Clark and Lois The Lost Years Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 3 36/46
By Ken Janney
This version is rated PG-13
* denotes emphasis *
< denotes thoughts >
[ playback of a recording or TV Commentary] / telepathic communications /
(#) footnotes
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Reminder:
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 - Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Canon Alt Clark universe also called – Alt 1
Previously:
Clark spoke “Wow, I never expected anything like this. Neither the other Clark nor Lois ever told me anything about this power. I wonder if he even knows. It sure looks like we can communicate telepathically. I wonder if there is a range limit. We’ll need to try that out. How about this, you stay here and I’ll start flying and we’ll talk for as long as we can. When I can’t hear you anymore I’ll come back.” With that Clark took off in a straight line first gaining altitude so that he wouldn’t be observed from the ground and moving north. He was over the crown of the Earth and starting down the other side when he lost contact. He immediately retraced his path. “Well, it looks like we could be on different sides of the continent and still ‘talk’.”
“That could sure come in handy. Wow, that was unexpected and it also looks like I can get an immediate recharge from you if I need it.”
“I didn’t notice any drastic change in my energy level. It only took about a minute. I bet if while flying we held hands we could go on forever.”
Lois wanted to wear her jewels at all times and Clark was not averse to this so it was decided that this would be the case. She would wear them under her clothes and expose them to sunlight as opportunity presented itself to recharge them. She would be able to wear everything but the earrings and tiara under her clothes. The tiara being the largest stone it would be the greatest source of her energy. They finally devised a method of removing the large central stone and placing it in a pouch around her neck so that it rested in the valley between her breasts. She would not be wearing any low cut necklines until they came up with a better method, but this would do for now.
After their weekend they returned to Metropolis, holding hands as Lois flew under her own power.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 36 – Continuing the Investigation
Two weeks later
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Luthor was fit to be tied. He had commissioned several operations in the last couple of weeks and they had all gone sour. He was becoming more and more convinced that there was a leak in his organization. He had had his offices checked for bugs and the crew doing the search came up empty. Clark had used his superabilities to hide them is such a way that they couldn’t be found.
After the White Orchid Ball he had gone over the security tapes and hadn’t seen anything. He was musing to himself. “The weapon was lying on the floor and then suddenly it wasn’t. It was almost as if it had vanished into thin air.” That had brought to mind the Congo incident. “The report from the Congo said that the reporters vanished the same way and then there was that mysterious flying demon that was seen. Could that same demon now be here, in Metropolis, and could it be after me?” He was not superstitious and didn’t believe in demons. He did however believe that people could develop extraordinary powers. There were strong men that could lift tremendous weights; it was done in competition regularly. Certain individuals could run exceptionally fast. Could there actually be someone that could fly? Unheard of, but impossible? Time would tell.
The attack on him at the ball had not been a result of anyone from his competitors it had simply been a couple of loose cannons, disgruntled former employees with a grudge to settle. He had seen promise in the weapon that they had developed and had cut a deal with them. He wouldn’t press charges if Nell, the brainy one, went back to work for LexLabs. This time she wasn’t going to be a lab tech, she returned as the head of her own lab doing laser research. He still regretted the loss of the weapon she had used on him. He hoped she would be as successful in her new research as she had been with that device. The power demonstrated in that portable unit exceeded the output of most stationary units.
He was still disgusted that he had been unable to determine if the team that had been shot in the Congo had gotten out alive or not. Mrs. Cox had gone to the Brazzaville office of the Daily Planet and had used her wiles on a reporter named Claude Rochert. She had found out that there was a team from Metropolis there following the cargo. All she could get were their undercover names which didn’t help. The names however had corresponded to those reported by the injured man. When he had followed up at the local office there were no teams then on assignment in fact there was only one reporter out of the office currently and she was on sick leave apparently suffering from stress related problems. Yet another dead end.
Checking the hospitals had also proved fruitless. The hospitals records were all sealed by executive order. What were they trying to hide? Even the doctors were being tight lipped. They couldn’t find out anything.
The current problems had all started with the Prometheus shuttle sabotage failure. He still didn’t know how they found that bomb. It was designed to be small and simply cause a system failure which in turn would cause the explosion that would destroy the shuttle. ‘An anonymous phone tip’ EPRAD had called it. The name ‘Charlie’ had been mentioned. The same name again and again and again. Who in his organization had leaked the information? The number of possibilities was vanishingly small, and getting smaller all the time. The bomb maker and the EPRAD tech that had planted it had both been dealt with. A couple of convenient accidents had taken care of them. The one had ‘accidently’ detonated a bomb he had been fabricating. The EPRAD tech had unfortunately been in an auto accident and hadn’t survived. That just left him, Nigel and one other, the EPRAD manager that he had bought off. He would have to see to that little detail shortly.
He hit a switch on his intercom, “Nigel, attend, if you please.”
Nigel knocked and heard “Come.” He opened the door and entered.
“Nigel, we have a problem I need you to take care of. The EPRAD manager, John Crawford, could have an attack of conscience at any minute. In fact he may have been the anonymous caller that tipped them off about the bomb. I need you to take care of him, immediately. Make it look like an accident as usual.”
“Yes sir, right away.” Nigel turned and left.
Luthor depressed another key on the intercom, “Mrs. Cox, if you please.”
A few seconds later Mrs. Cox entered, without knocking.
“Mrs. Cox, please contact the head of my insurance group and have him come to the office tomorrow night at 10:00 PM. We need to talk about the receivables from his operation for the last quarter. Then call Madam Mitzi Daphne and have her come in at 11:00. Do you mind a late dinner, my dear, say about 11:30?”
“Not at all Lex.” She turned and with a saucy swaying of the hips she left the office.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clark had started picking up the used tape and loading a new blank on a regular schedule just after dark. He and Lois would generally listen to it as soon as he got it home. They had gotten a kick out of an earlier recording.
[”The weapon was lying on the floor and then suddenly it wasn’t. It was almost as if it had vanished into thin air.’ … ‘The report from the Congo said that the reporters vanished the same way and then there was that mysterious flying demon that was seen. Could that same demon now be here, in Metropolis, and could it be after me?’ ]They had laughed together at that one.
Most days there had been little or nothing of interest to them on the tapes, however, a couple of days after that previous episode Clark picked up the recording, they listened to it when he got home and when they got to the following conversation they perked up.
[ “Nigel, we have a problem I need you to take care of. The EPRAD manager, John Crawford, could have an attack of conscience at any minute. In fact he may have been the anonymous caller that tipped them off about the bomb. I need you to take care of him, immediately. Make it look like an accident as usual.’] Lois was the first to react “Okay, now we have a name. We need to get to him and see if we can get him to turn on Luthor.”
Clark, ever the voice of reason said, “Yes, but, I think we are going to have to go to the police with this.”
“How can we? We don’t know just who Luthor has in his pocket.”
“There is one individual. I worked with him in the other universe. I can only hope that he has the same integrity here in this universe, Detective Lieutenant Henderson. He’s a good man and a good cop in the other universe.”
“I guess it’s worth a try. How do we approach him?”
“Let’s go to his office tomorrow morning. It’s in the twelfth precinct, fairly close to the Planet building.” Clark’s suggested.
“Okay, let’s do it. Do you think we should give Perry an update? We’ve been covering a lot of little stuff. At least most of it has made the front page but it’s just that – little stuff. I would be willing to bet that he’s champing at the bit to get this expose out.”
“No, not just yet. I think Perry will wait as long as we need him to. The thought of the paper or rather reporters on staff getting a Pulitzer is a big enough incentive for him to be patient. As far as Henderson, let’s make sure of him first.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The next morning they entered the twelfth precinct and approached the desk Sergeant. Reading his name from his name tag, Clark addressed him. “Good morning, Sergeant Tartaglia, I’m Clark Kent and this is Lois Lane. We’re with the Daily Planet and we’d like to see Lieutenant Henderson, please.
The Sergeant picked up the phone and dialed an extension. He spoke a few sentences and laid it back down. He pointed down a hallway. “Down that corridor, third door on the left.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
They went to the indicated door and Clark knocked. They heard “Come in!”
Clark opened the door and allowed Lois to precede him into the office. Henderson indicated the chairs in front of his desk and said, “Make yourselves comfortable.” When they were seated he asked, “Okay, now what can I do for the members of the fourth estate?”
Lois took the bull by the horns and started in. “Detective Henderson, we have evidence that a murder is about to be committed … “
“You *what*???”
Keeping calm she repeated, “We have evidence that a murder is about to be committed. We have a recording of a conversation. It gives all the information you need to prevent it.” Glancing over at Clark she saw him nod indicating that she should carry on. “We were thinking that if we played the recording for the intended victim he might decide to testify against the perpetrator.”
Clark took over at this point “We have been monitoring a particular office because we have suspected the owner of being involved in criminal activities. This is the first real break we’ve had. Here, listen to this.” Clark pulled out a miniature recorder, placed it on Henderson’s desk and hit the play button.
[”Nigel, we have a problem I need you to take care of. The EPRAD manager, John Crawford, could have an attack of conscience at any minute. In fact he may have been the anonymous caller that tipped them off about the bomb. I need you to take care of him, immediately. Make it look like an accident as usual.’] Henderson asked “Could I hear that again?” Clark rewound the tape and played it again.. When it was finished the second time Henderson sat back and steepled his fingers. “I think I recognize that voice. I couldn’t be right could I? Lex Luthor?”
Lois replied “Right the first time. We’ve been investigating him for some time. He was behind a gun running operation in the Congo. When we found that out we started looking into his operations here stateside. We believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to save this guy and get him ‘under wraps’ until we can get more on Luthor. We want to put Luthor away, permanently!”
“This sounds like a very good start. Let me get Sgt. Adams … “
“Are you sure you can trust him? We don’t know if Luthor has co-opted anyone in the force.” Lois inquired.
“If you had questions about the police being bought off, why did you come to me?”
“Let’s just say I had a hunch about you being a straight arrow and leave it at that.” Clark replied.
“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, I think. Adams is a good man. I trust him.”
“That’s good enough for us. Do you want us to go along?” Lois asked
“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind. Since you’re the ones that made the recording you can fill in the details if Mr. Crawford has any questions.”
“We’d be happy to.” Clark replied for both of them.
Henderson picked up his phone and dialed an extension. When it was answered he said, “Adams, get a car and meet me around front. We have an errand to run. … No, a plain car not a black-n-white. … We’ll have a couple of passengers so don’t pull one of those sub-compacts the city just got to save on gas. … Yeah, a Crown-Vic will do. Meet us out front in five minutes.” He hung up the phone.
“This time of the day I guess we’ll find him at EPRAD so I don’t think we need to worry about a home address.” Henderson said.
“I just hope we’re in time. Luthor’s thugs can act pretty quickly.” Lois said expressing her concerns.
Henderson tried to reassure her, “We can only hope that an accident takes a little longer than twelve hours to arrange.”
They exited the building and waited for Adams. When he pulled up they all entered the car. Henderson introduced Lois and Clark to Adams and then told him where they were headed. He pulled out into traffic and started the drive.
While they were in route Henderson turned around in his seat to ask, “What else do you have on him at this point? Anything I should be aware of?” He was deliberately vague in front of Adams. Not because he didn’t trust him, but still playing his cards close to the vest.
“As we develop more leads we’ll keep you informed. Honestly, this is the first big break we’ve had and we came straight to you.” Clark reassured. “We hope that this witness will break at least this part of the story though we are hoping for more. What type of evidence would be the best?”
“Video tape with audio, time stamped and marked so that it can be proved that it wasn’t tampered with would be the best.”
“We’ll see what we can do.” Clark replied.
The rest of the trip Clark and Lois were speaking in low tones, planning their strategy. “It looks like the audio isn’t going to be enough. We’re going to have to figure a way to get the video that he wants. Do you think we can get a video cam?”
Lois replied, “There should be one in the equipment locker. We can ask Perry if we can sign it out when we get back.”
When they arrived at the EPRAD complex the four of them went into the lobby and Henderson approached the receptionist. He pulled out his ID and said, “Detective Henderson, Homicide. I’d like to speak with Dr Crawford, please.”
The receptionist called and asked him to come to the lobby to meet some ‘visitors’.
When he arrived Lieutenant Henderson identified himself “Dr. Crawford, Lt. Henderson, Homicide. Is there somewhere we can speak, privately?”
Crawford checked with the receptionist and then led them to conference room 6. Once the door was closed he turned to them and asked, “What is this all about?”
Henderson nodded to Clark to begin. “Dr. Crawford we have evidence that you were bribed by Lex Luthor to cooperate in the destruction of the Prometheus Shuttle.”
Crawford blanched and stuttered “Wha, What did you say?? I never …I wouldn’t … “
“Dr Crawford, our evidence is incontrovertible and we are not here to have you arrested for this. We came here to try to save your life. Here, I want you to listen to something.” Clark pulled out the mini-recorder and hit play.
[”Nigel, we have a problem I need you to take care of. The EPRAD manager, John Crawford, could have an attack of conscience at any minute. In fact he may have been the anonymous caller that tipped them off about the bomb. I need you to take care of him, immediately. Make it look like an accident as usual.’]If they thought John Crawford had gone pale when they first started talking, that was as nothing compared to his reaction to the recording. He was as white as a sheet and beads of sweat popped out all over his forehead. He blindly reached for and almost literally fell into a chair.
In a broken tone he said “What do you want to know? I’ll cooperate fully.”
Henderson took over “First I need you to notify your boss that you’re going on an emergency leave. Tell them you had a death in the family or something and that you’re leaving immediately. We’ll put you in a safe house. While there you can give us the details that you know of Luthor and this operation.”
“Gladly, I never realized exactly what was planned until it was actually stopped and when I found out the extent of the sabotage, I was appalled. I thought that he simply wanted to delay or disable the shuttle, not destroy it with everyone on board. All those people that could have died and I would have been part of it.”
“Okay, let’s go. I’d suggest that you go back to your office and call your supervisor to tell him about leaving and meet us outside. We’ll wait for you. As of this minute you’re in protective custody. Actually, Adams, why don’t you accompany Dr. Crawford while he goes to his office. We don’t want anything to happen to him between now and the trial. He could be a key witness.”
Adams nodded and he and Dr Crawford exited. Lois, Clark and Henderson returned to the car to wait.
While they were waiting Henderson turned to Lois and Clark and said “All in all I’d say this was a good day’s work. I hope you can get me some more dope on Luthor. I’d like nothing better than to nail him.”
Clark picked up a petroleum type odor when a breeze hit him from across the parking area. He pulled his glasses down his nose slightly and scanned the parking lot. He noticed a small pool of fluid under a blue Pontiac.
A couple of minutes later Adams and Crawford joined them at the car.
Clark addressed Dr. Crawford, “What do you drive?”
“Blue Pontiac, why do you ask?”
“Bill, you may want your people to go over his car. Luthor wanted Dr. Crawford to have an accident. Failed brakes would be just his style.”
If Dr. Crawford had regained any of his color since leaving the conference room he lost it again as he looked over at his car.
Henderson said “I’ll have the car towed to the police garage to give it a going over. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Just doing my job.”
comments go here To be continued in Chapter 37 – Foiling Luthor’s Plans
