But he had no intention of waiting until tonight. Norma Randall might spend her day somewhere other than at her house. That was a distinct possibility, considering what had happened yesterday. He wasn't worried, however. All he needed to do was to follow her. If she went home, well and good. If she went to wherever her sanctuary yesterday had been, he would find out. It simply required patience and persistence. He had both.
Your portrait of Robert Owens, serial rapist and murderer, is horrifying, Nan. It's terrible to think that there really
are people like him out there, carefully, tirelessly stalking their (usually female) victims.
Norma Randall paused in the little entranceway of Henderson's home. The house wasn't large, but it was very cozy and welcoming.
After we have just been told how tirelessly Robert Owens is stalking Norma, it's more than disquieting to follow her into Bill and Sue Henderson's cozy home, where she feels this false sense of security. Because she will be alone in this house except for a woman so pregnant that she should have given birth two days ago, and Norma will be asleep, too.
Norma had to hide a smile. This was a side of Bill Henderson that his colleagues didn't see very often. He deliberately cultivated his cynical, unflappable image at work and it was in its own way reassuring to know that very little could rattle the man. He always seemed to have everything under control, but under his hard-bitten, professional image was another Bill Henderson who genuinely cared about his fellow human beings. Well, she knew that. Look at how he'd gone out of his way to help her in the past couple of days. The City of Metropolis could do with more cops like him.
I love how Norma sees this softer side of Bill Henderson. On the other hand, I'm not as impressed as Norma appears to be that Bill has done most of the housework the last few days. Surely that is not too much to ask for when his wife is so heavy with her pregnancy that she could give birth any day now?
Norma gave him a reassuring smile as he opened the front door. "If anything happens, I have your cell phone number on my phone's speed dial for now, sir."
Henderson nodded. "I hadn't thought of that. Thanks, Randall."
"No problem. And, sir --"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for what you're doing for me. I appreciate it."
He gave the faintest of smiles. "You're welcome," he said.
Norma watched him leave, frowning a little. Something about the way he had answered her had struck a note of familiarity, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Norma is slowly beginning to realize that there is even more to Bill Henderson than she thought. Not only is he this softie of a husband apart from the efficient, no-nonsense police officer. There is something else about him, too.
Bill Henderson left his house and glanced around the neighborhood before he made his way toward his car. It was just past nine o'clock, he saw, glancing at his wristwatch, and the neighborhood was quiet. Many of the neighbors were probably sleeping in, he thought, feeling mildly envious.
The neighbours are sleeping in... yes, it is a Saturday morning.
The sprinklers at the Murphy family's residence, he saw, were overwatering their lawn, as usual, and a stream of water was running over their driveway and down the gutter.
Good thing they don't live in California. Or Sydney. Didn't anyone tell them not to waste the Earth's limited supply of fresh water?
Cars were parked in driveways all the way up and down the block, and a large, yellow cat was sunning himself atop the hood of Ed Dalton's pickup.
I can just see the cat. How lazy and comfortable he looks.
A teenager was riding his bicycle halfway down the street, headed in the opposite direction,
A teenager is up and outside already while the adults are sleeping in? That's unusual.
and a man from the Metropolis Power and Light Company was reading the meter for the MacPhearsons' home, two doors down from his.
C'mon! It's Saturday. Do Metropolis Power and Light Company require their employees to read meters on a Saturday? In Sweden where I live, both the employees and the customers of electricity companies would be left alone on a Saturday.
Ummm. This guy was reading the meter for the MacPhearsons' house, two doors from the Hendersons'. That's close to home, indeed. Is the electricity guy getting closer?
Um. Uh. I seem to remember that Robert Owens had a job. Don't tell me... could he be working for... Metropolis Power and Light Company? And, ummm... could it be that the people working there don't usually read meters on a Saturday?
A crow, perched on the telephone line, cawed hoarsely as he opened the door of his car, and somewhere a dog barked but other than that he could see no sign of anything moving on the entire street.
Uh. In Swedish we have an expression, "ill luck raven", meaning someone who warns you of trouble all the time. The expression surely puts the image of a dark, crow-like bird in your mind, though. And here we have crow cawing hoarsely as Henderson is opening the door to his car, as he is about to drive off to work and leave Sue and Norma alone. Don't, Bill. Even the dog disapproves.
The rain of last night had passed and the sun shone down brightly, dispelling some of the chill in the crisp late autumn air. The leaves of the big oak trees that lined the street were definitely turning, he noticed, and a fair number of them were already collecting on the street and sidewalk. The faint smell of wood smoke floated on the morning breeze.
Let's hope your whole life won't be a heap of ashes the next time you come home, Bill.
He started up the engine of his vehicle and pulled away from the curb, aware of a distinct sense of unease, of having missed something important.
Yes, you did.
It was probably just the natural nerves he felt about Sue, he thought.
No, it wasn't.
He was just getting back into his car when the realization hit him. He was in the air, changing from Inspector Henderson to the Black Knight as his feet left the ground. The sonic boom marking his departure rattled windows across Metropolis as he traced his way through the air in a streak of black, back toward his home, hoping desperately that he wasn't too late.
Let's hope so, Bill.
Norma climbed into bed, sliding down between lavender-scented sheets, aware of a vast fatigue. It had been a tense few days and a busy night, and it wasn't going to be any easier tonight. But after that she had Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off, before she started her day shift. She only hoped that they found Robert Owens soon. The thought of being stalked for days by a man who was almost certainly a psychopath was not particularly attractive. At least, here in the Hendersons' house, she was relatively safe. There was no way the guy could have traced her here.
Are you going to be a
sleeping lamb to the slaughter, Norma?
The faint sound of the latch on her door turning brought her wide-awake.
She couldn't have been asleep more than twenty minutes, but the muzziness of suddenly interrupted sleep was shocked away by the ice-hot jolt of sheer adrenaline that shot through her bloodstream.
Thank God. She woke up.
The room was dark, but she heard the latch as it was eased back, and then the muted light of the hallway without was suddenly visible in a line as the door swung slowly and gently inward an inch and paused.
Straight out of a horror movie.
Someone had turned out the light in the hallway, she thought, and Sue Henderson was very unlikely to be attempting to sneak into her room in this stealthy manner. The faint line of pale light was partially blocked, and Norma's mind went bright with terror.
But not panic. She had faced danger to life and limb before. Last night she had barely escaped with her life simply because the Black Knight had shown up when he did.
Norma feels terror, but not panic. She is the kind of heroine who will survive the horror movie.
I'm not going to quote from the struggle, but I love how Norma and Sue were able to - almost - take care of Robert Owens on their own, even though I was
extremely grateful to see the Black Knight come to the rescue.
Norma looked into the Black Knight's face. There was something very familiar about this man.
"Thank you," she said. "I seem to be saying that a lot to you lately."
The Knight nodded slightly. "You're welcome," he said.
He sounded exactly like Bill Henderson, she thought. But it couldn't be, could it? Bill Henderson didn't have super powers. Except that he did. Now that she knew what to look for, she had no doubt at all.
I'm glad that Norma was able to figure out that the Black Knight is Bill Henderson. Of course, this somehow makes it even more irritating that Lois was fooled seemingly forever by Clark Kent's flimsy excuses. If I had written the scripts for the episodes of the ABC TV show, Lois would have figured Clark out early in the first season.
Norma glanced down at herself, clad in her flannel pajamas. This was hardly how she wished to appear to her fellow officers when they arrived, but disturbing the scene of a crime wasn't something she wanted to do, either. With a mental shrug, she turned to Robert Owens. "You are under arrest," she stated. "We can probably start with suspicion of breaking and entering, and assault with a deadly weapon. I'm sure we'll find other crimes to charge you with when we really get into this thing. In the meantime, you have the right to remain silent ..."
I very, very much like Norma's professionalism. She is a great cop, and that means she can be a cop in her pajamas, too, and she can be a cop in front of her colleagues dressed like that, too.
Whew! I'm so glad that the serial rapist got caught. Now only the wrapping-up is left of this story. I guess we will see Sue give birth in the very last chapter. Will she have a boy or a girl? And will we see a bit more of Lois and Clark in the last chapter, too?
Ann
