Supercop II: The Black Knight -- 10/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"I only saw it from an angle," Clark said finally. "The license was a New York plate, I'm certain of that -- an older plate. And the first two numbers were 46. That's all I saw."
"The first two numbers on the plate last night were 46," Henderson said. "If that's a coincidence, I'm Mayor Kelley's Great Aunt Mary."
"No. He's getting pretty bold," Clark said.
"Yeah." Henderson unlocked the driver's door of his car. "Well, so far he's managed to avoid the cops. The only real trouble he ran into was the boyfriend, the other night. He might be getting a bit cocky. That could turn out to be a mistake. We'll just have to be sure not to give him any reason to think we might have figured out who he is."
Superman nodded. Henderson got into the driver's seat and rolled down the window. "Look, I'm not going to try to give you all the information here. When you get back to the Planet, get Olsen to give you the stuff he has and read it. We've been saying that it's only a matter of time before our boy kills somebody. We may be wrong." He started up the car's engine.
"What do you mean?"
"He may already be a murderer," Henderson said. "See you at the Planet."
**********
And now, Part 10:
Henderson had just cut his engine and was opening the car door when his cell phone began to play. He flipped it open, reflecting that the little instrument was getting a workout today. "Henderson."
"This is Williams, getting back to you on that stuff from Randall's doorknob." The voice of the Forensics chief was a little crackly. Bad reception area, Henderson figured. "You were right. It was blood."
He'd been pretty sure already, but it was now one more piece of evidence added to the growing pile, Henderson thought. "Okay, thanks. You might pass that along to Wolfe."
"Already did. I had a brainstorm, though, and compared the results to the sample we got from the Rapist's little fiasco a few days ago. The blood type is the same -- A positive. I'm sending the sample over to the labs for further comparison."
"Good work," Henderson said. "Let me know when we get the results."
"Will do." Williams signed off.
The security guards at the entrance to the Daily Planet were getting to know him by sight, he thought, as he entered the lobby. One of the vendors waved in a friendly way. "Hey, Henderson. How's it going?"
"Surviving," he said. That was Jared, he thought. The guy that sold the double fudge crunch bars that Lois was always munching on. She claimed that they gave Ultra Woman an extra charge of energy, although he seemed to recall her eating the things long before the fortuitous lightning strike that had turned her into a superwoman. Still, you never knew. Maybe he'd have to try one. Besides, in spite of her attempts to eat a healthy diet, Sue's weakness for chocolate was something that he had learned about early in their relationship. Maybe he'd pick her up one on the way out.
It would have been tempting to simply run up the stairwell to the newsroom but he had never done it that way before his acquisition of super powers, and now wasn't the time to start. Henderson signaled for the elevator and waited patiently for the car to arrive. Several other persons gathered while he was waiting and one of them looked sharply at him. "Henderson, isn't it? Seems like you're starting to make this place your second home!"
He glanced at the speaker, keeping his expression in its usual deadpan lines. Ralph something, he thought. "And you are ...?"
"Ralph Stevenson. One of the Planet's reporters."
Recognition dawned. "Oh yes," Henderson said dryly. "I seem to remember you. Weren't you the one mixed up in that leak of information that nearly blew a bribery investigation of a City Councilman last year?"
"Uh --" Stevenson fell silent. The elevator doors opened and Henderson entered, satisfied that he'd made his point.
The elevator opened at last on the newsroom floor and Henderson stepped out, looking around. Perry White's office door was shut and the blinds to the editor's office were closed, but he could hear Lois's voice speaking from the room and Jim Olsen answering her. Perry White's voice was unmistakable, and he raised his eyebrows slightly at the note of anger in it. Well, judging by the discussion going on in there, it coincided with the investigation. Henderson descended the short flight of steps and crossed the newsroom floor toward White's office. Various newsroom personnel got out of his way as he made as straight a line as possible toward his goal, only pausing once to glance over his shoulder at the sound of the stairwell door opening. Clark Kent emerged, straightening his tie, and also made a beeline for his editor's office.
"Hey, Bill," he greeted Henderson as he paused to knock on the glass.
"Clark." Henderson nodded pleasantly. "I guess we're in for a war council."
"Looks like it," Clark said, opening the door. "Henderson's here to see you, Chief."
"Just the man I need to talk to." Perry White's usually pleasant expression was marred by a distinct scowl, but he motioned them both into the room. Henderson took in the sight of Lois Lane, Jim Olsen, and a pretty young woman seated on the office sofa. It took a second for Henderson to realize that the woman he was looking at was the same woman he had seen in the photos sent by Olsen to his office a short time ago: Robert Owens' battered wife.
"Mary," Perry White said, "this is Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis Police Department. Inspector, my niece, Mary Owens."
Henderson nodded pleasantly to her. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Owens. I saw the report," he added to Olsen. "Good work. Wolfe's checking the fingerprints with the Albany Police --"
His cell phone suddenly broke into the Chinese Dance again and he flipped it open. "Excuse me. Henderson," he said into the phone.
"It's Wolfe," the voice at the other end said. "Albany got back to me. We've got our I.D. They're his prints, all right."
"Put out a citywide APB," Henderson said. "And try to keep the LNN boys out of it, if you can."
"I'll do my best." The phone went dead.
Henderson turned to the group. "This is off the record for now," he said, "but in my book, Olsen's detective work entitles the Planet to the exclusive. You nailed him, Jim. The prints match."
"Owens?" Perry asked, grimly.
Henderson nodded.
"I don't understand," Mary Owens said. "I already told Uncle Perry that I didn't want to press charges against Robert. I just wanted to get away from him."
Henderson turned to Mary Owens. She was younger than Sue: probably in her early twenties, he thought, and had to suppress a shudder at the memory of the pictures. "Ms. Owens, I'm afraid this isn't about what your husband did to you, although that was reprehensible enough," he said. "This is something else."
Mary's eyes widened, and he saw the fear in them. "Robert's done something terrible, hasn't he?"
"I'm afraid so," Henderson said. He glanced at the editor. "Do you want to tell her?"
Perry's mouth became grimmer, if possible. "Robert is suspected of being the Midtown Rapist," he said quietly.
Mary's face went stark white and for a moment Henderson was afraid that she was going to faint. Apparently Lois thought the same thing, for she pushed the girl's face down into her lap. "Take some deep breaths," she ordered, in a tone that brooked no argument. Jimmy jumped to his feet like a shot and left the office precipitously, to return a moment later with a paper cup of water.
Mary obeyed Lois's instructions, and after a moment sat slowly up. Jimmy sat down next to her and handed her the cup. "Take a few sips," he said, anxiously.
Mary obeyed meekly and the others were silent for several minutes. When she lowered the cup, she appeared to have regained her equilibrium, for she took another deep breath and looked up to meet Henderson's eyes.
"Are you all right?" he felt compelled to ask.
She nodded, setting the cup down on the corner of Perry's desk. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Why?" Perry said. "What he did isn't your fault."
"If I hadn't left him he might not have --"
"You left him to protect yourself!" Jimmy burst out. "Nobody should put up with being hurt like that!"
"He was already a cruel, brutal man," Perry said firmly. "You had nothing to do with this, Mary. If you hadn't left him, he could have killed you!"
"Your uncle is right," Henderson said. "You're not responsible for his behavior, Ms Owens; he is." He had to work to keep the sympathy out of his voice. "I realize that now isn't a very good time, but there's never a really good time for something like this. Would you be willing to answer some questions for me? We need to know as much as we can about your former husband if we're going to find him in time to stop him from attacking someone else."
Mary Owens swallowed, glancing at Perry, and then, to Henderson's surprise, she raised her chin. "All right," she said. "I don't know if I'll be of any help, but I'll tell you what I can."
"Thank you," Henderson said. "Perry, can we borrow one of your conference rooms?"
"I'll do better than that," Perry said, getting to his feet. "You can have my office. Lois, you, Clark and Jimmy come with me and we'll give Mary and the Inspector some privacy."
**********
Norma Randall swam out of the depths of slumber, aware of a delectable aroma floating in the air. A glance at her watch told her it was nearly six o'clock in the evening. She must have slept like the proverbial log. Henderson had been right, as usual, she reflected as she sat up and slid her feet to the floor. At home, she wouldn't have slept well but here, in the security of the Hendersons' home, she had made up for the disturbed sleep of the day before.
She slipped on the robe that Sue Henderson had left hanging on the hook inside the bedroom door -- judging by its appearance, it probably belonged to Henderson. She certainly couldn't wear one of Sue's robes. Henderson's wife was considerably shorter and more petite than Norma.
The aroma of marinara sauce was making her mouth water. Maybe tonight she'd visit an Italian restaurant, she thought as she stepped into the hall.
Sue stuck her head into the hallway. "Did you sleep well?"
"I don't think I moved the whole time," Norma said.
"Good," Sue glanced at her watch. "Bill should be home soon. Dinner will be ready in about half an hour."
"Oh no --" Norma began.
"You like Italian food, don't you?"
"Well, of course," Norma said. "But --"
"Good," Sue continued. "Go ahead and shower. Bill called earlier. He wants to talk to you when he gets here."
"Did they find out anything about ... this morning?"
"I think that's what he wants to talk about," Sue Henderson said. "Excuse me. I don't want to let my sauce burn." She disappeared back into the kitchen.
**********
When Norma returned to the guestroom to change for dinner, she was aware of voices in the other room. Apparently William Henderson had arrived while she was showering and was talking to his wife in the kitchen. She dressed in the civilian clothes she had brought along in case of an emergency, ran a brush quickly through her hair and drew a slightly nervous breath. It looked as if she was going to be having dinner with the Hendersons.
Not that she should be nervous, she told herself. Okay, Henderson was her department superior but over the months that she had worked in his vicinity, she had discovered that his unflappable, slightly cynical image hid an unexpectedly soft heart. Henderson could be utterly unfeeling to criminals that victimized the honest citizens of his city, but underneath it all he was an optimist and surprisingly idealistic. In spite of all the ugliness that he saw on a day to day basis, Bill Henderson genuinely cared about the good people that he served. It was one of the reasons that she liked and respected him, although she was sure that he would have vigorously denied it if someone had accused him of those traits.
A few moments later, she knocked on the wall by the kitchen door. "May I come in?"
Henderson was standing by the sink with his sleeves rolled up, apparently washing the vegetables for a salad. Somehow, Norma had never envisioned him at such a task, but she managed to keep her face straight. Sue was seated in a kitchen chair with her feet propped up on another one.
"Hi, Norma," she said. "Bill insisted on taking over for me, but don't worry. He makes a pretty decent salad."
Norma grinned slightly. "I'll trust you on that. How did things go today?"
Henderson turned off the water, shook off the lettuce vigorously and set about ripping the leaves into small pieces. "We've made some progress. I want you to be very alert tonight when you're out on patrol. If I didn't think you'd make a fuss, I'd have you assigned to the desk for the night. I might, anyway."
"What happened?" Norma asked.
"Various things. This isn't for publication yet, because we don't want the media to spread it all over the city and blow the investigation, but we think we've identified the Midtown Rapist. And that brings me to what happened this morning. It's a reasonable guess that he's targeted you next."
"*What*?" That was another trait of Henderson's. The man rarely sugarcoated anything. Even something like this.
"Come on in and sit down," Henderson said, "I'll fill you in."
**********
When he finished speaking, Norma was silent for some minutes. Henderson placed the salad bowl in the center of the table while Sue got to her feet again. Within moments, she had served the remainder of the dinner and took her place at the table. "Help yourselves," she said. "Are you all right, Norma?"
Norma nodded automatically. "It seems like a strange coincidence that he picked up on me," she said. "Why should he? I was just the responding officer."
"I know," Henderson said. "We suspect he was still in the vicinity when you responded to the call. He must have identified you, somehow, and decided you were his next target. According to his wife, he has issues with women in positions of authority, so that would follow."
"And he beat his mother to death," Norma said.
"We don't know that yet," Henderson cautioned. "That investigation is still ongoing. In any case, the important thing now is that he may have targeted you. The blood sample we picked up from your doorknob matches the one from the crime scene. They're doing further analysis to confirm the match but I think we have enough to at least take a few precautions. I've assigned you a rookie partner for tonight, while we work on trying to locate him. Apparently, he hasn't registered his vehicle with the New Troy DMV and we don't have an address for him. Robert Owens is a fairly common name, unfortunately, but so far we haven't been able to locate one that has lived in Metropolis for less than three and a half months."
"He might be going under another name," Sue ventured.
Henderson nodded. "That, of course, is pretty likely, especially if he killed his mother. But he's using his car, at least for now. The Knight saw it yesterday evening, outside Mi Casa. In any case," he added, fixing Norma's gaze squarely with his own, "be careful tonight. When is your husband due home?"
"Tomorrow morning," Norma said. "I'm scheduled to work tomorrow night; it's Halloween, so they've got extra people on. Otherwise I'd have the night off. I've got three days off after that. And then," she added, "I go onto the day shift."
"Better confirm his schedule," Henderson said. "You're going to have to be extra careful until this guy is under wraps."
"Neil is supposed to call me at seven," Norma said, glancing at her watch, "just to let me know if the schedule is still on."
Henderson served himself a mound of spaghetti and poured a dipperful of his wife's marinara sauce over it. "Anyway, at least we know who we're after now, and so far he doesn't know we know. That's an advantage for our side." He reached for the grated Parmesan cheese and liberally dusted the top of the spaghetti with it. "We'll get him. Just be sure you stay out of his reach until we do."
Norma nodded automatically, helping herself to the spaghetti and sauce. She applied the cheese considerably more lightly than Henderson had, wondering absently how the man stayed so lean if he ate like this every night. Judging by this meal, his wife was an excellent cook. On the other hand, his broad shoulders had to mean that he worked out vigorously and regularly, so that probably explained it. Most of her mind, however, was on the subject of the Midtown Rapist. He must have targeted her because of his issues with women in positions of authority, as Henderson had said. Well, she wasn't just a woman in a position of authority. She was a police officer, trained to take care of herself in bad situations. This character might very well find out that he'd bitten off more than he could chew if he went after her.
Henderson seemed to be reading her mind. "I don't mean to belittle your ability to take care of yourself, Randall," he said, "and it has nothing to do with your being female. All it takes is one little moment of inattention, as more than one cop has found out the hard way. Three months ago, I'd have been toast if not for Clark Kent."
"The reporter?"
"Yes. You remember the shooting in front of the courthouse during the Quigley trial, don't you?"
Norma nodded. "I do now. And right after that you were nearly struck by lightning, weren't you?"
"Yeah. I figure I've used up my share of luck for the year," Henderson said dryly. "The point is, however, that Kent saved my life as well as his wife's by pulling both of us down behind that planter. You're no more of a supercop than I am, so be careful."
The sound of her cellular phone playing interrupted the conversation and Norma excused herself to answer it.
"Hi, honey," Neil's warm voice said from the speaker. "I'm about to go in to dinner with the company president and two of the company officers, so I can't talk long. How are you doing?"
"Um -- I'm having dinner with Inspector Henderson and Sue," she hedged. The last thing Neil needed right now was to worry about her safety.
"Oh?" Neil said. "Well, they seemed like nice people. Honey, I hate to break the bad news, but I'm going to have to stay another day. I wish I didn't, but they're apparently considering me for a junior vice presidency with the company and --"
"Don't worry about it," she told him quickly. "It's important. Call me as soon as you know what your new schedule will be."
"I will," he told her. "I miss you."
"I miss you, too," she said.
"Oops; here they come," Neil's voice said. "I'll call you as soon as I can. Love you." The phone went dead.
**********
tbc
