Christmas party season has arrived so there may be some disruption to my regular service this week as I have two work dos to attend!
I shall also give you forward notice of my Christmas vacation. Chapters will stop on 18th December and then resume 1st January.
SPOLIERS - this week - Krystal and Erica work together, Miranda has a nightmare, and the Montgomery-Tasker-Chandler Clan return home at last.
...
Krystal and Erica stepped out of the limousine, as they prepared to walk the carpet of the Philadelphia Hospital Gala. Krystal had on her finest gown; a clingy gold number. It was a little souvenir from her time as Adam Chandler's wife. It was a little dated now but still looked stunning. Erica was wearing a midnight blue gown, decorated with shimmering silver beads. She had worn it once before this year, but as they were here on an important mission she was willing to overlook the faux pas of being photographed in the same dress twice in a season.
Tad had traced the editor of the Inquirer to this Gala. Erica and Krystal were determined to track him down and 're-educate' him about a few things. So far he had been ignoring all their calls.
Krystal peered into her purse at the slightly out of focus snapshot Tad had supplied them with. They were looking for a balding, middle aged man in spectacles. All told, he didn't really look like the high powered editor of a national paper. Krystal and Erica peered about them as they pushed through the crowds trying to spot him.
"Do you think we should split up?" asked Krystal, as Erica was stalled by an admirer asking for an autograph; he wasn't the first.
Erica gave the young man a wide smile and scribbled 'Best Wishes, Erica' on the proffered napkin before turning back to Krystal.
"No." she said. "We need to do this together…"
She stopped as she noticed a familiar face behind Krystal's shoulder.
"Isn't that him?" she asked.
The man they were looking for had just disappeared into the Gents toilets.
…
Erica was a little in awe as Krystal strode into the toilets without a pause. She pulled out a closed for cleaning sign that had been propped up against the wall and marched right up to the Inquirer editor who was standing at the urinal. Fortunately he was the only other person in there.
"If you have a moment." said Krystal with a smile, "We'd like to talk… I'll let you finish."
The mousy little man turned from Krystal and Erica and awkwardly refastened his fly.
"Ladies, this is the Gents toilets."
"We are aware of that fact." said Krystal sharply. "But you are a very difficult man to pin down."
The man moved over to the sinks and began washing his hands.
"I have nothing to say to you." he said gruffly.
"Well that's fine." said Erica as she and Krystal stepped behind him, their reflections smiling determinedly at him through the mirror. "We have plenty to say to you…"
…
Erica and Krystal linked arms with the Inquirer editor and forcibly escorted him to a little table in the corner.
"Have a seat." said Krystal firmly. The little man instantly obeyed.
Erica put her purse in the table.
"We want to talk to you about your newspaper." said Erica slowly.
"More importantly the lies you have been printing about my daughter and grandson." added Krystal.
Erica pulled out an example of the latest insulting article. It contained more speculation about Marissa using Bianca for her money, theorising how much alimony she would be getting if they got divorced. Even going so far as to blame Marissa for the closing down of the Miranda Centre to acquire funds in this fictional divorce. So now they could add not caring about the victims of domestic violence to the long, wholly fictitious, list of crimes they were accusing her of.
"This is practically slander." said Krystal angrily.
"It's speculation." said the editor, "That's not a crime!"
"But it is." said Erica. "Do you know anything about this young woman you are pillaring in the press? Do you even care?"
"That's not my job." said the guy, squirming in his chair under Erica's glare.
"This," said Krystal, pulling a photograph from her purse and placing it on the table. "This is what the hero of Pine Valley did to my daughter."
It was a picture of Marissa after the shooting. A gruesome close up shot of the bullet wound slicing across her head and exposing a white streak of bone. It had been taken for the Police forensic report. Jesse had supplied Krystal with a copy.
"One centimetre to the left and she would be dead." said Krystal coldly. "One centimetre and he would have succeeded in murdering my daughter for the crime of being in love with someone who wasn't him."
"And this." said Erica, putting another picture on the table that Jesse had also supplied. "This is my daughter after a drunk and violent JR cornered her and assaulted her without provocation."
In the photo, it showed Bianca's face blue with bruises, her lips split and bleeding, her right eye swollen and half closed, there were even bloody fingerprints on her neck.
"This is a woman who was paralysed, and had only just been released from hospital. A woman who has to walk on crutches in order to get around." said Krystal. "JR is a violent and unstable young man. He is not some noble martyr, he is a monster. Is a man capable of doing this, someone you want to raise a young boy?"
The Editor looked truly horrified by the pictures.
He closed his eyes briefly before focusing on both women.
"You think I don't already know all this?" he asked.
"Then why are you still printing these lies?" asked Krystal, flapping the newspaper article in his face once more.
"You seem to be under the misguided assumption that I have some control over this. I don't. I have to do what the boss says or I lose my job. And he is the one who ordered me to keep Marissa's face to be on the front cover of the newspaper until the trial next week."
"I thought you were the boss." said Erica.
"I mean the boss-boss… the owner. My instructions come directly from Mr Henderson."
"Rudolf Henderson?" said Erica.
"You know him?" Krystal asked.
"I've had dealings." said Erica with a frown. "But why would he choose to go after Marissa?"
"I've a suspicion that Carol Robinson has a lot to do with it." said Krystal. She turned back to the nervous editor. "And you, you little rat. Is your job really worth the heartache you are causing an innocent family?"
"Trust me." said the editor, "Some of the things Mr Henderson wanted to publish… We were given stills from a very personal video amongst other things. Let's just say that it really could be a lot worse for your daughter if I wasn't in this job."
Krystal could only stare at the little man.
"Video?"
"A very explicit video, which I clamped down on and refused to allow published. So you see I am not the bad guy. I am only printing very transparent lies to placate my boss. Considering the rest of the media coverage I think there could be only one or two idiots left on the planet that would think my paper is printing the truth."
Erica and Krystal shared a look; this showdown hadn't exactly gone the way they had planned.
"Fine." said Erica after a moment. "Keep the lies transparent… But this video, if it is the one I think it is. The one acquire illegally and indecently by JR. That had better be destroyed!"
"It's buried." said the editor. "It won't be published."
"And could you at least keep the children out of it." Krystal asked.
"I can't make any promises." He said, before looking down at the two photographs on the table again. "But I will try."
…