Part 87
Quinn found the right hallway of the courthouse, and saw Zander standing there.
He wore a suit and tie. Not used to this, Quinn stopped for a minute.
"Wow!" she said, her face flushed.
"What?" he said.
"Well, you look amazing! Really! I've never seen you all dressed up like this!"
"I'll do it more often if it's going to have this effect."
She looked into the little window in the door.
"Can't you go in?" she asked.
"No, the witnesses have to stay outside so they don't hear each other. You can go in, though. Maybe you'll hear about some interesting ballistics."
She went over to him and put her arms around his neck. "You think I'm here for this trial?"
He leaned his head down to touch hers and put his arms around her. "Yep. I know you are fascinated by these forensic cases. Some cop could be in there explaining the exact nature of the bullets, and how far they must have come from the grassy knoll."
Quinn giggled. She fingered his tie.
She turned when she heard some noise. AJ was coming up the hall with V. Ardanowski.
"V.," she said in greeting, and "A.J."
V. grinned.
"Are there any other letters here?" Quinn asked.
"There's Q.," Zander said, arms still encircling her waist.
"And Z., so we have A to Z," Quinn answered, smiling up at him.
Dara Jenson's assistant came out. "Mr. Quartermaine," she said, "it's your turn."
AJ went in.
V. stayed out in the hallway.
"I saw Elizabeth Webber's painting of you," V. said. "She had it up at a student art exhibit. I go to those when I get a chance. I am a bit of an artist myself."
"An artist and a cop?" Quinn asked. "How interesting."
"As much as a nurse and a racer."
"Are you a witness?" Quinn asked V.
"Yes," V. said. "To some of the investigation and evidence collection. We found the gun in a search of Carly's office. We got a warrant to search her home and work when AJ gave us the statement that she had called him and told him to pick up the child at the warehouse instead of the day care. Then the day care worker gave us a statement that Carly had picked Michael up from day care earlier."
"So she left the gun she did the shooting with in her own office. Maybe she should plead insanity," Quinn said.
"Like most criminals, all she really has a case for is stupidity," V. answered. "There's something stupid about somebody who thinks committing a particular crime will solve their problems. That spills over into the way they carry it out."
"What if she had thrown the gun in the lake?" Quinn asked. "Then it could have been impossible to convict her."
"Yeah, sometimes I think there is a subconscious desire to be caught," V. said. "Or, she did not get a good chance to go and throw it in the lake in time. Or had some plan to frame somebody else that she could not carry out in time. Who knows? But I always have faith we will find something eventually, when it comes to solving a crime. You have to keep at it sometimes. But the perpetrator leaves something or takes something."
Now Dara Jenson's assistant came out and told Zander it was his turn.
"Good luck," V. said, as Zander and Quinn followed the assistant into the courtroom.
Quinn saw Alexis and took the chair next to her. Both watched Zander as he was called up and then sworn to tell the truth.
Dara Jenson asked him a series of questions. Zander told of how he was at work, and that he had gone into the storeroom for something. He didn't recall what. He saw that Sonny and AJ were in there. He had never known AJ to be there before, and he had nothing to do with AJ being that that evening. They were arguing about Michael, AJ's son, who was Sonny's stepson. The conversation sounded unpleasant. There wasn't anything strange about that. Zander had left the storeroom and went back to his desk.
Dara had Zander's work records; about what he had entered into the computer, and when. They showed that he had been gone for around 2 minutes, which must have been the time during which Zander was in the storeroom, and that upon return, he had worked again up to 3 minutes when he stopped, consistent with Sonny coming along and telling him to lock the storeroom and go home. He had logged off at that point.
Then he had gone and locked the storeroom door. He didn't hear or see AJ, and he didn't know it was possible to lock someone in; he thought he was locking people out. He left the building, and as soon as he stepped outside and away from it, he heard and felt the shots. He could remember nothing after that until he awoke in the hospital ICU.
The attorney for the defendant got up. Quinn stared at Carly from time to time. All she could see was her expensive suit; a black one, and her blonde hair, which she had up in a bun. She looked like one of the last people on earth to carry out a shooting.
The attorney asked Zander how long he had known AJ.
"About a year, maybe less."
"How did you know him?"
"He was my former girlfriend's brother."
"Did you know Mrs. Corinthos?"
"Not that well."
"Did you know they had a son?"
"Yes, I'd heard about him and about how they fought about AJ having custody or visitation. But only second hand."
"Through your girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"This was Emily Quartermaine?"
"Yes."
"So you know there was bad blood between Mr. Corinthos and Mr. Quartermaine?"
"I guess you could say that."
"What were Mr. Corinthos and Mr. Quartermaine saying when you heard them in the storeroom just before the shooting?"
"The same old stuff. I wasn't paying a lot of attention. I was looking for something having to do with my job."
"You had heard them arguing before?"
"Not those two specifically. I had just heard the arguments before."
"What were they saying?"
"I don't remember exactly. AJ was saying something about how Michael - the son – was his son. Saying he is my son, not yours. Sonny saying he was Carly's son and Carly had custody and would get custody, stronger custody, I forget the words. That AJ should give up. That AJ was never going to see his son again, and – "
"And?"
Zander couldn't go on for a minute. He struggled for control.
Quinn felt a lump in her throat. She was aware only of him and of Alexis shifting in the next seat, and draping her arm around Quinn's chair.
Quinn wanted to run up to him.
"Well, Mr. Smith? Did you hear anything else?"
Zander swallowed hard. "He was saying he was going to adopt AJ's son. The usual insults. Calling AJ a drunk."
"And then, 3 minutes later, Mr. Corinthos told you to lock the door."
"Yes."
"Did you check to see if anyone was in there?"
"No."
"Were you supposed to?"
"Not particularly. No one should have been in there."
"This wasn't normally your job, was it?"
"Sometimes."
"How often did you do it?"
"Every once in awhile."
"Only if Mr. Corinthos told you to?"
"No."
"Only if someone told you to?"
"Yes."
"You didn't think that Mr. Quartermaine could still be in there?"
"No."
"Even though you'd seen him in there a few minutes before?"
"No."
"You hadn't seen him come out, had you?"
"No."
"You did not see the shooter, true?"
"True."
"So you could not say whether or not it was Mrs. Corinthos or not?"
"No."
Dara asked him if he had any reason to know whether AJ had come out of the storeroom before he locked it.
"No. I was paying attention to something else. I still don't understand why AJ would stay in there when Sonny had left. There was no one left to argue with and nothing for AJ to do in that room."
"There's testimony he stood where he was to call someone else. Did you hear him on the phone?"
"No, of course not. Maybe he was listening at that point."
"Did you look into and around the room when locking the door?"
"No, I looked only at the door, pulling it closed. Then I locked it."
Both lawyers said the had no more questions. The judge told Zander he could step down.
Both Quinn and Alexis got up to follow him out of the courtroom, almost colliding with the assistant, who was going out to call V. Ardanowski to the stand.
Zander grinned at Quinn a little. "You're going to miss her search and seizure facts."
"I'm more concerned if you're all right."
The assistant came back out and asked Zander to stay on call unless they needed him to testify again on rebuttal. She estimated it as not likely, but possible. Zander nodded. "You have my cell number."
"How long was that?" Zander asked.
"Only about 10 minutes," Alexis said.
"It always feels so much longer when you're on a witness stand," Zander said.
In Alexis' penthouse, Alexis and Quinn were in the living room; Zander had gone upstairs to change clothes. Alexis said she wanted to take them out to dinner, and insisted he would relax more if he got out of the suit. "He only wears it to court," Alexis grinned. "So it can only remind him of that."
"He looks really sharp dressed like that," Quinn said.
"You bet," Alexis smiled, "I think he heard on his own account those words about not seeing your son again, do you? One of his parents could have said it where he overheard it."
"It could be. Even the parallel alone could be upsetting. He knows that is what it was all about. One parent trying to cut out the other."
"He still suppresses a lot. Not that I blame him. He's trying to get along with them both, and isn't up to really confronting them about what they did."
"And we know Oksana resists that as being part of the past. It's a good thing you have them going to Dr. Baldwin, Alexis."
"I'm glad of that too. Maybe it is in the past, but it has to come out. I'm sure there's some psychiatric doctrine that says that."
"Yes. They are making progress," Quinn said, "but I see now it is a way longer and more complicated road than I first imagined."
Once they got to the Outback, it was impossible for Zander's spirits to stay down. After the hostess seated them, Jerry was right there wanting to move them, and in fact, insisted on moving them.
He remembered all drinks, including Alexis' ice water with lime. But he came back with it and another drink, which was a vodka, which he insisted Alexis should drink. Apparently experienced with him, Alexis did not decline it. So it sat there.
"You know you like lobster," he said to Alexis. "We have some imported from Australia that you've got to have. On the house."
Quinn and Zander sat on the same side, across from Alexis. They exchanged glances.
They hardly saw a waiter, except one who came with the lobster under Jerry's supervision.
Later, he brought them a flaming desert. Alexis exclaimed over this and thanked Jerry.
Later, Zander walked Quinn to her car. "I'm not sure we got anywhere on this investigation," he said. "We probably already knew he would do even more if we had Alexis herself. But then, he would have to do yet more if he really liked her. Ask her out or something like that."
"Or something like that."
"Maybe she refers other customers? It's more of a business approach?"
"Maybe she does legal work for him and he pays her this way."
"There could be something we don't know. I love her, but can't believe her mere presence is going to bring in that much business to the restaurant.'
"Maybe he is afraid she does not reciprocate," Quinn said.
"Maybe. Do you think he gets positive vibes? Then there's always coming out and asking her if she likes him."
"That would be too easy!" Quinn laughed.
"There's a sneakier way of asking her if she thinks he likes her. Does she notice him, do you think?"
"They're both really busy, and that could be why she doesn't notice. He knows though; he knows she'll come in to the Outback, eventually. He can't be that excited about a particular customer, unless he really has a thing for her, that's my estimate, anyway. Can we get them trapped in an elevator together?"
Zander smiled, and pulled her close, by her open car door.
"You're a good matchmaker," he said.
"I have a partner," she answered. "We could go into the business. Dating service for busy professionals. I have Paul and Elizabeth to my credit."
He leaned down to kiss her. They stood there for a little while, kissing.
"Thank you for coming to that trial," he said, leaning his head against hers. "It was not much fun for you."
She pushed his head back and ran her fingers along his jaw, then pushed some hair out of his forehead.
"Oh, I get it," she said. "No, don't say that. You're a lot of fun, what with your New Year's traditions and ice skating. And you're a great dancer. And a sense of humor, too. And the court wasn't too bad. If I helped, I am glad. What with the way you look in a suit and all that, it was even fun. You can talk to me about the effects of your parents' custody dispute any time. And anyway, nobody's fun all the time. I'm not fun all the time. Remember cheering me up in regard to Dr. Witless?"
He smiled a little bit, and then kissed her again.
"You're the best kisser, too."
He looked at her like he didn't believe her and thought she was only saying it to be kind, but he didn't argue.
Then he shut her into her car, and watched her drive off.
Quinn was in the hospital cafeteria on a lunch break. She was alone. Suddenly she looked up to see Paul sitting down across from her with his lunch.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked.
"No at all," she answered. "I love hearing about how lucky I am to be rid of you, and how happy I must be."
"OK," he said. "You are so lucky to be rid of me, and you must be very happy."
"I am."
"Good. You'll stay that way, if you reassure Smith a whole lot. Make a point of it."
"You advising me?"
"This is professional, but it's to help you. I was talking to a colleague about that type of case in general. The children in custody battles, who become the subjects of non-custodial parent kidnapping end up with a loss of trust. They don't have faith in continuance of anything, because their lives were subjected to 180 degree turns without warning. This from the people who are supposed to love them and provide them stability. They end up with this loss of trust that may abate over time. But it doesn't go away."
Quinn barely heard him; she was so amazed that he had the nerve. "It won't if everyone rejects him because of it!" she snapped.
"I'm not saying that. I'm really not. I'm not saying give up. It is more a matter of realizing where he is coming from sooner rather than later, and after you may have unintentionally said or done what he sees as rejection. He thinks you'll disappear when you really get to know him. That's why it is likely that it is hard to do. Nothing personal against you. That's what happens when the people who are supposed to provide your childhood stability betray that. You have to give an inordinate amount of reassurance."
"Why is it inordinate then, after what has happened to him?" drawn into the discussion in spite of her anger at him.
"You might eventually find it a heavy demand placed on you. Having to reassure him that you're not going to disappear, or disapprove of something he's done and disappear because of that. See his past experience is - not to say it is rational – but we all have these subconscious ideas. His is that he's going to cause his own loss of his loved ones. So the criticism of what he does that normally can come up can be too much for him sooner than for you. But you may get perception of rejection easily. There's this built in idea you're going to go away; can't be trusted to stay."
Quinn was silent a moment, then more inclined to listen, remembering Zander's saying that he thought Emily's attachment to him felt conditional.
"I get that," she answered. "I've already heard it. The prior girlfriend did 180s on him, and he said something to the effect that he always thought she was about to slip away the next time he made a mistake or someone else talked her out of being with him. And the other night, he said something that really bothered me. Like he realized I too was more interested in his problems than in him, and at the same time the problems meant he wasn't any fun. I said something reassuring, and thought that took care of it, but from what you are saying, I can't assume that yet?"
"To you it would be enough. In the reverse. You are better off knowing this. You could lose patience with him, or think he's rejecting you. This way you can weigh that in before you jump to any misunderstandings. You could think you give him a normal amount of reassurance, what else does he need? In his case, maybe a lot more."
"Yeah, yeah. How do I know you are giving me good advice? You want to feel less guilty? You want to gloat, so you talk about how my new guy is a psychiatric basket case of some kind while you have this lovely perfect woman? Does it make you feel better?"
"I don't say he's any such thing. Heck, he does fairly well, when you look at his history. You and I grew up in stable families, Quinn. Zander and Elizabeth didn't. Get Elizabeth to tell you. Some stuff about her family is unstable, too."
Quinn looked a little bit suspicious, but said nothing else, only a subdued, "Thanks." She excused herself and said she had to get back to work.
Quinn was at her desk, looking at her pictures. They were part of the background, and she was usually so busy thinking of other things when she was there, that she did not notice them specifically. But today she had a moment in which she noticed the picture of herself with Paul, her hair flying in the wind, by her car. The one Zander thought made her look really different from the nurse he saw every day at the hospital, when she'd shown it to him when he was still a patient.
She took it down. She was about to rip it up, but thought better of that. She thought about tossing it into the trash. She tossed it in; then fished it back out again.
"It's a really good picture of you," AJ's voice said, behind her.
She jumped. The where and why of when he showed up was absolutely unpredictable.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I scared you."
"It's all right," Quinn said.
"Why don't you cut the picture in half?" he suggested, eyes twinkling devilishly. "Keep you, and throw him away."
"Not a bad idea," she muttered.
"That's better than a picture of you and Zander," he answered. "Don't get yourself in deep enough to end up with one of those, OK?"
"Why - did you sister's prom picture turn your home into a haunted house?"
"She doesn't have one - he never took her," AJ answered. "Can you imagine not having a prom picture for the rest of your life?"
"They could have had it taken!"
"Well, it's not the same."
"Maybe. Maybe you should know that Zander can understood you better than you think - he probably has some compassion for you, even. He had custody problems himself."
"He has a child the mother doesn't want him to see?" AJ asked.
"No, he was the child, and his parents never settled the custody issue. He was in your son's place. Maybe you can learn something from that."
"Really?" AJ asked, "What happened?'
"His mother left his father, and took Zander and Peter. They didn't see their father for a time. Then they had every other weekend visitations but arguments surrounding it. The father didn't return them or the mother didn't have them ready to go. Cops coming to the door to settle the dispute. The father taking them to Russia where he was from, and not returning them, so they lived there a couple of years and didn't see their mother. Then the father ending up in jail for violating the custody order."
"Wow," AJ said. "I never knew any of that. They were here, that day - they aren't married?"
"They haven't been in years. But they are finally getting along to the point where they were going out with Peter. She has custody and he had a restraining order, so visitation with his father is really iffy."
"If Carly gets convicted, it won't be a problem," AJ said. "But if she doesn't, or she ever gets out - " He trailed off, and looked as if he was thinking of the horrible possibilities.
"It will be a problem no matter what," Quinn said. "I dated a shrink long enough to know that. It's his mother - you can't cancel his mother, no matter what happens to her."
"Maybe that's true," AJ answered. "Well, thanks Nurse Connor. That makes Zander look different. I'm not used to thinking of him as in any vulnerable situation, you know? He always came across as self assured, and plowing ahead with all this certainty without thinking. You're mature and you can handle him better, but still, he's no picnic. Watch yourself."
"I've heard that warning before and I'll hear it again," Quinn answered.
"I hope you don't end up sorry he was the patient rather than me," he said with his best flirtatious smile. "Later."
Quinn still had the photo in her hand. She grabbed a pair of scissors from the drawer, cut it in half, put herself back; thought about tossing Paul, then decided instead to see if he wanted it.
There was a call from one of the patients, so she put it away and got up to attend to it.
