"Still at Sounds of Salsa, Jake was becoming increasingly bothered by the fact that he did not know where Liza had taken Colby. Gillian assured her fiancé that Liza was safe in Monaco and that Colby was probably enjoying the beautiful countryside. Ryan hobbled into the bar and sat down at the bar. Adrian greeted him, but warned him that Hayley was going to be meeting Mateo later in the night. Ryan swore that he wasn't there to cause trouble. As Adrian walked away, Mateo appeared by Ryan's side. "Are you here for the band?" he asked Ryan. Ryan nodded. Mateo told Ryan that he'd have Tina start a tab for him and asked only that he enjoy the show. Ryan wanted to clear the air with Mateo and asked that they talk about how their friendship had soured. "The past is what you make it," Mateo replied. "Let's just move on." Ryan smiled warmly and slowly made his way to Jake and Gillian's table. There, he extended his hand and congratulated Jake on their engagement. Jake waited until Ryan left before asking Gillian why she'd told Ryan of their engagement. "I haven't even told my parents yet," Jake remarked. "I felt I owed it to him," Gillian explained. Jake was puzzled, saying that Gillian didn't own Ryan anything. Gillian rationalized that once a couple is married, they will always have a special bond. This was her way of telling Ryan that she'd moved on and also a chance to tell him that she wanted him to find his own happiness without her. The couple shared a kiss, unaware that a heartbroken Ryan was looking on. Tina walked over to Mateo and asked him if he'd like to join her at a movie premiere. Mateo smiled slightly and told Tina that he needed to be "straight" with her. "I'm trying to work things out with Hayley," he said softly. In the same breath, he urged Tina to explore her relationship with Adrian. Tina, though, was sure that Adrian was not interested in her. Mateo placed a call to Hayley's cellphone to find out where she was, but there was no answer. Adrian stepped forward and assured Mateo that Hayley would show up in time. Mateo couldn't shake loose the fear that Hayley was having second thoughts. Back at their table, Jake placed a call to Marian to see if she had been in contact with Liza. He got no answer and expressed his concern that something might be wrong. Gillian stepped in and offered to phone her friend in Monaco, a friend who just happened to work for the tourism department. She phoned her friend and asked about the television conference that Liza was supposedly attending. It was then that she learned that there was no such conference. Now Jake was frantic. He told Gillian that he wanted to leave so that he could talk to someone who might know exactly where Liza had gone. Back at the bar, Mateo placed another call to Hayley's cellular phone. Ryan happened to overhear Mateo telling Adrian that Hayley was still unaccounted for. He told Mateo that Hayley had gone to a warehouse on the East Side of town to meet Janet. That was enough to rouse Mateo's suspicious. He asked Adrian to hold down the fort and raced off to find Hayley.
Tad sat in the livingroom working on his laptop computer. He was quietly coming up with ideas on how best to convert Chandler Mansion into a shelter. Dixie wandered into the room and asked Tad if he thought that Jake and Gillian might tie the knot. They got a bit distracted and soon their thoughts turned to their own relationship. Dixie headed upstairs to "get the bed warm." Tad, meanwhile, locked up the house. From out of nowhere, Tad realized that Stuart had let himself into the house through the back door. "Stuart," he chuckled after he regained his breath. "You nearly scared me half to death." The scowl on Stuart's face should have tipped Tad off --- this was not Stuart. "If only it were that easy," Adam grumbled. Tad blasted Adam for breaking into his house. Adam had little concern for his trespassing. "Where is my daughter?" he asked frantically. Tad reminded Adam that Colby was Jake's daughter. Tad wanted to know where Adam had been for so long. He mused that Liza must have locked him in a wine cellar. Dixie returned downstairs and asked the two men what they were talking about. After hearing the answer, Dixie wondered if Liza had left Adam. Adam denied that Liza had left him and accused Tad and Dixie of hiding Liza from him. He threatened to rough up Tad, but that approach didn't work. "Except for your son, there's no one here who's afraid of you," Tad responded. Tad did, however, offer to let Adam get in a free shot. He warned him that if he took him up on his offer, he'd better make sure that he knocked him out. Adam lashed out at Tad and Dixie for knowingly allowing Stuart to sign over money that was not his. That, he pointed out, made them accomplices. Tad told Adam that he should be thanking him, not faulting him, for what he'd done. Adam's public opinion rating had skyrocketed --- his stock had soared. Adam refused to thank Tad for what he'd done. In fact, he wanted more than anything to tell Tad that Colby was not Jake's daughter. He knew that if he opened his mouth, he might never see Liza or Colby again. As an added twist of the screws, Adam told Tad that he'd been at Joe and Ruth's house on Christmas Eve and heard the remarks he'd made about him. Tad and Dixie was both stunned that Adam had been pretending to be Stuart. Tad knew that Adam couldn't do anything for fear that Liza would never return. "You've had your stinger plucked," he mused. Adam agreed to leave, but part of him still believed that Tad knew where Liza had gone. Outside, Adam muttered under his breath that he would soon stick it to the entire Martin clan. "I'll have you begging for mercy soon enough," he mumbled.
Later, Gillian and Jake showed up at the house. Jake, too, wanted to know if Tad knew where Liza had gone. Tad swore that he had no clue and that didn't sit well with Jake. Gillian listened helplessly as Tad and Dixie wondered what Liza was holding over Adam. Gillian told Jake that they should go back to Myrtle's just in case Liza had phoned in a message. Her idea had to have been fueled in part by a desire to get out before Tad and Dixie figured anything out. On the patio, though, Jake asked Gillian if she was sure that she wanted to get involved in family problems. He told her that he planned to sue for custody of Colby and that he wanted to have her support. Gillian agreed to stand by him, but she knew that suing for custody could have disastrous consequences for him.
Adam returned to Chandler Mansion and immediately summoned Barry to appear before him. Barry got there as fast as he could, going through two stoplights and a stop sign on his way. The attorney seemed slightly amused that Liza's disappearance was troubling Adam so much. "You once told me [Liza] was more like you than any other woman," Barry remarked. "You wife is beating you at your own game." Adam refused to admit that he'd been outsmarted. Instead, he asked Barry to come up with a way to get Stuart to come to the house. Stuart, he knew, would have to tell him if he knew where Liza had gone.
Janet managed to break free from Sophie's grasp. Sophie grabbed her trusty crowbar and flailed it around in the air. It smashed against a wooden crate, barely missing Janet. Janet scurried away, but Sophie eventually caught up to her. She dropped her crowbar and again wrapped her hands around Janet's throat. Janet wriggled free and grabbed hold of the crowbar and managed to muster up enough strength to thwap Sophie across the head with the metal bar. Sophie collapsed the ground just as Trevor arrived at the warehouse. He embraced his wife and asked her what had happened. A frantic Janet told Trevor that she was "just trying to stop her." Trevor had mistakenly assumed that Sophie had set up the tripwire. When he learned that Janet had set the trap, his face became serious. He asked Janet if anyone had seen her arrive at the warehouse. Janet shook her head. Trevor ordered his wife to get in her car and drive home --- slowly and carefully. When she got there, he asked her not to talk to anyone or to make any phone calls. "I can't believe this is happening to me," Janet sobbed hysterically. Trevor promised Janet that everything would be okay. Trevor slowly walked Janet to the door as the fire continued to grow in intensity. Janet took a deep breath and left. There was a noise at the back door and Trevor decided to investigate. Before he did, though, he picked up the crowbar and wiped it free of fingerprints. Another noise sounded and Trevor dropped the crowbar on the ground. Trevor headed out the back door. He walked away from the building having no idea that a bum was watching him from behind a dumpster.
Janet was still in tears when she walked through the front door of her home. She found Tiffany and Amanda sitting on the sofa reading a book. Amanda told Janet that she was scared because she'd run off so suddenly. Trevor arrived a few minutes later and asked Tiffany to take Amanda upstairs. Once alone, Janet broke down in tears. She told Trevor that she was sure that someone had seen her coming from the warehouse. Trevor wanted to know how long Sophie had been harassing her. "I wanted to tell you the truth," Janet insisted. She explained that Sophie had threatened to kill him and Amanda if she squealed. As the story unfolded, Trevor finally found out why Janet had been obsessed with getting her hands on money. Janet told Trevor that she'd gotten $50,000 from Adam, but that Sophie wouldn't leave town. Trevor assured Janet that he believed her story. Janet wasn't relieved. She figured that her husband had to believe what she was saying. "The State will want to send me to the electric chair!" Janet cried. Trevor asked Janet to take a deep breath so that they could get their stories straight. "The crowbar killer's back," Janet sobbed. "Only this time she acted in self-defense." Janet told Trevor that she had to return to the warehouse so clean up the evidence. Trevor flashed an eerie smile and told Janet that she should stay put. He said that he'd return to the warehouse and make sure that there was no evidence to be found. Janet pleaded with Trevor not to leave, but Trevor was determined to protect what his wife had worked so hard to get --- her new life.
At the warehouse, the fire continued to burn. Hayley's cellphone rang several times, but Hayley was unable to answer it. She did cough several times and stir slightly, but she was pinned to the ground by one of the scaffolding devices that Sophie had tipped over. Trevor returned to the warehouse and cut down the sandbags from the ceiling. He again wiped the prints off of the crowbar before turning his attention to Sophie's body. She hadn't moved --- so she was definitely dead. Trevor put some old mattresses over the body so that she wouldn't be seen. Convinced that the fire would burn all of the evidence, Trevor picked p the crowbar and headed for the back door. Trevor walked into the back alley and was immediately confronted by the drunk that had spotted him leaving earlier. By the man's side were Derek and a pair of police officers. The man, who Trevor recognized from his days as a cop, claimed that he'd seen Trevor running away from the warehouse earlier. One of the officers headed inside the warehouse as Trevor explained that he'd dropped by because he saw smoke. The officer returned a few moments later and told Derek that there was a body inside the building. Trevor immediately told Derek that the woman, Sophie, was dead when he got there. Derek knew who Sophie was and he knew of her connection to Janet. Derek grabbed Trevor by the lapels and pulled him a side. "Did Janet do this?" he asked pointedly. On the other wise of the building, Mateo arrived and asked an officer staked outside the front door if Hayley was inside. The officer shook his head and said that the body had been identified as an escaped convict. Mateo was sure that Hayley was inside because her car was in the parking lot. The officer blocked his path, but Mateo wasn't about to be kept away. He tossed the officer out of his way and pushed his way into the building. Inside, the fire had spread to the roof and several burning beams fell down near Hayley. Back in the alley, Trevor denied that Janet had anything to do with Sophie's desk. "No, Derek," he said. "I whacked the Malinowski broad." Derek looked angrily at his former partner and told him the he wanted the truth --- the whole truth."
- Soap Central
