The Vampire Murders: 15/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
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 anyway, 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."
**********
And now, Part 15:
Naturally, Lois overslept. She became slowly aware that her bed wasn't the one she was used to, although it was quite soft and comfortable. She opened her eyes to discover that she was sleeping on Clark's couch. A downy feather pillow was tucked under her right ear, and a thick, warm quilt covered her. From Clark's kitchenette, the rich aroma of coffee being made drifted through the air, along with the unmistakable smell of frying eggs and bacon. The sun was shining brightly through the side window, and through it she caught a glimpse of a cloudless blue sky. The snowstorm had apparently passed.
Slowly, the events of the previous day and night came back to her and she had to remind herself firmly that any hypothetical vampires that had been running around the city last night would not be able to go outside in the daylight. If it hadn't been a vampire -- and really, that was the most likely, after all -- then he was human and therefore no more difficult or dangerous to deal with than any other garden-variety crook. However, it somehow seemed later than the usual time she woke up. A glance at her watch brought her into a sitting position so quickly that she felt light-headed for a moment and had to flop back down on the sofa.
"Lois?" It was Clark's voice, speaking from the entrance to the kitchenette. "Are you all right?"
Slowly, she sat up again. "It's ten-fifteen! We're late! Perry's going to kill us!"
"No he's not. I called him and told him what happened last night. Henderson had already called him and told him you were safe. He said not to wake you up." He crossed the room to her and set a cup of coffee down on the slightly battered coffee table. "Here you go. Fixed just the way you like it at the office."
It smelled a lot better than the office java, Lois thought, reflecting guiltily on the fact that she hadn't called her boss last night to let him know that she was all right. On the other hand, she rationalized, she hadn't known that he was looking for her or had been worried about her safety. She picked up the coffee cup, blew on it gently and took a sip. It was definitely better than the office brew, as might be expected, and Clark had fixed it exactly as she liked it. She took another sip,, savoring the taste. Whether she would admit it aloud or not, Clark made a killer cup of coffee.
"I'm getting breakfast," Clark said. "Bacon and eggs and pancakes. It should be ready by the time you are. Then, I was thinking we should call Bill and see what, if anything, he managed to find out after he dropped you off here last night."
"If he's at his office at all," Lois pointed out. "He might sleep late after spending the whole night awake. He probably didn't get to bed before five or six. Besides, I have a better idea."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I want to go over to the Museum of Natural History and see if we can find the deerskin thingy that Henderson was talking about last night -- the one with the symbols like the ones on the wall in the Indian crypt. And maybe we can find out something about this legend he mentioned. It probably doesn't have anything to do with the case, but I'd like to know about it, just to be sure, so we can rule out hypothetical American Indian vampires. And then we can decide what to do about finding where the smugglers brought their cargo ashore."
"I don't know about that last part," Clark said. "We don't want to screw up Henderson's investigation."
"We won't," Lois said. "If we find it, we can show him where it is. And we won't disturb anything. There's no way I want this batch to get away with this stuff. I hate drug dealers more than just about anything else -- except maybe rats," she added parenthetically. "Anyhow, that's for later. First, I want to find out everything we can about the local inhabitants when the settlers first came to New Troy. I want to be sure there were no vampire legends to worry about.".
"I can't argue with that," Clark said. "There's something else I'd like to do, before we start prowling around in Wilson's Cove, though. I want to take a look around your apartment house. Your non-vampire guy last night 'flew' somehow. Unless he's another Superman clone, he must have faked it, somehow. I want to see if we can figure it out, if Henderson hasn't already done it. Go ahead and get ready, and after we've had breakfast, we'll go on over. I figure you'd better eat. It might get pretty busy today."
Sometimes, Clark had some pretty good ideas, she thought. "Right. Do you mind if I get a five minute shower?"
**********
But Lois discovered that she had underestimated William Henderson. When they arrived at the Metropolis Museum of Natural History an hour later, William Henderson was just ascending the flight of steps that led to the entrance. The man regarded the two of them with his usual deadpan expression.
"Fancy meeting you two here," he remarked. "Somehow, I suspect this isn't a chance encounter."
"Don't you ever sleep?" Lois asked.
"I got a couple of hours this morning. There's a couch in my office, in case you've forgotten."
Recalling the battered leather couch that sat against one wall of Henderson's office, Lois's respect for the officer rose a notch. If he could sleep on that scratchy, hard piece of furniture, he was tougher than she had realized. "I remember. We came over to see if we could get a look at the deerskin thingy you were talking about last night. Mind if we go along with you?"
Not a muscle twitched in the Inspector's face. "I can't stop you. Come on." He ascended the flight of steps and pushed open the glass doors of the establishment.
The museum's visitors were thin at this time in the morning. A small crowd of children of about the third or fourth grade level were following a teacher and a uniformed museum employee through an exhibit of some kind of primitive art in one section of the first large main room. The children looked bored, as might be expected, Lois thought. Henderson led the way without hesitation to one of the smaller rooms in the back, opening off the main section. Lois had been in the museum once or twice, but this particular room had never come to her attention before. She followed the Inspector inside and looked around, wondering where the stuff about the deerskin hieroglyphics were. And where did you find out about Native American legends? Weren't they supposed to have some kind of explanations about this stuff beside the exhibits, or something?
The artifacts weren't much to look at from her perspective, although an archeologist would probably get a lot out of them, she figured. The relics of the civilization that had existed on the site of New Troy looked pretty much like any of the other ones she had seen when her high school history class had come here to see the mock-up of the settlement at Plymouth Rock. There were models of the box-like dwellings, the examples of art and deerskin clothing, and arrowheads found on the sites of the villages, and various implements that meant nothing to her. Natural history had never been one of Lois's areas of interest.
Henderson headed directly across the room to the exhibit portraying the tribal medicine man, the elaborate ceremonial clothing that he had worn, and the various tools of his trade. And there it was. Hanging on the wall, incased in glass, was an animal skin, very pale in color, marked with the same kind of symbols they had seen inside the crypt.
Clark went past her to the exhibit and leaned forward, lifting his glasses as he had done last night with the silver chain that now hung around Lois's neck once more, and examined it minutely.
"This was an albino deer," he remarked at last, shoving his glasses into place. "From what I've read, albino animals seemed to have had some kind of religious significance to the local natives."
Henderson glanced at him approvingly. "I see you've done your homework," he remarked. "Albino animals were considered the most effective against the evil spirits. This particular artifact belonged to one of their most powerful medicine men who was said to have tamed the blood spirits that threatened the tribe."
"Blood spirits?" Lois asked.
Henderson nodded. "Legend had it that there were blood spirits that would lure the youths away from home and feast on their blood."
Lois shivered. "Sort of like a vampire."
The corner of Henderson's mouth twitched. "Sort of. Anyhow, this guy, whoever he was, was a legend, sort of a demi-god to the tribe. He was said to have taken the power of the blood spirits from them in a great battle by absorbing it himself, and died as a result, but his spirit remained to guard his people as long as they lived in his sacred land." He pointed to a plaque under the deerskin. "After the white settlers came, his protection extended to them. The only price was that he had to have blood to sustain him as well, and the hunger would take over his soul until he was fed. The tribe regarded it as the price it must pay for his protection."
"Sounds like a two-edged sword," Clark said.
Henderson shrugged. "According to the legend, the witch doctor's spirit only fed on the worst of the tribe. The criminals, the spreaders of discord, the slothful, which no primitive people could afford to have. I suspect that part was added later -- sort of a moral lesson to the kids not to shirk their duties or misbehave, or the guardian would come after them."
"That makes sense," Clark agreed. "A lot of cultures have legends of bogeymen, who come after naughty kids, meant to enforce good behavior. I guess you had time this morning to do a little research, huh?"
"Now that you mention it, I did. The crypt you found sounds as if it's tied in with the legend. I wonder if our friends at Cost Mart investigated it and maybe decided to adapt the legend for their own reasons."
"I guess it's possible," Clark said. "We've seen crazier things."
Lois nodded, somewhat relieved to know that there could be a normal explanation for all the weirdness of the past few days. "What about the guy last night? Did your people find anything?"
"We're still investigating," Henderson said. "Assuming that it wasn't a vampire, I'd guess that it was someone rigged up to look like one. He probably wore a bullet proof vest on the chance that he could run into someone with a gun, like me, escorting you to your place."
"That's taking quite a risk," Clark observed.
"Some," Henderson agreed. "But most of the people running around with guns are cops. We're trained to shoot at the torso. Biggest target," he added. "I find it very interesting that the lights were out, by the by. The circuit breaker had been tripped. If the guy wore some kind of harness so he could 'fly' that would be necessary to keep you from seeing it, wouldn't it, Lane?"
Lois nodded. "I guess so. Did you find any place where he could have anchored a rope? I didn't hear a helicopter or anything."
"We're still checking," Henderson said. "I don't expect it to be obvious."
"Yeah -- probably not," Lois admitted.
"Maybe I could ask Superman to look around," Clark suggested. "He's very interested in solving this thing, too."
"I was going to ask you about that," Henderson said. "I'd appreciate it."
"You make me feel better," Lois said. "I don't really believe in vampires, but --"
"Yeah, I know," Henderson said. "I don't either, but for a few seconds there I had my doubts."
Lois found herself grinning slightly and had to compose her features before she glanced at him. "Are you sure you feel all right, Bill?"
"Call it momentary weakness from fatigue," Henderson said, completely deadpan. "Once we figure all this out, maybe I can get a decent night's sleep again. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep plugging."
"What about Wilson's Cove?" Lois asked.
"What about it?"
"Aren't you trying to find the place where their boat docked, so they could bring their drugs ashore?"
"Sure," Henderson said mildly. "But there's a lot of land to search and we don't want to chance missing anything -- or let on to the bad guys that we might be onto them. My men are being careful. They'll report if they find anything." He paused and looked at her thoughtfully. "You stay away from it, Lane. The last thing I need is a reporter destroying evidence by trampling all over it. Leave it to my men. I've already promised you've got the exclusive if and when we find something."
"I won't destroy any evidence," Lois protested. "When have I messed with your evidence before?"
"District Attorney Drake had a few pointed things to say about you and her pager," Henderson observed. "Something to do with that Intergang witness that was in the hospital last month."
"I saved your witness's life!" Lois shot back, thoroughly annoyed.
"I know that," Henderson said mildly. "That's probably why Drake didn't charge you with petty theft -- that, and the fact that proving it would be a waste of time. For the record, the Department appreciates what you did, but don't push your luck. You'll have all the relevant information soon enough."
"Hmmph." Lois glared at him and received Henderson's most annoying deadpan look in return. "Well, when can I go back to my apartment?"
"Any time you want," Henderson said. "We're all finished with it. Just don't go prowling around on the roof for a while. We're still checking it out."
Clark cleared his throat. "Uh, I'll be right back. I need to visit the restroom."
Lois nodded absently as her partner made a quick exit from the room, and quelled her irritation. "How about Cost Mart itself? Are you watching it to make sure the drugs don't leave until you're ready to make some arrests?"
The Inspector nodded. "We've got cops all over the place, supposedly investigating the death of their manager and the two we found in the park last night. I doubt they'll risk moving their cargo until things quiet down again. That should stall things for a day or so, anyhow."
A gust of air blew Lois's hair into her face. She brushed it back into place, only to see Superman standing beside them. "Superman!"
"Hi, Lois," he said. "Inspector Henderson. Clark Kent called me last night and told me what you'd discovered. I took a look around in Wilson's Cove, and I may have found something you're looking for."
Henderson's left eyebrow rose. "And that would be …?"
"I think I may have found the spot where the drugs came ashore."
**********
tbc
