IMPOSTER - PART THIRTY

PREVIOUSLY

Sam will probably still be up…I'll just swing around and get it. As she turned the car around, her eyes brightened as she thought about seeing him again. Okay, maybe it's an excuse, but it's a good one. The Continental swung around and once more zoomed down the road - this time, at a much faster clip than it had before.

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While wrinkling his face with the effect of his pain, Todd aligned the makeshift stick splint he had found against his arm. He wrapped the arm up with his tee shirt which he had ripped up to hold the splint in place. There! Good enough to get me somewhere to get this set. But where do I go? Even if I got back to town somehow, I'd have to skulk around, and I'm a walking disaster. Knowing his strength was rapidly ebbing away, he tried to think of a way he could get some transportation away from the mountainous area. I could try to hitch, but who the hell would pick me up looking like this? He grinned a little to himself as he pictured some motorist getting a close-up view of his bloodied appearance. Leaning his head against the bark of a tree, he closed his eyes and tried to think. His eyes shot open again with a sudden idea. The Lamborghini might still be there! He still had the car keys, and the police probably had left the car parked there until they decided to have it towed. It's my best bet…I'm taking it..

A battle seemed to be raging within the mind of Sam Rappaport as he listened to the spirited chatter of his invited guest. He didn't realize it at first, but he hadn't heard a word she was saying. A woman was talking - a woman who sat in the same place as Viki Carpenter had. She was vibrant, charming and a delicious temptation to a side of his nature which had always been rather wild. After his divorce, a number of younger women had come along to help him forget his shattered marriage. That most of them had been somewhat younger had not mattered much to him. They had all seemed to find him young enough acting to be in their company. He knew he didn't fit the profile of a man his age, but he had always been a man charged up for life. Maybe that was what attracted these younger women to him.
Staring at the figure on the sofa again, he looked right through the real image to another image still lingering in his thoughts. What was "she" doing there? Okay, so we shared a few moments…okay, an entire evening…but it's not like we ever really knew each other. Susie is fun…you're different. Why are you different? Nora Buchanan had been different, too. That was a chunk of his life he had had to part with finally. It had taken him years to understand the simple truth of their relationship. She would never love him as he loved her. That's why he had remained relatively unattached - even with a number of interested parties. Nora had become the woman he compared everyone against. Until now.
"…and Ellen Masters is talking about going into politics…can you imagine?"
"Really," Sam said absently, and heard a long, low whistle. "Sam Rappaport, you're really out there tonight! Do you know what I just said?"
"What? Oh…sorry. I guess it's later than I thought."
Susie placed her glass on the table and hopped up immediately from the sofa. "I can see you're preoccupied, Counselor, and I'm not one to overstay my welcome. She looked somewhat sternly at him as he rose from the sofa right after she did. "Whatever or whoever it is, Sammy, I think you need some time to think about it."
Sashaying across the room to the door with Sam following mutely behind her, Susie caught a flash of something gold on the floor. She paused and picked it up - examining it carefully with her fingers.
"What is it?" Sam said, moving toward her.
"Well…it looks like an earring…a very costly one, as a matter of fact." Susie said with a mock, wide-eyed, innocent look in Sam's direction. "Who do you suppose this belongs to?"
"I'll take that," Sam said and held out his hand with no apparent indication of anything amiss. It must be Viki's. Well, so Susie saw it. No big deal. It could be anyone's.
Susie handed the earring over to him somewhat reluctantly and petulantly batted her eyelashes at him. "Not going to tell me who the "mystery woman" is, Sammy? You know I'll find out. I always do."
Sam walked with her to the door shrugging his shoulders. "Knock yourself out, Susie. I have nothing to hide. You're creating drama where there isn't any."
"Walk me to my car, Sammy?" she said sweetly while bypassing his comment.

The Continental sped down the road - its passenger's eyes gleaming as she lightheartedly looked out the window at the scenery flashing by. How crazy is this? I'm racing down this road to get back to a man's house on a pretense - well, a real pretense, but it could have waited. She admitted to herself that she was more than a little nervous about her sudden weakness to see him again. I'm just distraught about Todd, and nothing about tonight has made any sense to me.
Rounding a bend, she saw the familiar array of night-lights surrounding the exterior of Sam's home. She also saw something else which made her grip the wheel of the automobile with immediate intensity. Another car was parked out in the drive. She knew the owner of that car.

Todd shuffled along the ground of dried sticks and leaves - making his way further down the mountain. He remembered the path he had taken on his way up the mountain, and he worked his way through cascading branches toward the area he had been in previously. Now all I have to do is make it back to the Lamborghini --slide in that driver's seat and I'm on my way out of this mess. Thinking of returning made him drift back again into his thoughts of his wife. She had always been with him - even in the cave. This night had been a revelation to him that he could actually physically be with her without the terror of an imminent explosion of his dark side. Every part of him had wanted her and the painful longing for her hidden inside him had been at last dispelled for awhile. Now there was another ache to be her husband in all ways, and he desired nothing more than to go running to her. But I can't, can I? The police might still be prowling around outside of Llanveiw, and the penthouse could be staked out.
For a moment he thought of his sister as he trudged painfully ahead. After his return from Ireland, he had hid out at Llanfair, but this was a decidedly different set of circumstances. Everyone had thought he was dead. No one had been looking for him then. It had allowed him the freedom to move around in the community without anyone noticing him.
As he came down off the mountain, his well-conditioned instincts brought him back to reality. Something in the sky was approaching the area - something he recognized again with a heightened sense of foreboding. So they haven't gone away! I'm five minutes or so from the car. Get the hell out of here, Manning!

Viki stopped the Continental - parking her car in the shadows of some trees - so that she could get a better look at the front of Sam's home. Two figures emerged from the interior of the house - one a petite female with dark hair and the other one a light-haired, taller man. The woman seemed to walk confidently to her car and turned as the man approached her. Viki opened her window to hear the outside sounds and heard a tinkling, feminine laugh. Susie Carothers! That's her midnight blue Mercedes parked in front of Sam's house. Viki tensed again and cocked her head again to hear anything she could. Sam's voice was easy-going and pleasant, but Susie's coquettish voice was louder and obviously coaxing. Sam opened the door to her car and Viki watched stunned as Susie impulsively wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him. She strained to see Sam's reaction, and saw no sign of him pulling away from her. Viki's heart sank as she saw Susie touch his face with her hands and then back herself into the car seat. Too paralyzed to move, Viki remained staring from her car as she saw the Mercedes pull away from the drive and Sam tip his hand toward Susie's car. The Mercedes was headed in the direction where Viki was parked, and she immediately hunched down in the seat. Oh, just great! All I need right now is for Susie to see me!
Wearing a satisfied expression on her face, Susie drove her Mercedes away from Sam's house. Poor baby! You didn't expect that, did you? But I don't think you minded all that much! That's something to jog your memory, Sammy, and maybe you'll want some more. She smiled as her car headed down the street, and an automobile parked under some trees caught her eye. That Continental looks damn familiar! Who in Llanview drives such a distinctive champagne- colored Continental? Her head turned automatically as her car whooshed by and suddenly the sharp mind of Susie Carothers began to put two and two together. What would "her" car be doing parked on this street - Sam's street? Unless…oh, no…no, that would be too funny! That earring! Susie, girl, you may be on to something here.

Sweat began poring from Todd's brow as he pushed his body beyond his limits to reach his goal - the waiting Lamborghini. The droning noise of a helicopter in the distance had once more thrown him into a panic. Those bastards are still looking for me! I'm not going to be captured now…not after all that in the cave. Please God, let it be there! Dragging his body as quickly as he could, he lurched ahead through the thickness of the forest below the mountain and tried to forget his injuries and focus on what he had to do. Picking up his speed a little, he didn't notice the tree stump on the ground ahead of him. Seconds later he was face down in the dirt nearly screaming outloud in anguish as his injured arm felt the brutal impact of the fall.

Sam turned toward his house after Susie's car left the driveway. One minute he had been saying goodbye to her - thinking that he had safely changed the subject of the earring. Without any warning, she had hauled off and kissed him and he had responded to her. You haven't changed, have you? Still the same Susie! It left him somewhat unsteady and mindless, and he didn't like the feeling as much as he had thought he would. It's all some kind of game to you, isn't it? Every relationship just becomes some kind of sexual game sooner or later. He shook his head in bewilderment as he strode back toward his house. I may see her again, but I don't know yet…something is missing…

The chain of events had left Viki dumbfounded as she sat silently in the car. So Susie Carothers just popped over to see her old friend, Sam! Or did she? Something disturbed her even more than that kiss she had seen. That could have been a typical Susie Carothers' maneuver, but she had seen no resistance from Sam. What if he had invited her over? After my visit? This idea seemed to invade her sensibilities like cold steel and after years of dealing with different men, Viki recognized a familiar pattern of behavior. She's the safe one, isn't she? And I thought there was more to you, Sam Rappaport!

Lifting his upper body, Todd squinted through the darkening shadows of the woods and scrambled to his feet. If I have to die trying, I'm getting to that car! Through the forest bramble, he saw the wide-open spaces of the field where he and Tea had ventured. As he loped across the tall grasses of the field, he knew he was on borrowed time. Any minute he expected to look over his shoulder and see the blazing beam of light shining down from a monstrous sky machine - waiting to snatch him up in its jaws.
Crossing the treed enclave where he and Tea had finally consummated their marriage, his strength sapped and his body crippled, his eyes frantically roved over the terrain looking for something. It's not there…it's gone! His body slumped down as the shock of not finding what he had so counted on moved over him. A knoll of trees to his left made him look again, and the moon shone right into the branches - lighting up a slice of silver peaking through the greenery. There was no mistaking the source of the gleam of metal illuminated with fiery brightness by the moon's glow. Todd rolled his eyes heavenward and quickly moved forward to reclaim one of his most prized possessions - the Lamborghini!

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~