Part 55
"Hey," David said, seeing Zander and Brenda as they came off of the plane. "I'm glad you're here."
"Thanks," Zander said. David took his bag from him. "I'm not that delicate," Zander said, smiling.
"Do you have your prescription?" David asked.
"I remembered it. I remembered it in London. I'm a real responsible patient."
"That's good."
The change of scene was relaxing for Zander. He looked out the car window and asked questions.
They drove through town and then outside a little way, on a country road, then up a long and twisted driveway to a cabin.
"How can you get out of here in the snow?" Zander asked.
"I avoid it," he said. "I'll just stay at the Pine Valley Inn a lot of the time, especially in the winter. I didn't want you to stay there now, though, not this time, anyway."
"Such a nice place," Brenda said, after they had settled in one of the bedrooms and had come back out into the living room.
"I can build a fire there," David said, indicating the fireplace. "If it gets cold enough."
There was a knock at the door. David went out into the hallway to get to it.
"Where is he?" Zander heard a voice saying out in the hallway, in a good humored tone. The owner of the voice came through the doorway.
"Whoa! That is what I call a chip off the old block. Can't believe it! This is Alexander!"
"Yes," Zander smiled.
"It's me! Uncle Leo!" "Uncle Leo" came over and took his hand, shook it, patted Zander on the back, and walked around him as if inspecting him.
"Man, unbelievable!" Leo said.
Zander smiled again, tolerant of Leo's amused inspection.
"How do you feel?" Leo asked. "Is that heart condition doing anything to you?"
"No, I'm all right now. I hope you've had your heart checked out."
"I'm not from the side of the family with the bad heart," Leo said. He laughed. "I'm from the crazy side," he said.
"We can't take him to Vanessa, David," Leo said to David, who came in then with a girl. "She'll know."
"Oh, you are so right," said the girl. "She'll at least be suspicious right off."
"This is Maggie, Zander," David said. "She's my cousin."
"I'm your second cousin, or your cousin once removed, or something like that," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm really glad to meet you." Zander smiled. He had no cousins as near his age as Maggie obviously was.
"This is Brenda," David said to Leo and Maggie.
They greeted Brenda warmly. Zander had been predisposed to like them and now he really did.
"I have something for you," Zander said to David. It was some photographs from a set he and Carly had taken. One of Ginny, one of Zander and Ginny.
David looked really touched, and thanked them. He showed them to Leo and Maggie.
"What a doll!" Leo said. "She is cute. Can't believe she's your granddaughter, David. I can't believe you're a grandfather!"
"Yeah, it's rather sudden, when I was never a father before."
"Who knows how many more there may be out there!" Leo said, with a laugh.
"Leo!" Maggie exclaimed.
"Now would you honestly be surprised?" Leo's eyes twinkled.
"No," Maggie said.
Everyone else laughed.
"Well, I hope not," David said.
"You'd worry about their Q-T intervals," Zander said. "And their sanity, I suppose, from what you say."
"For a grandson of Vanessa, you're pretty sane, Alexander," said Leo.
"Just how crazy is your mother?" Zander asked David, turning back to him. "Is she in an institution?"
"No," David said.
"Unfortunately," said Maggie.
"For the rest of the world," Leo added in agreement.
"What has she done?" Brenda asked.
"She took over my father's business," David said. "She turned it into an illegal drug operation – though she insists that is what it always was. The guys she's been married to or involved with – always something going on there. Either they are crazy too, or she's doing something with their money or their ex-wife or one of their relatives. Or she's interfering in our lives. A little while ago, Leo and I found out she has another son out there. Younger than I, but older than Leo. We don't know him that well."
"Not much worse than with me," Zander said.
"Well, it's different, though," David said. "One thing, is you were always with your mother. Yet Vanessa gives her middle kid up to other people. Another thing, you're mine. That's OK. He's Vanessa's. That's scary."
"Uh, so are you two," Maggie said. "You're Vanessa's."
"And if some third party thought we were nuts on that account, I wouldn't blame them," said Leo, "so I'm wary of old Trey."
"That's his name," David explained. "Adopted, his name is – what is it?"
"James Kenyon the third, I think," Leo said. "Trey."
"I hate to point this out to you," Brenda said, "But this woman you say is crazy raised you two, but not him. Isn't he the one likely to be of sounder mind?"
"I told you she was brilliant," Zander said.
"You caught us in our double standard," David said. "We have it, that's true. Now Trey, he went and told Vanessa who he was. He's starting to get himself caught up in her schemes. So we don't want her to know about you."
"What is it, exactly that she'll do to me?
"We don't know," said Leo, "And that's what we find so frightening."
"To her, you'll represent some sort of family heir," David said, a little more helpfully, "oldest son of the oldest son, you know? She could end up trying to make her enterprises really big, just for you. And interfere – she can do that better than you could ever imagine."
"She could find out about me anyway," Zander said. "You saw how long the secret lasted with Dad."
"Maybe she even knows already," Brenda said.
"Possible," David admitted.
"I think I'd like to see her, though," Zander said. "Anyway, it's probably better to just tell her than to think she doesn't know when she might, or keep thinking that when she somehow finds out."
"Maybe," David said. "You're probably right. Some other time, though. I think I'd rather first get Donna to go talk to her and then see what she thinks."
"OK," Zander said. He smiled. Cameron had never said a thing like that, ever.
"Who was your father?" Zander asked Leo.
"I don't even know him," Leo said. "All I know is that Vanessa had an affair with a married French vineyard owner, and I don't even know for sure if that's true. He wouldn't leave his wife. Therefore, it was me and Vanessa. And her series of husbands. The closest I ever had to a father was David."
They talked late into the evening, Zander finding out about Leo's life with Vanessa, which seemed pretty interesting, if unusual. David had escaped most of that because his father had lived until he was twelve, and he was in college by the time Vanessa had really gotten started on her odd life. This life was the one where Leo's father and a series of wealthy husbands or lovers keeping herself and Leo in high society, until Leo got tired of living like that and had gone to David.
"So this is the dysfunctional family you escaped from," Leo said.
"There is something dysfunctional about both my parents' families," Zander said. "Both Mom and Dad aren't always totally functional. This one hardly sounds worse. Only a little different. There's even more of a sense of humor to it," he added. "It's like you're crazy, but you're still not down and out."
Zander and Brenda were in the coffee shop of the Pine Valley Inn, waiting for David to come back from the hospital, where he had gone for an hour or so.
Anna Devane, chief of police in Pine Valley, sat at the bar, sipping coffee. She looked around, aware as she usually was. She said to an assistant: "There's a small file in my desk, labeled "Lewis," go and get it for me."
When the assistant came back with it, Anna looked at the pictures in it. There was a photo of Alexander Lewis, aka, Zander Smith.
Anna compared the young man she was looking at with the photo.
She went over to him. "May I sit down?" she asked, flashing her badge.
"Sure," the young man said. "What did I do?"
"I'm looking at you as potential victim."
"Oh," Zander said, uneasily, "of what?"
"I don't even know, it would be beyond my comprehension, and possibly yours. Have you been in the hospital?"
Zander started to get what it might be about. "Dr. Cameron Lewis, right?"
"Right. Your father. He and I talked. I know you've been treated in a hospital in New York State."
"My EKG showed the problem and it's all taken care of."
"What with?"
"This," Zander said, pulling out the bottle with his prescription in it.
"Can I see that?"
"Sure."
Anna told her assistant to write down the name of the drug.
"All regular, routine, FDA-approved," Zander said.
"You know a lot for a patient," Anna said.
"My father's a cardiologist."
"And there's nothing else?" she asked.
"Nothing else?"
"For your treatment. You aren't here in Pine Valley for any sort of treatment?"
"No, no."
"Dr. Hayward hasn't told you there is something else you should do?"
"No," Zander answered.
"You should tell me, for your own safety, regardless of what Dr. Hayward told you. What else did he recommend?"
"Nothing, it's not like that."
"You have a doctor back in New York?"
"Dr. Quartermaine."
"She knows everything about your condition, what you're doing for it, and what you're taking for it?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what Dr. Hayward was doing there in the hospital you were in, in New York?"
"Being – family friend."
"All right. This is your only chance. Here's my card. Tell me when you are ready to, anything he wants you to do over and above taking this medicine. All right? Your life could depend on it."
"OK, officer – I mean, chief."
"Watch out," was all she said, as she got up. "I don't think you're telling me everything. Whatever it is, get a second opinion. Don't take it, don't do it, unless Dr. Quartermaine knows all about it, and agrees. And your father."
"OK."
They watched her walk off. Brenda giggled. "What in the heck has David done in the past?" she asked.
"Must have been some experimental sort of treatment, and between that and Dad talking to her, she thinks David is carrying out some sort of experiment on me."
"That sounds like that's about it," Brenda said.
"You could just tell her, David, if you want to," Zander was saying, when David had joined them. "As soon as she knows, it will explain it all for her."
"She's a detective," David said. "Let her figure it out."
Zander felt like laughing. He smiled. "You want her chasing after you, don't you?"
"No," David said. "It's her job, let's see how long it takes."
"What of the good people of Pine Valley?" Brenda asked, a bit mischievously. "Should their police chief be spending time chasing shadows?"
"They do it all the time," David answered.
"She's some woman," Zander said. "She's sharp. Smart, beautiful. All that and then that English accent. It would slay me if I didn't have this one," he squeezed Brenda's shoulder. "Too bad you screwed it up, David."
"How did you know it was me who screwed up, and not her?"
"Genetics," Zander answered.