The Vampire Murders: 14/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Lois sank down in the nearest chair, her legs literally unable to hold her upright. "Where did he go? Do you see him?"
Henderson pulled his head back inside. "No. Too dark, and too much snow." He looked at his .38. "I don't believe in vampires," he said firmly. "I'm a cop. Vampires don't exist." He glanced at Lois. "Are you all right?"
She nodded shakily.
"Good. Come on. You're not staying here tonight."
"Can you take me back to Clark's?" she whispered.
"Yeah. Grab some night gear, and let's go." Henderson looked again at the .38 and then examined the floor where the apparent vampire had stood. "No blood. I don't know what that was, but it wasn't a vampire."
"Are you sure?" Lois whispered. Somehow whispering seemed to be appropriate for the situation.
"I'm sure," Henderson said firmly. "And I'm going to prove it."
**********
High above Wilson's Cove, Superman circled, scanning the snowy landscape below him, for signs of the smugglers' presence. With deliberation and meticulous care, examining every inch of the ground beneath, he floated over each of the seven inlets, searching for an indication that a boat had moored there, that men had hauled packs of smuggled goods from that mooring place, through the snow, mud and sand, to the small vacation cottage at the nearer end of neighboring Mariner's Cove.
The inlets could easily conceal a boat, he thought. Tall water reeds and small, spindly trees grew thickly here, and obscured vision even from above. It would take a small miracle if anyone were to find such indications unless one knew exactly where to look, or unless the boat was, for some reason, still there.
It wasn't, of course, but looking down from above, he became aware of a narrow, winding foot trail, mostly masked by the vegetation, tracked through the undergrowth and now rapidly filling with snow. If he, Lois and Henderson had tried to find it on foot, they would still be searching.
Having found the path, it was the matter of a few moments for him to track it from the resort, two miles to the third of the narrow inlets, where it ended at the water's edge. The reeds were trampled at that spot where men had apparently unloaded the goods. Clark marked it carefully in his memory, sighting in on several landmarks visible from his vantage point. He intended to make sure that Henderson saw this.
In the distance, the Metropolis Bell Tower chimed three o'clock. Well, perhaps he could wait until tomorrow morning, he decided. It seemed unlikely that anyone would come around here to do anything about the marks left by the smuggling crew. Unless one knew where they came from, they would mean nothing; besides who was likely to come wandering around in a marsh at three in the morning with the snow coming down and a very cold, damp wind making the conditions even more unwelcoming?
Making a loop in the air, he turned and headed toward Clark Kent's apartment.
Even at this hour, and in these weather conditions, Metropolis was still awake. He had never really seen the city when it was completely quiet. Passing over the Bayside Expressway, he was in time to see an eighteen wheeler begin to drift into the meridian. The front left wheel struck the divider and the truck slewed, beginning to tilt. He shot downward to catch and right the huge vehicle, seeing as he did so the driver jerk himself awake. He brought the truck to a standstill and walked around to the driver's cab.
"Are you all right?"
The trucker nodded, gripping the steering wheel with white-knuckled fingers. "Y-- yeah," he stammered. "Thanks, Superman."
"There's a rest stop about three miles ahead," Clark told him. "I suggest you pull into it and get a couple of hours of sleep."
The man nodded. "I will. I promise."
"Beating your time schedule isn't worth it if you get killed," Superman pointed out, a hint of sternness in his voice.
The trucker nodded again. "Don't worry. I'll do exactly what you said."
"Good." Clark lifted off and watched for several minutes while the trucker started his truck up once more, and ten minutes later, true to his promise, was pulling the truck into the rest area. Satisfied that the man had taken his words to heart, Clark accelerated back toward his apartment.
As usual, before entering his apartment via the window, he paused to survey the area below him. His apartment was empty, but a very familiar car had pulled into the empty space in front of his apartment building. As he watched, William Henderson got out of the car, and Lois opened the passenger door. It was clear that they were headed for the steps to his apartment.
Something must have happened, Clark thought. Why wasn't he surprised? At least, no one seemed to be hurt, but he'd better be where he was supposed to be when they knocked.
Accelerating sharply, Superman zipped through the window of Clark Kent's apartment and closed it behind him. A moment later, Lois Lane rapped on his front door.
Clark waited. It would be best, he figured, not to appear to be right on the ball when someone knocked on his door at this hour. After all, he was supposed to have been asleep. Almost immediately, Lois rapped again, more urgently, and her voice called, "Clark? Clark, wake up! Are you there? Are you all right?"
"Just a minute!" he called back. He grabbed a T-shirt, ran a hand through his hair to ruffle it somewhat, and made his way to the door.
Lois and Bill Henderson were standing there, and Henderson was holding Lois's small, overnight case. Yep, something had happened, all right.
"What's going on?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"
Lois opened her mouth, but Henderson cut across her first word. "Kent, I need to get back to Lois's apartment. I've got a cop standing guard, but I want to be there when my team arrives. She needs to stay here tonight."
Clark felt his eyebrows rise involuntarily. He reached out to take the overnight case and stood back, opening the door wider. "Come in," he invited.
Henderson shook his head, giving Lois a light push. "Lane will tell you what happened," he said briefly. "I need to get back. Lock your door and windows." He added to Lois, "I'll give you a call when I find out more."
Lois, uncharacteristically, merely nodded. "Thanks, Bill," she said soberly.
The corner of Henderson's mouth twitched in a faint, one-sided grin. "Record this moment for history's sake," he told Clark. An instant later he had turned and hurried down the steps to his car, jumped behind the wheel and started the engine, all with his usual effortless efficiency. A moment later, his taillights were disappearing down the street. Clark found himself blinking after him, slightly bemused.
"Shut the door," Lois said. "It's cold."
Clark obeyed and turned the lock before looking at his partner. "What happened?" he asked.
"Is your bedroom window locked?" Lois asked, with apparent irrelevance. .
"Yeah. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"
His partner nodded, a little jerkily, and reached for her overnight case. "Yeah. It was really weird."
"What was weird?"
"Well," she said, "Bill doesn't think it was a vampire, and I don't either, really, but it sure looked like one. And I don't see how he could have gotten to my fifth story window unless he flew. I mean, the one by my kitchen has the fire escape next to it, but that one was locked. The side window to my living room opens on empty space, but he came through it."
"Who came through it?"
"The vampire. Or rather, the guy that wasn't a vampire." She shivered suddenly. "But he sure looked like one."
Clark sighed. "Would you mind starting from the beginning? Right now you're not making much sense."
"I know." Lois went past him down the short flight of steps into his living room. "Is it all right if I sleep on your couch?"
"You can have my bed," Clark said automatically. "I'll take the couch. Are you going to tell me what happened or not?"
"I can't take your bed," Lois said. "The couch will be fine."
Clark sighed. "Look, sit down a minute and I'll make some tea," he said. It was obvious to his experienced eye that his partner was on the edge of a full-fledged babble, which meant he wasn't going to get much sense out of her until she managed to unwind a little. Lois was one of the most hard-headed reporters in the business, but her way of handling stress tended to leave him slightly baffled. Besides, it was pretty obvious that unless he got her to relax, neither of them were going to get any sleep for the remaining short hours of the night. A glance at the wall clock told him it was past three-thirty, and even Superman needed a few hours of sleep. From the looks of things, tomorrow was likely to be a very busy day for both of them.
Lois sank onto the couch. "I like your furniture," she said, jumping from the subject of the not-vampire with her usual speed. "It's more beat-up than mine, but it's a lot more comfortable. I couldn't sleep on my couch, but yours is big, and wide, and soft. Mine's hard as a rock."
"I know," Clark said. "Try to relax while I put the hot water on, okay?" He turned and went into his kitchenette. "Is Oolong tea all right?"
"Is there more than one kind?" Lois asked.
"Yeah, but never mind. This will only take a minute."
Moving quickly, Clark filled up his kettle and set it on the stove to heat. Surreptitiously, he shot several darts of heat vision into the water to heat it more quickly. The water boiled in seconds, and he removed it from the stove and dropped in his scoops of tea leaves, procured by Superman from a little shop in China. Collecting a pair of mugs on the way past, he rejoined Lois in the living room.
"Wow," Lois said. "That was fast."
"I used hot water to start with," Clark said, mentally crossing his fingers. "It only took a minute to boil, but it still has to steep. Just a second and I'll get your sweetener and the sugar." He set the pot down on the table, careful to place it on a pot lifter in respect for his mother's old coffee table, and went back for the promised items. Back within seconds, he set them on the table, and then seated himself next to Lois on the sofa.
"There," he said, smiling at her. "Now, while the tea steeps, do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Yeah." Lois was watching the curl of steam arising from the kettle, not looking at him. "It was really weird. Kind of scary, too."
"I figured that out," Clark said. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"
"Everything was okay until Henderson and I got to my apartment door," Lois said. "While I was unlocking my door, I noticed that cold air was coming out from under the door …."
She went on to describe the events in her apartment. While she was talking, Clark checked the tea, and quietly filled one of the mugs, added sugar, and stirred it gently. Other than that, however, he simply listened without comment until she finished.
"So Henderson and I waited until the local cop got there and Bill told him to watch everything until he got back or the investigation team showed up," Lois concluded. She took a final sip of the tea that had quickly vanished while she spoke. "It was only a few minutes, and then he brought me over here."
Clark was silent for nearly a minute. "But Henderson said it wasn't a vampire," he said. "What do you think?"
"Well," Lois said slowly, "I don't think it was a vampire either. I don't believe in vampires. At least," she added, a little sheepishly, "I don't believe in them right now, sitting here next to you in a warm, lighted room with all the windows locked and the shutters closed, but back in my apartment I wasn't so sure."
"Yeah," Clark said. "You said you were wearing the silver cross your grandmother gave you. You know, if it was somebody pretending to be a vampire, he'd have to act like the cross drove him off. But you probably already thought of that."
"Yeah, I did -- but not right away." She reached into the pocket of her jacket and withdrew the little piece of jewelry on its silver chain. "I'll have to get the chain fixed tomorrow."
"Let me see it," Clark requested.
Lois dropped it into his hand and he examined it closely. After a second, he pushed his glasses up to make the job easier.
"I'm nearsighted," he explained to his partner. "I can see it better without the glasses." He squinted at the damage. "It looks like you just bent one of the links. I have a pair of tweezers in my tool chest. Want me to try and fix it?"
"Sure." Lois yawned, and listening to her heartbeat, Clark was somewhat relieved to realize that she had calmed considerably from the time she had arrived on his doorstep.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do with it," he said, pushing his glasses back firmly into place again. "In the meantime, why don't you go on into my room and change? You can have my bed, and --"
"I'm not taking your bed," Lois said firmly. "I'll sleep on the couch. It's almost as comfortable as my bed, and besides, you have that big glass window with no curtains. I don't want to wake up and find that guy staring through it at me."
She had a point, he had to admit. "All right. Go ahead and change. We both need to get a little sleep before tomorrow and it's past four."
Lois looked at her watch. "You're right. I didn't notice." She stood up. "I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep, but I feel better than I did a while ago, so maybe it's not a lost cause."
"Maybe," Clark agreed with a slight smile. "There's something else to think about while you're changing. According to legend, a vampire can't enter a home without permission of the owner, and this guy came through your window without any problem. And second, do you think it's possible that your 'vampire' was wearing a bullet proof vest, by any chance?"
There was a slight pause. "I didn't think of that for some reason," Lois said. "That makes me feel better -- knowing there might be a logical, rational explanation for what happened. But why would this 'not-vampire' go after me?"
"Well --" Clark was slow to answer. "Brunner's bosses probably knew you were in that room in the basement, you know. You got out, and they have to know that, too. Maybe they think they can scare you off, especially with the other 'vampire' murders in the last few days. It wouldn't be the first time the bad guys have underestimated Lois Lane."
"I hadn't thought of that," Lois said. "You're right, and you're also right that they haven't scared me off."
"I knew that," Clark said calmly. "But the next time you decide to go snooping in the back rooms at Cost Mart, do you think you could wait for me? If it hadn't been for your mystery man this evening, you might still be stuck in that room."
Lois nodded. "All right; just this once," she conceded. "Just don't think I'm going to make a habit of it."
**********
tbc
