Gotham Nights, Part 4 (of ??)
By: C. Leuch
A knock at her apartment door interrupted Laura’s concentration, pulling her attention away from a history text and back to the present. It was a sunny Monday afternoon, an hour or so after lunch, and she was seated at her kitchen table, studying. She supposed that she could just as easily be reading under a tree on campus or at the library, or maybe at some other little private place that only she could get to, but she always enjoyed hanging around her own place. And she had probably done enough traveling recently.
The previous night had seen a fantastic meal followed by an even more fantastic kiss. For once in her life she had let her heart control her actions, and in the few moments that she had given in to her desires, she had felt things that she had only read about. It had been a flood of emotions so strong that she couldn’t think straight, and for a while she let herself drown in them. Then she had realized that prominent among the emotions she felt was love, something that she had refused to acknowledge as her friendship with Matt had grown, but had been there all along. That revelation, along with the mention of going on a date, seemed to re-activate her brain, which decided to put a halt to the festivities. Love, no matter how intoxicating and attractive it was, was not part of her plan. Love had its own set of issues, its own set of expectations, and probably wouldn’t survive once all cards were on the table. So she had put the brakes on it, but she didn’t anticipate his reaction, although in retrospect it was perfectly reasonable. He had been hurt, and he had left, and she had no idea if their friendship would ever be the same.
In the muddled aftermath, she had taken off for her thinking spot, a large overgrown oak tree jutting out of a lonely patch of grass about a mile from the house where her grandparents had lived in Kansas. The sun was still just above the horizon when she had arrived, and as she watched, it distorted into an increasingly large ball of fire before finally slipping away, blanketing the sky in an array that faded from yellow to orange to pink to purple. The distant trees to her west silhouetted against the color gradient, and she couldn’t help but smile at the beauty of it all. Sunsets in Kansas really were the best. It was so peaceful there, with no traffic noise or crowds, no sirens, no distractions. Just the rustling of the wind in the tree above her and in the wheat fields surrounding her. She could understand why her father loved this place. She had stayed for probably an hour, thinking about everything and nothing at once, trying to reconcile her conflicted emotions, but not having much luck. She was no clearer now, a day later, than she was when she left, but at least the panic that had lead to the words that forced Matt away in the first place was gone. That was something.
She felt some apprehension as she looked toward the door, expecting to see Matt’s confused and broken-hearted face, and dreading the inevitable confrontation. As she watched, the door dissolved in front of her, and standing there instead she saw her brother, dressed as if he had just come over from a meeting at the office. He was watching her through the door, too, and as soon as he saw the recognition on her face, he waved, and instantly relief washed over her. If there was anyone out there who could lift her spirits and help her forget about the previous night, it was CJ. She rose from the chair and took a couple strides toward the door, quickly unlocking and opening it.
“Hey!” she said, motioning for him to come inside. He hesitated for a moment, though her smile seemed to coax a similar one from him. “I’m glad you came.”
That seemed to do the trick. He stepped into the apartment, and she shut the door behind him. “I kinda wondered if you would be,” he said, then brought a hand from behind his back. Dangling from it was a grocery sack, its shape unmistakably betraying its contents. “So I brought a peace offering. Hope you like rocky road.”
Like he even had to ask. “Let me get some spoons,” she said, but before she could move, he put a hand on her shoulder.
“I would never purposely hurt you. You know that, right?” There was something dark lurking behind his eyes, and she realized that his expression wasn’t as congenial as she had initially thought. As vacant as he had been that night, she had wondered what if anything he would remember. The way he looked at her now, though, anxious and ashamed, told her that he remembered enough.
“Of course do,” she said softly, giving him her most supportive expression, then she wrapped him in a spontaneous hug. He brought his free arm around her, a quick outrush of breath signaling that his most charming smile was probably now plastered on his face. “You obviously weren’t yourself. No hard feelings, huh?”
They pulled apart, and she saw she was right. When he looked at her like that, she could forgive him almost anything, not that he really needed to be forgiven in the first place. Without any further conversation she retrieved the spoons, and they sat down in adjacent chairs at the kitchen table, a half gallon of rocky road between them. “Even so,” he said, peeling off the lid, “I wanted to apologize, and to give you a chance to, ah, return the favor.”
Laura eagerly shoved her spoon into the top of the ice cream, but hesitated at his words. “What?”
“I am offering you the full Houdini.” He balled up his fist and feigned a boxer’s punch. “The opportunity to give me a real, one hundred percent super-powered punch to the gut. It’s only fair.”
She looked at him incredulously. “What makes you think I’d want to do that?”
He looked at her, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He grabbed his spoon and took a quick bite of the rocky road, giving her a crooked stare as he did. It was so seldom that CJ was caught without words, that it struck her as rather funny. “Why WOULDN’T you want to?” he asked eventually. “I mean, how often do you get to really reach back at go at someone full-strength? Jon and I used to do it all the time back in high school, and I can tell you it’s a blast.”
This was the first time that she had heard about their little fight club. Their relationship with each other was so different than what she had with them. “Ugh, you’re such a boy,” she said. CJ seemed proud of that statement. “What if I watch you and Jon beat the crap out of each other instead?”
“It’s non-transferrable. Jon doesn’t get the pleasure of socking me just because you won’t.”
She rolled her eyes. He was trying hard to sell her on taking a shot at him. In a way, it was almost charming. “Fine,” she said with exaggerated annoyance. “But I think I deserve something else, too. Something that’s MY idea.”
“Like?”
She thought for a second, savoring another bite of the ice cream. This could be fun, if she chose right. For maximum effect, it would have to be something that would make him squirm, something that would put him out of his element. And, she decided after a moment, she had the perfect idea. “The Gotham State – Metropolis football game is in two weeks.” His smile faded. “My friends and I were going to go, of course, but it sure would be nice to have some company. Maybe someone who knows a thing or two about the game.”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“I’m thinking maybe you use your connections to get us some better seats, then attend the game with us, wearing a Gotham State t-shirt. If you’re coming with us, then I expect you to cheer for the home team with us.”
He shook his head, though his expression told her that he could appreciate her approach. “You’re just mean.”
“Well YOU punched ME,” she said with a laugh.
“Fine. It’s a deal.” He extended his hand, and they shook on it. They ate in comfortable silence for a moment, then he looked at her again. “How come we never get a chance to talk like this? Not on some rooftop, not about work, not surrounded by other family. Just two siblings, mano a mano, over a tub of creamy goodness?”
Laura shrugged. “Just busy, I guess. I mean, I’m pretty sure you’re the busiest guy I know, outside of Dad. And I’m, you know, trying to make sure my tuition money’s not wasted, I guess. Plus…let’s face it, we’ve never been super close.” It wasn’t exactly a secret that, due to the age difference, she never really got to know either of her brothers as well as she would have liked. She was only 11 when Jon had left for college, and 13 when CJ left. During her formative years, they were off doing their own things, often doing super things completely without her knowledge. Sometimes it felt like she only knew caricatures of them, and she wondered if they didn’t feel the same about her. It sounded harsh when the words were said aloud, but it didn’t make them any less true.
“Yeah,” CJ said slowly. “But I’m here now, and nobody is expecting me back at the office for the rest of the day. And there’s a whole lot of ice cream left to eat.”
“You know I could finish it off in, like, two seconds if I wanted to,” Laura quipped.
“Won’t that give you a stomach ache?” he asked. She made a face and shook her head. “Don’t you want to talk? Expose some deep dark secrets? Have us get blackmail material on each other?”
She couldn’t say no to him when he put it like that. “So you’re going to be my new best girlfriend, then?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
“Well, you know, without the jealousy and girl drama and secret crush on your boyfriend.” The last word made her flinch ever so slightly, which she covered by adjusting in her seat. CJ immediately seized on the reaction. “So you, uh, have a boyfriend?”
Laura took a large bite and considered just what she wanted to tell him. On the one hand, it was really weird to have a deeply personal conversation with her brother, the one who never seemed to have taken anything all that seriously for the majority of her life. On the other hand, how many people could she talk candidly with who knew everything about her? Her mother? That wasn’t happening. Dick? He was good for a conversation about a lot of things, but she certainly wasn’t talking with him about her love life. What the heck, she thought. Maybe CJ would surprise her. “Here’s the thing,” she said. “Dating for me is different than it was for you and Jon.”
“Why is that?” CJ asked, settling back in his chair.
“Because of the way that society views men and women. The man is supposed to be the strong one, the women is supposed to be the one in need of protection. I’m the strongest woman in the world, that’s just a fact. I’m never going to date someone stronger than me, and I’m okay with that, though a part of me kind of wishes that I knew what that felt like, to be the one who was rescued, to have some knight in shining armor to fawn over.”
CJ gave her a sympathetic smile. “There is more than just physical strength,” he said. “Emotional strength, mental strength, uh, strength of will...”
“I know, believe me,” Laura said. “But see, none of that bothers me. Men on the other hand, seem to put a lot more stock in that stuff.” She looked at him and waited for him to defend the honor of his sex, to state that she was being too harsh and that not all men were like that. But he had hung around with the jock set enough that he probably knew darn well that she was right. “Something about your masculinity gets threatened when you realize that the little woman can maybe beat you in an arm wrestling match, or, heaven forbid, be able to bench press more than you.”
“I don’t know. I think there are probably some guys out there that would get a kick out of something like that. And, you know, every person is different. Maybe there is some cultural standard about the roles of men and women, but those things change. And I would think that at a University of all places you would be able to find someone who places physical strength pretty far down on the list of things that are important to them in a relationship.”
“You’d think so,” Laura said softly. “But I have a little firsthand experience with this one.” CJ gave her a confused and slightly concerned look, which she returned with a cocked eyebrow and a sly smile. “I’m competitive, remember? I was having fun with some friends in high school one afternoon – I think we were playing football or something – and I showed off a little, letting it be known to a guy I liked that I was quite a bit stronger than I let on. Anyway, after that he looked at me differently, and we didn’t really talk anymore. I could just see it in his eyes, like I was a threat…or a freak.”
CJ narrowed his eyes. “So, what, one bad reaction, in high school no less, put you off men forever? Now you’ve sworn off dating?”
Laura stuck her spoon back in the ice cream rather than immediately answer the question. “No. I mean, it’s not as simple as that,” she said, a little flustered. His rather direct question had interrupted her train of thought, and now she had to figure out where to start again. “I’d like to meet the perfect person, who won’t be disturbed by all that I can do but…” She sighed and quickly took another bite. She’d never really put her feelings into words, and it was hard to frame them in a way that he would understand. “What if I invest a lot of time in a relationship, and I find the person who I think is just right for me, then the time comes for me to tell them the truth, and they react…poorly? Then what? I’ve gotten my hopes up, I’ve allowed myself to envision a future with this person, I’ve let myself believe that they love me, and then it turns out that it was all an illusion. There will be hurt feelings, heartbreak, maybe worse? I don’t want any part of that.”
CJ scoffed. “OK, fine, then let’s take the reverse. Let’s say you fly up to someone in full costume, cape billowing behind you…”
“Yeah, no cape.”
“Whatever. Spandex, a big S somewhere in the chest region.” He waved his hand in a circular motion around his chest. “And you make a connection then and there, boom, love at first sight. Then what? Sure, they know and admire the powers, probably even think they’re cool and sexy. But they know absolutely nothing about you, and what follows is its own horror show. Ask Dad. Ask Jon.”
“But how is that any different that someone asking me, the real me, out because they like how I look? Or because they saw me at a party or something? It’s all based on the superficial, not on who I really am, and hiding at the center of it all is a big giant secret just waiting to destroy everything!”
“What do you think dating is?” CJ asked, incredulous. “It’s two strangers trying to get to know each other to see if they want to take the next step. You don’t go into it knowing everything about the other person, nor should you be expected to – I think that would take some of the fun out of it. Everybody has secrets, little things about themselves that they keep hidden from their significant other because they’re scared of what the reaction might be. Yours is just a little bigger than most peoples’.”
Laura found herself growing frustrated. She had bared her soul and CJ had thoroughly poked holes in all her arguments. “Okay, then what do you suggest?” Her words came out a little more abruptly than she had planned.
Far from returning her consternation, CJ gave her a little smile and sat up a bit. “Stop over thinking things,” he said with humor in his voice. “Hey, I get it. When you let someone into your heart, you are opening up yourself to all sorts of potentially terrible things. It’s scary, and it’s a lot easier to just not bother, because then you know for sure that you’ll be free of the pain that comes when things go bad. But the thing is, you’re also closing yourself off from some wonderful things, too. Maybe you will never meet the jerk you regret hooking up with, but maybe you’ll never end up meeting the person who ends up being your best friend, either.”
As he spoke, she felt her emotions welling up, and at his last sentence, she couldn’t help but think of Matt. But as convincing as his words were, that rational part within her, the one that had persuaded her for years to avoid the potential pain that came with dating, refused to give up. “I just have this picture in my mind, of Dad flying with Mom,” she said. “And I remember the stories they told me, of how he would come into her apartment window even before they were dating, and he would flirt with her in a way that he never could as himself. Then I mentally reverse the roles. Could you see Mom carrying Dad the way he cradles her? Could you see him worshipping a super-powered woman and ignoring her soft spoken alter ego? Would it not seem embarrassing for the man in that position, or at the very least odd?”
CJ just looked at her for a moment with that goofy crooked smile of his. “If flying is the problem, I’m sure you can find a different way to carry your mystery man. Not that I’m any expert on that.” The corners of her mouth began to tug up on their own. “And I don’t see you putting up with the hero-worshipping type…or being particularly soft spoken or mild-mannered.” She wanted to reach out and slug him, but was afraid it would invalidate his offer, so she refrained. Instead, they smiled at each other for a moment, then he dove back into the container, finding it quite a bit emptier than when he had last taken a bite. As if to make up for lost time, he shoveled a few spoonfuls quickly into his mouth while she watched, then stopped, apparently satisfied for the time being. Then he turned back toward her, his eyes calculating.
“Why do have the distinct impression that I’m the first person you’ve ever talked to about this stuff?” It wasn’t an accusation, and he wasn’t teasing. Instead, he seemed genuinely curious, maybe a bit surprised, and she felt herself start to blush.
“Who COULD I talk to?” she asked quietly, feeling suddenly shy.
His expression softened. “You know, I’ve always thought you were pretty lucky. You were the beneficiary of all the lessons learned the hard way when Jon and I were kids. You never had to guess about how to handle certain situations or when certain things would happen to you. Mom and Dad surely were the ideal parents after having to deal with us, and you would surely be viewed as the perfect angel thanks to Jon and I being such little twerps. I mean, you are the one person out of all of us who was actually told the family secret, and that’s huge. But now I think that there was something that I had never considered.” He turned his head sideways, and she could see in his eyes that he was now completely serious. “Even if Jon and I didn’t always get along that well, we at least had each other to talk to. And even after Jon moved out, he was at least still around, and I had Jen to talk with by then, too. You really don’t have anyone to share things with?” She looked away and shrugged. “I thought maybe you and Dad shared deep thoughts on late nights atop the local skyscrapers when I wasn’t around.”
“I know you have me pegged as a Daddy’s girl, and I suppose I am, but we really don’t talk much anymore. The late nights watching over the city – those happened when I was in high school.” She couldn’t help but sigh as the memories came. Those were good times, and she learned a lot under her father’s watch. “And, see, the thing about being a Daddy’s girl is that I’m always striving to make him proud. The things I do, the things I say...I never want him to think badly of me, because I hate that look he gets in his eyes when he’s disappointed. And I certainly don’t talk to him about anyone who might make it so that I am no longer HIS little girl. So I can talk to Daddy about how classes are going, what’s in the news, what interesting stories I’m working on at the paper. But I’m not talking to him about my love life, or dating, or my philosophy on either of those things.”
CJ seemed fascinated. He put his elbow on the table and propped his head in his hand. “What about Mom?”
“Mom wouldn’t understand. Anyway, when we talk, it feels like she gets all judgement-y.”
CJ looked around her apartment appraisingly. “It just seems like your life is so…lonely.”
Laura sat up and gave herself a mental shake. Things had gotten deep, and that was not something either of them had sought or was particularly comfortable with. It was time to turn around the conversation. “I’m not lonely,” she said, putting some lightness into her voice. “I have friends, and we have fun. And although I might not have anyone to share my deepest, darkest secrets with, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have my ways of coping.”
“Oh?” CJ said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.
“If things get me stressed out, I take a quick jaunt to the Himalayas and deliver a punch to a mountain. Unlike some of us here, I like to deliver my blows to inanimate objects.”
CJ laughed. It was a nice sound, and Laura laughed lightly despite herself. “So you’re the cause of the earthquakes they’ve had over in that part of the world lately.”
“That area has earthquakes. You can’t prove it was me. Anyway, if I need to think, there are all sorts of beautiful thinking spots out there to settle into for a little while. Cloudy day gets me down? Pop up into the air a few thousand feet and the sun is shining brightly.”
“So, you run away to deal with the bad things in your life,” CJ said, and Laura gave him a dirty look. They had been joking and having a little fun, and he had to go ruin it with a perfectly true, perfectly concise statement. He probably didn’t even know how on-the-money his words had been, and Laura found her smile fading.
“I don’t see it as running away,” she said a little defensively. “It’s about getting perspective.”
He held up his hands. “I’m not knocking it. I think I might be a little jealous.”
“You should be,” Laura said.
“Maybe, in the future, instead of exploring the world when something’s bothering you, you could take a little trip to the manor so we can talk. I know you think I’m super busy, but I always have time for my little sister.” He gave her his most devastating grin, and she felt her heart melt. She had an inkling that CJ had this side to him, she supposed, but this was the first time she had been fully exposed to it. And she really liked what she saw. He wasn’t just the funny guy or the detective/boss/occasional slave driver that she had gotten to know so well since she had come to Gotham. He had a big, squishy inside that seemed so out of character for someone who was also the dark and mysterious Batman. Without another thought she turned and gave him another hug.
“I really am glad we got a chance to talk,” she said after they pulled apart, and it was true. Just being able to discuss her long-held insecurities with someone who had a totally different perspective but could still appreciate her feelings was like a breath of fresh air. “I feel a lot clearer now. But I was promised blackmail material….” CJ rolled his eyes. He then glanced toward the remaining ice cream, but Laura pulled it in front of her possessively. “Come on, spill it.”
He proceeded to tell her the story of his freshman year of college. The upperclassmen on the football team made sure that the cocky, 18-year-old CJ was taken down a peg, and though his ego was bruised, it didn’t mean that he suffered too much. He made up for it by leaving behind a string of broken hearts, something that had fairly scandalized his much more conservative brother. Laura listened intently, trying to remember what she could from that time, but mostly coming up empty. It was entertaining to hear his stories, but all too soon he was done, and out the door.
It was not the afternoon she had pictured, she thought after he had left. But it had given her something to think about, and maybe a new perspective on how she should proceed.
***
CJ whistled tunelessly as he made his way toward the living area of Wayne Manor from the garage. Even though it was still relatively early in the afternoon, he felt like forgoing the remainder of the work day and spending it with his family instead. As anticipated, he found Jenny in the little study that she had set up in their wing of the house. She sat at an L-shaped table, some notes spread out around a laptop computer, working on a story for Gotham Magazine. CJ did a quick scan to confirm that Adam was down for his nap, then, with a spring in his step, made his way toward his wife, embracing her from behind and planting a kiss on the top of his head.
“Hey,” she said, nuzzling into him. “You’re in a good mood. Why aren’t you at the office?”
He loosened his embrace and shifted his hand so that it was on top of hers, then he tugged lightly, indicating that he wanted her to come with him. She rose and followed him over to the small couch on the other side of the room, where they sat together. “Oh I took the afternoon to visit Laura. She kinda got the worst of things the other night, when that red K turned me into Zombie Batman. So I went to apologize, and we ended up having a really good conversation.”
Jenny leaned against him, and he put his hand on her belly. “The baby’s been busy this afternoon,” she said as she repositioned his hand to feel the movements. They could both take a peek whenever they wanted, to check on the baby or just for the fun of it, but they preferred to experience the pregnancy in the most normal way possible, just as every other couple did. “I thought you guys got to talk all the time,” Jenny said.
“There’s talking and then there’s TALKING. I don’t think we’ve ever had a real heart to heart before today. It was weird – I gave love advice.”
Jenny raised her eyebrows and looked at him. “You? Should I call you Doctor Ruth now?”
He chuckled. “Not hardly. But she was trying really hard to talk herself out of dating, which tells me there’s someone waiting in the wings. Thanks to my stellar advice, I expect to be introduced to a new boyfriend in a week.”
The baby picked that moment to give a big kick, and they both let out an exclamation. “I have to admit that you do know a thing or two about successful relationships,” she said, leaning in to give him a quick kiss. “I look forward to meeting her mystery man.”
“Yeah, me too. Oh, and I had to promise a couple things to her to atone for the other night. Want to go watch the alma mater play Gotham State in a couple weeks?”
“What, in Bruce’s box?”
“No, down in the stands with Laura and her friends. I promised her that I’d root for the home team, but you don’t have to.”
Jenny cringed a little and looked down at her feet. “I know I’m super-ish at the moment, but between the heat and the sun and the swollen ankles and fun-house mirror body…I think I’ll pass.” Her voice sounded a little glum, and he couldn’t quite tell if it was insecurity about her present body shape or the fact that they had still never actually gone to a Metropolis football game together.
“I still think you’re beautiful,” he said, eliciting a grateful smile from her. “You know, all this dating talk with my sister got me thinking about how lucky I am to have you. And how wonderful it is to have someone to come home to on the bad nights who provides unconditional love and support.”
The baby kicked just then. “Junior agrees,” Jenny said with a chuckle. She rubbed her belly and leaned down as if talking to the baby. “Daddy’s pretty sweet, isn’t he?” she said, and was rewarded with a long scrape of the baby’s elbow along her belly.
“Wow,” CJ said with a laugh.
“Probably just as well that I’m super-ish or we’d be having an ‘Alien’ moment right about now,” she said, and CJ ducked his head appreciatively. She turned to look back at him. “I love you despite the bad nights and the worry, because I know you’ll always come back, and that deep down inside you’ll always be the fun guy I married twice, no matter what. Just please promise me that you’ll get rid of that red kryptonite, so we don’t HAVE to go through that again.”
He couldn’t resist giving her a long kiss at that moment, and she certainly didn’t protest. “About that,” he said with a smile, sitting up. “The big computer got a ping today. The medical examiner has finished his autopsy, so Bruce and I are going to go liberate the red K tonight. Hopefully we can get an ID on the body, too, so we can wrap up the investigation and not have that hanging over us when the big day comes.”
She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. “Wonderful news,” she said, opening her eyes. “But I’m not going to relax until this actually gets finished. You know how these things go – it always seems so simple when you start out, then you get the twists and turns and nuance, and several months later…”
“Oh ye of little faith,” CJ said somewhat jokingly, eliciting a long suffering look from Jenny.
“Faith never plays into it, Clark. I have all the faith in the world in you. But part of doing a good job is digging into the details, and that where things can get crazy.”
“I have some incentive here,” he said more softly, sincerely. “I promise that we’ll get done in plenty of time.”
She patted his leg. “Then go get ‘em,” she said, then scooted away from him and braced herself against the couch so she could stand. “In the meantime, my editor is expecting this article by the end of the day, and I’m not quite there yet. It needs a little…something.”
CJ stood and offered her his hand, which she gratefully took. “Inspiration?” he said with a wiggle of the eyebrows.
“YOU are a distraction,” she said. “Now shoo. Naptime is a-wasting. Once Adam gets up, I think my writing time is probably done.”
“I’ll get him,” CJ said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You don’t need to…work?” she said as she re-situated herself in front of the computer.
“Bats are night creatures,” he said. “It can wait. But…I may not be around much tonight.”
“That’s fair,” she said with a grin. “Now, seriously....”
“Got it,” CJ said, putting up his hands and exiting the room.
It was probably an hour later that Adam woke up, but in that time he was able to take care of a couple of the maintenance issues around the manor that seemed to pile up when he got busy with his night job. Since CJ and the family lived in the manor rent-free, he sometimes felt obligated to do something to show his gratitude, though Bruce insisted that he could call a handyman instead, CJ was having none of it. The housekeeping service, however, he gladly kept.
As the afternoon turned to evening, CJ put together dinner with the “help” of his son. Bruce showed up just as the meal was coming out of the oven, and CJ made sure he knew that he was welcome as always to join them for dinner. Rare was the time that Bruce actually took CJ up on his offer, but Adam worked his magic on this night.
“Come on, Grampa Bruce,” Adam said, leading him to the table. While CJ finished putting things together, Adam was kept entertained by stories and magic tricks from Bruce Wayne, reclusive billionaire, known playboy, former Batman, and apparently a whiz with the kids. Jenny arrived a few minutes later, observed their interaction with amusement, then exchanged a knowing glance with CJ before settling down at the table.
After dinner, CJ retreated downstairs, parking himself in front of the computer and pulling up the GCPD files related to the autopsy of the corpse he found. The body was burned to the point that a determination of the exact cause of death was hard to know. Dental records had been obtained, although the police didn’t have time yet to compare them to the database and find the actual identity of the deceased. CJ went ahead and started that process, and at the same time pulled up a list of people reported missing in the last few days. Within a matter of minutes a name popped up, one that matched the dental records and also appeared on the missing persons list: Catherine Schuster Willey.
“Who are you, Ms. Willey?” CJ whispered, entering her name into a different search program that accessed public documents from around the country. Within a matter of moments he had her addresses going back decades, her jobs, marriages, her childrens’ names and birthdays, and more. And another nugget of information that was somewhat startling. After staring at the screen for a few moments, he reached for the phone and dialed a familiar number.
“Hey, Dad,” CJ said after his father picked up. “Does the name Catherine Schuster ring a bell?”
“Uhhh,” Clark said, thinking for a few moments. “Yeah. I know her from Smallville. We went to grade school together. Why?”
“She was the corpse with the kryptonite necklace in her stomach,” he said.
Clark whistled. “Small world.”
“What else can you tell me?”
“Not a whole lot. The farm crisis hit her family hard, and by the time I entered middle school, they had moved off to the city.” He paused, thinking. “You know, the field where my folks found me was owned by her father.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say that’s where the kryptonite originally came from.”
“Yeah,” Clark said slowly. “Maybe they found some in the field and kept it, thinking it was just another good looking rock.”
“I sometimes wonder how you got out of that town alive,” CJ said, eliciting a chuckle from Clark. The two chatted for a few more minutes before hanging up.
CJ drummed his fingers on the desk for a few moments, staring past the screen in front of him, trying to decide how to approach that night. The kryptonite was most definitely going to disappear, and he was going to take the occasion to make an appearance in front of the commissioner. But before then, it would probably be best to get as smart as he could about the case. Because the GCPD had yet to identify the body, they wouldn’t have even started their investigation, which means that he could get a leg up on them. A plan was beginning to form, an outline for what he hoped to accomplish that evening before meeting up with the GCPD. Resolved, he gave Bruce a buzz to discuss when and where to meet, gathered a few things, suited up, and took off.
