Living Without
Part Fourteen
The church:
Danny stood some distance away from the back entrance of the church with his hands resting at his waist. Ray and Juan were by the door watching him, awaiting his next move. Danny had managed to keep his mouth shut for the past three minutes, standing motionless and staring up at some point above his head.
"Does he look out of steam?" Juan whispered to Ray, both their eyes fixated on the man.
"He's never out of steam," Ray whispered back. "Give him a few more seconds. He'll be back."
Hearing the faint murmuring coming from behind him, Danny brought his head back into position and turned around to face his cousin and friend.
"I told you," Ray added.
"You two can't hold me off forever," Danny informed them. "I'll get in there eventually."
"She's claiming sanctuary, remember? You can't touch her," Ray commented.
"Why are you protecting her?!" Danny wanted to know. "She killed our cousin, Ray!"
"We don't know that, Danny..."
"Then why don't you just let me go back in there and talk to her?"
"You won't get anything out of her," Juan interceded. "Not now. Probably never. Not after the way you abused her."
"I was only stating the facts," Danny told him.
"The Holy Gospel according to Saint Daniel that is," Ray remarked. "You didn't even listen to her!"
"I heard all I need to. She admitted that she was in Diego's apartment and that she even had the gun that killed him in her hand!"
"That doesn't prove anything!" Ray shouted at him.
"It's not like she hasn't killed before...." Danny's voice trailed off.
"You know that was in self defense, Danny."
"So she claims," he remarked and Ray threw his hands up in the air. "Anyone she's around is just another murder victim waiting to happen!"
"This is hopeless!" Ray exclaimed.
"You're right, Father. Trying to convince Danny otherwise is definitely a hopeless task."
The three men looked over to find Pilar standing in the doorway. She stepped out of the Church and approached them.
"Pilar, what-"
"Am I doing here?" she completed the question. "Well, this is a church, isn't it, Ray? I come here to pray all the time. And to see you, of course. Actually, my visit this time has to do with Danny. I came to ask of your help in stopping my brother from making a horrible mistake by pursuing that ridiculous vendetta of his. You know, the one about killing Michelle? But I can see that I'm already late."
"You're not late at all," Ray touched her shoulder.
Pilar watched her brother, who had began to walk away as he rubbed on the back of his neck. He was annoyed. She knew that. Afterall, she did hear nearly all of their conversation. Noticing that silence had befallen them, Pilar looked around at the other two and then Danny.
"Isn't anyone going to speak?" she asked. "Surely, you must have something to say, brother. Was it not you who spoke so freely a few seconds ago?"
"Pilar, just stay out of this!" Danny told her. "This doesn't concern you."
"The hell it doesn't! You are my brother, Danny! Everything concerns me. Whatever you do not only affects you, but me and tus niños. You remember them, don't you?"
"You don't have to remind me of my children."
"Then hopefully I don't have to remind you of the Ramírez you decided to marry either. Her family will hurt you in any way possible if they learn that you did as much as blink at Michelle! I do remember you telling me of the threat Escobar made regarding Michael and Dani's safety should you turn your back on your commitment to his daughter-"
"Who said anything about turning anywhere? Escobar and Alejandra will understand that this was something that I had to deal with before I could move on. I'm not reconciling with Michelle, so they don't have to worry about that," Danny responded.
"Why? Because she'll be dead?" Pilar asked. "You know that the only way to prove your loyalty to both he and his ugly daughter is to kill Michelle yourself!"
"He already tried to do that," Ray informed her. "Fortunately, it didn't work. He had a sudden conscience attack."
"Thank God!" Pilar exclaimed. "I suppose that little voice in your head didn't bother interrupting when you made all those accusations at your ex-wife."
"How do you know about that?" Danny asked.
"I ran into Elisabeth before I came out here. She told me everything. That was after a much difficult and unnecessary trip down Memory Lane about how I was never any good for her brother and...well, we wouldn't want to go down that hidious path right now. What I'm getting at is that you were so wrong about a lot of things, Daniel. Especially about Diego and Michelle."
"And what do you know about them?" her brother asked with annoyance. "Pilar, I am really not in the mood for your "I'm a loyal Michelle supporter" routine right now, because first, it's getting old, and second, if you're not going to tell me something I don't already know, then save your breath."
Pilar turned to look at Ray and Juan. "Would you two mind leaving Danny and I alone? There's a lot about our 'precious' late cousin that I must enlighten him on."
**
Michelle sat on top of the closed toilet seat and just gazed out in space, and endless stream of tears running down her face. Her throat burned and her sides ached from the vomitting she had done. Oh, how she just wanted to curl up and disappear from existence. Her children were worth every pain and heartache she had to endure, but she wasn't certain if she'd be able to hold on much longer. She thought that at this point, she'd be able to take whatever was thrown at her; that she'd easily bounce back from whatever it may be. Afterall, she had made it through years of Carmen's endless threats, rains of bullets, blackmail, and God knew what else.
In a single moment all of what was confusing became an even more puzzling mess. She never knew she could still feel, let alone any pain so great. Pilar had come into the room, and upon learning of the events that led up to that point, the woman tried to explain her brother's actions. He wasn't thinking. He was mad. He had temporarily lost his mind. He didn't mean what he said. He must have been drinking.
Michelle knew she meant well, but Pilar wasn't helping at all. All that she had to say were just opposites of the truth. Danny was thinking. He hadn't lost his mind. Or maybe he had. He meant every word that escaped from his mouth and he wasn't intoxicated.
Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing were she to be eliminated. Her children would surely forgive her should she give up on trying to reclaim them. They'd understand. Too many obstacles were in her way. Besides, the thought of laying next to Maureen in her cold dark bed was the only appealing idea floating through Michelle's mind right now.
Her children will be fine. Danny will have a new wife, the kids will have a mother, and....wait a freaking minute! She was doing it again. She was feeling sorry for herself. AGAIN. No. She was not going to give up. There was no goddamn way her children will continue to be raised in the presence of their grandmother the mob queen and her future daughter-in-law, the mob princess. Dani and Mikey needed out of that house.
Michelle blinked and more tears streamed from her face. She looked down at her wedding band and her silent crying instantly turned into audible sobs. How could she have been so stupid, so faithful? She slipped from the toilet seat and to the floor, her being consumed with Danny's malicious words which pierced at every part of her.
In her anger, Michelle tugged at the ring and when she finally got it off, she stared at it as if surprised she had managed to remove the band. It was the first time it had been off in seven years. Seven years.
Danny. Her Danny. He was gone. Everything was gone.
She blindly threw the ring across the room with all her might and hid her face in her hands as she broke down into uncontrolable sobs.
**
"I love you too, honey. And try not to give your Aunt Blake a hard time. I'll be there to pick you and Ryan up in a few hours," Abby spoke into the receiver as she tried to make sense of Rick's sloppy desk. "No, I didn't stop by McDonald's today. What do you mean you don't want any of my nasty meat loaf? Steven Frederick Bauer, that is not a very nice thing to say to your mother!" she was saying when she knocked over her husband's phone directory. She bent down to pick the small cards up and stopped cold when she came across....
"Sweetheart, I'll call you back, okay?" she told her son and pressed off the cordless. She stared at the card in disbelief.
"There's just got to be an explanation for this," she said to herself. She flipped the card to see that there were unmarked numbers behind it and then she reread the name that was on the front. Just then, Rick walked into the room and Abby looked up at him.
"Ben Warren??" was the first thing that came out of her. She held up the card of numbers and Rick immediately snatched it out of her hand. He breezed past her, barely knocking her at the shoulder.
"Why are you going through my stuff, Abby?! You have no right! What are you doing in here?"
"What are you doing with Ben Warren's number or should I say NUMBERS, Rick?" she asked, pointing at the card he had crumbled up in his hand. "What kind of association do you have with that man?" Rick ignored her as he found anything within the room to keep himself busy.
"Aren't you going to answer me?" Abby asked. "What, have you all of a sudden gotten chummy with him?? I can't believe this!"
"The man is a patient of mine..."
"A patient?"
"Yes. A patient."
"You're lying, Rick!"
"What do you mean I'm lying? I would not lie to-"
"I just don't believe you! I've obviously stumbled across something I wasn't supposed to, and now you're trying to cover it up! How STUPID do you think I am, Rick?!"
"I've told you! He's a patient," he reinerated.
"Fine. Whatever. He could be your lover for all I care," she told him and stormed out of the home office.
"Abby!" Rick went after her.
"You're lying to me, Rick, and I don't like it! What is going on?" she asked. "If you won't give me a straight and honest answer, don't bother giving me anything!" she told him, and when he didn't respond, she continued away from him.
**
Later:
"Everything is just fine, Daddy. Life couldn't be better."
"I'm glad to hear that."
"I will be Mrs. Daniel Santos in less than two weeks! Of course, I'm happy, papá! Carmen and I had gone to finalize the flower arrangements. You should see them, Daddy! They are fantastic!" Alejandra said excitedly.
"I'll see them soon enough," Escobar remarked. "I'm only thinking of your husband-to-be. Danny better not back out of this. He did that before and I will not stand to see you hurt again, mi hija. There WILL be hell to pay should he even attempt to get out of this."
"I'm sure he knows that, papá. He's not stupid."
"Judging from his track record, he can get downright idiotic when it comes to that Michelle what's her face. Word has it that she's back in town. I hope your fianceé is keeping his distance. Where is he anyway? I'd like to speak with him."
"He's not here, papá," Alejandra replied.
"Where is he? At SanCorp? I'll try him there-"
"Daddy, he's not there either," she told him. "I don't know where he is. He decided to take a day off and then he was gone."
"A day off?" Escobar asked incredulously. "You need to keep an eye on that man, Alejandra. I'll be dropping by there just to make sure that everything is going accordingly."
"Papá, you really don't have to do that..."
"I want to see my favorite, only daughter! What's the harm in that? I could take the opportunity to mingle with our future in laws. For his sake and his mother's, your Danny's priorities still better be going in the right direction. He knows that he has no choice but to marry you. If he doesn't, he knows the penalty."
"He knows. And he won't be leaving me," Alejandra remarked as she stared at the small bottle of white powder that she had gotten from Dietz. "Tonight is the night I'll become the mother of his child," she thought to herself. "Daddy, I've gotta go. I think I hear him coming in. I love you."
Danny and Pilar came down the stairs and into Carmen's favorite part of the house. Alejandra quickly slipped the bottle into her pocket and stood up to greet them.
"Pilar. Danny. Welcome home," she spoke.
"Save it," Pilar saw through her factious greeting and she walked by her. She picked up the mail from Carmen's desk and searched for any with her name on it.
"Where are my kids?" Danny asked, not at all looking at his fianceé.
"Michael is sleeping and Dani is with abuela. Where'd you go?" Alejandra asked.
Danny exited the room without answering her question in search for his two angels. Once the door closed, Alejandra turned to Pilar, who had been chuckling to herself.
"You'll learn to love me, Pilar. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to be your sister-in-law and there is nothing you can do about it!"
"You must've been waiting to spit that out for the longest time, huh?" Pilar asked as she dropped the mail back onto the desk and approached the woman. "I will never love you! I will never LIKE you! You think I'm afraid of you? Do you think I care if your name is Ramírez? I'm not going to kiss your ass! I may be my mother's daughter, but I am not Carmen. I don't like you and that's how it's always going to be! You may be marrying my brother, but that doesn't mean shit! Comprende? He will never love you and neither will I. You can never be Michelle."
With that comment, Pilar gave Alejandra a wicked grin before leaving her alone in the room.
"I may not be Michelle, but I will win Danny's heart," Alejandra said as she pulled out the bottle of powder. "I'll show you how wrong you are, Pilar Santos. I will once again be the love of your brother's life. No matter what."
**
Dietz closed the door behind himself and continued further into the room. He made himself comfortable in the seat in front of Ben's desk and helped himself to a Cuban cigar.
"You seem pretty contempt with yourself," Ben spoke as he sipped of his glass of scotch.
"Yes, well, I just handed our dear Alejandra a drug of choice. You know. Trouble sleeping," he replied, not wanting to go into any details.
"Go by the house?"
"The place wasn't tampered with. The gate was still in tact, as were the locks and chains that held it closed," Dietz told him. "No evidence of entry."
"So we were wrong? They weren't at Crystal Springs?" Ben asked.
"I didn't say that," Dietz responded in his scruffy voice. "That's just what I told Carmen. The front gate was just fine. I got to checking around the place and low and behold, tire tracks leading up to the back. It took me some 40 minutes to find the other way in. No one would know it was there unless you happened to follow the brick fence the whole million miles around. From what I could tell, there were two different vehicles at the Springs. I don't know how they got through a solid brick wall, but hey! That's another thing all together."
"Danny, Danny. Aren't we the smart constructor," Ben remarked. "Did you see anyone?"
"Nah. Whoever was there was long gone when I got there."
"We now know that Danny indeed has Michelle."
"Was there ever any doubt?" Dietz asked. "He can't get very far with her no how. Within a few hours, the police should have an APB out for the arrest of Michelle Bauer, wanted for the murder of Diego Santiago."
Ben smiled and raised his glass at the man. "I've always imagined Michelle in that lovely orange suit. How exactly are you going to pull this off?"
"You'll know soon enough. It should be all over the news by this evening or tomorrow," Dietz told him, merrily puffing from his cigar.
**
That evening:
"Thanks, Harper," Frank said as he walked into the suspect room and closed the door behind him. "You know the dead guy? Carlito Julia."
"Julia. Julia," David repeated to himself as he tried to recall the name. "Isn't that the same name as that..."
"Yeah. He's the son of the late mobster Rigoberto Julia," Frank dropped the file he had on the table and flipped it open. "That family is just dropping like flies. According to unofficial sources, he had previously worked for the Alvarez, Espinoza, Santos, Ramírez, García, Santiago, Sánchez, and López families -- the list goes on and on, man!" he said as he closed the file he was reading from. "I also got that this guy posed a real threat to these people. He was trying to expose illegal dealings and damaging secrets of families across the board! Anyone who did him wrong. He was intent on blackmail to get whatever he wanted from them."
"Looks like they got him before he got them," David remarked.
"He had a lot of enemies. That's for sure."
"Cooper," an officer came into the room. "The gun that was on him? It's registered to a Michelle Bauer," he said as he handed Frank a plastic bag containing evidence taken from the deceased.
"That can't be right," Frank told him. "Michelle Bauer?"
"We checked thrice to make sure. It's owned by her."
"Thanks, man," Frank said and then turned to David with this look of disbelief. "Michelle Bauer? Now this isn't making any sense. Why would Carlito have Michelle's gun on him? Why would Michelle even have a gun?"
"Two words, Frank: Carmen Santos."
"If I lived with Carmen Santos, I'd have ten guns," Frank remarked as he opened up the plastic bag he had and pulled out the videotape that was in it. "Why would that guy even have Michelle's gun?"
"Maybe he stole it from his Santos working days? Who knows what he was doing with it."
"That's something we'll have to figure out," Frank replied while turning on the television and inserting the tape into the VCR slot.
"What do you think is on that?" David asked.
"Porno maybe?" Frank joked.
"Let's pray it isn't," David said as the video began to play. "I wouldn't want to be watching some old guy get his freak on with anyone!"
"Neither would I," Frank replied with a laugh before they both settled into watching the tape. "Doesn't this look like Towers?"
"It is Towers. Vicky had been staying there for a while, so..."
"Naturally, you'd know if the place was the back of your hand," Frank teased and David shot him a look.
The two paid close attention to what was going on in the scene, as people whizzed to and fro, going in all different directions. This was obviously a survalience tape from Towers. What in the world was Carlito Julia doing with it?
Thinking this was just going to be a boring watch, Frank rested his head in his hand, elbow resting on the table. Twenty minutes had passed and all they were watching were people walking down the hall and coming in and out of the elevator. Frank let out a couple of consecutive sighs before David got the message and got to his feet.
"Fine, Cooper. I'll go get the donuts this time. If you happen to see anyone suddenly running amock in video, do bother hollering," he said and then made his way out.
Frank watched housekeeping enter one of the suites and sooner than expected the person was back out again.
"Talk about quick service," Frank remarked.
Fifteen more minutes past that point, Michelle stepped out of the elevator. Frank adjusted himself and kept a careful eye on her.
"Michelle, what are you doing here? Why would Carlito have a tape of you entering Suite 439?"
Michelle was seen knocking lightly and then twisting on the knob and then going in. Frank sat in anticipation for Michelle to reemerge, but she didn't.
"Anything interesting while I was gone?" David asked, coming back into the room with a box of donuts and two cups of coffee.
"I just saw Michelle."
"Where? Here?"
"In the tape," Frank replied. "She went into that room," he pointed at the television.
"Maybe she went to visit someone."
"Yeah, maybe."
"What's going on now?" David asked as he bit into a powered donut.
"Just people walking."
"Maybe we could fastforward though this thing. We aren't going to sit here and watch people passing by, are we?"
"Good thinking," Frank said and he pressed the fast forward button on the remote. He had gone nearly ninety minutes before Michelle reemerged from the room.
"Oh my God," Frank breathed. "I know where this is. That is Santiago's room."
"Are you sure?" David asked, his mouth full of the sweet cake.
"Harper!" Frank called and the man was quick to come. "Could you please dig up the file on Diego Santiago?" he asked and within minutes, the requested was in front of him.
"What are you looking for?" David asked as Frank flipped through pages and ran across the paper with his finger.
"Towers, Suite 439. Found shot dead," Frank read and leaned back in his seat.
"Shot? You don't think-"
"Michelle killed Santiago. Damn it!" he banged on the table as he stood up. "He was found dead at approximately 11am by housekeeping," he read from the file and rewound the tape and paused the moment that Michelle was emerging from the room. "10:50am. This doesn't look good."
"I'll get the lab to analyze the gun," David said, jumping to his feet and wiping off his mouth. "If the bullets that killed Santiago came from that gun-"
"We'd have to bring Michelle in. That's if we can find her."
"What do you mean? She was in town?"
"Yeah. She came in Friday. She's supposedly skipped back out. Abby thinks she's been kidnapped by the Santos family."
"That could be possible," David said.
"At this point, anything could be possible with that family," Frank remarked. "We have no concrete proof to support that anyway. Look, just let me know what you find out on the gun, alright?" Frank told him and David nodded before leaving him alone. "Why, Michelle?" he asked as he stared at her in the paused shot.
Her hands appeared to be covered in blood, and she tired to hide them behind her when a few people came by and she looked around in a paranoid fashion until she was able to enter the elevator alone.
Frank stopped the tape and ran a hand across his face. He certainly wasn't looking forward to this.