. Obviously, I'm the target. But why? After the first fire, I had originally thought that Alcazar was behind it. After all, I had Brenda and he didn't. Then he turned up dead and the fires continued. I thought maybe Skye. God knows that I pissed her off enough. But after some surveillance, all her connections turned up completely legitimate. Then she started raiding my holdings. She wants my companies in working order. Besides, this latest company was one she was after.
I considered Brenda for a moment. She has the connections, but she lacked a motive, unless you count insanity. But even in her insanity, what she did, she did in an attempt to keep me on her leash. She sent me back half of the map to get my attention. In retrospect, I see that if she had sent the entire thing, I wouldn't have gone to see Alcazar. Even her attempt on Skye was an attempt to keep the truth from coming out. Of course now she has every reason to want to burn one down.
Sonny? I don't think so. He has seemed preoccupied with his own problems lately. If it were Sonny, he would want me to know in some way. I wouldn't be sitting her dangling on why. Besides, we have held a temporary truce ever since Brenda was arrested for Alcazar's murder.
Could it be someone after Jerry again? Jerry swears there isn't. Of course he also swore he was going straight and look how that turned out. The night he was supposed to get married to Bobby, he had to be smuggled out of town before the feds could lock him up for money laundering.
Ever since that last incident that I took the rap for in order to keep Dad and Jerry out of jail, Mom has kept to close an eye on Dad for him to have pulled anymore illegal moneymaking scams.
Who the hell is doing this?
My cell phone rang. "Jax here."
"It's Chris. I'm done here. I'll be in New York in 10 hours to play clean up so you can get back to wooing your wife."
"Very funny Chris."
"Who's joking? By the way, you should really call her. She called me three times already pushing for information on the New York fire. She also called up a few people in key positions in some of your companies. No one has told her anything, but she definitely knows or at least suspects that there is more going on behind the warehouse fire."
"No one mentioned the other fires?"
"As far as we can tell, she doesn't know about them. Your no info policy is firmly in effect and the fact that Skye took off with three of your companies emphasizes why that policy includes her. Everyone is afraid to say anything to her in case it could be used to grab another one."
"Good. Make sure that everyone understands that even when I am with my wife, she is officially a competitor."
"Will do."
"I don't suppose you found anything that will help unravel this mess?"
"Nope. Just the same old, same old. Professional job, no witnesses. Everything burnt in such a way that even the buildings are unsavable. Have you come up with anyone new for us to check out?"
I let out a sigh of frustration. "Not yet."
"We will keep looking. Whoever it is, we will find them."
"Before or after they bankrupt me?"
"Well look on the bright side. If you do manage to get back in with your wife, you can always live off of her assets."
"Very funny, Chris." In a way that implied that I wasn't amused.
"I thought so."
"Madame, you called for me?"
I looked up, momentarily annoyed at having been interrupted from what I was reading in the paper, but I kept it from showing on my face. After all, I did call for him. "Ah yes. Have you read the paper today?"
"Yes Madame, I'm happy to report hat your stocks are up and Mr. Jack's are slowly declining."
"That's nice, but that's not what caught my eye. Did you notice the article at the front of the financial section?"
"Something about a company called Deception changing hands. I'm afraid that I only skimmed by it as I flipped to the stock pages. Perfume companies have never been my thing. Investing in fashion trends is too risky to me. It changes to often."
"You should go back and take a look. It's quite fascinating. Apparently I'm not the only one going after Jasper Jack's assets."
"A perfume company, Madame? I fail to see how they could make much of a dent. Wasn't that company failing not to long ago?"
"My friend, when a small failing company makes front-page news, you should pay closer attention. Deception was bought out yesterday and is now headed by none other than Jasper Jack's wife."
"I wasn't aware that Mr. Jack's was married. I believe the last time that we talked he was going after Ms Barrett. You were quite upset that she didn't keep her promise to you."
"Yes well, he was already married, which probably explains why he didn't whisk her away to get married. It also explains why she married this Jason person. I had been looking at this man's files in every shape and direction and I couldn't figure out why she married him if she was after Mr. Jacks. There was just to much antagonism between he and Sonny. I would have thought that she would have wanted to avoid that old Sonny - Jax feud if she wanted the man back. But now it fits."
"I fail to see how Madame."
"Marriage to Jason Morgan allowed her to play both sides of the coin. She could hide her pursuit of Mr. Jacks and at the same time hit on Sonny Corinthos who was just down the hall. If anyone accused her of chasing married men like the true little housebreaker she is she could play the innocent and play the happily married woman card."
"So Mr. Jacks is married Madame? Will you be burning down Deception next?"
"No, taking down Deception is the last thing that I had in mind. In fact, I'm thinking of helping her build that company up."
"Madame" he said in surprise and looked at me in confusion. "I'm surprised that you would even consider helping out anyone connected with Mr. Jacks."
"Mrs. Jacks has been head of this company for little more than 24 hours and has managed to triple the size of the company by raiding her husband's holdings."
"Why would she do that Madame? Are you sure that her husband didn't just give them to her to amuse herself? After all, yours quite often gave you expensive play toys when he wanted you to be to busy to be around."
I shook my head. "Not everyone was raised by the schooling that as a rich man's wife you turn a blind eye to your husband's mistresses. I believe that the lady was looking for a little payback. I wonder just how far Mrs. Jacks will be willing to go to get revenge for her husband's little infidelity? To bad I already burnt down that company in New York. It would have fit in perfectly with her current business acquisitions. What do we know about the current Mrs. Jacks?"
"Not much Madame. I don't believe that your husband left a file behind about her."
"That's because he was more concerned with who in this town Brenda would run to or who might cause interference in his plans. I think that we can definitely leave her ex's wife out of that category. If anything, they had a vested interest in Brenda leaving town."
"He had a file on Mrs. Corinthos."
"Yes, and it was old. From the dust I would say it hadn't been opened since he got to this town. Mrs. Jack's marriage came after he arrived. He either didn't have time or he didn't feel that it would be necessary to bother looking into her background. Have our people do some digging. I want to know what kind of woman she is. Who are her friends and enemies? I need to know just how she fits into this picture and if she can be used against Mr. Jacks."
"Yes Madame. I'll start the investigators on it immediately."
I smiled as I saw Skye standing in the half open door. I was beginning to wonder when she would show up. I expected to see her last night. Tori and Sam said that she was in the hospital, but she never came in. After Tori filled me in on what happened while Felicia and I were in surgery, I have an idea why. I smiled at her, lifted my hand and motioned for her to come in. "I bet this isn't what you imagined your first 24 hours as head of a new company would be like."
Skye gave me this really cute you have got to be kidding look. "Don't even joke about it, Frisco. That's the type of excitement that I can live without."
"So you would rather not hear my jokes on having turned your club into a war zone less than an hour after promising that I wouldn't." I noticed a sad look in her eye, before she turned away and pretended to look out the window. "You didn't stop in to see me last night. Tori said you were here."
"I wasn't sure that you would want to see me. After all, I was the reason that you were shot."
"Skye, this wasn't your fault."
She turned to face me. "How can you say that? If it wasn't for me and my obsession with showing everyone what a nut Brenda really is, she never would have hired someone to kill me and you and Felicia wouldn't be in the hospital right now."
"Okay, when you put it that way, you're right."
For just a moment, Skye's jaw dropped. Damn, I wish I had a camera to take a picture of this. I have a feeling that a speechless Skye is a rare sight. "What? You expected me to argue with you in your current mood? What good would that do? You obviously feel like kicking yourself. No matter what I say, you came in her ready to argue you're guilt to your last breath in this matter. So let's try looking at this from another point of view. Maybe you're right. If you hadn't gone digging in Brenda's medical history, Felicia and I probably wouldn't be in the hospital right now. Instead that psychotic lunatic would still be on the streets. No one would have cared enough to check her mental state. Sooner or later, something would have happened. It could have been something real or a product or her delusional imagination. She would have acted on it and someone else would have been in this hospital. Only that time, maybe that person would be dead and you would be blaming yourself for not following your instincts to find out what it was about Brenda's story that didn't sit well in your mind."
"I should have acted sooner."
"And she might have acted out sooner. I should have, what if I, for every alternative action you can think of that you could have done to fix or stop this, I can think of something that could have gone terribly wrong. Skye look at me. You didn't do this. I'm here because some psychotic nut who shouldn't have been allowed out on her own had the connections to hire killers to live out her fantasy."
"So what? It's Alcazar, Sonny, and Jason's fault for giving her access to those connections?"
"No, if she hadn't had them, she probably would have gone out and bought a gun and done the damage herself." I shook my head. "You still aren't getting my point. A guy walks into a cult and starts convincing people that the cult leader is wrong. The cult leader gets pissed. He hires someone to kill the guy before he spreads anymore of his wisdom. Who's to blame? The messenger for spreading the truth and pissing off the leader, the killer, or the cult leader?"
"You forgot the followers."
"Huh?"
"They enabled the cult leader and gave him the position to believe he was powerful in the first place."
"My, you do want to spread the blame around."
"I get what you're saying. It's the cult leader's fault for having the idea to kill in the first place. Brenda would be your cult leader for this story. You're comparing me to the messenger. The followers would be all those lunatics who have been worshiping the alter that is Brenda since she arrived in town."
"Amazing, I've heard you blame everyone but the person who pulled the trigger."
Skye shook her head. "He does have some blame for the way he makes his living, but for him it isn't personal. He wouldn't be able to make his living in that fashion if people like the cult leader didn't exist. He's just a tool. Do you blame the tool or the person who wields it?"
"Skye, I'm absolutely astonished at how your mind works. You give less blame to the person who pulled the trigger than you do to yourself. Maybe I should send you in for a couple of classes in WSB criminal psychology 101."
Skye made a face and shuddered. "Please don't go there. Between my mother, the fake miss fix it and my own stay in the nut house, I've had more exposure to that field than I have ever wanted."
I decided to let it go. "So shouldn't you be at the office bring down Jax's latest company or have you thrown in the towel now that you and Jax are talking again."
"There's a problem."
"I knew it. You no longer feel comfortable taking companies from Jax."
Skye stood there a moment thinking before she shook her head. "No, that isn't it. Jax once told me that it was only business and that I needed to learn to keep business and personal completely separate." Skye had this strangely pleased smile on her lips as she zoned out for a moment.
"Earth to Skye?"
She looked at me startled. "Huh, Sorry, I was just imagining to expression on Jax's face the next time I take one of his companies."
"He's not going to be happy."
"Hopefully he will even feel somewhat betrayed. I want to spout those bloody words right back in his face."
"I thought you were getting back together?"
"No, I said that I would give him a second chance, and I will. But I stamped down a lot of emotions when I pursued Jax. Looking back, he put me through hell. Knowing how it would hurt me, he gave away ELQ and put my position there in jeopardy. You can't tell me that was strictly a business decision. He took a heavy loss. He did that to hurt me. He has always called me on every little thing, but no one has every really called him on how his actions have hurt the people around him."
"You plan to call him on it."
"He once told me that he didn't want to deal with my insecurities. I was so scared to loose him that I tried to push them aside. I've come to the conclusion that all that repression is very unhealthy. If he wants me, then he is going to have to take me on, faults, insecurities, schemes and all. I have no intention of making it easier for him."
"Good for you. Now what about that company we were going to take off of Jax's hands?"
"Someone burnt it down."
"Someone what?"
"Someone gutted the offices and burned down the adjoining warehouses. Jax is in New York right now dealing with the authorities. Which brings me to you. I need your permission before Harry will dig into the matter. He just wants to wait for the reports from the local authorities."
I shook my head. "Warehouse fires are usually handled my local authorities. Besides, Jax is there and it was his company that was burnt down. I'm sure that he won't let any stone go unturned. If he finds anything, he will let you know."
"He didn't even tell me about the fire. He just told me that he had to go to New York on business. He knew I was after that company and he didn't say a thing. His people are being equally tight lipped."
"Can you blame them? You did just take over a few of his companies. You had to expect that."
"I suspect arson."
"I still haven't heard anything that would convince me to do more than keep tabs on what the authorities turn up."
"I don't know how to explain it to you. I just have this feeling. It's like someone is nagging at the back of my mind saying that here is something that we are missing, some essential piece of the puzzle that just isn't there."
"A feeling? You want me to authorize it on a feeling?"
"Why do I have to justify this anyway? Wasn't your helping me out from time to time part of the deal? Why do I have to justify the expense like I am one of your field agents?"
"A field agent is assigned to an area and given a list to memorize on what assets he has available to him. Your agendas, unlike a field agent, didn't come out of a folder that someone higher up has already justified the expense for. You have a lot more leeway than a field agent. You get to make your own agenda. The assets available to you are far more extensive than any agent out in the field. So yes, while we will help you out from time to time, you are going to have to justify the reason. We aren't just going to send our people into a situation that could be handled just as well by other resources such as the local authorities. They are a resource that we rely on to handle quite a few problems. We don't just rush in and stand on everyone's toes. Everyone would be so busy bickering over territory that we would never get anything done."
"Okay, okay, I get the point. I won't ask you to dump a lot of resources at this. I just want Harry to do a little digging. Just a couple of hours with his rather talented fingers on a computer board looking for information. If he doesn't find anything odd with all the resources he has on hand, I'll let it go."
"You will let it go?" I looked at her in disbelief."
"Well at least as much as I'm capable of letting something go."
"In other words you would file it away as a future I told you so."
"Now would I do that?"
I sighed. "You have my permission to borrow Harry for a few hours, but if you don't find anything..."
"I will drop it. I understand."
"Anything else you want to discuss?"
"You're construction people are busy, how should I put this, redecoration. Or at least that's how I explained it to the remaining employees as Deception. They say that they will be done with their modifications at the end of the week. I gave all non-essential people the week off. Which really wasn't that difficult since most of the staff had left after Laura was committed. That just leaves Elton, three others and me. I had them temporarily relocated to the hotel while your people are doing their work to avoid any questions they might have on your upgrades."
I nodded. "Can any of them be moved out of the company headquarters?"
"The accountant has family on the west coast. I think that he would be willing to transfer there. The publicist would probably leave if he had a better offer. In fact, I would prefer that he did."
"I can arrange something."
"Wil and Elton are another story. Elton has become a prominent member in this community. He can't be moved out without raising to many eyebrows. Wil is a retired executive that Laura talked out of retirement to show her the ropes. In fact, he's the only reason Deception didn't fall into Bankruptcy after Laura disappeared. But Laura only gave him limited authority to make changes so there was only so much he could do."
"You want to keep Elton and Wil."
"Elton I need for appearances. Only an idiot would get rid of Wil."
"How about the rest of the staff?"
"A couple are approaching retirement. Laura was smart in hiring people who new what they were doing. I think that had a lot to do with Wil. Most of the rest are locals going to the community college. Then we have Lucky Spencer."
"Laura's son."
"He's the photographer and he's good."
"We have other good photographers."
"He's been making quite a name for himself here. He's starting to be recognized."
"We have lots of good photographers who won't ask nearly as many questions."
"I like his work."
"He has a reputation for being a pain in the ass."
"Thanks to Nicolas Cassidine, his work with Gia has international exposure. You did say that you wanted to go international."
"He'll be a nosy pain in the ass."
"You haven't even met him yet."
"I don't need to. He's a Spencer. More importantly, he's Luke Spencer's kid."
"So you're saying that you're not up to the challenge?"
"I'm saying that I'm making him your problem. Keep him away from us."
"I can do that."
-- I looked at the black scared ruble that used to be my warehouses. Damn it. How could no one have seen anything? It's a complete loss. It's professionally done, just like the others. All I can do now is have someone clear away the mess. I watched as some kids walked by and threw some stones at the remaining structure. I'll have to put up the usual precautions to keep the kids and the homeless out. The usual precautions, I've dealt with enough problems related to fires now that I probably could write a handbook regarding securing a location after a fire. I learned the hard way that we can't just put up tape and signs. The kids just run past them on dares and homeless go in on purpose. A burnt out warehouse to them is an abandoned warehouse, therefore shelter. The problem is, the remaining structure was weakened during the fire. I've found that I need to have the area patrolled to keep everyone out until I can have them torn down.
Damn it, who is doing this? And why? Beyond the fact that they belonged to me, none of the businesses had anything in common. They aren't even located in the same countries. Obviously, I'm the target. But why? After the first fire, I had originally thought that Alcazar was behind it. After all, I had Brenda and he didn't. Then he turned up dead and the fires continued. I thought maybe Skye. God knows that I pissed her off enough. But after some surveillance, all her connections turned up completely legitimate. Then she started raiding my holdings. She wants my companies in working order. Besides, this latest company was one she was after.
I considered Brenda for a moment. She has the connections, but she lacked a motive, unless you count insanity. But even in her insanity, what she did, she did in an attempt to keep me on her leash. She sent me back half of the map to get my attention. In retrospect, I see that if she had sent the entire thing, I wouldn't have gone to see Alcazar. Even her attempt on Skye was an attempt to keep the truth from coming out. Of course now she has every reason to want to burn one down.
Sonny? I don't think so. He has seemed preoccupied with his own problems lately. If it were Sonny, he would want me to know in some way. I wouldn't be sitting her dangling on why. Besides, we have held a temporary truce ever since Brenda was arrested for Alcazar's murder.
Could it be someone after Jerry again? Jerry swears there isn't. Of course he also swore he was going straight and look how that turned out. The night he was supposed to get married to Bobby, he had to be smuggled out of town before the feds could lock him up for money laundering.
Ever since that last incident that I took the rap for in order to keep Dad and Jerry out of jail, Mom has kept to close an eye on Dad for him to have pulled anymore illegal moneymaking scams.
Who the hell is doing this?
My cell phone rang. "Jax here."
"It's Chris. I'm done here. I'll be in New York in 10 hours to play clean up so you can get back to wooing your wife."
"Very funny Chris."
"Who's joking? By the way, you should really call her. She called me three times already pushing for information on the New York fire. She also called up a few people in key positions in some of your companies. No one has told her anything, but she definitely knows or at least suspects that there is more going on behind the warehouse fire."
"No one mentioned the other fires?"
"As far as we can tell, she doesn't know about them. Your no info policy is firmly in effect and the fact that Skye took off with three of your companies emphasizes why that policy includes her. Everyone is afraid to say anything to her in case it could be used to grab another one."
"Good. Make sure that everyone understands that even when I am with my wife, she is officially a competitor."
"Will do."
"I don't suppose you found anything that will help unravel this mess?"
"Nope. Just the same old, same old. Professional job, no witnesses. Everything burnt in such a way that even the buildings are unsavable. Have you come up with anyone new for us to check out?"
I let out a sigh of frustration. "Not yet."
"We will keep looking. Whoever it is, we will find them."
"Before or after they bankrupt me?"
"Well look on the bright side. If you do manage to get back in with your wife, you can always live off of her assets."
"Very funny, Chris." In a way that implied that I wasn't amused.
"I thought so."
"Madame, you called for me?"
I looked up, momentarily annoyed at having been interrupted from what I was reading in the paper, but I kept it from showing on my face. After all, I did call for him. "Ah yes. Have you read the paper today?"
"Yes Madame, I'm happy to report hat your stocks are up and Mr. Jack's are slowly declining."
"That's nice, but that's not what caught my eye. Did you notice the article at the front of the financial section?"
"Something about a company called Deception changing hands. I'm afraid that I only skimmed by it as I flipped to the stock pages. Perfume companies have never been my thing. Investing in fashion trends is too risky to me. It changes to often."
"You should go back and take a look. It's quite fascinating. Apparently I'm not the only one going after Jasper Jack's assets."
"A perfume company, Madame? I fail to see how they could make much of a dent. Wasn't that company failing not to long ago?"
"My friend, when a small failing company makes front-page news, you should pay closer attention. Deception was bought out yesterday and is now headed by none other than Jasper Jack's wife."
"I wasn't aware that Mr. Jack's was married. I believe the last time that we talked he was going after Ms Barrett. You were quite upset that she didn't keep her promise to you."
"Yes well, he was already married, which probably explains why he didn't whisk her away to get married. It also explains why she married this Jason person. I had been looking at this man's files in every shape and direction and I couldn't figure out why she married him if she was after Mr. Jacks. There was just to much antagonism between he and Sonny. I would have thought that she would have wanted to avoid that old Sonny - Jax feud if she wanted the man back. But now it fits."
"I fail to see how Madame."
"Marriage to Jason Morgan allowed her to play both sides of the coin. She could hide her pursuit of Mr. Jacks and at the same time hit on Sonny Corinthos who was just down the hall. If anyone accused her of chasing married men like the true little housebreaker she is she could play the innocent and play the happily married woman card."
"So Mr. Jacks is married Madame? Will you be burning down Deception next?"
"No, taking down Deception is the last thing that I had in mind. In fact, I'm thinking of helping her build that company up."
"Madame" he said in surprise and looked at me in confusion. "I'm surprised that you would even consider helping out anyone connected with Mr. Jacks."
"Mrs. Jacks has been head of this company for little more than 24 hours and has managed to triple the size of the company by raiding her husband's holdings."
"Why would she do that Madame? Are you sure that her husband didn't just give them to her to amuse herself? After all, yours quite often gave you expensive play toys when he wanted you to be to busy to be around."
I shook my head. "Not everyone was raised by the schooling that as a rich man's wife you turn a blind eye to your husband's mistresses. I believe that the lady was looking for a little payback. I wonder just how far Mrs. Jacks will be willing to go to get revenge for her husband's little infidelity? To bad I already burnt down that company in New York. It would have fit in perfectly with her current business acquisitions. What do we know about the current Mrs. Jacks?"
"Not much Madame. I don't believe that your husband left a file behind about her."
"That's because he was more concerned with who in this town Brenda would run to or who might cause interference in his plans. I think that we can definitely leave her ex's wife out of that category. If anything, they had a vested interest in Brenda leaving town."
"He had a file on Mrs. Corinthos."
"Yes, and it was old. From the dust I would say it hadn't been opened since he got to this town. Mrs. Jack's marriage came after he arrived. He either didn't have time or he didn't feel that it would be necessary to bother looking into her background. Have our people do some digging. I want to know what kind of woman she is. Who are her friends and enemies? I need to know just how she fits into this picture and if she can be used against Mr. Jacks."
"Yes Madame. I'll start the investigators on it immediately."
