The next morning, they all hatched a plan to get to this Allison James woman , AKA Sheila Carter, without being recognized. Eric, already a professional photographer, would provide distraction, pretending to apply for the job of photographer at Sears, while Danny and Jason would sneak into her office and look for clues about Greta's past. Cassie would serve as a back-up plan, acting like a normal customer in the store.
After a glass shattering argument with Danny, Michelle had reluctantly resigned herself to stay here at the hotel with Greta while they were all busy pulling their little stunt. Michelle knew that Danny only wanted to protect but disliked his way of doing so. He kept shuting her out and she was starting to get tired of this. Especially when his ideas of being safe were more laid out as orders rather than suggestions.
"I'm in danger in our own house Danny! What makes you think nothing's gonna happen to me here?!" she had yelled at him after he had told her to stay here while they were gone.
"You're not coming and that's it!" he had replied in anger.
"That's not yours to decide...." she had said clmly turning away from him.
"It is! I will not put you in any danger! you are my wife and I won't let you do this...."
"I'm your wife?!! And what? That's supposed to give you the right to tell me what to do?" She answered back.
Danny stayed silent after Michelle's words. Hurting her led him to hate himself further more, and he didn't want to hate himself....He didn't want to hurt her, but he truly felt she was safer here than with them.
"You're going to have to understand that you don't run my life Danny. I am your wife but that is not a reason for you to constantly treat me like I don't have a mind of my own or that I can't take care of myself. This is ridiculous.....We're in the 21st Century and I'm not your housekeeper so don't order me around Danny!" she added sighing in exasperation.
"I'm not ordering you around!.....I am protecting you..." he tried to say again.
"You can't!" Michelle said throwing her hands in the air. "What are you going to do Danny? Lock me in our room at home because I am in danger there also you know....and here and everywhere...Hell I could get hit by a bus. This is not your job to protect me." she told him.
"Yes it is...I am your husband and it is my job to protect you with my life." he said.
"Yes you are my husband.....but your job is to love me and hold me. Not to keep me in a bubble all the time Danny." she said as tears filled her eyes.
"I do love you....I am not ordering you around. But everything I say to you is like not enough for you. I just don't want you to get hurt! I love you too much for that....is that like NOT enough for you!?" Danny yelled.
Michelle had stared at Danny, both of them obviously not understanding the same thing in Danny's last words.
"Yeah...That's enough...." Michelle had answered holding back her tears and heading for the door.
"Michelle....That's not what I...Wait." he said as she kept her back to him. "You know how much I love you.....Where are you going?" he asked her looking at the door.
"I'm going to find Greta....Maybe we'll sit and gossip about Brad Pitt while we marvel in being protected." she answered turning around to face Danny.
Danny lowered his head and whispered: "I...I promise you that...." he started but he was silenced by Michelle.
She placed her hand on his cheek and softly brushed Danny's lips with hers as a single tear fell from her eye.
"Don't promise.....just be careful." she whispered before leaving the room to find Greta.
Now, Michelle was sitting in Greta's room while Eric was getting his camera ready.
"say cheese!" he exclaimed snapping a picture of the two girls sitting at the table.
"Stop that!" greta laughed.
"Don't forget that you promised me some pictures of you when we first arrived here."
"Well I didn't...." Michelle smiled. "Especially not looking like this!"
"What?? What's wrong with sweat pants?" Eric asked teasing. "Hey are those Danny's?" he teased adjusting his camera lense.
Michelle got up laughing and covered his camera with her right hand. She bent down closer to Eric and smiled with conviction.
"The day you'll see Danny is sweat pant I'll be happy to pose for you!" she whispered with a huge grin on her face.
"Better...we both will!" greta laughed as the two girls sat back at the table.
"Which makes me think....If you're supposed to be applying for a job shouldn't you be taking some samples of your work with you?" Michelle asked looking at the camera on the table.
"I was thinking about that also....I have to find something to photograph..." Eric said looking at them.
"No way....not us!" Greta smiled. "Forget it."
"And here goes the most beautiful subjects in Paris..." Eric sighed. "I'll have to content myself with the landscapes and Eiffel Tower...." he said faking disapointment.
"That's terrible..." Michelle giggled.
Eric laughed then added : "Anyway, you might not be the perfect ones to photograph for this. I mean we don't know that woman at all, so we have no idea of knowing if she would recognize you greta..." he explained.
At this very moment, there was a knock on the door. Eric got up and opened it. Outside in the corridor stood the young teenage girl from the nearby room.
"Hi..." she started with a smile.
"oh hi...Mackenzie right?" Michelle said coming to the door.
"Yeah..." she answered. "I'm sorry to bother you but there are no towels in our room and somehow the man downstairs is nowhere to be found and the dwarf who unfortunately is accompanying me here is in the shower....would you mind if we borrowed a clean towel from your room?" she politely asked.
"Of course not....let me get you one." Eric said heading to the bathroom.
"Come on in..." Michelle said.
Mackenzie walked inside the room while Eric came back from the bathroom with a towel. He handed it to Mackenzie.
"I'm sure that if he was human he'd come and thank you but we can't ask too much of him..." she told them smiling. "But thank you." she added more sincere.
"It's our pleasure." greta answered.
Mackenzie turned around to leave but stopped just before walking out.
"Oh and did you know that when you use the water our shower gets freezing cold?" she said facing them.
"We didn't...sorry. " Michelle answered. "We'll make sure to be more careful....thanks for telling us."
"Oh no don't be sorry." Mac replied quickly. "I'm telling you this so you can do it again while he's still in the shower." she said with a huge grin on her face before leaving.
Greta and Michelle looked at each other and laughed.
"I think I have an idea..." Eric said grabbing his camera.
"What? You're going to ask her to pose for you?" Michelle asked surprised.
"No one knows these two here....it is obviousthey're not on vacation here...I bet is they ran away." Eric started.
"I think they hate each other and you won't get them to do it." Greta replied.
"And what....You think they're just going to agree to pose for you just like that? They don't even know you..." Michelle said as Eric walked out of the room.
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When Eric came back to the room, it was only to get the rest of his stuff. Cassie, Jason and Danny were now in the room with greta and Michelle. Eric told them that after some financial negociation, Mac and Billy had agreed to do it. Eric had promised them that these pictures wouldn't be put to any use without their consent. At first, the two teenagers weren't too keen on posing with each other for pictures, but being on the road for a little while, asked for some money and Eric offered to provide them with some in exchange of their help. They had reluctantly agreed.
"I'm not getting photographed with him!" Mac had first answered.
But after a little discussion Eric had finally won them over. Eric had explained how believable they looked together as a couple since they had all believed they were one at first. Fortunately for the gang, Billy and Mac had agreed to help them with their little plan....but only after Eric agreed to give them a few details about why they needed pictures...
Eric took them outside near some tree and started taking snap shots of them. Surprisingly, the two of them looked natural together. Eric took pictures of them individually and together and the more he looked through his lenses the more he could see how much he loved taking pictures. Since he had quit his job as a photographer to come and help Greta he hadn't thought much about it, but he now realized how much he liked it.
Once dozens and dozens of pitures taken, Eric thanked them and they all went back inside. He had found himself enjoying himself and surprisingly, Billy and Mac seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. For the first time since they had gotten there, in Paris, they seemed to have stopped arguing with each other to led the way to a fun and nice moment. Mac had been relustant when Eric had asked billy to wrap his arms around her but it had soon felt very natural, to her own surprise.
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Danny, Jason, cassie and Eric then headed to the Sears store, ready to act their plan out. Meanwhile Greta and Michelle kept going through the many articles laid on the huge table in Greta's room. Pilar returned to her luxurious hotel room, trying in vain to reach Dietz on his cell phone but somehoe, he wasn't answering, which worried Pilar a little.
Greta was reading an article about the prince's death anniversary when Michelle noticed something on the back of the paper. She grabbed the article out of Greta's hands. On the back of the article, there was only the half of a small picture of Adam Santos, Danny's father. Beside the picture was a small article.....but unfortunately, it contained only the first few words.
"That's when you wish Pilar hadn't cut them out...." Michelle whispered.
"What is it?" Greta asked.
"That's an article about Mr. Santos...." She answered reading the first few words she could see on the wrinkled sheet.
"Santos....death....saturday....Von Amberg....Murder...Children...Paris cabi (which Michelle figured was cabin)...." she read out loud.
Down on the side of the paper was the date of the edition....July 20, 1986.
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The man down at the fron tdesk of the hotel picked up his phone. He carefully looked around the hotel lobby and dialed a long number.
He let the phone ring five times before a strong female voice answered.
"Mrs. Santos?" he said when he recognized the voice, and he smiled.