As Cat stood up to visit the ladies’ room, Jimmy hesitantly knocked on Perry’s door. She wondered what that was about, but then shrugged and continued her errand. She’d learn the details later.
Cat returned to the news floor just as Clark went into Perry’s office. She also saw him ten minutes later when he came out. His transformation was dramatic.
While he was otherwise occupied, she organized her notes for the next meeting with Platt, put fresh batteries in her new WayneTech digital micro-recorder, ran the daily file backup on her computer – growling about Jimmy the whole time for convincing Perry that everyone had to do it – and checked Lois’ desk to see if she was coming back that evening. Lois’s belief that Platt had something real on the shuttle fire had infected Cat, and she wanted to talk to him again.
Just not alone, not in that part of town, even in daylight. And since her partner was at her weekly therapist’s visit, she finalized her decision to see if Clark was available. If not, it might indicate that he still didn’t trust her. If so, it would give her a chance to evaluate him, both professionally and personally.
But his shaky exit from the Chief’s office might change those plans.
She sighed and stood. No time like the present to find out.
She stopped on the far side of his desk. “Hey, Clark, are you okay?”
He looked at her and leaned back in his chair. “I learned a valuable lesson this afternoon. Listen to Jimmy.”
She half-grinned and nodded. “He may be a kid, but he’s pretty sharp. What happened?”
He looked away. “I promised some interview subjects that I wouldn’t use their names without their permission.”
“Uh-oh. Were they part of the story? Did you not know that doing that was a bad thing?”
He frowned at her. “You’ve been talking to Jimmy? That’s pretty much what he said to me, except it wasn’t in the form of a question.”
“Live and learn. And since you’re not clearing out your desk, I assume that you’re still employed here.”
“I got the story. I also got chewed out. Had I not gotten the story, I assume that I would now be putting my personal items in a very small box.”
“Like I said, live and learn. Um, do you want to go with me to see that EPRAD physicist? Lois can’t make it today, and I’ve got a feeling that this is a time-critical thing.”
“Time-critical, huh?” She nodded back. “Maybe a little bit dangerous, too?”
“Possible but not highly probable. It’s just that I’m used to working with a partner.”
“I’ll go. Temporary partners, right?”
Her eyebrows drew down. “Why do you assume it’s temporary?”
He shrugged and answered, “Sorry, I thought you and Lois were a fairly permanent team.”
She relaxed and smiled. “We are. I’d go alone, but I’d feel better with a backup on this one.”
“I can do that. Ready to go now?”
“Let me make sure it’s okay with Perry. If it is, I’ll follow you out the door.”
*****
Clark shoehorned himself into the passenger seat on the dinged-up brown Buick Century. “Don’t you think your Porsche needs an upgrade?”
Cat snorted a laugh. “A Porsche wouldn’t last ten minutes in Platt’s neighborhood. It’d be stripped and up on blocks before you shut your door.”
Clark couldn’t help but grin back at her. “Good point. How far is Platt’s place?”
“Travel time is about what it takes to get a red Corvette to the nearest chop shop.”
They shared a chuckle, and he couldn’t decide if their easy banter was a good thing or not. He still didn’t want to be her enemy, if only because it would alienate him from Lois, but he also didn’t want to get too close to her. He only knew the woman Cat had pretended to be eight years earlier, and neither one of them knew the current version of the other yet.
Friends, maybe. Lovers – not so much.
He felt a tap on his arm. “Hey, Mr. Green Jeans, we’re here. If you’re going to watch my six, you’ll have to come in with me.”
They opened the car doors and stepped out. He shook his head and said, “Sorry, I was woolgathering. And I’m supposed to watch your what?”
Their doors slammed shut at almost the same moment. “Sorry. Military term, means to check to see if anything is behind you.”
“I didn’t know you were in the military.”
“I wasn’t, but Lois was. I’ll tell you about her medals sometime when she’s not around.”
“The story is that fascinating?”
Cat looked off to one side for a moment, then said, “It’s fascinating enough that she’s seeing a shrink about how she got them. And before you ask, no, I don’t know the whole story. She won’t tell me about it.”
Clark nodded, then said, “Then I won’t bring it up with her. Platt’s in apartment two-B, right?”
“Yes. Latrine two-B.”
He grinned as he swept the area with his eyes. “Let me guess, Lois came up with that name.”
“That’s the polite version.” She pushed the door open with one finger. “Dr. Platt? It’s Cat Grant.” No response. “Cat Grant from the Daily Planet? We’re here to—”
The acrid odor, the quiet buzz and snap, the absence of life in the room, suddenly came together for him. “Cat!” he hissed. “Get back!”
“Don’t be silly, you’ll protect maaaaahhh!”
She lurched back against him, suddenly trembling. Clark held her upper arms and turned her to face him.
“He – he’s – they – Platt – dead—”
“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay.”
“No!” she sobbed. “It’s not okay! Platt is dead!” She took two deep breaths and let them out slowly. “He – they – it was electrocution, wasn’t it?”
He looked closely at the scene, then nodded. “Yes.”
She stepped closer and buried her face in his shoulder. “Oh, Clark! I can’t believe it!”
“It’s okay, I promise. We’ll find out who did this and get justice for him.”
She pushed back and glared at him with overflowing eyes. “What about his daughter?”
“What? He had a daughter?”
She turned and walked in a small circle in front of him. “Nine-year-old daughter, some kind of genetic disability that put her in a wheelchair, a wife who left him because he was trying to protect them both, research on the space station that might have fixed the girl’s spinal cord. Won’t happen now.” She stopped in front of him. “Samuel Platt won’t know about it, anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
She took a half-step backward and glared at him. “You’re going to wake him up now? Maybe play like you’re Dr. Frankenstein?”
“I believe that there’s a life after this one, Cat. I believe that whatever happens to his family, he’ll know about it.”
“Oh, really? You think he’ll be on the good side of the afterlife?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. That decision is above my pay grade. But I do believe there’s an afterlife where people go.”
She dashed the last of the moisture from her face and gestured at Platt’s body. “Normally I’d scoff, but under the circumstances – well—”
“I understand,” he almost whispered. At a normal volume, he said, “Shouldn’t we call the police now?”
“Yeah. I know a detective who’ll listen to us.”
“Listen to us about what?”
Cat’s face hardened and her hands clenched into fists. “Some people will say this was suicide. It wasn’t. It was murder.”
*****
Henderson shook his head at Cat, whose frustration was mounting by the second. “You’re telling me that you think Samuel Platt made these elaborate preparations just to off himself?” she fumed. “I don’t believe what I’m hearing from you!”
The only thing the police had done so far was to unplug the wire Platt had held. The medical examiner was still taking measurements and pictures, and other officers were taking notes on the contents of the room and its general condition.
Henderson sighed and pointed at the body in the chair. “That man was a scientist, a really smart guy. His specialty was designing and installing the electrical connections between the space shuttle and the space station. He’d forgotten more about electricity and electronics than you and I together ever knew.”
“He was murdered, Bill! And I can prove it!”
One of the officers taking notes chortled, then said, “Hey, if this dude was gonna barbeque himself, at least he coulda brought some sauce.”
Two other officers chuckled and a third smiled. Then Clark stunned Cat by leaning into the first cop’s face and growling, “That man was not just a sack of meat. He was a husband and a father, a man who people loved and who are going to miss him terribly for the rest of their lives. I strongly suggest you remember who these victims are and that you speak of the dead with respect from now on.”
The silence that suddenly enveloped the room was broken a few seconds later when an EMT stuck her head through the doorway. “Detective, you guys about done here? We need to get this man to the coroner’s office.”
Cat turned and glared at her. “You guys doing an autopsy?”
She nodded. “Yes, ma’am, the law requires it for suicides or suspected homicides.”
“Oh, this was definitely a homicide.”
Henderson frowned at her. “That’s not your call, Grant.”
“You don’t think so? Like I told you, I can prove it right now.”
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s not an armadillo.”
Cat half-grinned at him. “This is a homicide duck, Bill. I can prove it now and save you some embarrassment or I can make you look stupid in print.”
Henderson added a frustrated hand-lift to his frown. “Fine! You have two minutes to prove your assertion before we take the body and write this up as a suicide.”
She looked around and pointed to a chair across the room. “Can Clark sit there?”
Henderson’s frown turned to puzzlement. “Yeah, sure, but I don’t see what—”
“Clark, have a seat.”
Clark shrugged at the detective and sat down.
Cat began describing the scene they’d found. “Okay, Clark is Platt. We have this imaginary electrical wire with a standard plug on the end. Platt pulls off his shoes and socks, then strips the insulation from the other end from the lamp cord down to bare wire and puts one strand in the bowl of water at his feet. Now the weight of the wire will pull it out of the water unless he puts his bare heel down on it. That’s how we found him.”
“As long as you didn’t touch anything.”
“We didn’t, Inspector,” Clark said.
Cat continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Second foot goes in the water. Now he grabs the other bare wire and holds it with his thumbs and forefingers.”
Henderson nodded. “Sounds right so far.”
Cat pointed at the wall. “Light socket would have to be about here because the wire is fairly short. Now Platt plugs in the – I see those eyebrows, Clark, I know you’ve figured it out, just hang on – Platt plugs the wire in and sits back to be electrocuted.”
Henderson’s eyes narrowed at Clark, whose eyebrows had lifted to Spock-like levels. “No. Nobody’s got enough hands to do all that. He couldn’t have moved with all that juice going through him. And he couldn’t have plugged it in and then grabbed the wire without his body jerking all over the place. The wire’s not long enough anyway. No way he would have ended up in the chair and held the wire at the same time.” He turned and glared at Cat. “Leave it to a Planet reporter to show up the entire Metropolis police department.”
Cat’s mouth opened, but Clark’s voice came out. “Inspector?”
“Yes, Mr. Bergen?”
“Ha, ha. I saw Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen on the Ed Sullivan show reruns too.”
“I suppose you want to correct my conclusions also.”
Clark shook his head. “I just wanted to ask you what you were told before you got here.”
Henderson tipped his head to the right. “I got a call from the Chief of Detectives that I needed to cover a high-profile suicide, a former EPRAD employee.”
“That’s what I thought. You were led to think ‘suicide’ before you got here. It was definitely murder, and somebody’s trying to cover this up.”
“You think my boss is crooked?”
“Not necessarily. Someone might have told him that this was – quote – ‘a high-profile suicide’ – end quote – and he passed that description on to you. That doesn’t mean he came up with the description on his own.”
Henderson was quiet for a long moment, then said, “I’d like to think I would have figured it out before too long, but you’re right.” He turned to his team. “People, this is now a homicide investigation. Anybody tells you any different, you say that the verdict is still open, then come to me and tell me who told you that and how you were told. As of now, this is your only case. I’ll clear it with your precinct commanders.” He turned to Clark and said, “Kent, you’d make a good murder victim.”
He returned an exaggerated shudder. “I certainly hope not.”
“Me too, Bill,” Cat added. “He’s not quite housebroken yet.” She looked at her wristwatch and yawned. “We need to get some sleep and get this story written up for Perry in the morning.”
“Drive safely, you two. Oh, and when you write the story, just say Platt died under suspicious circumstances and the police are still investigating and we can’t comment on active cases. It’ll be safer all around.”
Cat nodded. “Clark and I understand, Bill. Don’t we, Clark?”
“Sure. We won’t disclose anything crucial until we have solid evidence that Platt was murdered.”
“You mean ‘when the police complete their investigation,’ don’t you, Kent?”
“Of course, Inspector.”
*****
Clark guided Cat’s brown Buick against the curb and put it in Park. “You sure you want to do this? You trust me with your baby?”
Cat’s tired chuckle let him know she’d recovered from her shock. “This isn’t my baby, it’s my third cousin four times removed. The ugly one, and not the one with a good personality.”
He laughed softly. “Yeah, it’s kind of a wreck. Get some sleep, okay?”
She settled back against the passenger seat. “This feels good right here.”
He shook his head. “Don’t think so. You need to sleep in your own bed, not in the front seat of a crummy car. Do you want me to walk you to your front door?”
Her round brown eyes smiled back at him. “No, but thanks. I’m good from here.”
“I’m serious, Catharine. What floor are you on?”
“It’s a very safe building, Clark. You don’t need to treat me with kid gloves.”
His eyebrows almost came together and his voice hardened slightly. “After what we walked into tonight, I’m not taking any chances. Do you have a street view from your apartment?”
She sighed. “Yes, Daddy, my place is on the fourth floor, and I’ll wave to you from that window right there as soon as I lock my front door and turn on the light.”
“I’ll give you two minutes from the time you touch the building’s front door. Sleep fast. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She put her hand on the door handle, then paused. “Would you talk to Lois like this?”
“Lois has military medals earned in what I assume was combat, and there’s a military-issue pistol in her purse. I’d be astounded if she weren’t an expert shot and well-versed in unarmed combat techniques. Anybody who goes after her deserves what he gets. You, on the other hand—” he reached across her and unlatched the door “—are tough and resilient, but unarmed. Now get going. And if you wait too long to signal me—”
“You’ll come charging to my rescue whether I need it or not. Fine, I’m going. You’ll pick me up at eight-thirty in the morning?”
He nodded. “I promise, provided you wait inside your apartment until you see the car. I’ll start the clock when you call my pager. Good night.”
She put one foot out, then stopped. “Clark?”
“Yes?”
“I’m really sorry all that happened and that we’re the ones who found him like that. It was hard to see, but I – I’m glad you were there with me. I felt safe.”
“Glad I could help,” he replied softly.
“I mean it. You’re making me – I guess ‘respect you’ would be a good term for it. You watched over me without putting pressure on me, and you’re still doing it. I’m impressed.” She hesitated, then said, “You’re at least as good a man as you were eight years ago. Maybe better.”
He gave her a half-smile. “Good night, Catharine.”
She smiled back, then slipped out and used her card key to enter her building. In less than two minutes, her light came on and she waved through the window at him.
*****
Cat double-checked her lock and turned off the living room light. The night light in the bathroom, plugged in for just this kind of thing, enabled her to dodge her furniture and find the bedroom.
She smiled to herself and shook her head. Clark was such a Boy Scout. She was sure that if he hadn’t seen her at the window, he would’ve burst into her apartment ready to take on a team of Navy Seals to protect her.
The prospect didn’t irritate her like she’d thought it might. In fact, it might be nice to be watched over by Clark Kent.
She wondered if he thought about watching over her – and if the thought irritated him.
*****
Dana Friskin saw a number of combat veterans in her practice, but in her experience Lois Lane was unique. She’d been awarded some high-profile recognition due to her service and sacrifice, and her company commander had actually recommended her for the Medal of Honor. Dana didn’t know if Lois’ brief combat time had tipped the scales toward a Silver Star and away from the higher award or if politics was somehow involved, but one quality Lois shared with most other vets was her sure and certain conviction that she was no hero, that all she’d done was her job, and that others were far more deserving of such accolades.
One thing that Lois didn’t share with other vets was her insistence on being armed at all times, whether in the city or in the suburbs or on the vanishingly rare occasions when she visited rural New Troy. Despite Lois’ control of her weapon and her apparent reluctance to use it, Dana worried that Lois would one day shoot someone she would regret shooting. Most returning vets didn’t even want to be in the same room as any firearm.
Still, Lois seemed to be making progress. She was far less likely to throw someone into a wall than she had been when their sessions began, and as far as Dana knew she hadn’t pointed her pistol at anyone for several weeks. The local homicide detectives were glad, too, since she was also less likely to kill anyone.
Of course, one bad experience could flush all the progress they’d made together in a moment if Lois wasn’t careful.
“Thank you for seeing me this early in the day, Dr. Friskin.”
“It’s not a bother or a problem, Lois. In fact, I’m glad we’re having this session now instead of later. I have a late afternoon meeting scheduled with the Metropolis Police Department, and I was chewing my fingernails off up to the elbow trying to figure out how to fit it into my schedule.”
Lois smiled. “Then I’m glad I was able to accommodate you.”
“Good. What do you want to talk about today?”
“I’m feeling pretty good right now. I think you should pick the subject.”
“If that’s what you want, okay. I understand that there’s a new reporter working with you.”
“What? How did you hear about him?”
“A good therapist never reveals her sources.”
“Very funny, Doc. Anyway, there is a new guy in the newsroom, and he seems to know what he’s doing. He has a lot of credits from out-of-the-way places around the world, and according to Cat he’s matured quite a bit.”
Dana frowned in surprise. “Cat already knew him? Is that how he got the job?”
Lois’ expression went flat. “No. Uh, I probably shouldn’t tell you too much about that – but you do need some context. Cat and Clark met on her first undercover assignment when she was new to the paper. She – um – they got more involved than they should have and Clark got mad and walked out when he found out she was already a reporter. He thought they were working on a story for the school paper, not the Daily Planet, and I guess he thought she was just using him to further her career. He disappeared and they lost touch, and they just accidentally reconnected in the last week. And as far as I know, neither one is without blame in the ‘losing touch’ sweepstakes.”
Dana smiled and nodded but didn’t say anything. It was an effective technique to get more information out of a reluctant subject, since most people felt the urge to continue the story or give more detail.
But Lois knew that little trick. She sat on the edge of the couch, waiting for Dana, who finally decided she had everything she was going to get on the subject. “Okay, Lois, I think I understand. What’s your personal impression of Clark?”
“My personal impression?”
“Yes.”
“Are you asking me if I trust him?”
“If that’s what you want to tell me.”
“Huh.” Lois pursed her lips in thought for a long moment, then said, “I don’t have any specific reason to withhold trust, but I don’t have much of a sample size for comparison, either. Cat seems to trust him, but I don’t know how much of that is remembering him from eight years ago or from her reading him very well now. What I’ve seen of him is positive, but I haven’t seen everything about him. There’s got to be more of him to know.”
“Are you sure, Lois? Maybe he’s one of those rare people where what you see is what you get.”
Lois shook her head. “We all have secrets, Doc. You taught me that.”
“I did do that, didn’t I? Well, then, let’s put a pin in that and move on. How do you feel about Clark?”
“Didn’t you just ask me if I trusted him?”
“Sorry. I meant to ask how you feel about Clark on a personal level.”
Lois frowned and partially turned her head to one side. “I don’t have any strong feelings about Clark, either positive or negative ones. I just think Cat likes him.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
Lois pulled back as if dodging a punch in slow motion. “Cat’s a big girl and she makes her own decisions. She doesn’t run her choices by me for my approval.”
“But the two of you have been partners for almost four years. You work very well together and your writing styles complement each other – at least, that’s what Mr. White tells me.”
“Wait. You’re discussing my therapy with my boss?”
“Absolutely not. The only thing he knows from me is that you’re attending the sessions. I’m legally and ethically constrained from revealing your personal medical information to anyone who doesn’t have your specific permission to see it. And all he’s told me is that you’re supposed to receive VA-recommended psychological counseling for as long as you need it. That’s one of your veteran’s benefits and I’m almost offended that you haven’t kept that in mind. I explained all that to you in our very first session. Now, to redirect our conversation, can you tell me how you feel about Cat’s feelings for Clark?”
Lois’ nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed. The answer to this question would tell Dana a lot about Lois’ progress.
Slowly the younger woman calmed herself. After her breathing slowed, she leaned back against the couch and averted her gaze. “I – um – I don’t – if she really liked him I don’t know that I’d much like it.”
“Do you feel as if she might abandon you?”
Lois’ fingers found a loose thread on the cushion beside her and began picking at it. “Not ‘abandon,’ exactly. I just – I don’t want to be alone.”
“That’s a completely understandable reaction to a possible drastic change. Let me say one more thing about it and then we’ll move on. Okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Love isn’t a finite resource, Lois. For example, a woman can love her husband, her children, her parents, her friends, all in different ways and with different levels of intensity, but loving one person doesn’t reduce the amount of love she has for the other people in her life. If I really put others first, then my volume of love isn’t depleted by my loving others. It’s multiplied. So if Cat does end up loving Clark – or any other man – it doesn’t mean she’ll take that love from you. It just means that her love will grow and expand to encompass another person. Does that make sense?”
Lois put her hands in her lap and looked at Dana. “I think so. I’ll have to ponder on it for a while, though, before I really understand it.”
Dana nodded calmly, but inside she shouted for joy. This was close to a major breakthrough for Lois. She’d faced something that frightened her without using her weapon or running for cover, two reflexes drilled into her by her military training. It was a far more controlled reaction than she would have exhibited when she first began seeing Dana as a therapist. It boded very well for the younger woman’s continuing recovery.
