CHAPTER NINETY-THREE
Without A Trace

Sonny returned to the Towers, his mind racing in a million directions as he took the elevator up to the penthouse level. Jax had gone his own way, promising to check out Mason Lane and his contacts. Sonny had agreed to concentrate on Carly. They left the time open as to when they would meet again. Sonny wanted to scream in frustration. He should have kept a closer eye on Carly after she'd made her proposition…he should have put more guards on Alexis after Stefan had been killed...he should have known something was up with that Mason character. He should have protected Alexis better.

The elevator doors slid apart and Sonny stepped off. For a moment, he checked himself in mid-stride. Something indefinable was wrong. And then he noticed. Max was on the door; it was supposed to be Johnny's shift. But Johnny was with Alexis and he didn't know where either of them were. Or if Johnny was even still alive. If he had been able to, he would have made contact by now. And since he hadn't, then it was just more proof of how wrong things were.

Instead of letting either his guilt, anger and growing fear consume him and send him spiraling down into darkness, Sonny forced himself to channel that energy into action. He walked into his apartment, tossing his coat aside, headed for his desk and began making phone calls. He started with his own people, setting them to look into Carly's recent and not so recent moves, from her movements to her conversations and set them to check her whoever she'd been talking to – whether in person, by phone or computer. He finished with Bobbie. Doing his best not to alarm her, he called her under the pretense of checking in on Michael. He hated doing it, but Sonny insinuated that he already knew about Carly's leaving, drew her into conversation about her whereabouts and her relationship with Mason. Bobbie was all too happy to fill him in on both.

"She's been so excited since she's had the club and working with Jax of all people." Bobbie hesitated. "…. and her new friend, this Mason, has certainly been attentive enough. It keeps her busy. Sonny, you can't imagine how could I feel about seeing her bouncing back after everything she's been through."

"So Carly has been okay? Everything has been all right with her?"

"Since we found out she survived that car crash? Well, Carly will be Carly, there's no point in denying that. But Sonny, she really seems to be trying to make a new life for herself"

Sonny wished that he could believe that. He didn't have proof, but something inside him was telling him that Carly was somehow involved in whatever had caused Alexis' disappearance. He just had to figure out the what and the why of it all. Bobbie didn't know anything beyond what Carly had told her. Jax had told him that he had seen fear in Carly's face the last time he'd seen her. But added to that, it was he, Carly and Mason that had been in the room.

His silence worried Bobbie, her voice took on a tone of concern. "Is there something else going on?"

Sonny didn't want Bobbie worrying and he wasn't ready to share his suspicions, so he lied; feeling the taste of it like ashes in his mouth. "No, just checking in on Michael, like I said."

After a few more minutes f conversation, Bobbie called Michael to the phone and Sonny spent a little while chatting happily with his son. It occurred to him that Michael might know something about Mason and Carly. "So, Bobbie tells me that your mom has a new friend." He asked.

"Yeah, Dad. His name is Mason. He's okay. He knows lots of stuff, though."

"Smart guy, huh?" Sonny did his best to keep his voice normal.

Michael was impressed with the guy. Mason must have went out of his way to make himself appealing to his son. Sonny's guts churned at the thought; but he forced himself to listen carefully.

"We hung out a couple of times. We went on a boat ride on the lake a couple of times, and we even went exploring. Kinda like hiking, caves and stuff."

"Sounds like quite a guy."

As careful as Sonny had tried to be, some part of his anger must have came through in his voice. "Dad?" Michael's voice was instantly apologetic. "Did I do something wrong? I didn't meant to, honest. He seems to really like Mom, so I figured that's why he was being nice to me. He made her laugh a lot so I kinda liked him for that. That was okay, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was." Sonny quickly reassured his son. "Just because your mother and I aren't together anymore doesn't mean I don't want to see her - or you - happy. I just want to know about him a little. Anybody that's going to be around my son, I got to check him out – make sure he's good enough. You know what I'm saying?" Sonny forced a laugh into his voice. "Where did you and this Mason guy hang out at? Was it his boat?"

"Yeah, Dad, I know what you mean. You're just looking out for me and mom. That's cool. We hung out on his boat, only he told me that I should call it was a yacht, not a boat. And it's name was The Silver Queen. The name was painted on the side, just like you see on TV, but it was in another language; I couldn't read it, but he could."

Sonny talked to his son for a few more minutes before he hung up. He turned back to the papers spread out across the desk. There was something there he was missing. He went through them again... and found himself staring at the list of phone numbers Several of them were identical, coming from area codes he didn't recognize right away. He called out to Max and gave him the list, instructing him to get the area codes and find the locations of the phone call.

As the door closed behind the bodyguard, Sonny paced the floor in frustration. Something about that list was screaming out to him, but he couldn't put a name to it. Except for one thing that stood out in his mind; it was time to face facts. He'd never really bought Carly's story about the car crash; about her not remembering anything that led up to it. But he'd refused to look too close. And why? Face it, he told himself. It was because of the guilt he'd felt. Carly had walked in on him and Alexis. It was his actions that had driven her off the road and into the cold dark waters.

Jason had tried to tell him something once about the time she'd gone missing, but he'd told him forget it. Carly was back safe and sound and that was all that had mattered. But she hadn't changed one bit. Still the same old Carly, full of schemes and plans to get her own way. What if all of this had been tied together somehow? Then it was his fault that Alexis was missing now.

Sonny went to his window and stared out over the Port Charles skyline. Alexis, honey, where are you? Why don't you call? Why can't you?


Jax didn't know what led him back to Club 101 but he was in the habit of following his instincts no matter how simple they seemed to be. Two hours later, he sat his phone receiver back in its cradle after what must have been his tenth call and sat back, closing his eyes and rubbing at them with one hand. So far, his contacts could find nothing concerning Mason's current whereabouts. Mason hadn't been listed on any commercial flights out of Port Charles; so then Jax had turned to private chartered flights. On his third try of that list, he'd managed to confirm that Mason had a plane on retainer stand-by notice, but they wouldn't divulge any other information than that.

He'd have to turn to Sonny; Jax laughed aloud with ironic anger. He would have to have Sonny have one of his men "lean" on someone for information. But for Alexis, Jax knew he wouldn't hesitate to use any mean necessary to find her. A part of him still hoped that they were over-reacting and that there was a logical reason for Alexis to be temporarily unreachable; something that would resolve itself in the next phone call, the next knock on the door. But at the same time, he knew that he was lying to himself.

Jax stood up and wandered around the office, letting his gaze wander around the room while he let his mind decide where he should direct his energies next. It was his way; to let his mind self-engage and sort out the solutions to his problems independently. His eyes went back to the desk and found the picture of Carly and her son that she'd put there the first day Carly had started work here. He looked down at a smiling Carly and Michael. A part of mind started replaying Sonny's words. Could Carly really have been involved in Alexis' disappearance? The wheels spinning in his head suddenly clicked onto a sudden unwelcome thought. Maybe Mason had used her, maybe that's why he'd been romancing Carly to begin with. It might have been a trick all along, a means to an end to get to the real object of his desire. What if Carly's disappearance was just as much a result of Mason's plans that Alexis' appeared to be?

Jax started jerking open the desk drawers, throwing their contents onto the desk, looking for something, anything, that might give him a clue as to where Carly might have gone. Or been taken. Carly, where the hell are you?