Witness - Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Previously
As she walked away, Clark appreciated the sway of her hips, but then he was distracted by his parents. His mother had donned a pink jogging suit for the outing and Jonathan was in his usual jeans and flannel shirt. His mother had a wide grin on her lips as she sent a ball straight down the range. As they watched it landed and bounced to a stop between the one hundred and one hundred-fifty yard marker.
Clark said, "Way to go, Mom. That was a good one."
Martha replied, "I never knew that golf could be so much fun."
Jonathan was holding his club like a rake or a hoe and swinging it like an axe. His balls were barely making it off the artificial turf that they were standing on. Lois was returning with her fresh bucket of balls and stopped next to Jonathan. She set the bucket down and started giving him pointers. First she corrected his grip and then his stance. Then she had him pull into his swing. As he did, she said, "Okay, keep your left arm straight. Let it pull the club through the stroke. As you hit the ball you start to push with your right arm."
Lois placed a ball on the tee for him and said, "Give it a try."
Trying to put Lois's pointers into effect, Jonathan took a swing. He impacted the ball cleanly and it sailed down range for one hundred yards.
Jonathan was standing there goggling at the result and Lois gave him a hug. "There, you see, you
can do it."
Jonathan came out of his stupor and returned his daughter-in-law's hug, "Thanks to you."
Lois gave him a kiss on the cheek and quipped, "What are daughters for?"
Lois moved over to Clark placed a ball on his tee and said, "Same thing applies to you. Elbow straight, pull the club through the stroke and this time don't chop at it. Follow through."
Before starting his swing, Clark looked around surreptitiously and saw that no one was watching. He decided to play with her and used a smidgeon of superstrength. He followed her style tips and when he followed through he was looking downrange and so was Lois. Her mouth dropped open and then she started to giggle as the ball kept gaining altitude as it soared toward outer space.
Under her breath she said, "Show off. No more tips for you."
On the way back from the driving range they stopped for a light lunch before heading back to the apartment. They didn’t want to spoil their appetites for dinner.
When they walked in the aroma of roasting turkey greeted their nostrils. With all that had been happening, they had missed Thanksgiving dinner in Smallville. That morning, before they had gone on their outing, Martha had put a turkey in the oven to slow cook while they were out.
Once they were inside, the first words out of Lois’s mouth were, “Oh, that heavenly aroma. It smells good enough to eat!”
Martha chuckled and said, “It will be a while yet.”
Lois replied, “I can hardly wait.” Lois put her clubs away and plopped down on the sofa next to Clark. Martha went into the kitchen to check on dinner. It would be some time yet until the side dishes would need to be put on. Sitting down in an easy chair, Jonathan picked up a copy of the Farmer's Almanac that he had brought with him from Kansas.
Once Martha finished in the kitchen she came in and sat on the arm of the chair that Jonathan was sitting in. "Thanks for the outing. We really enjoyed it."
Smiling, Jonathan agreed, "Yes, it was fun."
Lois said, "Thank Clark. It was his idea."
Jonathan said, "Actually, it
was fun. Thanks to Lois's pointers." He was thoughtful for a few seconds and then he said, "Now that the emergency is over, we need to start thinking about heading home."
Lois and Clark tied as they both started to say, "So soon?" and "Not yet."
They both stopped and looked at each other and then the senior Kents. Clark said, "I think we need to discuss this."
Martha had been chuckling. She knew that Clark and Lois both loved them and the feeling was mutual. They had only known Lois for a short time, but she was already an integral member of this small family, but this apartment was too small for four people for very long and that problem needed to be addressed. "Clark, honey, we know you would like us to stay, but the truth is … your apartment is too small for four people. We need to get out of here so that you two won't feel … inhibited … by our presence."
Lois launched into what she had been wanting to say all morning, "That's just what we need to discuss. Clark, something happened while you were away the other day. I think you'll be interested in what I have to tell you."
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 02
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Clark turned to Lois to hear the story while Martha and Jonathan listened in with interest.
Lois prefaced her story, "You know how you've been telling me that we have to discuss Luthor and how I finally said that I think we need to investigate him?" At his nod she continued, "Okay, well, while you were away, something creepy happened.
"We were all looking for you and I got this call from Asabi, you know, Luthor's valet. He said that Luthor had something to show me. I thought that perhaps he had some evidence of your return so I went to see him. Well, as you know, he didn't have anything relating to you. Here's what happened; when I got there Asabi took me down in an elevator. I don't mean just down to the wine cellar or a sub-basement, I mean down, down … five hundred meters down into this fancy bunker that he called his Ark. Reinforced walls, maybe lead lined for all I know. Anyhow, it was where he was planning to ride out the impact with a couple of hundred ‘guests.' He was inviting me to be one of them. Naturally, there would be a price … my ‘companionship.' Talk about a euphemism, he wanted me as a sex partner. Now we come to the really sick part. He opened a doorway and I was looking at
my apartment. Not this one, my old one, with my furniture, my fish tank, complete with duplicates of my fish and my bedroom with clothing and lingerie.
"When I saw that I nearly freaked out. How dare he invade my privacy like that! I noted what was there and apparently he had people break in while we were in Smallville. He sent people in and they must have taken measurements and pictures so that they could duplicate everything, even the books on my bookshelf. It makes me furious to think of some sleezeball pawing through my lingerie. I haven't been in that apartment very much since we got back, just enough to move what I've needed and take care of the fish. Your apartment always seemed more like home to me so this is where we settled. Anyhow, if he'd do something like that, what else has he done?
"I reminded him of my married status and he said that you would probably die in the impact and I shouldn't worry. Besides, I was a married woman carrying a torch for another man. That he was collecting evidence to present to you to get you to divorce me."
With a quirked eyebrow, Clark asked, "Who does he think you're carrying this torch for?"
Lois started to chuckle, "Would you believe, Superman? He thinks I'm carrying a torch for you, sweetie."
Martha started to laugh, "What gave him that idea?"
Lois replied, "Probably the kiss at the airport. Oh, and the kiss before the ‘Nightfall' mission."
Thoughtfully, Clark said, "We're going to have to start being more careful in public. If the tabloids got hold of something like that they could start a scandal."
That sobered Lois up immediately, "You're right. We don't need Lois Lane and Superman becoming a ‘thing' while she is married to one of his best friends, now do we?"
"I'm glad that I won't have to work at convincing you about Luthor now."
"Yes, we need to get moving on that investigation, I mean, if he'll do that … what else is he capable of?"
Clark snickered and said, "Let me count the ways."
"Anyhow, about my old apartment. It's still there. The lease is still active." She looked around at Martha and Jonathan and then back to Clark, "It's a two bedroom and if we lived there then your parents would have their own bedroom."
Clark looked around at their apartment and weighed the pros and cons then he said, in a musing tone, "I wonder what else his people did while they were there?"
Lois was shocked, "Isn't taking pictures and measurements and going through my … personal things enough?"
"I've got a hunch, based on something Luthor did to me before. Wait right here, I'll be right back." He spun into the suit and flew out through the balcony doors.
A minute later there was the sound of a whirlwind in the bedroom and Clark came striding out. After sitting down next to Lois he said, "I suspected as much."
Lois was curious, "What?"
"Remember months ago when there were jumpers on the opposite sides of town?"
Lois nodded.
"Remember when there was an anonymous tip about a bomb in a deserted building and as soon as I entered it was detonated?"
Lois nodded again.
"After that incident, I was informed that there were remote cameras installed in the building and they weren't part of the security system. They had been added later. I know when they were added … at the same time that the bomb was installed. They used the cameras to see me enter so that they would know when to detonate the bomb."
"I hadn't told you this part before. I figured out that these were all tests and who was behind them … Luthor. I confronted him about them. He outright threatened me that if I stuck around the tests would continue, placing innocent people's lives in jeopardy. As far back as then, he saw me as a threat to his operations and was trying to drive me away."
"Why that lousy …"
"What you just told me gave me an idea for something to check out. He likes to use cameras so I decided to check your old apartment. I found six video cameras and three other microphones installed."
Lois gasped, "I don't know if I want you to tell me where they were located." She was silent for several seconds as her curiosity warred with her fear of what she would hear. Finally her curiosity won, "Oooooh, tell me."
"Two video cameras in the living room at different angles. Two in the bedroom, one pointed at your bed. One in the kitchen."
"That's only five. Where was the other one?"
"Do you really want to know?"
She gasped as the implication of what he was about to say hit her, "I need to know."
"In the shower."
A look of pure fury occupied her visage, "Wow, I'm so glad we moved here as soon as we got back from Smallville. You're the only one that's going to see me naked from now on. That does it. We are going to take that scumbag down if it's the last thing I do. Did you remove them?"
"I left them all in place. Here's my idea. If we were planning to move back in we might just want to repaint the walls. While we were doing that we might just happen to find the bugs. What do you think?"
Lois started to laugh, "That might just work. We could find them without tipping the fact that Superman located them. And if we called in Henderson, maybe he could trace them back to the monitoring station. If we can prove that Luthor had a hand in this we would have the first step toward bringing him down. I love it."
Clark looked at Jonathan and asked, "Do you feel like doing some painting, Dad?"
Jonathan was laughing and said, "Just try to keep me away. I want to do what I can to help."
"Perry gave us tomorrow off, so let's start tomorrow, as long as you guys don't mind sleeping on the sofa bed for a few more days."
Martha laughed and said, "Anything for a good cause."
Lois became very serious, "All right. Tell me the rest. What do you suspect?"
"Think about what happened just a couple of weeks ago. We were getting ready to go do the interview with Luthor. Very conveniently, I should say, too conveniently, there was a robbery across town and an anonymous tip for me to go there. What kind of person would be able to set something like that up? We've been hearing about a mysterious ‘Boss' of the underworld. I'm starting to think that it could be Luthor."
"That's kind of flimsy evidence to convict someone on."
"Here's another piece of the puzzle. Remember the Toasters? Toni Taylor?"
Lois had a sour expression as she replied, "I remember you kissing Toni Taylor."
"Oh, come on, Lois. I only did that so that you could get out without her seeing you."
"She sure looked like she was enjoying it. I know how she felt. I've been on the receiving end of those kisses of yours for a while now."
"Lois, I didn't kiss her because I wanted to and truthfully your kisses are much better."
"They'd better be, buster. You're treading on very thin ice with this one."
"The point is that there was a piece of evidence I found that I never said anything about. I went to that warehouse you spent the night in and found Toni all tied up as the police were on their way."
"What was this evidence?"
"Apparently someone had been there presumably to threaten Toni into silence. I found a silk handkerchief on a stool next to her. One I recognized as belonging to Lex Luthor. I believe that he was behind the Toasters and allowed Toni to use them, as long as what they were doing fit with his purposes. When they went rogue he decided to cut his losses and throw the blame on Toni."
"Plausible."
"Remember the Messenger investigation, Antoinette Banes?"
Lois nodded, "Why do you keep bringing up all of these investigations where there were blonds trying to jump your bones?"
"That's not it. Remember how she tried to kill us?"
Lois nodded.
Remember she was killed when her chopper blew up?"
Another nod.
"It all led up to the Prometheus sabotage. Tell me, who would have benefited from the failure of the Prometheus Project?"
"I don't know."
"Remember how Luthor announced his plans for Space Station - Luthor? If Prometheus failed he would put up his station and reap the untold billions from patents resulting from the zero ‘G' environment. I also suspect that he would have had weapons packages installed so that eventually he could have blackmailed the world. The man is an amoral sociopath with delusions of grandeur."
Jonathan and Martha had been listening, along with Lois as Clark had been laying this all out.
Martha asked, "If that's the case, won't it be dangerous to investigate him?"
Lois looked at Martha and chuckled, "Sometimes I think danger is my middle name."
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Then next day, Lois and Clark, Jonathan and Martha all showed up at Lois's old apartment with paint, brushes, drop cloths and ladders.
It wasn't very long until the bugs were ‘found' and Lois placed a call to the MPD, "MPD, Bill Henderson"
"Hi, Bill, Lois Lane."
"Oh, no, I thought I would have some peace now that you and Kent are married."
Lois laughed and said, "No rest for the wicked, Bill. Look, Bill, we're at my old apartment. We were starting to repaint so that we could move back in and we found something very interesting."
"What happened, did they move your first floor apartment to the fifth floor suddenly?"
"No, nothing like that, but we did find that someone has bugged my apartment. Could you come down and take a look?"
"I'll grab a forensics squad and come over. Any idea as to who would do it?"
"We'll talk to you when you get here."
"Okay. Don't touch anything until we get there."
"We know all that, Bill. What do you think we are … rookies?"
"No, I think you're a royal pain in my tookis, but I put up with you."
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Within half an hour Bill and the forensics team were there. They pointed out the bugs that they had found and the forensics team went to work. They found that wires ran from the video cameras to the basement. In the basement they were tied into the telephone patch panel. A trace was placed on the signal and they followed it to a warehouse across town. There was evidence of equipment having been set up, but by the time they got there almost everything had been removed.
Once she was given the address, Lois called Jimmy, "Jimmy, I need you to find out for me who owns the warehouse at 1530 Bessolo Blvd. Give me a call when you have something."
"You got it. I'll call you back."
Five minutes later, Jimmy called back, "Hey, Lois, I got the information. That warehouse belongs to Farbin Industries, Inc."
"Never heard of them."
Jimmy was chuckling as he said, "How about the rest of the name, a subsidiary of Luthor Enterprises?"
Lois smiled, "Just what I thought. Thanks, Jimmy. Good work."
Turning to Bill, Lois said, "Okay, it was Lex Luthor. The first charges are home invasion, invasion of my privacy, illegal monitoring and illegal wiretap. Of course those are chump change and with the kind of lawyers he has available he could get out of them. We need something heavy duty and enough proof to make it stick."
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