May 18, 2004
Zach walked into the administrative offices for the Seasons Gold Coast casino and resort. The resort was not open yet – the grand opening ball would be held tonight. Immediately after, he planned to catch a flight back to Las Vegas. He had been away from his business – every aspect of it – for a very long time, and he wanted to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible.
Jack Brauer, general manager and financial stakeholder, came out of his office and caught sight of Zach. He doubled over laughing. People looked up from their work and stared at Zach like they had never seen him before. It was probably because he looked quite unlike what they were used to seeing. His hair was about an inch shy of shoulder length. He had a full beard. He was wearing a black t-shirt; faded, ripped blue jeans; and mud-caked boots. When Zach reached Jack, he smiled politely and waited for Jack to collect himself. Wiping a tear from his eye, Jack clapped Zach on the back, and led him into his office. "Welcome home, mate. I see the transformation is complete. Have we managed to convert you to the only religion that matters?" Zach raised one eyebrow. Jack spread out his hands. "The truly glorious land that is my country." Zach smiled and pulled Jack into a hug. "Thank you, my friend, for encouraging me to go on walkabout. I have indeed fallen in love with this place. But the U.S. is where I belong."
Jack slumped his shoulders in a mock gesture of defeat. "Say it isn't so! Zach, I was telling Laura just the other day that you have the soul of an outlaw, the character of a gentleman, and the heart of an Aboriginee. You belong here, my friend, not America. What has that country done for you? When you came here last August for the groundbreaking, you had the look of the walking dead. I don't know what it was that rocked you to your core, but you were definitely in need of one thing and one thing only." Zach smiled slightly. "To get back to the land." Jack nodded. "The last thing you needed was to become involved in a construction project. I knew that you would have gone insane, and I was right. This beautiful baby of yours is coming together finally, but it certainly has had its share of tantrums."
Zach grinned. "You just wanted me out of your hair." Jack laughed. "Well, it certainly has done wonders for your hair." Zach reflexively lifted his hand and ran his fingers through his hair. "Don't get attached to it. It's getting all chopped off for the ball. The beard too." Jack snapped his fingers in an "aw shucks" gesture. "I don't know about the beard, but I'm sure Theresa will be disappointed that she missed out on flowing locks. She's into the poetic look." Zach put his hand back down. "Theresa?" Jack's smile was mischievous. "I'm making one last ditch effort to keep you here, Zach. Theresa Sullivan will be your escort to the ball tonight." Zach leaned back in his chair and groaned. "You never were subtle, were you?" Jack nodded. "She's a friend of Laura's, and a real looker."
Zach stood up and walked to the window. He looked out on the resort, which had an ethereal quality in this, its most unique state of existence. A casino and hotel, once open, is always a busy hive of activity. This casino wasn't open yet, so it sat in stillness, finished and waiting. "Jack, because you helped me in one of my darkest moments, I'll humor you and escort Ms. Sullivan to the ball. But you better pray that she's not wearing red." He turned and walked out the door. Jack stared at the doorway. "Must be an American joke."
Zach was the first customer in the hotel barber shop. He got a shave and a haircut (it cost more than two bits), and then dressed for the ball. As he put on the finishing touches, he congratulated himself on his restraint. He hadn't turned on the computer even once since he'd been back. Not because he was anxious to check his e-mail, which was probably in mammoth proportions by now. He doubted that any of it needed his attention right away, and it was a little depressing. When Jack urged him to go on walkabout, he had promised Zach that he would contact him if there was anything that absolutely could not be handled by anyone else. In the eight months that he was gone, he had gotten a grand total of three calls from Jack. Some might say that is the hallmark of a well-engineered operation, and he should be proud of the people who worked for him. But it still depressed him, nevertheless. Like most people, he liked to be needed.
Zach checked his bow tie and glanced at his computer, mocking him from the small desk in the corner. E-mail wasn't the Siren that called to him. He wanted to find out if anything else had happened since the events that played out last August. He couldn't imagine that it would have gotten any worse. That month went down as one of the worst in his personal history. When he'd gotten back from Port Charles and his confrontation with Anna, he'd had to turn right around again and fly to Rio to deal with a crisis at the casino down there. He had tried to get ahold of Michael on the telephone, but never got through. By the time he got back, it was time for the preliminary hearing. It had been a three-ring circus, live on television. Zach had never been more disgusted by the court system or the media in his life. On several occasions he saw Anna when the camera panned the audience. She looked positively haggard.
Michael, on the other hand, looked…well, he looked a heck of a lot like Alexander Senior. Especially the expression on his face when it was revealed that he had pirated Enchantment and Chandler Industries. The girl, Bianca, had given compelling testimony. Watching it was the torture of the damned. Especially when she talked about Michael saying to her that everything he did was for his father's approval, and how he would never be perfect like his brother had been. Michael had bent over backwards assuring Zach that he would be okay living with his father, and that Zach didn't need to be concerned about him. Yet this girl was saying that Michael was actually resentful of his older brother. It was one of the things that made it difficult to decide whether to believe anything she said.
Hearing her tell her version of events was something that would haunt Zach forever. The fact that she was willing to reveal such terrible things to a nation full of television viewers was either testament to her determination of spirit, or proof that she was the most vengeful bitch on the face of the earth. He wanted so much to believe it was the latter, but he could not. Was she simply a very good actress? Zach was a good judge of character, but even he couldn't make that sort of judgement from watching someone on a television screen.
When Michael's defense attorney had cross-examined her, he used the same argument that Zach had put to Anna – that this was a revenge ploy because Michael was involved in a hostile takeover of Enchantment. The camera subsequently showed Erica Kane and her other daughter, Kendall, becoming hysterical over the line of questioning. Were they genuinely outraged, or was it a distraction technique? In the end it didn't matter, because the judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to go to trial.
All in all, he had remained unconvinced that his brother would be so vile as to rape a woman. Unfortunately, he was now convinced that Michael was the spitting image of his father. And all because Zach had taken a fourteen year old's word for it that he would be fine. Obviously he wasn't fine. If there was a soul left in him, it was being rotted away with each corporate takeover; each restructuring that chopped hundreds of jobs; each decision that led to destruction of the environment or a small town's economy, but meant an extra few bucks to the Cambias coffers.
Hoping that it wasn't too late, he had tried calling Michael again that night. This time he was going to offer Michael a position of power in his casino empire. Hell, he was willing to give him the whole thing if it meant getting Michael away from Cambias Industries and away from their father. All he got was voice mail, but he didn't leave any messages. The police could easily subpoena his phone records to get more evidence against him. The police. Anna. He still found it hard to deal with the fact that she was on the other side now. He found himself involuntarily wondering what she was doing, how she was taking her failure to bring Michael to justice.
After Zach gave up on trying to call Michael, he got a phone call from John Sebastian. The hospital boardmember had informed him that the prominent businessman that had checked in the prior week, Alexander Cambias, died from a heart attack after watching his son's hearing on television. John was worried that Michael Cambias would sue the hospital for allowing his father to watch something that would surely be stressful on his heart. Zach told John not to worry. Considering the fortune he just inherited from his not-so-beloved father, Michael would probably build a new wing for the hospital in gratitude. Not sure how Zach would have been able to form such an opinion, John was nevertheless relieved, and hung up.
So that was it. As August came to a close, Zach had witnessed his brother avoid a criminal trial, perform a hostile takeover of three personally-held companies, and inherit a mega-fortune that would make him one of the most powerful people on earth. Their father was dead. Alexander was now unable to personally further the corruption process, but his legacy would surely finish Michael off. Whatever Zach had thought to offer Michael at the beginning of the evening, was a drop in the bucket compared to what was now his for the taking. Unable to do anything else for his brother, Zach had met his scheduled flight to Australia for the groundbreaking ceremony on what would soon be his fifth casino. His hand of poker.
And now, here he was, nine months later, dying to find out if anything else had happened since he became incommunicado. Well, it would have to wait. He would make an appearance at the ball, dance with Theresa, and then fly home. On the long flight he would have plenty of time to do research on how his little brother was doing.
Zach took the elevator downstairs and contemplated his walkabout. Different people took different types of walkabouts. His had not been a spiritual journey. It was more like a spiritual retreat. He wanted to temporarily get back to what he had been after he had broken ties with his old life (what a polite way of putting it). Back then he had worked hard to be able to provide the necessities of life. At the end of every day he would be so exhausted that he never had the opportunity to lay awake and dwell on his mistakes. Hot dogs were a common source of nutrition. Friends were the people he worked with every day.
So Zach had done exactly that. He left his suits and his wallet, and had gone from town to town in the wilds of Australia, performing menial jobs, living in boarding houses, eating in diners when he could no longer stand another peanut butter sandwich. The only connection to his real life was a cell phone, the number known only by Jack Brauer. As predicted, he never had many idle moments with which to dwell on things. But his subconscious wouldn't let him get away with avoiding the truth. It chose to torment him in dreams. Dreams about his father patting him on the back, while looking in scorn at Michael. Dreams about Michael turning into a sociopath. Dreams about Anna – so many different dreams about her. Sensual Anna. Vindictive Anna. Anguished Anna. Determined Anna. Vulnerable Anna.
Zach had never made such a short appearance at an opening gala, and that included the fated Monte Carlo ball. He wasn't sure why he rushed it. His flight certainly wasn't going to leave any earlier. Maybe it was because he was crawling out of his skin. Also, the way Theresa was making eyes at him was severely irritating. He said a polite goodbye to the ingratiating Theresa, then went to exchange farewells with Jack.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise that he arrived at the airport much earlier than scheduled. He used his time in the VIP lounge to finally log onto the internet. If he had actually waited to do his research on the airplane, it would have been a huge mistake. The information he found filled him with such grief and despair, that being on an airplane full of people would have been torture.
He started out by doing a search on Anna. He couldn't seem to help himself. In three days it would be three years since that fateful evening when he had planned to propose to her. If she had not recovered her memory, they might even now be married, and she would have been his escort to the ball tonight. Or maybe not. Her feelings for him apparently never ran strong enough to reply to his letter. Maybe she would have turned down his proposal. But then again, he was still haunted by the look in her eyes when they danced at the Port Charles Hotel, last August. The intensity he read in them had shaken him enough that he turned around and left as soon as the song was over. He was so convinced that she was wrong about Michael, that he felt the need to distance himself from her. Otherwise he would have swept her up in his arms and carried her to the nearest hotel suite.
The most recent article that popped up for Anna Devane was from the Pine Valley Bulletin, from last September – only a couple of weeks after the preliminary hearing. The headline was "Chief Devane Resigns from Police Force." It didn't contain a whole lot of information – simply that Anna resigned and would be joining her daughter in Paris. The article stated when she joined the force and what had been her major accomplishments. There was also a link to a related editorial. The person who wrote it speculated that the reason Anna resigned as chief was because she was heartbroken over her inability to put Michael in jail for rape. The editorial also went on to say that the whole town was convinced that something sinister happened to Michael since his disappearance, and it was likely that Anna didn't want to be forced to conduct a murder investigation.
Zach stared at the editorial. Disappearance? Murder investigation? There was a link to another related editorial, from a week earlier. In it, the person was skeptical that Kendall Hart had really done something so vile as to marry the man who raped her sister. Ms. Hart had performed some crazy stunts in the past, but it looked like this supposed quickie wedding in Las Vegas was a ruse to try and get back Enchantment and Fusion. Or it was a cover-up for murder, since the groom was conspicuously absent. Zach's heart started beating harder. This was just an editorial, someone's wild speculation. Kendall and Michael got married? He went back to the search engine and typed in Michael's name. He made sure that the search would show articles in chronological order, from oldest to newest. Going backwards in time would just be confusing.
He scrolled through the articles about Michael's achievements, then later his arrests, and the ones about the rape. He saw the article where Kendall announced that she was married to Michael, and said that he was out of town on business. The next article was the one that hit him in the solar plexus. In late September, Michael's body was found in a meat locker, hanging from a hook. There was an accompanying picture of a body bag on a gurney. Zach was forced to go the men's room and empty the contents of his stomach into the toilet. He went to the sink and cleaned up, his hands shaking uncontrollably. Michael was dead. His baby brother. Someone murdered him and hung him on a meat hook. He splashed some water on his face to diffuse the re-emerging nausea. He took several deep breaths. The time for grief was later. Right now he wanted to get back and find out who did this to Michael.
The next article of interest Zach found talked of a local named Ryan Lavery, who announced that he, not Michael, had inherited the Cambias empire. Apparently he struck up a rapport with Alexander in his final days, and Alexander changed his will so that in the event there were no grandchildren, Mr. Lavery would inherit everything. So if Michael had lived, he would not have taken over Cambias Industries. Zach made a mental note to ask John Sebastian about Alexander's visitor in his last days. He wondered how this man had managed to sweet-talk the old buzzard out of a fortune. Maybe he had finally become senile.
The next article was about Michael's funeral, which didn't occur until November, when the body was finally released. Then came an announcement from the merry widow that she was pregnant with Michael's child. Zach paused. Michael's child? A possible niece or nephew? There was lots of speculation that it was not real, and she was trying to either garner sympathy as a murder suspect, or wanted to get her hands on the Cambias fortune through the grandchild clause. Less than a week later, the pregnant Mrs. Cambias was arrested for her husband's murder.
The trial didn't start until a month and a half later, in late January. It lasted a whopping four weeks. Halfway into the trial, some fruitcake barged into the courtroom and ripped off Kendall's dress, revealing that her pregnancy was entirely fake. Zach was startled to realize that he was extremely disappointed. But then he saw, to his amazement, a statement by Kendall that she had pretended to be pregnant in order to help her sister, Bianca, hide the fact that she was the one who was pregnant with Michael's child. It also came out during the trial that Kendall was never married to Michael. Two weeks later, Bianca confessed to killing Michael in self-defense. She had apparently suppressed the memory of the deed.
Zach read one last article from two months ago that made him incredibly sad. It reported that Bianca and a friend of hers had both given birth in a remote cabin during a flash flood. The rescue helicopter that was carrying them to safety, crashed, and the incubator carrying Bianca's baby floated away and was later found empty. Michael's child. Born and died on the same day. Zach made another trip to the bathroom.
By the time Zach boarded the airplane, he was a complete wreck. Part of him wanted to skip the flight and go somewhere private to process through his emotions. But he felt like he needed more than anything to get back to the U.S. as soon as possible. He was relieved when he saw that the seats surrounding him would be empty.
After the airplane took off, Zach did another search and found the transcripts from the trial. He also read all the editorials that expressed opinions not contained in the articles. Then he sat back and reviewed all that he had learned. Despite the fact it was never proven that Michael raped Bianca, the townsfolk of Pine Valley were apparently convinced that he did. It came out during the trial that many people had motive, means and opportunity to kill Michael. It was almost right out of Murder on the Orient Express. Hell, maybe it was just like that story. Bianca claims to have been the killer, but it seemed awfully convenient. Because of her already apparent victimized status and claims of self-defense, she wasn't even convicted of killing Michael. That let an awful lot of people off the hook, especially her sister. When it was revealed that Kendall was neither Michael's widow nor carrying his child, the editorialists thought for sure that she would be convicted and sentenced to death.
Did Kendall really kill Michael? When her trial was over, she made a statement to the press that she found Michael's body, and enlisted the help of an Enchantment employee to put him in the meat locker and fake a wedding to make it look like Michael was still alive. She claims to have been afraid that someone she loved had killed Michael, and didn't want anyone prosecuted for it. Seemed like pretty drastic measures to protect someone. Of course, Zach could see himself doing the same thing, if he were in her shoes. The problem was, he knew his own character. He didn't know hers. She could just as easily be a murderess who faked a wedding to save her own hide and cash in on some money at the same time. Or maybe she was protecting someone, but the someone wasn't Bianca.
The more miles the airplane ate up over the Pacific, the more questions Zach had. He wanted answers. Answers that would not come from surfing the internet. A plan started to formulate in his head. Maybe he should go to Pine Valley. Anna wasn't there anymore, and she was the only person who knew of his connection to Michael. By the time the airplane touched down in San Francisco, where he would catch his connecting flight, he was starting to feel more in control. He would find out the truth about Michael. He would clear Michael's name concerning the rape, and find out who really killed him.
When Zach reached his penthouse apartment, he collapsed onto his bed and slept forever. When he finally woke up, he had a meal and then went down to his office and sent for Bobby Warner, his current go-to guy. When Bobby arrived, he looked nervous. "Zach! I didn't think you would be back in town so soon. I figured you would hang around after the casino opening to see how well things were running. Oh, congratulations, by the way, on the new Seasons Gold Coast." Zach smiled. "I have the utmost faith in Jack Brauer, so I left it in his hands. So tell me how things are going here." Bobby fiddled with a pen. "Oh, great. Just super. Plenty of high rollers here this week, and the staff is taking very good care of them." Zach looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You know, Bobby, if there is one thing I hate, its secrets. Don't get me wrong. I have plenty of secrets. But I feel comfortable keeping them, because I know that keeping them hidden is the right thing to do. Some secrets should never see the light of day. But most secrets are a waste of everyone's time. They eventually get found out, and people are more hurt by them as a result. I'm always really annoyed when people keep secrets from me because I can tell that they are miserable. Its better to just let it all out, so that we can all deal with the issues at hand." Zach sat back and waited.
Bobby stared at him a few moments. Then he threw up his hands. "This is why I admire you so much, boss, and why I have you as my mentor. I do have a secret. Its not really my secret, but I'm helping someone keep it. You could say she's like a high roller. She has a very high profile, but she wants to keep a low profile. In fact, she doesn't want anyone to know who she is, and she doesn't want her friends or family to know where she is. She wants to be alone so she can sort out some problems. So, she's adopted a different persona. I've been helping her with that." Zach contemplated this. "A high roller, you say? Is she bringing in money?" Bobby laughed nervously. "I said she's like a high roller, because she is rich and powerful. She isn't doing any gambling…well sometimes she does, with some of the other high rollers. They are quite charmed by her. Lately, though, she has been concentrating on other things. She…um…is one of the show girls in our stage production. Very popular! The audience loves her and keep coming back to see her. So I guess you could say she's bringing in money that way."
Bobby fished through his portfolio and pulled out an 8X10 glossy, handing it to Zach. The caption at the bottom had the name Desiree DuBois. The picture was of a petite woman with a dazzling smile and the most fake looking blond wig he had ever seen. Zach was absolutely stunned. It was Erica Kane. "How did you happen to end up helping this woman hide out? Do you know her from somewhere?" Bobby shrugged uncomfortably, obviously not wanting to give away too many details. "I…uh…she lives in my home town." Zach glanced up at Bobby. Bobby was from Pine Valley? "I have no problem if you want to help Ms…..DuBois keep her secret. This is Vegas. We've certainly done stranger things on behalf of our guests." Zach smiled, and Bobby looked relieved. They discussed some other business, then Bobby left. Zach set the picture of Erica on his desk and stared at it awhile. It looked as if he wouldn't have to go to Pine Valley, at least right away. Pine Valley was apparently coming to him.