Episode 134, originally published 15-Mar-2001

Incriminating Heavy Dense

Will Phyllis play the heavy in her relationship with Jack?
Can Carter avoid being incriminated by Mark's testimony?
Will the court condemn Nick for being ever dense?

Today's show opens at Phyllis's house, where Jack has just arrived. "I just don't know, Phyllis, it doesn't seem right." Phyllis wraps herself sensuously around Jack, like an anaconda, sizing up its next bite. "Ohhh, Jack, we've come this far. We can't back out now, right?" "I know, I know," Jack says, "but it's my own family." Phyllis turns away and starts pacing irritated. "Your own family. Right, Jack. Your own family has asked you to break the law by passing inside information to them. Come on now, are you going to let them get away with that? I thought we agreed that all these high and mighty people who are trying to jerk us around need to be taught a lesson. And that's why we came up with the fake information about the upcoming Newman Enterprises spending spree." "I know, I know. And you're right. They do have to be taught a lesson. But it's my own family, and seeing them go for the bait so easily I suddenly felt very guilty." "Oh, Jack, you didn't tell them, did you? That would spoil our little game." "No, Phyllis," he says, "I didn't tell them. Oh, goody, she says, squeezes him and flinging him back onto a nearby table. "Oh, Jack, this is going to be so much fun..."

Across town, Victor is across the table from his son at the visitor's room in the jail. "M'boy, when you tell me you're innocent, I believe you, ahright?" He sits up straight and motions to Nick to do the same. "We are Newmans," he goes on, "we are not lawbreakers. And it's about time this town started treating us as we deserved. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to run to meet your sister. I think we've finally found someone we can force to get us the confidential information we need to crush Jabot, ahright? You just keep your chin up and hang in there, ahright? Because anyone who dares to say that a Newman would ever break the law is going to find he has more than just the law to worry about--that person better damned well watch his back because his days are numbered, you got that?"

In Phyllis's bedroom, Jack is wearing only a bedsheet when Phyllis sticks her head in the door. She is already dressed, though in just a loosefitting--well, one of those almost pieces of clothing she's always wearing. "Hi, sleepyhead," she says. "What time is it?" he asks, confused. "Almost time for me to come back to bed," she says with a playful giggle. "But I've been a busy little bunny." Then she stops herself. "Well, we don't like our bunnies to be busy, now do we? No we don't. We like them home sitting by the telephone, wondering why no one is calling them. Ok, then, I've been a busy little beaver then." He eyes her suspiciously, and she switches to an endearing pout. "Now, Jack... don't look at me that way. You know this beaver's only eager for you, and would never go after anyone else's dam needs." A pause while she teases his mouth into a smile with her finger. "There now, that's better."

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Back from commercial, we're looking in at the Genoa City Court House, where John Silva has gotten a writ of Habeus Corpus to find out if this is enough evidence to proceed. Detective Edmunds is just about to present his evidence. "Now, detective, can you tell me what we've got against Mr. Newman," Glenn Adams asks. "Sure," Edmunds responds, trying to hide his obvious zeal by wiping the drool from his mouth with a pocket handkerchief. "First, we found a room in Milwaukee with a glass in it with Nick's fingerprints all over it. And it was rented by some guy named Nick. And there was a Newman Enterprises shipping label." John shakes his head. "Your honor, this is all circumstantial. If that's the only thing with Nick's fingerprints, maybe someone at Newman Enterprises who hates Nick could have put the glass in the box and mailed it to these people in Milwaukee. And it's just possible they either lied about the name Nick when renting the room or that there are two people named Nick in North America." Nick turns a frightened eye to Nikki, but she shakes her head and whispers to him to relax, that she isn't the one.

Back at Phyllis's place, no time appears to have passed. "Anyway," Phyllis says, continuing an earlier thought, "while you were asleep, I called that guy Mario Edmunds at the District Attorney's office--boy is he a nice guy. He was all set to drop what he was doing and go make the arrests already, but I convinced him to wait until we had acquired some more evidence first...." "Wait a minute? Arrests? What are you talking about?" Phyllis looks surprised. "Our game, Jack. You know, where we let Newman Enterprises and Jabot play their petty little illegal games of coercion and corporate espionage, and then we expose the whole thing." "But no one said anything about having them arrested!"

In the courtroom, the judge looks to Edmunds. "Mr. Silva's got a point," he says, "Is this all you have?" "No, Your Honor. We also have the testimony of Mark Hanson, a friend of Jordan's who saw the deal go down." The judge asks, "And what did he tell you?" "Objection!" John says, "could we hear it first hand and have a chance to cross-examine?" "This isn't a trial," the judge says, "and the same rules don't apply here." "No, but common sense still does," John insists. The judge nods. "Very well. Call Mark Hanson."

And again back at her place, Phyllis is having none of Jack's objections. "Don't worry!" she says with a confident smile. "I'm just trying to add that sense of danger to the whole thing. Don't you think that will add to the excitement--knowing Victor and Victoria and Jill and Ashley are hanging on the brink of 20 years in prison? That'll shake them out of their stupor, don't you think." "But Ash is my sister..." "Jack, jack, jack, you worry so. When this is all done, we can just drop the charges and have a good laugh. I'm sure that very nice Detective Edmunds wouldn't want to go forward with a case against a big respectable corporation if he doesn't have to. This will all just blow over in the end. You'll see."

Somewhere in all this scene switching, Mark Hanson has taken the witness stand and been sworn, and Edmunds has asked him to tell his story. "I saw Nick Newman," Hanson tells the court, "when he was giving Jordan the bag of coffee--I mean drugs--the drugs were in the coffee bag." Edmunds takes a bow and says to John, "Your witness." Silva gets up and thinks. "You saw Nick hand Jordan the bag. Did Jordan ask for drugs?" Mark shakes his head. "No. He asked for coffee. But he pointed directly to the bag with drugs in it and Nick gave Jordan that bag." "And he charged how much for the bag?" "$1.00." "Isn't that low for a bag of drugs?" Silva asks. "It's low even for a bag of coffee," Mark replies. "Newman's not very smart about his pricing. I don't know how he keeps that place running. Probably the drugs." "Objection!" Silva says, "Move to strike." The judge nods. "Mr. Hanson, you have not been identified as an expert in coffee house pricing. And, frankly, it's plain that the defendant isn't much of an expert in such pricing either. But you will confine your remarks to those related to the drug deal." "Alleged drug deal," Silva reminds him. "Alleged drug deal," the judge corrects himself.

Hanson is still being cross-examined by Silva. "So," John says, "let me get this straight. Jordan asked for a bag of coffee and Nick gave him a bag. The price charged was the price of a bag of coffee." "Yes sir." "Might it have been the case that Nick thought he was actually selling Jordan coffee?" "It might, but remember there were drugs in the bag," Mark says, getting defensive. "Right. Drugs that cost a single dollar. That's a pretty good deal. Your friend Jordan must have been going to get quite a markup on that." "Well, no sir. The rest of the money was hidden elsewhere." "And Nick took that, too?" "No. Carter took it. But he said he was going to give it to Nick." "Carter?" "Yes, you see, we got there an hour before and we wanted to get the drugs. Carter pointed to where they were but told us he couldn't get them himself because Nick, though he liked to keep himself totally out of the deal, still liked to come in and implicate himself at the last minute. Carter was our contact all along except during the buy. He said Nick likes to do that business himself. So he doesn't get his employees in trouble, you know." Silva looks skeptical. "You're sure. Because it sounds to me like a scam, and maybe this guy Carter could have set Nick up." Carter, who has been sitting in the audience trying to look inconspicuous, moves forward and whispers something to Edmunds, who then stands and says, "Your Honor, we call Carter Mills."

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Carter having been sworn, Adams lets Edmunds do the honors. "Mr. Mills," Edmunds asks, "I assume you've heard the testimony of Mark Hanson, that you masterminded this frame-up of Nick." "I heard it," Carter says. "And what have you to add to it?" Edmunds asks. "Just that it's not true, sir," Carter explains calmly and politely. "Not true? The events didn't happen as Mr. Hanson describes." "Well, no, they did, but you see--Nick forced me to set up the deal that way. He said, 'Listen punk, it's my way or the highway.'" Sharon looks in shock at Nick. Nick's eyes try to reply to Sharon that this is manufactured but she doesn't believe him. A look of shame crosses her face as she realizes how her husband has forced Carter into this. Carter goes on. "Nick told me he was going to open up coffee houses all across the country and that I'd never work in any of them if I didn't make it look like I was framing him so that if he got caught he could blame it on me." Edmunds smiles smugly at Silva. His eyes say "Top that!" but he says aloud just "Your witness."

Silva stands contemplating Carter. "That's a very clever plan Nick had," Silva says to him. Carter nods. "Extremely clever," Silva says, emphasizing. Carter nods again. "Mr. Mills, how smart would you say Nick is?" John asks quickly. "Well, I--I don't know." "Come now, Mr. Mills. Make a guess. Would you say he's brighter than, say, a 20 watt lightbulb?" "Well, not that bright," Carter admits. "So you admit that he really isn't capable of a plan as complicated as the one you just described." Carter sighs and throws his hands into his face and sobs. "All right, Perry Mason! You caught me. I made it up. I made it all up. But don't you see? If he were smarter, he would have made it up himself. It's not my fault he has to hire people to get himself into the kind of trouble he's too dumb to get into on his own." The judge, nodding, says "Good point." "But what about Carter? He still masterminded this," Silva says. "Uh, your honor," Edmunds says, seeing Phyllis enter the back of room, "I have independent witnesses to show that it's a pattern behavior in the Newman family to coerce employees into committing criminal acts for them."

The judge thinks about what has been presented for a moment but Nick interrupts his silence. "Your Honor?" Nick asks, "Can I say something?" The judge nods to him. "I just want to say that I am smart enough think up things when I need to." The judge shrugs and bangs his gavel. "Very well," he says, "I'm going to take Nicholas Newman's word that he's smart enough to have pulled this off." "Thank you, Your Honor," Nick says. "And I'm binding this over for trial." He bangs the gavel again and everyone gets up to move. "Come on," Nick says to Sharon, "let's go catch that plane." Silva shakes his head. "Sorry, Nick, but you didn't win." "I didn't? But the judge said he believed me. That I was smart and all." John just sighs. "Sometimes, Nicholas," John says, "you're just too smart for your own good." Nick smiles. "Thanks, John!" he says, "You're not so bad yourself."

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 135!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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