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Date: 20 Mar 97 15:37:03 GMT
From: kmp@harlequin.com (Kent Pitman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs
Subject: Y&R: AWO#29: "Skirting the Law"
Message-ID: <KMP.97Mar20153703@romulus.harlequin.com>
INSIDE... * Has innocent skirt-chasing led to murder?
* A minor skirt over a major skirt!
* Grace's quest homes in on the outskirts of Madison
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANOTHER WAY OUT, Episode 29, 20-Mar-97 by Kent Pitman (kmp@harlequin.com)
"Skirting the Law"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jack enters the police station and sits down on a chair beside Salina Wiley.
"Jack Abbot," she says. "You have a very good memory, Detective," he replies.
"Thank you--now what can I do for you, Mr. Abbot? I assume you didn't come
by to complement me on my brainpower." "Nope," Jack replies, "you're right
about that. I came by to save you some." "Some...? Some what--complements?"
"No, brain power. I came by to turn myself in." "Okaayy..." she says,
leafing through a book labeled `Most Wanted' that is conveniently lying on her
desk. "And which of these fine unexplained crimes would you like to relieve
me of worrying about?" "Well, it's probably not in there yet..." "Ok, so it
happened recently--?" "Can we come back to that?" Jack asks. He continues:
"The timing is a little hard to explain if you don't understand the whole
story." "Ok, she says, "well, can you tell me what TYPE of crime we're
talking about?" "Murder." "Murder! You mean like pre-meditated murder? The
kind you plan and do intentionally, murder?" "Yes, I think that's the one."
"That's a capital crime, Jack. I think you should get a lawyer," says Salina
in a tone indicates she's more worried Jack's gone off the deep end than that
he's shot someone. "No, no, I waive all of that. I'm beyond lawyers now. I
knew what I was doing and what the price was--but it was worth it." "Uh, ok,
well, ... who'd you murder?" she asks very curiously. "The Black Knight
himself..." She looks at him blankly, so he elaborates for her: "Victor
Newman."
Grace walks out of the prison to where Tony is waiting in the car. "Did you
find out what you wanted to know?" "You bet I did. I mean, at first he
didn't want to talk, but I kissed him for a while and he softened right up."
"You really gotta go easy on that kissing stuff, Gracie; it seems to work
great, but you could be spreading some major diseases, you know what I mean?"
She glares at him, as if this will somehow nullify the truth of what he's
said. "Anyway, he apparently used to have a law partner named Morgan. To
hear this guy I just talked to tell it, the wrong guy got sent to jail. He
says when he found out Morgan was up to no good, he tried to turn him in but
when the dust had settled, Morgan was free and he was in prison. Anyway, I
have an address and we can go see for ourselves."
Nina sits down at the bar next to Les. "Hey, barkeep, this fox been in here
before?" The bartender nods. "Yeah, I saw her the other day." He looks to
Nina and says, "Welcome back, Ma'am." Then Les says, "Well, aren't ya going
to introduce us?" The bartender shrugs. "Les, this is ..." his eyes look to
Nina, whose womanly abundance is on display in her black leather outfit. She
doesn't volunteer her name, but watches interestedly as the men discuss her.
"Les," he repeats, "this is More." Nina giggles. Les smiles and says, "Ok,
More, how about we get a table?" "Sure!" says Nina eagerly. They move to the
table and the bartender brings over some beers. "Uh, I'll be back in a
minute," says Nina, as she heads off suddenly toward the Ladies Room. Les
looks around and seeing that no one is looking, pours something into her
drink.
"Victor Newman! Are you on the level? You killed Victor Newman? You better
back up and tell me the whole story," Salina says. Jack nods. "Well, I was
away on a trip and I was lonely. My fiance Diane had too much work piled up
to go along, and I was there by myself. So I went down to a bar and I met
this woman--a hooker, as it turned out." "Jack Abbot, shame on you. With a
fiance at home?" "No, no, it's not like that. She hit on me, but I declined.
I told her I was happily engaged, but I asked her how she could stay in the
business with all the diseases around. She told me it was true, that she'd
contracted a fatal disease, but that she practiced safe sex and anyway she
needed the money she was making to buy medication to keep her alive." "Jack,
this is really awful and very sad, but I don't see what it has to do with
Victor Newman." "I'm coming to that," Jack says. "So I called home to talk
to my fiance. But she wasn't home. Then I called Gina Roma." "The
restaurant owner?" "Yep." "Why did you do that?" "Well, I thought maybe
Diane would have gone to Gina's for something to eat--in Genoa City, everyone
goes to Gina's." "Right. So was she there?" "She was, but she was eating
dinner with Victor Newman!"
Grace and Tony arrive park their car near an alley and proceed in. "It
doesn't look very safe," Tony mutters. "Oh, Tony, there you go again being so
cautious. Did you ever take a risk in your life?" "I had sex with you,
didn't I?" "That was a long time ago, Tony." "The more I see of the way you
run your life, the more I'm thinking that's a good thing," Tony responds.
Taking their verbal impasse as a cue, the two proceed into the alley. Grace
holds a small slip of paper which she matches against an address on a door.
"This looks like it." She takes a deep breath and knocks. A thin man with
greasy black hair and a dirty blue button-down shirt opens the door. He looks
at the two and then looks both ways up and down the alley. "Yeah?" he asks
in a manner that while gruff, we imagine to be his most cordial tone. "Mr.
Morgan?" Grace asks. "Who's askin'?" "We're friends of--that is,--well,
we're looking for a baby." "To adopt? You don't look like no husband and
wife." "We're not. It's not that." "Kiddie porn, then? I don't do nonna
that."
The Genoa City Bar. Les is with Nina and she's looking pretty woozy. "Come
on, More," he says. "Izzz Nina," she replies groggily. "I don't feel so
good." Then she almost passes out and puts her head on the table to rest.
Les comes over and scoops her up and starts to take her out of the bar, but he
is stopped by a man with a badge. "All right, bud. Nice try with the drug act
but we're not going to have any of this tonight." "Oh, but I'm just taking
her home--she's a friend of mine." "Look, creep, get while the going is good.
You're lucky I'm not arresting you." Les slinks away and the man with the
badge takes Nina's limp body. "Come on, Miss, let's get you home." He fishes
at her purse to see her driver's license. "Nina McNiel," he reads aloud. And
he walks out of the bar.
"Mr. Morgan, I'm told by your former law partner that you handled an adoption
case for a Sharon Newman? Her son, I believe?" The man shakes his head.
"Never heard of 'em." "She was Sharon Collins then," Tony volunteers. "Nope,
never heard of him." Grace sighs. "Could I kiss you, Mr. Morgan?" "Sure,"
he says, brightening up. He takes her into his arms and they kiss for a
while. After a while, she pries herself free. "That's enough for now I
think, Mr. Morgan." "Hey, that wasn't bad. I got a call from that friend o'
mine you mentioned and he said I should hold out for the kiss--he was right.
Not bad. So you're looking for old Adam Collins, huh?" "Adam? I don't know
his first name, actually. But I do know it was to be a biblical name."
"Yeah, that's him--she was very specific about the biblical name thing. Adam
died though--I suppose you know that."
Salina looks at Jack. "So you found Victor was with your fiance and you came
back and what--shot him? Sounds like you might have a case for temporary
insanity--you really should get a lawyer." "No, no. It's much more subtle
than that. I planned it much better. No one could possibly see it as that.
So I went back down to the bar and I hired the woman I'd met to come with me
to Genoa City on a little job. I promised to pay her big time." "Jack, I am
really not following your obsession with this woman." "Patience, Salina. I
never told Diane that I knew about Victor--she had to go out of town herself
on business. And then I lied to Victor--I told him Diane and I had broken up.
It probably made him mad because he had no reason to gloat about whatever
progress he'd made invading my turf, but I could see the twinkle in his eye
when I told him I had this new woman--Tess. She was the one from the bar, but
Victor didn't know. And tonight I created a situation where Tess was left
alone and made sure Victor knew." "And you stalked them?" Jack pauses for a
commercial before answering.
Outside the Bar, Les sees the man with the badge putting Nina in the back of
an old station wagon. "Hey!" says Les, "That's no police car." "I'm working
undercover." "Oh, yeah, right. I'll bet there are gonna be covers involved.
How about we call the police department and confirm that, huh?" "Ok, you're
right, I'm no saint, but neither are you. And my badge WAS a better ploy than
your drug thing, so I deserve the spoils. Bug off!" "Oh come on--there's
plenty there for both of us." "Oh, I guess you're right. Hop in. We better
get out of here before a real cop comes along."
Grace is still in the alley with Morgan and Tony. "Ohh, I can't believe this.
We came all this way for nothing." "I could sell you one of the others,"
Morgan volunteers. "You did a lot of this, huh?" "Sure. We got your basic
Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Joshua, David, Peter, ...." "But don't you see--it had
to be Sharon's kid." "But these are all just as good, I promise. We're a
cloning lab--they didn't tell youse? Our motto is ``If it's worth havin' a
kid, it's worth makin' backups.'' Catchy, huh?" Grace stares in disbelief.
"Catchy? It's stupid. What would drive a person to do something as weird as
cloning?" "Hey, it's a very up and comin' thing!" the man says, insulted.
Grace looks unsure. "Well, if you're sure it's an EXACT duplicate, I'll take
one." "You sure you don't want two? We got a special on this week,
and--you're from outa town, right?--ya never know what might happen on the
trip back." "Just the one," Grace says. "What size?" "Size?" "Well, we can
start a new one any time, so we have them in varying ages." "I don't suppose
you have something close to `newborn'." "Well, they're not bor--" "Spare me.
I don't care if they're hatched. Just something small." "Gotcha." Then she
asks "How much?" He eyes her all over. "Given it's for Sharon 'n' all--how
about another of those kisses?" She glares at him and hands him a credit
card. "Suit yourself," he says, and heads off to charge the card. He returns
with kid and card. "Good luck!"
Jack laughs at Salina's question. "Stalk them? No, not quite. Nothing like
that, in fact. I've left them alone all evening." "So...?" "So, what do you
mean so? So I'm sure the Great Man is making moves on her right now...
probably sleeping with her. And he's not going to do protected sex--I have it
on good authority that he's never been one for that. So, when he tries to
steal the woman he thinks is mine, ... well, ... bye, bye, Victor." Salina
looks incredulous. "You're sure he's moving on your woman and so you think
you've committed murder? Jack, that's the lamest story I've ever heard. No
one could be either so predictable or so stupid as you're making out Victor to
be. He's been around the block Jack--he's not going to think people will just
fall at his feet and bed him on the first date. As old as he is, I can't
believe anyone finds him attractive or even that he thinks they would." Jack
says, "Uh,... you really think so, huh?" Salina nods. "So I can just go?"
"Jack, if everything really did happen as you say, I'd say you'd committed the
perfect crime. But I'm confident it never could."
A moment after Jack gets up and walks out, Victor walks in. "I'd like to
report a murder." "Whose," Salina asks. "Mine," Victor explains. Salina
sighs. "It's been kind of a busy evening for that kind of thing, Mr. Newman.
If you could take a number and sit over there while I get ready for you."
"Don't you know who I am? I'm Victor Newman!" "Well, you WERE Victor Newman.
If you were murdered, you're not him any more, and you're not in any hurry.
Now take a number."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright 1997 Kent M. Pitman. All Rights Reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Another Way Out" takes plotline state at time of publication and shows that
there are interesting places right around the corner. The goal, besides
having some fun with good-natured parody, is to challenge the notion that we
must be mired in certain tired plotlines for months just to have a good time.
There is always another way out...
Archives of this and older episodes of "Another Way Out"
as well as the more serious "morals" that underly them,
can be found at: http://world.std.com/~pitman/awo/index.html
And don't forget to try the new "character index" while you're there!