Table of Contents
From Part 10:“I have to go,” Clark said abruptly, urgently. “Lois, get over to your place
now. I don’t know what’s going on, but a call’s just gone out for reinforcement fire trucks.”
Lois could feel herself stiffening. “Again?”
Clark nodded, already heading for the door. “It could be nothing. Or it could be there’s more damage to the foundations. But the sooner I get there...” He trailed off, leaving her to draw her own conclusions, then shot through the door; she could see him heading at a brisk pace for the stairwell.
He could be right, Lois told herself firmly. It could easily be just that the construction crew was having difficulty reinforcing the foundations and they’d called out the fire department for help. Or maybe a wall in the basement had collapsed from the stress of yesterday’s explosion and someone was trapped... None of that would be unexpected.
All the same... “I have to go,” she told Perry.
“Sure. Go,” he instructed her.
***********
Now read on...“I take it that everything is in place?”
“Naturally, sir,” Nigel St John murmured, lifting the lid on the Spanish cedar humidor without waiting to be asked; like any well-trained butler, he could anticipate his master’s wishes.
Lex carefully selected a cigar, weighing it in his hand for several moments before holding it out for Nigel to clip the end, then placing it between his lips so that it could be lit. “Excellent.” He took a long, slow draw of the fragrant aroma before exhaling a perfect smoke ring.
Nigel silently closed the humidor again. “I received a call a few minutes ago confirming that the loose end has also been disposed of.”
Lex inclined his head. “I never doubt your ability to carry out my wishes, Nigel. That is, after all, why I employ someone of your... experience.” He smiled in amusement.
Nigel’s smile in response was wintry. “Indeed, sir. My former employers did, of course, offer impeccable training.”
“Of which I am only too happy to take advantage.” Lex took another puff of his cigar. “My poor Lois,” he added, his expression creasing in sympathy. “She will be distraught. To lose her home, all her possessions... to have nothing other than what she stands up in...”
“She will be in need of a friend, sir,” Nigel observed, standing back, a hint of an amused smile curving over the patrician features.
“Indeed she will. And I, of course, could not simply stand by and watch a woman as beautiful, as charming, as Ms Lane suffer. Not when I am in a position to assist her.” He held the cigar to his lips again.
“Naturally, sir.”
There was silence in the penthouse office for a couple of minutes as one man smoked while the other watched contemplatively.
Lex exhaled once more, watching with satisfaction as the blue smoke wafted across his office. Then, stubbing out the remains of the finest Cuban, he got to his feet. “The charcoal pin-stripe for later, I think, Nigel.”
“An excellent choice, sir. And a sober tie? One with just a hint of a brighter colour - one would not wish to present too much of an aura of seriousness,” Nigel suggested.
“Perfect.” Lex headed towards the door. “Have the car ready for about two.”
**********
Thick black smoke was visible as Clark approached Carter Avenue. He focused on the source, and wasn’t really surprised when it proved to be coming from Lois’s apartment building. He’d been right to suspect that yesterday’s sabotage hadn’t been the end of the story - and he’d bet anything Lois cared to wager that this fire, wherever it had started, wasn’t accidental either.
The flames were licking at the roof; several fire crews were directing hoses at parts of the building, and officers wearing protective gear were staggering out through the doorway, carrying an unconscious form. Clark swooped down, taking the man from them - a firefighter whose oxygen tube seemed to have burned away - and flying him over to the waiting paramedics.
For the next hour, he was kept busy assisting the emergency services. He searched the building to ensure that there was no-one else inside; the fire crew hadn’t been able to be sure, and inside the apartment building the fire was an inferno. The officer in charge had already given the order for all crew to withdraw from the interior. Superman took hoses and foam spray to inaccessible parts of the building. He gave reports on the extent of the fire. And he rescued a couple of firefighters who were blown off their ladders when an upper-storey window exploded.
By the time Clark noticed Lois standing on the pavement trying hard not to chew her fingernails, the fire was finally getting under control. Still, the damage was extensive; he would be surprised, he thought, if the building could be saved. He was pretty sure that the roof was vulnerable, and although he’d had little opportunity to see the scale of interior damage he doubted that it would be superficial.
From what he’d been told, the fire had been raging for about an hour before he’d heard the call for backup fire tenders. It had seemed relatively minor at first, confined to the lower floor, and the crews had thought that they had it well under control. And then, the officer in charge had told him, there’d been an explosion of flame. A backdraft, perhaps, or a fire the crew had thought was out flaring up again - they didn’t know, couldn’t be sure at this stage. From then on, the fire had raged out of control and they’d had to call for backup.
The fire had to be deliberate. Clark simply wasn’t prepared to accept that this could be a coincidence. But why? He and Lois had been through all the arguments yesterday; there just didn’t seem to be any rationale for it. They couldn’t come up with anyone who might have a motive for destroying an apartment building. The question of insurance was even more remote now, surely - all the emergency workers at the scene were talking openly about this surely being deliberate. No-one was prepared to buy the possibility that there could have been two accidents in a row.
Finally, he was able to go to Lois. She’d been talking to a couple of bystanders for a while, he’d noticed; he hadn’t been sure whether they were other occupants of the same building, or just neighbours from elsewhere in the street. Now, she was alone again; her expression was strained, and she was looking at him.
“Lois.” He took her arm gently and steered her a little away from anyone who might overhear. “I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”
“I know,” she murmured, sounding as if she was straining to keep calm. “I could see how bad it was... Clark, what happened?” she demanded, almost shrilly.
“Lois,” he cautioned gently. “Clark isn’t here.”
She started. “Oh! I’m sorry!” she muttered. “Superman. I forgot. Superman.”
“It’s okay. No-one heard,” he reassured her. “But - we just need to be careful, okay?”
She nodded.
“I don’t know what happened yet,” he said. “But it had to be deliberate. As soon as I can, I’m going to go inside and take a look - though I’ll have to be careful, because I don’t know a lot about forensic science and I wouldn’t want to damage anything. You know the police and the fire department will be investigating too, though, Lois. We will find out what caused this.”
“I guess.” She shuddered slightly. “But - Superman, what’s it like inside? Is anything salvageable?”
He shook his head, saying gently, “I’m sorry, Lois. It’s pretty devastated. There wasn’t anywhere the fire didn’t reach. But you know that even if it hadn’t been that bad, you wouldn’t have been able to salvage anything anyway. Smoke and water damage, remember?”
“I guess,” she said resignedly. “I’m sorry - I’m being such a wimp. I’m never a wimp!” she added, sounding annoyed with herself.
“It’s hardly surprising,” Clark pointed out. “First what happened yesterday, and I know how worried you were then, and now this.” He glanced around; seeing that no-one appeared to be paying them any attention, he reached out and gently squeezed her arm. “I wish I could have done more - I don’t know, got here sooner, or maybe stayed here and kept watch -”
“You couldn’t have stayed here, Superman!” Lois pointed out, sounding more like her normal self. “You’re not a night watchman - you have much more important things to do than that anyway. And besides, if you had been here, whoever did this would probably have just waited until you were called away to something else.”
She was right, he knew. There was no sensible way that he could have prevented this. And yet, for Lois’s sake, he wished he could have.
His partner - his friend - was now homeless. And she had nothing except the clothes she stood up in and the few things they’d brought over to his place.
Okay, insurance would take care of possessions - or, at least, he hoped so. He wasn’t sure whether, if this were proven to be arson, insurers would pay out on tenants’ contents policies, or whether all insurance policies would be invalidated. Which could mean that several people, most of whom really couldn’t afford it, would have lost everything they owned.
Still, something would be done for the tenants, he imagined. Even if the building owners weren’t insured in the circumstances, he was pretty sure that they’d at least arrange temporary accommodation. As for Lois, he wouldn’t let her suffer.
He glanced at her again. She was still pale, but making a determined effort to pull herself together. “I have to go,” he murmured. “I’ll see you later, okay? You know where to find the key to my place?” he asked, his tone very soft.
She nodded.
“Fine. If I don’t see you at the paper, I’ll see you there,” he whispered. “And we’ll talk about everything then, okay?”
Lois nodded. “Thanks, Superman,” she said, more loudly than he’d spoken; he knew that it was for the benefit of anyone who might be watching.
He gave her a brief smile, then strode off in the direction of the chief fire officer.
*********
She went back to the Planet. There was really no point hanging around outside the ruins of her apartment building; there was no way that anyone was going to allow her to go inside, and even if she sneaked in on her own there was nothing to go in for. So Clark had assured her, and she believed him. She also knew that if there was anything at all which could be saved from her apartment, he would make a point of finding it and bringing it to her.
Her Kerths, for example. Oh, how she wished she’d thought to take them with her the previous afternoon! But then, she’d been sure that she’d be back in her apartment today or the next day. Even though Clark had said the explosion had been sabotage, it hadn’t occurred to either of them that it might be followed up by the complete destruction of the building.
Her Kerths. A sudden rush of guilt assailed her, hitting her like a physical blow. How could she be so shallow, so focused on something which was really, in the scale of what had happened today, so trivial? She and her neighbours had lost almost everything they owned. Their homes. Their valuables. Their prized possessions - things which were irreplaceable. Everything which added up to who and what they were - gone, in a blaze of fire.
And she was crying over some pieces of crystal? Which she could probably get replicas of anyway if she contacted the Kerth Committee.
And yet...
In the same way that her neighbours’ prized possessions represented who they were and were precious to her, her Kerths were who Lois Lane was. They were the tangible symbol of what she had made of herself: an award-winning reporter, the best in Metropolis. Those pieces of crystal said that no-one could call Lois Lane a failure. No-one could castigate her for not being the best. No-one could say that if she’d just tried that extra two per cent harder... She *was* the best, and those awards proved it. And now they were gone.
Locking her Jeep, Lois turned to walk to the elevator which would take her up from the parking garage to the newsroom floor. But for some reason her brain refused to send the command to her feet to move. After a few moments, she felt her body slump, as if the mammoth effort she’d put into holding herself together up until now had just run out of energy.
She’d lost everything. Her home. All of her belongings, apart from the Jeep and the few items she’d taken over to Clark’s. As if having had her desk stolen from her wasn’t bad enough, she was now homeless as well. She didn’t even know where she was going to sleep tonight.
Unbidden, unstoppable, tears began to flow. In the middle of the parking garage, Lois Lane sobbed helplessly.
Some minutes later, she fumbled around inside her purse, eventually coming up with a Kleenex that had seen better days. She scrubbed at her face, hoping that she was managing to erase all trace of tears. No-one was allowed to see Lois Lane upset, she told herself. Well, except for Clark. And then only in extreme circumstances.
Right now, she didn’t have time for senseless emotions such as tears. She had a job to do, and at the top of her list of tasks was finding out who had torched her home.
It simply didn’t make sense. What possible motive could there be?
She sighed and, fairly confident now that she looked presentable and not as if she’d just come out of a crying fit, took the elevator upstairs and went in search of Jimmy. Maybe, she thought, he would have come up with some answers to the questions Clark had set him the previous evening.
She couldn’t see him immediately, though, so she automatically headed for her desk... only to halt abruptly at the sight of a different staffer sitting there. The hot-desking policy, she remembered with an inward groan.
Not only had she lost her apartment, but she'd also lost her desk, she reminded herself again. Did she have nowhere left in the world to call her own?
“Lois!” Perry’s holler caught her attention; as she turned to him, he waved in her direction, beckoning her to him. “What happened?” he asked as she drew near.
She waited until he’d escorted her into his office before explaining.
His expression grew grim as she concluded the story. “Aww, honey, I’m so sorry. Is Superman still there?”
Lois nodded. “He’s going to try to find out what caused it. One thing’s for sure, it wasn’t accidental.”
“But who would want to burn down your apartment building?” Perry asked, shaking his head.
Lois shrugged. “Beats me. Look, Perry, I need Jimmy and I need somewhere to work. Forget this stupid policy - where can I go?”
Perry sighed. “Take the conference room. And if anyone has a problem with it, they can take it up with me. Send Steve to me if he objects, too. Not that I think he will - he’s just as unhappy with the policy as everyone else.”
“Thanks.” Lois rolled her eyes. “I’d work at home, except I don’t
have a home to work in!” Tears threatened again, and she glanced away, furiously blinking to force them away. She was
not going to give in to stupid crying again!
Perry noticed. She’d hoped he wouldn’t, but she’d learned long ago that her editor was too shrewd to miss things like that. But, to her relief, other than the swiftly-disguised expression of sympathy, he gave no sign of having seen.
“Go.” He waved her towards the door. “And I hope you figure out what’s behind it. But don’t forget that I have a newspaper to run, too, and I need column inches, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Lois tossed her head. “How’s this for a headline: Award-Winning Reporter Watches her Home Burn? And, In Freak Coincidence, Also Has Desk Stolen?”
He gave her a sympathetic, but impatient look. “You know, Lois, anyone else but you would be asking for the rest of the day off to deal with insurance companies and find somewhere to stay tonight.”
She shrugged. “If I don’t have anywhere else to go, I can pull an all-nighter here. So what? And I already called the insurance company before I got back here. There’s nothing more I can do until their assessor gets back to me. So I might as well work.”
Leaving Perry’s office, she headed for the conference room, spotting Jimmy on her way and dragging him along with her. No matter how long it took, and how many long shots she made him check out, she was going to get to the bottom of the fire.
No-one made Lois Lane homeless without paying the penalty.
*********
...tbc
