"I’m NOT blowing this out of proportion, Alexis!" He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, dabbed it to his lips, and took one of her hands before she could object. While she watched in obvious discomfort, he wiped away some of the blood and parking lot gravel. "You should probably go to GH and have these checked out….."

"For God’s sake, Jax – it’s just a few bumps and bruises!" Alexis pulled her hand away from him, grimacing at the sight of blood seeping through her hose at the knees. "Nothing more than skinned knees, bruised pride….." Her lips twisted in disheartened resignation. "……..and a ruined pair of perfectly good designer pantyhose."

"Alexis……"

"Stop *mothering* me, Jax!!" She drew away so forcefully that it caught him off guard. But when she tried to get back to her feet, her ankle gave way beneath her. Once again, she found herself steadied in his arms as he caught her beneath the armpits. She looked up to find herself trapped in the late summer lightning flashing in his eyes.

"I don’t feel too d*mn maternal right now, Lexie……" Slowly and seductively, Jax’s gaze slid downward to the creamy expanse of her neck that was exposed by her blouse. He wrapped his arms even more tightly around her, brushing his lips lightly against her temple as he settled her head against his chest. "God, I nearly died myself when I saw that car heading towards you."

The realization of what nearly had happened hit her with a vengeance. Despite her better intentions, she gave in to her frazzled nerves and buried her face against the corded muscles of his chest. Jax’s strong hands roaming up and down her back……the familiar smell of his aftershave……the pounding of his heart and his uneven breathing that she told herself all had been caused by the near tragedy…….just the nearness of him was almost unbearable in its tenderness.

Even though she told herself to move away from him……to remember the way he had hurt her the night of their engagement party…….Alexis found herself leaning into his embrace. When he stroked her hair and murmured soothing endearments in her ear, the very air around them seemed electrified. She told herself to step back – to put some sobering distance between them. But somehow, her legs didn’t seem to hear what her brain was shouting.

She finally raised her head to look at him and was stunned at what she saw in Jax’s eyes – need, naked and raw. And anguish. Could it be that he was keeping something from her? Did he *really* mean to cavalierly break her heart when he left? Or was there something more he wasn’t telling her?

Jax knew it was a mistake – holding her in his arms again, being so close to those forbidden lips that his breath stirred the hair at her temples. So close that he could feel her nipples harden every time her breasts brushed against his chest. What had started so innocently as an expression of his concern for her safety had turned into something hot and all-consuming.

It was only a natural reaction, he told himself. Affirming life after a near-death experience through physical intimacy. And the tension in her arms and the way her heart pounded against his chest told him that his feelings weren’t one-sided. When a terror-induced tremor touched her full, lush lips, he had to fight back the groan that threatened to erupt from his soul.

But he also knew that if they made love, he’d have to tell her the truth about everything. Once they crossed that line again, there was no way he could continue to keep anything from her. And Jax still wasn’t sure that Alexis could handle the awful truth he had worked so hard to protect her from – particularly not after the evening’s already-harrowing events.

Calling upon some inner strength he didn’t realize he had, Jax smiled and pulled back from her just slightly. He pushed the stray hair back off her forehead with his forefinger. "Are you sure you’re OK?"

"Fine." She swallowed tightly, trying to slow the hammering of her heart. What had caused him to pull back? Had she misread the signals? *Didn’t* he want her after all? It took all of her concentration to block the wanton shiver of desire that still coursed through her body just at his nearness. "I’m fine, Jax – really."

He reluctantly let her escape his embrace, but selfishly kept both hands at her elbows when she tried to stand independently. "I know you don’t want to go to GH, but maybe you ought to report this to Mac Scorpio……"

"Mac Scorpio?" She tried to steady herself, smoothing the skirt of her suit self-consciously with one hand. "Report this to the police? When we’re not even really sure if the guy tried to hit me or was just some drunk……"

"It WASN’T just some drunk, Alexis!! What do I have to do to convince you of that?" When she snorted and looked away in disbelief, he gripped her arms more tightly. "I SAW the car – it aimed right at you!! And the driver deliberately didn’t turn his headlights on so you wouldn’t see him coming in the dark!"

"Jax……." Her lips thinned in a condescending grimace. "I’m not part of the Soprano family. Why would anyone want to kill me?"

"What about that guy you convicted for organized crime about five years ago? The one who threatened to get even with you at his sentencing hearing?" Creases formed in Jax’s forehead as he struggled to remember the details of the case. "What was his name? Moreno?"

"Anthony Moreno." She licked her lips, uncomfortable that he was thinking more clearly than she was at the moment. "But I hardly think that the man would sit around in prison for five years, waiting to get his revenge on me until now."

"But what if he’s *out* of prison??!!" Jax refused to let her go when Alexis tried to pull free and walk back towards her car. "What if he escaped?"

"Then I would have gotten some kind of notification from the Department of Justice." Her lips twisted wryly as she scolded him. "You know that as well as I do, Jax." She looked down at the place on her arms where he still maintained a grip. "Now are you going to let me go back to my car or not?"

He opened his hands quickly – an exaggerated "setting-you-free" motion that drew another pout of displeasure from her. When Alexis stooped to pick up her purse, Jax bent quicker and was there to hand it to her, nearly bumping heads with her in the process. "What about since then? While I was …… gone." A fleeting flash of curiosity hit Alexis when the subject seemed to inspire a glimmer of pain in his eyes. "Did any of those drug dealers and murderers you convict on a daily basis threaten you?"

She shook her head as her mouth pulled into a sour grin. "If I had a nickel for every young punk who swore vengeance on my eternal soul, I’d have retired to some private island in the South Pacific LONG before today."

"But what about……."

Alexis had limped three feet towards her car when she turned back towards Jax and exploded. "Just let it GO, Jax!!" The hurt look in his eyes stole some of her thunder and her voice gentled. "Look, it’s just ludicrous to think that what happened just now was part of some sinister master plan to make sure I "swim with the fishes," or whatever they say in those awful Al Pacino films." She let out a long breath at the skepticism still evident on his face. "To begin with, NOBODY knew that I was coming here today."

"Nobody?" But Jax wasn’t about to let the subject die yet, dogging her steps as she made her way towards her Audi. "Not even your secretary?"

She slung her purse onto the hood of her car with a sigh. "I thought you said that you wanted this meeting to be strictly confidential, so I didn’t tell Barb where I was going."

"But you used to say that she always had to be able to reach you – in case there was some important development in a case….."

"…..which is why I told her I’d keep my cell phone on, which I did!" Alexis crowed, reaching into her purse. She triumphantly held up the phone, pointing to the display which glowed dimly in the twilight. "See?"

Jax narrowed one eye, resting his hands on his hips. "And you didn’t write it down anywhere, in some kind of appointment book or something?"

"Just my day-planner……which I *always* keep in my purse, which NEVER leaves my sight." She quickly pressed a series of buttons on the driver’s side, unlocking her door and opening it. "And besides, even if somebody HAD managed to get a look at my day-planner, I didn’t make any notes as to where the meeting was going to take place. Just the time and Jerry’s name."

She could see the deep furrows of frown lines in Jax’s forehead, even in the early evening darkness. "And you’re sure that nobody else knew about this meeting? That you didn’t mention it to your friend, Lieutenant Taggert, and maybe someone else could have overheard?"

"READ MY LIPS, JAX…………NOBODY!!!!" She tossed her purse onto the passenger seat of the car, then froze and stared off into space. "Unless…….."

He was at her side in an instant, blocked from actual contact with her by the open driver’s side door of the car. "Unless?"

"Unless………" She chewed on her lower lip, then turned to him, her brown eyes flashing in a familiar display of anger. "Unless your brother tried to kill me."

His breath left his body as though he had been punched in the stomach. "WHAT??!!"

"There were only three people who knew about this meeting tonight, Jax – you, Jerry, and I." She gripped the top of the car door, her white knuckles betraying her growing rage. "I don’t think it take a rocket scientist to figure out that neither you nor I could have been driving that car……"

"Alexis……"

"…….and Jerry was in a pretty foul mood when he left here ……." She held up a finger in a "don’t forget" gesture. "……..some twenty minutes before us, by the way……."

"Now look……."

"He could have been waiting in the shadows, just sitting in his car and stewing about the fact that I was closing in on Bobbie as the murderer." She pressed her lips together, oblivious to the thunderous expression that was building on Jax’s face. "Of course, we can’t be SURE that the car was black, since it was so dark, after all………and Jerry DOES drive a *dark* green car, doesn’t he?"

"That’s ENOUGH!!!!" Jax’s furious shout echoed in the deserted parking lot. He ran his fingers through his hair, laughing in a way that had nothing to do with good humor. "I really can’t BELIEVE you, Alexis!! Jerry was right!! You ARE on some kind of vindictive crusade against him!!"

"For God’s sake, Jax – stop being so naïve!!" Her eyes smoldered with the fire of a predator following the scent of its prey. "You saw how upset Jerry was when he left here today……..plus the fact that it looked like his nourishment for the last few hours had probably been 90-proof."

His eyes were cold and steely as he shook his head sadly. "I never thought you’d stoop this low……"

"And you COULD have been mistaken about the color of the car, couldn’t you?" Alexis pointed her finger at him, using her best "establish-a-reasonable-doubt" courtroom voice. "After all, you said yourself that it came out of nowhere, with the headlights OFF! And you barely got a glimpse of it before you tackled me to the ground!"

"I….."

"It’s POSSIBLE, isn’t it, Jax??"

"BLOODY H*LL, Alexis – there’s no judge and jury here!! Cut the DRAMA!!!" Raw pain glittered in his eyes, although she wasn’t sure if it was inspired by anger or the awful realization that his brother possibly COULD have been driving the car that tried to run her down. Jax paced a small circle next to her car, rubbed his face with his hands briskly, and then stared down at her skinned hands and knees. "So……." He propped his hands on his hips, clearly more-than-ready to change the subject. "Are you going to let me drive you to GH or not?"

She shot him a withering glance. "Not." Alexis glanced down at the raw spots on the heels of her hands. "I’m going to go home, take a hot shower, put some Neosporin on my hands and knees, and try to figure out how I’m going to explain what happened to Stefan without him going all ballistic and over-protective."

"Fine." Jax tried to swing her car door shut but she stubbornly blocked the way. "I’ll drive you home and then send someone to pick up your car tomorrow."

"I don’t have a dead battery or something, Jax!" she frowned with a half-laugh. "My car is in perfect working order……"

"But you’re not." He pushed at the car door again. "You’re probably still shaken up from what happened and in no shape to drive….."

"I’m FINE. I’m driving home." Golden fireworks exploded in her sable eyes as she deliberately slid into the driver’s seat. "End of story."

"Fine." There was a sharp edge to Jax’s voice that belied his agreement with her. "Then I’ll follow you to make sure everything’s OK."

"Jax…….."

"Alexis, how do you know the guy who tried to run you down isn’t waiting a half-mile down the road for you? To give it another try?" When she tried to close her car door, Jax held it firm. "Now whether you like it or not, I’m GOING to follow you home! It’s right on my way……."

"Since when is Lake Shores on the way to the Jacks estate?" she asked sarcastically, naming the small, modest suburb where she shared a house with Stefan.

"It’s not." Jax’s voice lost some of its combativeness. "I….uh……I bought a condominium in Brentwood after I came back to Port Charles from…….." She could see the faint blush on his cheeks, even in the dimly lit parking lot. "Anyway, originally I bought it for investment purposes. But with all the people coming into town for Jessie’s wedding and the madness at the house, I moved into it a couple of days ago, just so I could hang onto *something* that resembled my sanity."

"Oh……." The news obviously came as a surprise to Alexis. She never thought Jax would make such a physical break with the family, albeit a temporary one. "I……." She licked her lips and alternately tightened and loosened her grip on the steering wheel. "I didn’t know."

He shrugged his shoulders and kicked at some loose gravel on the parking lot. "I didn’t exactly send out announcements." He looked at her as though he was photographing her with his eyes, loath for the intimate moment they had almost shared to end. "Well…….." He glanced over to where his gold Jaguar was parked. "Just give me a few minutes to get the car started, and then I’ll be right behind you all the way home."

She chewed on her lower lip, then nodded briskly. "OK." As he turned to go, she reached out to catch his arm. "Jax – I don’t think I thanked you – for saving my life tonight."

He smiled with that effortless sexual magnetism that had always set her heart to fluttering. "Anytime, Alexis." Jax slammed her car door, then patted it ruefully with one hand. As she turned the key in the ignition and the engine purred to life, only the stars that twinkled in the early autumn sky heard his whisper. "Don’t you know? I would DIE for you."

*~*~*~*

"That smells nothing short of positively decadent."

Alexis knew even before she heard his baritone voice that Stefan was in the kitchen doorway. She had become attuned over the years to the infinitesimal squeaks that his wheelchair made as it came through the hallway. "I hope you woke up with a huge appetite this morning……" She glanced at him over her shoulder, smiling broadly. "I think I’ve probably got enough eggs here to feed the entire chess tournament."

Stefan wheeled himself into the kitchen and over to the stove where she stood, diligently watching the large skillet. "Hmmmmm…… Spanish omelets?" He arched one tawny eyebrow at the counter. "And toasted raisin bread with fresh icing?" Folding his hands at his waist, he blocked Alexis’s path as she turned to get a plate. "What special occasion warrants you cooking all of my favorites for breakfast?" He smirked slightly. "Have I forgotten my own birthday again?"

Her shoulders lifted and she placed a tender kiss on his cheek. "Well, I *did* promise to share a pizza and video with you last night……"

"……but it wasn’t YOUR fault that the plans fell through!" Stefan watched intently as she scurried between the stove and kitchen table, setting out the fragrant food. "*I* was the one who was called away to help with the chess tournament, after all!"

The truth was that Alexis was ten degrees beyond relieved when she got home and didn’t see Stefan’s car in the garage. The angry scratches on her hands and knees would have made putting on a pleasant face an impossible mission. She had limped into the kitchen and when she read Stefan’s note on the table, a loud sigh had escaped her lips. She held back her anguished tears until she was in the shower, reliving the harrowing events of the evening that finally hit her with a vengeance.

"Well, let’s not worry about whose fault it was……" She slid past the wheelchair to grab a pot of coffee from the stove. "Are you brave enough to try some of this?"

He chewed on his lower lip, then nodded towards the table with a sly smile. "I think I’ll stick to juice for now, thanks." Stefan maneuvered his wheelchair to take his usual place at the table. He was just reaching for the syrup as she filled his juice glass when he suddenly caught her by the wrist. "What’s this?"

{D*mn. And just when I was SO close.} Alexis forced a bright smile as he turned her hand over to expose the livid scrapes and slight purple cast of her skin around them. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" He released his hold on her arm as she set the juice down and took a seat next to him. "Alexis, a *hangnail* is nothing. A *blemish* on your chin is nothing. Those THINGS on your hands are NOT nothing!!" Propping his elbows on the armrests of his wheelchair, Stefan settled his folded hands in his lap and glared at her. "What happened?"

"It was *really* nothing…….." Alexis laughed hollowly and took a sip of coffee, but her brother just arched his eyebrows in an "I’m waiting" gesture. "My heel broke, and I tripped and fell on a parking lot yesterday afternoon."

"Your heel broke……" Stefan’s eyes glittered, much the same way as they did when he was about to checkmate his opponent. "How fortunate that I have some appointments downtown this afternoon. I can take them to the repair man for you…….."

{Double d*mn.} "I……uh………" Alexis licked her lips and then sighed disgustedly. "I didn’t break my heel." Her glance flickered in her brother’s direction and then back to the contents of her plate. "After my meeting late yesterday afternoon, I……uh……." Stefan leaned forward expectantly as she toyed with her food, trying to avoid the confrontation she knew would be forthcoming. "I almost got hit by a car on the parking lot," she finally muttered quietly.

Contrary to her expectations, Stefan just took a long, deep breath. "What was the meeting about?"

"I…..uh….." Alexis rubbed her nose gently with her forefinger. "I met with Jerry and Jax…….about the Chloe Morgan case. At the Cheshire Inn." Stefan’s silence was un-nerving. "Jax promised me an exclusive one-on-one with his brother if I held off until after his sister’s wedding with any warrants." She expected fury. She got continued hushed intensity. "Anyway, I was walking back to my car, and it was almost dark, and then suddenly this car comes out of nowhere …….." She finally broke down and reached out a hand towards him. "It was probably just some idiot who had too much to drink, you know……."

Stefan stared at her for another thirty seconds before finally pulling away from the table. Alexis watched in confusion as he wheeled himself over to the phone. "Stefan? What are you doing?"

He took the receiver off the hook and began to punch in numbers before answering. "I’m calling Dara Jenson." Stefan held the receiver to his ear and finally returned her gaze. "I’m going to insist that she assign someone else to Chloe Morgan’s case."

"Stefan!!" Alexis jumped up and strode over to him, reaching for the phone. "It was NOTHING!!"

"You almost got KILLED, Alexis!!" Stefan kept the phone away from her but couldn’t stop her when she pressed a finger down on the main unit, disconnecting the call. "Every time you have any contact with that abominable Jacks family, you end up getting hurt!" he growled, his chin jutting forward defiantly. "I WON’T have that happening again!"

"For your information, if that "abominable" Jasper Jacks hadn’t been there, I WOULD have died!!" she spat. Alexis snatched the phone from him and hung it back up on wall in his momentary weakness of disbelief. "When Jax saw the car coming towards me, he sort of "threw" himself at me and got me out of the way." She looked down at the scrapes on her hands, touching them gingerly. "That’s how I got so scraped up – when he tackled me and I ……fell."

Stefan’s lips thinned to a grim line. "So I suppose that means I shall have to express my gratitude to the miserable bastard," he growled. Then one eye narrowed. "Did Jax get a good look at the car?"

She shook her head. "It was dark, like I said. And it all happened so fast, and then the car just …… disappeared." From the harsh set to his jaw, Alexis knew Stefan’s mind was spinning with more arguments about why she should give up Chloe’s murder case. She almost broke into her own fractured version of the Hallelujah Chorus when the telephone rang.

"Alexis?" Taggert sounded hesitant. "I’m sorry to bother you on a weekend……"

"No problem, Marcus……" Stefan rolled his eyes and grimaced. He was begrudgingly accustomed to her 24/7 dedication to her job by now – telephone calls from the PCPD on weekends were more the norm than the exception. "What’s up?"

"Normally I wouldn’t call you on a Saturday morning, but I thought you’d want to know – we brought in that Von Alden guy. The loan shark."

Alexis’s eyes flared briefly before settling into a determined glint. "I’ll be there in fifteen minutes."

Stefan’s eyebrows drew together in a frown as she hung up the phone. "You’re leaving?"

"I have to." She dashed back to the table to take one last quick gulp of coffee.

"But you haven’t eaten!"

She picked up a piece of raisin toast and went past him, placing a tender kiss on the top of his head. "I’ll get something at Starbucks on my way to the station." When Stefan reached out to hold her arm, she smiled at him warmly. "I *promise* that I’ll be careful, OK?" He reluctantly let go of her and she darted towards the door to the garage. "And don’t worry about the dishes……..I’ll take care of them when I get home."

He watched silently until he heard the soft whirring of the garage door as it slid down again after her exit. "Believe me, Lexie," he whispered, tears glinting in his eyes. "The dishes are the LAST thing I’m going to worry about until you’re done with this case."

*~*~*~*

"Actually, some rookie covering Hancock’s beat down near the docks brought Von Alden in." Taggert leafed through a file as he and Alexis strode rapidly through the bowels of the PCPD. He looked up to peer at a row of closed, windowless doors. "He should be right down there – in #4, I think."

Alexis nodded, took a sip from her cardboard Starbucks cup, and then pursed her lips at the steam coming from the small vent on top. "How long can we hold him?"

"Not long." Taggert grimaced. "I think Sommerset gave him some kind of cock and bull story about failure to have a current emissions test sticker on his car, but it’s not gonna stick for long."

"What about the fingerprints?" Alexis leaned towards Taggert, trying to read the contents of the file he was holding. "Any matches there yet?"

"A couple of hits, but nothing major." Taggert shook his head and flipped through the pages in the file. "Other than Miss Morgan’s, of course, the lab boys were able to ID some of the prints as yours, just like you said……."

"Thanks to the test I took when I accepted this job……" Alexis sighed.

"…….AND," Taggert added, arching an eyebrow, "a substantial number of the prints were identified as belonging to none other than Congressman Jerry Jacks."

"Thanks to the test that HE took when he was sworn in, no doubt."

Taggert nodded – then his lips turned down in a definite frown. "Which means that I guess we should nominate Von Alden for the next assistant District Attorney or Congressman."

Alexis gulped a small sip of coffee and patted her chest in shock. "WHAT??!!"

"Thanks to the fact that he’s never been arrested, we don’t have the slimeball’s prints on file." Taggert’s mouth was tight and grim. "Pretty sad, isn’t it? When we can practically catalog every birthmark on a public servant, but we’ve got squat on a chunk of filth like Von Alden."

"Public servants……chunks of filth…….." Bitter cynicism choked Alexis’s voice. "There are some people out there who don’t see a lot of difference between the two, you know."

"I think I’ve got something that belongs to you, Lieutenant." Both Taggert and Alexis turned at the sound of Mac Scorpio’s voice behind them. "Initial lab reports are in on those footprint casts we took from the Morgan murder scene."

"And?"

Mac handed Taggert a sheet of paper. "Size ten and a half Pierre Cardin loafers." He angled a gaze at the closed door to interrogation room #4. "I guess loan sharks don’t adhere to that "buy American" thing."

Alexis tipped her head to the side, eyeing Mac cautiously. "Sounds like you’re pretty sure that Von Alden is the murderer."

"It makes sense. He’s got motive, and once you see the muscles on this guy, you’ll have to admit he’s sure as h*ll got the means to beat a woman up and then push her car off a cliff." Mac pointed a finger at Taggert, tapping him on the chest. "Now it’s just up to YOU to establish that he had opportunity."

"And exactly HOW am I supposed to do that………sir?" Taggert snipped, adding the civility at the last moment.

Mac was walking away when he stopped and glanced over his shoulder at them. "Find something to book him on, Taggert. Get his prints and let the lab guys positively place him in Chloe Morgan’s apartment." He nodded towards Alexis. "Then it’ll just be up to YOU to put him away for the rest of his miserable life."

They watched in silence as Mac turned at the corridor and went back upstairs. "Well…….." Taggert’s mouth lifted wryly at one side. "I guess we’ve got our work cut out for us." He held a hand out towards the door to Interrogation Room 4. "Shall we, Counselor?"

Whatever Alexis was expecting Damon Van Alden to look like, the real thing sure wasn’t close. She had to stifle her gasp when she entered the room and saw his shoulder length, tousled, dirty blonde hair. A matching Fu Manchu mustache and goatee made him look like some kind of refugee from the glory days of Haite Ashbury, free love, and yellow submarines. It only took one glance at his scruffy blue jeans, brown plaid flannel shirt, and sleeveless leather jerkin/vest to make her doubt Mac’s theory about Von Alden owning designer shoes. But the police commissioner was right about one thing – Damon Von Alden was a powerfully built man. His broad shoulders and barrel-shaped chest probably went a long way in convincing rival thugs not to make fun of his long blonde locks.

She had the distinct feeling that something slimy crawled up her arm when Von Alden turned towards her and smiled. "Wellllll……….things are startin’ to look up now, aren’t they, Lieutenant?" Completely ignoring Taggert, the loan shark sat up straighter in his chair and leaned towards Alexis, resting his beefy, folded hands on the long wooden table in front of him. "If I said that you had a beautiful body, darlin’, would you hold it against me?"

"Watch your mouth, dirtbag." Taggert’s sneer was undisguised. "Miss Davis is an attorney……"

"Ahhh……FINALLY I’m getting’ somewhere!!" Von Alden slapped his hands on the table and then rubbed them together gleefully. "I KNEW I shouldda asked for a lawyer MUCH sooner!"

"Wrong side of the fence, Mr. Von Alden," Alexis replied coolly. "I work with the District Attorney’s office – not the Public Defender."

The smile quickly faded from his face and he slumped down in the chair, his eyes shooting daggers in Taggert’s direction. "Since when do they bring in big guns from the DA’s office for some lousy emissions test violation?"

"Mr. Von Alden……" Alexis walked around to the side of the table opposite to where he sat as Taggert watched her cautiously. "Have you ever had business dealings with a woman named Chloe Morgan?"

"What kinda business?" A lewd smirk contorted his face and he winked lustily at Alexis. "Cause if she looks anything like you, babe, the only business I wouldda had with her is MONKEY business!"

"Answer the question, Von Alden!!" Taggert tightly gripped the back of the chair in front of him to avoid wrapping his fingers around the suspect’s neck. "Did you know Chloe Morgan?"

His shoulders lifted and fell nonchalantly. "The name sounds familiar."

Alexis suddenly took a few steps towards Taggert and picked up the file that he had tossed onto the table. "And what would you say if I told you that I had proof in this file that you recently lent Miss Morgan twenty thousand dollars?"

"I’d say that the last time I checked, lending money to people wasn’t a crime, MISS Davis!" Von Alden sneered, sending her a sideways look.

Although it sent a shiver of guilt down her spine, Alexis knew she had to continue with the bluff. As much as she wanted to convict Jerry Jacks of Chloe’s murder, if it was possible that this flower-child-slash-godfather-wannabe had committed the crime, he should pay for it.

In addition, once Chloe’s killer had been brought to justice, she could write Jasper Jacks out of her life for good. Their little encounter the night before on the parking lot had brought back too many memories and temptations. His rejection obviously meant he had moved on – maybe with Courtney Corinthos, for all she knew. It was time Alexis did the same.

"No, lending money isn’t a crime, Mr. Van Alden," Alexis replied civilly. She opened the file and glanced down at a typewritten sheet inside. "But according to this entry from Miss Morgan’s diary, you gave an entirely new meaning to compound interest."

"So?" Von Alden’s cold glare bounced from Taggert to Alexis and back. "My money. My rules."

"And do those rules include beating up the lender and then sending her car off a cliff?" Taggert drilled, his voice venomous.

"WHAT??!!"

"Chloe Morgan was killed last Monday night, Mr. Von Alden," Alexis stated. She somehow managed to hold the file steady in her hands, even though repeating the fact still brought a lump to her throat. "She was severely beaten, and then her body was dumped in her car, which conveniently went into a ravine off….."

"AND YOU THINK *I* DID IT???!!" When Von Alden started to rise to his feet to protest, Taggert moved towards him. "You think *I* whacked the broad?" he repeated, settling back into his chair. "THAT’S why you dragged me in on some lame @ss emissions crap?"

"According to this diary entry, she had an appointment with you, Mr. Von Alden," Alexis lied, glancing into the file again.

"That’s a pile of……."

"She mentions the fact several times that you physically intimidated her……"

"GIMME THAT THING!!" Before Alexis or Taggert could stop him, Von Alden snatched the file away. He opened it and his eyes widened as he scanned the contents. "You’re LYING, you b*tch!" he exploded incredulously at Alexis after a few minutes. "There’s no diary page in here!!"

"Guilty as charged, Mr. Von Alden," Alexis countered smoothly. She took a paper napkin that was wrapped around her Starbucks cup and then reached out to gingerly take the file back from the loan shark. "But now that you’ve obliged us so nicely, we’ll be able to compare your fingerprints to those found in Miss Morgan’s apartment to confirm whether or not you visited her on the night in question."

As she handed the file back to a beaming Taggert, Von Alden slumped even lower in his chair. "I never touched that broad," he groused, folding his hands on the table in front of him.

"But you DID go see her on the night in question, didn’t you, Mr. Von Alden?" Alexis asked as Taggert slid the file into a clear plastic bag. He strode briskly to the door to the interrogation room, opened it, and after motioning to a policeman outside, handed him the file while murmuring some instructions.

"Yeah – I went to see her," he finally admitted. "Late Monday afternoon." Under bushy blonde brows, his eyes darted quickly between his accusers. "But I didn’t touch her – I swear it!!"

"You just had a cup of tea and listened to old Barry Manilow records while you were demanding the rest of your money?" Taggert asked sarcastically as he walked back to the table.

"Look – she seemed like a nice broad to me, alright?" Von Alden sighed and then grimaced. "A little dumb, maybe – pretty much a babe in the woods when it came to money, if you know what I mean." He shrugged his shoulders again and shook his head. "I felt sorry for the dame, and she promised that she would have the money in a few days."

"So?" Alexis pressed.

"So I told her that I would give her till the end of the week to come up with the money."

"You REALLY expect us to believe that underneath that slimy exterior beats a heart of gold?" Taggert sneered.

"I don’t give a d*mn WHAT you believe, @sshole!!" Von Alden snarled. He folded his hands on the table in front of him and stared at them intently. "All I know is that when I left that Morgan broad’s house that afternoon, she was fine."

Taggert circled around the corner of the table until he stood behind Von Alden’s left shoulder. "Until maybe you had a change of heart and came back that night to collect in full?" he whispered acidly.

A sudden sly smirk lifted the corners of the loan shark’s mouth. "Why would I?" He raised an eyebrow victoriously at Alexis. "Two hours after I left the dame’s apartment, I got paid in full."

Alexis felt her digestive tract twist into a pretzel shape. Chloe had never gotten the money from Jerry – he had confirmed that fact. Could the congressman have gone directly to Von Alden to pay him off? But then why wouldn’t he have mentioned it in the interview?

"Miss Morgan called you back and paid you in full?" Taggert asked, his eyes mirroring the confusion in Alexis’s.

"I didn’t say that," Von Alden whined, bouncing his head like a petulant four-year-old. "I said that I got my money. I didn’t say I got it from HER."

Alexis asked the question before Taggert could form the words. "Then where DID you get it?"

Twenty seconds later, the door to interrogation room #4 swung open and slammed with a sound to raise the dead. As Alexis stormed out of the room into the corridor, Taggert followed on her heels. "Alexis?" he called as she strode rapidly towards the stairway. "Where are you going?"

"Where I should have gone in the first place. To see the person who seems to have all the answers in this case." She stopped at the base of the stairs, gripping the handrail and turning back towards him with fury in her eyes. "John Jacks."

To be continued……..