A Snowy Night
Part 25
By Kellie
Danny waited as patiently as he
could for the guard to bring Michelle to the visitor’s room. He was tapping
his foot and drumming his fingers on the desk when he spotted Michelle. He put
his hand on the glass while he picked the phone up with his left hand.
"Hi."
"Hi," Michelle replied. "I hope you have better news than you did
when you visited this morning. Many more visits like that and there won’t be
enough Prozac in the world to cure the depression I’d go into."
Danny smiled at Michelle’s attempt to lighten the mood, "Acutally, I have
good news tonight. Jesse’s going to be fine. He just had a bad reaction to a
new anti-rejection medication. They took care of it and put him back on his
original medication. He’s going to be as good as new in a few days. He told me
to give you his love."
Michelle looked up at Danny, "A year ago, you’d never have given me that
message. We really have come a long way."
"Yeah, I know it. I love you and I know you love me – so giving you that
message wasn’t a problem."
"Just when I think it’s not possible for me to love you more than I
already do, you go and do something like this to make me love you more."
"I know – I’m just too good!" Danny teased back.
"Ha! Ha!" Michelle replied. "So how about Pilar and Lizzie?"
"Ray went to see Pilar. Somehow he got through to her and she was talking
with the doctors when I left Cedars. Lillian said that Lizzie’s taking this
better than the rest of them. She’s convinced that her Uncle Rick’s going to
make her all better."
"Lizzie has always been a brave kid," Michelle commented. "By the
way, thanks for bringing me that book. Of course, I’ve been so busy reading
that letter that came with it over and over that I haven’t read the first page
of the book."
"You know that I’m going to make sure that everything I promised in that
letter happens."
"I know. I can’t wait until I’m home and we can get back to our lives
together."
"I’m glad to hear you talking like this. You don’t look as sad as you
were earlier."
"After I read that letter, I decided you were right – I need to hold on
to our love and hope if I’m going to get through this. "
"Speaking of hope, I wasn’t going to tell you this until I was sure it
would work out; but I think you should know – Pilar gave Ray permission to
reveal what she told him in confession about Ben’s murder and how Carmen set
you up. Ross and David are going to set him up with a wire tomorrow and see if
they can get Carmen to reveal the truth at lunch."
"Danny, are you sure this will work?"
"I hope so. David and Ross are handling the whole thing – I’m staying
out of it. I don’t want to mess this chance up."
Michelle sat and stared at Danny silently for several minutes. She was trying to
get up the courage to tell him about Dietz’s visit. It had only been 24 hour
and she knew she had promised to give Dietz another day, but keeping this secret
from Danny was just too hard. "Danny, I had a visitor yesterday that you
need to know about."
"Who was here?"
"Dietz."
"What the hell did he want and why didn’t you tell me about this
sooner?"
"Calm down – He came to tell me something and he asked me to wait 48
hours before I told you, but I can’t stand to keep this from you any
longer."
Danny looked at Michelle, "What did he tell you?"
"It seems that Dietz was at the beach the night Mick died. Drew and I
aren’t responsible for his death."
Danny sat in stunned silence for a moment. "Dietz had me going all over
town looking for Mick’s killer – if he knew what happened, why didn’t he
tell me – Oh My God – Dietz killed Mick, didn’t he?"
"In a manner of speaking, you could say that."
Danny looked at Michelle with a puzzled expression, "What the hell does
that mean?"
"Dietz was carrying out an order for your mother – Mick dying wasn’t
part of the plan. She had Dietz following Mick because she was worried about him
doing something to call unnecessary attention to the family. Dietz saw him try
to attack me and he saw the whole struggle between Drew, Mick, and myself. After
Mick fell to the ground unconscious, Drew and I got out of there. Dietz was
standing over Mick when he started to come to. He was on the phone with your
mother. Dietz told her how Mick had tried to rape some co-ed down on the beach.
He told her how Drew and I knocked him out with a rock. When Mick got up, Dietz
followed you mother’s order to give him hell for making such a dumb move. They
got into a pushing and shoving match. Mick’s balance was still off from being
out cold and Dietz shoved him down. Mick hit his head on the log on the beach
– Which was the blow that killed him. Your mother has known all along, but she
blamed me because Mick would never have gone to the beach if he hadn’t been
following me. Your mother never corrected my belief that I had delivered that
fatal blow."
Michelle looked at Danny. His silence scared her more than anything did. She
knew that when Danny appeared perfectly calm after hearing anything upsetting
– well she knew that he was the angriest he could be. "Danny, don’t go
after her. Let Ross and David get her in their trap tomorrow. Let this rest –
once she’s on this side of the visitor’s table, then we’ll confront her
– together."
Danny nodded his head, "I know you’re right, but at this moment I could
kill Carmen with my bare hands. She’s let you take the fall for what was
ultimately her responsibility too many times. She has to pay."
"She will, but we’re going to do it the right way this time. Your mother
won’t know what hit her after all is said and done."