CHAPTER TEN "You're Suzi Castles, aren't you?" Lucy greeted the woman standing in the entry to her hotel suite. "Won't you come in?" Suzi entered, at once aware of Lucy's discomfort. She glanced at the painting of Rose Academy and nodded appreciatively. "I'd say that about covers it." "I beg your pardon?" "Marty said you and your husband have been to Rose recently. She said that you found it upsetting." "Kevin did. Well, I did--I mean, it's sort of creepy and icky with all those ivy covered walls and thorny old roses everywhere but it really got to Kevin." "So I see. My husband, Peter, and I went to visit--his nephew was supposed to be there, but he's missing, though the school insists that he's on a field trip. I'm not buying that story--especially since the car bomb." "I heard about that." Lucy wasn't quite certain what Suzi wanted, so she asked, "Can I help you with something?" Suzi nodded. "Yes. Did you happen to see Julian Rose while you were there?" "No, I didn't. Kevin may have, though. He visited Rose at least once while I was on the shoot with Brenda." "I'm sorry about Brenda," Suzi commented, suddenly sympathetic over Lucy's loss. "I'm not," Lucy insisted. "I'm not convinced that she's dead." "No?" Suzi was intrigued. She'd heard about Lucy's psychic flashes of insight. "Oh, I know what the authorities say, but I don't feel it in here." She held a hand over her heart. "Kevin thinks I'm in denial, but I know better." She gestured to the painting. "Brenda is missing, presumed dead. Your nephew is missing.." "As is his mother," Suzi supplied, "which is why we can't access Jeremy's records." "I didn't know that. So that makes three missing? Your car was bombed in Rose's parking lot, and Kevin is still fighting demons from whatever happened to him there. Every night he paints a little more. It's like he's painting his nightmares." "And everything comes back to Rose Academy," Suzi observed. "Peter is out today trying to learn about Julian Rose, but so far, he's turned up nothing negative." "Maybe Kevin knows some dirt on the guy from when he want to school there. Let me get him up." She walked over to the bedroom door and tapped on it. Turning back to Suzi, she explained, "He's been sleeping a lot lately--but not restfully. He sleep paints at night which is very weird, but I figure, hey, if this gets it out of his system..." She opened the door. "Kev? Kevin!" Hastily, she glanced at the bed, then around the room before heading into the bathroom. "Kevin? He's gone. Suzi, Kevin's gone!!" Sean Donely knocked on the door of the room at the Port Charles Hotel that was registered to Jamie Jacks. When he got no answer, he checked the hallway, then, with instruments that the Police Commissioners weren't supposed to have, much less use, let himself into the room. A quick inspection gave him answers he expected, but not the ones he wanted. The passports he'd found showed Jamie Jacks and Jillian Rose Jacks, father and daughter. Everything looked in order, but Sean would bet his last dollar that at least Jillian's was a forgery. Expensive, but expert, no doubt. Almost as good as the ones that the WSB supplied on occasion. Oh, he knew that Jamie was indeed a Jacks, but Jillian was an unknown. She resembled him--blonde hair and blue eyes, but the birthdate on the passport was all wrong for the child if she intended to claim Jamie as her father. Jamie, aka Peter Harrell, had been in jail for a full six months on either side of what had to have been Jillian's conception date. No way could he have been her father, not given what Sean knew about the place where Peter had done time. "What are you hiding, Jamie, me boy? And, why here? Why come where people know you, where you are bound to run into Felicia?" Sean looked at the picture of the little girl. There was something naggingly familiar about those dimples and that roguishly charming grin. She'd definitely be a heartbreaker when she grew up, he thought. Still, he wondered, who was she, and why was she with Jamie? Had he kidnapped a child? And, if so, why? Whose little girl was she? It was time to do some research. Then it would be time to pay a formal visit on the Jacks family. Bobbie knocked on the door to Laura's suite, then let herself in. "Laura?" "In here. I'm giving Lulu a bath." Bobbie followed the sound of the voice into the bathroom where Laura watched as the toddler splashed and played in the bath. Again, Bobbie knew the bitterness of regret and the anger of betrayal. Had life been different, she'd have done this for her own daughter, who might well be doing this for her child. The years had flown by, and Bobbie vowed that no more time would lapse before she found her child. "Hi, Bobbie. You look upset. Is something wrong?" "Something's wrong, Laura--but not with Lucky or Nik. At least nothing that we know about. Luke told you that my daughter was dead, didn't he?" "Yes. I was sorry to hear that." "Stefan just told me that she's alive and well." "What!?!" "And that he and Luke knew it all along." "I don't believe.....no, on second thought that could be. He went looking for her when Lulu was so sick. Thinking back, I sensed that there was something that he wasn't telling me, but under the circumstances, I was in no position to call him on being less than honest." "But Stefan?" Laura just shook her head. "I know he's your husband, but I've learned that Stefan does what he wants to do, and seldom feels the need to explain himself to the rest of us mortals. He may have had Luke followed when Luke was looking for your daughter. Things were really bad between all of us back then." "They're about to get worse," Bobbie told her. "They lied to me. Luke told me that my daughter was dead, and Stefan let me believe it." "I wonder why?" Laura mused. "Luke never told me any different." "But why? Why lie to me? It wouldn't matter what she'd done, or was doing--hell, Laura, I couldn't criticize her on any level, given my past." "Maybe to protect you?" "Stefan's still protecting me," Bobbie snapped. "He won't tell me where to find her, only that she's in good hands." "Maybe she doesn't know that she's adopted?" "No, according to her mother, she knew, but......wait! That's it! I haven't spoken to her mother since Luke told me that Caroline was dead." Bobbie smiled. "Tell Stefan that Lucas and I'll meet him in Port Charles. He mentioned something about stopping over in London for a couple of days, but I'm about to make a quick detour through Florida." Julian smiled. "Kat, my darling, you're even more radiant than I remembered." Katherine smiled back. "I wasn't certain that you'd choose to remember at all, or that you'd be happy to see me." Julian shrugged. "My ego isn't so fragile that your departure crushed me. I understood that you needed to test your wings, but to leave with Damian Smith..." "Perhaps it was poor judgement on my part," she admitted as Jade watched, entranced by the unexpected drama that was taking place. "But I had to go--I had to know more about the world, and Damian showed me how to get along in it." Julian nodded. "You've done well in some areas, and not so well in others." "But I've learned." Kat touched the branches of the bonsai tree, stroked them gently. "I needed a larger pot, Julian. Maybe I was too old when I first came to you--I don't know, but I had to go away to find....whatever I needed to find." "And have you found it? You've found fame, fortune, but your heart has yet to find peace." Kat wondered if she was so transparent. "I haven't been at peace since I left you." "And the people who used you, who hurt you, who never accepted you?" Julian touched the tear that traced its way down Kat's cheek. "The ones who laughed at you, who belittled the daughter of a common servant? The ones who made you ashamed of your humble roots? Those who were born to wealth, for whom privilege is a given? Did you learn about all of them?" Kat nodded again. "You were right about all of them--except for Damian Smith. He did love me in his own way." "No," Julian told her gently. "You read the fact that he left you his money as proof of his love. It was not. It was his way of marking you as his forever. He knew that a child of poverty and rejection would accept it, and knew that it would taint you in the eyes of those whose acceptance you sought. He knew that it would grant you freedom on one level, but imprison you on many others. He taught you to lie to yourself and to others, little Kat, but you could never lie to me." Julian's expression softened as he pulled her into his arms. "And now you wish to come home?" "If it pleases you," Kat answered, a phrase which Jade found peculiar. She also found herself looking at Kat's feet. "It pleases me," Julian told Kat. Turning to Jade, he instructed, "Leave us, but know that your gift has also pleased me. I'll be in touch. Now, my wife and I have much to talk about........"