This is just a transition part, setting up the more important scene in part 12, however I hope it won't be completely boring.
Nan
The Vampire Murders: 11/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Perry grunted. "Your guess is as good as mine. Just get the facts for the Planet. Remember. Hard facts, Williams. Not sensationalism. I get enough of that from Ralph."
"Yes, sir." The man stiffened almost to military attention, Henderson noted with dry amusement.
"See you later, Bill." Perry nodded to Henderson and departed. Henderson turned back to his people. This evening was turning out to be a pain in the rear. Now all he needed was to come face to face with a real vampire or something. How would he be supposed to report that?
Dismissing the bit of mordant humor as foolishness, Henderson turned back to his job. Whoever had murdered his men might very well be behind the murder of the Cost Mart manager. He intended to find out who that somebody might be.
**********
And now, Part 11:
Clark, in his Superman guise, set Lois down inside the Twelfth Precinct and stood back. "Hold still."
He trained his heat vision, suitably attenuated, on her soaked feet, and damp clothing, and walked slowly around her, drying and warming her from all sides. He could see the shivering easing off as he did so.
Sergeant Crandall, the desk sergeant, got to his feet. "Are you all right, Lois?" It figured, Clark thought, that the guy recognized his partner.
Lois gave a wan smile. "More or less. Let's just say I don't want to go through that again."
"Want to tell us what happened?" Crandall asked. "I haven't seen Henderson that worried about anybody in years. And your boss was in here, wearing a path in Henderson's carpet."
"Where is he?" Lois asked, glancing at Clark. "I thought you said he found a body at Cost Mart, but I didn't see any police cars."
"They were on the other side of the building, in the employees lot," Clark said, brushing back the cape of his Superman outfit as he took a seat on the nearest wooden bench. "The police came in the back way. Henderson's with them. I thought you'd have seen them. You said you were looking for your car, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I left it in the main lot," Lois said reasonably. "Why would I go around the building to a place where I hadn't parked?"
That figured, Clark thought. Sometimes his partner's thinking processes left him scratching his head.
"Anyway," Lois said, "I'm all right now. An employee -- I guess he was, anyway -- gave me that packet, and said that I should give it to Superman. Would it be all right if I go home, now?"
"What packet" Crandall asked.
"This one." Clark handed the little package Lois had given him to the man. "You need to have it analyzed. I think it's heroin."
"Where did it come from?"
"Cost Mart," Lois said.
"Who was the person that gave it to you?"
"I don't know," Lois said frankly. "I've never met him as far as I know, but he seemed to know who I was."
"I'll report it to Henderson," Crandall said. "I'm sure he'll be interested. What else happened to you? You've been missing for hours."
"I went over to Cost Mart to talk to the manager," Lois said. "Clarence Brunner. I went into the back of the store, but I guess I took a wrong turn and wound up in a part of the offices where I wasn't supposed to be. A couple of security guys grabbed me and stuck me in a room and locked the door. I couldn't get out and I was there for hours. Then this guy opened the door, asked if I was Miss Lane, and took me out through a basement door. He gave me that packet and said I should give it to Superman. That's the whole story."
Clark would have bet his red boots that it definitely wasn't the whole story, but he didn't say so. Maybe she would tell Clark the real story later. He glanced at Crandall, who looked a little skeptical as well. "Why did they lock you up?" the sergeant inquired.
"I don't know," Lois said. "Unless they thought I'd found their heroin stash or something. I really can't tell you."
"I'll bet," Crandall said, under his breath, but Clark heard him. "Do you know anything about the guy that was found dead in the manager's office?"
"No," Lois said, flatly. "The first I heard of it was when Superman told me about it."
"How about the two men found dead in Centennial Park a little way from your Jeep?"
Clark saw her eyes widen. "No, of course not! Who were they?"
"We haven't identified them yet," Crandall said. "They may be connected with the death at Cost Mart. All right, Lois, I guess you can go. Do you need to call a taxi?"
Clark stood up. "I'll give Ms. Lane a lift," he said.
Crandall nodded. "You may get a call from Henderson, tomorrow," he pointed out. "Especially if this stuff does turn out to be heroin."
Lois nodded. "I'll expect it, but I doubt I'll be much help," she said. "As far as I can remember, I've never met the guy that gave it to me before. The only thing I can think is that he might have known about it and wanted to stop it, but didn't want to talk to the police, himself."
"Probably," Crandall said. "Can you describe him?"
"Sort of, I guess," Lois said. "He was short -- maybe an inch taller than I am. I'm not sure what race, but it wasn't white or Hispanic -- maybe Native American. He had black hair, and black eyes, maybe forty, give or take five years, wearing jeans and a Cost Mart T-shirt. That's really it. I only saw him for a few minutes, and most of the time his back was toward me." She turned to Clark. "That lift home would be great," she added.
Clark smiled. "I'm at your service, Lois." He looked past her at Crandall. "If Henderson needs me, tell him to get hold of Kent at the Planet," he said. "I imagine he'll be busy for a while with the murder at Cost Mart, but if I can be of any help, I'll be glad to give it."
"Yeah, thanks, Superman." Crandall nodded, and fell to examining the packet of powder. Then, he picked up the telephone receiver. As he escorted Lois out the Precinct doors, Clark heard the officer speaking. "Lab? Yeah, I got something here for you --"
**********
Lois was just stepping out of the shower when she heard the knock on her door. She grabbed a towel and began to dry herself hurriedly off, and stuck her head out the bathroom door. "Who is it?"
"Clark," her partner's voice said.
"Hold on a minute," she called. "I'll be right there!"
Quickly, she wrapped her dripping hair in a towel, dried herself off, more or less, and pulled on a robe. A moment later, she was opening the door.
Clark looked slightly taken aback at the sight of her in her robe. "If you like, I can come back later," he began.
"Don't be silly. Sit down while I get some sweats on," Lois said, heading back for her bedroom. Five minutes later, she stepped into the living room again, to find her partner seated on her sofa, waiting patiently.
"Hi," she said
.Clark got to his feet. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Lois pushed back the sleeves of the sweatshirt. It was his shirt, and was, consequently somewhat large on her petite frame. "I'm fine."
"Superman said he picked you up in the Cost Mart parking lot," Clark said. "You'd been missing for hours. What happened?"
"Didn't Superman tell you?"
Clark shook his head. "He said you'd run into some trouble but you were okay. You aren't hurt, are you?"
Lois shook her head. "I'm okay, except for being creeped completely out," she said. "That was the weirdest evening I've ever had. I still don't believe in vampires, but for a while I was sort of wondering."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." She sank down on one of her sofas. "It was really strange. I didn't even tell Superman what happened, and I couldn't tell Crandall, over at the Twelfth Precinct. Outside of the fact that I was sneaking around where I wasn't supposed to be, he'd have thought I was completely insane."
"So what did happen?"
"Well -- I headed over right after I got to the Planet, just in time for their lunch hour rush," she said. Trying to be as detailed as possible, she described to Clark the events of the day, trying to read his expression as she proceeded, but, except for a slight frown, he didn't appear to disbelieve her.
"So, I climbed out of the tunnel, and started hunting for my car," she concluded. "I couldn't find it, and I was getting pretty cold, so I finally called Superman. He said my Jeep was over in Centennial Park. I guess Brunner must have had his people move it after he took my purse."
"Which your mystery guy returned," Clark said. "I'd like to know how he got hold of it, too. Henderson's men found two men dead not far from your car, in the park. They'd both been drained of blood."
"Crandall said something about that. Have they identified them?"
"Superman said they may have been Cost Mart employees," Clark said. "They apparently had some kind of identification on them when they were found. But, Lois, the dead man at Cost Mart this evening, was Brunner. Perry and Henderson went over to Cost Mart to try to find some trace of you, and were there when someone found him."
"Terrific," Lois said. "Don't tell me. He was drained of blood, too."
"Yeah," Clark admitted. "At least that was what Superman said. And he had two punctures on his throat, right over the carotid artery."
Lois swallowed, the vision of her rescuer's white teeth popping into her mind. It couldn't possibly be, could it? After a moment's doubt, she again dismissed the thought, albeit with a little effort. "Somebody's running some kind of scam," she said. "And I'm betting that it has something to do with that smuggling tunnel."
"Probably," Clark said.
A horrible idea occurred to her. "You don't suppose the two they found were the men that helped Brunner put me in that room?" she said.
"I guess it's possible. Do you think you'd recognize them if Henderson asked you to try to identify them?"
Lois made a face. "Maybe."
"I think we should find out," Clark said. "Unless you --"
"Unless I what?" she said, bristling slightly. "Can't handle it or something? I've seen bodies before."
"I know you have," he said quickly. "But it was an unsettling episode."
"Yeah, but it will be even more unsettling if more people die because I don't help Henderson find out what happened," she said. "Is he still over at Cost Mart?"
"I think he got back to the Precinct about an hour ago."
"Good." Lois reached for the phone.
**********
William Henderson was in the process of filling out the umpteenth part of his report on the murder of the Cost Mart manager when his phone rang. He picked up the receiver. "Henderson."
The voice on the line sounded tired. "Sir, you've got a call from Lois Lane. She's insisting on talking to you directly. I told her you were busy, but she --"
"Put her on," Henderson said. "I wanted to talk to her anyway."
"Yes, sir." There was a click on the line.
"Henderson?" Lois's voice said.
"Hello, Lois," Henderson said. "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Yeah," she said. "I heard you were there when they found the manager."
"I'm sure you didn't call me to verify that," Henderson said. "What's on your mind this evening?"
"I also heard that your people found two bodies near where you found my Jeep," Lois continued. "Brunner locked me in a room in Cost Mart's sub-basement. He took my purse, with my keys."
"What's your point?"
"He had two pieces of muscle with him that did the strong arm stuff. It's possible that they're your dead men. If they are, I might be able to identify them."
Henderson's eyebrows rose slightly. "Crandall said something about that," he said, "but he didn't give details."
"I know. It didn't really occur to me about the dead men until I talked to Clark. Listen; can you fix it so I can see them? I might be able to tell you whether it was them or not."
"I think I could manage that," Henderson said. "Crandall said you got your purse back. How did that happen?"
"That's complicated," Lois said.
"I'll bet," Henderson murmured. "Well, we'll deal with that later. All right, I'll send somebody to pick you up. Ten minutes."
**********
When Lois and Clark walked into the morgue, Clark became aware that Lois, in spite of her apparent calm appearance, wasn't nearly as composed as she looked. Her heart had speeded up and he could tell by the set of her jaw that she was clenching her teeth.
William Henderson, who, rather surprisingly, accompanied them, greeted the medical examiner with a nod. "Hi, Barney. This is Lane, and her partner, Kent," he said. "You ready?"
"Sure." The man laid his ham sandwich down on the napkin that lay on his desk, scrubbed his hands across his slacks and got to his feet. "This way."
Clark had long ago become inured to all kinds of smells, and the scent of formaldehyde and various other chemicals was not unexpected. Lois, of course, had been in this room before, but he saw her nose wrinkle slightly as they followed the man through the door into the tile-lined room with its refrigerated units and metal tables, and glass cases with all kinds of metal implements of the trade. Clark kept his eyes on Lois. Her shoulders were tense, but she trod resolutely after Henderson as they followed their host.
Barney stopped beside a table which held a sheet-covered form. "Here we are." Without hesitation, he pulled back the sheet, revealing the face of the victim.
"Well?" Henderson asked, turning to look at Lois. "Recognize him?"
Lois had taken an involuntary step back, but now Clark saw her take a deep breath and step forward to look long and hard at the victim's face. She nodded. "Yeah," she said finally. "This was one of the men with Brunner."
Henderson nodded and Barney efficiently re-covered the first man and stepped to a second table, also bearing a sheet-covered form. He pulled back the cover.
This time Lois didn't hesitate. She stepped past the medical examiner and took a long look.
"Yes," she said. "This is the other one."
"Okay," Henderson said. "I guess that answers one question. And opens up a lot of others." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Thanks, Barney. I guess you can go back to your dinner."
**********
"So," Henderson said, as they crossed the snowy hospital parking lot toward his car, "for some reason, whoever did this decided to take out all three men that locked you in Cost Mart's basement. You got any idea why?"
"No," Lois said.
"Want to tell me what happened?"
"Only if it isn't official," Lois said.
Henderson snorted. "No recording devices," he said. "And no witnesses that will ever admit to hearing it, I imagine." He glanced meaningfully at Lois's partner. "It won't come up unless I need it to nail the murderer. You have my word."
He saw her glance at her partner, who gave the faintest nod. "All right."
Henderson opened the door of his car and they got in. He started the engine, and after a moment, turned on the heater. "Go ahead."
"I guess," Lois said, "that we need to tell you about the tunnel --"
"Tunnel?"
"Under the Cost Mart parking lot," Clark said. "We checked it out last night."
**********
tbc
