TODD'S RETURN - PART NINE

PREVIOUSLY

Todd: (Smiles slightly. Puts his arms around her waist, his head on her shoulder.)

Tea: (Strokes his hair quietly, while holding him.) It's ok, Todd.

[Camera: From behind Tea: Todd's eyes are closed, his face relaxed but upset.]

[Scene ends.]

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[Scene: Penthouse.]

Todd: I gotta go to the Police Station, make that report.

Tea: I didn't think you'd go through with it. You don't like the Police.

Todd: (Shrugs.) Life sux. (Evenly, but coolly:) Then you grow up, and realize it's up to you to fix everything. You coming?

Tea: (Grabs handbag.)

Todd: (Turns to go, followed by Tea.)

[Scene ends.]

[Scene: LPD Front Desk. Todd and Tea walk up to the Officer on duty.]

Officer Greenly: May I help you?

Todd: I'd like to report an assault.

Officer Greenly: When did this take place?

Todd: Last night.

Officer Greenly: Hold on....... (Turns to another officer at the desk.) Shapiro? Could you escort this gentleman and take a statement from him?

Officer Shapiro: Follow me, sir.

[They follow to the back offices. The Officer seats them, sits at desk. He checks his computer, finds the right directory, opens the file.]

Officer Shapiro: Ok..... You said this happened last night?

Todd: Yes.

Officer Shapiro: [Types through most of this scene.] Full name, please?

Todd: Thomas Todd Lord Manning.

Officer Shapiro: Two Ds?

Todd: Yes.

Officer Shapiro: What happened?

Todd: (Quietly:) At about 10pm last night, I arrived at Club Indigo, very tired. It was crowded, I went to the bar and ordered a beer from RJ Gannon and --

Officer Shapiro: Ooooh, the DA's brother's club?

Todd: Yeah.

Officer Shapiro: Go on.....

Todd: I found a table. I "inhaled" my beer. After RJ had refilled my glass, he signalled incoming trouble. I finished my beer fast. It was Bo Buchanan. He came to my table and started yelling at me, grabbed my suit jacket and lifted me up and started punching me, yelling in my face the whole time.... I have DID..... but... he doesn't believe this --

Officer Shapiro: DID?

Tea: Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Officer Shapiro: Oh. Sorry. My cousin has that, it's been awful.

Todd: It is.

[At the edge of the frame, Tea is nodding.]

Officer Shapiro: Sorry, continue.

Todd: Bo kept beating on me, I hadn't said a word to him or fought back..... I-I just.... didn't... care.

Tea: (Flashes him a concerned look.)

Todd: I'd been up for close to 30 hours or more by then probably, and I wanted some time with my sister that night. I'd asked her to meet me there.

Officer Shapiro: Did she witness any of this?

Todd: No.

Tea: We would like pictures of his injuries taken and added to the record, too.

Todd: (Nods, grimly.)

Officer Shapiro: Ok, we'll see that those are taken. What is your sister's name?

Tea: Victoria Lord Carpenter.

Officer Shapiro: (Types this in. Looks up.) Continue.....

Todd: Bo made threats while he was attacking me, he and his family have wanted me out of town for years. He just kept hitting me.... (stares blankly a moment. Shakes self as if caught in a momentary reverie, and continues:) He wants to see me in prison, or a loonybin, for a very long time. He gloated about how he and his family had gotten me kicked out of the Country Club, and how that just scratched the surface. .... It was pretty ugly.

Officer Shapiro: Did he say anything else?

Todd: I think that's everything. Even after I was on the floor, he kept after me. That's how I got the bruise on my arm. He kicked me.

Officer Shapiro: Were you examined at a hospital?

Todd: Larry Wolek looked me over at Llanview Hospital.

Tea: My husband kept insisting he was fine, but he was short of breath when I found him, some 20 minutes later, in RJ Gannon's office at the Club.

Officer Shapiro: I see. We'll need a copy of the medical report.

Tea: Dr. Wolek gave me a copy. Here. (Hands it in.)

Todd: Joe Buchanan seemed to appear out of nowhere and dragged Bo Buchanan off of me, while RJ stood between us. RJ took me to his office. He called my wife, and when she arrived, we left.

Tea: I had to convince my husband to go to the hospital and be checked out. Since my husband trusts him, we asked for Dr. Wolek to look him over.

Officer Shapiro: I see...... Is that everything?

Todd: Yes.

Tea: My husband would also like to file a Restraining Order against Bo Buchanan. As his lawyer, I also request this.

Officer Shapiro: Ok. We'll get your injuries photographed first.

[Scene ends.]

[Scene: Todd and Tea emerge from the room where photos were taken, Todd is buttoning his cuff, his jacket over his arm.]

[Scene: Hank Gannon's office. He is staring at a document in disbelief. He sighs, picks up the phone, and calls Judge Fitzwater's office.]

Hank: Judge Fitzwater, please. DA Hank Gannon.

Judge Fitzwater: (In Chambers:) Fitzwater.

Hank: Judge Fitzwater, I have a request here from Todd Manning for a 60 day Restraining Order against Bo Buchanan, effective ASAP. It seems Bo assaulted him last night.

Judge Fitzwater: I'll have the papers drawn up.

Hank: Thank you. (They hang up.)

[Scene ends.]

(Day 27)

[Scene: Buchanan Mansion. Viki comes to the front door, rings bell.]

Clint: (Answers doorbell.) Viki, hi.

Viki: Has Bo arrived?

Clint: He's in Pa's study with Pa.

Viki: Fine. (Enters foyer.)

Clint: I really don't see what goodness you see in that psycho brother of yours, Viki. There's nothing but evil in him.

Viki: (Faces him squarely. With some controlled anger:) Clint: you're quite mistaken if that's all you see of who Todd is. You also greatly under-estimate my brother's resourcefulness. He is a survivor. He is more complicated than I suspect you can imagine. (Turns on the ball of her foot and strides to Asa's study.)

Clint: (A little stunned, he lags behind her on his way to his father's study.)

[Asa's Study, Buchanan Mansion. Viki enters, followed by Clint. Bo and Asa are already there.]

Bo: Hello, Viki.

Asa: Hello, Viki.

Viki: (Icily, evenly:) Bo, Asa. (Turns to Bo:) I understand that my brother now has a restraining order out against you.

Bo: Yes. I've been served with it already.

Viki: Good. I suggest you honor it.

Bo: I used to be Police Commissioner, Viki, I know what's expected.

Viki: All the more reason for you to show some sense and avoid my brother. He didn't seek you out.

Asa: Did Manning send you?

Viki: No. I'm here for my own reasons.

Bo: As a cop, Viki, I do know what I'm doing.

Viki: You're not a cop now, Bo. Not anymore. Beating him up doesn't show me you know what you're doing in the least.

Asa: Who are you to boss my son around, Viki?

Viki: Who are you to boss me around, Asa? I've really had enough of all of you trying to run my family's lives!

Clint: If you were still my wife --

Viki: What, Clint? What would you do? This isn't Texas, and you're not roping fillies on the range.

Clint: (Sputtering.)

Viki: (Cutting him off:) What about the wife you do have, Clint? What about Lindsay?

Clint: (Defensively:) What ABOUT Lindsay??

Viki: She's following people, snooping around, eavesdropping.

Clint: I know.....

Viki: She's been hounding Nora for months now, practically stalking her, as if if Lindsay hounds Nora enough she can get some sort of dirt on Nora. Why haven't you reined her in, Clint?

Clint: (Rueful.) I've tried, believe me....

Viki: And her constantly pestering Sam, on the pretext of their children..... The Clint Buchanan I was married to would have been all over a wife like Lindsay.

Asa: (Icily:) I have her in my sights, Viki, don't worry.....

Viki: I see, Asa: You fight Clint's battles for him now.

Bo: Are you done, Viki?

Viki: No, Bo, I'm not. Neither you nor your brother have any say in my life, or the lives of my grown children, and that includes how I relate to my brother. I might be inclined to be protective of my little brother --

Clint: (Hotly:) WHY?!

Viki: For the same reasons you're protective of Bo, Clint. Why is it that none of you grasp that?

Asa: There's nothing TO grasp, Viki! Manning is a psychopath!

Viki: And is that what you all think I am, still?

Clint: (Shocked at the analogy:) No.....!

Viki: That I don't know what I'm doing?

Asa: You're not sick, Manning is.

Viki: Who was it who tried to frame him for Georgie's murder, Asa?

Asa: I did nothing of the sort.

Viki: I suppose it was all Max's idea to follow Todd around and try to frame him?

Asa: Yes.

Viki: You lie terribly, Asa. Max doesn't have the funds or the ability to pull something like that off, and you know it. You two were thick as thieves at the Lodge while Todd held us all there.

Asa: We were being held against our will by your psychotic brother! We were trying to defeat him and gain our freedom!

Viki: You drove him to it, Asa, and you know it. You and Max, together with Bo.

Asa: It was all Max's idea, Viki. I had nothing to do with it.

Viki: I know you funded it, Asa, and I know you brought Max in to do your dirty work.

Asa: If Manning hadn't been guilty in the first place, Max would never have --

Viki: Have what, Asa? Guilty of what, really?

Asa: Never mind what Max did. Your brother is guilty as hell.

Viki: He is innocent. All the evidence was circumstantial, and you know it.

Bo: It all lead back to Manning. Hank and I will see to it he ends up in jail for a very long time the next time he does anything, acquittal or no.

Viki: Rachel confessed. That was what Todd had been trying to bring about, because his own investigation showed you were framing him.

Bo: He didn't attack your wife and threaten to rape her when she was blind! He--

Viki: (Sharply:) He didn't attack you in a bar, either, Bo. He didn't seek you out.

Clint: And just WHY would Joey stick up for Todd at Club Indigo that night??

Viki: Maybe, Clint, he isn't the violent thug his uncle Bo is. Sometimes you three are such Neanderthals

Bo: This was payback, Viki.

Viki: Was it? He was acquitted.

Clint: On grounds of mental incapacitation!

Viki: So was I, and with the same illness.

Clint: (Mutters:) I hope none of our kids come down with it........

Viki: (Glares at Clint.)

Asa: I'm warning you, Viki, if he does anything --

Viki: (Hissing:) You'll WHAT, Asa?? He's my brother, and I will stand by him no less than Clint stands by Bo. Unlike the rest of you, I have enough respect for my brother's integrity and humanity to abide by his wishes that he be allowed to fight his own battles. That includes those against you. He is strong, resourceful, and very independent, and can take care of himself. I'm here because I'm angry, at all of you.

Bo: Integrity? Humanity?? He's an inhuman freak!

Viki: (Glares at Bo.) Is he?

Asa: (Through clenched teeth:) And I can still take him down.

Viki: Can you really, Asa?

Clint: We can together, Viki.

Viki: Can you really, Clint?

Bo: Yes, we can.

Viki: You haven't managed to yet. My brother is like a cat, he will always land on his feet.

Asa: A feral cat. And like a cat, he seems to have nine lives.

Bo: He can't be killed. I've already tried to.

Viki: (Icily to Bo:) Yes. You have.

Bo: (Musing:) Nora thinks he's some sort of alien that can't ever be killed.

Viki: (Glares at Bo.)

Bo: Dorian, on the other hand, suggested we use wooden stakes and silver bullets on him next time. (Smiles.)

Clint: (Chuckling:) I think I know where we may have some silver bullets, Bo.

Viki: (Very firmly:) Over my dead body, boys. (Turns and leaves the room.)

[Scene ends.]

TO BE CONTINUED