AS THE MOUSE

OVES©

Soap Opera "As The Mouse Moves" - Monday April 9^th 2001
Tiffany opened the door to the townhouse where she worked on MacDougal Alley and stepped inside the entrance hallway.
"Late getting in today?" Jan asked.
"Jan I didn't know you were here this morning," Tiffany said turning quickly to see Clark's client and her worst enemy waiting on the sofa in the living room.
"Good morning Tiffany.  How have you been?" Jan asked smiling broadly.
"Good and you?" Tiffany asked walking towards Jan and noticing that she was holding a VCR tape in her hand.
"I'm great," Jan said smugly as she watched Tiffany walk to her desk, drop her purse on the floor  and take a seat.
"Does Clark know you're here?"
"Of course Clark knows I'm here.  He's upstairs in his office on the phone with his Mother."
"I didn't realize you had an appointment this morning," Tiffany said glancing at her appointment book and seeing that Clark had plans to make sales calls downtown this morning.
"I spoke to him last night at home."
"I see," Tiffany said suspicious of Jan's apparent fake politeness towards her.
"Jan, come on up," Clark said from the top of the stairway.
"Is the VCR working upstairs?" Jan asked walking towards the stairway and glancing back towards Tiffany to be sure she was listening.
"Yeah, it's working.  Did Tiffany ever come in?" he yelled down the stairway.
"Yes Clark I'm here," Tiffany said.
"She just came in," Jan said walking up the stairs glancing back towards Tiffany.
Tiffany listened to Jan's footsteps in the hallway above her.  She heard Jan walk into Clark's office.  Tiffany quickly got up from her seat and walked towards the stairway to try and listen to their conversation. She heard the sounds of Jan's high heels near Clark's desk in his office above her and the muffled sounds of their voices. She heard the loud volume of the television turned on in Clark's office and then sounds of the VCR rewinding.  She quietly and slowly took a few steps up the stairs.  She bent down putting her hands on the wooden steps and peeped upward around the railing of the stairway.  She saw Jan sitting in a chair in front of the television in Clark's office and he was standing in front of the TV screen with the remote in his hand.
"I was with my boyfriend when I saw this come on the news last night," Jan said.
"I didn't realize you were seeing someone?" Clark asked.
"Nothing serious I promise you," Jan said referring to Tiffany's estranged husband Skeeter that had spent the evening with her in her Upper East Side mansion last night.
"He must not be in the social register then," Clark said laughing as he bent down to get a closer look at the buttons on the VCR.
"No.  I don't think this guy's ever heard of a social register but he's pretty good at keeping me smiling for now," Jan said pleased with herself.
"Okay, here we go.  Thanks for bringing me this," he said hitting the button on the VCR and stepping back to watch the screen as the tape started. Tiffany's heart jumped at the familiar sights and sounds.
"Please I have nothing to say," Clark's client Amir said as he nodded for the driver to hurry and open the door.
"Mr. Hada we understand that your sick wife will be coming to his country for treatments."
"I have no comment."
"What about your date Mr. Hada?  Is that why you have no comment?" the young reporter said as the camera and lights turned on Tiffany. 
"I knew she had been lying to me even when I rehired her," Clark said as the tape stopped and the "Today Show" came on the screen as Matt and Katie stood outside at Rockefeller Center. 
"Al Roker tells us it's going to be another gloomy day here in New York City," Katie Couric said.
CONTINUED TOMORROW. MORE PHOTOS BELOW.