Caray, Caray!

The next morning Alejandra is on the phone with Carlos.  She comments at how upsetting and unfortunate the former attorney's murder was.  Carlos plays along and suggests it must have been somebody getting even with her or  gangsters' justice (ajustar cuentas - a murder by mobsters in a gang war).  He eventually manages to dissuade her from assisting with the case. 


Leonardo The Lionhearted tries in vain to convince Olivia to stop dating Alan since he's a possible murder suspect in Carlos's case.  Oli tells him Al's just as nice a guy and a gentleman as is Leo.  Thanks but no thanks.  She's learned her lesson.  (Just leave his suggestions in the box outside her office.)

Juanito is totally at his wits' end over Fer not answering his calls.  Well, says Susana, she saw that girl here and didn't know what to think.  You've got to convince Fer that you love her with deeds, not words.  (Sorry, but Juanito needs to take a look at himself in the mirror.  A 30 year old dude still living at home with Mama?)

Roberto and Leo are considering taking up the leads on Alan in the murder case rather than just Pedro when Ricardo rushes in kvetching about Elena's maneuvering the kids away and not permitting Ric to speak to them despite the reversed court order.  (So, what did he expect?  After all the guy lived with her for 10 years and never got a clue?)  Carlos has advised her too well, he says.  Leo suggests coming to some agreement with Vexlena.   (EXcuuuse me?  Earth to Leo!)
Sra. Pilar visits Carlos at the office and wonders how the trial will proceed at this point.  She'd rather not go down any Cougar's Memory Lane in the courtroom.  Carlos warns it will come to light eventually.  Be prepared then, for whatever comes.  Fine with her.

Ric wants to battle for custody of the kids at this point and start adoption proceedings.  Rob and Leo try to talk him out of that.  Ric races back out of Leo's office.  Rob is ready to give Carlos an ultimatum.
At Carlos's office, Vexlena arrives with her side of this story.  Carlos says if the house is in her name then she determines who can enter there and who cannot.  She worries that the kids will blame her for the visitation troubles with Ric.  (Too late where Nattie's concerned.)

Juan finally gets to the court clerk asking for records on other women stuck in jail as unwitting "mules" and who may have been victims of the same "boyfriend" in between lamenting Fer's unfair treatment of him.
Victoria promises to take the custody case for Ric.  It will be long and painful.  Above all, he must be squeaky clean when it comes to his personal life.  There will be countless interviews with psychologists and social workers.  Ok.  He cannot have any formal relationships and if a social worker suspects he's capable of starting his own family all bets are off for formal custody. Double okay.

Just as Alonso walks into Benjamin's office, Carlos makes a call to Benji and screams at him for not finding a way to launder the last batch of funds ASAP.    Carlos demands he come to the office later in the afternoon--no if's, and's or but's. Click!  Benji pretends it's a rude client and then "hangs up" his phone.  Lonnie wants to know if there's any progress on the San Benadito city government's illicit movement of funds, but there is none.

Ale accidentally interrupts Ric and Vicki's chat.  He leaves.  Vicki explains this is going to be a very rough road and will only end up in court where one of the two of them will come out extremely bad off.  Ric's desperate.

The citizen from San Benadito comes to Lonnie to show texted threats of murder on his cell phone.  He explains they're sending them to him more and more often now.  He wants Vega to know just what type of people they're dealing with.  Lonnie says these are the same types of things he's been dealing with all his life.  They're going to make them pay back all they've taken.  Really?  Yes.  It's up to Mr. Citizen whether Mr. C wants to stay or goes, not Lonnie.  He's taken the case and will proceed --so will Mr. C.

Rob and Leo visit Carlos later in the day.  They explain that now that Carlos has  taken on Vexlena's case against Ric,  one of their BFF's and a close business associate in the buffete, they feel there has developed a professional conflict of interest.  So, he can hand off Vexlena's case to someone else or they will no longer handle his murder case.  Carlos finds himself up against a Ric wall and a hard place.  He determines no use banging his head against that.  He'll give Vexlena the vexing news of his vexit from the case tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Vega says he isn't worried about the threats to himself.  His kids are both grown and living out of the country; his wife died several years ago.  He has no worries about pursuing this case.

On the way out of Carlo's law firm, Leo runs into Alan.  Leo advises him rather stiffly that they still need to depose him regarding the details of his stay at the hotel the night of the murder.  Yes, he was with Tatiana, but they want a blow by blow (pardon the pun) of his movements that night.  Ok, they'll have the secretaries work out a time.

Meanwhile, Juan cannot find anything in all those archives.  (Viewerville asks why they haven't all been computerized by now?)  The lady clerk suggests checking news accounts.  (The press has electronic archiving?)  Great idea.  Normally his girlfriend would be doing this, but since they're on the outs, he whines, he cannot think of asking her.  Lady clerk tells him the obvious: give her time and she'll come around.

Carlos confides to Alan that Ric's guerreros came to help him by threatening pulling out of the murder case.  However, no way Carlo's is really going to stop advising Exlena until Bustamonte's kids are totally out of his grasp.

Benji runs to Leticia to enlist her help in digging up dirt on the mayor of San Benadito.  He has an appointment this afternoon with Ibarra who pays quite a bit better than Vega at this point.  She begrudgingly agrees to help him out.

Rob and Leo stop in to give Ric the good news.  He's been working on his financials meanwhile to show his economic assistance towards the kid's all these years while married to Vexlena.

Ale calls Carlos late that night to wish him well with his murder trial the next morning.  He tells her he's thrilled she thought of him still.

Leo, Rob and Ric eat pizza over at Ric's while they naively discuss the more amiable opportunity at hand with all the petti court petitioning by Carlos out of the way.  And, yeah, Ric comments that he misses the heck out of Ale, but he has got to steer clear of her while this whole process is going on.

At the same time, Leti and Vexy are having drinks at one of the local clubs.  Leti advises her that she should recognize Ric as the kids' father and come to grips with the divorce and move on with her life.  Exlena remains vindictive. "--If I cannot get on with my life then neither can he!"  Leti tells her to just look around at all the available bachelors.  Nope.  Ric's going to have to return to her.  Leti notices a new catch for the evening and walks off with him.

Ale whines to mama Paula about her ill-fated affair with Ric.

Eventually a guy at the club begins flirting with Exlena.  Her ex must have been an idiot to have left her.  Not all men are fools like him and blah, blah, blah.....Leti wants to leave with her new catch but the cornered Exlena wants to leave with her also.  The Bachelor talks Exlena into giving him her phone no. and she keys it into his cell.  (I guess business cards and match covers are too last century ago.)

The next morning, right before the trial, Carlos asks Pilar and Imelda to tell him anything they've not told prior because the new defense attorney for Vicente could have all sorts of tricks up his sleeve.  Suddenly, Imelda breaks out crying and asking for forgiveness.  Her brother's death is all her fault.  She was a fool.  She left and wasn't there and only came back after Vicente had killed him.  Carlos doesn't look too convinced.

Susana hands off breakfast to her "little boy"  who is half dead man walking after going through all the files in the archives the day before.  (Maybe he'll think twice before offering shelter to a sexpot in his house without giving his girlfriend the 411.) 

At the trial, Carlos tells the judge that Vicente acted alone and this shouldn't be overlooked. (That's an opening statement?) Vicente finally gets to testify and give his side of the facts: he and Imelda got along great; they had even gotten similar tattoos (a sure sign if ever of romantic compatibility); they were going to leave to live together but Eugenio threatened to tell their mother.  "--That's when Imelda went bat-sh!t crazy."  Imelda screams back at Vicente what a lie that is.  (Well, if that's how she acts now, the judge can imagine well the scene at the house when Eugenio promised to tell Mama Pilar.)  Imelda told him she was going to stop her brother come hell or high water and talked him into tying him up and hurting her a bit to make it look like she had nothing to do with it.

Ale has a chat with Ric in his office.  He apologizes for going crazy and losing it in the office the other day.  But, he's dying to be with her again and just seeing Ibarra next to her makes him so jealous.  They really do need to stay apart from each other, though, because otherwise she's too tempting for him.  He's going to have to curb himself.

Labels: ley