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Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

Where we left off in Part 174…

Bill stood up. “Well, I’m going to get the ball rolling on having Dr. Baines’s and Miranda’s watches checked for tracking devices.” He checked his watch. “We can try to get the warrant issued tonight, but I doubt we’ll have any success before the morning.”

“We need to warn Lois,” Cat exclaimed.

“What? Why?” Bill asked. “White, you said that Luthor has her under twenty-four hour surveillance. If we let her know, then Luthor could get wind of it.”

“Cat’s right. Lois is planning on going on the run tonight. If she does that, Luthor will know something’s up. She needs to stay undercover until the wedding tomorrow,” Perry agreed.

“How is she planning to escape?” Jack asked.

Perry pressed his lips together. “Kent didn’t tell me. Apparently, he has a foolproof way to sneak her out of the city undetected.”

Superman. Duh! Cat scoffed looking up to the ceiling. Sometimes, she thought that idiot best friend of hers walked around carrying a sandwich board announcing his secret identity to the world.

The Chief glanced at his watch. “I’m sure Kent’ll be back before then.”

For a man who was constantly late, disappeared at a moment’s notice, and was well known for not showing up at all, Clark’s absence rubbed her raw. Something wasn’t right. This was too important for him not to show up. Unless something had happened this afternoon to change his mind to extract Lois early, he should have contacted one of the people in this room. So, why hadn’t he?

***

Part 175

Lois took a deep breath and exhaled. This is it.

She flipped the first and third lock, and opened the door to her apartment.

“Lois,” said the man on the other side of the door. There was a pause before he continued. “You look beautiful as always, darling, but you’re not dressed. Have you forgotten about dinner and ‘Othello’?”

She stepped away from the door to let him enter. “No, Lex. I just decided that I didn’t want to go,” she replied, turning away from him and putting space between them.

Lex took the hint and shut the door behind him. “You want an evening in, then?” he asked, and she could hear the gloating smile on his lips. “I’ll call Chef Andre and have the staff deliver our dinner here. Anything for the future Mrs. Luthor.”

His words sounded like knives on steel and made her fingers curl into fists, her nails biting into her palms. “About that, Lex,” she said, opening her hands and running them down the front of her slacks as she turned to face him. “I’m calling off the wedding.”

A startled expression came to his eyes as if she had started spouting Latin.

“I cannot go forward, Lex,” Lois said, moving her hands behind her back, because frankly she was afraid what they were capable of if she kept them between her and Luthor. “Not without my mother.”

There. She had done it. She had forced his hand and made her last ditch ultimatum. Since her mother had disappeared six weeks earlier, Lois had anxiously lived on the edge without knowing if that would be the day she’d learn if her mother were dead or alive. She knew Lex knew something about her mother’s whereabouts. Clark refused to believe her hunch without proof. Wasn’t that a switcheroo? She knew that Luthor knew. Why would he lie about everything else, but tell the truth about this? It didn’t make sense. No, he had been lying to her all along.

“But, darling, the wedding is tomorrow morning. We are expecting two hundred guests to the ceremony and three hundred more to the reception,” he said. “We can’t postpone now.”

Five hundred people and not one person I know.

“My father and sister won’t be there. None of my so-called friends has accepted. I have no one,” Lois said, reminding him of the statistics. Cold hard facts, as Perry would say. Lex couldn’t argue with the facts.

He reached over and set his hand on her shoulder, causing her to stiffen. “Oh, darling,” he cooed with pity. “I’ll be there, the man who loves you more than life itself. Won’t that be enough?”

I’ll be with the man who loves me more than his own life, yes, but that isn’t you.

“No,” Lois replied. “Weddings are supposed to be joyous occasions, celebrating one’s new beginning with family and friends. Without anyone from my family there, what’s the point of throwing a party? We might as well have signed the register at City Hall.”

He used his grip on her shoulder to pull her into a most uncomfortable embrace. Giving sympathy, let alone empathy, seemed to be a foreign concept to him. There was nothing soft and endearing about this man. It felt like hugging a crocodile. “There, there, Lois,” he murmured into her ear as he patted her back. “This is just pre-wedding jitters. Why don’t you go get dressed, so that we can eat? You’ll feel better, you’ll see.”

“This isn’t pre-wedding jitters, Lex,” Lois insisted, refusing to return his touch as he tried to placate her. “I won’t be married without my mother present.”

“Your mother will be there.”

Lois stepped several paces back to look him in the eye. “What? You’ve heard from her? When were you planning on telling me?” She was torn between believing that he was still lying to her and being hurt that her mother hadn’t thought to call to her, both equally plausible explanations.

“I told you when she went away that she would be back in time for our wedding,” Lex said, defending himself.

Lois crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed. “So, you haven’t heard from her. This is only a guess?”

“Your mother will be there, Lois. Trust me,” he said. “Now, why don’t you get dressed and we’ll have dinner at the Top of the Tower?”

“I am dressed,” she insisted, holding out her arms so that he could see her slacks, blouse, and shoes.

“Of course you are, darling. I meant dressed properly for an evening out,” he corrected.

“How do you know that my mother will be there?” she demanded, crossing her arms once more and refusing to cede ground.

“I’ve known where your mother has been all along,” he admitted.

“You’ve known, even though I’ve asked you and asked you and asked you if you knew where she was, and your answer always was that you couldn’t tell me?”

“Wouldn’t tell you, darling,” he clarified. “After watching you and her at lunch that day, I realized that you had been enabling your mother in her addiction for years. If you hadn’t wanted her to drink at lunch, you would have done everything possible to make sure that alcohol wasn’t served. Can you deny that you’ve been covering up for her, hiding the truth from everyone, even your fiancé, allowing her to wallow in her despair instead of getting her the help she truly needed? Can you? You are going to have to admit to the hard truth that you like that your mother is weak, because it makes you feel strong. It makes you feel powerful and better than her. If she’s ever to really recover and move on with her life, she needed to do so without your interference and well-intentioned meddling.”

Lois’s jaw dropped at the same time her fist landed squarely on his jaw, causing him to stumble backward a few steps. “Get out!” she screamed. “Get out of my apartment and my life!”

“No,” he replied, stepping towards her so that he was only a foot away. “You will marry me and be my wife.”

“Is that a threat, Lex?” she asked, balling her fist once more. Her anger and knowing that Clark was only an ‘octopus’ away were the only things that kept the shake from her voice.

“No. It’s a statement of fact, Lois,” he replied, as he started to circle around her. “It’s the only way you’ll finally have the power you crave and have craved all of your life.”

She shook her head. “I don’t crave…”

“Yes, you do. It’s why you’re a reporter, because you want to influence what people think. It’s why you speak your mind no matter who it hurts, because you know that the meek and polite aren’t respected in this world,” he said from behind her. She could feel his words crawl down the back of her neck.

Lois turned to face him, but he had already moved on.

“It’s why you are attracted to strong, powerful men, like myself and Superman, because you know that being with us, controlling us, makes you more powerful.”

Lex knew she was attracted to Superman. The fingernails in her balled fist started to dig into her palm once more.

“That’s why you will show up at Lex Tower tomorrow morning,” he continued. “— and you will marry me, and we will go on our honeymoon, because you know that when we return you will be the most influential woman in all of Metropolis, if not the whole United States, maybe even the world. With me as your husband and the Daily Planet under your control, there would be…” His words emerged slowly in a whisper, “No… stopping… you.”

Lois swallowed. Was this true? Could there be a kernel of truth in his words? It made sense, in a twisted and warped sort of logic. Was that who she really was? She stiffened her spine. “My mother, Lex.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “That’s my girl,” he finally said. “You know that I’ll do anything to please you. Marry me, Lois, and I guarantee you that your mother will show up at our reception.”

She couldn’t believe him. He was negotiating with her mother’s life.

Lois shook her head. “I’m sorry, Lex. My mother has to be there or I don’t walk down the aisle.”

His hint of a smile burst into a devious grin. “Power looks good on you, Lois,” he said with a nod. “She’ll be there. Just as I always said she would be.” He rested a hand on her hip, pulling her against him as he kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you at ten sharp.”

As soon as the door closed behind him, she sank down onto her settee and dropped her head into her hands.

***

Lois had no idea how long she had sat there pondering Lex’s words, self-doubt eating away at her soul. She knew she shouldn’t listen to Lex. What he had said was to make her question and loathe herself. Still… She couldn’t deny that there were some grains of truth to what he said, too.

A knock at her door brought her head out of her hands. She stared at the door not knowing who it could be. Was it Clark? No, it was too early and he knew better than to come to her apartment. Had Lex returned to apologize for being an arrogant bastard? Even more doubtful.

What wouldn’t she do for some x-ray vision?

Finally, she pulled the energy to stand from somewhere and glanced through the peephole. She blinked and looked again. Her hand rose up on its own accord and unfastened the locks. She opened the door and stared at the thin, stylishly dressed, white-haired woman on the other side.

“You too high and mighty now to give me a kiss, Lois?” the woman said archly after a few minutes of silence.

Lois shook herself out of her of shock. “Grand… Mother Arnold,” Lois said, stepping away from the door so her grandmother could enter.

Her grandmother had always insisted that her granddaughters called her ‘Mother Arnold’. Lois didn’t know if it was because she didn’t consider herself grandmother material or to merely cut Lois’s mother out of their relationship entirely. Her mother had once told Lois, during one of her drunken escapades, that she had only accepted Sam Lane’s proposal to flee her overbearing mother, who hadn’t approved of the uppity doctor from the wrong side of the tracks.

She shut the door and then kissed her grandmother’s offered cheek. “What… What are you doing here?”

“Even in Philadelphia, it’s news that you’ll be imminently marrying one of the richest men on the planet, dear,” her grandmother replied, glancing around Lois’s apartment and clearly not finding what she expected, whatever that might be. “I assume my invitation got lost in the mail.”

Holy craperino!

“I… I… thought… that…um…” Lois sputtered.

“That I wouldn’t want to come?” Mother Arnold replied through pinched lips, reminding Lois of her mother’s expression of disapproval. “Just because your mother and I don’t see eye to eye, Lois, shouldn’t have any bearing on our relationship.”

Lois grabbed onto this excuse with both hands. “When mother said that you had cut her off, last year, I thought that meant…” Her voice faded, letting her grandmother make any assumptions regarding the unspoken words.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Darling. We’re family. Arnolds stick together through thick and thin. We only have ourselves, you know,” her grandmother said, leaning towards Lois with a wink before walking around her living room, examining the room. “Lois, dear. You are getting married in the morning, are you not?”

Lois smiled weakly. Not even if she was dragged down the aisle in chains.

“Where is your sister? Where are your bridesmaids? Where are your piles of wedding gifts?” her grandmother asked, and then continued without waiting for an answer. “You look anything but the blushing bride full of hope and joy.” She looked Lois up and down. “You look as if you haven’t slept well in weeks. Have you even eaten today?” She grabbed hold of Lois’s arm and started towards the door. “Come with me. We’ll remedy this.”

“What?” Lois said, drawing back. She couldn’t leave.

“When I received Ellen’s call, telling me that she had been detained until tomorrow,” her grandmother explained with an expression that communicated she had expected nothing more from her daughter. “And ‘could I please’ hold your hand to make sure you didn’t get cold feet or anything, until she arrived. I just knew what I would find. Don’t you worry. I’ll take care of everything, Lois. It’s what I do. Clean up your mother’s messes. Come along.”

“Mother telephoned you?”

Her grandmother sighed. “Yes, dear. Despite our differences and your mother’s staunch refusal to admit that I was right about your father and for how she raised you and Lucy, we still talk... on occasion. She is my daughter after all, even if she did inherit all of her father’s and grandfather’s pigheaded stubbornness.”

Lois grabbed hold of her grandmother’s arms and demanded, “Where is she? What did she say exactly?”

“There was a storm in Basel and she couldn’t get out, so she took the train to Paris to fly out of de Gaulle but then lost track of time while shopping and didn’t realize that her watch had stopped, so she missed her flight. Typical. She said that she should arrive in time for the ceremony,” Lois’s grandmother said, although her tone sounded doubtful.

“She’s in Europe?” Lois growled. Damn Lex! All the clinics on his list had been here in the States.

“She was in Switzerland, to be precise, now France,” Mother Arnold corrected. “Another one of her spa vacations, I presume.” She flipped a dismissive hand into the air.

“Why didn’t she call me?” Lois said, her hands dropping to her sides as her shoulders fell.

“She said that she had called you, but that you hadn’t answered.”

Lois turned to her answering machine and saw that the power light wasn’t even on. She didn’t recall turning it off. Had someone turned it off for her? Either way, it hadn’t been taking any messages. She walked over to the machine and pressed the ‘on’ button, not that anyone would be calling now.

“Anyway, she probably had some work done in an attempt to be more beautiful than you for your wedding and didn’t want you to know.” Mother Arnold took hold of Lois’s jaw and tilted her face to the side. “If I leave you here, like this, she might succeed. It’s a bit short notice, but I’ll call Enrique and see what he can do to turn you into a proper swan.”

Her mother was safe. Lois desperately wanted to believe it. Even though the news came from a reliable source, Lois knew Lex could have forced her mother to make the phone call to Mother Arnold. If Lois had talked to her mother directly, she would have known if the woman was being honest or lying. She had enough experience to ascertain that much. Her mother and Mother Arnold had spoken so little during the years, it still amazed Lois that Mother Arnold had been her mother’s second phone call.

Yet, she couldn’t leave. Clark was coming for her at midnight. Lois had to tell him that until she literally saw that her mother was safe, she had to continue as if she were going to marry Lex. As soon as her mother arrived, Superman could whisk the two of them away someplace where Lois could explain what was really going on with Lex. Then Superman could drop her mother off at Lucy’s in California and Lois could continue on to Kansas as planned.

It was a horrible plan, and she knew it. But better that she and her mother were safely away from Lex, and Superman outed officially as Lois’s friend, than Lois married to Lex Luthor.

Their original plan had Clark taking Lois from the roof, zipping her across town, where she would don a disguise and take a taxi to the airport, where she would rent a car. She would then drive a day to another city south of Metropolis, where she would exchange the car for another rental and another rental car company, and then another, finally switching to an old car with a good engine, waiting for her in Denver, which she’d then drive back to Smallville, Kansas. If Lex found her trail to Denver, he would think she was headed west and he wouldn’t think to look for her in Kansas. Lois wouldn’t be seen with Superman. Clark would apparently be going about his life in Metropolis and Lex wouldn’t suspect his involvement. She would leave a message on Lucy’s answering machine, telling her that she had run off, fearing her life from Luthor and that she would be unable to contact her while on the run. That way, Lex would know that Lucy knew nothing about Lois’s plans.

“Lois?” her grandmother said, pulling her from these thoughts. “Go pack an overnight bag, dear. You’ll be staying with me at the Bristol, tonight.”

The Bristol was a competitor to the Lexor and wasn’t owned by LexCorp. Lois would be assured of a bug free room and she could call Clark on her mobile with her change of plans.

Heaven knew she’d sleep better outside of this apartment.

Lois smiled at her grandmother. “Yes, Mother Arnold.”

***

Just as they were walking out the front door, the phone rang. Lois didn’t need two guesses as to who it was. Only a pointed look from her grandmother sent Lois back inside to answer the telephone.

“Hello.”

“Darling!” Lex said to her annoyance, but not her surprise. “I don’t want to argue. I forgive you and insist that you let me take you out for supper.”

‘He forgives me? He insists?’ Lois thought through clenched teeth.

“You were right. ‘Othello’ wasn’t appropriate pre-wedding entertainment for us,” he continued.

Damn right, I was right, and not just about that. As if that was why she had rejected his offer. She covered the mouthpiece and whispered to her grandmother, “It’s Lex.” Removing her hand, she said into the receiver, “That’s so sweet, Lex, but my grandmother has just arrived and she’s taking me out.”

“Your grandmother?” Lex echoed. “But I thought Mrs. Lane had died.”

Lois rolled her eyes. She certainly had never told Lex anything about her family.

“This is my grandmother Arnold, Lex. My mother’s mother,” she corrected, even though she’d bet his entire fortune that he already knew that answer.

“I would love to meet her,” he replied. “Why don’t you ladies meet me at the Top of Tower for dinner?”

Lois covered the handset. “He wants us to meet him at the Top of the Tower for dinner.”

“I never dine at tourist traps, Lois. I know what Metropolis looks like; I don’t need to be above it to eat. I always eat at the Champagne Room at the Bristol when I’m in town. Tell him that he can meet us there,” her grandmother replied.

Lois wished she could see Lex’s reaction at this suggestion. She turned away from Mother Arnold and lowered her voice. “My grandmother is tired from her journey, Lex. We’re just going to eat at the Champagne Room at the Bristol, and then retire upstairs to her suite.”

There was a long pause, and she swallowed her grin under her hand as she rubbed her nose, so Lex wouldn’t see it. She knew that Lex’s bugs had let him hear her grandmother’s true response. Knowing Lex, Lois figured he was debating whether it was worse to be seen at the Champagne Room or to have his fiancée seen dining there without him the night prior their wedding.

“Lois, you must tell your grandmother that I insist that she stay at the Lexor. It’s a much finer hotel than the…” She was sure Lex paused to wipe the distain from his tone. “Bristol.” He didn’t quite succeed. “The Lexor’s Empire Steakhouse was voted best steak restaurant in the city by Metropolis Magazine.”

“That’s very kind of you, Lex, but my grandmother always stays at the Bristol,” Lois said, without even consulting Mother Arnold. “I’m sure that she’s already checked in. It would be too big of an inconvenience to switch hotels now.” That, and Lois wouldn’t willingly sleep under any of Lex’s roofs if her life depended on it. “But thank you,” she added with a dash of salt for his wounds.

“It’s getting late, Lois,” Mother Arnold said from her position by the door as she tapped her watch. “Tell your young man that he can either meet us or not. He has the rest of his life with which to dine with you, he needn’t start tonight. You’ll want to be in bed by ten, anyway, if you’re going to meet Enrique at seven tomorrow; otherwise, it will be next to impossible to remove any bags from under your eyes.”

Lois couldn’t believe the gall of her grandmother and loved her ten times more for it. Nobody pushed Mother Arnold around. It was one of things that Ellen Lane hated most about her mother. “Shall we save you a seat in the Champagne Room, Lex?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, darling,” he replied as if making an appointment made to fill four cavities without painkillers.

Pity.

“He’ll meet us there,” Lois said, hanging up the phone. She picked up the handle of her overnight bag. Her suitcase had already been delivered to Lex’s penthouse in anticipation of their honeymoon. Then again, Lex always teased that it was a ‘clothing optional’ locale, so she guessed it would get lost in transit. She shivered in disgust at that thought.

Lois thanked her lucky stars that she was never actually going to marry that man.

After locking the door behind her, she wrapped her free hand around her grandmother’s arm as they walked down the hall to the elevator. “I’m so glad you came, Mother Arnold,” Lois said. “Have I ever told you how much I love and admire you?”

“Don’t be silly, Lois,” her grandmother responded, but Lois could tell she was pleased as she smiled over at her. “Now, tell me all about your young man.”

Lois planned to tell Mother Arnold everything. She wanted her grandmother to know exactly what she was dealing with and why she hadn’t invited her to the wedding. Mother Arnold wasn’t a fool like her mother.

***

Jimbo switched off the water at the kitchen sink and turned his head, doubly sure that he had heard ringing this time. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

“Sounded like a phone,” Jack said, from where he was flipping channels on Jimbo’s television in what appeared to be a random manner. Denny was lying down on the sofa behind him, fast asleep.

“Thanks for the help,” Jimbo grumbled, wiping his hand on a dishrag as he followed the sound into CK’s bedroom. There. He distinctly heard it again. It was coming from CK’s nightstand. He pulled open the drawer and saw a mobile phone.

“Hello?” he said into the phone.

“Chuck! Finally. I was so worried I wouldn’t reach you,” a woman’s voice whispered into the phone.

“Lois?”

There was a pause. “Who is this?”

“Jimmy,” he replied.

“You’re out of jail?!” she exclaimed. “Of course you’re out of jail; otherwise you wouldn’t have Clark’s mobile phone.”

“Other Jimmy,” he corrected.

“Oh. Right. Of course. That makes more sense. Hey, Jimmy. I need to talk to Clark. Put him on, will you?” she said.

He heard the flush of the toilet in the background. “Lois, are you calling me from the bathroom?”

“I’m not on the toilet, and I’m not calling you,” she hissed. “That was someone else. Now, put Clark on.”

“I can’t. He’s not here.”

“Where is he?” she demanded.

Jimbo hesitated. Should he tell her the truth? But he didn’t know the truth, really. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you ‘don’t know’?”

“Um… he didn’t come home last night. I mean, Cat said he came home because his bed had been slept in, but he wasn’t here when I woke up, and I haven’t seen him all day,” Jimbo admitted.

“All day? Wait a minute, what was Cat doing there? No, wait. That doesn’t matter.”

Doesn’t matter? Was this the same woman who had obsessed over CK’s and Cat’s relationship all the previous summer? Well, according to Lucy, at least.

“He probably went down to the Luthor House for Homeless Children when he heard it was on fire this morning.”

“Why would he do that? To talk to Superman?” Jimbo asked. “Anyway, it wasn’t on fire. Someone bombed it.”

“Bombed it?” she repeated with some surprise. “I saw the article in tonight’s Metropolis Star. No big surprise. They got the story wrong.”

“You’re reading the Star, Lois?” Jimbo teased.

“Ha-ha. Very funny. No, I just happened to catch the headline when I entered the Bristol,” she said. She lowered her voice even more, grumbling, “I can’t believe he… What am I saying? Obviously, he wouldn’t tell me. Who would do that to kids? I’m sure Clark would’ve gone down there to see if he could… um… find Rat… er… Jack. His brother still lived there,” Lois said.

“Well, Superman saved Denny and told him and Jack to come here, but Jack didn’t say anything about CK. They’re out in the living room.”

“Wow! Really? I’m glad they’re okay. What are they doing there?” she said.

“They’re crashing here for the time being. Since Luthor House is no more, otherwise they’d be out on the street.”

“That’s sweet of Clark,” Lois said. Jimbo was about to correct her and say it had been his idea, when she continued. “When Clark comes in, tell him we’re switching to Plan C.”

“What’s ‘Plan C’?” he asked.

“The wedding is going on as planned,” Lois said.

“Good!” he replied.

“What?” they both said at the same time.

“Why is that ‘good’?” Lois asked.

“You first. Why are you going through with it?” he said. No way that he would tell Lois about the Luthor investigation and up-coming warrants if she really was planning to be his Mrs.

“Because I told Lex that I wouldn’t walk down the aisle without my mother being here. So, he’s promised that she’ll come to the wedding. I can’t leave before I know she’s safe,” she explained.

Lois had always known Luthor had done something with her mother. She must have wormed out what from Luthor. She was amazing.

“You don’t have to leave at all,” Jimbo said. “We’ve got him, Lois. Between Cat’s investigation into Luthor’s sex life, our discovery that Mrs. Cox planted the bomb at the Daily Planet framing Jimmy and I, and something else that Inspector Henderson said he had been working on, we’ve got this case nailed shut.”

“Really?” Lois gushed.

“Honest to goodness.”

“Really?” she repeated, almost as if she couldn’t believe that it was finally coming to an end. “Oh, Jimbo, that’s wonderful. I so didn’t want to live on the run. Wait. Cat was investigating Lex’s sex life? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

“I’m sure most of it was from before you got engaged, Lois,” he said softly.

“That’s not what I meant. He’s a disgusting… Never mind. Look, put Henderson on the phone.”

“He’s not here. He went to take some evidence to S.T.A.R. Labs for analysis,” Jimbo explained.

“But I’ve got some evidence for him,” she said, and Jimbo could hear her frustration building. “What about Perry?”

“He went to meet someone. I can come pick it up,” Jimbo volunteered. “Where are you?”

“We can’t chance it, Jimmy. Lex knows what you look like. We’re having dinner at the Champagne Room and if he saw you…”

“Lex Luthor is eating at the Champagne Room at the Bristol?” Jimbo said, trying and failing to cover his guffaw. He could sell that photo for thousands of dollars to the tabloids. “I thought that only senior citizens ate there.”

“It’s a good restaurant!”

“It was a topnotch restaurant in the time of Dragonetti, Lois. It’s been on downward spiral since before the 1970s,” he corrected.

“It’s my grandmother’s favorite restaurant,” Lois snapped.

“You can ask them to hold it for me at the desk and I’ll come by in a couple hours…”

“I’ll go,” Jack said, entering CK’s bedroom. “Lex Luthor doesn’t know me.”

“Jack said he’d go,” Jimbo repeated to Lois. He turned to Jack. “Do you know where the Bristol is?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’ve lived here my entire life. I probably know these streets better than you do.”

“Okay. Fine. Lois is going to leave a package for you at the front desk. Is that okay, Lois?” Jimbo asked, talking to both of them at once.

“Works for me,” Lois replied.

“Is the Englishman there?”

“Is Nigel St. John with you?” Jimbo repeated Jack’s question to Lois.

“No. He’s at the manor house, outside of town, supervising the renovations.”

“That’s outside of Henderson’s jurisdiction,” Jimbo said.

“Then Henderson will have to contact the sheriff’s office, so he doesn’t get away. Let Henderson know that when he gets the warrant that it needs to include Lex’s office and not just his penthouse. He has a secret room in there with tons of evidence and that was just from a quick glance. I’ll write up instructions on how to open the secret room in the package, which will have the microphone pen you sent me. Have Henderson play it for Mrs. Cox, if she gives him the silent treatment when he interviews her.”

“Gotcha!” Jimbo said, jotting that down on the notepad next to CK’s bed.

“I’ve got to go. I’ve been in the ladies room much too long already. Good luck!” Lois said and hung up.

They were going to need it.

***End of Part 175***

Part 176

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