The Vampire Murders: Conclusion Part 1
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Clark could hear the rush of approaching footsteps, but he hesitated. "Someone tried to kidnap her last night," he said. "And someone who wasn't Superman saved her."
The other man looked away. "We all have our secrets," he said. "Go. Hurry." Without another pause, he crossed the dim room to the exit and opened it without ceremony. "You must go now!"
Clark grasped Lois by one wrist and Al by the upper arm. "Come on, quick." He hustled them out the door into the stone corridor beyond. Behind him, in the room, he heard the opening of the door to the hall. The dark man stepped silently through the opening behind them and closed the door with the same eerie silence.
"Come," his voice said quietly. A penlight in his hand cast its pale beam on the stone floor. "There is not much time."
**********
And now, Part 1 of the Conclusion:
Lois looked back as their guide closed the door silently behind the little group and then up at her suddenly assertive partner. Clark had a scowl on his face that she couldn't quite interpret.
Their mystery man turned quickly toward them. A little penlight in his hand illuminated the narrow, dark tunnel. "Come. There is not much time."
Lois opened her mouth to protest, but found Clark tugging at her arm, and shoving Al ahead of him down the tunnel.
The cement floor was illuminated by the penlight, and was free of any debris from the passage of Cost Mart's smugglers, and their helpful, if mysterious friend urged them ahead with a low-pitched warning. "Quickly. They will come soon. This is their only avenue of escape."
"What is this place?" Al stuttered.
"A smuggling tunnel your boss and his friends built under the parking lot," Lois said. "Why haven't they opened that door, anyway? They were right behind us."
"I am not entirely without resources," the dark man said. "But my measures will not hold them long. Do not waste valuable time. There is very little of it, now."
As if to underline his warning, a loud clang echoed around them, as if someone had struck the metal door with a hammer or a crowbar.
"Hurry!" Clark whispered urgently.
Lois hesitated no longer, but turned and strode down the tunnel toward the exit ladder, pushing Al ahead of her without further argument. Behind them were more sounds of metal striking metal, which served only to urge the party to greater speed. Ahead, some distance away, was the metal ladder that led to the parking lot exit. That might be a good place to get out before the Cost Mart goons behind that door managed to break through into the tunnel, she thought.
When they had gone what seemed to her to be considerably farther than the length of the parking lot, she realized that the utter darkness of the tunnel ahead wasn't so intense all at once. A pale, faintly ruddy light, which must be the last, ghostly rays of sunset, was sifting through the opening above. The exit!
She increased her stride to nearly a run to reach the ladder, crowding Al's patent leather boot heels in her haste. As she set her foot on the first rung, however, a loud explosion almost over her head, followed by several yells and a volley of more shots, made her stop.
"That's definitely not a good way out," Clark said, abruptly. "We'd be lucky not to be shot if we climbed up into that."
Another duo of shots, a little farther away, and a scream punctuated his words.
Behind them, the sounds of metal striking metal increased, and there was a sudden, protesting screech that nearly lifted the hair on Lois's head.
"The door is coming open," their guide said quietly.
"They'll be through it in a minute or two," Clark said. "Go on. There's still the ladder into the vacation cottage."
"We're going to get killed!" Al whispered as loudly as he dared.
"We will if you lose your nerve!" Lois retorted. "Move!" She gave him a push and started forward again.
They hurried ahead as fast as they dared. Somewhere behind them, another screech of agonized metal told them that the door had come open at last, and Lois wondered in the back of her mind what their guide had done to block it that way. She hadn't seen him do anything, but he had managed to prevent it from opening for more than five minutes. Some distance ahead, the corridor made its sharp turn, passing the opening in the wall that was the entrance to the crypt. Some way beyond that would be the ladder up into the vacation cottage.
Lois hurried ahead, rounding the turn and glancing at the spot on the wall that she and Clark had discovered, and wasn't particularly surprised to see that the dirt had been cleared, revealing the opening starkly in the light of the small flashlight. The hidden entrance was no longer hidden.
There was no time to explore it now, however. Ahead, perhaps another couple of hundred yards, was the ladder that ascended into the vacation cottage.
Behind them, more muffled now, she could still hear the sounds of gunshots echoing from the parking lot exit. Al jumped every time an explosion echoed through the tunnel. Lois wondered if he would ever recover from his experiences this evening. Hopefully not. It might make him think twice the next time someone offered him too good a deal.
"There's another way out ahead," she said. "Hurry up, or those guys behind us are going to catch up."
Behind her, the dark man raised his penlight, shining it ahead of them and revealing the metal ladder in its pale light. Al saw it and increased his pace.
They had barely crossed half the distance to their goal, however, when a voice shouted from somewhere above them, and several, very loud explosions brought them to a stop. More shots were followed by the unmistakable chatter of automatic fire. Al turned a terrified face toward them.
"They're shooting! We can't go there!"
In the rear, their guide's voice spoke softly. "The others come. In moments you shall be trapped."
"What'll we do?" Al squeaked.
"Quickly," the dark man said. "This way."
Al opened his mouth to argue and Lois whacked him sharply between the shoulder blades. "Do what he says!"
In seconds, they were beside the entrance to the crypt. The dark man indicated it with a pointed finger, glancing at the same time over his shoulder. "Hurry. They will be here in less than a minute."
Lois dropped to her hands and knees and crawled through the opening. She heard a faint protest from Al, which was cut off sharply, and moved back in time to avoid the hapless actor tumbling on top of her, evidently shoved forcefully from behind. An instant later, Clark scrambled through the opening, the penlight in one hand.
"Hurry. Back there," he said breathlessly, and Lois found herself being pushed back deeper into the passage, away from the opening. It was several seconds before she realized that the dark man had not followed.
Clark extinguished the light. "Quiet!" he breathed.
"What if they look in here?" Al whispered loudly.
"Sh!" Lois restrained the urge to smack him again.
Clark shoved Al farther back into the passage. "Keep quiet!" he ordered in a stern whisper. He pushed Lois after him and took a position between her and the opening into the Cost Mart tunnel. Lois opened her mouth to protest and then shut it again. Now wasn't the time for a debate, but if they got out of here alive, she intended to have a few words with her partner. Where the heck did he think he got the right to play human shield for her, anyway?
Silence. Lois waited in the darkness, listening to the sound of her own heartbeat and the blood thrumming in her ears.
And then the footsteps of several men broke the silence. The low opening in the tunnel wall was illuminated by the yellow light of what was probably another penlight.
"Who the hell are you?"
Lois started at the sound of that familiar voice. Unless she was very much mistaken, the speaker was Bill Church.
The dark man's chuckle held an almost sinister note. "Who I am is not important. By all means, continue on your way."
The explosion of a gunshot shattered the air. A little rattle of stone followed the sound.
The dark man laughed, and the sound made the hair on her neck want to stand up straight.
Another gunshot followed close on the laugh, and then someone screamed. Lois tried to squirm past Clark to see what was happening, but her partner had become the proverbial immovable object, and he didn't budge.
Another shot went off, and then two, together, followed by another scream, the sound of scuffling bodies, and then another gunshot. Clark's immovable form between Lois and the outer tunnel effectively frustrated her instinctive attempt to squeeze past him.
Then there was silence. A whole lot of silence.
Clark's penlight came on, illuminating the rock walls of the crypt. Slowly, he moved back to the hole and dropped down to crawl through the opening. Lois was right on his heels.
Four men were sprawled on the floor of the tunnel. The dark man stood observing them for a long minute in the light of a newly acquired flashlight, and turned to speak to Clark.
"The conflict above ground appears to have ended. Perhaps you should summon your friend, Henderson, to take custody of these men."
"Are they dead?" Lois whispered.
He glanced enigmatically at her. "They live, Miss Lane."
"I'll go up and see if I can find Henderson," Clark said. "Keep an eye on them." He inclined his head at the four unconscious men on the floor of the tunnel. "And don't let Al leave, either. He's got some explaining to do to Bill."
"That's for sure," Lois said. She glanced toward the actor, crawling dejectedly through the hole in the wall, and then back toward the dark man, opening her mouth to ask him what had happened out here in the tunnel while they had been inside the crypt.
But in the split second between the time that she had taken her eyes from him and looked back, he had disappeared. Perhaps it was only her imagination that supplied the sound of fluttering wings somewhere in the darkness beyond the circle of light from the penlight. She hoped so, anyway.
**********
Clark pushed the trapdoor in the vacation cottage open an inch or two.
The trapdoor flipped up suddenly and he found himself staring into the muzzles of three M-16s held by officers of the Metropolis Police Department.
"Hold it!" barked an official voice.
Clark froze in place. True, if the officers fired at him, he couldn't be physically hurt, but it would set off a chain of very bad circumstances for Clark Kent and Superman.
"Climb out of there," the same voice ordered. "Slowly."
Clark did so. As he stepped out into the room, a large hand shoved him against the nearest wall. "Put your hands behind your head and don't move!"
"I won't," he said. "My name is Clark Kent. I'm looking for Inspector Henderson."
A hand tugged at the wallet in his hip pocket. Other hands patted him down efficiently. There was silence for several seconds. "Turn around. Keep your hands behind your head."
Clark obeyed. A flashlight shone in his face as the three officers apparently compared his face to the photo on his driver's license.
"All right, you can put your hands down." The cop who seemed to be in command gave the order. He glowered at Clark. "Henderson isn't happy with you, Kent. You'll be lucky if he doesn't arrest you for interference."
"Sorry," Clark said. "I have some information for him, though."
"Tell me what it is and I'll decide if it's important enough to interrupt him."
"All right," Clark said. "My partner has Bill Church Jr. and three of his men waiting for you down in the smuggling tunnel."
The silence that followed this announcement was gratifying. The officer stared at him for several seconds. "Stay here." He pivoted on his heel and left the room.
In less than two minutes, he returned with William Henderson, looking bulkier and much more formidable in tactical gear. The Inspector looked balefully at Clark. "I should arrest both you and Lane, Clark. You could have been killed, and it would have served both of you right!"
"Probably," Clark said. "Did Sergeant Drummer give you my message?"
"That's the only reason I'm here. What's the situation down there?"
"Lois and Al -- I'll explain Al later -- are standing guard over Bill Church Jr. and three of his men in the smuggling tunnel."
"All right." Henderson spoke into the microphone of his headset. "Schultz, take over for me." He turned and nodded to the three cops. "You three are with me. Lead on, Clark, and let's hope Church and his boys are where you left them."
He was not to be disappointed. When Clark led the small contingent of police into the tunnel, Lois and Al were standing beside the four inert bodies of Bill Church and his henchmen. Lois and Al had evidently turned them on their backs while Clark had been getting help, for they lay face up, breathing heavily. Henderson waved for his men to check on the four and turned to Clark. "You got time to tell me what happened now?" He glanced sideways at Al, prominent in the bedraggled vampire outfit. "I get the feeling you and I have met before."
Al looked down. "Yeah, we have."
"This is Al," Clark said. "He's an actor hired by Bill Church to play the part of the vampire. He was slated to be killed along with Lois and me."
"Inspector!" Sergeant Drummer said. "Look at this!"
Henderson turned. "Yeah?"
"Look at their throats!" The man's voice held a note that Clark hadn't heard in it before. He knew why, but he looked at Lois, who met his eyes for an instant, and then looked down. She said nothing.
Henderson looked, and Clark thought his expression grew a little grimmer. Clark didn't blame him.
On each throat were two small, telltale punctures -- just over the carotid artery.
Henderson was silent for a long moment, and then he spoke into the microphone of his head set again, summoning police paramedics and others to transport the four men to the nearest hospital. He looked at Clark and Lois who now stood side by side, watching the scene. "I take it there's an explanation for this."
"We didn't actually see what happened," Lois said. "We were hiding in the crypt."
Henderson looked at Lois and Clark without expression. "When the paramedics get here," he said, "the three of you are coming upstairs with me, and you're not leaving until I've heard everything that happened to you. Is that clear?"
Somehow, Clark suspected that now was not a good time to argue. He nodded without speaking. And for once, Lois didn't argue, either.
**********
tbc
