IMPOSTER - PART EIGHT

Part Eight continued:

Tea's eyes focused in alarm on the car that Pete was pushing her toward in the garage. The Lamborghini! It was the fastest car that Todd owned and once in it, they could outrun almost anyone. Then she thought of something else. The ankle monitor! There was no way that Pete could escape with this on. They would know his whereabouts in a minute. At least this would prevent him from taking off with her to parts unknown.
The door was jerked open and Pete put his hand on her head to force her in. He locked the car door with his remote door lock and then opened his own door and slid in with a self-satisfied, but crazed expression. "Ready to roll, cupcake?" he eyed her lasciviously and then started the engine which roared with power. With one thrust of his foot on the gas, the Lamborghini lived up to its reputation and vaulted in one smooth movement toward the entrance of the garage. They were on their way.
Pete drove the automobile as someone in love with the idea of ultimate speed. The car snaked through the traffic and then wound its way toward a highway exit.
"Where are we going?" Tea demanded of him -- knowing that he probably wouldn't answer her.
Pete ignored her and with a wicked grin pushed all the way down on the pedal and shot out into the speeding traffic of the highway. In a matter of seconds, he was doing 95 miles an hour and criss-crossing lanes so fast, that it made Tea's head spin. Fear began to be replaced by anger as Tea saw that he was hell-bent to break all speed records. He's going to kill us both driving like this! She had another thought, too. Let him speed! The highway patrol would spot a car doing 100 miles an hour and she would be saved.

Sam strode into the penthouse behind the police officers who had forced entry after there was no answer. The silence within the room was unsettling to him as he watched them searching the downstairs and then the upstairs. They were gone! He tried to wrap his mind around what had happened. Todd...or Pete...had attacked Tea and had now abducted her. It all had occurred so quickly and there had been no warning. That was what unnerved him the most. This Pete alter had obviously been waiting for his opportunity to strike, and no one around him had had a clue that he was there. Sam shuddered and a chill fell over him as he thought of how dangerous this persona could be. If this was the Pete who had tried to kill Peter Manning, then it could be the same Pete who raped Marty and even stalked Nora.
A police officer came over to him with a cell phone. "It's Commissioner Sykes, sir."
Sykes' smooth voice was not pleasant as he held the phone to his ear.
"I understand from my officers that Todd Manning has abducted Tea Manning and is at large. Is he armed?"
"I don't know. I don't think so."
Sykes made no secret of his displeasure with the news that Todd Manning was on the loose. "Todd Manning has been a time bomb waiting to happen, Rappaport, and you knew that! Now I'm faced with trying to apprehend him before he does any harm to his wife! There is one chance and that is the ankle monitor. We can track him now and catch him before he gets too far."
"Good," Sam breathed a little more easily. "I forgot about the monitor."
"I want you to give my officers a list of places that he might go. You're not to tell anyone about this! He might contact someone and they might try to protect him."
Sam opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped. Viki! She already knows, so he was covered there, but he wasn't going to let Sykes know that. For some reason, he thought Viki might be able to help in some way.
Sykes hung up and Sam walked out of the penthouse with the officers. He had driven over and met them at the building. He stepped out from the elevator into the garage and walked briskly over to his car. A long, sleek Lincoln Continental pulled up alongside his car. It was Viki.
As she turned off the engine and looked at him blankly, his expression must have said it all to her.
"Oh, dear Lord, no!" she said. "They're gone, aren't they?"
Sam nodded. He had phoned her as he was driving ahead to the penthouse and told her what was happening.
"Sam, he hasn't hurt her yet, has he?" she spoke with a tremor in her voice. "I would never forgive myself. Todd told me to keep her away and..."
"Viki...Viki...don't! I don't think he has." Sam remonstrated firmly. "Neither one of us knew when or if this would happen. I think we were just blindly hoping that it never would."
Viki kept shaking her head with tears in her eyes, but she seemed to grasp what he was saying and added, "I know what I heard, Sam! It was Todd who called me and told me to keep her away from here. Sam, if Todd called me, then he's still trying to break through. Pete will try to dominate him as long as he can. Todd will have to fight him with everything he's got!"
She leaned her head on the steering wheel and sighed heavily, "I know this from experience, Sam."
"Do you think he can, Viki? Look at all that has happened to him. If, as you say, this Pete alter is the one who has taken over when Todd couldn't deal with reality, then he would be in full force now."
"I don't know the answer to that, Sam." She paused and then seemed to think of something that sparked a ray of hope for her. "There is one possible way that he would overpower Pete, and that is if Pete threatened someone he loves. There is one person that I think he would protect with his life besides his daughter."
"Tea," Sam finished the thought for her. His memory of the day that Todd was talking to him at the docks flashed in his mind. Hadn't Todd said that Tea was the only one who could save him? Todd had known even then how important Tea would be in his life no matter how much they had to go through.
"I hope so, Viki. But if he can't..."
"Let's not even go there, Sam!" Viki gave him a strong look of disapproval. "In the meantime, we'll have to sit tight and wait and pray that Todd is there with her."

Tea's mind whirled in part from the speed at which they were going and from trying to figure out what she could do to get away from Pete. He had been like a race car driver only focused on outrunning everyone and everything. She tried to think about this alter and what made him tick so that she could possibly use the information to her advantage. Who was he, really? Viki had alluded to the sexual abuse in Todd's past which would have triggered the appearance of this alter. He was evidently the strongest and also the one who had no feeling at all for Todd's loved ones. What he had tried to do to her had convinced her of this. Yet why did he have such a hatred of her? Could it be that she threatened him? But why?
"Pete, I'm not clear on something. If you have always been in control of Todd, then why haven't I seen you more often?" Tea asked as innocently as she could.
Pete cast a threatening look at her, and for a minute, she thought he would once again choose to dismiss her inquiry.
"Don't you know anything, Delgado? I don't have to be present to be there. I'm the behind-the-scenes director for Todd's life," he said with a cool pride. "Todd just can't function on a daily basis by himself -- he's so fragile."
"Were you the one who raped Marty?" she inserted bluntly and waited for an explosive reaction.
Her question had the opposite effect for Pete threw back his head and chortled as if she had said something hysterical.
"Well, you're a real upfront kind of woman, aren't you? You get right down to the nitty-gritty!" He turned and looked at her and with a smile of pure satisfaction said, "Yeah, I'm the one, Delgado. But guess what? Todd watched!"
Tea shivered openly and he continued to speak -- obviously enjoying her discomfort. "Todd boy had issues with Marty. The tramp was leading him on -- teasing him. She had a kind of power over him, and I had to stop that. She didn't know who she was dealing with, though. Very unfortunate, don't you think?
As he spoke to her about Marty, she suddenly knew that she and Marty shared a lot in common. They both had made a big impression on Todd in some way, and may have unwittingly initiated the appearance of this alter in order to protect Todd's vulnerable psyche. What had she done that would make Pete come out?
"And Blair?" Tea said with curiosity.
Pete grimaced openly and then attempted to hide his reaction. "Blair Manning. A real little honey, as Big Daddy Asa likes to put it. I didn't bother Todd that much about her. She was very useful to me in getting poor old Todd into a better frame of mind. He'd been down so long that he was getting to be a drag. So I let him get sweet on her for awhile. I knew it wouldn't last -- not with that two-faced, long-legged Barbie doll."
The Lamborghini turned off onto an exit and began slowing down. Tea held her breath as she tried to notice signs and figure out where they were. What was he doing now? She didn't recognize her surroundings at all as the car floated along a two-lane country road shaded by enormous elm trees. With a quick turn of the wheel, Pete pulled the car into a long gravel driveway and parked the car under an old oak tree. She could barely make out the shape of a house which was behind a grove of trees. Pete turned off the engine and with one hand pulled her chin over to him and pushed his lips forcefully into hers. She tried to wrench away from him but he held her to him for several seconds as if to let her know that she was his captive.
"Back in a flash," he said as he released her. "Don't go anywhere, Delgado!" he said snidely as he jumped out of the car and locked the doors with the remote.
Fifteen minutes later he returned looking even more impressed with himself than before. What was going on? He looks too smug all of a sudden! Pete climbed into the car grinning from ear to ear and began to start whistling. He revved up the motor and spun the car around in a half-circle to head out of the driveway. As he pulled up to the paved road, he reached down to his pants leg as if to adjust something and straightened up again. His strange behavior caused Tea to look down at his pant leg which had ridden up a little. A lightning jolt of illumination hit her as she saw his ankle. The ankle monitor had been removed!

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~