#345 "Poem to a Corpse" GUASTI COSE
#345 "POEM TO A CORPSE"
August 20, 2009

Previously:
- Blake shot Aaron at his wedding, seemingly killing him. Moments later, an unknown assailant came upon the scene and finished Aaron off.
- Billy tried to kill Aaron with his car, but accidentally hit Alexis inside. He stashed Alexis' body in the bushes before driving away.
- Felicia and Michael discovered they weren't related, not knowing the DNA test was fabricated by Valerie and Robert.
- Kyle knocked out Tyler before he could expose Aaron's secrets at the wedding, then locked him in his car trunk.



MADDOCK HOME

Sunlight has broken through by the time the cab carrying Rebecca Maddock and Kane Li pulls into the driveway. She awakes, finding herself leaning against Kane, their hands intertwined in one another's. Their horrible ordeal is finally over. All of the schemes to get one over on Aaron Maddock, insinuating themselves into his life, Rebecca being forced to marry him...

It's all over.

Rebecca pays the cab driver and squeezes out, still in her wedding dress, and allows Kane to carry her train. "We're free, Kane."

"I know," Kane says, grinning. "That son of a bitch finally got what was coming to him."

"It's sad," Rebecca says.

"Sad?"

"After everything Kyle told us... about Aaron being a child molester... after all the nights he forced me to have sex with him..." Rebecca stares up at the mansion. "It's so sad we have to share everything he left us with that goddamn taco living in the mansion."

Kane groans. "Alexis."

"How much do you think she's gonna get?"

"I don't know, I didn't read his will," Kane says.

"God, I can't wait!" Rebecca smiles, clasping her hands together. "Ding dong, the son of a bitch is dead."

"Yeah... thanks to whoever did that," Kane says softly.

Rebecca narrows her eyes. "You'd tell me if it was you, right?"

"And you'd do the same, wouldn't you?" Kane asks.

Neither of them respond, not quite sure if they even want to hear each other's answers. They walk past the pushes by the driveway and head toward the front door, Kane digging in his pocket for keys.

"I wonder if I can remove the train and wear this again," Rebecca says, referring to her cream-colored dress. "Waste not, want not."

"Maybe if you can find a dry cleaner to get the blood out of the dress."

"There's no blood on this dress, I made sure to check before we left Mata Hari's," Rebecca insists.

"No, it's right on the edge there," Kane says, pointing with his index finger.

Rebecca crouches down and spies the blood stain on her dress. "Are you kidding me? This dress cost me two hundred at Nordstrom Rack!"

As Kane chuckles quietly, he suddenly notices the trail of blood near the edge of the driveway. "Wait a second... do you see that?"

"I told you I see it!"

"No, I think that blood is coming from... the bushes," Kane says, heading toward the edge of the driveway. "There's a... oh shit. Shit!"

"What is it?" Rebecca demands, hurrying to follow him.

"It's the fucking taco," Kane mutters.

Love is eternal. Life is forever.
Yet things shall always remain...
Guasti Cose.


MARQUETTE COVE POLICE DEPARTMENT

"Do I win a prize?"

Blake Thomas looks up from his cot in the corner of his prison cell, surprised to find Vincent Moore leaning against the bars. Blake tries to force a smile, but he's unable to register one. He hasn't produced one in days, why bother starting now?

"Prize for what?" Blake asks.

"Being your first visitor," Vince says.

"And probably my only one," Blake mutters. "Who wants to visit the town murderer?"

"You are not the town murderer."

Blake scoffs. "Have you read the morning paper? They're already mentioning the fact that I got off scotch free for murder before. That guy Collin O'Reilly, remember?"

"That private investigator guy? You didn't kill him though," Vince says. "One of Quentin's goons came forward, remember?"

"Yeah, well... I've got plenty of reason to be in here," Blake says.

"My goddamn sister."

Blake shakes his head. "Don't blame Akilah for this, Vince. She was just telling the truth. At least, I think she was. God! I barely even remember showing up at the wedding. How whacked out is that?"

"But you at least remember something, right? Like how the gunpowder residue got on your hand, right?" Vince whispers. "Did you brush up against the real killer? Or did..."

"Vince, don't be an idiot," Blake says. "I had the gun. I shot Aaron."

Vince remains silent.

"But I didn't kill him."

"Oh, well that makes perfect sense," Vince says, rolling his eyes. "Blake! I can understand why you'd want to kill the bastard who raped you, but can't you understand that it would have been so much easier if you'd brought charges against him like I told you to?"

"He was shot in the head, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well I only shot him in the chest," Blake insists. "I thought I'd killed him... but I didn't. Someone had to have finished off the job."

"Someone else?"

"It wasn't my gun," Blake says. "I found it. It was lying on the patio, I don't even remember going to the patio... but I know that when I was there, I found it. And then I chased after Aaron, and I... I shot him. But it was in self-defense."

"Nice theory," Darren Reynolds says, his voice echoing throughout the hallway as he approaches Blake's cell. "But I think you're gonna have to do a little better than that in front of a jury."


EMERALD PLAZA HOTEL

"Shit," Kyle Maddock hisses loudly, slamming the trunk of Tyler Rogers' car in anger. After driving the car back to the hotel parking garage where he'd left his own car, Kyle was prepared to open the trunk and let Tyler out. Not kill him, but at least let him know that his Aaron Maddock problems were now over.

Except the trunk is empty. Which means that at some point during the wedding or the reception, Tyler managed to escape. And that means he's now dangerous.

"Dammit," Kyle says, leaning against the trunk.

This is a goddamn inconvenience. He needs to go upstairs and check on his son. He has shit to deal with at the restaurant once it opens, if it's even allowed to open after everything that went down last night. He has shit to take care of. He doesn't have time to run around Marquette Cove looking for Tyler.

Tyler has to know that Aaron is dead by now. And now that he doesn't have that problem, he might decide to make Kyle his new priority. And that is something he definitely can't afford.

"Mr. Maddock!"

Kyle spins around to find Akilah Moore approaching him, awfully perky for someone who just fingered one of her friends for a murder only a few hours ago. "Akilah... what are you doing here?"

"I came to see Matt," Akilah says. "I didn't really feel like going home after everything, you know?"

"Oh... well I don't know where he is," Kyle says. "So you can go home now."

"I sent him a text message. He's upstairs."

"Oh," Kyle mutters. "Well, it's awfully..."

"Lead the way?" Akilah says, oblivious to Kyle's attempts to get rid of her.

Kyle sighs. "Sure."

He heads into the hotel, Akilah falling in step behind him. They enter an elevator and head upstairs the floor where Kyle, and coincidentally, Akilah's aunt lives. They walk toward the end of the hall, Akilah noticing the sign on her aunt's door.

"Do not disturb," Akilah mutters. "Must have been some night."

"Perhaps Yolanda wants to share all the details with you?" Kyle suggests.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me," Akilah jokes, hopping toward Kyle's suite and using her own key to unlock the door. Off Kyle's exasperated look, Akilah offers an explanation, "I asked the front desk for an extra copy. Matt was with me, he said it was okay."

"I wasn't aware you two were so... close."

"We used to date," Akilah says. "Well, to make Alec Bale jealous, so we weren't really dating. But he's not that bad. We've become friends again doing the whole chain gang thing. So I guess you'll be seeing a lot more of me!"

As Akilah pushes her way inside, Kyle mimes a gun with his hand and shoots himself in the head. What he wouldn't do to be able to trade places with Aaron right about now.


HANLEY HOME

"Thanks for letting me stay here," Felicia Bale says, following Michael Hanley into his home. "Especially after... after everything."

Though Felicia won't admit it now, there's more than the weirdness of the fact that she and Michael are no longer related that makes this entire situation awkward. She hadn't completely severed ties with Michael while she thought he was her brother, but she had definitely been over here less since the revelation that he was responsible for kidnapping Sean Moore and faking his death nearly eight years ago.

She had always known that Michael lived outside the law, but she managed to overlook it when she needed a familial connection. Especially in light of her son's death, when she had no one else to turn to.

But now... things just seem different.

"You're still close to me," Michael says. "I still care for you, no matter what that test says."

Felicia knows that. But what she doesn't know is if she cares for him in the way that family does... or if he cares for her romantically, now that they're not related.

"The room you stayed in after the incident with Robert... it's set up with fresh towels and sheets," Michael says.

"Thank you."

Michael takes Felicia's hand. "Do you need me to sit with you?"

"I'm fine," Felicia insists, feeling uncomfortable and making any sort of body contact with Michael. "I just need some rest."

She heads up the stairs, feeling Michael's eyes on her as she goes. When Felicia reaches the hallway, she notices a light on in her room. She heads toward it cautiously, reaching for the doorknob with trepidation. As she pushes it open, she is surprised to find Riley Schaefer standing in the middle of the room.

"Riley!" Felicia cries out. "You startled me."

"Sorry Felicia," Riley says. "I was... setting up your room for you."

"Thank you," Felicia says, nodding as she enters the room and takes a seat on the edge of the bed. "I haven't seen you much lately."

"Visiting some family out of town," Riley offers up in explanation. "Have a good night."

Riley sees himself out of the room, closing the door shut tightly. Felicia takes a moment to let the night's events sink in even further, and then she begins to disrobe. She lays her dress across the armchair in the room and tosses her shoes at the chair.

One of the shoes hits the chair and stumbles back toward the bed. As she bends over to pick it up, she finds a ripped, empty condom wrapper lying next to the dresser. She picks it up and turns an intrigued glance toward the door where Riley just was a few moments ago.


MADDOCK HOME

"Pretty ironic, her getting hit on the same day as her uncle, huh?"

All Rebecca can hear now are the paramedics' voices as they talk back and forth over Alexis Lopez's body. Alexis' living body. Rebecca supposes it was too much for her and Kane to catch two breaks in a single day. With Aaron dead, there's no way they could luck out and have Alexis end up dead too.

"So she's alive?" Rebecca whispers to Kane.

"Yeah, she's alive," Kane says. "Saying she looks like she was hit by a car, what with the skid marks in front of the driveway."

"A car? They couldn't have used a gun?"

"She's been in and out of consciousness. But she's not dead... she's going to make it."

Rebecca rolls her eyes. "She'd better not turn into some kind of invalid. I am not wasting the money I get from my dearly departed husband to take care of some vegetable."

"Try to have a heart," Kane mutters. "She's Jessica's best friend."

"Oh, just because you're sweet on one Ugly Betty, you want to go and take them all in? We're not running a goddamn pound, Kane."

"God, why are you such a bitch?" Kane demands. "The girl is fighting for her life... she was another one of Aaron's victims, just like us."

Rebecca throws her hands up in the air. "I'm going to get some beauty rest. At this point, I'll need an entire week."

She goes into the mansion, brushing past Kane. He takes a moment to watch her go, then he heads toward the ambulance carrying Alexis.

"Can I ride with her? I'm family," Kane says. "Her only family."

"Sure, kid," one of the paramedics says, making room for Kane inside.

As he climbs in, he reaches for his cell phone. Aaron dying... Alexis' accident... it hasn't changed anything. First chance he gets, he's going to get out from under Rebecca's bullshit. And if that low budget bitch Farrah Louis can't help him, then he's going to have to zero in on his back-up plan...

Kane gets a voicemail on the number he dials. "Hey Jessica, Kane. Call me back when you get this. It's an emergency."


MARQUETTE COVE POLICE DEPARTMENT

"This is a private conversation," Vince says, stepping toward Darren with enough intensity in his eyes to say he means business.

"Just a steel town girl looking for the fight of her life?" Darren asks sarcastically, pushing Vince out of the way. "I'm not here to play games with you two. I want answers."

"Seeing as how you're not his lawyer, I don't see that happening."

"Listen... you two are a bunch of screwed up kids playing with stuff bigger than the both of you," Darren says. "I can't help Blake if he doesn't tell me everything that happened. And I do mean everything."

"Blake, don't tell him..."

"I already told Vince," Blake says. "I didn't kill Aaron."

"Then what's this self-defense business? Huh?"

"Just talking about theories in case of jerk attorney tries to lay the blame on him for something he didn't do," Vince cuts in.

"So you didn't try to shoot Aaron?" Darren asks. "Not even in self-defense?"

Blake opens his mouth to respond, but catches sight of Vince shaking his head. If he tells Darren about the gun... there's no way out. Darren isn't his lawyer. He's not his friend anymore. He can't trust anyone at this point. Not when he doesn't even remember showing up at the reception in the first place.

"No, I didn't try to shoot Aaron," Blake says.

"That's funny. Then how do you explain your fingerprints being on the gun?"

"Excuse me?"

"You told Detective Crane I was your counsel at the reception. So she let me know when I arrived."

"Darren, I..."

Darren shakes his head, hurling words that he's not even sure he means, but he can't resist not saying them, "save it. I'm done with you and your lies, Blake. You can head straight to death row for all I care."

END OF EPISODE #345

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