Chapter Eighteen – "Safety in Numbers"
Previously: As they were becoming better acquainted, Kendall and Zach were interrupted by a seemingly desperate phone call from Ethan, begging Zach to help him. As we rejoin our story, it is after 1:00 a.m., but nobody in Ryan's penthouse is close to falling asleep.
Lily and Jonathan sat side-by-side on the floor of Ryan's penthouse, rereading the Script for the twenty-fifth time.
Jonathan: Lily, do you ever think about kissing me? I think about kissing you all the time.
Lily: I don't think about any one thing all the time, Jonathan. That isn't how my mind works.
Jonathan: I love the way your mind works, Lily.
"Lily, do you ever think about kissing me?"
Lily put the Script down and regarded her boyfriend earnestly. "Are you reading that, Jonathan, or do you really want to know?"
"Both," he replied. "I mean, I was reading it. But I'd also like to know. If you want to tell me. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, Lily."
But she wanted to tell him.
"I think about kissing you all the time," she said. "Can we go back to reading the Script?"
He nodded, afraid to do anything more to show her how elated he felt that she was thinking about what he couldn't stop thinking about.
"We're missing something," Lily was telling him. "What are we missing?"
"You've gone over that stupid thing forty-seven thousand times," NuGreenlee told them, as if she had been asked. "What the hell could you have missed?"
"We've only read it twenty-five times and although we know that Ethan has read it, we don't know how many times," Lily corrected her. "It's completely possible that we could have missed an important clue that will lead us to whoever the Maniac really is."
"How could Ethan have read it?" Ryan asked. "I never showed him the Script. Why would you think I had, Lily?"
"Ryan, Ethan said you showed him the Script," a puzzled Lily explained. "Why would he say that?"
None of them could imagine why.
"It isn't Zach?" Erin asked, following her own thoughts. She was sitting by the window, staring vacantly out into the darkness, as if she could read in it what had happened to Aidan. "Ryan, it isn't Zach?"
"I don't think it is, Erin," Ryan replied from his recliner. "He was originally my Prime Suspect. But not anymore. I believe that he truly loves Kendall. He'd never harm her or anyone she cares about."
"Ry, why don't you come on over here and sit next to me?" NuGreenlee asked him from the sofa.
He hadn't the heart to tell her that since he'd realized that Kendall was the True Love of His Life, he couldn't bear to be anywhere around Greenlee. Even if she was a new Greenlee.
"Zach is definitely innocent," Lily said matter-of-factly. "I just wish I knew who's guilty! "
"Maybe it's my sister, Dixie," Di offered. She was sitting by another window, having wandered over to Ryan's penthouse when she found out nobody was at home at the Chandler Mansion.
"Dixie is dead," NuGreenlee reminded Di.
"Not so much," Di sighed.
--
Derek Frye was fairly certain he was losing his mind. He had managed to maintain a shaky grip on reality for most of the nightmare, but all of that had begun to end when the Chandler Family raced into the police station with the latest horrendous news.
"Adam has vanished!" Krystal yelped first.
"Into thin air!" Babe yelped second.
"I'll have your badge if you don't find him!" JR yelped third.
He still might have been all right, however, if only Amanda hadn't followed them into the police station, a woebegone expression on her tear-stained face.
"It's my Mom," she declared. "She did it! She took everybody!"
"Where is she, Amanda?" Derek asked, ready to send every squad car he could muster to pick her up.
Amanda shook her head. "Who knows?"
It was then that Derek snapped.
"Who knows?" he thundered. "WHO KNOWS? What in blazes am I supposed to do with who knows?"
Nobody knew.
--
"Jonathan, what are we missing?" Lily asked, consulting her boyfriend since she valued his opinion beyond all others.
"Well, what don't we know?" he began gamely.
"We don't know anything," Lily summarized. "We don't even know who wrote the Script!"
"Yes, we do," NuGreenlee piped up. "The Writers wrote it!"
But Lily was shaking her head in an extremely negative fashion.
"We don't know that the Writers wrote it, Greenlee. You said you found it under the couch. Anybody could have put it there for you or Ryan to find."
That caught Ryan's attention.
"But who would have wanted to put it there for Greenlee or me to find?"
Di took a wild guess.
"Whoever wanted us to think Zach is the Maniac."
"So it couldn't have been Zach," Erin continued.
"It had to be the Maniac," Lily concluded.
All eyes turned to NuGreenlee, who had been the one who found the Script.
"I AM NOT THE MANIAC!" she cried out at the top of her lungs.
"What would be her motive?" Jonathan asked Lily.
"Well, it would give her a stronger place on the Show if everybody else was gone," Lily reasoned. "Particularly Kendall, who is on the List."
"And the means?" Erin prompted.
"Unlimited time and resources with nobody suspecting her of anything, because nobody really knows her since she's a new Recast," Lily replied.
"And the opportunity?" Ryan asked softly.
"You tell us, Ryan," Jonathan asked of him. "Were you always with Greenlee since this started?"
"I don't even know who she is," Ryan answered honestly.
"I AM NOT THE MANIAC!" NuGreenlee cried out again at the top of her lungs.
"I don't think she is either," Lily said, surprising them all, right before the doorbell rang.
It was Kendall and Zach.
"Ryan, we need a favor," Zach said in greeting.
"Hi, Zach," Lily said brightly. "Jonathan and I were just telling everybody why we're pretty sure you're not the Maniac."
Zach smiled at her with all his heart.
"Kendall, are you okay?" Ryan asked with genuine concern.
"Actually, I'm extremely frustrated," Kendall answered in all honesty. "Zach got a call from Ethan at the worst possible time in the history of the world."
"My son is asking to meet with me," Zach translated. He hadn't told Kendall the desperation in that call. He never mentioned that Ethan had begged for his help. All he told her was that his son wanted to meet with him and that he wanted to go alone.
"It's probably better that I don't tag along with Zach," Kendall reasoned, completely unaware that the real reason Zach didn't want her along was that he was convinced he was heading into a seriously dangerous situation. "Ethan and I have too much of a history. I don't want to get in the way of a reconciliation."
"So you came here?" NuGreenlee asked, clearly annoyed. "Great."
"Kendall is on the List," Zach stated brusquely. "I don't want to leave her alone." He glanced around at the crowded penthouse living room. "There's safety in numbers, they say."
"The more the merrier," Erin said dully. Every moment made her miss Aidan more. Although she certainly had nothing against her, Kendall's safety was the last thing on her mind.
"Kendall will be all right with us," Di told Zach, in as comforting a tone as she could. She sensed his worry and it resonated with how frantic she was about Tad.
"Ah, but will she really, really be all right?" Kendall asked, more than slightly offended to be spoken about as if she were a difficult child in need of a squad of babysitters.
Zach caught the sarcasm.
"Do this for me, Lovely," he asked of her,. "Humor me. I'll feel better if I know you're with other people while I'm gone."
"Where are you meeting Ethan?" Ryan wanted to know. "I need to know you've gotten where you're going."
"Ryan, I didn't know you cared," Zach deadpanned.
"He doesn't," Kendall guessed. "Tell us anyway."
Zach shrugged. "The Dump. You know, where you wonderful folks buried my brother Michael."
"Your brother Michael belongs in a Dump," Kendall told him bluntly. "Your brother Michael, rapist and demon from hell that he was, is exactly where he belongs!"
Zach winced. He still couldn't connect the monster Michael had become with the sweet boy who had been his younger brother. He couldn't blame Kendall for hating that monster Michael, who had raped her sister, Bianca. But that wasn't Zach's Michael, and it never would be. Still, he didn't want to leave Kendall as angry as she looked at that moment. After all, he reflected sadly, he might never see her again.
"I'll see you soon," he told her nevertheless, embracing her. "Take care of her," he mouthed to Ryan, over her shoulder.
"Always," Ryan mouthed back.
"Why the Dump?" Kendall asked, not letting go of her husband. "Why does he want you to meet him there of all places?"
"Guess I'll find out when I get there," Zach predicted, reluctantly disengaging himself from Kendall and heading out the door. He had a grim foreboding that once he got to the Dump, he would find out much more than he wanted to know.
Kendall began pacing the room as soon as Zach left it.
"Is that necessary?" NuGreenlee asked between her teeth.
"Stuff it, Gina," Kendall advised. Her glance fell on Lily, who looked nothing if not troubled.
"What is it, Lily?" she asked her, afraid to hear the answer.
"I've been thinking about Ethan," Lily said, distress heavy in her voice. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Zach because he's Ethan's Dad. Maybe I should have."
Kendall suddenly wished she hadn't gone along with Zach's plan to meet Ethan by himself. At least not without a fight.
"You're thinking Ethan is in danger?" Kendall asked her tensely. "And that's why he called Zach?"
"No, I don't think Ethan is in danger," Lily told them all. "I think Ethan is the Maniac."
--
Ethan is the Maniac? Could that even be true? Don't be discouraged Ethan fans! I promise many more twists and turns before our inevitable Zen-Happy Ending. Please return here for the next exciting Chapter!