Yesterday's Tears
Part Thirty-Five
Pilar stood outside of Cedars impatiently tapping her foot against the concrete curb. Where was that stupid valet? He had been gone almost five minutes and she couldn't stand to be near this hospital for another minute.
She realized that it probably would have been quicker to just park her brand new red mustang and walk to the front entrance of the hospital, but that would mean she would have to walk all the way to the parking lot. Besides, that was what valet parking was for and she was all for taking advantage of those kinds of services.
"About time" she muttered under her breath when the young man drove up in her car. He exited her new prized possession, bought with Danny's money of course, and handed her the keys. She grabbed them forcefully out of his hand without so much as a thank you and hiked up her skirt and deposited herself into the flashy sports car. She sped out of the parking lot, completely unaware of the obscene gesture that was being flipped to her by the valet she had just stiffed.
She opened the windows and sped down the highway. She let the wind whip her hair onto her face. Her skin stung from being slapped by her hair and the long strands blowing in the wind were impairing her vision but still she kept her foot pressed tightly on the accelerator. She needed the rush that this dangerous amount of speed gave her. She needed anything that would make her feel a little high.
She had not had any luck finding anyone else to supply her with the pills she needed. She had emptied most of Danny's medicines at home already and found that they just didn't give her the high that she needed to make it through the days. She didn't feel guilty about taking his medication at all. They would supply him with more once he and his black-eyed; metal-mouth wife came home from the hospital tomorrow.
She was still seething over the bombshell they had dropped on her tonight. She had come for her obligatory visit and had stayed only as long as she had to before making her excuses and leaving. The doctor's had decided that after spending 10 days in the hospital, Danny and Michelle were stable enough to recuperate at home now. That piece of news was bad enough but they had also added into the equation the fact that their own little private nurse was going to be providing medical care for them at the house for a while.
Oh, she had smiled her biggest phony smile when she heard the news, and said how wonderful it was that Susan would be taking care of them, but inside she was seething. The last thing she needed was another watchdog scrutinizing her every move.
She would have to worry about that later though. Right now, all she wanted to do was get as far away from that hospital as she could in her new shiny sports car.
She certainly didn't feel any remorse at withdrawing the money from Danny's account to buy her new car. She deserved it after all. She had spent the last three years taking care of him and kissing up to him. This was her just reward for being such a good and dutiful sister.
Besides, he had laid down a nice chunk of change for Michelle's pathfinder, surely he wouldn't object to her treating herself to this little well deserved beauty. It wasn't as if Danny was going to find out about it or anything. He was going to be laid up for quite a while with this hip thing and he would be easy to manipulate, just like before. He had never caught on to her exploits the first time and she would bet her next fix that he wouldn't find out about this either.
She didn't even have to worry about hiding her new car from Danny. Taking care of Michelle would be Danny's number one priority and she could parade an entire army of new cars in front of him and he wouldn't take notice.
She was a little puzzled about what to do with Michelle though. The shot she had taken at Michelle had obviously missed and her injuries, although grotesque and disfiguring, were far from life threatening. Michelle would eventually recover and would most likely resume her unfounded persecution of her.
If Michelle had any idea that she was the one behind her accident, she didn't let on. She felt reasonably sure that Michelle would tell Danny in a second, if she knew what Pilar was responsible for her being injured. Wouldn't she?
The thing that concerned Pilar the most was the not knowing whether Michelle knew anything or not. Had she found out about the withdrawals and was just biding time and waiting for the right minute to expose her for the liar that she was, or did she simply not know? This not knowing was going to drive her crazy. Somehow she was going to have to figure out what Michelle knew.
She put that thought aside for the minute and focused on the problem that having that nosey nurse around would bring. She wondered if Susan knew that Pilar Santos had a very unique way of dealing with people who got in her way. Her face broke out in a wicked grin as she pondered that thought while speeding down the highway towards home.
It was time to go home. Bill had stayed as long as he could and so far hadn't been able to decide what to do about Pilar. The evidence in his possession was extremely damaging and if he turned it in to Frank, Pilar would most certainly be arrested and sent to jail.
He had wrestled with this decision every day for the last week and a half. He had agonized over what to do and now Karen needed him to come home. Champ was teething and was missing his daddy and he had to go home. He wanted to go home. He had to make a decision and soon.
He had started to confide in his mother but something had stopped him. He realized that there was only one person he could confide in and he had been shocked to the core to find out where he would find her.
Michelle was his oldest and best friend. He couldn't believe his ears when his mother told him that she was in the hospital after an auto accident. He was equally as shocked to find out Danny was her roommate and that this was his second stint in the hospital.
His mother had decided it was best to keep all information about the Santos family from Bill once he and Pilar had called off their engagement. He had never shared any of the painful details behind their parting and he doubted he ever would. He had also not made any visits to Springfield since the break up and wouldn't have come this time had it not been for Sarah's cryptic telephone call regarding Pilar.
He had visited with Michelle and Danny twice since Vanessa informed him of the unfortunate events that had unfolded in their lives. He had half hoped, half dreaded running into Pilar while he was there. He was more than a little surprised that he had not seen her either time he had been there. No one mentioned her name while he was there and he didn't bring her up either.
His heart had gone out to his friend upon seeing her condition. She hadn't been able to communicate verbally and was forced to write her words down on paper. He saw her frustration and tried to do most of the talking himself.
Danny filled him in on the situation and the rest of the time was spent talking about his life as a husband and father and passing pictures of his son around.
He wished like hell he could tell Michelle of his findings but seeing her in that condition made it impossible for him to do so. She didn't need anything else to deal with right now. He was on his own with this decision and he hoped to God that he made the right choice.
Something was terribly wrong. What he thought was just a touch of the flu was much worse than he thought. Dietz tried to lift his head to take in his surroundings. He appeared to be on the floor of his bedroom.
How long had he been there? He couldn't remember anything other than feeling strange and going out to find Pilar. Had he found her? Did he even make it out of the house?
He remembered vaguely walking out of the house and getting into his car and laying his head down for a minute. He had taken his medicine like he always did but the strange feelings hadn't subsided, had in fact worsened.
Chalking it up to the flu, he came back inside to lie down for a spell and had been sleeping on and off ever since. He had gotten up only to get something to drink and eat and to relieve himself.
He was in trouble. His blood pressure was too high. He could feel it. He had to get it under control or he would risk having a stroke. He tried to use his forearms to brace himself and push himself up but he lacked the coordination to move his body correctly. He also didn't have any energy and trying to keep his head up was proving to be more than he could handle and he plopped his head back down on the floor and gave way to unconsciousness once again.
Bill had made his decision. He would wrestle with the consequences every day of his life but it was the only thing he could do. He couldn't turn Pilar in.
She had turned to the drugs because of him. He couldn't be the one to send her to jail. Instead, he sat down at his mother's desk and penned a long note to Pilar. In it, he explained that he had read the contents of Gino's book and he knew of her drug problem. He implored her to get some treatment for her addiction and to get her life back on track.
He stared at the letter and reread it twice checking it's content. He wanted to make sure she would not misunderstand his words. He was giving her a second chance and was begging her to take it and turn her life around.
He placed the letter and the page of the book with Pilar's name on it in a large manila envelope and took it out to his car. He came back inside the house and grabbed his travel bag and suitcase. He said his good-byes to his mother and little sister, and then called Karen to tell her he was coming home.
He got in the rental car that he would drive to the airport and stared at the envelope he had placed on the passenger seat.
Deciding there was no going back now, he started the car and pulled out of the driveway and began to make his journey to the airport to catch a flight back to his family. But first, he had a stop to make.
She was almost home. She pushed her new sports car to its limits and exceeded the speed limit by more than 30 miles an hour. She doubted she would get stopped. The Springfield Police Department didn't seem to have time to worry about traffic violations. They seemed to be more hell bent on trying to make her family's life miserable.
She had to make some preparations for Danny and Michelle's homecoming tomorrow. She would have to be the dutiful sister again and she thought she could pull it off and get suspicion thrown off of her.
Michelle's not being able to talk was turning into a blessing unlike she had ever imagined. She couldn't blab to Danny about anything she may have found out. She would be a good girl for a while, bide her time, get that damn book which it appeared Dietz now had, make one final huge withdrawal from Danny's account and get out of town for good.
She had deduced that Dietz had the book when no mention of it was found when David Grant had been stupid enough to get hit by that train. It was unbelievably good luck on her part and she planned to capitalize on it to the fullest extent.
She had dodged a major bullet when nothing was found on David's person or in his mangled car. He didn't have the book as she thought. That was why he had never shown up. He had merely been planning to extort money from her and not be able to produce the book. She had to admire the way his deceitful mind worked. She couldn't have done better herself, she thought.
She hadn't heard from Dietz about that book either, which was beginning to worry her. She couldn't afford to contact him right now with things being so shaky with Danny and Michelle. He had not tried to contact her about the book either so he evidently wasn't planning to try and blackmail her as David had been prepared to do.
What was his game? What was Dietz waiting for? Usually he didn't pull any punches. He came right out and told her what he wanted. He would make her squirm with this information. What was wrong with him?
Oh my God. Dare she hope? Could it be?
Had the switched medication already done its job? Was Dietz dead? It had been over a week since she had made the switch. She knew a little about medicines since Danny's accident three years ago had forced him to take so much medicine she could have opened up her own pharmacy. She learned a thing or two about medicine during that time.
Chills ran up her arms at the thought of Dietz being out of the picture. Were they chills of excitement or of dread? Could her problems really be over this simply? People who knew about her addiction seemed to have an awful habit of dying lately didn't they?
It was perfect. She would go home and make her preparations and later on she would go and check to see if Dietz were dead. She would make an anonymous phone call about a strange odor coming from his house and they would find him and all of her problems would be over. It couldn't have worked out any better for her.
She sped around the corner to the street on which she lived and pulled the car into the circular driveway. She got out of her sleek car and whistled as she made her way to the steps.
A large envelope caught her eye as she began to climb the brick stairs leading up to the front stoop. She bent over to pick it up and noticed her name on it.
She froze in place as she recognized the handwriting. It was Bill's writing. He had written her name on this envelope. Whatever was in the envelope was meant for her.
Was it a present? Did he have a change of heart? Did he realize he still loved her and wanted to try and make things work between them?
Her heart raced thinking of the possibilities. She knew Bill had never stopped loving her, as she had never stopped loving him. Had he seen that he couldn't make it through this life without her know that he knew the truth.
"Oh Bill" she sighed and ripped open the manila envelope fully expecting to find a letter filled with words of love and devotion and new beginnings.
Instead she found her worst nightmare had come true. Bill knew. Dietz didn't have that book, Bill did. How he got the book and why it was in his possession didn't seem important as she felt the life seep out of her.
She slowly replaced the pages back into the envelope without ever seeing the letter Bill had written to her. Had she seen his sincere words of comfort and of hope, perhaps she wouldn't have felt so alone and despondent.
Had she known that Bill had no intention of turning her in, she may have been able to see through the red haze that was fogging her brain and her ability to think.
Instead of seeing Bill's pleas for her to get help, she only saw rejection and betrayal and nobody, but nobody messed with Pilar Santos and lived to tell about it and that included Bill Lewis.