Witness - Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Previously
"I have had a chance to glance over your bio."
Vincent beckoned her to the sofa. On the coffee table was a box.
Lois sat, carefully and crossed her legs demurely, managing to keep her skirt from riding up too high as she did.
Vincent opened the box and took out some journals and notebooks. As he did, he narrated, "The Life and Times of Vincent Winninger. In this play, Barbara Trevino has a leading role. She's the femme fatale."
Lois slid forward slightly to see better. When she did her skirt rode up slightly revealing more of her legs.
Vincent Winninger was a very observant man and saw what was happening. Giving her legs a leer he reached down and put his hand on her knee and she gave him a startled look as her mouth dropped open to say something, he interrupted her and said, "You're a very good looking woman."
Feeling that it wouldn't hurt to remind him of her married status, Lois grabbed his hand and removed it from her knee as she replied, "Thank you. My husband would agree with you."
Apparently out of left field he suddenly asked, "How do you feel about increased male potency?"
Lois was flabbergasted and blurted out, "What? My husband is very potent. He's the next best thing to Superman." She energetically tugged her skirt back down before she continued, "Look, Dr. Winninger. I know your reputation with women is only exceeded by your scientific one, but I think it's best if we keep this meeting purely professional."
He nodded and replied, "I'm sure every woman feels that way about their husband, but what if I told you that was precisely the point?"
Lois was getting quite confused, "What am I missing here?"
The light of fanaticism came into his eyes as he said, "Barbara Trevino is going to sell all of us and the Ozone Layer straight down the river, and destroy our chances for increased male potency."
Lois thought about what he was saying and finally she said, "I guess the sixties were pretty good to you."
Feeling insulted, Vincent said, "Hear me out. It will all become clear." Picking one of the notebooks he handed it to Lois.
After she accepted it she looked at it in puzzlement. She was distracted when he asked, "Would you like some iced tea?"
She didn't answer and he took her non-answer as acceptance, since it suited his ends. Both of her hands were occupied holding the notebook and it was a surprise to her when Winninger grabbed a glass and pitcher of iced tea and started pouring. It was hard for Lois to tell if it was an accident or deliberate, but as he poured the tea he managed to spill a quantity on her skirt. Thinking back on it, Lois decided that it had to be deliberate because he had needed to move the glass away from the table and over her lap in order for it to happen.
He said, "Oh, I'm so sorry," and immediately grabbed a napkin to started wiping it up by putting his hands on her thigh. "I'm sorry."
She jumped up and away from him and said, "Uh huh, that's okay. I'll get it." She still had the notebook in her hand as she headed for the powder room that adjoined the den.
She was half way to the powder room when she heard a knock on the door. Looking back over her shoulder she saw Winninger rise to answer the knock.
Before Winninger was able to answer the knock, Lois was in the powder room with the door partially closed.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 04
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lois had set the notebook down on the cover of the commode seat and was starting to blot up the tea from her skirt as she heard Winninger answer the door. She heard him say, "You're back early." There was a few seconds pause and then she heard him say, "No."
If there was a reply, she didn't hear it. There was though a short pause before she heard Winninger again, in a loud, scared voice shout, "No!"
Immediately following Winninger's shout there was a sound like a light cough. Instinctively, Lois knew what it must be … the sound of a gun with a silencer being fired. At the sound of Winninger's shout, Lois had frozen in mid-action. Now she was galvanized into action. She stepped back to be sure that no one looking from the den would see her in the powder room. Seeing a crack at the door frame she peeked through.
Initially, there was nothing in her field of view, but then she saw Winninger's hand come down and slap the floor, hard. So hard that if he had been alive and conscious he would have cried out in pain, however, there was no sound. Lois clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle any possible outcry which would reveal her presence.
As she watched through the crack she could watch Winninger's apparently lifeless hand. Suddenly another hand reached into her field of view and felt for a pulse. Finding none the killer placed the silenced gun into the small duffle bag he was carrying. By shifting her position slightly she was able to get a look at the killer. He was on the small side, plain looking, perhaps even pleasant looking. He was a non-descript middle-aged balding man with a fringe of graying hair wearing a shirt with a bow tie. As she watched he stood up.
When he stood up he moved out of her field of view, but she realized that he was headed in her direction. The door had only been open a crack and Lois eased it closed the final way, slowly so as not to attract attention. Once that was done she backed against the wall, behind the door. When she did, she saw the notebook lying where she had left it, but before she could retrieve it the doorknob was turned and the door opened. Lois had started to reach for the notebook, but when the door started to open she retreated behind the door.
As the door opened, Lois tried to make herself as inconspicuous as she could hiding behind the door. The killer entered, placed the duffle on a chair in the powder room and opening it took out a bar of soap. He unwrapped a fresh bar of soap and tossed the wrapper into the trashcan, placing the bar on the sink. Lois was afraid that when he looked into the mirror he would see her, but he didn't. He was concentrating on his personal appearance. He leaned down and soaping his hands began to wash his face. Seeing her chance, Lois silently crept out, retrieved the notebook and returned to her hiding place.
Lois realized that the likelihood of her remaining hidden and unharmed were very slim. That word stuck in Lois's mind and she was very thankful for her slim build. If she were to carry the few extra pounds that made Cat Grant so much more voluptuous it could have made a big difference. That was another reason to thank her lucky stars that she was so different from Cat.
She examined her position and knew that if the killer closed the door she would be exposed and she prayed silently that he didn't think he needed privacy believing the apartment was empty. She believed her prayer was being answered when he left the door open as he started to wash up. She thought, <Shooting him at that close range, he probably was splattered with blood.> Lois hardly dared to breathe as he continued to wash for what seemed to drag on for an eternity. He had been washing his face and when he finished turned and eyes closed, groped for a towel. The towel hung on a bar next to Lois and she realized that only half a foot separated her from security and discovery.
Lois reached for the towel and moved it closer to his groping hands so that they would contact it and not her. Taking the towel he held it to his face to dry it. When he finished he rolled the towel up and placed it into the duffle and turned back around and headed out the door.
Lois breather a little easier, but no louder, but she didn't dare move. She whispered to herself, "Oh, Clark, where are you when I need you? How long do you have to talk to those kids? It isn't like they can have a career as a super hero or anything."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
At the front of a sixth grade classroom there were several chairs arranged in a line across the front. In the chairs were a construction worker, complete with hard hat, a Fire Fighter/EMT in uniform with a badge, a police officer in full uniform, a nurse in her white uniform and cap and finally, Superman. Superman was standing and answering questions while the rest of the visitors frankly looked bored, having nothing to do but listen.
Superman had just been asked a question and was answering, "… I don't know. It's like I can sense when someone is in trouble. It goes beyond my super powers, it's almost psychic. Especially if it's someone I know well or I'm close to."
Apparently this particular power isn't quite working as advertised at that precise moment or he would have realized Lois's danger.
As he finished speaking there were a jumble of questions shouted out, " How did you train for your job? What did you major in? Weren't the teachers afraid of you? What's your costume made of," and several others.
The teacher interrupted the flood and tried to regain control, "One at a time, please." She pointed to a boy in the second row. He asked, "How far can you see, really?"
He replied, "I can see pretty far, but then so can you. When you look up into the sky, on a starry night, the closest star that you could look at is 4.3 light years away. I'd say that you are looking pretty far. The difference with me is that sometimes, I can see trouble coming."
The boy sitting next to the one that asked the question quipped, "Maybe you should make a deal with nine-one-one."
The other boy offered, "Or you could have a signal in the sky that they shine when you're needed."
The second boy said, "That's really stupid."
The teacher put a stop to the argument by asking, "Don't you have any questions for our other guests?"
A girl in the middle of the class raised her hand and the teacher called on her.
"Superman, do you have a girlfriend?"
Superman phrased his answer quite carefully, "No, I don't and I can never have a girlfriend." He silently said to himself, <Lois would never allow it. I hope this doesn't go much longer. I need to get back to her.>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lois watched from behind the door as the killer removed his shirt. Once it was off he took a fresh one out of his duffle and placed the soiled one into it. Once he had the fresh shirt on and the bow tie retied he put on a vest and tweed jacket. Then he turned and picked up the notebooks from the coffee table where Winninger had left them. He placed them in the duffle along with the other items and prepared to leave. Lois was starting to feel relieved when suddenly he stopped and turned in her direction.
She was instantly keyed up again as he started to move in her direction. She dared not even breathe for fear that it would give her away. He came in through the door, crossed to the waste can and picked out the soap wrapper. Fortunately, when he turned around it was away from her and he took the wrapper with him and placed it into the duffle. A few seconds later she heard the door close as he left.
Lois waited five more long seconds before she allowed herself to breathe again. Still wary she slowly peeked out from around the door into the den. Assured that the room was empty except for the corpse of Winninger she crossed to the phone and dialed MPD.
When the phone was answered she said, "This is Lois Lane. I need to speak with Henderson, now!"
A few seconds later she heard, "Henderson."
"Bill, I want to report a murder."
A couple of minutes later, Clark showed up. When he stepped in the door he saw Winninger and Lois. He was surprised and asked, "What happened?"
Lois ran to him and threw herself into his arms. When she did he could feel her shaking whether from fear or simply reaction he couldn't tell, but he did know that she had feared for her life while he had been away from her. "It's a long story. I wish you had been here." She flung her arm out in the direction of Winninger's body. "If you had been, this wouldn't have happened."
He was thinking to himself, <I really can't let her out of my sight. I'm lucky she wasn't killed too. I'm going to have to change some things.>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill had arrived about five minutes after Clark and interviewed Lois. She neglected to inform Bill about the notebook and took it back to the Planet with her when they returned.
Lois had been clingy all the time that Bill had been interviewing her and also in the cab ride to the Planet. He had wrapped her up in his arms during the elevator ride and finally, the contact and the familiar surroundings worked to soothe her nerves. When the doors opened onto the newsroom she was ready to get back to work.
After rushing down the ramp to her desk she booted up her computer and banged out the story of what Winninger had told her and what had happened to him.
While she had been working, Perry had quizzed Clark. He had seen them leave together, but only Lois was working on the story. "What happened, Clark? You were there, weren't you?"
Clark stuttered, “Uh, well, no, you see, uh, I, uh, I had to meet a source. It was a last minute thing so Lois went alone. Everything was done by the time I got there."
"Don't you think that was some poor judgment, leaving Lois alone like that? You could have met with that source later."
"You're right, Chief. It won't happen again. Believe me, it won't happen again."
"It better not, son. I'm counting on you to take care of her."
"Trust me, if there'd been any hint of trouble, wild horses couldn't have dragged me away. Lois was sure she could handle Winninger. It was the killer that showed up that we knew nothing about that was the problem."
As Clark finished speaking, Lois sat back from her keyboard and stretched. She reached for her phone and dialed a number as Perry, Clark, Jimmy and Cat all gathered round and read what was on her computer screen.
While they read she listened to the phone.
Perry read aloud, "'Only minutes before his death, Dr. Winninger produced diaries which, he claimed, contained evidence that would abort the impending induction of Barbara Trevino into the Rain Forest Consortium."
As Perry finished reading, Lois spoke into her phone, "I see. Okay, I'll try to reach her when she arrives. Where did you say she was staying? Oh, I thought you did ..."
Perry touched her screen, indicating a particular passage and said to the rest, "She doesn't want to write this."
Lois finished her phone conversation, "Well, thank you for your help," and hung the phone up and turned to her keyboard. To those standing around she said, "Barbara Trevino is en route to Metropolis now. Has a meeting at the Trade Center tomorrow."
Jimmy was confused and asked, "Why doesn't she want to write it, Chief?"
"Because I can't print it."
Jimmy was surprised, "You can't?"
Perry was matter-of-fact, "No. She doesn't have the diaries."
Lois was in an argumentative mood, "I may not have the diaries, but he told me what was in the diaries. And I do have the one notebook." As she finished speaking she pulled it out of her desk drawer and offered it to Clark, "But it's Greek to me."
Clark looked at some of the pages and with a smile said, "That's because it
is Greek."
Jimmy was curious, "Could I see that?"
Closing it, Clark said, "Sure," and handed it to him.
Perry addressed Lois's statement, "Now, look Lois, a verbal statement ain't worth the paper it's printed on, which there is none. You get my drift? Without those diaries, we got nothin' for you to check out."
Turning back to her computer, Lois started deleting lines of text from her story.
Clark leaned over her shoulder, pointed to another section and said, "I hope one of the parts you trim back is this ..." He actually committed a great offense by touching her screen and leaving a fingerprint, "here ... where it says the killer took the diaries."
Looking back over her shoulder at him she said, "But he did take them!"
"Lois, think! If you put that in there, you're telling him that you were there."
"But I
was there!"
"The killer doesn't know that … unless you tell him, that is."
Lois tried to wheedle, "I'm not telling him. Not exactly."
Perry leaned in and committed the same breach by touching her screen and said, "Change 'minutes before his death' to 'earlier that day.' Just to be safe."
Lois grumbled as she made the suggested change. "How about the part that says the man is dead? Can I leave that? Is that okay?" After receiving a nod from Perry she typed a few more lines and then sent it to the printer. That finished, Lois stood.
Perry was quick to ask, "Where are you going?"
She allowed her annoyance to show as she pulled open a drawer and pulled out a bottle of glass cleaner. She sprayed her screen and then used a soft cloth to remove the fingerprints that they had been depositing on her screen. When she had finished this chore she said, "Come on, Clark. We're going back to Winninger's apartment. It looks like if I stay here any longer I won't have any story left."
As they were riding down in the elevator, Lois said, "You know, I spent the last five hours with the police and they didn't say anything about a bodyguard. Just the same, I'm glad to have you with me."
When the exited the building, Lois was still on her rant and said, "Much as I hate to admit it the killer will probably tumble to the fact that I was there. Perry's also right, until I get that notebook translated, I don't have a story."
They were at the corner, waiting for the light to change so that they could cross when a skateboarder hit a bump in the sidewalk and fell off his board. When he did he tumbled into Lois and knocked her into the street, with an, "Ooof." A truck was approaching from the left and Clark watched as she tumbled into the street right in front of it. He quickly, just shy of superspeed, ran out, grabbed the back of her coat. When he did, she let out another scream, "Ooooooo." He pulled her back into his chest, falling backward so that she landed on him and not the sidewalk. The truck's horn blared as it passed by.
Clark quickly stood and pulled Lois to her feet. He grabbed the skateboarder and in a threatening tone he challenged, "All right, who sent you?"
The skateboarder replied, "Chill, dude."
Picking him up he held him in the air and repeated his question, "Who sent you?"
The kid replied, "Sent me to do what?"
Lois interceded, "Clark, let him go. How could anybody have sent him? My story isn't even out there yet."
The kid said, "Yeah, her story isn't even out yet." He thought about it for a second and then asked, "What story?"
Clark dropped him back on his feet.
The kid said, "Later, dude. Lay off the amino acids." He picked up his skateboard and left.
Lois looked at him and smiled. She reached for his arm and hooked hers around it and said, "Come on."
Clark just shook his head. When it had happened, he had just reacted. He had been thinking about his failure to protect her earlier and now he found that he was overreacting.
The light changed and they crossed, arm-in-arm. Once across, Lois said, in a thoughtful tone, "I can tell, you're really worried about me."
"Well, yeah. After what happened this morning … I should have been there with you."
"Everything was fine, until the killer showed up. Fortunately I was in another room at the time and he didn't know I was there. Those were not normal circumstances. Under normal circumstances I would have been just fine. Look, you can't be there for me one hundred percent of the time. You need to give me a chance to take care of myself, like I did with Luthor."
"Okay, but I hope you don't mind if those times are few and far between."
She smiled up at him and said, "I would expect no less out of you." She gave him a little bump with her hip as they walked.
"I meant what I said, I should have been there with you."
"What was that activity you had to go to?"
"It was nothing that important, not nearly as important as your safety."
"I know, but what was it?"
"Sixth grade career day. It isn't like those kids can aspire to the career of a superhero. I really don't know why I was invited."
"How did it go?"
"I actually feel sorry for the others that were invited. The kids didn't have any questions for them at all. There were representatives of the fire department, police, a nurse and a construction worker, all of them are realistic careers that those kids could follow, but all the questions were directed at me."
"Ask me why I'm not surprised."
"The ironic thing is, I told them that most of the time I can sense when you are in danger and here you were and I didn't. Go figure."
"You can really sense that?"
A teasing tone entered his voice as he answered, "Most of the time, of course since most of the time you are in trouble, how can I go wrong."
"I am not!'
"Are too."
"Not as much anymore."
"I'll give you that. Not as much anymore."
"So, what were some of the other questions?"
"The last question was from a young lady that I think had an ulterior motive for asking her question."
Lois's curiosity was piqued and she asked, "Oh, what was her question?"
"She asked if I had a girlfriend."
"What did you tell her?"
"That my wife wouldn't allow it."
Lois gasped, "You told them that Superman was married?"
"Well, not exactly. I told them I couldn't have a girlfriend, which is true. I just didn't explain the why."
Now that they were on the other side of the street when they hailed a cab, they were headed in the right direction.
A short time later they were dropped off and they headed in. When they got there Henderson was still there heading up the investigation. There were several other more junior detectives as well as the forensics team.
Henderson didn't notice them immediately and Lois took Clark over to show him some of the pictures of the Elimont Center. She had taken a picture off the wall for a closer look. By happenstance she had chosen the one with Winninger and ‘Frank Sinatra.' She asked, "Would you believe that this isn't really Frank Sinatra?"
Clark took a close look and used his enhanced vision, "Hmmmm, I can see faint traces of the edges of moulage pieces. Make-up."
"Winninger called this guy, Sebastian Finn, Mr. Make-up. Sure looks real, doesn't he?""
Just then, Henderson spotted them and asked, "Did I mention that you're not to touch anything, Lois?"
Quickly turning around and deftly hiding the picture behind her back as she did, Lois in a very innocent tone said, "Moi?"
One of the other detectives approached Henderson and called him to the door. Once his back was turned, Lois returned the photo to its place on the wall. Once that was done, she and Clark turned to follow Henderson. When they caught up with him, Henderson was speaking with a man who was slight of build, balding with a fringe of graying hair, glasses and wearing a bow tie. Lois immediately recognized him as the murder and shouted out, "That's him!"
Startled by her outburst, Clark asked, "Who? What?"
Not to be deterred, Lois strode to the door and in a very agitated tone said, "This is the killer, Inspector! Don't let him go!"
The balding individual was startled and said, "What?"
Lois reiterated, "The man that killed Winninger!" Her tone became smug as she said, "I saw you! I was in the powder room."
Henderson interrupted Lois's tirade, "Lois, this is Dr. Hubert, Dr. Winninger's associate."
Lois stood her ground, strong in her conviction, "I don't care who he is. I saw him kill Dr. Winninger this morning."
Dr. Hubert replied, "I was in Washington, D. C. this morning."
Henderson asked the obvious question, "Did anybody see you there? Any witnesses?""
It was Dr. Hubert's turn to be smug as he said, "The thirty or forty men and women who attended the National Science Council meeting ... and heard my presentation. Including the Vice President of the United States."
Henderson turned and asked, "I'd call that an alibi, wouldn't you, Lois?"
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