Once inside Jan's country home, Crystal dropped the grocery bags in the kitchen and raced up the stairs. She headed straight for Shawn's room, her jaw tight with fury. When she passed Phillip's room, he looked out at her suspiciously.
"What's your hurry, Crystal?" Phillip called, "I want some food. Where's our dinner?"
"Can't you keep your mouth shut for once?" Crystal yelled back half-heartedly, his words doing little to distract her from her thoughts. She marched into Shawn's room, only to find Jan and Shawn curled up together in the center of a bed, a thin sheet draped over them, which was probably the only thing that was covering them. Crystal's lip curled in disgust at the sight of Jan snuggled next to Shawn like that, a look of pure contentment on her face that was almost identical to Shawn's. How could she just be sleeping and spooning with one of their prisoners at a time like this?
Crystal retrieved the key to Shawn's cage from her pocket and unlocked it. She snuck in and re-chained Shawn, then shook Jan awake. Jan started and looked up at Crystal in confusion.
"Crystal, I just had the most amazing dream," Jan murmured sleepily, "In the dream, you gave Shawn these pills and then he let me..." Jan's voice trailed off and she looked down at the arm draped over her waist below the covers. She gaze journeyed upwards and fell on the sleeping man's face and her eyes lit up with realization, "Wait, I didn't dream it. Shawn and I really slept together. I did it! I popped his cherry!"
"Yeah, yeah," Crystal yanked Jan from the bed, ignoring the younger woman's squeal of protest, "We have a serious problem. You can gloat to yourself about your little conquest later, we have to talk now."
"At least let me put my clothes on first," Jan pouted at Crystal, infuriating Crystal even more. Obviously, Jan Spears did not see the severity in their situation, But she will, Crystal promised herself grimly, I've known Nicole for a long time. She could be a huge threat if she tries to work against us. I can't let her win. Jan and I have to take action before Nicole does something that will destroy us.
Jan pulled on her old lady clothes quickly, not seeming to notice or care that they were incredibly disheveled. She followed Crystal out of the cage and Crystal made sure to lock the cage behind her. They left Shawn's room and once they were in the hallway, Jan propped herself up against the door, yawned and watched Crystal expectantly.
"So, what's going on?" Jan asked. Crystal looked around, taking in all the open doors of the men's bedrooms and grabbed Jan's arm.
"Downstairs, asshole," Crystal hissed, "Do you want any of the guys overhearing and realizing how much shit we've got ourselves in?"
Jan dug her feet into the carpet and stared at Crystal in horror, "Something really bad is happening, isn't it?" her lower lip trembled a little bit, "They're going to find all of our lovers, aren't they? They're going to take them away from us."
"It's a definite possibility," Crystal replied, straining to pull Jan down the hallway, "What's wrong with you? I thought that you of all people would handle conflict better than this. If you freak out at the first signs of trouble this way, how did you ever wind up keeping Shawn for as long as you did?"
"I usually don't freak out this much," Jan sniffled, "It's just that now Shawn's made love to me and we're making so much progress and I really don't want that to be destroyed."
"Well, there's no reason it has to be." Crystal told her, "We just need to come up with a plan to make sure we won't be found out."
The two of them made it into the living room and Jan looked up at Crystal with big, scared eyes, "So, what's going on?"
"It's Nicole," Crystal sucked in a deep breath before continuing, "She's teaming up with some other blonde bitch to find our guys."
Jan didn't seem to find this a big problem, "Who's the blonde bitch? Is it Belle? Wow, I never saw that coming- virgin bitch and slutty bitch teaming up. Belle's probably driving Nicole crazy."
"I don't know if it's Belle." Crystal said thoughtfully, "I can't remember her saying the other woman's name but I don't think it was Belle. Belle's around your age, right?" Jan nodded, "Then it's not Belle. This woman was a little bit older, around Nicole's age, probably. Oh, and I remember hearing Nicole say they were going to get Brady and Lucas back, so obviously this woman wants Lucas."
Jan rolled her eyes, "Oh, great, it's Belle's big sister, Sami, the mother of Lucas' child, I think. I really should kill both her and Belle and then make it look like Nicole did it or something."
"Don't start with me," Crystal interjected firmly, "We have to come up with a plan. We can't let Nicole find out we're responsible for this whole thing."
"I don't see what you're so worried about," Jan shook her head, "I have so much dirt of Nicole, she'd never turn us in, even if she did find out it was us who have Lucas and Brady and the other men. Besides, I bet the police think Nicole's behind all this. They blame her for everything."
"Yeah..." Crystal's voice trailed off and she was deep in thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers, "Wait, I know what we can do. It's perfect. Not only will it get Nicole out of our hair but it will also pit Sami and Nicole against each other and everyone will think Nicole is behind the kidnappings and holy shit, I am a genius." Crystal fanned herself with her hand emphatically.
Jan stared hard at Crystal, "Well, don't keep me in suspense. What's the plan?"
"We frame Nicole for the kidnappings." Crystal was already heading for the stairs, "And I know just the way to do it." Jan hurried after Crystal and on their way up the stairs, Crystal filled Jan in on their plan and Jan immediately grinned and agreed when she realized what Crystal had in mind for Nicole. Jan made a quick stop inside Shawn's room to pick up his boxers off the floor where he had left them after his love-making session with her. Remembering what she and Shawn had been doing just an hour or so before made her smile but she didn't have time to dwell on this. She and Crystal had to move fast.
Crystal was already in John's room, so Jan headed into the room next to his. Phillip frowned at her when she came inside but she ignored the look he gave her and pounced on his bed.
"I need your underwear." she told him bluntly, causing Phillip's eyes to widen in shock.
"You need my what?" Phillip demanded.
"Your underwear," Jan repeated, flipping her hair over her shoulder and biting her lower lip in concentration, "You heard what I said, stop stalling. I need your underwear and I need it now."
"Well, you can't have it," Phillip informed her but she ignored him and began unbuttoning and unzipping his pants, "Hey, did you hear me? Stop touching me! Jan!!"
About five minutes later, Jan emerged from Phillip's room, carrying Phillip's plaid boxers in her hands, "He certainly made that a lot harder than it had to be." Jan mumbled, wiping her forehead, "Who knew a guy chained to a bed could put up such a fight? I hope it doesn't run in the family." she muttered as she stepped inside Lucas' room.
Jan crawled through the bushes bordering the Kiriakas Mansion as fast as she could, relieved that she had finished her task. Crystal had been on lookout while Jan had climbed up the trellis to Nicole's window. To Jan's relief, Nicole only had a screen covering her window and Nicole was nowhere to be seen in her bedroom. Not that she frequented her bedroom much during the day, she was always downstairs drinking now that her husband was dead, Jan reminded herself. After quickly stashing all eight pairs of underwear in Nicole's room, Jan had quickly crawled back out the window, replaced the screen, climbed down the trellis and darted for the bushes.
She still couldn't believe she had done it all without getting caught. Crystal might think she comes up with good plans but they're certainly risky, Jan thought wryly, Especially if someone else is going to be taking the risks for her.
Jan spotted Crystal's rental car and sprinted towards it. By the time she was seated in the passenger's seat, she was out of breath.
"Did you do it?" Crystal asked, looking towards the house anxiously.
Jan gave her a dirty look, "Of course I did it. I'm not a wimp like some people."
Crystal ignored the insult and began to drive away from the mansion, "Now, we just have one more thing to do." Crystal drove until she reached the park, which was almost empty except for several people standing on the far side of it. Her eyes came to rest on the pay phone, which was near the ball field, hooked onto the side of the refreshment stand. The refreshment stand would do a fine job of blocking her from the other people's view, she decided, then stepped out of the car. She put a coin in the slot and began dialling the number to the police station. Her hands shook as she dialed and she had to grip the phone tightly to ensure she didn't drop it.
Finally, someone picked up on the other line, "Commander Brady," the voice said.
"Oh, good, just the person I wanted to talk to," Crystal spat out the words in a gravelly, harsh voice that made her sound like a different person, "I have some information I think you might find helpful. It has to do with the disappearances of those men."
There were some faint clattering noises on the other line and it sounded like Bo let out a big whoosh of air through his nose, "What can you tell us? Anything will help."
"I live near the Kiriakas Mansion." Crystal lied, looking around to make sure no one was watching her, "I have a clear view into the bedroom of Mrs. Kiriakas as well."
"I'm sure you enjoy that," Bo cut in sharply.
"I used to," Crystal continued using her fake voice, "But lately, I've seen her doing some very strange things in her bedroom. I've seen her in there with quite a few different men over the past few weeks and none of them seemed to be happy to be there. And I never saw any of the men leave the Kiriakas Mansion. Ever."
"I knew that bitch was behind this!" Bo roared, then calmed down a little bit, "Thank you for the information. We're going to do a full scale search of that place, starting with the little tramp's bedroom."
"Glad to be of service," Crystal replied politely, then hung up the phone. As an extra but probably unnecessary precaution, she wiped her fingerprints off the phone and headed back towards the car. Sorry, Nicole, Crystal thought evilly, But I don't think you'll get the chance to go off and search for Brady anytime soon. Once Bo Brady finds all those pairs of underwear in your bedroom, he'll arrest you for sure. There's no way you could look for Brady while you're rotting away in a jail cell for his kidnapping. At that thought, Crystal barely resisted the urge to skip the rest of the way back to the car.