Previously...

Following Will's murder, Ethan mysteriously disappeared.  James fired his gun in an effort to throw off ballistics tests. Jordan gave Heather the videotape Will had been hiding, leading Heather to fear her father was the killer.  Later, Brett found the videotape and decided to use it to his advantage.  Jordan told Alex that she had to appear normal if they were to avoid suspicion.  Alex grew enraged when she learned that James was campaigning to get charges dropped against his uncle Nathan, and bring him back to Hollywood.  James asked Kenny to be his alibi for the night of the murder.  Miranda warned Brooke that if James killed Will for her she would never forgive her.  Janet informed Stormy that she saw him the night of the murder. Baines informed James that Will died of a gunshot wound, but also suffered a blow to the head shortly before he died.  Later, Baines showed James Janet's manuscript that was found at Will's estate.  Brett planted the videotape of Heather in Stormy's bedroom, then placed an anonymous call claiming he'd seen Stormy leave Will's house the night of the murder.

Episode 45

"Inside Information"

Miranda was taking a shower the next morning when Brett walked into the bathroom and quickly shed his clothes.  He quietly opened the shower door and stepped inside, a mischievous grin on his face.  Pressing himself against her back, he laughed instinctively when Miranda screamed with surprise by his sudden appearance.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” Miranda said with a grin as Brett began lathering her flawless skin with coconut-mango soap.

“Happy Halloween,” Brett said, brushing his lips against her neck.

Miranda closed her eyes, feeling his manhood pressing against her from behind.  She grabbed onto the shower door and moaned with pleasure.  She couldn’t get over the fact that in the year they’d been married their sex life hadn’t diminished one bit.  The sex was still every bit as good as the first time. 

“You’re certainly in a good mood,” she purred, letting the water hit her as they made love in the shower.  “I didn’t realize I still had this kind of affect on you.”

Brett grinned sheepishly, positioning his hands on her waist as he treated her to an expertly rhythmic maneuver.  He closed his eyes, seeing flashes of the videotape with Heather laying spread eagle on the sofa while the two men had their way with her.  He hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind since he saw it.

After they finished, Miranda kissed him blissfully and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel and wrapping it tightly around herself.  “Did you hear the news?” she called to him.

“What news?” Brett asked as he lathered himself with soap.

“There was an anonymous tip phoned in to the police yesterday,” she said, wiping the foggy mirror and examining her appearance.  “Apparently someone saw a man go into Will Thomerson’s house last night.  They’re trying to locate him now.”

Brett grinned, relishing the fact that his plan had worked.   Stormy had every motive to want to kill Will Thomerson.  All the police needed was to be pointed in the right direction. 

Miranda grew into a daze, wondering if the man the witness saw was her father.  If it was, she would do everything she could to protect him.  She had to.  She wasn’t about to lose her father because of a man like Will Thomerson. 

Just down the hall, James emerged from the bathroom, clean shaven and his hair neatly combed to the side.  He approached Brooke who stood by the window gazing distantly outside at the grounds.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he said, kissing her neck and wrapping his arms around her.  “Are you okay?  You look like something’s on your mind.”

She turned and looked at him with fear in her eyes.  “James, that anonymous tip that the police received,” she began.  “What if this person saw-“

“Shhh,” James said, lifting her chin and looking into her beautiful blue eyes.  “We don’t know that they saw anything.  All they said was they saw a man going into the house.  That’s all.”

Beside herself with worry, Brooke wrapped her arms around herself and paced across the room.  “I don’t know.  I have a bad feeling about this.”  She stopped and turned back to him.  “James, I don’t want you getting in trouble!  It isn’t worth it!”

“You and Michael are the most important things in my life,” James said, his voice full of promise.  “If the two of you aren’t worth it, then nobody is.   Besides, the person who made the anonymous tip gave a description of the man.  Whoever it was they saw was in their twenties.  So you see, you have nothing to worry about.”

Brooke walked over to him and embraced him warmly, burying her face in his strong, masculine chest.  “I just want this nightmare to be over,” she said.  “I just want them to forget about the murder and I want our son back and I want to live a normal life for once.”

“We will,” James said soothingly.  “We’ll get Michael back and we’ll be a family.  All of this will be a distant memory.”

“How do you know we’ll get him back?” Brooke cried.  “If Will did kidnap him, then there’s no way we’ll ever find him because Will is dead!  Don’t you see, James!  I don’t know how you can be so calm about this!”

James stood back and put his hands on her shoulders.  “I promise you that everything is going to be fine,” he said.  “Trust me, Brooke.  I won’t let you or Michael down.”

Realizing she had no choice but to believe him, Brooke turned and went to her vanity to get ready for the day.   James watched her from behind and smiled affectionately.

“I have to go downtown for a while,” he said after a few minutes.  “Detective Baines is going to be questioning Janet Harper about that manuscript they found in Will’s house.  I’d like to be there to find out for myself what that woman has been up to.”

Detective Baines led Janet Harper into the interrogation room at the police station downtown, offering her a chair and taking the one across the table from her.

“Thank you for coming down today and speaking with me,” Baines said.

She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and shrugged uneasily.  “I’m not sure what help I can be.  You said it was about Will Thomerson’s murder?”

Detective Baines nodded, turning on a tape recorder and placing it between them on the table.  “That’s right.  In particular I’m interested in finding out what kind of business relationship you had with Mr. Thomerson.”

Janet’s eyes narrowed on him and she began to feel panicked.  “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

Baines withdrew the manuscript from his tweed sport coat and placed it neatly on the table.  “Quite an epic you’ve written,” he began.  “Any idea how this got in Will Thomerson’s study?”

Janet looked down at her book and closed her eyes with regret.  She knew it would come back to haunt her eventually.  After all the attempts she’d made at trying to get it back from him, the police were ironically the ones who wound up with it.

“Miss Harper, you’re not in any trouble.  Yet.  We’re just trying to get a handle on some of Will Thomerson’s relationships.  If we can do that, we can find out who may have wanted him dead.”

Janet knew she was backed into a corner.  There was no sense in hiding the truth anymore.  She had to come clean with everything now that the manuscript was public.

“Will came to me and suggested that I would sell the manuscript to him and he’d purchase the Denver Tribune for me as payment.  I agreed.  But when I got back to Denver I realized that by selling him that book, I was going to be hurting the one person that I’d grown to care about throughout this whole mess.”

“Ethan Blackthorne,” Baines said wryly.

“Yes.   So I decided that I would come back and try to set things right.  Will wasn’t very receptive to my plea.  He refused to give the manuscript back.   I knew I had to stop him from using it to hurt anyone, especially Ethan.”

“So did you stop him?”

Trembling, Janet tried desperately to organize her thoughts.

“Do you own a .38 revolver?” Baines questioned her.

After a moment of hesitation, Janet finally nodded in reply.  “Yes. I do have a license for it.  I’ve found that being a reporter is a dangerous job sometimes.  People usually don’t like what I write about them and I’ve had a few close calls.  I keep it for protection.”  A thoughtful pause.  “Anyway, I only intended to threaten him into giving me back the manuscript.”

“Go on.” 

She swallowed, her hands trembling as she thought back to the night of the Filmmakers awards.  “I got to his house a little before seven o’clock.  I walked up to the door and heard voices inside.  They were shouting.  I could tell it was Will arguing with someone.  I decided to wait until he was alone, so I ran back down to the shrubs along the walkway and hid.”

“What happened then?"

“I heard a gunshot,” Janet explained.  “After that there was just silence.  My heart was beating like crazy.  I wanted to look but I was afraid someone would see me.  So I waited a few more minutes...and then...I saw Stormy Blackthorne run out of the house.”

Surprised, Detective Baines leaned forward and raised an eyebrow.  “Are you certain about that?” he asked.  “You know for a fact that it was Stormy Blackthorne?”

She nodded quickly.  “Yes.  I’m positive.”

“So you didn’t go into the house?” Baines asked.

She shook her head.  “No.   As soon as he was out of sight I ran back down the road to my car.  When I heard that he’d been shot...well, I'm sure you can guess what I thought."

Detective Baines rubbed his forehead and tried putting the pieces together.  “Did you phone in an anonymous tip to the witness hotline yesterday claming that you saw Stormy Blackthorne go into Mr. Thomerson’s house?”

“No.  Why?”  Janet asked curiously.  It was the first that she’d heard about an anonymous tip.

“Somebody else saw him go into the house.  Now you’re saying that you saw him leave.  I think that pretty much places Stormy at the scene without a doubt.  Do you have any knowledge of why he would want Will Thomerson dead?”

“No, not at all.  Unless he was acting out in vengeance over the suspicions about Will kidnapping Michael."

The facts twisting in his mind, Baines stood up and opened the door.  “Very well.  You can leave now, Miss Harper, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay in town for a while.  I’m sure we’ll be needing you again.”

James was at the door in a flash, looking at the detective with surprise.  “Why?” he asked.  “I want that woman gone yesterday!”

“Mr. Blackthorne, please-“ Baines said and held up his hand.

Fixing his unrelenting eyes on Janet, James lurched forward and pointed a threatening finger at her.  “I read your rather amateurish manuscript, Miss Harper,” he said, enraged.  “If you think that book will ever see print then you’ll have a long wait, because I’ll see you in hell first.”

Janet shook her head in protest.  “Mr. Blackthorne, I have no intention of-“

“I should have known you were up to something all along,” James lamented.  “First you showed up in Phoenix and miraculously found my wife, then you conveniently started dating my nephew.   What else did you do to dig up dirt on us?”

“Mr. Blackthorne, please,” Baines insisted.  “Miss Harper just confessed to being at Will Thomerson’s house the night he was murdered.”

“What?” James asked with a frown.  He grew immediately nervous, backing off without another word.

“I went there to get the manuscript back,” Janet claimed.

“She also saw something,” the detective said awkwardly.  “Someone leaving Thomerson’s house after he’d been killed.  We think it’s possible the same person that the anonymous caller reported seeing go into the house.”

“Who?” James demanded, his heart racing.

“Your son,” Baines announced with some reluctance.

“Stormy?” James exclaimed in disbelief.  He ran his fingers through his hair and glared at Janet angrily.  “She’s lying.”

“James, please-“ Janet began.

“No, you are lying because you’re trying to cover for yourself!” James yelled.  “You probably killed him and you saw an opportunity to pin it on my son!  Well I’m not going to let you get away with it!”

“The description the anonymous caller gave us matches your sons perfectly,” Baines explained.  “Miss Harper contends that she was outside the house when she heard a gunshot.  A few minutes later, she saw your son running from the scene.”

Slamming his fists angrily onto the interrogation table, James tried to control his rising temper.  He knew Stormy couldn’t have done it. 

Miranda walked into the library at the mansion and found Heather frantically searching through cushions and underneath pillows on the sofa.  She paused in the doorway and frowned with concern.

“Heather, are you okay?”

Barely stopping to look at her, Heather mumbled a hasty reply and dropped to her knees in front of the sofa, peering underneath for any sign of the videotape

“What are you looking for?” Miranda asked.  “Did you lose an earring or something?”

Shaking her head, Heather stood up and placed her head in her hands.  “I can’t find it,” she said.  “I can’t believe this.  It’s gone!”

“What’s gone?” Miranda demanded.

“The tape!”

“The tape?” Miranda asked in disbelief.  “You mean the one of…”

“Yes.  It’s gone.  It was here yesterday and I forgot about it in the confusion with Detective Baines and my Dad.  Now it’s gone and I don’t-“

Wondering if Heather had finally snapped, Miranda rushed up and grabbed her by the shoulders.  “Heather, we never found that tape,” she said.  “Remember?  We went there and you had that episode where you attacked Will but then we left empty handed.”

“No!  It was yesterday!  My father got it and gave it to me!” Heather cried, then quickly covered her mouth with her hands.  She couldn’t believe how stupid she was for telling Miranda about her father.  Now she would go blab to James and then poor Jordan would be in so much trouble.  They’d find out what he’d done and how he got the tape.

Miranda’s eyes flashed open wide with surprise.  “When Jordan came to the house yesterday morning he gave you the tape?”

Reluctantly, Heather nodded in reply, stifling back the tears.

“How did he get it?”

She shook her head.  “I don’t know.  Please don’t say anything, Miranda.  Whatever my father did he did it for me.  Please don’t say anything.  I don’t want him to go to prison.”

Consumed with uncertainty and confusion, Miranda sat down on the sofa and tried to sort the mess out.  Maybe her father wasn’t the person she should be worried about.  Her mother’s husband seemed to know a lot more than he was letting on.

Brett grinned mischievously as he stood above his secretary while dictating a memo to her in his office at Sunset Studios.  It was all he could do to keep from staring down at the impressive cleavage which was practically bursting out of her low cut blouse.  How was he supposed to work with so many distractions?

“Brett?” Terri asked, waving her hand to get him to snap out of his daze.  “Are we finished?”  She was well aware that he was staring at her breasts but she was used to it.  It came with the territory of working as a secretary for a Hollywood studio executive. 

Just then, the door opened and Stormy forced his way in.  “Brett, I want to talk to you about these expenses,” he said, immediately seeing the way his partner ogled Terri from his vantage point.  “What’s going on in here?”

“Nothing,” Brett said with a frown.  “What expenses, Stormy?”

“All these expenses that are conveniently chalked up to maintenance.  That’s not good enough.  I need to know specifics.”

Brett rolled his eyes with irritation.  “I don’t have time to put every single thing into a category,” he said.  “Now quit bothering me with all this petty crap.  I’d hate to go to your father and tell him you’re being uncooperative again.”

Glaring menacingly at him, Stormy opened his mouth to reply when suddenly the door to the outer office opened and Detective Baines entered the room, followed by James and a uniformed officer.

“Dad?” Stormy began.  “What’s going on?”

“Stormy, just don’t say anything.  I’ve called Brandon and he’s going to meet us downtown.  Don’t worry about anything.”

“Brandon?” he asked in confusion.  “Why did you call your lawyer?”

“Mr. Blackthorne,” Baines began, directing his attention on Stormy.  “You’re under arrest for the murder of Will Thomerson.”

Stormy closed his eyes in disbelief, turning and clenching his teeth while the officer placed a pair of handcuffs on his wrists.  He turned back and was led out of the office, James and Detective Baines following close behind.

Brett grinned contently, thrilled that his plan was moving along so quickly.

Miranda went to her mother’s house in Malibu and they embraced warmly in the living room before sitting down on the plush sofa parallel to the floor to ceiling picture windows overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

“How are you doing, Mom?” she asked.  “I feel awful that I haven’t really been around much since you and Jordan split up.  Are you okay?”

Sighing, Alex crossed her legs and pushed her perfectly coiffed hairdo up off her forehead.   “I’m getting by,” she said.  “We live in separate houses and we live separate lives but ever since this whole thing with Will Thomerson, I feel that we’re getting closer again.  I feel closer to him, anyway.  He just keeps pushing me away.”

Puzzled, Miranda offered a frown.  “Why is that?” she asked, desperate to get information about Jordan and his role in Will’s murder.   “Has something happened?  Do you know something?”

Alex immediately grew tense and got up to pour herself a drink.  “I just know how protective he is over Heather,” she said.  “I know he would do anything for her.”

“Including murder?” Miranda asked with a leading edge to her voice.

Alex spun around and feigned surprise.  “Why would you say that?” she asked.

Miranda sighed, realizing she couldn’t betray Heather’s trust by saying anything about the tape, even to her own mother.  “Like you said, he’d do anything for Heather.”