While Roger unlocked the door of his suite, Michael was on Roger's cellular phone with Donna. "No, Donna, I am not telling you over the phone. Just get over here to The Bayshore already!" Michael exclaimed. "Okay, ten minutes. And hey-I love you." When he disconnected the call and handed the phone back to Roger he said, "Why are you still here? Go down the hall and get Holly!"
"She did say she wasn't working today," Roger mused.
"Go!" Michael said, pointing. "I'll call room service and order champagne, and since I'm technically the boss, it's on me."
So Roger hurried down the hall and knocked on Holly's door. When she opened the door and took in the sight of him standing there, his tie loosened, his collar unbuttoned, the look on his face one that was a cross between amazement, happiness, and pride, she knew instantly what it had to be. "Yahoo went national," she greeted him.
"Yeah," Roger said, surprised. "How did you know?"
"It's written all over you," she replied. "Roger, that's wonderful. I'm so happy for you, and so proud of you." She hugged him then, and he held her tightly, closing his eyes for a moment. This was huge: his first business success with Michael, one that had nothing to do with anything Spaulding-related.
When Roger drew back, still holding Holly, he said, "Michael's in my suite, and Donna's on her way. We're going to celebrate. I really want you there."
"Nothing could keep me away," Holly said. She slid her hand into his as they walked back down the hall.
Michael had left the door unlocked, and Roger and Holly were both surprised when they walked into Roger's suite together and found Michael standing there with his brother John. "Hey, Black Fox, I think you have another, even better reason to celebrate," Michael said with a big smile.
John handed Roger an official-looking envelope then. "This was in my mail at the hospital this morning," he said. "I thought you'd want this as soon as possible."
Roger opened the envelope and removed the papers inside, reading them over.
"Roger?" Holly asked. Behind her, Michael and John exchanged a knowing glance.
Roger looked up from the papers and met Holly's eyes. "My divorce from Dinah is final," he said.
"It is?" she asked, seeing the relief and the happiness in his eyes and feeling that same relief and happiness in her own heart and soul.
"Yeah," Roger said, holding up the papers. "That's what this says. I'm legally a free man."
The smile on Holly's face was positively beatific. Roger was beaming now as well, and unable to hold back, he pulled Holly into his arms and kissed her soundly in front of Michael and John. It took a split second for her to kiss him back just as soundly. Donna and the room service waiter with the champagne and glasses arrived at the same time, in the middle of Roger and Holly's kiss, and Michael said, "Roger's divorce is final."
"No wonder you called me down here to celebrate," Donna said. "But are you sure they really need us, Michael? They seem to be doing just fine on their own."
"That wasn't the reason I called you down here," Michael replied. "Yahoo is going national at opening of business tomorrow morning. That's what we're celebrating, but then Roger got his final divorce decree-"
"And my work here is definitely done," John interrupted. He hugged Donna in both greeting and farewell, then said, "We need to be nailing down our Thanksgiving plans. We were all at yours and Mike's place last year, and I know Vicky and Ryan and Marley and Jamie and the boys will be spending at least part of the day at Rachel's, but Sharlene and I thought it would be nice if we took our turn this year and had all of you out to the farm. Plus with Mom right next door, it's easier to get her back and forth, because you and Mike are downtown, and the girls and their families are out in the 'burbs, and of course Josie and Gary don't have room to host everybody in their apartment."
"I'll call Victoria and Marley tonight, let them know, and then call Sharlene," Donna promised.
John clapped Michael on the shoulder. "That's great about Yahoo, Mike," he said. "And I'm glad that my playing messenger boy was so great for Roger and Holly. Give them my regards when they come up for air, will you? I have to get back."
"Sure," Michael replied, clapping John on the shoulder. "Catch you later."
"Catch you later," John said, carefully skirting around Roger and Holly to take his leave.
The room service guy finished setting up the glasses on the table behind the couch, and left the champagne in the ice bucket as Michael directed him. After Michael tipped him, he too left.
The popping of the champagne cork broke through to Roger and Holly, who finally ended their kiss, both of them breathless. "Sorry about that," Roger said somewhat sheepishly to Michael and Donna, his arms still loosely around Holly's waist, as her arms were still loosely around his neck. "I lost my mind for a minute there."
"We can always put it back when you're done," Donna said gaily, accepting a glass of champagne from Michael. "You don't look like you regret it anyway, and I can see that Holly certainly doesn't."
Roger looked at Holly and found her looking back at him. "No," he agreed, "I certainly don't regret it."
"Neither do I," Holly replied.
Michael had his own glass of champagne now, and had poured glasses for Roger and Holly. "A toast," he said, but before he could continue, or Holly and Roger could even pick up their glasses, the phone rang.
Roger answered it. "Hello?"
"You lying bastard!"
Roger's expression instantly changed, his smile disappearing completely, his eyes going flinty with an undercurrent of anxiety in them, and his shoulders showing the tension he was feeling in every fiber of his being. Holly, Michael and Donna were all puzzled, wondering what could have brought about such an instantaneous change in Roger, but that question was answered when Roger uttered one word: "Hart."
"What the hell do you think you're trying to pull?" Hart demanded.
"To what, specifically, are you referring?" Roger asked, battling to keep his tone even. Hart was clearly angry and very worked up, and Roger didn't want to poke an agitated tiger. Roger heard Dinah telling Hart in the background to calm down; she sounded put out too, but she also sounded much more in control than Hart did.
"I'm not getting into it over the phone. Come to the farm. 3:00 today," Hart practically growled.
"I'll be there," Roger said.
"I'm looking forward to it. We're gonna settle this once and for all!" Hart exclaimed before slamming the phone down in Roger's ear.
The jubilant mood in the room had vanished, replaced by an air of tension and anxiety. Roger hung up the phone and tried to smile at the others, but it fell flat. "I'm busted," he said.
"What did Hart say?" Holly asked.
"Well, first he called me a lying bastard, which is technically true," Roger began.
"Don't. Don't do that," Holly said. "This is the same man who tried to run you down with his car once, Roger. I know he's your son, but when has he ever given you a break? You have tried to do everything possible to get to know him and to build a relationship with him, and he wants to no part of it, he wants no part of you. He has been trying to gaslight you for months. So don't stand there and try to sell me on him having a point about you or being right about you. He has made it his goal in life to act like the martyr where you're concerned, and he expects you to just take whatever he dishes out to you because he thinks you owe him. You didn't even know he existed until he told you. He doesn't have a leg to stand on. He doesn't know you the way I do and the way Blake does, and he has never tried to get to know you the way Blake and I have. Biology is the only link you have because that's the way he wants it to be, and no matter what you say and do, he is never going to give you a fair chance, and I just hate seeing you hurt all the time, and turning yourself inside out trying to make him love you."
"What else did he say?" Michael asked then. "What does he want from you this time?"
"He wants to see me this afternoon to settle everything once and for all," Roger replied.
"I'm going with you," Holly and Michael said in unison.
"And don't even think about arguing with me," Michael added sternly. "If this punk tried to run you over with his car once, that proves he's a loose cannon, that he is capable of doing absolutely anything. You need somebody to have your back, and you know damned well I always come through in that regard, Roger."
"I would feel better if you were there," Roger told Michael. "Thanks."
"And you expect me to sit here and wait alone while you go walking into certain danger? No. Absolutely not!" Holly exclaimed. "Hart and Dinah have been sleeping together for how long now? And you and Dinah are officially, legally divorced." Holly grabbed Roger's upper arms then, holding onto him as her gaze bored into his. "I'm a part of this, Roger. I was the one who found out about Dinah and Hart's affair first and told you about it. You don't have to do this alone, and yes," she said when Roger opened his mouth to speak, "I know Michael is going to be there, but they're not going to know that Michael is there, right?"
"Right," Michael replied.
"Dinah will be there by Hart's side. I'm going to be there by yours, where I belong," Holly said.
"You didn't sign on for this," Roger told Holly.
"Yes, I did," Holly replied firmly. "I signed on for everything, all of it, the good and the bad."
Roger and Holly looked at each other intently, and Michael and Donna exchanged a look of their own behind them. Michael perfectly understood Roger's feelings, and Donna perfectly understood Holly's, because if it were them, Michael would want to keep Donna out of the line of fire, and Donna would insist on being right in the thick of all the action, no matter what, because that's where Michael was.
"If you try to ditch me, I'll just follow you," Holly said then, breaking the silence of her and Roger's staring contest.
Roger finally cracked a smile. "You would, too," he said. "I don't like this. Michael's right; Hart is a loose cannon, capable of anything."
"You don't have to like it. You just have to accept it," Holly replied.
Roger remembered saying something similar to her the last time he had met with Dinah and Hart, having gone by himself that time...although he wasn't really alone then, he recalled; Frankie was in the parking garage below, listening to every word the three of them said on the listening devices she had planted through the penthouse. "Is that what they mean by 'hoist by your own petard'?" he asked.
"Neither one of us is going to get hurt," Holly said determinedly. "Being hoist by your own petard means that you're hurt or destroyed by your own plot, which you intended for somebody else."
"Like getting blown up by your own bomb?" Roger asked.
"This is such a cheerful conversation," Donna interjected then. "The only ones getting hoisted by their own petard today are Dinah and Hart. And I think you should get Frankie in on this too."
"That's a great idea," Michael agreed. Then he looked at Donna suspiciously. "Why are you suggesting we get Frankie in on this?"
"She's a private investigator, she's been in on this from the start too, and since this is happening in Springfield, it is, unfortunately, out of Ryan's jurisdiction. He would have been my first choice, with the entirety of the Bay City Police Department backing him up, but that's not possible," Donna replied.
Holly was already at the phone, punching in Cass's office number. "Cass? Holly Lindsey. Is Frankie there? We have a situation here, and we could really use her help."
"Holly? What's going on?" Frankie asked after she had taken the phone from Cass.
Holly quickly filled Frankie in on the situation, then gave her directions to the Jessup farm. "We'll be there, don't worry," Frankie assured her, and Holly instantly felt better.
"Thank you, Frankie," Holly said earnestly.
"It's what we do," Frankie replied. The last thing she said was, "Everything is going to be fine, Holly."
"Donna," Michael said, for she was the one loose thread remaining.
"I'll find my own way to the police station in Springfield," Donna said. "I presume that's where this whole thing will end up when it's over?"
Michael and Roger exchanged a look. "Ideally," Roger said.
Donna looked to Michael now. "You call my car phone when this whole thing is over," she said. "I'll meet you all at the police station. That is where you'll all end up, I know it."
And so it was that a few hours later, Roger and Holly were headed to Springfield in Roger's car, with Michael following them in his own car...and Donna gave them a 15-minute head start and then started for Springfield herself in her own car. Frankie and Cass were already at the Jessup farm and waiting when Roger and Holly, and Michael arrived. Dinah and Hart, however, were not there yet.
"Trying to get the upper hand by making you wait to psych you out," Michael said. "That's something we've seen before, right, Fox Head?"
"Right," Roger said. He was worried about having Holly there, though.
"I can't bug a field," Frankie said. "But I can film everything, and I will." She held up a video camera.
"Will it be admissible?" Roger asked.
"There are ways around that," Cass said. "We've done this sort of thing before." He looked around. "Mary Frances, what do you think?"
Frankie looked around now too. "Back there," she said, gesturing to a stand of pine trees adjacent to the farmhouse. The pine trees created a semicircle that backed up to the river that ran past the farmhouse.
"You and Cass take the middle, I'll take the left end?" Michael asked, gesturing now himself to where he wanted to hide and where Frankie and Cass would hide.
"That'll work," Frankie replied.
"We've got your back," Michael said to Roger, squeezing his shoulder before going to take his place in the stand of trees.
"Everything's going to be fine," Frankie repeated to Holly. before she and Cass went and hid in the middle of the trees. Sure enough, all three of them were out of sight.
Which left Roger and Holly alone in the middle of the field.
"Last chance to go and hide with the others," Roger told Holly.
She took his hand in hers then and held it. "You had to face them by yourself the last time," she said, firmly but calmly. "You won't have to face them by yourself this time. You never have to face anything by yourself again."
"Well, well, well, isn't this touching," came the sneering voice of Hart Jessup. Roger and Holly both turned to look at him, and they could see the anger emanating from him in waves as he crossed the field, stopping just a few feet from the two of them. "And yet it's not really a surprise to see you here, Holly. I used to think you had more sense than that, but apparently I was wrong. How long have you been sleeping with him?"
"You can say anything you want to about me, but you don't talk about Holly that way," Roger said, his voice steely.
Dinah came briskly trotting around the farmhouse then. "I knew it!" she exclaimed as she went to stand beside Hart. "I knew you were cheating on me with Holly!"
"Dinah, the divorce is final. It's a bit late for you to be playing the wounded wife," Roger said tiredly. "And I did not cheat on you, which is more than I can say for you." At Dinah's shocked expression, Roger said, "That's right. I know that you've been sleeping with Hart for months."
Now Dinah looked confused. "You didn't use that in the divorce," she said.
"I didn't see the point," Roger replied. "We just both wanted out of the marriage as soon as possible. You filed, claiming irreconcilable differences, and that was grounds enough to get the divorce."
"I didn't think your ego could stand knowing that I cheated on you, and with your own son," Dinah said.
Hart looked at Dinah as if she had lost her mind. "What the hell?" he asked. "That's what you want to talk to him about?"
"I don't understand why he didn't come after me, come after both of us, if he knew about us for as long as he says he did!" Dinah exclaimed. She looked at Roger once more. "Is that what the money is? Some kind of weird sop?"
"What money?" Holly asked.
"Yes, the money," Hart said, glowering at Roger. "You deposited the exact amount of Dinah's trust fund in her private account at First National. Surely you must have known that we had already been to the Caymans to get her trust fund out the bank you stashed it in down there."
"I did," Roger agreed. "I felt I owed her, though."
Hart laughed mirthlessly. "You owed her. Right," he said sarcastically. "You're being manipulative, Roger, and I hate that!"
"Funny how you don't seem to mind when you're the one doing the manipulating," Holly said then.
"I don't recall asking you, Holly!" Hart spat through teeth clenched in rage.
"All right, yeah, we gaslighted you," Dinah said then. From her hiding place, Frankie silently rejoiced at having caught that particular admission from Dinah with her video camera. "It was the surest way we could think of to get my trust fund back without you interfering."
"You've been manipulating us all along," Hart said angrily then. "You let us think that you were safely locked away in the psych ward at the hospital in Bay City for the past few months, only you were never there at all, were you? It was all a lie, a scam. We found out when we went there this morning to see you, and they had no record of you having ever been a patient there, and since you haven't been in Springfield much the past few months, since you weren't in the psych ward, all I could figure was that you had moved into the best hotel in Bay City, and sure enough, that's where we found you. Is that Dr. Hudson even a head shrinker?"
"Dr. Hudson is not your concern," Roger replied. "I am."
Hart clutched at his head for a moment, mussing his hair in the process. "I've really had it with your bullshit, Roger! You think Dinah and I are just puppets that you can make dance to your tune by jerking our strings to suit your will!"
"You want to stand there and talk about jerking strings?" Roger asked. "You tried to make think I was losing my mind! If anyone is a puppetmaster around here, Hart, it's you!"
"So what exactly is the money, Roger? Some kind of a payoff?" Dinah persisted.
Roger focused on Dinah now. "I stole your trust fund, and that was wrong of me," Roger said. "We got married for all the wrong reasons."
"Oh, please," Dinah scoffed. "If you were ever going to marry anyone for love, it would be her." She waved a hand at Holly. "The whole town knows that you claim to love Holly, that you've never gotten over her, and that she has this weird fixation on you. I knew the score. We used each other, Roger. I married you to get my trust fund and infuriate my parents, and you married me to steal my trust fund and probably to try and convince Holly that you were over her, but you weren't. I didn't expect to get a huge payday out of it, and that's what's throwing me."
"I thought of you as a friend, Dinah," Roger said. "And stealing your trust fund was a lousy thing to do to you. It wasn't the action of a friend."
Dinah looked distinctly uncomfortable now. "When did you grow a conscience?" she asked. "You gave me the penthouse, the full amount of the settlement I asked for in the divorce, and the amount of my trust fund twice over."
"He doesn't have a conscience!" Hart yelled. "It's another manipulation, Dinah! Open your eyes!"
"How?" she asked, stopping Hart cold. "How is it a manipulation? He wants Holly. That's not a surprise. He can have her now, because he and I are divorced! And we gaslighted him, Hart! He found out about our affair and played right into our hands, letting us commit him, or try to. That's the only manipulation he's really done."
"Don't tell me you're defending him now!" Hart exclaimed.
"No, I'm not defending him!" Dinah exclaimed right back. "I'm just trying to figure all of this out, because it makes no sense whatsoever to me!"
Hart was enraged now. This confrontation with Roger wasn't going according to plan at all.
It was time to get back on plan.
Hart pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket then. "I'm done trying to figure anything out," he said, pointing the gun right at Roger's chest. In the trees, Frankie's heart and stomach both sank, and Cass looked at her worriedly, afraid of what danger she might try to rush into if Hart fired the gun, and Michael cursed inwardly, patted his jacket, confident that his own gun was in the inside jacket pocket if needed, and tensed, ready to race into the middle of the fray on a split second's notice, all of his old Marine and CIA instincts straining like a fighter jet on the holdback bar of an aircraft carrier before it was fired off the deck.
Roger extended his arms out at his sides, trying to move in front of Holly, to block her from the muzzle of the gun, but she kept moving with him, half behind him, her arms wrapped around his upper torso, her palms flat on his chest. It was a lousy defense, because a bullet could go through her hand and into Roger's chest, but for the moment, it was the only defense she had to employ, though her mind raced as she tried to think of another, better one.
"We agree that I've been a lousy father to you," Roger said.
"You were never my father!" Hart retorted, holding the gun in both hands, still aimed squarely at Roger's chest.
"Why didn't Michael and I think to ask Ryan for some bulletproof vests?" Frankie whispered frantically to Cass. Cass had no answer, because he hadn't thought of it either.
"Hart, think!" Holly shouted then. "Do you really want to go to jail? If you shoot Roger, at the very least, you're looking at assault with a deadly weapon. At the worst, you're looking at attempted murder, or murder one. That's a minimum of twenty-five years behind bars. Is that what you want to do with the rest of your life?"
"Thank you, Madame Newspaper Editor, I wasn't aware of that," Hart said sarcastically. "All he has ever given me is grief! I'm sick of it!"
"Hart, put the gun down," Roger implored.
Michael recognized the look of pure rage in Hart's eyes. He was almost beyond all reason now.
Holly tried to pull Roger further away from Hart, which, again, was a lousy defense, but the only one she could come up with in that moment. She moved out from behind Roger so she was standing at his side, less than three feet away from him.
"Hart, what are you doing?" Dinah cried. This wasn't going according to their plan at all. Hart was supposed to make Roger angry enough to come at him, but he seemed to have thrown that out the window now.
"What I should have done the second I found out what he was really like," Hart said angrily. He cocked the hammer.
In the next split second, a gunshot rang out.
"NO!" Holly screamed.
She jumped out in front of Roger, shoving him backwards as hard as she could at the same time.
"HOLLY!" Roger screamed as he went down, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her down to the ground with him.
Michael burst out of the trees, covering the thirty yards separating him from Hart in the space of two-and-a-half heartbeats, then throwing a flying tackle, knocking Hart facedown in the mud and holding him down there with a knee in the middle of his back. He ripped the gun from Hart's hand and growled, "You so much as twitch, I'll blow your damned head off!" before pressing the gun to the base of Hart's skull. He looked up at Dinah, whose eyes were as big as dinner plates as she took in the scene before her in shocked silence, and said, "That goes for you too!"
Frankie and Cass came rushing out of their hiding place a split second after Michael charged out of his and rushed to Holly and Roger.
In reality, not even five seconds passed from the time Holly jumped in front of Roger to the time Roger, tears pouring down his face, sat up, crying, "No, God no!Holly!" as he sprang up to his knees and gently rolled Holly over from where she was lying facedown.
Her face and clothes were covered in mud, as were Roger's, and her sweater bore a large black powder stain that spread from just below her breasts to the hem of the sweater at her waist...but there was no blood!
Holly opened her eyes and sat up gingerly, her palm pressed to her stomach, then moving to first one set of ribs and then the other. When she pulled her palm away from her torso and looked at it, all she saw was traces of black powder in her hand. She looked up at Roger in surprise. "Powder," she said.
"Blanks," Frankie realized. "The gun has blanks in it!"
Upon hearing this, Michael shoved Hart's gun in the back of his waistband and reached into his jacket, pulling out his own Glock pistol. The safety was still on it, but Hart and Dinah didn't need to know that, he thought. "Maybe your gun has blanks, but mine doesn't," Michael said. He stood up then, still holding the gun on Hart. "Get up. Now!" he ordered. "Cass!"
Cass hurried over. Michael handed him the gun. "Cover us," he said. Michael then searched Hart, ripping open Hart's bulky jacket and plaid flannel shirt to reveal a fake blood pack strapped to his chest. "Well, what do we have here?" Michael asked rhetorically. "A fake blood pack."
"Designed, no doubt, to make Roger think he had shot you and probably killed you after you baited him into a struggle over the gun," Cass said, "only you couldn't bait Roger, and you lost your temper and abandoned the plan when you got angry over that fact, didn't you?" Hart said nothing. Neither did Dinah, but she was chalk white now and trembling, and not from the chill in the November wind whipping around them now, signaling that a thunderstorm was coming.
Roger frantically moved his hands over Holly's torso, coming away with two handfuls of powder traces himself. "You could have been shot!" he exclaimed, his tone of voice half angry and half terrified while the look in his eyes was one mingling concern with amazement.
"And you've been shot three times that I know about!" Holly retorted. "I wasn't about to let number four happen right in front of me!"
Frankie extended a hand to help first Holly and then Roger to their feet. Then the wailing of sirens rent the air. Hart cursed roundly. "Who called the cops?" he demanded to know.
"That would be me." Roger, Holly, Michael, Cass and Frankie all whipped around when they heard Donna utter those four words. "I also took the liberty of calling the auto club because that little tart over there," she gestured to Dinah, "who I'm guessing is Dinah, took a crowbar to your car, Roger. Completely smashed the windshield, headlights, taillights, and all four windows. What's the matter, didn't have a knife to slash the tires with?" she asked Dinah blandly. "I was watching from right over there." She turned and pointed to the side of the house, near the enclosed porch. "As soon as I saw that gun come out, I went back to my car and called the local authorities. I have to give them credit, I didn't think they'd get here that fast."
"If you mentioned my name, I'm surprised they weren't here faster," Roger said.
Five police cars pulled to screeching halts, and Detective Cutter and Detective Levy with half a dozen uniformed officers converged on the crowd in the field. "Roger Thorpe," Cutter said. "I should have known those rumors about you being in a mental hospital were too good to be true." He looked around at the assemblage. "I see we have some new faces here. I can't wait to hear this story."
"Detective, I'm Cass Winthrop. I'm Mr. Thorpe and Ms. Lindsey's lawyer," Cass piped up then.
"Mary Frances Frame, I'm a private investigator in Mr. Thorpe and Ms. Lindsey's employ," Frankie added.
"Michael Hudson, United States Marines, retired, CIA, also retired. Roger's my best friend," Michael said.
Cutter looked at Michael incredulously. "I'm sorry, did you just say that Roger Thorpe is your best friend?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Yes, I did," Michael replied firmly.
"And who are you?" Cutter asked Donna.
"Donna Love. Holly's best friend and an interested bystander," Donna replied, her chin jutting out defiantly.
Cutter pinched the bridge of his nose as the uniformed officers moved around, gathering evidence and formally arresting Dinah, Hart, Roger, and Holly. "Is that really necessary?" Roger asked when one of the uniforms prepared to put handcuffs on Holly.
"Roger, let me take care of everything," Cass said.
"I would listen to my lawyer if I were you," Levy told Roger as he handcuffed him.
Everyone headed down to the police station then, Frankie and Cass, Michael, and Donna being allowed to take their own cars. Once at the station house, Roger, Holly, Dinah, and Hart were booked, then taken to interrogation rooms. Michael was also taken to an interrogation room to be questioned, and Frankie and Cass went with Holly and Roger. Donna's statement took the least amount of time, and she was waiting in the bullpen when a redheaded woman pushing a double stroller containing one sleeping baby boy and one awake baby boy sucking on a pacifier hurried in and tried unsuccessfully to flag down a police officer. "I just want to know where you have Roger Thorpe and Holly Lindsey!" she finally exclaimed in frustration.
"You must be Blake," Donna said.
Blake looked at the woman about her mother's age with the raven-colored bob and frowned. "Yeah, I am. Do I know you?" she asked.
"No, but I've heard a lot about you from your mother and father," Donna replied. "They're fine. They're being questioned right now, but they're fine. I'm Donna Love, a friend of your mother's." She stood up, walked over to Blake, and shook her hand.
"Donna," Blake repeated, realizing this must be the Donna she had overheard her parents talking about on the phone a few months ago. "Blake Thorpe Marler. What happened?"
"Your parents had a little showdown with Hart and Dinah a little while ago," Donna replied. "Hart pulled a gun-" Seeing the panicked look on Blake's face at this news, she hurried on, "No, no, everyone's all right. Holly jumped in front of Roger, and the gun had blanks anyway."
Blake exhaled a sigh of relief, and said, "Wait, how do you know this?"
"I was there. We all were," Donna said.
"'We all were'?" Blake echoed.
"Yes. Me, Michael, Frankie and Cass," Donna said. "The others are being questioned now, along with your parents and Hart and Dinah. And Cass is serving as your parents' lawyer. They couldn't have a better one, truly."
Ross came in then, shouting, "Where's Dinah? What did Roger do now?"
"Excuse me," Donna said, affronted. "Roger didn't do anything. Dinah and Hart were the ones gaslighting him, and sleeping together behind his back for months. Although I guess it wasn't really behind his back, since he's known about it almost as long as I've known him."
Vanessa had arrived just in time to hear that Dinah and Hart were sleeping together. "Dinah and Hart have been having an affair?" she asked, dismayed. "Roger will kill them both!"
"Hart's the one who had a gun today!" Donna retorted.
Vanessa and Ross both looked sickened at this news. "Who was shot?" Ross asked tersely.
"No one," Donna replied. "Well, Hart took a shot at Roger, and he hit Holly, but the gun only had blanks. However, Hart was wearing one of those fake blood packs. Apparently his plan was to provoke Roger into fighting over the gun with him and then make Roger believe that he had shot and probably killed Hart, but Roger wouldn't take the bait, which I guess incensed Hart enough that he forgot himself, or at least forgot the gun had blanks."
Vanessa looked even sicker. Ross noticed Blake then, and the babies. "You brought the boys down here?" he asked her.
"I didn't have time to find a sitter," she told him. "I heard that my mother and father were here, and my only thought was getting to them as soon as possible."
A tidal wave of press came surging into the police station then, including representatives from both WSPR and the Journal. Blake was grateful that Fletcher was not among them. Matt Reardon was, however, having followed them in after getting Vanessa's message that she was down at the police station with Dinah.
Cutter exited an interrogation room then and sighed heavily when he saw both the press contingent and Ross and Vanessa. "I would like to see my daughter," Ross told Cutter.
"So would I," Vanessa added.
"It's going to be a long evening," Cutter murmured. "Members of the fourth estate, a statement will be forthcoming!" he shouted before shepherding Ross and Vanessa back to see Dinah.
Michael exited another interrogation room then and came over to join Donna. "How are Roger and Holly?" he asked her.
"Still back there," she replied.
Michael noticed Blake then. "You must be Blake," he said. "Your dad talks about you all the time. I'm Michael Hudson, your dad's best friend."
Blake was as surprised as Cutter had been at the farm. "Best friend?" she repeated.
"Yeah, we go way back," Michael replied. He hunkered down to look at the boys in their stroller. "And you brought Kevin and Jason with you, I see. You're lucky they're fraternal. Our daughters are identical, and there were times they impersonated each other so well that I didn't know who was really who at first. Thank God those days are over."
"Exactly how far back do you go with my father?" Blake asked.
"To the CIA," Michael said. "I know you're worried, but Cass is with them-"
"That's the lawyer, right?" Blake asked.
"Yes," Michael told her, "and he's an excellent one. And Frankie was recording the whole thing. We all saw it. The police will have all of our statements, and Cass and Ryan-"
"Ryan?" Blake asked blankly, her head spinning.
"Our son-in-law. He's the police commissioner in Bay City," Michael told her.
"So he's not here?" Blake asked.
"No, this is outside his jurisdiction," Michael replied. "Anyway, Cass and Ryan would know for absolute certain, but as far as I can tell, neither one of your parents did anything that will get them in jail here. Dinah and Hart were the ones trying to gaslight Roger."
Blake sank wearily into a chair, and when Jason started fussing, she picked him up, pulling a bottle from the diaper bag in the basket beneath the stroller's seats to feed him. "What a mess," she said.
"It's really not as bad as it might seem," Donna said, trying to be encouraging. "Cass will do all he can for Roger and Holly."
"He did handle both of their divorces," Blake mused aloud but mostly to herself.
Matt Reardon wandered over then. "Hart took a shot at Roger and Holly, but there were blanks in the gun?" he asked. "Do I have that right?"
"Yes," Donna said.
"Matt Reardon. I'm Vanessa's husband. Dinah's mother," Matt said.
Donna and Michael introduced themselves and didn't miss the double take Matt did when they said they were Roger and Holly's best friends. Vanessa returned then, looking distraught, and Matt hurried over to her.
Cutter came out a few minutes after Vanessa and called the press over to one corner of the bullpen, where he gave a summary of the events of the afternoon. The reporters kept harping on charges, and Cutter said, "We're still figuring out what charges, if any, will be conferred on everyone involved. We'll have more for you later."
"When?" asked the reporter from WSPR.
"Later," Cutter said firmly before turning on his heel and heading back to the interrogation rooms.
It was another almost two hours before Roger and Holly emerged from the interrogation rooms, along with Frankie and Cass, who hung back to talk to Cutter. Roger spotted Blake first, sitting with Michael, who was holding one of his grandsons, and Donna. "Chrissy!" he exclaimed.
Blake, holding Kevin now, stood up when she saw Roger, Holly right beside him, both of them looking rumpled and a bit worn, with dried mud streaking their clothes (they had been able to clean the mud from their faces upon arriving at the police station). Donna wordlessly held out her hands, and Blake handed Kevin to her, then hurried to her parents, hugging them both at the same time. "Are you guys okay?" she asked anxiously.
"Yes," Holly assured her.
"You were going to take a bullet for Dad?" Blake asked, one hand resting on Holly's arm now, the other hand resting on Roger's.
"I was," Holly said matter-of-factly.
Blake looked at Roger then and found that he was looking at Holly in wonder. Being privy to the existence of those wedding rings in Holly's possession, Blake was not at all surprised that her mother had jumped in front of a gun for her father, and she was exceedingly grateful that the gun had held blanks instead of real bullets, but she figured that Holly had figured that the gun had real bullets, which, to Blake, spoke volumes about the depth of Holly's true feelings for Roger.
"So, what's the good word?" Michael asked as he handed Jason to Roger.
"No charges for Holly, and amazingly enough, no charges against me, either," Roger said, sounding relieved about the first and amazed about the second. "It sure is good to see you again, Jason," he said to the baby, who gurgled and cooed up at his grandfather.
"What about Dinah and Hart?" Donna asked.
"That's still being determined," Holly replied, "although it doesn't look like Frankie's tape of everything that happened out at the farm today is going to be admissible, although the audio recording of the morning they got Roger to agree to be committed is admissible."
"Dinah is singing like a canary right now," Cass reported as he strolled up to join the group, Frankie right behind him. "I don't know how truthful she's being, but she's giving the police everything they want from her and then some."
"Hart, on the other hand, has completely clammed up," Frankie said. "They're not getting one word out of him. I don't think they're going to settle any of it tonight."
"Probably not," Cass agreed. "And with that in mind, and the fact that you're not being charged with anything, Roger, Holly, the two of you are free to go, provided you don't leave Bay City, which I promised Detective Cutter you wouldn't."
"We won't," Roger and Holly said in unison.
"All of the glass on your car is being replaced as we speak," Donna said. "You'll want to get in touch with your insurance adjustor tomorrow and let them know about it. I had the auto club take your car to the same garage where we take ours."
"Thank you, Donna, I appreciate it," Roger told her.
"I was glad to be of help," Donna replied.
"You two can ride back with me. I'll drop you at The Bayshore," Michael told Roger and Holly.
Roger handed Jason to Holly, then took Kevin from Donna. As Holly hugged Jason and kissed his cheek, Roger hugged Kevin to his chest before holding him out so he could look into Kevin's tiny face, then said, "You guys are gonna be seeing a lot more of your grandma and me from now on, I promise."
Holly settled Jason in the stroller, then accepted Kevin from Roger and hugged and kissed him before settling him in the stroller with Jason.
Ross emerged from an interrogation room then, and he looked grim. Blake felt awful for him, and she only hoped that Ross would let her be there for him. She didn't want to say 'I told you so'; she just wanted to console her husband. "Call me tomorrow," she told her parents. She wanted to give them time to recover from the events of today, and to digest everything that had happened today and what it meant, especially for their relationship. Maybe by the time she talked to them tomorrow, they would have something to tell her, and they would finally let her in on the fact that they were working on getting back together.
"We will," Holly promised. First she, then Roger, hugged Blake, and Roger lightly kissed Blake's temple. "But call us before then if you need us," Holly added.
Blake then looked at Michael and Donna, Cass and Frankie. "It was nice meeting all of you," she said. "I'm glad that my parents have such good friends." The quartet told Blake it was nice meeting her, Kevin and Jason as well, and then the Bay City contingent left the Springfield police station and headed back home.
Roger and Holly both sat in the backseat of Michael's BMW, and ten minutes outside of Springfield, Holly dozed off, her head resting against Roger's shoulder.
Michael looked in the rearview mirror and saw the way Roger was looking at Holly as she slept. Michael knew his old friend well enough to know that Roger's thoughts were in a whirl over everything that had happened that day, but most especially over the fact that Holly had, without even needing to think about it, shoved him out of the way of a bullet...or what, at that second, they had all thought was a bullet. Thank God it hadn't been a real bullet. Michael didn't even want to think about what could be happening now, or what a wreck Roger would be, if it had been a real bullet.
Not to take anything away from Donna, because Michael knew without a doubt that she loved him, always had, and always would, but Michael couldn't see her jumping between him and a bullet. He admired Holly for what she had done, and he knew that the part Roger was wrestling with was the realization that Holly loved him enough to have died for him.
"That's quite a woman you've got there, Roger," Michael said quietly, catching Roger's eye in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah," Roger said, not taking his eyes off of her sleeping against his shoulder.
The rest of the drive back to Bay City was silent. When they arrived at The Bayshore, Roger unbuckled his seat belt, then Holly's, then gently leaned over and spoke directly into her ear. "Holly, wake up. We're home."
Holly awoke blinking her eyes, shook her head to clear the cobwebs, and looked at Roger. "I dozed off?" she asked.
"The adrenaline wore off," Michael said. He turned in his seat to look at them.
"Michael..." Roger began.
But Michael waved him off. "I know," he said simply.
"Thank you, Michael, for everything," Holly said then. "And thank Donna for us too."
"Will do," Michael said. A distant rumble of thunder sounded. "Looks like that storm that hit in Springfield is making its way here," he said. "I'd better get home, and you two had better get inside. Talk to you later."
"Later," Roger said. Holly opened her door and got out, and Roger followed her. They stood there watching Michael drive away until his taillights disappeared, then headed into the hotel.
Neither of them said anything on the ride up to the seventeenth floor in the elevator, but when they reached their floor and stepped off the elevator, and found that the floor was deserted, Roger said, "We both need to get cleaned up."
"Yeah," Holly said, looking down at her ruined sweater and khakis. "And then I really think we need to talk."
"Yes," Roger agreed. They were walking down the hall now, and they reached Holly's suite first. "Fifteen minutes?" Roger asked.
"Your suite or mine?" Holly asked.
"Yours," Roger replied.
"Fifteen minutes," Holly agreed as she unlocked her door.
They just stood there looking at each other for a long moment, and Holly couldn't completely decipher everything she saw in Roger's eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Fifteen minutes," he said softly before turning and walking down the hall to his own suite to get cleaned up and changed.