Ron and Vivian
Viv and Ron prepare to take Ron’s car out to Bayonne. As they pull out of the driveway, they are startled to see Nathan Torpley standing at the end of it.
Nathan approaches the driver’s side of the car and
tells Ron, “I know you are off on an important errand, Mr. Deluca, and it is my
sincere hope that you succeed in your endeavors. I just wanted to let you know
that everything proceeds apace with the plans for helping your marriage. We can
talk about it when you get back, of course.”
Weirded out by this encounter, Viv and Ron drive to Bayonne. They reach Mrs. Dimathias’ house and find it dark. Viv waits in the car while Ron forces open the door and checks the house. Once the coast is clear, Viv joins him, and they search around for signs of Mikhail or trouble. They discover a pile of cigarettes and an empty bottle near some shrubbery across the street, From this, they deduce that someone has been watching the house.
Ron returns to the house, determined to stay for a while. He grabs a slice of leftover lemon cake and begins combing the kitchen for any signs of alcohol. While he's doing this, Viv parks the car on the next street over and walks back to the house.
On her walk back, Viv sees a gentleman exit a car just up the street. Upon noticing that this man is walking to the Dimathias residence, she backs down the side street so that she will not be spotted. She reemerges a few seconds later and confirms that the man is entering the house.
In the house, Ron hears the front door open. Thinking it’s Viv, he turns and is confronted by the man, who has just drawn a .38. The man tells Ron to get on the floor. Ron tries to intimidate the man, but the man points out that he, not Ron, is the one with the gun, so he, not Ron, will be making the demands.
Viv, realizing that Ron is probably in trouble, races to the front door of the Dimathias residence. Without entering the house, she opens the front door and slams it, loudly. This distracts the gunman, who swings around to look at the door. This gives Ron enough time to tackle the man, disarm him, and wrestle him into immobility on the living room carpet.
Viv reenters, takes the man’s gun, and helps Ron question him. The man is not forthright, at first, but breaks when Viv and Ron both notice his very obvious Silver Twilight Lodge ring. He tells them that everyone in the house left with James at least an hour ago, or more. He also says that the, “rest of them went up to the train station, to deal with the ‘traitors,’" while he was left here to watch the house for signs of trouble.
Satisfied that they have all the answers they’re going to get, Ron tells Viv to get the car and bring it around front. Once she leaves, he attempts to strangle the gunman to death. The gunman fights back, drawing a hidden knife to stab Ron, but Ron wrestles the knife away from the man and slits his throat. In true Mafia fashion, he wraps the now dead gunman in the oriental carpet in Mrs. Dimathias’ living room, drags him out to the car, and shoves him in the trunk.
After a quick change of clothes and some hasty discussions with Viv, Ron pulls the car over on a lonely bridge, weighs down the body, and tosses it into the water.
Papa will never find out about this. Just like all of the other things that Papa will never find out about.
They drive hurriedly to the train station, spot the judge’s touring car in the parking lot, and head inside.
Judge Putnam
 |
| Stately Putnam Manor |
Judge Putnam awakens late at night to hear someone prowling
around outside house (which now has a canon floor plan). The judge
picks up his shotgun cane, goes to the phone in the upstairs hallway, and tries
to call the police. Finding the line dead, he huffs, goes downstairs to his
office, and tries to use that phone to call the police. That line is also dead.
The judge, as it happens, does not quite understand how phones work.
While in the office, Judge Putnam hears someone smash one of the small windows near his front door, reach in, unlock the door, and let themselves into the house. The judge creeps into his dining room and watches as the intruder carefully stalks upstairs. After a moment, the judge follows him.
He sees the intruder standing at the top of the stairs, peeking in through now opened door to the guest bedroom. The intruder, satisfied that the guest bedroom is empty, closes the door and turns around.
Only to find himself looking down the barrel of the judge’s shotgun cane. Without hesitation, the judge fires, reducing the intruder’s head to small, bloody chunks.
Searching the body, the judge finds a black velvet bag containing hair, fingernails, and other strange things, as well as two pieces of paper. The first has diagrams and words written in an unknown language. The second is a hastily-written note, “Kill the judge and take his place. Call me when you are successful.”
Slightly miffed at the mess, the judge goes to the carriage house, finds that its phone is still working, and calls the police and his lawyer, in that order.
Mikhail
 |
| A Quiet Gas Station |
Mikhail starts out toward Massachusetts with his mother,
Angie, James, and Pushok the dog in tow. James is concerned and panicky about
the whole ordeal. Angie demands some more answers. Mrs. Dimathias hopes they’re
going to look at the nice autumn leaves! Such pretty colors!
Mikhail tells them that, “I will explain this ONLY ONCE,” before quickly telling everyone the truth about where he found James and who had kidnapped him and left him for dead.
Their conversation is interrupted by James, who mentions to Mikhail that he thinks someone is following them. Mikhail loses them with some deft offensive driving, including the currently popular bootlegger turn. Satisfied that they are safe, Mikhail continues north, into the night.
Sometime later, they stop for gas. The garrulous gas station attendant tries to engage Mikhail, but Mikhail is having none of it. The gas station attendant eventually gives up, in part because Mikhail is not particularly chatty, in part because another driver has pulled up to the pump just behind Mikhail. The other driver asks to use the restroom and is directed inside the building.
Mikhail has Angie call Deb on the station’s pay phone and has James stay in the car while he gets out to exercise Pushok. In the meanwhile (and for the rest of the scene), a sleeping Mrs. Dimathias snores loudly while James sits quietly in the car.
While Angie fills Deb in on what’s really going on, the other driver leaves the gas station and walks around to the driver’s side door of his car. A suspicious Mikhail notes that the other driver opens his car door but does not get in, instead proceeding to the back of Mikhail’s car while taking something out of the inside of his coat.
Mikhail and Pushok come around to the driver’s side of Mikhail’s car to see that the other driver is now pointing a pistol at James through the back-passenger window. Mikhail draws his own gun and fires.
A brief and messy shootout ensues. The cars suffer superficial damage, but no one winds up getting shot. Mikhail tries to sic Pushok on the other driver, but Pushok, misinterpreting the gunplay as the setup for a trick Mikhail was trying to teach him earlier, instead plays dead. In the exchange, the other driver slips in the mud and falls beside his car, giving Mikhail the time that he needs to grab his enchanted Masonic blade from his car.
Mikhail closes with the other driver, who has since gotten to his feet, swings his sword, and misses, badly denting the roof of the other car in the process. The other driver smirks and levels his gun at Mikhail.
There is a small explosion, but it does not come from the other driver’s gun. The other driver gawps in surprise and collapses, the side of his head caved in and spurting blood. Mikhail looks over to see Angie leaning across the roof of the other car, the .45 she usually carries in her purse gripped tightly in her hands.
Mikhail searches the other driver and finds a silver necklace with the same symbol she saw on James’ ring, as well as a hastily written note. “You are to follow them wherever they go and take care of loose ends. You will be uplifted should you succeed.”
They get in the car and drive away into the night, while the terrified gas station attendant calls the police.
The Train Station
 |
| Bayonne Train Station, Platform C |
Kane, Dr. Black, Johnny, and Maximilian Reed all arrive at the
train station. They enter just behind a traveler with an ornate handlebar
mustache, whom the porter at the door calls, “Mr. Reed.” The man shakes his
head, asks for directions, and goes on with his journey. Meanwhile, the porter
sees Max and ventures, “Ah…Mr. Reed?”
When Mr. Reed identifies himself, the porter smiles nervously.
“No chance mistaking that mustache. Ha ha. Your friend, Martin left a message. He asks you to meet him on Platform C.”
At the train platform, they are met by Martin, who accuses the trio of treachery. Kane, Johnny, and Dr. Black all protest their innocence, but Martin isn’t having any of it. He tells them that Carl Stanford is convinced that they, or the judge, called James Clark in Bayonne to warn him that the Lodge was closing in. He orders his men to finish them off and draws a gun.
Johnny, realizing that this is an opportunity to get rid of Max Reed, draws his gun, only to find that Max is already pointing a gun at him.
Meanwhile, Ron and Viv have arrived at the train station, recognized the judge’s touring car, and have gone inside to search for their friends. Ron catches someone who looks like Dr. Black (or at least, wearing Dr. Black’s coat), disappearing into one of the access hallways to Platform C. Viv takes point, watching out for innocents and cops, while Ron creeps onto the platform and sees the preceding scene unfold.
From his vantage point, Ron can also see a man--with a sniper rifle positioned for optimal shooting--on the roof of a nearby train car. Seeing that things are about to get confrontational, Ron draws his gun and opens fire.
Ron’s first shot is a good one, badly wounding the sniper and preventing him from drawing a bead on his friends. Martin dodges out of the way and conceals himself on the stairs leading inside a train car. A third man, who had been hiding behind one of station’s the concrete pillars until now, takes aim and shoots, only to have his gun misfire. He drops back behind the pillar.
Max Reed and Johnny exchange gunfire, and both of them take minor wounds. In an attempt to avoid Johnny, Mr. Reed stumbles right into Dr. Black’s line of fire and goes down in a hail of bullets.
Ron fires again, killing the sniper. He shouts at Viv and tells her to get the hell out of there while he retreats back into the station’s concourse. Kane closes with Martin, sticks his derringer to the man’s head, and orders him to surrender. Martin drops his gun. The third man takes a pot shot at Dr. Black, injuring him, before turning around and fleeing along the station into the night.
Back in the concourse, everyone else is screaming and panicking. Vivian and Ron make it outside to their car and drive away. The other group, holding their wounds closed, also retreats, dragging Martin with them. They all make it to the judge’s car just before the police surround the train station to prevent any of the perpetrators from escaping.
Johnny orders first Dr. Black, then Kane, to get into the Gate Box luggage trunk on the judge’s car. They both do and suffer a brief spate of mind-shattering horror as they are magically transported to the matching box in the judge’s garage.
“No hard feelings,” says Johnny to Martin, right as he shoots Martin at point-blank range, killing him.
Johnny then uses the Gate Box himself, arriving safely at the judge’s garage.
The three men are baffled to hear the approaching of police sirens and peer out the garage windows to see the judge, dressed in his pajamas, bathrobe, and fuzzy slippers, talking to his lawyer and one of the policemen.
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