True Love Never Dies, Part 1

This takes place a couple of days after Lucinda’s jet crashes into Lake Michigan with
Vicky supposedly on board. Jake has not investigated further into the crash, so he doesn’t know about the bodyguard or anything more than Vicky is presumed dead.

Oakdale -- City Times

Julia and Lucinda enter Jake’s office and see him putting his things into boxes.

L: “Jake, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to take some time off.”

J: “That’s what I’m doing.”

Jul: “Then what are you doing here?”

J: (looks up at them) “Well, I’m taking more of an extended vacation. I quit.”

L: “What? Jake, I don’t think quitting is the answer. You just need some time to--”

J: “To what, Lucinda? To get over Vicky? To get over losing my babies?” (his voice breaks and he whispers) “Not going to happen.”

Jul: “Jake, I don’t think that’s what Lucinda meant--”

J: (holds up his hand to stop her) “Please, Julia. Don’t. Now, you’ve been a good friend to me the last couple of days, but I need to go home. To Bay City. I’m picking up the kids from the airport this afternoon.”

Jul: “The boys are coming home from Europe?”

J: (nods) “Jamie feels that they’d be better off in Bay City with their family and friends.”

L: “Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do to change your mind.”

J: (looks at Lucinda) “No. I’m sorry.”

Jake picks up a picture off of his desk. He starts to put it in a box, but he stops and looks at it. It’s a picture of Jake, Vicky, Steven and Kirkland in New York City. He looks at the women again with tears in his eyes.

J: “I have to take care of what’s left of my family.”

He takes the picture and the last box and walks out.


Dark warehouse

Vicky wakes up groggily.

V: “Oh, where am I? My head is killing me.” (puts her hand on her forehead) “What happened? The last thing I remember was getting into the car to go to the airport.”

Vicky stops and looks around the dark room. It is completely empty except for a small cot and table on opposite ends of the room. Vicky looks around, trying to find a door. She stands up and searches the walls for an signs of a door.

V: “Help! Somebody help me! I can’t get out!”

Vicky stops and sighs.

V: “What the hell is going on?”

Vicky becomes silent when she hears two sets of footsteps outside of the walls.

Man #1: “So, now what do we do?”

Man #2: “What do you mean? Everything worked according to plan.”

V: (whispers) “That’s the bodyguard Jake and I hired.”

M #1: “Well, not exactly. Mr. Wallace hired you to watch Mrs. McKinnon. Then, he orders you to hide the lady away until he gave you further instructions, but now, the guy’s dead. What are we supposed to do with her now?”

M #2: “Will you chill out? We’ll wait a few days. I still have to call another associate of Wallace’s. If he knows anything about the broad, the decision will be his.”

M #1: “And if he doesn’t?”

M #2: “Will you stop being so pessimistic. We just need to be patient.”

The two men walk out of the hall.

V: “Oh, my God. Alec Wallace did this. Alec Wallace kidnapped me.” (Vicky gasps) “Jake. Oh, my God, Jake. And Steven and Kirkland. They have no idea where I am.”

One of the walls slides open mechanically and a man enters with a tray of food. He pushes a button on a remote control and the door shuts again behind him.

V: “Oh, first class service.”

M #1: (hands Vicky the tray) “Don’t want you to starve.”

V: “Oh, no, you just kidnap me. So, come on. Give me the details. The last thing I remember was heading to the airport and now I have this pounding headache.”

M #1: “We put a drug in your bottled water.”

V: “A what?”

M #1: “We had to get you away somehow.”

V: (gasps) “My babies. My babies.” (she grabs the man’s arm) “They’re all right, right? The drug didn’t hurt them, did it? They could be brain damaged, or--”

M #1: (shakes away from her grasp) “Calm down. They’re fine. We had the drug checked out before we gave it to you, and we had you checked out afterward.”

V: “You keep saying ‘we’. Who’s ‘we’?”

M #1: (hesitates) “My associate and I.”

V: “The bodyguard who was hired to protect me, and both of you work for Alec Wallace.”

The man stares at her blankly.

V: “Look, my husband is expecting me and he has connections and he is not going to give up until he finds me.”

M #1: “He won’t be looking for you.”

V: (looks at him nervously) “Why is that?”

M #1: “Because everyone thinks you’re dead.”

V: (all the air escapes from her lungs) “Dead?”

M #1: “We made arrangements for it to look as if you took off from New York as scheduled. But, in reality, we grabbed you before you got on the plane. We made arrangements for the plane to explode mid-flight. No one could have survived.”

V: “Jake thinks I’m dead? And our babies, too?”

The man doesn’t say a word, but gets up, opens the mechanical door with the remote control and leaves.

V: (shocked, shakes her head) “No. No, Jake doesn’t believe I’m dead. He doesn’t. I’ll find a way to get back to you, Jake. The girls and I will get back to you and the boys. I swear.”