Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Suddenly Blond(e) (26/30?)

TOC
----------------------------------------------------
"Are you sure you're okay?" Alexa asked yet again. After several days Jimmy's appearance was approaching his old 'young' age and Lane had been doing regular patrols of the city. Alexa had also been doing patrols but not as regularly. But she still worried about Lane.

"Klein confirms that the treatment is working as hoped and soon Jimmy should be back to normal," Lane assured her once again after his, and Jimmy's, latest visit to StarLabs. "He still wants to have Jimmy come in for regular checks in case there are unforeseen complications with the treatment since he's the only one it worked on."

"And what are you not telling me?"

"It hasn't been announced but Schenk died this morning at Metropolis General. It seems that the drug cocktail Doodsen used was more than his system could recover from."

"And?"

"And the radiation source Doodsen was using may have been an isotope of kryptonite. Doodsen claims she acquired both the radioactive crystal and the recipe for the youth drug from another researcher at Metropolis U. who had been working with her, but the university has no records of this person being on staff. I'd suspect Tempus but this isn’t his style."

"No, he would have wanted to be there for the kill. What about that other stuff Klein was going to look into?" Alexa asked.

"The DNA? It's still just preliminary, but seems there are sufficient differences between Loq-El's DNA and Kal-El's that they are probably related but no closer than cousins." He lowered his voice. "The consensus over there is there was no way that Mamba could have successfully merged Kryptonian DNA with human when his human DNA experiments had been complete failures."

"So the feds are going to lock Mamba up in a SuperMax any day now?"

"If he isn’t there already," Lane suggested. "So, what are we working on today?"

"Couple of gang related shootings over in Suicide Slum. A couple of house fires… probably time for the yearly fire safety article."

"Oh, joy…"

"President Garner's going to be in town next Monday for his last minute pre-election round of stump speeches and mini-mall openings," Alexa went on. "Not that he really needs to come to Metropolis. The Planet's already endorsed him. And his approval ratings are... I mean he's a nice guy and all but he was replaced with a clone with the IQ of a zucchini and nobody noticed. So I'm not getting why he's so ahead in the polls."

"Well, remember, the person most likely to notice had also been replaced by a clone. But still, aside for the governor's race, this has got to be the most uneventful election year in memory. If things don't pick up, we'll be doing restaurant reviews."

Perry came out of his office with a bemused look on his face.

"What's up, Chief?" Lane asked.

"Elroy Sykes just called me. He's out of prison and claims he has a big tip for me on Big Mo Zabrinski's murder."

"And who's Elroy Sykes?" Alexa asked.

"Sykes was one of Lois's informants," Perry explained. "Until he ended up in prison."

"That was just before Clark came to work here," Lane added. "Sykes tipped Lois on a baby-for-sale ring, and she ran with the story."

"But..." Alexa prompted.

"Well... turned out Sykes' info was pretty shaky..." Lane said. "And Lois didn't check things deeply enough. A lot of bigwigs were wrongly implicated... Didn't do much for her credibility."

"Aw, hell, happens to the best of us," Perry said. "As I recall, Sykes was a complete scumbag but he had always been fairly reliable. And Lois's next story won a Kerth."

"Do you want one of us to meet Sykes?" Lane asked.

Perry considered the suggestion for a moment. "He seemed pretty insistent that I be the one to meet him. And besides, I was covering stuff like this before you two were gleams in your daddies' eyes, so to speak."

Perry headed for the elevator.

"Now, why would Sykes want to meet with Perry?" Lane asked aloud.

"You want to keep an eye on him?"

"He'll kill us if he finds out. And Sykes was always pretty squirrely. Chances are he'll bolt if he sees anybody watching Perry."

"So, don't be seen."

-o-o-o-

Loq-El stayed out of sight as he followed Perry to Centennial Park.

Sykes was waiting by a copse of trees not far from the skate park. He was armed. Loq-El dropped to where he had a good line-of-sight to the gun and then disabled it. He extended his hearing.

"Glad you made it," Sykes said as Perry came toward him.

Perry saw the Beretta in Sykes' hand and began to back away. "Now, just wait one doggone minute here, Sykes…"

"Relax, Mister White," Sykes said, popping the clip out of the gun. Not loaded, see? It's for demonstration purposes only. Here, you take it."

"I'd rather not."

"You wanna know how Big Mo got offed, or don't you?" Sykes asked, tossing the automatic to Perry.

Perry caught it then held it loosely, pointing to the ground.

"Okay, okay, now imagine I'm Big Mo. Six feet, five inches of repressed anger and body odor, right? And you're the guy whose facial features I'm gonna rearrange for rattin' on me… or so I think..." Sykes reached for the gun, positioning it so that it pointed at his chest.

Perry pulled away, lowering the gun again, but Sykes grabbed his wrist.

Then, suddenly, the gun in Perry's hand fired and Sykes went down.

-o-o-o-

The scene at One Police Plaza was a media circus as a patrol car pulled up to the front entrance of the building. A plainclothes officer opened the rear door to let Perry out as cameras flashed and reporters yelled questions.

Alexa pushed through the mob. "Chief!"

Perry shook his head. "I don't know what happened… one moment, Sykes was talking about Zabrinski's murder and handing me a gun and then all of a sudden the gun just goes off. I mean I never even touched the trigger..."

"We'll get to the bottom of this…" Alexa promised.

"Mr. District Attorney, care to make a statement?" one of the TV reporters called out.

Alexa turned to see District Attorney Clemmons coming out of the building, waving to the photographers. He was accompanied by a well dressed fortyish woman. Alexa recognized her as Clemmon's political manager, Veronica Stewart. Alexa recalled that one of the political writers at the Planet had described her, in conversation, as a 'great white in a bespoke suit'. Seeing Stewart in person, Alexa could see what he was referring to. Stewart's expression was hard and calculating as she looked out at the media – as though she was a predator looking for the weakest member of the school to take a bite out of.

"What's the D.A. doing here?" Alexa asked the officer holding Perry. The officer shrugged.

Clemmons must have overheard because he stopped and looked at Alexa. "The D.A's here because he takes murder very seriously… Miss?"

"Alexa Parker Alexander, Daily Planet. How can you claim it's murder when all the facts aren't in? The Crime Scene Unit got there less than half-an-hour ago."

"Mister White has gun powder burns on his hand and a dubious history with the victim. That's enough to hold him over for questioning. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

"So you're in the habit of perp-walking people being brought in just for questioning, or are you still pissed over the Planet's editorial about your campaign stunts?" Alexa asked, stepping in front of Clemmons.

"Miss Alexander, you obviously have no idea who you're dealing with here."

"That's Mizz Alexander," Alexa corrected. "And neither do you."

Clemmons turned to the officer holding Perry. "Book him."

Stewart ushered Clemmons over to the rest of the press. Clemmons seemed to be lapping up every bit of attention.

"Every murder in this city deserves our full attention. It doesn't matter who the victim is, or who the suspected perpetrator is..." Clemmons started. "Nobody is above the law in Metropolis, not even a well respected figure like Mister White. That is why I will personally be overseeing this investigation."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that you're trailing by twelve points in the Governor's race, the election's next week, and the Daily Planet has endorsed your opponent?" someone asked.

It looked like Clemmons was ready to answer when Stewart stepped forward and took over. "The DA is taking on this case because it's important, not because it's political. Thank you, no more questions at this time."

-o-o-o-

The Daily Planet's 'suits' appointed Eduardo Ruiz, the city beat night editor, to fill in for Perry. Ruiz had filled in for Perry before, so he was a logical choice.

Ruiz stepped over to Lane and Alexa. "Mister Stern himself told me to keep you two off-leash. And I gather that was Perry's habit as well. However, we do prefer our people to report the news, not be the news."

Alexa's interaction with Clemmons was all over the electronic media. A few were even chastising the police for bringing Perry through the front entrance of One-PP when there were other more secure entry points. They were loudly speculating that the move had been deliberately orchestrated by Clemmons to embarrass White and the Planet.

Alexa handed Ruiz her report on what happened at One-PP with Clemmons. "He's blown the last three high profile cases he's personally prosecuted. I have it from more than one source in the MPD that One-PP would rather deal with anyone in the New Troy D.A.'s office than him. Unfortunately, none of my sources are willing to go on the record on this one. The police complaining about the D.A. is simply not done very loudly."

Lane said, "The Crime Scene Unit is still working the area. The police are also looking for witnesses. The area Sykes chose to meet Perry was fairly open and close to the skate park. That's a pretty heavily trafficked spot and I know there were people there, some with cameras. Which also brings up the question of why Sykes chose that spot. Sykes was skittish, always afraid someone would see him talking to the police or the press. Meeting out in the open where there might be witnesses is out-of-character."

"You think Perry was set up," Ruiz said. If he was curious about how Lane knew so much about Sykes, he didn't show it. "Can't be Sykes working alone, so there has to be a partner and that partner double-crossed him. Are you thinking Clemmons is in on it?"

Lane shook his head. "Frankly, I doubt Clemmons is bright enough. Stewart, maybe. But it's more likely someone with a grudge against Perry set this up and Clemmons is just running with it." Lane grimaced. "Now we just have to prove it."

-o-o-o-

Perry's arraignment hearing was set for the next morning. Stern hired Angela Winters to handle Perry's case. She was an up and coming criminal attorney with a reputation of being both brilliant and doggedly persistent on behalf of her clients. It probably didn't hurt that she was young, good-looking, and black.

Winters came in to the newsroom and looked around. One of the other staffers pointed her to Lane and Alexa.

"Alexa Parker Alexander," Alexa introduced herself. "I covered the Venturi trial last month. I thought your defense strategy was brilliant."

"Thank you. Of course, it helped that Mr. Venturi was innocent," Winters said.

"So is Perry," Lane stated. "So, how can we help?"

"There is a rumor that Superman was in the area around Centennial Park just before Sykes was shot," Winters said. "If so, he might have seen something, heard something. I'm also told that like his predecessor, this Superman has a relationship with the Planet. If so, I really need to talk to him and I'd rather not stand on a roof yelling 'help, Superman'."

"You'll be in your office this afternoon?" Lane asked.

"Yes."

-o-o-o-

"Ms. Winters," Loq-El said, coming through the open window of her office. It was a small office in an older building in a neighborhood in the process of gentrification. "You wished to speak with me."

"Yes, I'll get straight to the point. Clemmons is playing games with the Sykes' case. You were seen near the death scene. Did you see anything?"

"Yes. I saw Mister White meeting Mister Sykes. Sykes was armed with a Beretta. He pulled the clip out, claiming the gun was not loaded and tossed the gun to Mister White. Mister White aimed the gun to the ground. Then Sykes grabbed Mister White's hand, pointed the gun at himself, and the gun fired."

"So, could you see which one pulled the trigger?"

"Neither could have," Loq-El stated. "I had already disabled it."

Winters stared at him. "You can do that?"

"It is not widely known even within the MPD, but I am allowed to practice disabling various types of firearms using confiscated arms that are scheduled for destruction," Loq-El explained. "I've gotten quite adept at it."

"Could disabling the gun have set it off?"

"No. I had disabled it prior to Sykes giving it to Mister White. One of the things I practice is disabling the firearm without setting off the ammunition."

"An examination of the gun would show it had been disabled by you?"

"Yes. It should have been obvious to the officer who picked it up for evidence."

Winters leaned back in her chair. "Now that's interesting. The preliminary report I have says nothing about that. I assume you would be willing to testify in court about this?"

"Naturally. Also, you should know that I was present when the first officers arrived on the scene. They were aware that I had been in the area. I have not received a request from either the D.A.'s office or the investigating detectives to come in to make a report on the incident. In fact, when I contacted Mister Clemmons' office, I was told that my observations were not relevant."

"And who told you this?"

"I believe it was Mister Clemmons secretary, but I am positive I heard Miss Stewart telling her what to say."

-o-o-o-

"I had Jimmy look into Sykes' financials," Alexa reported when Lane got back to the newsroom. "He deposited five grand in small bills into his account the day before he called Perry."

"A pay-off for him to lure Perry to the park?" Lane asked.

"That's my guess, and since it was cash, no way to trace it," Alexa said. "I also asked him to go through Lois's old case notes involving Sykes. I have a hunch that Sykes may also have been a target…"

"And the link between Sykes and Perry is Lois." Lane looked around for Jimmy. "Jimmy, remember the old archives. Lois upgraded her computer about the time Sykes was sent up and she archived everything on disk." He turned back to Alexa. "Sykes wasn't exactly popular with the people he snitched on, and if they wanted him dead, well, prison walls wouldn’t have stopped them. But to go to such lengths to frame Perry using one of Lois's old informants… that's not your average gang or organized crime M.O. This is more… psychotic genius devious… like Luthor or Jefferson Cole…"

"What if… what if Sykes' 'baby-selling' story was meant to be shaky, meant to play on Lois's trust and eagerness to break the story. Meant to destroy her credibility," Alexa suggested.

"Only Perry gave her another chance," Lane said, continuing the train of thought. "Only thing is, if that's the case, then who ever set it up had ample opportunities to keep trying to wreck her career. I think she would have noticed something like that, and Perry would have, too. She got a lot more careful after the Sykes debacle."

"So, someone more recent who wants us to think it's related to one of Lois's older stories? That's really psychotic genius devious," Alexa said.

"With everything that's happened to us, you doubt it's possible?" Lane asked.

-o-o-o-

Early the next morning, Lane got a call from Inspector Henderson to meet him at an all-night diner near Suicide Slum.

Henderson looked like he hadn't slept in days. "I am not here and we are not having this conversation," he stated when both Lane and Alexa slid into the booth opposite him.

"Okay…"

"It has come to the attention of Police Chief Colbert that there may be serious irregularities with the Sykes' investigation thanks to the active interference of the New Troy District Attorney. There will be an internal investigation in response to allegations of evidence tampering among other things," Henderson said, keeping his voice low. He pulled out a small notebook, tore out a page and wrote down a phone number. "You did not get this from me," he added, handing the page to Alexa who glanced at it before putting it in her pocket. The area code was Washington D.C.

"You were told that Clemmons' office refused to take Superman's statement, even though he was a witness to the incident?" Lane asked.

"I was. And although it's against protocol, Chief Colbert would be very interested in taking Superman's statement, personally."

"Do you trust him?" Alexa asked.

Henderson tapped his ring – a silver ring with a sapphire blue stone that seemed to glow from within. Lane assumed that Henderson was trying to tell them that Colbert was one of the people in the MPD involved in handling more than just the usual types of law enforcement.

"You're keeping your amulets charged?" Henderson asked.

"Yes."

"Good." With that Henderson got up and walked out of the diner, leaving them to pick up the bill for his coffee.

-o-o-o-

James Colbert was a grizzled police veteran who had moved up the ranks from patrol officer to heading up one of the largest city police forces in the U.S. His gruff exterior belied a keen intellect and a passion for continuing education both for himself and the officers he commanded. He listened intently while Lane gave his statement. His secretary took notes.

When Superman finished stating what he had observed, Colbert sat back in his chair, staring at the blue and red uniform. Loq-El had to fight to keep from fidgeting under that level gaze.

"I never had the opportunity to sit down and chat with your predecessor," Colbert finally said. "And I'm sure you're a busy man so I'll make this short. I disapprove of vigilante-ism. What's going on the Gotham with the Batman scares the hell out of me. He may be on the side of the angels and for Gotham's sake I hope so. Maybe the system in Gotham is so broken that they need somebody like him to take out the trash. But this isn't Gotham. You work with us, or not at all, understood? No one, and I mean no one, is above the law in this city."

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

Loq-El floated above the city pondering what Colbert had said. Lane had heard of the Batman in Gotham City. The secretive black caped and cowled man seemed to be single-handedly cleaning out the gangs and the sex and drug traffickers from Gotham. Detectives and prosecutors would open their locked offices in the morning and find hints and occasionally additional evidence in cases they were working on. Missing murder suspects would be found tied to lampposts with the murder weapons on them and no recollection of how they ended up where they were found except for seeing shadows in dark alleys.

The Batman worked from the shadows in a city that seemed to be mostly shadows.

Had Colbert been warning him not to interfere in the police investigation onto Sykes' death? Or was the warning more general? Mayson Drake had accused Kal-El of being a vigilante. Maybe she had been right. Loq-El knew there was more than one time when Superman had 'handled' situations without notifying the police until it was done. And John Corbin's death… had Corbin not been disabled by Superman, Rollie Vale wouldn't have been able to remove the kryptonite power supply that kept Corbin alive. But Lane doubted that it had even occurred to Clark that Vale would be willing to murder his own creation and there had been other pressing matters such as Emmett Vale taking Lucy Lane hostage. Could the Vales be behind Sykes' death? Possibly, but their vengeance would be aimed directly at Kal-El, not the Daily Planet. And Kal-El was dead.

Lane spotted Clemmons and Stewart as they walked the several blocks from Clemmon's office to the courthouse for Perry's arraignment. Even knowing Superman was around, people still didn’t look up to check for people following them.

"I'm still losing, aren't I?" Clemmons was saying.

"Not as bad as you were before putting White behind bars."

"Really?" There was a hopeful note in Clemmons' voice.

"Hey, the only profession voters hate more than politicians is media people. Get a conviction on him, and they'll forget all about the last three major cases you blew," Stewart promised.

"There's no time to get a conviction before the election. These things take time. And what if he's innocent?"

"We can't afford him to be. Besides your informant said that Sykes' death wasn't an accident."

Lane landed out of sight, spun into his street clothes and followed Clemmons and Stewart into the courthouse.

Arraignments had always been a work staple for Lois Lane and now for Lane Alexander. 'The Naked City' had a million stories. Metropolis was no exception – every person had a story and the more 'interesting' stories tended to end up in the legal system.

The previous night's 'catch' was the usual litany – assault, robbery, rape, spousal abuse, car theft. Most of the accused were assigned a public defender who had them plead 'not guilty'. Bail was set and by noon most of them would be on the street again, little worse for wear. The one half-way interesting case from Lane's point of view, aside from Perry's, was the group of frat boys who apparently decided that hijacking a city bus for a joy ride was a good idea. Luckily that bus had been heading back to the barn when the incident occurred and so only the driver had been onboard, but the bus itself had ended up on its side when someone decided to see if it could climb a light pole.

Judge Jonas Delgado was known to be scrupulously fair, if a little pedantic. He went through his list with measured speed, ignoring the LNN news team that had shown up. Lane could only hope that the news crew had shown up for the hijacked bus story.

Perry's turn. Lane's heart sank when the older man came in. Perry looked awful. His complexion was gray and Lane wasn't sure if it was just fatigue or if he was ill. The orange jumpsuit and shackles didn't help matters.

Winters joined Perry at the defendants' table. Clemmons made a show of his arrival with three assistants in tow. The assistants uniformly looked as though Delgado's courtroom was the last place on the planet they wanted to be.

Delgado glared at Clemmons. "Mister Clemmons, this is an arraignment, not a trial."

"Your honor, the state is taking this case very seriously."

"Mister Clemmons, I should hope that the state takes every case seriously," Delgado retorted. "Not just those that might advance your political ambitions."

"Your honor, I demand you recuse yourself from this case!"

"On what grounds?"

"You have previous familiarity with the case and the accused."

"Mister Clemmons, the accused is the managing editor of the largest newspaper on the east coast. And thanks to your grandstanding, the only people in Metropolis who are not familiar with him and this case are either brain dead or living under a rock." Delgado was practically yelling at Clemmons. After a moment he looked over at Winters. "Ms. Winters, is your client aware of his rights?"

"Yes, your honor."

"And how does he plead to the charge of murder in the first degree?"

"Not guilty, your honor."

Delgado nodded.

"Your honor," Winters went on, "the defense moves that this charge be summarily dismissed without prejudice on the grounds that this was a wrongful arrest as the investigation into Mister Sykes' death has not yet determined that a crime was actually committed."

"White's fingerprints were all over the murder weapon and he had gunpowder residue on his hands!" Clemmons shouted.

"So did the deceased," Winters spat back.

"There are witnesses…"

"Many of whom have not yet been interviewed," Winters stated. "In fact, at least one credible witness to Mister Sykes' death has reported that your office flatly refused to take their statement when they came forward."

"Mister Clemmons, were you aware of this?" Delgado asked. His voice was calm but if looks could kill, Clemmons would have been writhing on the floor.

Clemmons looked back at Stewart sitting in the row behind him.

"Mister Clemmons, if you are incapable of answering a simple question without referring to your political handler, I suggest you turn this case over to one of your six hundred assistants," Delgado stated grimly. "This case is dismissed without prejudice. Mister White, you are free to go with the court's apologies. Mister Clemmons, you are free to press charges again, assuming you actually have case."

-o-o-o-

"I've been in tough spots before but I never want to go through anything like that again," Perry stated as Lane, Alexa, and Ms. Winters accompanied him to Winters' car. "I just want to get home, take a shower and get some sleep," he went on.

"You're not going home," Alexa stated. "Clemmons is going to be out for blood. The election is next week. Judge Delgado and Ms. Winters publicly humiliated him by calling him out on his lack of preparation in front of LNN cameras. Plus, there's somebody out there feeding Clemmons information and there's a strong suspicion that someone is tampering with the evidence. You're staying with Lane and me until this blows over."

"I can't ask you to do that," Perry protested.

"You're not asking us," Lane said. "We're telling you."

-o-o-o-

They set Perry up in one of the guest rooms. Lane called the O'Brien Agency to arrange close protection for Perry. They were in luck. Bob, Dotty, and Gary were all available for the job even though Lane and Alexa had dispensed with their services some weeks before – having people looking after them had been nice, but it had put a crimp in their ability to do their jobs as journalists and to have breakfast in Paris or Berlin whenever they wanted.

Alexa called the number Henderson had given her while they waited for the O'Brien team to show up. It was the direct line to one Alphonso Murray, an investigator for the Department of Justice. Alexa gathered he'd been waiting for her or Lane to contact him concerning Clemmons and the Sykes' case. He asked a lot of questions about what motive Clemmons might have for harassing Perry such as any investigations the Planet might have been making into Clemmons' finances and the previous botched trials, but didn't volunteer anything in return.

Lane and Alexa briefed Bob and the team when they arrived. Another driver was staying with the vehicle while Dotty was in the apartment with the team.

"Is the Planet looking into Clemmons' finances?" Bob asked after Alexa told them about the call to Murray.

"We look into everybody's election finances," Perry said. "If Clemmons or anybody else thinks we'll just roll over and play possum because of threats, well that just confirms that somebody wants something hidden pretty badly. And if they want to hide it that badly, then it's something the public should probably know about. And remember, Clemmons got elected on an anti-corruption platform after his predecessor was found to be in the pocket of Reverend Long and his bunch."

"Who does the Planet have looking into Clemmons' campaign?" Lane asked.

"Lovella Lee," Perry answered promptly. Lane recalled the woman – a smallish Asian-American woman with a rapier-sharp mind and a ready smile. She'd been hired away from the Chinatown Daily a year earlier on the strength of her Pulitzer nominated series on immigration issues in Metropolis's various ethnic communities. She also had an uncanny nose for political corruption.

Lane called Lovella. "This is my story," she warned when Lane asked about Clemmons.

"Not a problem," Lane assured her. "We just need to know if there's anything in Clemmons' background or finances that would trigger him going after Perry or the Planet in such a completely self-destructive manner."

"His campaign finances are so clean they look white-washed," Lovella reported. "And Stewart's supposed to be a smart cookie, smart enough to try to keep him from pulling stunts like this, unless…"

"Unless…?" Lane prompted.

"It might be nothing…" Lovella warned.

"But?"

"Before Stewart became a political advisor, she worked for LexCorp in public relations. Rumor has it that she was a close friend of Luthor's former assistant, Mrs. Cox."

---------------------------------------------------------------

"The People V. Lois Lane" was written by Grant Rosenberg