Chapter Nineteen – "Nitro and Glycerin Ride to the Rescue"

Previously: Responding to his son's desperate call for help, Zach left Kendall with Ryan, NuGreenlee, Erin, Di, Jonathan and Lily while he went to meet with Ethan at the Dump. The moment after Zach leaves, Lily reveals she has solved the Mystery!

Nobody breathed.

"Lily, why do you think Ethan is the Maniac?" Kendall heard herself asking.

As usual, Lily was quite matter-of-fact in her analysis.

"Well, motive, means and opportunity are certainly all there," she began.

"What's Ethan's motive?" Jonathan asked.

"He hates Zach because he denied him," everybody in the room replied.

"And he must hate Pine Valley because his part in AMC has shrunk to nothing," Kendall speculated.

Lily was nodding. "Which gave him all the opportunity he needed to vanish everybody. Nobody was paying attention to Ethan. So nobody was paying attention to what he was doing."

"And being a Cambias, he has all the money in the world to accomplish anything he chooses," Di contributed.

"He could have built something somewhere to put them all," Lily went on. "Like Jonathan built the tree house."

"But I didn't build the tree house to put people in it that I kidnapped," Jonathan made clear to all. "I built it so Lily and I would have a place to meet without Jack knowing."

"Because my Dad doesn't want us to be together," Lily explained.

"Can't understand why," Kendall cracked in spite of herself. "Lily, are there any other reasons you suspect Ethan?"

"He isn't in the Script," Lily answered immediately. "That's what I kept missing. I was looking for a clue that was in the Script, but the biggest clue was what wasn't in the Script. Ethan isn't really a Newbie and he's definitely not a Recast, so he should be with the Vanished in the Casino's basement. Simone is there and she refers to the fact that Zach denied him. Maybe that's the clue in the Script that I was looking for!"

Lily smiled, not noticing that she was the only one in the room who was.

"But how does Ethan being behind everything account for 'You Are My Sunshine'?" Di asked. "Ethan has nothing to do with that song! And what about Dixie's gold necklace that we found in the Casino's second basement?"

Lily was ready with an answer. "Obviously, both of those were red herrings. Mysteries usually have red herrings to divert suspicion from the guilty culprit. Which in this case, of course, is Ethan."

"Well, I don't believe it!" NuGreenlee said forcefully.

"Shut up, Gina!" Kendall said forcefully. "Lily, honey, is there anything else?"

There was.

"When we met Ethan in the Casino's second basement, he said he suspected Zach because he read it in the Script. That surprised me so I asked him if Ryan had shown him the Script. He nodded yes."

"But I never showed Ethan the Script," Ryan said to them all.

"When you told me that, Ryan, I knew for sure Ethan was the Maniac," Lily concluded.

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Two minutes and twenty seconds after Derek had ordered Amanda and those Chandlers who were still Unvanished out of his Police Station, he got the call from Ryan.

"You and Kendall are going where and why?" he asked, hardly believing what he had heard. "Hold on, Lavery! Who did you say solved the Mystery? … WHO? … Lavery, are you drunk, stoned or simply too freaked-out to think clearly? … Who does she say is behind this? . . . WHO? . . . And you believe her? . . . Meet you WHERE? . . Not a chance. … Because wild goose chases have no appeal to me, that's why. … I told you before, Lavery, stop trying to do my job!"

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"Why won't he believe you, Ry?" Jonathan demanded, getting the drift of how Ryan's conversation with Derek had gone.

Lily knew.

"Because Ryan told him I solved the Mystery, that's why."

"Where's Kendall?" an alarmed Ryan asked suddenly, looking around the room.

As it happened, Kendall was standing by the elevator, repeatedly hitting the down button, impatient to rush to save her husband from his son's wrath.

Ryan caught up with her before the elevator arrived.

"You're supposed to wait for me," he said, sounding slightly injured. "We're sticking together. That's the Plan."

"I don't have time to wait," she explained, as the elevator opened and she ran in. "For the record, I don't care about your stupid Plan." She hit the button marked "L" for lobby with a vengeance.

"Zach assigned me to look after you," Ryan reminded her, following her in. "Not that I had to be assigned to do that. I want to look after you."

The elevator began moving down.

"I don't need looking after," Kendall said automatically.

"Sez who?" Ryan disagreed good naturedly.

"Why are you helping me save Zach anyway?" she asked as a point of information. "Don't you still hate him?"

"Absolutely," he affirmed.

"So why --?"

"Because I need to make sure you're okay. Because I'm in love with you. Because I've always been in love with you. Because I'll be in love with you for the rest of my life. You may not want to hear that. But I need you to know."

"You're right. I don't want to hear it." Nevertheless she had to ask him something. "When did you start being in love with detours?"

"Kendall, don't."

"A detour with no soul, I might add. That's what you called me, wasn't it?"

The elevator doors parted, and she walked out so fast, he had trouble keeping up with her.

"I was a fool to let you go," he said quietly.

That slowed her down. Actually, it stopped her in her tracks.

"You got THAT right," she told him. "Shall I ask the obvious question, Ry?"

He had no idea what she was talking about.

"What about Greenlee?"

The question hung in the air between them as they proceeded on to his car.

"Greenlee?" he asked hollowly.

"Yeah, you remember," Kendall reminded him. "Short blonde who became a tall brunette overnight."

Ryan looked infinitely sad.

"I never loved – well, I certainly don't love Greenlee now."

Kendall put a friendly hand on his chest over his heart. "That's because you're not used to Gina," she diagnosed gently. "Give it time. You two were the Real Deal."

Ryan looked infinitely sadder.

"No, that was us," he whispered. "We were the Real Deal. Remember all those years ago when we first met at the Pine Cone?"

Kendall grinned, remembering how he burst into her motel room complaining she was blasting her radio. "When Nitro met Glycerin. We're lucky we didn't kill each other!"

Ryan put his hands over hers.

"It isn't too late for us, Kendall."

"We could still kill each other?"

"We could still be everything to each other."

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Kendall remembered how it used to be between the two of them. When talking, laughing, loving all flowed effortlessly. She still loved him, she'd always love him. Only not in the way he wanted her to love him.

"Ryan we've become two different people," she tried to make him understand. "The only thing we have in common now is that we're both on the same damn wall." She shivered and it wasn't because it was cold out.

"I won't let them vanish you," he promised her solemnly.

"And I won't let them vanish you," she promised him solemnly. "Now let's go save my husband from who the hell knows what!"

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The Dump was exactly as Zach had remembered it. Except for the 6-story black building that rose up right smack in its center.

"Hi, Dad, good of you to come," Ethan greeted his Father at the door of the Big Black Building, ten seconds after Zach rang the bell. "But I'm a bit disappointed. I thought you'd bring along the Little Woman. Your Better Half. My Former Lover."

Zach tried to read his son's face.

"Ethan, where did the building come from?" he asked, giving up.

"I had it built," Ethan answered proudly. "Kind of a monument to Uncle Michael. There's no marker on the hole they shoved him into, so I had this constructed over it. And guess what! I've moved in. The last of the furniture arrived this morning! Danish Modern. The apartment's quite nice actually, except for the view of course."

There was something chilling in Ethan's voice.

"You said on the phone you were in trouble and needed my help," Zach said quietly. "What's this all about?"

Ethan stepped away from the door and ushered Zach in.

"It's a party, Dad!" he explained, the hatred in his voice barely controlled. "And you're the Guest of Honor!"

"I didn't receive an invitation," Zach said slowly, not moving.

"Zach, don't stand on ceremony!" Erica called out to him. "Please come in!"

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Is Ethan really the Maniac? Will Derek believe Lily in time? Who is in the Big Black Building with Erica? Is Zach in danger of losing his life, his wife or both? OMG, will Ryan and Kendall become Rendall once again? What about Janet? What about Dixie? Whew! Please come back for the next installment for all the thrills, chills and probably not too many answers. Yet.