Home V: Obsession -- 10/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
The elevator door opened and they boarded. Clark nodded. "That's true. Still, I wish you didn't have such an affinity for trouble."
"I really don't go looking for it," she said. "Parking," she added to the elevator.
"I know. It doesn't seem to matter, though," Clark said. "It just seems to find you."
The car dropped toward the first floor and then changed direction toward the big parking tier. As it braked to a stop and the doors popped open, Clark's head jerked up. "Stay here," he said. He stepped from the car and vanished.
And now, Part 10:
**********
Lori hesitated at the elevator doors and then stepped back into the lighted interior. She was relatively safe there, she knew, in the unlikely event that there was some danger lurking around. The car had a camera that observed everything inside it and in the event of trouble, Security could be there in seconds.
Some distance away she could hear the sound of running feet, magnified by the echoes that were characteristic of this place, then her wrist talker beeped. She lifted the device to her lips. "Lori Lyons."
"Come to Section B," her husband's voice said. "Hurry. Don't stop for anything."
Clark didn't want to leave her alone while he dealt with whatever had happened, she thought. Quickly she exited the elevator and turned right toward the part of the lot where she had left the Jeep. The parking structure was dimly lit, and she couldn't help glancing nervously around as she hurried toward Section B but within a few seconds she saw the shadowy forms of two figures, one lying on the synthastone floor and the other the caped figure of Superman, kneeling beside it.
Her heart in her mouth, she ran toward him. "Who is it?"
"It's Carla." Clark glanced up as she arrived. He was doing something that Lori couldn't see. "She's been stunned and stabbed."
"Oh my god. Is she --"
"She's alive," he said. "I saw someone run. I think he must have been scared off when he heard the elevator arrive, but she'd have bled to death if I'd tried to catch him."
"Him?"
"Or her." Clark was doing something to the girl huddled on the ground. "I'm putting pressure on the artery. Whoever it was didn't have time to do a thorough job but I need to get her to the emergency room. The police will be here in a minute. I called them. Velma's on her way."
The sound of an approaching siren could be heard, and an instant later a police air scooter skidded to a stop beside them. Clark stood up, Carla in his arms. "I need to take the victim to the emergency room, Officer. Ms. Lyons will give you the details. I'm afraid there aren't many. I'll be back as soon as I can." He was gone in a swirl of air.
Another approaching siren could be heard. Several, in fact. Lori turned to the police officer, who was now stepping from his vehicle. The man had glanced briefly after the departing super-hero, and now turned to Lori. "What happened here?"
"Somebody tried to kill our office intern." Lori found her voice shaking.
The air-cop took one look at her and Lori saw him glance at her waistline. His voice became more solicitous. "Do you need to sit down, Miss?"
She leaned back against the nearest vehicle: a small Ford Hawk. "I'm all right. Just a little shaken. The victim's name is Carla Rhoads. She's the newest employee in our office."
"Do you know what happened?"
"Superman said she was stabbed," Lori said. "Stunned and then stabbed," she corrected. "He said he saw someone run, but he couldn't pursue or Carla would have bled to death."
The man nodded and spoke into his wrist talker. Lori looked at the ground where Carla had lain, at the small puddle of blood and the spatters of red here and there. In minutes, the police would be setting up a perimeter around the parking structure and initiating an immediate search of the entire area. They weren't going to find anyone, she thought. There were too many ways out of this place, but the reason for the assault on Carla was becoming clear to her as she listened to the voices and the orders flying back and forth. Velma Chow's police aircar arrived seconds later and the Lieutenant stepped out to take charge of the situation. She took one look at Lori and pushed her into the driver's seat of the car.
"Sit down, Lyons," she ordered. "Put your face in your lap. I don't want you passing out on me."
"I'm all right," she protested.
"You're white as a sheet. Do what I say." Velma turned to the cop who had first arrived. "What happened?"
The man repeated what Lori had told him, and Velma turned to Lori. "You were here?"
"I'd just arrived in the elevator," Lori said, bringing the tremor in her voice under control with an effort. "Superman must have realized it. He called me. He said he thought the sound of the elevator must have scared the guy away."
"Probably," Velma said. "Did he say anything else?"
Lori nodded. "Just what I told Officer McRae. Superman said she'd been stunned and stabbed."
Velma's eyelids flickered at the description. "I see. Anything else?"
Lori shook her head. "No."
The lieutenant looked sharply at her. "What else, Lyons?"
Lori gulped. "I'd like to tell you the rest in private, if you don't mind."
There was a swirl of air announcing Superman's arrival. Velma Chow turned to him. "How's the victim, Superman?"
"I left her at Metro General Emergency," he said. "She's expected to make it." He turned to Lori. "Are you all right, Ms. Lyons?"
"Everybody keeps asking me that," Lori said. "I'm fine. I didn't turn to glass just because I'm pregnant."
She caught the faint twitch of his lips. "That's good to hear. I was passing by and heard a noise," he explained to the lieutenant. "I can't really describe it, but it alarmed me. Then I heard the elevator, and someone running, and came to investigate the sounds. I found Ms. Rhoads here. She'd been stunned and then stabbed. Someone was running away, but it was a case of going after him or saving the victim's life."
"Him?" Velma asked immediately.
"I'm not sure of the gender," Superman said apologetically. "I was trying to give first aid to Ms. Rhoads."
"Of course," Velma said, sounding resigned. "Anything else?"
"I'd heard the elevator arrive and realized it was Ms. Lyons," he explained. "I didn't think it would be wise to leave her here alone after what had happened -- especially when there was some chance that the assailant was still around. So I called her, told her what had happened, and left her to speak to Officer McRae while I took Ms. Rhoads to the hospital."
"I see. All right, we'll need you to come to the station later to sign a statement," Velma said.
Superman nodded. He glanced back at Lori. "Is there anything I can do for you before I leave, Ms. Lyons?"
Lori hesitated. "Could you tell Clark where I am?" she asked.
"Certainly." He looked at Velma. "Is it all right with you if I bring her husband here, Lieutenant?"
Velma shrugged. "Fine with me."
Superman departed in a gust of air. Velma turned to Lori. "What else, Lori?" Her voice sounded a little gentler than it had. "I realize you're a bit shaken up, but if you can give us any information ..."
"I don't know if it will help," Lori said. "This is all just guesses."
There was a whoosh of air, and an instant later Clark was hurrying down the aisle between the rows of cars. Velma glanced in his direction and waved. "Over here, Kent."
Clark obeyed. He glanced measuringly at Lori and seemed to relax. "Superman said someone tried to kill Carla," he said. "Are you all right, honey?"
"I'm fine," Lori repeated patiently. "I have a bad feeling I know why it happened though."
Velma opened the door to the rear seat for Clark and gestured for him to scoot over. "If you want privacy, close the door," she told Lori, getting into the seat beside Clark. "Let's have it."
Lori obeyed and turned in the seat to face the lieutenant, biting her lip. "Carla looks superficially like me," she said. "She's about my size and has dark hair and the same hairstyle. I think that might be why this happened. I think it was a case of mistaken identity."
Velma Chow regarded her in silence for several seconds. "Do you have any idea why someone might want you dead this time, Lyons?" she inquired a little dryly.
Lori glanced at Clark. He nodded slightly. "You better tell her what happened today," he said. "I think you may be right."
"What happened today?" Velma asked.
"Well ... it goes back to what you told us yesterday," Lori explained. "Connor Cooper. He was on the NTSU Clarion -- that's the New Troy State University online newspaper -- when I was the editor there. He's a friend of mine. Clark and I are going to a fitness class at his gym, and I guess everybody there knows that we were pretty good friends ..."
Velma listened in silence as Lori talked, describing what had happened this afternoon. When she finished, the lieutenant sighed. "I guess I should have expected it," she said. "So, this green Meteor may have followed you from the gym -- and now someone has assaulted a woman who looks a lot like you. You say Cooper wasn't at the gym today while you were there?"
"No," Lori said. "He was supposed to be participating in the Valentine Marathon." She glanced at her wrist. "I guess it's getting over just about now."
Velma blew out air, puffing out her cheeks. "We'll check to see if he was actually there, and completed the race," she said. "Not that that's conclusive, of course. Still, it's a partial alibi. Did I mention that you're making me old before my time?"
"Lieutenant, someone's killing Connor's female friends," Lori said. "I don't think it's Connor. I know him pretty well. He'd no more do this than I would."
Velma regarded her for a moment in silence. "And you think this person in the green car followed you and then laid in wait for you here in the parking tier. You might be right. I don't suppose you got the license number of the car?"
Lori shook her head. "Things were happening too fast. If it's any help, I think the first letter on the license may have been either a Q or an O."
"I guess it's better than nothing." Chow sounded resigned. "You realize, I suppose, that I'd already thought of the possibility of a stalker."
Lori nodded. "I figured you had. "
"It's one reason Cooper hasn't been arrested yet. But if you mention that to anyone --"
"You know us better than that, Lieutenant," Clark said.
"Yes, I do or I'd never have said it," Chow said with a sardonic smile. "But don't tell my bosses. I'd never live it down." She regarded Lori for a moment. "I know your propensity for attracting trouble probably makes what I'm going to say useless, Lori, but please try to be careful. I'd hate to lose one of the best friends the Department has."
Lori glanced at her husband. "I'd promised Clark that already, before this afternoon," she said. "I'm being careful, really." She glanced at her wrist talker. "Is it all right with you if we send this story to the news desk? We won't tell them anything we shouldn't. We don't actually *know* anything other than the bare facts."
Chow nodded. "Go ahead. You can leave any time you like but I'll need you to sign a statement later."
"I'd like some kind of quote from you about this," Lori said.
"I'll give it to you when you come in for the statement," Velma said. "Go on, get out of here. I've got work to do."
**********
John Olsen waited until Clark had finished speaking. Both Lori and Clark looked shaken. He should probably make an effort to get used to situations like this, he reflected. If Lois Lane's soul had returned as Lori Lyons, this kind of thing could be expected to happen repeatedly if the stories he had heard about his intrepid great grandmother were anywhere near true, and since Clark verified them he had to accept them as fact. "So you think this stalker has targeted Lori and got Carla by mistake?" he concluded.
"That's about it," Clark said. "We're going after him. There's no way I'm going to let some nut hurt innocent people out of some weird obsession with Connor Cooper."
"Oh, I agree," John said. "You're certain Carla is going to be all right?"
"They thought she would. I stopped the bleeding pretty fast, and got her to the emergency room within minutes," Clark said. "They were rushing her in for emergency surgery when I left."
"I'd better give the hospital a call," John said, "and then her parents. Her mother is in Australia and her father is working on the Antarctic Reclamation Project, but they'll want to know as soon as possible."
"I think Superman will drop by the hospital and ask how she's doing," Clark said.
"That would probably be a good idea," John said. "You'll tell me if she needs anything, won't you?"
Clark nodded. "Come on, honey," he added to Lori. "I don't want to leave you alone. As soon as our killer realizes he got the wrong person, he's going to be after you again."
Lori nodded silently. John examined her face and hid a smile at the expression he saw there. As a newsman he had long ago learned to read expressions pretty accurately, and if he wasn't mistaken, Lori was more than just upset. His top female reporter was angry. He supposed that it might simply be a reaction to everything that had happened, but he doubted it. If he knew Lori, she was furious at the killer for what he had done, and that meant fireworks a little way down the line. Theoretically, he knew, reporters were supposed to stay detached from their stories, but he had often found that theory to be untrue. Lori did her best work when she was passionately involved in a story. Their murderer didn't stand a chance of concealing his identity for long, John thought. Lori Lyons was out to get him.
"Watch your back," he said mildly. "I don't want you getting killed trying to track this guy down."
"I will," Lori said. "Come on, Clark."
**********
Metropolis General Hospital was the same as any big hospital anywhere in the world, Clark thought as Superman strode into the Emergency Department where he had delivered Carla Rhoads two hours earlier. It looked, smelled and sounded the same, and the dozen or so people waiting in the little room for their names to be called could have been a similar group anywhere in the world. Lori entered quietly behind him, virtually unnoticed since every eye in the place was glued to his colorful outfit. He made his way to the desk and waited patiently while a middle-aged woman holding a cloth over one eye spoke to the receptionist behind the glass panel.
At last the woman turned to him. "May I help you, Superman?"
"I hope so," he said. "I brought a young woman in a couple of hours ago. She'd been stunned and stabbed. I just wanted to know what happened to her."
The nurse nodded. "Just a moment." She turned to the computer in front of her and did something he couldn't see. "That would be Ms. Rhoads?"
"That's right."
"She's resting comfortably," the woman said. "You'll have to speak to her doctor if you want to know more."
"And her doctor would be?" he asked.
"Doctor Bacon," she informed him. She turned to the patient waiting behind him. "May I help you?"
Clark got out of the man's way, and a moment later he and Lori had exited into the main body of the hospital. "I doubt we'll get much information from the doctor," he said, "but at least we know she made it. She may still be in Recovery."
"Can you look to see?" Lori inquired.
"Maybe. I don't like violating her privacy, though."
"You're not violating her privacy," Lori said. "We just want to see how she's doing. It would be different if we planned on talking about it or something."
Clark raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't protest. In truth, he wanted to reassure himself that Carla was going to be all right. "Okay. Surgery is on fourth. Let's go."
Lori followed him, trailing a little behind so it wouldn't be obvious that she was with Superman. Clark led the way to the stairs and once inside the stairwell, whisked himself and Lori to the fourth floor in seconds. He exited out into the main hallway and turned toward Recovery.
They stopped some distance from the actual room, and Clark trained his X-ray vision and super-hearing on the room. Carla was there, he saw, bandaged and hooked to various pieces of equipment, but she was breathing on her own, and as he watched a green-clad nurse bent over her, shaking her shoulder gently. He released a sigh of relief.
"She's in Recovery, coming out of the anesthetic," he reported. "They're trying to wake her up."
"Superman! Can I help you?" The speaker was a man in green scrubs with a nametag that identified him as a surgical nurse.
Clark nodded. "I brought a young woman in a while ago -- the victim of a stabbing. I just wanted to be sure she --"
"I understand," the man said. "What was her name?"
"Carla Rhoads," Lori said. She glanced at Superman and then turned deliberately to the doctor. "She's an employee of the Daily Planet and a friend of mine. I just wanted to know if she's all right."
"And you are?"
"I'm Lori Lyons. I work with Carla. I know you can't say much, but if you could just tell us if she's going to be all right?"
The man regarded her for a moment. "I can tell you that she's doing as well as can be expected, but that's all I'm allowed to say," he said. Lori bit her lip and he seemed to relent. "She's in Recovery now, and is expected to be transferred to a semi-private room in an hour or two," he said. "Does that help?"
Lori nodded. "Thanks."
"Yes," Clark said. "Thanks."
"Do you know when she'll be allowed visitors?" Lori asked.
"I don't know for sure. You should call the hospital in the morning to find out," the man said.
Lori nodded. "Thanks," she said again.
Flying through the evening air a few minutes later, Lori was silent. Clark knew his soulmate was thinking hard and waited with some trepidation for her to speak, but when she did, to his surprise it had nothing to do with Carla or the person who had attacked her. "I never did get a pair of flat shoes," she said.
"Do you still want to?" he asked. "Broadhurst's is still open."
Lori nodded. "If you don't mind," she said. "After that, we should stop at the flower section and order Carla a bouquet to be delivered in the morning. We should drop by the Precinct and sign those statements for Velma, and then I want to get some dinner. I'm starving."
That, at least, was no surprise. "Do you want to eat out, or cook at home?"
"Cook at home," Lori said. "If we eat in a restaurant, I'm going to be looking over my shoulder every other minute. Besides, I want to read over the stuff Carla found for us. We're going to nail this character before he hurts anybody else."
Yep, Lori was in fighting mode, he thought. Nothing made her more angry than an innocent person being hurt or killed by one of society's predators. He wondered for a moment how Utopia could possibly come about when such persons existed, but then common sense took over. Utopia still had predators. Any human society would have them, no matter how advanced the society was. Some people would always try to take what others had, some would always try to live at the expense of others, and some people would never accept the limitations put on them by the necessity of society to impose rules for the benefit of everyone. Tempus was one, and he certainly wasn't alone. It was simply that there were fewer of them, and in that future time society must have learned how to cope with them more effectively so that the decent, law-abiding people of Earth could live their lives in greater comfort and safety. After all, human society had predators, but they also had people like Lori, who would never accept that some people were free to harm others without retribution. It was people like her, and Lois before her, who would help bring about Wells's so-called Utopia. HG Wells had come from the Nineteenth Century, and his idea of Utopia might be somewhat different than Clark's, after all. If he and his descendents could reduce crime, poverty and war to a minimum, that might be Utopia from the time traveler's point of view. In any event, it was a noble goal to try for. And one tiny step on the way involved stopping a psychopathic killer from killing again.
"I'm with you," he told her. "If anybody needs to be caught, it's this guy. Assuming, of course, that Velma doesn't get him first."
"The police have dozens of cases," Lori said. "Besides, you and I have better resources."
"Well, different ones," Clark amended. "All right. What would you like for dinner?"
"I don't know," Lori said. "A lot of whatever it is."
"That part doesn't surprise me a bit," he said. "Okay. Let's go get you some shoes."
**********
As they were leaving Broadhurst's, Lori's wrist talker beeper softly. She glanced at Clark and lifted the device to her lips. "Lori Lyons."
"Lori!" Connor's voice emerged from the speaker. "What happened? The police just left!"
"Hold on," Lori said. "I guess they were checking your alibi, huh?"
"Yeah." Connor's voice sounded marginally less upset. "I was at the Marathon. I placed fifth, so there were plenty of people who could vouch for where I was. What happened? I heard somebody else got attacked. Who was it?"
"Take it easy," Lori said. "Fortunately, nobody got killed. Superman saved her life."
She could hear the sigh of relief over the speaker. "Thank god. What happened?"
"Tell you what," Lori said. "I have to go over to the police station to sign a statement. Why don't you meet us at the apartment in an hour? We can tell you then."
There was a slight pause. "All right," Connor said. "I have to go get showered and changed, anyway. You're all right, aren't you? They said you were there."
"I'm fine," Lori said. "We can tell you about it when we see you."
"All right. I'll be there at nine," Connor's voice said.
After he had signed off, Lori glanced at Clark. "Care to give me a lift to the Precinct? We still need to pick up the Jeep at the Planet."
"Why don't we go make our statements and then we can get the car and go home," Clark said. "Let's find an alley."
A few minutes later, they were touching down at the Precinct. Clark, in full Superman regalia, opened the door for her and they entered the lobby of the station. The desk sergeant looked up and raised his eyebrows. "Superman? What brings you and Lyons here?"
"We have to sign statements for Lieutenant Chow," Clark said. "Is she in?"
"Yeah. Just a minute."
Lori waited, surreptitiously admiring her husband's six-foot frame in the tights. She never ceased to appreciate the way the spandex outfit hugged his body and showed every muscle and contour. Clark might be over a hundred and thirty but the sight of him in the Suit never failed to trigger her hormonal instincts, and no one seeing him would believe him to be a day over thirty, if as much.
"Watch it honey," he murmured softly to her. "You're drooling."
"You're very drool-worthy," she replied almost inaudibly, but wrenched her eyes away, aware that he was smiling slightly.
"You and Ms. Lyons can go in now, Superman," the sergeant announced,
"Thank you, Sergeant. After you, Ms. Lyons," Clark said, opening the door for her.
Velma Chow looked up a moment later when Clark knocked on the open door of her office. "Come on in," she said. "Sit down."
Clark let Lori pick her seat and then took the straight-backed chair opposite her. He looked expectantly at the lieutenant. "I believe you had statements for the two of us to sign," he said.
"Right here." Velma took two sheets of hardcopy and passed them to him across the desk. He glanced at them and handed one to Lori. "Look them over and make sure they're accurate," Velma said. "Make any corrections and initial them, then go ahead and sign."
Lori read over the short statement, picked up a pen lying on the desk and affixed her name to the document. "As I recall, you had a statement for me?"
"Right. 'The attack on Ms. Rhoads is quite similar to the attack on another young woman in Metropolis two nights ago, and a spokesperson for the police department -- that would be me -- stated that investigators believe that there may be a connection between them.' Will that do?"
"Sure," Lori said. "I take it there's a reason you want this in the piece?"
Chow nodded. "This is off the record, you understand. We've had a profiler working on this for some time. He doesn't have a lot to go on, but he's come to some conclusions about our killer. He believes that we've got a psychopath who has a fixation on a certain person -- in this case, Connor Cooper -- and is eliminating any possible rivals that come along. Probably female, or a gay male, with romantic fantasies involving Cooper; probably an isolated individual; possibly alienated from his family or with no close family; possibly living alone, but who is good at the superficial behavior that allows him or her to blend in and appear normal. He or she has had long-term contact with Cooper, but probably not a close relationship with him."
Lori nodded. "Clark and I kind of thought it might be something like that," she said.
"Figured that," Velma said. "Here's a little more information to go on. A couple of things have become evident in the last few killings. He's getting more paranoid about female contact with Cooper and is going to greater lengths to eliminate the competition -- as in trailing you, apparently following Cooper to see who his friends are, killing that woman at his apartment house with nothing to go on but gossip, and so forth. Now we have a description of the car he drives -- I'm using 'he' for convenience's sake -- thanks to you, Lori. Unfortunately it's an extremely common type of car. We're pretty sure he follows the news on the murders, so we want him to think that we know less than we do. We'd like him to get cocky."
"All right," Lori said. "I'll be sure your statement is prominent, but I won't give any hint there's anything more."
"Perfect," Chow said. "And be careful. Our killer thinks you're a threat. I don't want you dead, too."
"Neither do I," Lori said. "I'm being careful."
"I know," Chow said with a dour smile, "but what you think of as careful doesn't always coincide with my definition."
Lori patted her rounded middle lightly. "Even if I wasn't trying to be careful on my own behalf -- which I am -- I have another reason to try to be careful. I won't take unnecessary chances; I promise."
Chow raised an eyebrow and glanced at Clark. "It's the way she hedges those promises that worries me. Do me a favor and keep an eye on her, Superman. She and Kent are the only reporters I've ever been able to stand. I'd hate to lose her."
Clark smiled. "I'll do my best, Lieutenant."
Lori got to her feet. "Give me some credit. I'm not an idiot. I want to stay alive at least as much as you want me to."
Velma grinned sardonically and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you used to be taller, Lyons?"
**********
tbc
