Chapter 23

Since such a large group had come to see her concert Katherine had arranged to have a late lunch with everyone after the morning rehearsal. Robert was talking to Mac when the other started to enter the room. "They're sure no one else has been in to visit him?"

"Yes I've personally talked to everyone that has been working guard duty, and they all say other than hospital staff you and Anna are the only people that go in to see him," Mac confirmed.

"The way Putnam was talking he has been talking to someone else, and I'm positive it was a woman,' Robert insisted.

"When we're back in Port Charles I'll look into it more, alright. He might be talking to someone on staff and if they are nice to him, he might think they are there to visit."

"I thought we weren't talking about the case today," Sean said as he joined them, Noah and Patrick came over as well.

"Yeah you're right, we're done. So where are the ladies?" Mac asked.

"Shopping, they're together in New York City what else would they be doing? Tiffany did promise they would be on time for this," Sean told them.

As the men were talking two more people walk in talking as they entered the room, "I don't understand why Katherine has arranged this lunch, who are these people to her anyway?"

"I don't know she wouldn't tell me who was coming, just that I would be surprised," Mary told him. They looked over at the five men already in the room.

"So who are these men?"

Mary gave him a look that said stop asking silly questions, "I would guess they are half the people that Katherine invited, I'm going to go say hello." They walked over to the men together.

"Excuse me I don't mean to interrupt, my names Mark Perry, I'm Katherine manager."

The men all turned to introduce themselves. As they did Mary inhaled sharply she covered her mouth as tears started to form in her eyes. "I don't believe it, she told me but I didn't think it could be true." Robert smiled at her and gave her a big hug. "This is a wonderful surprise, I don't go to that many of her concerts anymore, but now I know why she insisted that I come to this one. Robert, I don't want to let you go."

"Well I know I'm no Robert Scorpio but do I get a hug?"

Mary looked over, "Oh Sean of course you do." They gave each other a big hug when she let him go she looked at Robert again, "I think I need another hug, just to make sure you're real." He smiled and happily hugged her again.

Mary was still holding onto his arm as Robert introduced the other, and Mary reintroduced Mark. They had just finished shaking hands when they heard laughter from the doorway. "I told Sean we'd be here on time. We all found some wonderful items too," Tiffany was saying as they entered.

"Well I'm just glad you're here, I can't believe how big Ann has gotten, she was still going by Annie last time I saw you both." Kate looked up to see Mark and Mary were already there with the others. She smiled seeing Mary standing with Robert, she had always liked him so much, "Well is that a good surprise? I have a couple more people with me that you might like seeing almost as much as Robert."

"Oh, Katherine I don't know if I can take another surprise." Then Mary saw Anna and Robin smiling at her, and the tears started again. "Oh Anna, I'm still having trouble believing you're both really here." Mary went over and hugged Anna first, then she looked at Robin. "Robin you have grown into a beautiful young lady, and Katherine tells me you're a doctor. I am so proud of you, that little girl who use to help me bake cookies has become an amazing woman." They all had a few tears in their eyes by the time all the hugging was done.

"So I take it these are old friends of yours Katherine. Do you really think you have time for this today you have a concert to prepare for," her manager Mark asked.

"I have been getting in five hours of practice since I went to Port Charles and I have already finished the rehearsal with the orchestra. This is my downtime, I will do what I want until it's time to get ready to perform."

"Fine Katherine, as long as you're prepared," Mark back down.

"Claude Donnet would have been having a fit about this, I like this guy," Robert said and smiled.

"Yeah I don't tour that much now and when I do it because I want to not because I have to, it's more enjoyable this way. Mark understands that and knows I will prepare so we get along great."

The rest of the afternoon past full of laughter. They were all in high spirits when it was time to go get ready. Back in their hotel room Anna and Robert were about ready to leave when there was a knock at their door. Robert went to answer it, "Sean I thought we were meeting in the lobby?"

"Yeah that's the plan, but I need to tell you both something. I just got off the phone with Marvin Johnston's secretary, she was calling to tell me that he won't be able to make our appointment in the morning. He won't make any of his appointments because he's dead."

"What? When did it happen?" Anna asked.

"His body was found this morning by housekeeping at the hotel he was staying at. She didn't give me any details, so I've put a few calls in to get the information. Hopefully, after the concert, we should have that information."

"You didn't go to the WSB did you?" Robert asked.

"No, of course, I didn't. I still have connections with several police departments, so I called in a few favors," Sean explained.

"Sorry Sean, I just really don't want them to have anything to do with this."

"I get that, even more now that I know what they put you both through," Sean reassured him. "I have the paperwork that connects Marvin to both de Salvas and if they can prove foul play that will work in our favor. As soon as we found evidence and had a meeting scheduled to talk to him about that information he was killed. That works in our favor and might be Jonathan's first real mistake."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Anna warned.

"No you're right, let's go enjoy tonight we can talk about this later. We were just about to head down to the lobby when you knocked."

"I'll meet you down there, I'm sure Tiffany and Ann aren't quite ready yet."

...

Early the morning after the concert Sean and Mac were both at the door when Robert answered, "To what do we owe the obnoxious intrusion." He and Anna were both in their robes.

"I know it's early but we have some major problems," Mac told him as he and Sean walked into the room.

"First off Marvin was murdered they didn't even try to hide that fact. Mac's already got people working on tracking Pauly Munro's movement, that might have been why he was called back to Miami, to get his next assignment," Sean suggested.

"That's not what has you both so worried though is it?" Anna knew these men and she could tell something bigger was going on.

"There's no easy way to put this," Mac paused running his hand through his hair. "Putnam escaped sometime in the middle of the night."

"WHAT?" Anna yelled.

"I told you there was someone visiting him. Someone had to have helped him escape." Robert was furious.

"Yes someone helped him, the guards were drugged and whoever it was used their keys to release him. Surveillance is already being checked, I'm on the next flight out so I can't stay. I assume you'll come to headquarters when you get back."

"Yeah, I want to make sure Lisa and Kate know what's going on and get as far away as they can. Lisa may request protection," Robert stated.

"I'll arrange it if she wants it, there's no problem there. I really have to get going though." Mac turned and left.

"Mac told me yesterday that he talked to all the guards and they all said we were the only visitors Putnam had. The only other people that entered his room were medical staff. We need to meet with Alan to find out who all had access to that room. We'll talk to the guards ourselves, find out who was in that room that shouldn't have been. Come on we need to go talk to Kate and Lisa."

"I'll call Lisa's room and have her meet us at Kate's, that'll give you a chance to get dressed," then Sean left the room as well.

"I was doing so well, I've been so happy and my fear wasn't a problem. We got too comfortable and look what happened."

"Anna, don't think like that, we are both getting better. My anger, your fear we can't let either of those things get in our way now. You and I are going to face this together, nobody's better then Devane and Scorpio," he reassured her. "Come on let's get dressed."

Sean and Lisa were walking towards Katherine's suite when Robert and Anna joined them. "What's going on?" Lisa asked noticing the very serious looks on all their faces.

"We'll explain once were inside," Sean told her.

Mary opened the door when they knocked. "I don't like the looks on your faces, what's going on?"

"We'll explain Mary, where's Kate?" Robert asked.

"Right here," she called as she entered the main room of the suite.

Robert and Sean explained everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Anna was very quiet sitting with Kate as she listened to them. "Lisa you have a few options. If you feel safe you could return home if you don't want to you could go on an extended trip, or if you are worried for your safety Mac has already agreed to arrange protection for you," Robert explained.

"Did Jonathan have that man killed?" Lisa asked.

"We have no proof right now but I do have the information that connects your husband to him, and that would connect Jonathan to Grant Putnam first escape." Sean went over to her, "I know this is a lot to deal with but you need to make a decision fairly quickly."

"What about Katherine is she in danger?" Mary asked.

"We don't believe so, but that being said I don't think it's save for Kate to come back to Port Charles right now. Anyone close to us could be targeted," Robert told her.

"You mean Robin could be in danger," Mary had started to cry.

"Yes, she could be, we'll deal with keeping her safe," Anna tried to comfort her. "She has this nasty stubborn streak and will fight us about staying away from Port Charles. So the fewer people we have to worry about the better."

"Imagine that Robert, your daughter being stubborn," Kate said as she walked toward him.

"She gets it from both sides. Katie, I need to know you're going to stay away from all of this."

"I think it's time Mary and I go visit King, he's working over in London. Should I tell him boss man says hello?"

"Oh please do Katie lady," Robert smiled and they hugged.

"You keep each other safe, I can't take any more heartbreaking phone calls from your daughter Scorpio."

"We'll protect each other, Sean's gonna keep an eye on us too."

Kate put her hands on his face, there were tears in her eyes, "There is a little piece of my heart that will always be yours, you make sure that part doesn't break again. Anna, I need to kiss him."

"OK, but I'm warning you he hasn't shaved this morning," she smiled.

Kate smiled, "I'll risk it," then she kissed him and they hugged each other tightly.

"I don't want you worrying about any of us. You go and enjoy yourself OK. I will call you when this is all over." Then Robert went over to Mary, "Make sure she has fun, that all of you do." Then he hugged her as well.

"I will, and you make sure you all make it through this." Mary still had tears in her eyes when she went and gave Anna a hug.

Robert and Anna were about to leave when Sean said, "Lisa wants protection because she still wants to help us, I'll fly back with her later on today."

"Thank you, Sean. We're going to go pack and head back to Port Chuck." Robert took Anna's hand and they left together.

...

"Oh this is good, this is very good Jonathan," Jim said after hanging up the phone.

"What's going on?"

"Grant Putnum escaped last night. Tommy didn't know any details just that it was sometime in the middle of the night and that he must have had help."

Jonathan started laughing, "She did it. That is perfect. By the time we get back there, the last thing the cops are going to worrying about is a threat to the local mobster." He got up and looked out the window, "What about Marvin, did Pauly make it look like a random attack, that led to his death?"

"Yeah, that's what he said. He made it look like there had been a struggle and took some things from the room and some personal belonging. The police should think he got a little drunk at the conference and invited the wrong person back to his room."

"This is going to be a wonderful day I can tell. The clubs will be rebuilt, it was time to remodel anyway. Our madman is on the loss again and will be ready to go after Devane and Scorpio when we need. Corinthos is none the wiser about who's behind those explosions. Could things be going any better for us?"

Jim didn't like how confident Jonathan was being. They had just had a man killed just because someone was asking questions. Jonathan didn't even give him the chance to prove his loyalty, Marvin had agreed to help them and this is how he was repaid. Why was he so sure Corinthos couldn't be behind the fires that destroyed the clubs? Jonathan is acting like there's no way they could fail. Jim had done some research into Robert Scorpio and Anna Devane and found out they shouldn't be taking lightly. Jonathan was blaming them for taking two important people away from him but had they really? All Jim could find about Anna Devane in connection to his father was that she arrested him. Was he really going to kill her for that? He couldn't find anything that connected Scorpio to Fred's death. He was able to find out that after both Devane and Scorpio were believed to have died in an explosion. Scorpio had worked for the WSB but had never returned to Port Charles until this year and had never contacted his family during that time. Was Jonathan right about his reasons for killing Fred? Jim wanted to do some more research into that because something didn't make sense. Jonathan wanted to succeed and was willing to do whatever it took even if that meant killing the people that were helping him get what he wants. Did that mean he could be expendable as well?

"I'm going to go make a few phone calls in my office if you need me for anything," Jim said as he got close to the door.

"Yeah that's fine we are going to go out and celebrate later. Jim we're going to get everything we want."

Sitting at his desk Jim could still hear Jonathan laughing in the next room, he put his head in his hands wondering just what had he gotten himself into and what had happened to the man he once worked for.

...

Robert and Anna had gone straight to the hospital when they got back to Port Charles. "Thank you for seeing us Alan," Robert said as they entered his office.

"Mac told me earlier you'd be coming here when you got back. I don't know how this could have happened, and I want help in any way I can to find out," Alan offered.

"I think the first place to start is with the staff. The guards told Mac we have been the only visitors Putnam has had," Robert explained. "The only other people that have gone into his room were medical staff."

"I will get a list of all personnel that has had access to him."

"Do you think we could get pictures with those names?" Anna asked. "There are eight people that have been guarding him, it will make it easier for them to identify them or tell us if someone is missing from that list."

"Of courses we have photos with their personnel files. Are you saying one of the staff members helped him escape?" Alan asked.

"Not necessarily, it could be someone impersonating a member of staff," Anna clarified.

"I hadn't thought of that, but I would rather that be the case then to find out it was a member of my staff that helped him."

"There's one more thing we'd like to talk to you about," Robert started. "If I had my way Robin would be on the next plane out of town to keep her out of any danger. She's not a kid anymore and I can't force her to leave, but I would like to know she'll be safe while she's at work."

"Robert I understand completely. We have security in place and I can have extra security outside the lab when she's in there but I don't think she's going to accept them following her around."

"No, she would hate that," Anna agreed. "We'll talk to her and make sure she understands this is for her own good, but we all know she's not going to like any extra security."

"Maybe I can convince her to work mostly in the lab until Putnam is found. Then she won't notice the extra security as much. It's not much but it's better than nothing," Alan offered.

"Thank you, Alan. Let us know when you have that list ready we're going to go talk to the guards again." Robert told him then they left the office.

As they walked down the hall they saw Carly and Sonny walking towards them. "Oh god, I'm in no mood for her crap today."

"Just keep walking hopefully she'll just ignore us," Robert hoped.

"Don't you two have anything better to do than hang out here and keep an eye on your daughter?" They kept walking, but that didn't stop Carly. "No matter how much time you spend here, it won't make up for the fact you weren't here for her when she needed you."

"Carly that's uncalled for. They have done nothing to you," Sonny said.

Anna couldn't let it go. "Don't waste your breathe Sonny, she thinks it's fun to call us out for being in an explosion could have killed us both. That I spent 9 years not know who I was, then struggling to regain my memory, and dealing with the pain that came with finally getting my memory back. That Robert was forced to stay away from his family and into a job that he would never have done otherwise for 11 years. That if he tried to make contact with us or refused to do what he was told that we would have been killed, including Robin. She has no idea what we lost while we were apart. Carly seems to believe we just took an extended vacation because we didn't feel like being parents anymore. There is a mentally ill man that was in custody here that has repeatedly vowed to kill us both and for some reason every time we come here to talk to him Carly comes out of nowhere to hurl insults." Then Anna turned to Carly, "If you must know Carly, I don't think Robin is even back from New York yet, so no we aren't here to see her. We're here because someone helped that madman escape last night."

"Wait, Putnam escape?" Sonny cut in.

"Yeah some time in the middle of the night, and it was either someone on staff or someone impersonating a staff member that helped him," Robert explained.

"I'll talk to Jason we'll keep an eye out for him as well," Sonny offered.

"Thank you, now if you don't mind we have an investigation to conduct." Then Robert and Anna walked away.

"Are you happy? You had to push and push tell Anna had no choice but to tell you very painful personal information, and all because of you're feeling toward Robin."

"I had no idea. Everyone kept telling me to leave them alone that I didn't understand," Carly couldn't believe that Anna had just told them all of that. "Robin punching me and Anna knocking me on ass makes complete sense now. Anna should have beaten the crap out of me when she had the chance." Carly stood there thinking about she had just heard. "Wait, how did you know who they were talking about?"

"That explosion Robert was injured in, we believe that was actually meant for Jason. Robert, Anna and their friend Sean came to that same conclusion. The man that escaped last night, he was sent here just to ruin their lives, probably to kill them. A man made the arrangments to get him out of the psychiatric facility he was being held in. That man was the same one behind the explosions the destroyed my businesses. We've been sharing information since Robert got out of the hospital. No one knows that though and it has to stay that way."

"Of course, I would never say anything."

"Carly you need to stop antagonizing them, they're dealing with enough already."

"I'll stop, I promise."

...

"We've talked to all of them, Mac. Alan says that he gave us a full list of personnel that had contacted with Putnam. Four different guards said there was a dark-haired nurse with an English accent that wasn't included in the list Alan gave us. That has to be who helped him."

"I'm sure you're right Robby, but that doesn't help us find out who she is. That's a fairly vague description, I mean put Anna in scrubs and she fits it," Mac insisted.

"Yeah I know it's not much but we need to follow up on this. Putnam's on the loss and it's only a matter of time before he comes after Anna again."

"Where is she?"

"She's at the hospital with Alan, they're working on security for Robin while she's there and talking to the staff. Have you thought about having the area around her apartment patroled?"

"It's already in place, as well as one for your house, just at night. Don't argue it's already arranged."

"Thank you, Mac. I have to go pick up Anna, then we're heading home for the night. Sean was going to bring Lisa here when they get in."

"OK, thanks. I'll talk to those four guards again, try to get a better description of the mystery nurse."

"Talk to you tomorrow." Robert left all he wanted to do now was pick up Anna and get her home. Why hadn't he questioned Grant more about who this visitor he was talking about was. Hopefully, the guards will come up with a better description he can take to Alan, then the hospital staff might be able to help identify her.

...

The next morning Robert and Anna were in their office, Robert was in his chair and Anna was leaning on his desk when Sean came in carrying a file. He went over and leaned against Anna's desk. "This is all I was able to find on Marvin Johnston, I had to call in a few favors to get all of this."

"So is there enough information in there to actually connect him to de Salva?" Anna asked.

"I believe so, it would have been easier if he was still alive and hoping to keep his butt out of jail, but it should do. I had a trusted friend get a copy the WSB file on Ronald de Salva, if for some reason anyone of us is being watched they would know you have not made contact with him and therefore wouldn't connect you to this." Robert nodded he understood that Frisco had gotten it for them and would thank him later. "There are records of the conversations between Johnston and Ronald de Salva about him joining the DVX. There was only one that Jonathan was involved in but they did talk about both their future in the DVX. It seems the WSB had them both under surveillance for some time after Ronald was arrested. There wasn't much there just that they did stay in contact," Sean told them.

"That proves they knew each other but is there anything more recent?" Robert asked.

"Yeah, I have phone records of calls between Jonathan de Salva's private home office number and Ravinview. There was also one call from director Johnston to that number."

"That had to be from when they were arranging to get Putnam out. I highly doubt de Salva or even Conners actually when to Ravinview," Robert said.

"No Putnam said he only saw Rodney until he got here," Anna cut in.

"That's right, we need to find out if anyone at Ravinview remembers seeing Rodney around the time Putnam got out."

"I think I'll take another trip to Ravinview to talk to them in person, just in case there were other people involved."

"That probably wise. Anna and I have to find out who the mystery lady that help Putnam escape was. Where's Lisa staying? She might be able to tell us who she is."

"You'll have to talk to Mac about that, I left her with him at the station last night. He was going to get her in a safe house."

"Before you leave Sean I want you to look into Pauly Munro's recent travels," Anna requested. "He was spotted leaving here late last week. I want to know if he made a trip to visit Marvin at that conference."

"I'll get on that right away," Sean agreed.

"We're heading down to the station. The search for Putnam has started again and we want to be part of that, know everything that's going on. We also have to convince Robin that she could be in real danger now. Alan said he will try to convince her to work mostly in the lab until he's found. He and Anna have already arranged extra security for her there."

"Keep me informed on how that goes, especially with Robin." Sean smiled knowing it wouldn't be easy to convince Robin of anything.

Robert and Anna got up to leave, "Let us know if you plan on leaving today. I think we should all stay abreast of each other's whereabouts," Robert suggested, then they left the office.

When they got to the police station Anna went to talk to the detectives working on Putnam's escape and Robert went to see Mac. Mac looked up when he entered his office. "I knew I'd be seeing you fairly early this morning. Anna didn't come with you?"

"She's in the squad room talking to Clayton and Taylor about Putnam. Were any of the guards able to give you a better description of the mystery lady?"

"Not much, short hair average height. They all said they noticed she had an ID so didn't pay much attention to her."

"And none of them took a good look at her ID right," Robert speculated.

"That's right, at a glance it must have been close enough to the real ones none of the guards thought twice about it. Sorry bro."

"I think we should talk to Lisa about this woman, she could be connected to de Salva. If he's planning to come back soon, it makes sense they would want us distracted again. Putnam did seem to think he was going to be free again." Robert went and sat on the couch. "I hate this Mac. We make a little progress then it gets taken away. Sean has the evidence to prove Marvin and de Salva knew each other and even possible prove they were in contact recently. Now that's Marvin's dead we can't prove who was actually making the phone calls. We had Putnam and slowly we were getting what we need from him now he's gone too. I just want this to be over." Robert took a few deep breaths, "I told Anna I didn't want to be a PI, but I'd take following cheating husbands over this, that's for sure."

"I was wondering what you two might end up doing. I wasn't going to mention this yet but you mentioned being a PI. Let's say you and Anna were to open a PI office you know just to keep out of trouble, I might want to add something to that."

Robert sat listening, "K, get to the point.

"How does special consultants to the PCPD sound. You'd be called in if we had a case that was proving to be extra difficult, or we needed your expertise on a case. As PI's you would have a little more freedom then we do, you could follow leads out of the jurisdiction and other things like that." Robert thought about what Mac had just said. "You've both gained the respect of everyone here so they'd be willing to work with you," Mac continued.

"I kind of like that idea. I'm not going to give you an answer right now, you know I have to talk to Anna about this."

"Yeah, of course, I just wanted to put it out there," Mac agreed. "When did you want to talk to Lisa?"

"Today sometime. We're heading over to GH when we leave here, we want to talk to Robin."

"Why don't I talk to Lisa, I can find out what she knows about this woman. She was nervous yesterday, she's worried about one of her husband's men seeing her in Port Charles."

"Yeah that's fine," Robert agreed.

"How's Anna holding up? This can't be easy on either of you knowing Putnam's on the loss again."

"She a little quieter than usual but she's determined to find Putnam and put him away. I'm sure she's out there giving orders to anyone that comes close."

"This isn't going to be easy, at least we had somewhere to start after he abducted me. They've talked to the hospital staff and gotten nothing of any use," Anna said as she entered the office. She exhaled loudly as she sat down beside Robert. "I want that man back in custody. Who the hell, would have helped him escape? I mean really, how could they not know how dangerous he is? This should be behind us, we shouldn't be looking for him again. Our focus should be on de Salva and building a case against him."

"Well the quiet has passed," Robert smiled at Mac, "but not the determination."

"That's good I think we're going to need that."

Anna ignored them both, "I'm not giving up till we find Putnam," Anna insisted. "He can't be allowed to walk away just to reenter our lives when he decides it's time to take revenge on us."

"We won't let that happen, you beautiful, determined, stubborn woman." Robert leaned over and kissed her cheek, "now let's go talk to our beautiful, determined, stubborn daughter."

Anna playfully hit his arm, "Well let's go handsome, I'm not going to argue with an arrogant pigheaded, did I mention stubborn man." They stood up together smiling.

"Do you think she's going to fight having extra protection at work?" Mac asked.

"She is our daughter, what do you think? She's not going to like it but we have to hope she understands why it's important." Robert answered.

"I'll let you know if Lisa knows anything about that woman," Mac said as they were about to leave, they thanked him and left.

When they got to the hospital they saw Alan as they were heading to see Robin. "Are you two here to talk to Robin about having extra security here?" he asked as they got close.

"Yeah, have you talked to her yet?" Anna asked.

"I was just on my way to do that now. We might as well do this together," Alan suggested.

They agreed and walked to the lab together, Robin looked up at them as they came in. She was sure they were there to try to convince her to take time off maybe even leave Port Charles. She doesn't care what they say she isn't going anywhere. Robin folds her arms, "The answers no."

"Hello sweetheart," Robert says with a smile.

"Don't even bother trying to talk me into leaving I'm not going anywhere."

"Anywhere? You'd be willing to stay here in the lab?" Robert asked hopefully.

Robin was a little confused, "What?"

Anna touched Robert's arm, she would take over, "Robin you know Grant Putnam is on the loss, and anyone of us could be his next target. You're a grown woman and we can't make you leave, and we aren't here to try."

Robin looked at them suspiciously, "You don't want me to leave Port Charles?"

"Well yeah we do," Robert insisted, "but we also know that's not gonna to happen."

"We want to you to agree to extra protection," Anna confirmed. "Your Uncle Mac has already arranged for a patrol car to keep an eye on your apartment at night. Before you say anything our house is being watched at night as well. Alan's here to talk to you about work."

"Mom I will not stay in my apartment tell this is over."

Alan was smiling when Anna and Robert looked at him. "There's no denying she your kid," Alan told them then looked at Robin. "Robin we understand that you want to keep working, we just want you to consider working primarily in the lab for now. Anna and I have already arranged to have extra security around the lab, no one will notice them. Someone helped Grant escape, they clearly know their way around the hospital and could try to get to you here. We all just want to keep you safe."

"Robin we're just asking you to cooperate and let us try to protect you," Anna requested.

Robin looked at the three of them, "Am I allowed to go out in the evening if I want?"

"We can't stop you, but if you do please don't go out alone, and let people know what your plans are and where you're going. A quick call or even a text message, we don't know who we're dealing with and they could get to you and we wouldn't know until it's too late," Anna explained.

Patrick walked in as Anna finished talking. "Oh good, you're all here to talk some sense into her. Tell her she has to leave town till this is over. She thinks she can just keep coming to work like nothing is wrong like she's untouchable or something."

"I am not going anywhere, I already told you that. Oh, and they aren't here to tell me to leave. We were just agreeing on the security that will be in place until Putnam is arrested." Robin turned back to her parents, "Do you want me to contact you every time I go somewhere?"

"It doesn't even have to be us, as long as someone knows," Robert explained. "If you leave with Patrick, he'd clearly know where you are. If you're at home and want to run to the store let someone know, if you're expected somewhere but get sidetracked call whoever's waiting. Please let Laney and Kelly know about all of this as well."

"Are you taking your own advice mister super spy?" Robin asked with a smile.

"Yes we are, Sean is as well. As long as we don't know who helped Putnam escape we can't take any chances."

"Good," Robin went and gave him a hug. "Thank you for not insisting I leave, I was sure there was going to be a fight about this."

"If I have learned anything about you since I've come back, it's that you are very much like your mother and I have had enough arguments with her to know when there is no chance of me winning. This would have been one of those arguments."

"If I can add something to that, I had to approach this with calm rational thought, or those strong Scorpio tendencies would have come out, you would have dug in and not listened to anything."

"It must be harder to deal with your own traits then each other's," Robin said then laughed a little.

"The combination of pride and frustrations is very confusing," Robert admitted with a smile. "We should let you and Patrick talk. Alan if you have a little more time we would like to ask you a few more questions."

"Of course, we can go to my office and talk there."

Anna went over to Robin, "He's worried about you because he cares, just remember that and don't yell at him too much." Anna gave her a quick hug.

"Thanks mom," Robin smiled then they left her and Patrick alone in the lab. She really was happy they understood she was a grown woman that they couldn't make leave. Now to convince Patrick she would be fine. Robin really did believe Grant Putnam wasn't interested in her at all this time, but she didn't want to risk being wrong.

As the three of them walked towards Alan's office Carly approached them. "Carly I will have no choice but to have you remove from the hospital if you continue to harass Anna and Robert," Alan said as she got closer.

"Alan please just let me say something then I'll leave on my own."

Alan looked over at Robert and Anna. When Anna nodded she was fine with hearing what Carly had to say, he warned her, "Do not cause another scene in my hospital."

"First I owe you both an apology. I'm sorry, I had no right to judge you for the time you weren't with Robin. I'm also sorry for forcing you to tell me personal information that I have no right to know. I really had no idea what you had both been through, mom wouldn't even tell me anymore then what you said yesterday. My problem is with Robin and usually, it's just when we're together that we bring the worst out in each other but for some reason, I projected that onto the both of you. She has this need to do the right thing, to tell the truth even when it hurts people."

Anna smiled and leaned into Robert, he smiled at her "She is our daughter, and she learned that from us," Anna said. "The truth hurts sometimes but people still deserve to know it."

Robert looked back at Carly, "There are times when doing the right thing, and telling the truth hurts you just as much, but you still do it. I know all about Robin telling the truth about two little boys fathers. One of the hardest things I ever had to do was take Lucas, my godson, away from Bobbie and give him back to his biological mother."

There was a look of shock on Carly's face, "I had no idea, just one more thing to talk to her about. Anna, thank you for not kicking my ass, Mom has made it very clear you easily could have. I've taken up enough of your time, I really just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Anna reached out and took her arm as she started to walk away, "Thank you."

After she had left they continued to Alan's office, they all took a seat once they were inside. "Was Mac able to get a better description of the dark-haired lady that helped Putnam?" Alan asked.

"About all they added was that she had short hair, so that rules Anna out," Robert joked.

"That really doesn't help much does it, sometimes we have temporary nurses that are only here for a week or two when there's a need. So even if any of the staff saw a nurse they didn't know they might have just thought that was why." Alan was trying to think of another why they could identify this woman. "I've looked at the surveillance from that night and when Grant leaves he's in scrubs as well but he walked out of the room by himself. There were a few nurses in his room before that but because of the angle their faces can't be seen."

"Mac told us you can't see how the guards were drugged either," Anna added.

"There has to be something we're missing then," Robert insisted. "There is no way both guards would have past out at almost the same time if they weren't given the drug at the same time. Did they both walk away from the door at some point?"

"I'm not sure but we can check that," Alan offered. He pulled up the surveillance video so they could all watch it. While they watched they saw a few different nurses coming and going from Putnam's room, one did have short dark hair but they never saw her face. The last time she leaves the room she says something to the guards but since there is no sound they don't know what was said. About fifteen minutes later an orderly brings the guards some coffee, and after about twenty minutes they both sit down then slump over in their seats. Then ten minutes after that Putnam leaves the room and hurries down the hall the other way. "There is another video where we pick him up leaving the main lobby but once he's outside we don't know where he went. One of the guards set of keys were found in the trash but you don't see them get taken."

"Has anyone talked to the guy who brought them coffee?" Robert asked.

"Yeah I did personally and apparently he would bring the guards coffee around the same time every night. I looked at the videos from the nights before this and it shows him bringing them coffee in each one. If I had to guess though that would be the easiest way to have drugged them," Alan suggested.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree. Putnam's accomplice must have known about the coffee routine and spiked it before it was given to them," Robert concluded. "The woman with short dark hair was carrying something when she went in but it would be hard to prove it was a change of clothes for Putnam. I think you should talk to your staff to see if any of them remember seeing her that night, maybe there's someone that can give us a better description then the guards did."

"I'll talk to them again, I just don't know if it will help any."

"It's worth a try," Anna offered. "If that's all I want to go talk to Clayton they were going to check all low rate motels to see if Putnam has tried checking in to any of them." She stood up and then looked at Alan. "Thank you for all your help with this." Robert got up to leave with her, he shook Alan's hand, then they left the office.

They were just entering police headquarters when Robert's phone rang, it was Sean calling to tell them he was going to be leaving Port Charles on the next flight and that he would check in again once he'd had some news. He had left a file on Robert's desk about Pauly Munro's travels. When they entered the squad room Clayton motioned for them to come over to him. "I'm not sure if this is good or bad news but we found the motel Putnam was staying in before he was arrested. Good news the guy working the front desk confirmed Rodney was the one that came and picked up Putnam's belongs and had been to see him a few times. Bad news Putnam hasn't been back there."

"Well that's better than nothing," Anna said. "The more we can get to connect all of them, the better our case will be."

"Whoever helped Putnam escape must have put him up somewhere else. Whether they're connected to Jonathan or not they would want to move him just in case we had found where he'd been staying before this," Robert added.

"Other than that we're having no luck finding anyone that's seen him. He must be laying low for now."

"Thanks Clayton, I'm sure that won't last. Keep us posted on anything you find out about him. We have to check in with Mac," Anna told him and they headed to Mac's office. When they got to his office Mac informed them that Lisa had no idea who the woman that helped Putnam was, that as far as she knew Jonathan and Jim didn't have any English men or women working for them. He also told them that Lisa wanted to stay hidden, she was worried about being seen in Port Charles but wanted to stay here to help. They told him that Sean had left them some information about Pauly Munro and that they wanted to go read that over. So they left the police station and headed for home.

When they got home they looked over the file Sean had left them. It looked like Pauly hadn't been all the careful about covering his tracks. Sean had been able to find his flights from Port Charles to NYC then on to Miami. He had also found a short trip he took to Charlotte then back to Miami, that just happened to be the same day Marvin Johnston was killed. Sean had also left a note saying he had contacted the police department there with this information. He had been told that the video surveillance from the hotel where Johnston had been staying had somehow all been deleted so there was no way of knowing if Pauly had been there, but he had been told the police would look into the possible connection. Again it felt like every step forwards meant two steps back, this case was becoming very frustrating but they had to keep going if they ever hoped to be free of this threat.