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Episode 138, originally published 29-May-2001

Double Rubble

Marter (Matt/Carter) is in his hospital bed looking weak. Glen Richards tries to interrogate him. "I'm not going to tell you anything," Carter says to Glen, "but there is someone I'll talk to." "Who?" Glen asks, puzzled. "Nick Newman." Glen looks shocked at first but thinks about it. "Ok..." he says slowly. He gets up and goes out. Marter looks around. He ses the guard posted nearby and motions him to come closer, as if he's going to talk. The gaurd leans down, and Marter slams him with his fist. The guard goes down. In a moment, Marter is up and switching clothes with the guard. Then he shoves the guard into the bed and grabs some nearby gauze to wrap around the guard's head, muzzling him and probably blocking his breathing passsages as well. To add insult to injury, Marter jams a breathing tube into the man's already cluttered mouth, making it probably even harder to breathe.

Angry that Brittany has pushed her too far, Mac is at the pool house rummaging through the boxes of videotapes for the one marked "evidence that Brittany is no good". "Looking for something?" Brittany asks, holding a tape in her hands with little shreds of tape sticking out the sides. "Hey, no fair," Mac says. "All's fair in love and war," Brittany says. Mac dives at her and the two get into a scuffle. Fortunately, Phyllis enters and finds them, breaking it up. "I think it's time for you to go home," Phyllis says to Brittany. "What about her?" Brittany asks. "When I've judged you're a safe distance away, I'll let her go, too," Phyllis says. Brittany fumes, but leaves, making sure she has the tape. Mac sits sadly in a chair. "She took the tape." "The one of her faking lovemaking with Billy?" "You know about that?" Mac says, brightening. Phyllis nods. "You could be my witness," Mac says. "Uh, no," Phyllis says. "I don't think I want to be in the middle of this... But..." "But what?" Mac asks. "But maybe, because Billy's now family and I feel a need to see him end up with the right woman, I could still help you." "How?" Mac asks. "Can you get the tape back from Britanny?" "No," Phyllis says with a twinkle in her eye. "But I am pretty good with a computer, and I could probably whip you up a reasonable facsmile using my video editing tools...

Back in the hospital room, Carter stands in a dark corner, trying to look inconspicuous as a bandaged up guard sits on the bed. Nick tries to talk to the guard. "Carter? Hey, come on, man. Mr. Richards said you were going to talk to me." He shoves the body on the bed. Suddenly, his eyes open bright. But the guard is wrapped so tightly with head bandages that he can't speak, he just mumbles and flails, gasping for air from beneath the bandages. Nearby, Marter pulls a curtain and uses an available wall sink to clean up, shave, and attach a phony beard. As he does, he peeks out to see that Nick is making no progress talking to the bandaged man. "Carter?" Nick asks again, puzzled. Just then, Marter yanks hard on a piece of surgical thread which leads across the room, under the bed, to a towel that Marter has tied around bandaged man's throat. It tightens around the man's neck, causing him to lurch and rip out the ill-connected breathing tube and hand it to Nick. Marter finishes his work on the phony beard and takes up his position near the bed to watch the "fun". The man in the bed expires, and the monitors flatline, causing the police to come running. In the commotion, Marter, still disguised as the police guard, cuts the surgical thread, eliminating all evidence of his remote-control strangling. A doctor pronounces the bandaged man dead, and Nick is read his rights.

Sean enters the pool house to find Phyllis and Mac. "It's going to be simpler than that," he says. "Simpler than what?" Mac asks innocently. "Simpler than video editing to expose Britanny," Sean explains. "Were you eavesdropping?" Phyllis asks. Sean looks to Phyllis and winks. "You really care about Jack, right?" he asks. She nods and puts on her best lovesick face. "Yes, I do," she confesses. "So you won't spill the beans to Newman Enterprises if I tell you something Jabot-internal, right?" She nods again. "Scout's honor," she says, raising some fingers to seal the oath. "Ok," Sean says, "it's about Jabot's summer promotion." "I thought they were going to do some dorky re-run of last year's promotion," Phyllis says. Sean nods. "That's the plan. But I've been very worried no one's going to want to tune in just to see a couple of teens drink fruit smoothies." "That's for sure," Mac says glumly. "So I've been recording all activity in the pool house for the last several months," Sean says. "Huh?" Mac says. But Phyllis understands immediately. "So you have film of Mac finding the film of Billy and Britanny?" He nods. "And of Britanny later tearing it up," he adds. "What are you going to do with all that?" Mac asks nervously. "I thought I'd release it in weekly installments over the summer. It's dynamite stuff, really. Cloak and dagger all the way." "Sean, that's really brilliant. I have to congratulate you. With you in charge of their web site, my hubby-to-be's company's going to do very well," Phyllis says.

At the bar at Gina's, 'Jerri from Survivor' sits. Jill walks up to her. "Are you--?" "No, I'm not," 'Jerri from Survivor' lies. "Ok, yes, I am. I'm 'Jerri from Survivor'." "Wow," says Jill. "I'm such a fan. What are you doing here?" "I'm here on a promotional tour, but I wanted to talk to one of those amazingly smart and talented execs from Jabot, my favorite cosmetics company in all the world, about their wonderful skin care products." "Why, you're in luck," says Jill, "because I'm one of those amazingly smart and talented execs from Jabot. What were you thinking fo asking them--uh,--me?" "What a coincidence," 'Jerri from Survivor' says. "You see, the first day I was back from the Outback, I had your products in hand and they nursed me back to skin health. I could be your spokesperson. I even have a slogan: 'For survival in the real world, use Jabot skin care products.'" Jill smiles thoughtfully. "Hmm, that might be very interesting. I'll get back to you on that."

Mac is stunned by Sean's revelation of the secret tapes he's been making. "Britanny's not going to like this very much." Sean shrugs. "Not much she can do. She's already signed a release. It's only you I'm worried about--I can't put the parts about you up there without you signing a release, too." Suddenly Mac remembers her long-ago concern about being seen on national media. "I don't know..." "You're worried your mother's going to find you if you show up on national TV, aren't you?" Mac seems surprised. "Yes, actually. How did you know?" "I'm tuned into the Internet, Mac. I know all," he chuckles. "Not to worry," he continues, "I can have your face digitally altered." Phyllis frowns. "But Mac has a beautiful face. You can't alter that. People won't understand why Billy wants her instead of Britanny." Sean nods. "Good point," he says. "Ok, I'll just find out what IP address your mother is coming from and I'll block it from visiting our site." "Can you do that?" Mac asks. "Piece of cake," Sean says. "Ok, sign me up. I just hope I'm there to see Britanny's expression when she sees herself exposed on the web." "Oh, don't worry," Sean says. "I'll figure out how to have cameras there watching her watch herself. We can use that footage for next summer!"

In the questioning room, Victor and Nick and Glen are talking to Larry. "Now, Mr. Warton," Victor says, "we know you have the information that can clear my son. You gave us the information about where Matt was so that we could rescue his wife, now you just need to come clean about my son." Warton shakes his head. "I have nothing to say," he says. Victor turns to Glen and says, "Very well, I think we should leave my son and this man together." Glen looks doubtful, but nods.

It's just Nick and Larry in the questioning room now. Larry paces the back of the room. "Man, you have no idea what a headache this has given me." Nick reaches into his pocket and offers larry an aspirin. Larry takes it, and uses a glass of water on the table to swallow it down. Then he goes back to pacing. "Come on, Larry, can't you just do the right thing for once and tell us what happened?" Larry thinks for a moment and then says, "Do you want to have sex?" Nick stops and thinks about it. "Always," he says. "But my wife's not here right now." "No, I mean with me," Larry says. "Huh?" Nick says. Larry looks lovingly at Nick. "I'm just feeling all warm and ..." Suddenly Larry stops and gets a panicked look on his face. "Wait a minute," he says, "The aspirin you gave me--they came from the supply in your pocket? We put 'X' in that vial to frame you... the same 'X' that was sold at the party... oh, nevermind. Let's just make love." But suddenly he falls dead on the floor. Nick rushes to his side, yelling "Guard!" Victor, Glen, and a couple of policemen enter to find Nick looming over Larry's dead body.

At the Crimson Lights, 'Jerri from Survivor' sits. Victoria walks up to her. "Are you--?" "No, I'm not," 'Jerri from Survivor' lies. "Ok, yes, I am. I'm 'Jerri from Survivor'." "Wow," says Victoria. "I'm such a fan. What are you doing here?" "I'm here on a promotional tour, but I wanted to talk to one of those amazingly smart and talented execs from Brash and Sassy, my favorite cosmetics company in all the world, about their wonderful skin care products." "Why, you're in luck," says Victoria, "because I'm one of those amazingly smart and talented execs from Brash and Sassy. What were you thinking of asking them--uh,--me?" "What a coincidence," 'Jerri from Survivor' says. "You see, the first day I was back from the Outback, I had your products in hand and they nursed me back to skin health. I could be your spokesperson. I even have a slogan: 'For survival in the real world, use Brash and Sassy skin care products.'" Victoria smiles thoughtfully. "Hmm, that might be very interesting. I'll get back to you on that."

At the Dennison household, Trisha looks beaten up but is recovering. She has a kind of crazy look on her face, like she's not all there. Ryan stands over her. "It's going to be ok, Trisha. Carter's dead and the testimony you gave exonerated Nick ... at least from THAT murder. Now he's got a couple more to worry about, but you don't have to worry about those." "More murders?" she asks, worriedly. "Yes, the police think he killed Carter ... and Larry Warton." "He couldn't have killed Carter, you know," she says. "Carter's still alive." "Shhhh," Ryan says gently. "You just rest, Trisha. I know this is hard for you to take." "No, really. Carter's alive. And if anyone killed Larry, it was probably Carter. He's living here, you know. In the basement. He comes up and visits me. He takes my food. Doesn't anyone wonder why I'm getting even thinner than I already was? Doesn't anyone care where all the silverware is going?"

Checking her email at Crimson Lights, 'Jerri from Survivor' sees that she has two incoming messages, one from Jill, one from Victoria. Both say the same thing: "You're hired." "Which to accept," she says to herself. Then in a sudden fit of inspiration she says, "Oh, who cares. No one ever got rich by making only a single alliance," she mutters. She begins typing out acceptance letters to both companies...

Trisha is still with Ryan. "He's here, I tell you," Trisha whines anew. "He even told me he killed a guard at the hospital. And if Larry's dead, he probably did that, too." Ryan smiles a patronizing smile. "No guard got killed at the hospital. Just Carter." "But Carter's not---" she starts, but he quiets her with a "shhh, shhh, shhhh ... And Nick was the only one present when Larry died." "But he's here!" Trisha moans. "Check the basement." Ryan smiles. "I'll let the police know. I'm sure they'll take care of it. You just rest, ok?" "You don't believe me, do you?" she asks in sudden realization that it's so. Her voice goes up in pitch as she says, "Oh my God, you think I'm crazy. That's it, isn't it? I'm not, you know. I'm well, I'm getting well. And so is Carter. He's here and he's alive and I'm the only one that knows. Why doesn't anyone believe me?" "Just rest," Ryan says, as the camera angles downward to the floor and the scene dissolves as if through the floor to a room in the basement where Marter sits eating a nicely prepared meal, watching a news program about Nick's latest arrest on charges of murder.


That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 139!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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Copyright 2001, Kent M. Pitman. All Rights Reserved.