Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HereWhere we left off in Part 170…“Still. I asked her about Project K and she wouldn’t tell me about it.”
“Oh, darling. Is that all? Mrs. Cox didn’t tell you merely because it’s a surprise for our honeymoon,” Lex reassured Lois, while trying to build Mrs. Cox back up in her esteem. It didn’t work.
What kind of honeymoon surprise would need welded steel pipes and gas canisters? Was he planning on holding her hostage and gassing her with Revenge? Miranda had been one of his ex-girlfriends, and her death had been staged, according to Clark, to appear to be an apparent suicide after her meeting with Lex. A meeting in which Lex admitted that he categorically rejected Miranda’s advances.
Had he killed Miranda for spraying him with Revenge? Lois could picture that from a man who made her mother disappear over one accidentally spilled glass of wine. Lois was unable to hide a shiver of dread as she sat back down at the table. They still hadn’t had any word from her mother since that luncheon back six weeks earlier.
“She implied that you keep secrets from me,” Lois said, willing tears to her eyes. She hated acting like a whimpering female, but as Lex sat down beside her, she could tell he was lapping up her faux jealousy. “Oh, Lex. Please tell me we aren’t going to have one of
those kind of marriages. My parents kept secrets from one another and it drove them apart.”
“Of course not, darling,” Lex lied, pulling her back into his arms, more forcefully this time.
“Why would Mrs. Cox do that? Why would she try to make me distrust you somehow?” Lois whined, setting the microphone pen onto the table.
“I don’t know, darling, but I’ll certainly talk to her,” he insisted.
For some reason, the padded wall with shackles flashed across her mind. What would he do to Mrs. Cox? Lois hated the woman, yes, but she didn’t want Lex to harm her, or make her disappear as he had with Monique Kahn, Miranda, and Lois’s mother. No, no matter how much Lois despised the woman, Mrs. Cox
had to survive. She knew too much about Lex’s operation. She would make a terrific star witness for the prosecution.
“Oh, please, don’t, Lex. I’m so embarrassed by these jealous feelings. Please don’t mention them to her,” Lois pleaded. “Maybe I was just reading into her words what wasn’t there just because she wouldn’t tell me what I wanted to know.”
“That was probably it, darling. I swear to you, Mrs. Cox means nothing more to me than any other employee,” he said. “If I cannot make you see how much I love you and only you during our honeymoon, I’ll dismiss her as soon as we return to Metropolis.”
A sly grin grew on Lois’s lips.
Gotcha. She bet Lex’s mistress wouldn’t be thrilled by Lex’s pronouncement of his feelings. Now, all she had to do was get that recording into Mrs. Cox’s hands.
***
Part 171It had been over a month since Jack had been to eat at the Fifth Street Mission. Ever since seeing the Englishman there and Lois’s defection from the place, he had kept his distance. He missed talking to Bobby though, and the good food he made. He could eat only so much thrown-aways before feeling sick to his stomach.
Bobby’s welcoming smile as Jack slid his tray onto the table across from him helped ease some of the tension in his shoulders.
“How are you doing, Jack?” Bobby said. “I was getting worried.”
Jack shrugged in his noncommittal way. “There was an element hanging about the place I wanted to avoid for a while,” he mumbled, digging into his food. “It looks as if they’ve left though.”
Bobby shook his head. “Only to be replaced with a different sort of trouble. Watch what you say and to whom,” he warned as if Jack were the talkative one. Bobby’s gaze darted around the room before he leaned forward, lowering his voice, “Clark Kent has been asking for you.”
Jack glanced up, startled. “That reporter dude? He has?” He knew why he wanted to talk to Kent, but why would Kent want to talk to him? How would Kent even know his name? Lois Lane must have told Kent who he was. Maybe he was asking around for Rat. Bobby always called him Jack, but he knew the street name Big Louie had given him as well. There wasn’t anything Bobby didn’t know or couldn’t find out.
“He’s trying to find out the real bomber of the Daily Planet in order to free his friend from jail,” Bobby went on.
How did Kent find out that Jack knew anything about the bombing? Jack hadn’t mentioned seeing Mrs. Cox there to anyone, not even Bobby. Being a high school dropout didn’t mean he was stupid. This one time, Jack had the goods, though. He was still trying to figure out the most lucrative way to use it.
“I’ve heard that he’s been gathering info on The Boss,” Bobby continued in a whisper. “You should tell him what you know about Double-L.”
So, Bobby thought Lex Luthor was
The Boss, the one that frightened even Big Louie. Jack didn’t look up from his food. “You sure the Englishman isn’t using Double-L as a stooge?”
Bobby thought about this for a minute. “Interesting theory. I take it you mean Double-L’s right hand man?”
Right hand. Left hand. Whatever. Jack nodded.
“I could see that possibility, but…” Bobby shook his head. “One has far more dirt on his hands, while the other makes sure to always keep his hands clean.”
Jack looked down at his own hands and the dirt under his own nails. He used to be a clean kid with an interest in music, an aptitude for stretching the rules, and whose only desire was a fun time at any cost. All that changed when he became sole protector of his kid brother. His wants and desires didn’t seem to matter so much anymore when Denny would look at him with those big scared eyes. As the only family he had left, Jack had to save his brother. Their survival became the most important thing in the world.
He knew that others might be surprised that such a prominent citizen and humanitarian as Luthor was a bad dude. For Jack, instead, it seemed to turn that last puzzle piece in the right direction. Jack had always blamed his turn of fate on the Englishman, but it made sense that his dad’s top boss didn’t make house calls or trash apartments. It meant that Lex Luthor was ultimately responsible for the disappearance and possible death of Jack’s father. He frowned.
And that his father had worked for The Boss. Had his father known the kind of man Luthor was when he took the job? Had his father found out about The Boss? Was that why he disappeared?
Lex Luthor being the Boss would also explain the billionaire’s association with other bad people such as Mrs. Cox and the Englishman. Also, why Lois had freaked when her rich fiancé threatened anyone who touched her. She knew he had meant it. Not that Luthor wouldn’t have meant it, if he were an upstanding citizen. No wonder she was sneaking around in disguise. Cheating on The Boss was a one-way ticket to the landfill, he imagined, if one was lucky.
A guy about Jack’s age, looking less than homeless with his spiky, dyed-black hair, sat down next to Jack. Giving Jack a parting warning glance, Bobby quickly stood up as if their new tablemate had told him to ‘get lost’. Jack ignored the new guy and his companion to concentrate on eating his food.
“You a street kid?” the black-haired punk asked. When Jack didn’t answer right away, he received a nudge. “I’m talking to you.”
Jack looked over at him with defiance. “What’s it to you?”
The guy grinned. “I like him. Don’t you like him, Stub?” the guy asked to his short, stocky companion.
“I don’t like anybody, Pete,” Stub grumbled. “Hey, this grub is good. What up with feeding these lazy nobodies good? They don’t deserve it.”
Clearly, Stub wasn’t out to win any friends.
“What’s your name?” Pete asked.
“I’m called ‘Rat’,” Jack mumbled.
Pete seemed to stiffen at this. “Is that because you’re a nark or something?”
If he were, he’d be clever enough not to admit it to the likes of this punk. “Do I look stupid?” Jack said.
This made Pete grin. “I don’t know. Are you?” he said, and then laughed as if he had cracked the funniest joke. He set his hand on Jack’s shoulder.
Jack shrugged him off. “Lay off. I’m not interested in drugs or whatever else you might be selling. In case you hadn’t noticed, people around here don’t have money to burn.”
Pete leaned close and said, “You
could.”
“Could what?” Jack asked hesitantly.
“Have lots of money,” Pete coaxed. “As it happens, I’m looking for some new recruits.”
“Recruits for what?”
“My team,” Pete bragged.
Jack looked him over for two seconds. “I’ll pass,” he said before taking a bite of his roll.
Stub chuckled. “You’re right, Pete. I do like this guy. He’s smart. You could use someone smart on your team.”
I bet, Jack thought.
Pete pressed his lips together in annoyance. “So, why do they call you ‘Rat’?” he asked as if he was reconsidering his offer.
No idea. Jack raised an eyebrow at him. “Why do you think?”
“You live in the sewers? You’re diseased? Your bite could kill someone?” Pete suggested.
“You’re scrawny enough to crawl through small holes. You take what you want and disappear before people know you’ve been there?” Stub guessed.
Stub was starting to be more likeable than Pete was, but not by much.
“One look at you and the girls run off screaming?” Stub finished with a scoffing chortle.
Pete slapped Stub on the back in agreement. “Good one!”
Or maybe not. “I’ve got better things to do with my time…” Jack said, standing up. “Than hang with the likes of you.”
Stub set his ham of a fist on Jack’s shoulder and pushed it down. “Pete didn’t say you could go. Did ya, Pete?”
“No, I didn’t, Stub,” Pete said, crossing his arms.
Jack sat back down and faced them. “You guys need to work on your sales technique. I said ‘no’.”
“You’re right, Stub, he’s smart. I bet he’s a real smooth character, a slick salesman type, a charmer with the ladies,” Pete said, sounding as if he liked the words coming out of his mouth.
“I do all right,” Jack lied with a shrug.
“You’d do better than all right if you worked for me,” Pete said.
“Doing what?” Jack asked.
“Whatever I want,” Pete replied.
Jack stood up again. “No thanks.”
Pete nodded to Stub, who pushed Jack back down to the bench. “We do whatever needs to be done. A little of this and a little of that, lots of cash.”
“I’m listening,” Jack said. With some cash, he could bust his brother out of the Luthor House for Homeless Children and get them a place of their own. “What kind of stuff?”
“Can you pick a lock?” Stub asked.
“I’ve been known to kick down a door or two,” Jack replied.
Pete grinned. “We’re past that kids stuff. We’re professionals.”
That kid’s stuff got Jack fifty bucks from his fence last week. “And what do ‘professionals’ do?” Jack asked.
Stub nudged Pete as Nancy, the Mission’s advisor, headed over to their table.
“Let’s talk more outside,” Pete said, standing up and picking up his tray. “Come on, Stub. I’m feeling like hamburgers, fries, and shake at Ace’s instead of this trash.”
Stub appeared torn. “But… But…” Finally, he stood up, tossing what was left of his roll onto the tray. “Yeah, well, okay.”
The guys left, shooting polished grins to Nancy as they passed. She scowled when she noticed they had left their trays full of food on the table.
“Were they bothering you?” Nancy asked.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Jack replied.
“I hate turning anyone away, but I don’t think they fit our needy criteria,” she said, picking up the trays
“They didn’t.”
Nancy glanced over her shoulder back towards where she last saw Pete and Stub, and shook her head. “Fine. I’m issuing a ‘not welcome’ policy to those two. I won’t have them coming in here and harassing my guests.” She smiled at Jack as she picked up the discarded trays. “I’m sorry. You deserve better than that.”
“Thanks,” Jack mumbled, standing up. He didn’t want anyone’s pity. He hadn’t liked Pete or Stub, but if they were giving away money… it wouldn’t hurt to talk to them and hear what they had to say.
***
“Where have you been? Kent has dinner ready,” Perry asked Jimbo as he walked in Clark’s front door.
From where he was checking on his chicken divan casserole in the oven, Clark glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the young man. “Hi, Jim!” He pulled the chicken from the oven, set it down on a cork trivet in the center of the dining room table, and tossed his pot holders onto the counter.
“Hey, Chief. CK,” Jimbo said, eyeing the casserole with suspicion. He glanced between Perry and Clark with a shake of his head as he set down his Cousin Jimmy’s camera on the coffee table. “Just out snapping some shots of some of the old Daily Planet board members you told me to tail. I don’t know if they had come into an influx of cash, but they all seemed to have new toys. I caught Simon Truesdale having a grand ol’ time with a woman I doubt is his wife and I hope isn’t his daughter.”
“Those shots might be a good bargaining chip to get Mr. Truesdale to tell us the truth about Luthor’s takeover of the Daily Planet. Good job, Olsen,” Perry said, giving him a well-earned and literal pat on the back.
Jimbo flushed at this praise. “Thanks, Chief. Actually, Truesdale saw me taking photos and with a few hints that his wife had hired me to follow him was willing to admit, in trade for the negatives, that he had voted to allow Luthor to buy the Daily Planet. He said originally the Daily Planet board members had voted
not to sell to Luthor, but then were offered substantial financial encouragement to change their minds.”
“You
gave him the negatives?” Perry scoffed in disbelief.
“No,” Jimbo said shyly. “I gave him the old bait and switch. He got an unused roll of film while the photos of him and the blonde are currently being developed at the one-hour photo downtown.” He winked at Clark. “Double prints. One set for us and one set for Mrs. Truesdale if Mr. Truesdale doesn’t testify in court about this.”
Perry chuckled and glanced over to where Clark was scooping rice onto plates. “It looks like our trust in this whippersnapper wasn’t wasted after all.”
Quickly diverting the topic off him, Jimbo asked, “Did you have any luck, CK?”
“I spoke to Jimmy and told him to keep his guard up regarding John Black, the man who Superman told me about,” Clark said, especially since it didn’t look like Inspector Henderson was going to take the perceived threat on his friend seriously. He handed a plate to Jimbo and one to Perry. “Jimmy said that there’s definitely a mysterious ‘Boss’ character controlling the underside of the city. Just about every criminal element in Metropolis pays protection money to him through his endless supply of muscle, like that John Black guy. From what he could tell, most of the guys Jimmy spoke to or eavesdropped on don’t have any idea who the actual Boss is, and those who might are too terrified to talk. Apparently, many people know of someone who disappeared after letting down or defying The Boss.” He set his own plate on the table with a glass of milk. He scooped a portion of casserole with a serving spoon and poured it onto Perry’s plate on top of his rice. “He said Luthor wasn’t mentioned by name except in regards to his marriage to the ‘gold digging reporter’.”
“Is that broccoli?” Jimbo asked skeptically.
“It’s a good source of iron,” Perry said, digging in. “And it’s covered in a cream sauce, Jimbo, so you won’t even taste it.”
“It wouldn’t hurt you to eat healthier,” Clark said for what felt like a daily discussion between him and Jimbo. “You won’t always be young and fit. Eating vegetables every day will help keep you that way, longer.” From the way Jimbo picked at the portion Clark had just put on his plate before serving himself, he decided to add, “There’s chicken in there too.”
“Oh. Yum,” Jimbo mumbled flatly.
“If Luthor manipulated the board to sell to him, maybe he burned down the Planet to collect the insurance and launder these funds from the protection racket through Lexel,” Perry suggested. “According to what I found out at the insurance commission, LexCorp has cashed in plenty of sizable policies with Lexel over the last five years. Luthor apparently has taken out life-insurance policies on all his salaried employees.”
“All?” Jimbo gulped.
“Well, many of them,” Perry amended. “All his scientists and his upper level management.”
“Did he have one on Monique Kahn?” Clark asked, taking a sip of his milk.
His boss’s brow furrowed in thought. “As a matter of fact, I believe he did.”
“And she just happened to be kidnapped, beaten up, and scavenged by animals before her dead body was found last fall,” Clark said.
“Hello. Trying to eat here,” Jimbo murmured, still separating the broccoli to another pile on his plate.
Clark ignored him. “Wasn’t she found in the woods between Gotham City and Metropolis?”
Perry shrugged unknowingly. “I can’t recall. Somewhere out of the city.”
“I wish I could call Lois,” Clark grumbled, but then snapped his fingers. Standing up, walked to his cordless phone. “I talked about this story with Cat. Maybe she’d remember the details.”
He caught the perplexed looked Jimbo and Perry exchanged as he walked into his bedroom with the phone.
“Hello?” a familiar feminine voice said over the phone.
“Cat?” he asked.
“Well, I better not be sounding like Phil,” Cat said with laughter. “Don’t answer that.”
“It’s Clark.”
“Duh, gorgeous. Don’t you think I’d notice your baritone anywhere?” Cat retorted.
“Do you remember that jumper story Lois stole from me last year?” Clark asked.
“Oh, it’s work related. Goody. I should’ve known. Um… yeah. You guys arguing about that again?” she asked.
“No. One of those jumpers by the name of Monique…”
“Yeah, yeah. Brutally murdered. What about her?” Cat asked, cutting to the chase.
“Her body was found outside of town somewhere. Do you remember exactly where?”
Cat was silent for a moment. “I was supposed to get back on that for you, wasn’t I? I’m so sorry, Clark. I know how important this is to you,” she said. “Hold on. Let me check my Luthor file on my laptop.”
Clark quietly listened to her tapping on her keyboard.
“Huh?” she murmured. “Didn’t I tell you what I found out?”
“Apparently not or I’d remember,” he said.
“Like you recalled where her body was found?” she teased.
“I remember, but I wanted you to verify my hunch,” he replied softly, so that Perry and Jimbo couldn’t hear him.
“When I told you last month during the craziness surrounding my wedding where Luthor’s manor house was, you didn’t connect the two?”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking of Monique Kahn when I was looking at Luthor’s manor house, now was I? No, I was looking for Lois’s mother. Just tell me I’m right about this,” he said. They were so close that his hand started shaking with anticipation. He knew he was right.
“It was almost six miles away, along the same stretch of woods which pass by his house,” Cat said. “It’s not enough to get you a warrant and you know it.”
“He was her boss. She was rumored to be dating someone high up at LexCorp. Her body was found less than six miles from his country house,” he said. He only wished he had an exact date of Monique Kahn’s death, so that he could verify Luthor’s whereabouts on said day. “I know he did it.”
“Oh, honey, you’ve known that since last fall. We both have. That’s when I started… huh. I forgot about that.”
“What?” he asked.
“Didn’t Lex give Lois a Gucci watch?”
Clark froze, before replying slowly, “No. Not that I know of.”
“Not that red and green monstrosity he gave her at Christmas, which she threw into the Bay,” Cat said. “Didn’t he give her a silver watch? Are you sure it wasn’t a Gucci?”
“That was a LoLex,” he said through pressed lips. He hated thinking about that horrible watch. That watch was a reminder of how Lois cheated on him. Even if she had accepted it due to her investigation, that watch was an unwanted reminder of how he felt betrayed whenever he saw it.
“That’s right, because she gave me the code for the tracer in it,” Cat said.
“The
what?”
“Didn’t I tell you? Oh, right, you were being all mopey, and all ‘Lois crushed my soul’ and wouldn’t listen to reason, let alone your best friend, who had the tracer code to Lois’s watch, so that you could find her should she ever disappear,” Cat said.
“What tracer?” Clark said, trying not to clench his fist and crush the phone before he received his answer. “What are you talking about?”
“Lex gave Lois a watch. She didn’t trust him. She thought it might be bugged, like he had bugged her house and her desk, so she took it to this scientist guy she knows over at S.T.A.R. Labs and had him check it out,” Cat said as if relating some insignificant gossip. “Apparently, no bugs, but Lex had put a homing beacon in the watch, so he could know where the watch, and hence Lois, was at all times. She had a scientist friend give to her the code for the transmitter. I was supposed to give it to you… well, Superman actually, should she ever disappear.”
“When was this?” he growled.
“Oh, months ago.”
“How many months? One? Two? Three?” he snapped.
“Relax, big fella. I don’t know. No, wait. Oh, let’s see. It was after she had found out about you, but before she was arrested, so that would have been in… March? Maybe. Sometime.”
Before Lex had proposed. “And you didn’t think it pertinent to give this code to me?”
“She asked me not to, unless it was an emergency.”
Clark clenched the fist, which wasn’t holding the phone, and tried not to give into his desire to punch the wall. “Don’t you think giving me the code to a tracking device within
that watch would have been just the thing to convince me that you were right about Lois and I was wrong?” How much more of an emergency did Cat need than Clark thinking that Lois was marrying Luthor?
Cat didn’t reply, and he could hear her typing slowly away on her keyboard with a soft tap, tap, tap. She was multitasking and clearly wasn’t as invested in this conversation as he was. He also knew this was all water under the bridge. He shouldn’t be mad about discovering that Cat had other information about Lois’s investigation that she had been withholding from him. Both Lois and Cat had told him that his best friend had been privy to some aspects of Lois’s investigation from almost the start, as Lois’s backup should anything go wrong. He had already forgiven Lois about her lack of communication with him and Cat for holding out on him for as long as she had, but this seemed to be solid proof of said investigation, which could have saved him weeks of heartache. Clark knew he shouldn’t be mad about this, yet he still was.
“Yeah. Maybe. Look, Clark, I may have something here. Let me review my notes and get back to you. With my pregnancy brain, I’m a bit fuzzy at the details on the moment, but I might have enough circumstantial evidence to get you that warrant.”
“In your notes?” he scoffed. If she had anything on Luthor, she would’ve given it to him by now, wouldn’t she have?
“Yeah. Remember that story on Lex’s sex life I was working on? Maybe you don’t, I don’t remember if I ever told you about it. Anyway, let me just check on some details and see I can make a concrete enough link.”
“Okay,” he said. If she could get him the evidence, which could link Lex Luthor to Monique Kahn’s death, he might forgive Cat for holding out on him. “Can I have it now?”
“What?”
He could tell her mind was elsewhere. “The transponder code,” he reminded her. “To Lois’s watch.”
“Oh, yeah, that…um… it’s here somewhere. She gave it to me in a letter.”
Clark closed his eyes and counted to ten. Then he took a deep breath and counted to ten a second time with Mississippis and all.
Cat had a letter to him from Lois, given to her to give to him in case of an emergency
before Luthor had proposed.
“I know I have it,” Cat insisted. “Everything is just a mess with wedding gifts, and baby gifts, and getting boxes ready for our move.”
“Right.” He’d grant her that. He had even promised to help her pack, no matter the outcome, after Lois and Lex’s June 18 wedding date. That way Luthor wouldn’t associate Lois’s disappearance with Clark, if he seemed to remain in town. “I can help you look for it.”
“Hey, why don’t you stop over tomorrow morning and I’ll give it to you then?” Cat said.
“Uh-huh,” Clark murmured. He was reviewing their conversation because something wasn’t resting easily with him. He sat down on the bed as his knees went weak.
An old nightmare he had about making love to Lois in the stairwell, flashed through his mind. That had been the fantasy dream before the nightmare began. Luthor had walked in, interrupting them, before he shot them. The bullet hit Lois’s red and green watch, which happened to be made of Kryptonite, causing the shards to go into him as the bullet went into her. Lois then suffocated to death in his arms with Clark unable to help her.
Clark swallowed down the bile in his throat, before asking in a rough voice, “What red and green monstrosity, Cat?”
“It’s not important,” Cat lied after a deafening pause. Clark knew she was lying because her voice always went higher in pitch and the words tended to blur together when she lied. It came out,
it’snotimportant.“Cat.”
“Tomorrow, Clark. When you stop by for this data,” Cat insisted. “I’ll tell you what I know, then.”
Clark was reminded of the photo of a red and green watch that Inspector Henderson had shown him, which apparently had been caught on his foot when he was dragged out of Hob’s Bay. “Tonight, Cat. I need to know tonight,” he replied. He believed he knew the answer already, but needed to hear it verified by someone else and he didn’t have another date with Lois until tomorrow night, on the eve of her fake wedding.
“Tonight’s no good for
me, Clark,” Cat explained. “Phil’s heading out of town first thing tomorrow. My brothers, Nate and Matt are taking him on this ‘daddy boot camp’ male bonding thing, where fathers go off for a weekend and act like idiots.”
It sounded like a weekend in heaven compared to what Clark figured his would be like. “Didn’t you guys just get back from your honeymoon?”
“Yeah,” Cat grumbled. “Phil would rather stay home with me, but he’s never really had many male friends and he’s really trying to get along well with my family, having impregnated me
before marriage and all.”
“They aren’t holding that against him,” Clark said.
“No, but he’s holding it against himself. He wants to prove to them he’s in this marriage for the long haul. I can’t fault him for that.”
“Okay, Cat. I guess I can wait until tomorrow to hear about it,” Clark conceded through gritted teeth. “Have a good night with your hubby.”
“No problem there,” Cat responded gleefully.
“Fine. Hold your beautiful relationship over my head. Some friend you are,” he teased.
“You’ll get yours someday, Clark. I promise, if I have to hold down Lois and make her listen to reason myself,” she replied. “Tootles!”
Clark had a strange feeling that if anyone could succeed where everyone else had failed, it would be Cat. Like Lois, she never took ‘no’ for an answer. He hung up the phone and set it next to his bed. He took a deep breath and exhaled, pushing all the things their conversation had dredged up to the recesses of his mind. He wished he had the privacy to think things over, but even his bedroom lacked doors.
“Well, it looks like Monique Kahn was found about six miles from Luthor’s manor house outside of town,” Clark called into the other room as he stood up and headed back in to dinner with the guys. “Cat said she had been doing an investigation into Luthor on her own, which compiled with our data might be enough circumstantial evidence to get us a warrant. She’ll have it for us tomorrow.”
Perry stared at him. “Cat was also investigating Lex? Well, she sure as hell didn’t tell me about it.”
Clark shrugged. “Sounds like there’s a lot of that going around.”
Perry pointed at a notepad, which now sat next to his plate. Obviously, he had retrieved it while Clark had been on the phone with Cat. “According to the insurance commission, LexCorp had a $100,000 policy out on Ms. Kahn.”
Jimbo whistled. “Can you believe this guy? He kills the woman, and then has the nerve to pick up the insurance on her death.”
“Cut and dried insurance fraud,” Perry said.
“If only we can prove it,” Clark reminded them. They’d have to prove the murder as well.
A cold chill crept down his spine. Had Luthor insured Lois as well? Did he plan to have her disappear during their honeymoon? He recalled the men who had attacked her in Suicide Slum while she met Hicky Ricky. Lois had said she wouldn’t put it past Luthor for being behind it.
Clark stood up, unable to eat. He wished Cat had given him the code to Lois’s watch. “I… uh… need to switch my laundry…” he mumbled and willed that his flight out of the apartment seemed slow enough to be human.
***End of Part 171***Part 172 Comments
