Deception's Masks

I'm going with an R on this one just to be on the safe side. Partial blame goes to Dana.

TITLE: Deceptions Masks Prologue/?
AUTHOR: Juliet3:16
EMAIL: Sweetvalley99@aol.com, Juliet_316_2000@yahoo.com, FYouWWF@aol.com
RATING: R
CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, BRAINWASHING
CATEGORY: ADULT, ANGST, DRAMA, HORROR
SPOILERS: Um, around Survivor Series 2000, but Austin's hit and run was never solved. The story starts at the end of 2002
SUMMARY: What is thought to be a home invasion lends itself to a deeper mystery. *Characters*: Evil nWo, Stephanie McMahon - Helmsley Linda McMahon, X - Pac, Shawn Michaels, Good Hogan, Ric Flair, Lita, Jeff Hardy, Detective Taggert, more to be revealed as story unfolds*
DISCLAIMER: Vince owns most of the wrestlers in this story. Any wrestler not affiliated with the WWF/E owns themselves. Detective Marcus Taggert is owned by the ABC Daytime Drama GENERAL HOSPTITAL.
DISTRIBUTION: Peja, Fanfiction.net, anybody else please ask.

Deception's Mask

Prologue

Nov/Dec 2002


 Stephanie McMahon - Helmsley looked almost vacantly as the police swarmed about her home. She knew she should be frightened that an intruder got into her home and could've done significant damage on her, but she wasn't. She didn't know why, but deep down she wasn't frightened in any way by the person that had trespassed on the home. That scared her more than anything. That feeling of complete safety when she could've very well been killed or worse may have been worse than if she'd been frightened when she'd woke up to find him laying beside her. She held her husband's old bathrobe that she'd put on when she'd gotten out of the shower a few minutes earlier tighter to her body.

"Stephanie?" her mother asked, gently touching her young daughter's shoulders "why don't we go to the couch for a little while and let the detectives finish their investigation?" Linda McMahon suggested, leading her youngest child over to the couch. As she sat down, Stephanie glanced over at the pictures lining the table behind the couch. One of them in particular caught Stephanie's focus. It was a picture of her and Hunter from Halloween 2000, when they had decided to dress up in Victorian era clothing. Shane had remarked that it could almost pass for a wedding picture and had a professional photographer at the party they were holding take the picture. It had been the last happy event before her husband died.

"Mrs. Helmsley," a soft-spoken voice broke her thoughts. She turned and focused on the dark skinned detective looking for her response.

"Yes," she said softly.

"Mrs. Helmsley," the detective, a man named Taggert, "as you know, you gave us the name of the man that broke into your home earlier tonight. A man we currently have in custody."

Stephanie nodded. She knew the man as one of Eric Bischoff's nWo henchmen. Why and how he was so easily able to break into her home she didn't have a clue. "Have you arrested Eric Bischoff yet?" She asked. She was certain that the man had done it under Eric's orders and she wanted the man taken down.

"Ma'am," Detective Taggert began -

"I know, I know. Unless the man talks and says outright Eric ordered him to do it, there's nothing that the police can do about Eric." She'd been through this before. Thought the nWo hadn't gone to the extreme of breaking into her or her mother's homes before that night. "What were you saying about the man you do have in custody?"

Taggert sighed. "We've been running the man's fingerprints through the national registry and we haven't found a match under the name you gave us."

Stephanie and Linda nodded. They'd had expected as much. Eric wouldn't take the chance of hiring thugs who had priors and could easily be arrested. Of course Stephanie didn't thing that Eric would've had somebody do a job for him and get caught at it either.

"We have however been able to find a match in the national system. Mrs. Helmsley, I got to ask, have you or any member of your family ever been fingerprinted before?"

Stephanie was too shocked to respond to that so Linda did: "There was a hit and run about four years ago. My family, our entire company was fingerprinted for it. There wasn't a match found and the crime was never solved. Why are you asking this Detective Taggert?"

Taggert muttered, "That explains it," then looked at the two women on the couch. "I wanted to figure out something before I told you what we found on the fingerprints."

"Tell us what, Detective?" Linda McMahon asked annoyed at the roundabout way he was going about things. Stephanie sad frozen on the couch, feeling like the huge bath robe she was wearing was her only protection from what the detective was going to say next. Suddenly Stephanie wanted to be anywhere but her living room.

The detective finally answered Linda's question: "Like I said, we managed to find a match for the fingerprints under another name." Taggert then looked at Stephanie."

"They belong to your husband ma'am, Hunter Hearst Helmsley.