Previously…
– Molly faced increased scrutiny at work after she was charged with misdemeanor assault following her confrontation with Dr. Longo over what happened the day her baby died.
– Brent recognized Tempest’s hair clips as matching the ones found near the last threatening note Jaq received. He placed her under arrest for stalking and harassment.
– After being arraigned, Tempest was mysteriously bailed out of jail.

1:12 PM

A rush of chilly autumn air hits Claire Fisher as she steps out of her car in the parking lot outside the King’s Bay Police Department’s headquarters. She locks the car and marches with purpose toward the front doors of the station; thanks to the various things that have happened to her and her loved ones during her years in King’s Bay, she is alarmingly familiar with how to navigate this particular location. When she enters the building, however, it turns out that knowledge is not necessary, because her daughter-in-law is waiting for her just inside the entrance.

“Where is she? What happened?” Claire asks without even greeting Rosie Jimenez.

Rosie, clad in her dark blue police uniform, does not seem to mind, as she, too, is in business mode. “Someone bailed her out before I even got back to her holding cell.”

“Maybe it was her brother,” Claire says. “Don’t you have a record of that?”

“It was paid through a bail bondsman.”

“At least she’s out.” Claire lets out a heavy sigh. “But she’s not picking up her phone now.”

“She said she left it in her desk at the arena. I got her a cab to take her back there.”

“Okay.” Claire pauses, looking around the bustling front area of the station as she processes everything that happened this morning while she was sleeping after her overnight shift at the hospital. “Did she seem okay? How could she have been arraigned so fast?”

“She seemed okay,” Rosie says, her voice softening a touch. “Confused and scared–“

“That makes two of us.”

“When she couldn’t reach you, she accepted the public defender so she could get arraigned and get out of here faster. I don’t think she expected the judge to set bail.”

“I need to find her,” Claire says, fumbling to find her own phone in her purse. “I can’t believe I wasn’t here when she needed me–“

Just as she locates her phone, she freezes, having spotted someone else across the way. After the briefest instant of hesitation, she stomps over to him.

Brent Taylor reacts with surprise when he catches sight of her. “Claire. I guess you–“

“I can’t believe you,” she says with disgust. “How could you do this to Tempest?”

1:14 PM

The elevator doors part, opening up onto the eighteenth floor of Winston Tower in downtown King’s Bay. Clad in a black wrap dress with a white floral print, Molly Taylor steps out of the car and strides into the lobby of Objection Designs. Finn Campbell is behind the reception desk, phone to his ear, and she lifts a hand in greeting as she passes. When she reaches the glass door that leads to the inner sanctum of the office, she swipes her ID badge, as she has done thousands of times before — but the light on the pad flashes red instead of green.

Balancing her Chanel purse on her forearm, she swipes again. Once more, the light only turns red.

Molly turns around to see Finn finishing up his phone call. While she waits, she tries the badge once more. Still red.

“I’m sorry,” she says as soon as Finn places the receiver back in its cradle. “Could you please buzz me in? My badge isn’t working. I’ll have Tori run it down to Security to see what’s wrong.”

Instead of responding with his usual bright, attentive attitude, Finn appears to be suppressing something — a cringe, or an even less pleasant expression. 

“Finn. What’s going on?” Molly asks.

He glances at his computer monitor and then back at her, this time with an apologetic look. 

“I didn’t realize you didn’t know yet,” he says somberly.

1:15 PM

Tempest Banks feels her blood boiling as she pushes open the front doors of Edge of Winter Arena. When she arrived here this morning, it was just another workday; she had no idea that she would soon be taken out in handcuffs. And if she could have avoided coming back here, she would have — but she would rather get her phone and car keys now than have this hanging over her any longer. 

The arena is quiet, as the Zamboni glides noisily over the ice, setting down a fresh layer after the lunchtime drop-in hockey that Edge of Winter hosts every weekday. The driver, Stu, glances up at the sound of the heavy door slamming but then averts his eyes when he sees Tempest entering. She lifts a hand in greeting anyway, unwilling to act like she has anything of which she should be ashamed. 

“Hi, Stu!” she yells loudly, and even over the Zamboni’s subdued roar, he hears her and, a moment later, offers a meek wave as the machine turns a corner and heads back down the ice.

Once on the other side of the rink, Tempest ascends the stairs up to the second floor. Her fury seems to grow with each step she climbs, and by the time she arrives at the office, she might as well have steam coming out of her ears.

Jason Fisher is standing by the printer but freezes when he sees her in the doorway.

“You’re back,” he finally says. “Are you okay?”

“Like you care.”

“I do care. Tempest, I–” He trips over his words and struggles to gain control of them. “I hate that this is happening.”

“But you still let Brent put me under arrest and take me outta here.”

“I didn’t have a choice! I believed you when you said you didn’t know anything about the magazines.”

She knows that he is telling the truth, but it doesn’t even seem to matter right now. The printer continues its chug-chug-chug noises as Tempest goes to her desk and pulls her phone and keys from the top drawer.

“You’re out quickly. That must be a good sign,” he offers.

“It’s a sign they can get your ass arraigned real quick if they want.”

“Do you need anything? I mean it.”

“I need to go deal with this shit,” she says. “I’ll see ya.”

Without awaiting his response, she exits the office and hurries down the stairs.

1:16 PM

Brent eyes Claire as she confronts him in the front area of the police station. Rosie stands by, keeping an eye on the situation while maintaining a respectful distance.

“I’m only doing my job,” he says. “I can’t show someone preferential treatment when there’s evidence they committed a crime.”

“What evidence?!”

“The hair clips Tempest was wearing in that photo on your phone,” he explains. “The yellow ones. They match the one I found by Jaq’s car, right where the last note was left.”

Claire’s mouth forms a tight, straight line as she processes this.

“This is all about a hair clip?” she asks at last.

“There’s more. Jason had found magazines in the office — with cut-out letters. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but…”

“Last night, you were thanking me for helping Molly,” Claire says with disdain. “And then you turn around and arrest Tempest?”

“Claire, I didn’t want to.”

She lets out a loud huff. “Forget it. I need to find Tempest.”

She turns on her heels.

“Claire, please call me if you need anything,” Rosie says as her mother-in-law whizzes past her.

“Thank you,” Claire says as she beelines for the exit. “I appreciate you helping — unlike some people.”

Rosie and Brent exchange shell-shocked looks as they watch Claire leave the station.

1:17 PM

“I don’t know what?” Molly says, her high heels clacking against the marble floor as she approaches Objection’s reception desk.

Finn indicates his computer screen. “The board meeting. I thought someone would’ve told you…”

He gestures helplessly at the screen. Molly strains to get a look at it over the large front desk.

She hears the glass door swinging open and turns to see Gia Vincent, the VP of Design, standing there in a cap-sleeved cranberry blouse with wide-legged gray trousers.

“Molly,” she says with a note of disdain in her voice. “How did you get up here?”

“The attendant let me up from the parking garage. Why?”

“You didn’t swipe your badge downstairs?” Gia shakes her head with annoyance. “Which attendant? We’ll have to have a talk with them about letting un-permitted individuals up.”

“What are you talking about, Gia?” Molly demands. “I work here.”

“Not since a few hours ago, you don’t.”

Gia stares at Molly with a frustratingly blank face. Confused, Molly swivels back toward Finn, who is pointing at the computer screen as if it is the most painful thing he has ever done.

“I got this e-mail a little while ago,” he explains. “I didn’t want to call Tori and spread gossip, but–“

“But what?!” Adrenaline surging through her veins, Molly pulls herself up so that she is leaning over the reception desk. What she sees in Finn’s e-mail causes her blood to run cold.

“How is this possible?” she says as she lowers herself so that she can face Gia.

“It saddens me to have to say this,” Gia says, “but you’ve been unreliable at best, Molly. The error with the sample orders came from you. We nearly missed out on an important showcase because of you.”

“Neither of those things were my fault. And I had them handled before there was any issue–“

“Aside from employees having to scramble, work extra hours, and pay more to make sure everything was taken care of. And now you go and get yourself arrested–“

“How dare you,” Molly says, desperately trying not to raise her voice even though she badly wants to do so. 

“It was splashed all over the Chronicle,” Gia replies with a toss of her blonde hair. “And that gave them a chance to dredge up the time you went on trial for murder a few years ago. Do you know how that makes the company look to outsiders?”

“It’s my company, Gia.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s the board’s company, technically. And based on the vote we took today–“

“How was there a vote? No one informed me?”

“It was a vote about you,” Gia says. “Because you’re endangering the reputation and functioning of the company. We called an emergency meeting.”

Stupefied, Molly looks to Finn, who can only shrug. She knows what she saw in that e-mail, but none of it makes any sense.

“I was out for that warehouse walkthrough,” Molly says. “I’m here now.”

“And you shouldn’t be.” Gia addresses Finn: “Would you please call Security? Mrs. Taylor has been placed on indefinite leave, per the board’s vote today. Her badge was disabled for a reason.”

“You can’t do this!”

“I’m sorry,” Gia says, and then she swipes her own badge and steps back behind the glass door, watching as Finn hesitantly punches in the number for the building’s Security office.

Molly scrambles to retrieve her cell phone from her purse so that she can call Tori, as the nightmarish reality of what is going on seems to crash down all around her. 

1:26 PM

Once she is back in her car and on the road back home, Claire tries Tempest’s cell phone again. This time, she is relieved when it rings twice and then clicks, indicating that the call is being answered.

“Tempest?” she says immediately. “Are you there?”

“Hi. Yeah.” The whooshing of air in the background makes it sound as if Tempest must be driving, too. “I didn’t have my phone. Did you–“

“Rosie had Travis wake me up. I’m so sorry I was asleep. I just went to the station, but they said you’d already been bailed out.”

“Yeah. I’m okay. I just got my car from work.”

“Are you on the way home? I’m so sorry this is happening.”

“I am, too. But I’ve gotta go take care of something.”

“What is it?” Claire asks urgently. “I’ll come meet you.”

“I’ll tell you all about it later. Don’t worry.”

“Tempest–“

“I’m good. I promise.” 

With that, the speakers in Claire’s car broadcast a loud beep, indicating the end of the call. Her first instinct is to call Tempest right back and insist that she explain what she’s up to — but she knows from experience how pushing Tempest too hard at the wrong time can go. 

“Where are you going?” she says aloud to the empty car. “Please, Tempest, don’t do anything to make this worse for yourself.”

END OF EPISODE 1099

Is Tempest about to do something foolish and impulsive?
Will Molly lose Objection because of her recent troubles?
Does Claire have a right to be angry at Brent?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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