When Churches Come Crashing Down
Folc4evernaday
Part 12
***
“We have nothing? How did this happen?” Mayson growled as she paced in the Chief of Police, Steven Waldron’s office.
“I don’t know, Mayson. All the evidence we had against Intergang seems to have disappeared along with everything we had against Luthor.”
Every file, every witness statement, and every physical piece of evidence the department had against the two biggest criminal organizations seemed to have disappeared. Baby Rage had been released at his appeal trial today due to lack of physical evidence. Mayson had come to his office to deliver the news.
“What? Evidence doesn’t just get up and walk away.” Mayson snapped.
“I’ve got my best team on this,” Steve reassured as Mayson continued to pace around the office. Steve looked at her cautiously, hoping his reassurances were reaching her. She turned to face him, an angry expression on her face.
“You better hope they find everything or I’m going after your department for negligence and tampering with evidence.” She jabbed her index finger into his chest as she spoke.
“Now, Mayson…” Steve tried to calm her down but was met with a steely gaze. She wasn’t playing. “I’ll make sure they know what’s at stake.”
***
“Is this the kid?” Henderson laid out a photo in front of Clark.
“Yeah.” Clark grabbed the photo Henderson held out. “That’s him.”
“His name is Jack. Jack Crane. Mother left him and his brother, Denny when he was seven. They were found wandering around in a strip mall. They bounced around from foster home to foster home. There’s no information on the father. He’s been hauled in more than a few times for stealing.”
“Any idea where he is now?” Clark asked apprehensively.
“Your guess is as good as mine. He was reported as a runaway three months ago.” Henderson said glumly. “It’s a shame.”
“Thank you, Inspector.”
“No problem. Hey, while I got you here you may want to take a look at this.” He pulled out a file from his desk.
Clark opened the file and scanned its contents. He looked up at Henderson for confirmation; who nodded. “How did this happen?”
***
“I’m disappointed, Gene. I don’t like it when I’m disappointed.” Bill said, puffing on his cigar.
“We’re doing all we can to find the kid. He usually does such good work.” Gene shook his head pitifully. He knew Bill Church Jr’s allowance for mistakes was short and his temper was fierce.
“Never trust a thief,” Bill said, patting Gene on the shoulder.
***
“Well, I’ve sent the offer to Mr. Church’s office. We should be hearing from them shortly. Are you sure you want to give up your bargaining chip, Nigel?” Mrs. Cox asked.
“Oh, we’re not giving it all away. I still want to be the one to bring Superman to his knees when he takes his last breath.” Nigel opened a small box from his desk and smiled at the glowing green meteorite. “It’s a pity Lex never had the sense to rid himself of that Lane woman. He might have lived to see the day Superman was finally exposed.”
“Yes, have you seen the reports Dianna Stride has been doing? She’s trying to do an expose.” Mrs. Cox laughed.
“Not a bad idea.” Nigel mused. “Perhaps we should help her along.”
***
“Hey, toots, how you doing?” Bibbo asked, his face lit up when he saw Lois and Clark enter his newly built night club.
“Good,” Lois said as she surveyed the club. The crowd was mostly of the same clientele Bibbo had attracted before. “How’s your head?”
“It’s nothing.” Bibbo shrugged it off. He motioned for them to follow him.
Lois and Clark glanced at one another skeptically but followed close behind Bibbo, “Mr. Bigowski, you said you had something important to talk to us about.” Clark prompted.
“Yeah, I heard you were looking for somebody. I caught him trying to panhandle some of his loot through one of my guys…” Bibbo opened the back office door to reveal a very angry Jack tied to a chair.
“Jack?” Lois and Clark asked in unison.
“How did you…?” Clark wasn’t even sure how Bibbo had found him let alone how he knew they’d been looking for him.
“Careful. That kid’s a menace.”
Lois angrily stalked forward and ripped the duct tape off of Jack’s mouth, “OW!” He winced in pain.
“Where is it?” She barked.
“Where is what?”
“Don’t play games. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You broke into our house and stole it!” Lois snapped angrily. Jack turned away from her, looking at Bibbo and Clark for help. They offered none. She jerked his head back to look at her, “Don’t look at them for help. Where is it?”
She wasn’t playing. Jack struggled with his restraints only to find he was only tightening them as he moved. Sighing in defeat he gazed remorsefully up at Lois, “I..I sol..I sold it.”
“You what? I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.”
“I sold it,” Jack said a little louder, annoyance in his tone evident.
“To who?” Clark asked, advancing towards him.
“I didn’t get a name. A woman and an old creepy guy.” Jack said, struggling with his restraints.
“What do you want me to do with him?” Bibbo asked.
Clark gave Lois a pleading look. She shook her head violently, “No. No way. No how. Not happening.”
“Lois…”
“No. I’m not budging on this.”
***
“Dianna you have a visitor.” The receptionist buzzed through the speaker phone.
Dianna rolled her eyes in disgust, “Who is it?”
“A Toni Taylor?”
Dianna’s ears perked up in interest. “Send her in.”
***
“Revenge is the most marketable drug in Suicide Slum. People don’t even know they need it until they’ve tried it. Once they’ve had a taste of what it does for them they can’t get enough. I’ve mostly sold to the small-time pimps and club owners. However, Mr. Bigowski, I think for the right price we could come up with a good deal.” Miranda said, caressing his cheek seductively.
Bibbo shrugged her off of him, “No thanks. My customers are my customers. I don’t want to be messing with their heads. They get hard enough to handle as it is.”
***
Jimmy laid a folder on Lois’ desk. Lois looked up at him curiously, “What’s this?”
“They just found him floating in Hobb’s Bay.”
Lois opened the folder, “Gene Newtrich?”
“Yeah, I showed it to Perry. You won’t believe this. Mr. Newtrich was Perry’s kidnapper.”
“What?” Lois asked aghast.
“What’s going on?” Clark asked, walking up to them.
“Here” Lois handed Clark the report.
“Yeah, I heard about that. Superman found his body floating in Hobb’s Bay earlier after that bank heist on Third.” Clark said, reading over the report.
“Well, apparently he’s Perry’s kidnapper from last year,” Lois explained. The expression on Clark’s face was grim as was Lois’ as they glanced towards Perry’s office.
***
Two Weeks Later…
“Hey, Lane!” a voice called from the alley behind Mike’s diner. Mike Lane turned around only to come face to face with Baby Rage.
“You!”
“I told you, you was dead. Why didn’t you listen to me, man?” Baby Rage asked, lifting up an aluminum bat and swinging in Mike’s direction.
***
“So, whatever happened to Lana?” Amanda asked hesitantly.
“She left,” Lucy said curtly.
“Left?” Amanda asked.
“Yes, left. Gone. Hasta Lavista. She isn’t working here anymore.” Lucy snapped angrily as she scanned the deposition in front of her. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“No.” Amanda smiled weakly.
***
Lana angrily stomped the ground below her. It wasn’t fair. She had had everything planned so perfectly. How had she not known? How had everything spun out of control? She stared at the gravestone in front of her.
It hurt.
Would the pain ever go away? The guilt? Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She struggled to maintain control of herself.
A familiar voice approached her from behind, “Lana? What are you doing here?”
She turned around only to come face to face with the familiar face. “I…I’m sorry. I should go.”
***
“So, how long am I going to be staying here?” Jack asked.
Perry looked up from his laptop and arched an eyebrow at him. “Where would you rather be staying? On the street?”
“No…” He looked around the house, examining his surroundings.
“All the silver and good china are locked up,” Perry said.
Caught off guard, Jack shook his head, “That’s not what I…”
“It’s a joke,” Perry said. “You’ll stay here until you’re able to support yourself-- the honest way –on your own.”
“And Denny?”
“Is in a good foster home now. You can visit him.”
“So, I guess this means I have to find a job?”
Perry handed him the classifieds from the Planet. “Welcome to the real world.”
***
“It’s so beautiful,” Dianna said, fingering the glowing meteorite before her. “Who knew such a small thing could bring Superman to his knees?” She laughed to herself.
Bill Church smiled. “I’m confident you’ll make his death as painful as possible.”
“Yes, but there’s still the question of my expose,” She said, “I don’t just want to kill him. I want to destroy him…on national television for all the world to see.”
***
Lucy angrily threw another file on the ground, shaking her head as she turned to the large stack of files before her. Ever since the fiasco with the Skins in court and the disintegration of their case against Baby Rage, Lucy had been going through all the archive files to assure herself that all the evidence in the file was in evidence lock-up. So far about fifty percent of the files were missing information.
How had this happened? How had they not seen what Lana had been doing? When questioned she’d had no answer. She’d quietly packed up her things and left. Mayson had been too shocked to do anything.
The problem was there was no hard evidence linking Lana to the missing information or evidence in any of these cases. It was all circumstantial, but Lucy knew Lana was behind it.
She glanced at the photo on her desk of herself and her sister. “Should have listened to you, sis.” She muttered under her breath.
“Listened to what?”
Startled, Lucy spun around, knocking the large stack of files on her desk over; onto the floor with the rest of the files she’d gone through. She narrowed her eyes in irritation as she lifted her head to meet the face of her intruder.
“Sorry.” Jimmy smiled sheepishly.
Lucy let out a frustrated scream, “Jimmy, what are you doing here?”
“I heard about the case against the Skins.” Jimmy said remorsefully, “I wanted to see how you’re doing.”
Lucy winced inwardly, immediately regretting the tone she’d taken with him. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I’m..I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” He asked, pulling up a chair next to her. “Because, no offense or anything, but you don’t look it. You…”
“Jimmy, I really have a lot of work to do.” Lucy cut him off.
“Your mom came by the newsroom the other day.”
“I know,” Lucy said quietly.
“CK had to rescue Lois from lunch with her,” Jimmy said with a smile.
“How is she?” Lucy asked curiously.
“Good. She’s..” He was quiet a moment, “She’s still not the same, but she’s good.” She nodded quietly. “You can’t keep yourself cut off from her forever. You’re going to have to talk to her. You guys used to be so close…”
“Used to be.” Lucy corrected. She sighed, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, “I really appreciate you coming by, Jimmy, but I really have a lot of work to do here.”
“Fine.” Jimmy nodded. “I’ll go.”
***
Clark landed in a darkened alley where he heard the muffled cries for help. The cry was so faint he was barely able to pick it up. “Hello?”
“H…e.lp.” a weak cry for help came from the end of the alley.
He advanced forward, keeping his guard up as he examined the alley. He stopped.
Crumpled in the back of the alley was an elderly man, covered in blood. He x-rayed the man’s body and grimaced when he saw the fractured ribs and arms. “It’s okay.” He tried to reassure him.
The man turned to face him, “Su..”
“Don’t try to talk.” He reassured him, kneeling down beside him. As the man leaned closer to him; he got a better look at his face. He squinted, uncertain he was seeing correctly, “Mr. Lane?”
***
“How did your kidnapper end up in the bottom of Hobb’s Bay?” Lois asked.
Perry sighed, raking a hand through his thinning hair. “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Well, judging by what they did to him; I’d guess he pissed someone off,” Lois said, reading over the coroner report. The phone beside her rang, “Lois Lane.” She said, answering the phone.
***
Lucy stared irritated at the files before her. How? How had so many files been sabotaged without her knowing? She glanced at the photo of herself and Lois from last year. It seemed like ages ago.
The phone beside her rang, “Lucy Lane.”
The voice on the other end was one she hadn’t heard in quite some time, “Lucy? It’s Lois. You need to come down to Metropolis General.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Uncle Mike was attacked,” Lois said shakily. “I’ll, uh, see you when you get here.”
With that, she hung up. Lucy glanced at the photo on her desk and shook her head. How had any of this happened?
***
Marge’s Café stood on the corner of Fifth Street. A young thirty-something woman in a sharp business suit entered the café with a bright smile on her face. She scanned the crowd of customers until she spotted who she was expecting. The hostess watched in exasperation as she was pushed aside by the woman.
“Really, Nigel, I’d have thought you’d want to meet somewhere a bit nicer,” Toni said airily as she took a seat across from him.
Nigel looked up at her, over the newspaper he was reading. “I prefer to remain in plain sight. People only see what they want to.”
“So, what’s this about?” Toni asked, getting down to business. “You had my club burnt down and nearly killed me. What makes you think I want anything to do with you?”
Nigel folded his paper and placed it on the table in front of him. His demeanor changed from the cool and collected businessman to someone dark; someone capable of anything. The expression in his eyes was unnerving.“If we’re going to be working together you must remember not to make such accusations in public.” His demeanor changed again to a façade of the calm businessman he portrayed to the public. Toni watched in amazement as his facial features relaxed and she once again saw the man she’d always seen in parties and business functions with Lex Luthor. He patted her hand soothingly, “You obviously suffered a more severe bump on the head than you thought. I had nothing to do with that fire.”
“Bill Church was nowhere near Metropolis when…”
“Let me repeat myself, ‘I had nothing to do with it.’ Are we clear?”
“Yes,” Toni said quietly.
“Good. Then we can start getting down to business.” Nigel smiled.
How had she ever thought Lex Luthor to be dangerous? The expression in Nigel’s eyes when he was angered exposed a fraction of what he was capable of. It had been rumored that he had once served in her majesty’s secret service as a spy. He had killed. He was a dangerous man and not to be crossed.
“What business?”
“Bringing down Intergang.” Nigel smiled. “Croissant?” He offered her a basket of pastry. She declined, shaking her head.
“How exactly do you expect to do that?”
“Information. I have information on something even Bill Church Jr. didn’t know about his father.” Nigel smiled, opening a file in front of him. “Information is power.”
Toni peered up at Nigel suspiciously, uncertain what he was getting at. He handed her the file and she read with interest. “She gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘homecare,’ wouldn’t you agree?”
TBC...
