It's great that you keep posting so frequently and give us such long parts. I must confess, though, that this is not quite as much up my alley as the first two parts were - I'm not that much into this creepy stuff. So I won't do any quoting this time, except for one thing:
"Nuts! How come the guys on the TV cop shows get better results than I do with you?"
"Because they have more equipment, more external evidence, and better-paid writers."
"Not funny, Doc."
Not funny??? Terry, on a comedy scale from one to ten, that one sure gets a score of eleven!
Apart from that, most of this part is ominous and creepy. And we definitely have a suspect here. Major Vukovich. She is the one who interferes as soon as Lois starts yelling at Claude in part two, right after he has tried to tell her something important. When Vukovich interferes, Claude immediately backs off, saying, "I will see both of you later, perhaps", thereby implying that not only Lois is important to him, but quite possibly Vukovich, too. And she immediately identifies him as the station's resident Casanova, adding:
I also know that he thinks he's Earth's gift to all spacewomen.
Note that she said
all spacewomen. Wouldn't that include herself? Doesn't it seem likely that Claude might have made a pass at her? And she, possibly not the most attractive of women, might have been flattered and taken him up on his offer, but then things might have turned sour. We may suspect they often do when Claude is involved.
And now consider. Vukovich might have had her heart broken by Claude. She wants to kill him, pure and simple. And lo and behold, Lois Lane makes her entrance and starts hurling death threats at Claude in public. So what have we got here, if not another irate female whom Major Vukovich can blame for Claude's death?
And consider what Vukovich says about possible suspects:
Right now, I can't rule out anyone but myself.
No? How convienient that you
can rule out yourself, though, Major Vukovich. Wouldn't all murderers like to be able to do that?
And then Vukovich places a chain around Lois's neck to prevent her from leaving the space station. She reads all her e-mails and makes sure she can't write any uncensored messages to anyone on Earth again, certainly not to Clark.
We should note, too, that Claude didn't struggle when someone put that noose around his neck and tied his arms with duct tape. The only reasonable explanation is that this tying-up thing was part of a sex game, and we know that Claude had had sex - with a woman - before he died. Sorry for being so gross here, but maybe that female doctor, Dr. Fujima, should be checking out Major Vukovich's body for traces of Claude's sperm?
Like I said, Terry, this is borderline
too creepy for me. Suddenly I wish there weren't so many parts left. Remember those two intolerable rollercoaster rides I told you about - are you planning to make us go through something equally bad, I wonder?
Ann
P.S. Guess there is one other possible suspect. That other female "crater" - the other one apart from Lois, that is - what was her name, Becky? At least she would have duct tape to spare. But she seemed too nice and easy-going to kill anybody, didn't she?
Lois need Superman to check the crime scene.