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llantano · 4 years

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Turning Leaves, 3. Resignation Part Two

By Jaemlyn

As they stepped back out of the small office, the throngs of reporters were not as comforting to her as she would have preferred. Bo led her down an all-too-familiar corridor toward the jail. His silence was intentional. He was trying to make her uncomfortable. If this was her punishment – her only punishment – so be it. She could take it. In fact, she preferred it.

She was steady as a rock when she stepped up to the cold, steel vertical bars between herself and Mayor Lowell.

Bo seemed sincere as he looked Dorian in the eyes. "You okay then?"

Now it was she who was amused. "I can handle this."

Bo stepped away. "I'll let you two kids talk this out then." He nodded to a guard who didn't seem to be going anywhere and patted another, gesturing for them to follow. The bars closed behind them and she was left staring at the man whom just yesterday she had placed all her confidence in. She had given up on her goal to become chief of staff at the hospital to support him. Fat lot of good that did.

Lowell looked back at her with an unreadable expression. "Dorian."

"We need to talk," she frowned with disapproval.

"Listen, I tried to convince those guys not to go after Starr and her baby."

She was disgusted. "Why should I believe that?"

"It was never my intention to drag your family into this."

"Cole is the father of my grand-niece. You put a hit out on him. That was very intentional. Not only did you want Cole dead, but also my beloved nieces could have been killed. I gave you my loyalty, my vote, and put my own reputation on the line for you, and that's how you repaid me."

"Why are you here, Dorian? To give me a guilt trip?"

"Oh, you bet I am." Her smirk was dark. "And to remind you that I'm still your campaign manager. There are a whole lot of media outlets waiting for a statement, considering that you refuse to resign from your position…." She paused as if just realizing and wondered: "…Why haven't you resigned?"

"Innocent until proven guilty."

She smirked again and shook her head with disdain in her voice. "Oh, don't give me that. I have it on good authority that even your own lawyers have advised you to resign, and yet you refuse. You seem to think that clinging to your position will somehow just … make it all go away. Do you honestly think you can win an election from prison?"

"I'm not going to prison, Dorian, and I am going to win the election."

"Oh, uh … I think you are gravely mistaken. I mean … unless…."

He was curious. "What?"

"I suppose it is plausible that you have friends in high places… very high places. I suppose that it is probable that you sincerely believe you are going to win, and I suspect that is because these friends of yours are able to … shall we say … sway the votes in the direction that is most beneficial?"

"Just what are you accusing me of here, Dorian?"

"Hm. Conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, drugs … electoral fraud would be the least of your worries, wouldn't it?"

"What, you plan to go to the media with that? I'll fire you and sue you for defamation."

Her smile was all knowing, as if she held a secret. "No. First of all, you've done a good enough job of slandering yourself. Secondly, when I do speak to the press, it will be to inform them that I have resigned my position as your campaign manager, and not only that, you have resigned your position as mayor."

"I thought we had already established that I was not going to do that."

Dorian ignored his statement as she slid a neat, creased piece of paper from her pocket. "I took the liberty – as the one in charge of your campaign – of drawing up this letter of resignation for you. It is very 'to the point.' In it you absolve your campaign workers of any guilt, stating that they had no knowledge of your criminal involvement. You are very sorry for the pain you caused the families of Cole Thornhart, the Evanses and, of course, your own campaign manager. You also explain that while you did not physically take part in the shootings and injuries that resulted from the attempt on Cole's life and the kidnapping of Starr and Hope Manning, you were indirectly responsible for them. You agree to cooperate with the Llanview Police Department in their investigation. Lastly, you are deeply regretful of the negative effect your behavior has had on your own family, and for their sake, you are withdrawing from the election and resigning from office."

"Are you insane, Dorian?" he spat. "That's not a resignation letter. It's an admission of guilt. I would never sign that, and my lawyers would tell me not to sign it."

"But you are going to sign it," she insisted.

"Or what?"

She smiled for a quiet moment before resting her hands around the metal bars and relaxing on the outside of his cell. "Let's talk about Lee Ramsey."

"What's Lee Ramsey got to do with any of this?"

She couldn't help but chuckle. "How stupid do you think I am, Mayor? … Or should I just call you 'Stan' now?"

"That whole scenario with Lee Ramsey was ages ago."

"You're right," she consented. "But at the same time, it never really ended, did it?"

"What are you talking about?"

She pressed her index finger to her chin as if thinking. "Maybe I should have brought up the name Powell Lord instead? I mean … you know, since he's fresh in our minds. Didn't you just blame John McBain for his rampage right before your arrest? Are you that delusional?"

"I know you don't share my disdain for John McBain, Dorian, but up until now you've been right there with me in the public eye."

"That's neither here nor there," she clarified for the mayor. "You see, the trash who kidnapped my nieces was what helped me put it all together."

"You're going to have to be more specific, Dorian. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, it is a little hard to explain," she gestured with her hands as she spoke. "There's this whole big web of criminals and corruption that are all tied together, but …I'll try to simplify it for you."

He stared at her, unfazed.

She blinked at him as if she owned his soul. "Let's try a different name, shall we? Carlo Hesser. Carlo Hesser was last seen in South America, but before that, his last known residence was in Eastern Europe. If I'm not mistaken, your criminal cohorts more than likely hailed from that area of the world too, didn't they? Which brings us back to Lee Ramsey. It all makes a neat, tidy little circle of connections, and lies, and crimes."

"You can't prove anything. This is all speculation."

"I don't need to prove anything. You see there's a loose thread in this web and you're the fly that's stuck in it, aren't you?" She flashed an almost wicked smirk again as she leaned closer and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. "There was always something that struck me as odd about that whole Powell Lord, KID killing spree – about the victims in that case and their connections to Marty Saybrooke."

"Old news, Dorian."

"Not really. I recall this all very clearly because it happened at my house, you remember? … Talia Sahid was wearing a KID ring that had been locked in an evidence room prior to her stabbing. The ring was part of this whole big scheme to frame John McBain for her murder. It was under your instruction that McBain was arrested."

"All the evidence pointed to him."

"Yes," Dorian half-smirked, and half-frowned in gleeful disdain. "You saw to that, didn't you? And poor Talia was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Are you saying that I killed Officer Sahid? Because even Bo Buchanan can tell you that I was at the police station when she was murdered."

"Oh, isn't that convenient?" Dorian chided. "What better alibi than, 'I was with the police commissioner at the time of the murder?' Just like you were at a political debate when my nieces were kidnapped, hm? Of course you had no way of knowing that Bo would send Officer Sahid and her partner to find John McBain that night. All you knew was that John McBain lived at my house, and, from what I heard later, you knew about other evidence before the reports were even turned in to Bo so that he could make an arrest. You were the one framing John McBain."

"Like I said, I was at the police station…."

"Save it. You had moles on the police force then just like you did this time. That's how you got your hands on the KID ring that they found on Talia's finger."

"I never saw or touched any ring until I went to your house later that night to make sure the police did their jobs and arrested the man that the evidence pointed to."

Dorian rolled her eyes and growled, "Spare me." She lowered her voice again. "But you messed up that night, didn't you?" She raised an eyebrow. "Poor Talia. Of all the police officers it could have been, why did it have to be Talia? But I bet you've asked yourself that question a thousand times, haven't you? Maybe next time you decide to frame someone for murder, you'll be more specific about who … exactly … the real murderer should and should not kill."

"Dorian, what you are saying is preposterous. That case is long since closed anyway."

"Doesn't matter," she informed him. "In fact it doesn't even matter if I have proof. What does matter … at least it should matter to you … is what Carlo Hesser has to say about it when I tell him the whole sordid story. You think he'll still want you to be mayor? Or perhaps the better question is, do you think he'll still want you to be alive? So I guess you need to decide whether you want to resign and go to prison, or buy your way out of here and end up … well … who knows?"

"Are you threatening my life, Doctor Lord?"

"One good turn deserves another, don't you think?"

"You wouldn't know how to find Carlo Hesser if you tried."

"Oh, I think you grossly underestimate me, Stan. You said it yourself. I'm the queen of Llanview, and I've got connections you can't even pretend to have." She held the pre-written letter toward Lowell again.

He reached for the paper, but hesitated. "You don't understand what you're doing, Dorian. Victoria Lord cannot become the next mayor of Llanview. I know more about keeping this town safe and in check than any layperson could ever understand. There are greater forces at work here."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that too much," Dorian told him. "Viki won't be running unopposed."

Mayor Lowell took his time as he received the paper from Dorian's hand. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

"It's really none of your concern anymore, is it?" she taunted, withdrawing a Lowell campaign ink pen from within her top and handing it to him. "I'd say keep the pen but they don't let you keep sharp objects in here."

He grabbed the pen from her with an impatient frown and signed his name at the bottom of his resignation letter, handing it back to her. "Silence is a virtue."

"Lucky for you I'm a virtuous woman," she smirked as she slid an envelope from her pocket and secured the letter inside it. "Guard!" A police officer stepped forward to let Dorian out. "Have a nice life."

"Watch your back," he answered.

She paused. "Is that a threat?"

"No. Just a word of advice from the former mayor to the future mayor."

She nodded. "We'll see." She paused as she turned to leave, speaking to the guard. "You might want to take that ink pen away from him."

#One Life to Live #OLTL #fanfic #Turning Leaves #A/U #Dorian Lord #Bo Buchanan #Viki Banks #Victoria Lord #Carlo Hesser #Talia Sahid #John McBain #Marty Saybrooke #Lee Ramsey

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