House of Luthor - Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
*Word* is for emphasis
<"word"> is thoughts
/*word*/ audiotape playback
Previously
Grasping the handle she gave it a quarter turn and pulled. The safe swung open on well oiled hinges. The first thing that greeted her was a sickly green glow. <Oh, no! He has Kryptonite. This must be here as a trap for Superman. I'll have to tell Clark to stay away when the police open this vault.
The Kryptonite was out on a table in the center of the vault. Next to it was a lead enclosure. Looking around the perimeter of the room she saw drawers and shelves. She pulled down a book that looked like it had been handled a lot and opened it up. On the inside cover was a list of numbers with either a ‘S' or a ‘C' beside them. She delved into her bag once more and pulled out her camera. She snapped a picture of the open pages and then started flipping through, snapping as she went.
On other pages were lists of names, sometimes full names, but mostly just last names and then under another column dollar amounts. Because of the indicated dates she decided that these were older transactions, she turned to the back of the book and copied the last ten pages. As she was doing so, she recognized some of the names as members of the Board of Directors of the Daily Planet.
On a date shortly before the explosion that had destroyed the Daily Planet there was an entry referring to a purchase from a firm she recognized as a construction company. The only explanation she could come up with for this was - whatever he needed, if there was residue, he didn't want it traced back to a LexCorp business.
She pulled down a couple more books and filmed pages at random until she had used up her whole roll. She placed everything back where she had found it and closing the vault again, pushed the screw. Nothing happened. Grasping a shelf she tried to pull the unit closed, but it refused to budge. She had been so sure, now she was starting to worry. She thought, <Don't panic. There has to be another button.>
Placing everything but the flashlight back in her bag she began another search. She found a screw at the opposite end of the bookshelf and when she pressed it the mechanism that closed the hidden door operated again. When it finished she discovered why Luthor was constantly checking it. It didn't close all the way. She moved to the end of the unit and pushed. With a click it moved into place and locked.
Lois retraced her steps out of the office and took the elevator back down. As she exited the elevator she removed the cover from the camera lens. Easing up beside the guard shack, she peeked in and saw that the guard was engrossed in a novel and the door to the shack was closed. Crouching down, low to the ground and below the windows, Lois crept by the shack and out without being seen. As soon as she was away she removed her ski mask and returned it to her bag. She pulled out the skirt and after donning it rolled up her pants legs so that they wouldn't be seen. Two streets over she caught a cab and went to Lucy's apartment.
When she arrived, Lucy was by herself. "Where's Charlie?"
"He rushed out of here a little while ago. I figured it must be a rescue or something. How do you do it, Sis? No warning, suddenly he rushes out and there's no way to know if it's the last time you will see him. You must worry yourself half to death when that happens."
Lois smiled an enigmatic smile and said, "He promised that he will always come back to me. I take him at his word."
"You don't worry about him?"
"Of course I worry about him. What wife wouldn't? There is a major difference between him and a cop or a fireman though … there isn't very much that can hurt him. "
Lucy had her arms around Lois in a fierce hug. "It's such a relief to see you. I've been so worried about you, too. Cl … Charlie has been telling me how dangerous Luthor is. The longer this goes on, the more worried I get. I hope this will be finished soon."
Lois patted Lucy's shoulder and said, "I'm being careful." She looked around and said, "Since I'm here, why don't we go over some of the wedding stuff while we wait for Charlie."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Half an hour later, Charlie came in and as soon as the door was closed behind him, Lois bounced up from her chair and threw herself into his arms. As he wrapped his arms around her, he asked, "What are you doing here? Is there a problem?"
"No, I just missed you, that's all." She extricated herself from his arms and picked up her bag. Pulling out her camera, she said, "Success!"
Clark was interested, "What kind of success are we talking about?"
As she rewound the film into the canister and then removed it from the camera, she said, "I managed to break into Luthor's vault. I took pictures of some of his ledgers. You need to have Jimmy print these pictures. I think they will help with the investigation. There are account numbers, names, dates and amounts."
"None of that will be admissible in a court of law."
"I know, but with it as a source of information it can all be investigated and maybe, just maybe, it will be enough to provide probable cause so that Bill can get a search warrant."
"Well, it'll be worth a try. How did you get this?"
"Luthor is away. I let myself in. Remind me to give Jonathan another kiss to thank him for my super-hearing. I used it to crack the vault. Now, make yourself scarce. Lucy and I have a wedding to plan."
He chuckled and said, "Far be it for me to interrupt wedding plans. I'm surprised that Luthor is allowing you to plan your own wedding."
"He wanted to hire this high powered wedding planner, but I nixed that. I need to plan this. Now, go away and let us work."
"Okay, if you insist."
With a smile, she said, "I insist." He hesitated for a second before turning away, reluctant to leave her, but he finally turned away, sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. He muted the sound and turned on the closed captioning so that the sound wouldn't distract Lois and Lucy.
After a time, Lois joined him on the couch. She sat next to him and leaned into him as he put an arm around her. He asked, "So, what's so special about these wedding plans?"
With a conspiratorial look, she said, "Well, this isn't going to be your usual wedding. For one thing, I expect my husband to be there along with my ‘fake' fiancé," she chuckled. "I sent out two separate sets of invitations. The one that Lex knows about and a second set that he doesn't know about."
"Why two sets of invitations?"
"There was a slight alteration made to the second set of invitations that we sent. We've been getting in the RSVP already."
Suspiciously, he asked, "What alteration?"
With a conspiratorial smile, Lois replied, "Well, for one thing, they will be going to a different set of people and for another, well, you'll just have to wait and see about the other."
"Oh, before I forget. You will need to fly in your parents. I'll be spending most of my time here so they can stay in the apartment. You should pick them up soon so that they will be here."
And now
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 4
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, Charlie King dropped Lucy off at school before heading out of town. When he pulled up in front of Perry's fishing cabin, Perry, Jimmy and Jack all came out to greet him.
Once they were all inside, Clark pulled the film canister from his pocket and handed it to Jimmy. "Here you go, Jimmy, here's a job for you. You need to do your best work on this. Lois let herself into Luthor's vault and took some pictures. I guess we'll all need copies."
"No prob, CK. I'll have them done later today. Jack and I are going to look in on the Black brothers. After that I know a dark room I can use. I have a buddy that owes me a favor."
"Just be careful. We can't allow this info to fall into the wrong hands. It would put Lois's life in jeopardy. She's the only one that could have taken them and Luthor would know it. Don't let yourself be followed or intercepted."
Jack answered for Jimmy, "Don't worry, Mr. K. I'll watch over him."
Clark chuckled at Jack's bravado, "I'll count on you to do that, Jack."
Perry said, "I'm gonna follow-up on the Planet's finances. How did they get into a position where the Planet had to be sold? Jimmy found out some things using the internet that I'll check up on. It sure looks like we are gonna be adding insurance fraud to the charges."
"The more charges we can bring to bear and make them stick, the better off we will be. But we have to be sure we can make them stick. Half measures will not do."
Jimmy spoke up, "CK, I was thinking. Back, before you were hired, Lois was involved in a gunrunning story. Turned out to be a bust and she barely made it out alive. I remembered the research she had me doing on that and decided to dredge up those old files. Looking at it fresh, with all that we know now, some things that we missed before make sense now."
"Like what?"
"Well, back then we thought we had found the name of the company, but the name didn't mean anything at the time. With the information we have been getting from Miranda and Toni, now we can fill in the blanks. The company name was L&M Enterprises. Back then it was just initials. The latest from Henderson puts names to the initials. It was Lex and Miranda. Luthor was the one responsible for the illegal arms shipments."
"Good job, Jimmy. Make sure you put that all together and get it to Henderson. Perhaps that can be added to her deal. We can excuse the charges against her if she will testify against Luthor."
"You got it, CK."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Later in the day, Perry White was dressed in a conservative suit with a Panama hat and sunglasses. Standing on the sidewalk he looked up at the building he stood before. Squaring his shoulders he entered the building, took the elevator to the tenth floor and entered an office on that floor. The sign on the door read, ‘Bigelow and Fuller, Certified Public Accountants.
He was in the office for some time and when he left the bag he was carrying, which was an old style brief bag, had expanded somewhat to accommodate the additional contents. As he exited he shook hands with a smartly dressed business woman.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jack and Jimmy found the rundown tenement that the Black brothers lived in. Looking at the mailboxes in the lobby, Jimmy had to rub the accumulated grime off of the name plates to read them. Finally he found the correct one and pointed it out to Jack. They climbed the stairs and found the correct door. There was a window at the end of the hall. Jimmy went to it and looked out. He spotted a fire-escape and pointed it out to Jack. Jack nodded and the two of them headed out of the building. Around back they found the fire-escape that looked like it led to the appropriate room. Climbing the fire-escape they looked in through the window. John Black had obviously chosen that room because the fire-escape offered a quick exit in case the police chose to visit. Looking in, Jimmy spotted all of the components necessary for bomb construction. Pulling out his camera, he took some pictures. Turning to Jack he said, "Now I have two rolls of film to develop. Next stop - the dark room."
The quote from Robert Burns was particularly appropriate here,
‘The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley,' As they were exiting the alley behind the apartment, they saw an individual matching the description they had gotten of John Black.
Neither Jack nor Jimmy had ever seen him before and Jimmy decided on a bold move. As Black approached the door, Jimmy hailed him, "Hey, aren't you John Black?"
"Who's askin'?"
"A couple of guys that are lookin' to get some work."
"Why are you talkin' ta me?"
"We heard through the grapevine that you had just struck it rich. We thought you might be willing to spread the wealth some. I'd be willing to split any fees we get from a lead."
John was seeing dollar signs dancing in front of his eyes for no risk and thought that this could be a gold mine. Let them take the risks and he would reap the benefits. "What can you do?"
Jack put on his street wise kid attitude and said, "Anything we put our mind to. B&E, cars you name it."
Black thought about it for a second and then said, "Okay, this is confidential. I recently did a job for this chick ..." He went on to describe the recent bombing of the Daily Planet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They each had their assignments so while Jimmy left to use the dark room, Jack went off to pursue another aspect of the investigation. Jack had been given pictures of some of the board members. They needed leverage and that was what he was out to get.
After leaving Jimmy, he had found and had been following Mr. Simon Truesdale most of the morning. When it was approaching lunchtime, his target headed for a midtown eatery. Jack followed him in and managed to get a table right next to him. His diligence paid off. Within a few minutes of sitting down the board member was joined by a very beautiful, curvaceous young woman. As he watched they had lunch and exchanged more than conversation. When she was preparing to leave, she leaned in and gave him a very passionate kiss. Truesdale sat back with a very satisfied expression on his face as he watched her sway away from him.
He was surprised when someone stepped in between him and the object of his fancy. He was even more surprised when the person addressed him, "Mr. Simon Truesdale."
Absently, he replied, "Yes, that's me. What can I do for you?"
Jack slid into the chair that the young lady had just vacated, displayed the mini-videocam he had in his hand and said, "I think you can do a lot for me and in turn I can do something for you."
Seeing the camera, Truesdale blanched. He spluttered out, "What is this?"
Jack smiled and said, "I think you know what this is."
Truesdale made a grab for the camera, but Jack was too quick for him and he snatched it out of his reach. As he did he said, "Uh uh, none of that."
"How much?"
Jack was truly mystified at this response. "How much what?"
"How much money for that tape?"
Jack smiled and said, "What do you take me for? I don't want your money."
Truesdale was surprised by his answer. He asked, "If you don't want money … what do you want?"
"Information. That's all. Just information."
Truesdale was surprised, but realizing that this could only involve one thing and he started to sweat. If this was about what he assumed it was, Luthor would have him killed if he talked. "I don't know anything. I don't have any information that you would want."
"I beg to differ. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about otherwise you wouldn't be sweating bullets. We can do this several ways. We could go to LNN and you could make a statement." Seeing the fear in his expression, Jack said, "I didn't think so. Okay, here's what we'll do. We'll go somewhere nice and private and you can answer my questions. I promise to keep it all secret until Luthor can no longer harm you."
Truesdale's expression turned to one of curiosity as he asked, "You're not after me for …"
"No, we are after Luthor. As far as we are concerned you can keep your ill-gotten gains. Luthor is who we want. We want to put him away where he can't hurt anyone anymore."
Truesdale let out a breath as he sighed the name, "Luthor."
"Your place or mine?"
"Yours ."
Truesdale paid the check and exited with Jack. They hadn't gone very far when Jack ducked into an alleyway and said, "In here. I don't think we'll be disturbed."
Truesdale, reluctantly followed Jack into the alley, fearful of being lured into a mugging.
When no one sprang out of the shadows to beat him up immediately, he started to move forward with more confidence.
Jack stopped, indicated a spot just in front of him and said, "Please stand there."
Fearful that this was where the expected attack would occur, he demurred.
Jack encouraged him, "Nothing is going to happen, other than I will record your statement. I just want to use the wall as a backdrop."
Cautiously, looking all around, Truesdale finally moved to the indicated spot. When he turned to face him, Jack brought up the mini-cam and started recording. He started asking questions, "Why did you choose to vote to sell the Planet to Luthor …"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
That evening Clark drove out to Perry's fishing cabin.
By mutual agreement the task force was using Perry's fishing cabin as their meeting place. When Clark had arrived it was deserted. Letting himself in he had settled to wait. It wasn't too long until he heard a car drive up. A few minutes later, Perry entered.
As soon as he was in the door, Clark asked, "Well, how did it go?"
When he entered the door, Perry was carrying a large case. Perry set the case down, took off his Panama hat, hung it on a peg next to the door and sat down before he answered. "Every member of the Daily Planet's old Board of Director's is ducking me." He pointed to the case he had carried in and said, "I did get hold of the transcript of the session where they decided to sell to Luthor." Perry looked around, making sure they were alone before he spoke again, "Instinct tells me they're hiding something." He considered his next statement for a second. "What I need is leverage."
"We'll have to wait and see what Lois sent. Jimmy should have that with him when he arrives."
"I'm sure that everyone will be hungry when they get here." So saying, to kill some time, Perry started cooking. He put a large pot on the burner and then started collecting his ingredients. He decided on a Cajun recipe that was a favorite of his.
While Clark arranged his notes, Perry was busy at the stove. He had all of the burners going with various concoctions simmering as he stirred the contents of a large pot.
Finally, Clark's curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "What's cookin'"
"My own Crawfish Etouffee recipe. I hope you like it spicy."
Clark snickered and said, "If you can cook it, I can eat it."
Just then, Jimmy and Jack entered. A few minutes later, Bill Henderson drove up.
As they watched, Perry poured in a batch of crawfish that he had prepared. They popped and sizzled as they hit the pot.
Jimmy and Jack exchanged a look and Jack stuttered out, "I uh, I, I'm not really hungry. I just ate."
Not willing to take no for an answer, Perry said, "You'll eat again." As he was speaking he was continuing to add ingredients. He narrated as he did, "You gotta use the sweet paprika, not the regular. And cayenne pepper, plenty of it. 'Course the secret is the apple juice, half a cup."
As he finished speaking, Bill entered and Perry announced, "Supper is ready. Grab a plate and fill-em up."
Jimmy and Jack looked at the concoction warily, but being hungry they were willing to give it a try. They had each loaded their plates after Clark and Perry. Before dipping in his spoon, Jimmy looked over at Clark and saw him take a mouthful, chew and swallow as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Encouraged by this, Jimmy took a spoonful and brought it to his nose. Taking a deep sniff he detected a fishy aroma and then thrust the spoon into his mouth. He instantly regretted his decision as a five-alarm blaze seemed to ignite in his mouth. Quickly chewing and swallowing he grabbed a glass of water in an attempt to quench the fire that started in his mouth and traveled all the way down his throat to his stomach. Looking down he was surprised to see that his shirt hadn't combusted.
Jack was only in marginally better shape and that was only because he had taken less on his spoon. Once he had drunk a quantity of water he choked out, "What's in that stuff, carbolic acid?"
Perry was laughing and Clark was having a hard time not doing the same. Perry replied, "That's just an old Cajun recipe. It'll put hair on your chests."
"More like burn off what hair I have," quipped Jimmy.
Everyone, including the usually taciturn, Bill Henderson laughed at that.
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