Rules of Trust
Folc4evernaday
Chapter 4
***
A/N: HUGE thanks to Vicki for helping look this one over.
***
One Halloween costume store. Two make-up artist studios. Two look-alike agencies. Lois cringed looking at the exterior of the run-down office. The dark brown signage hung on the door off center, faded and scratched, making ‘Sammy’s Look-Alike Agency’ hard to read. Lois crinkled her nose as she stared at it.
Clark turned the door handle and opened the door. Instead of a busy office atmosphere, the space was bleak and sterile. There was no secretary or anything in the space to make anyone believe that it was an actual, professional office. A balding man in a teal blue suit sat at the only desk in the middle of the room.
“That's right... he's a dead ringer for Elvis.” The man spoke into the phone, motioning for them to come in, “Of course before he died.” He looked toward her Lois and Clark and motioned for them to sit at in the shabby looking chairs which stood just across from his desk, “Have a seat folks. I’ll be right with ya.”
Lois looked at the ratty looking chair then around the room, noting the lack of seating options. She gingerly took a seat next to Clark. As the man finished up his phone call, she whispered to Clark, “This is the last one of these places you’re going to drag me to. I don’t think car-jackers register with talent agents.”
“They were on the list,” Clark whispered back.
The man hung up and then turned to them. “The name's Sammy. So, what can I do for you folks?”
Clark introduced them, “I’m Clark Kent, and this is my partner Lois Lane. We’re from….”
“Vegas, right?” Sammy cut him off.
Lois exchanged a look with Clark,
‘Vegas?’ she mouthed to him.
“No?” Sammy interjected again as Clark shook his head, “Wait, I know. Don’t tell me. I never forget an act. I got it. Kutsher's, the Catskills.”
Lois rolled her eyes and Clark continued, “We're reporters from the Daily Planet.”
Sammy shook his head, “Reporters. Oh…” He leaned back in his chair, giving Lois a once over as she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, “A babe with a face like yours should be in show business.”
“Show business?” Lois echoed doubtfully.
“Hey, I know talent when I see it.” He said, getting up from his desk and rummaging through the racks of costumes behind him as he spoke. “Throw on a wig. Slap on a beauty mark. You’d be a dead ringer for…Madonna.” He held up a sleazy spangled costume with twelve-inch gold plated breast cones to her.
“Madonna?” she echoed, insulted and unsure how to even begin to respond to the slimeball agent. She looked back at Clark who was staring at the floor, suppressing his laughter. She shot a glare at him, and he stopped, mouthing a quick
‘Sorry’ to her.
“Oh, yeah!” Sammy cheered with a leering gaze.
“That’s it. I’m gone.” Lois stood up to leave.
Clark stood up with her, stopping her as he interjected, “Sammy, we were wondering if you represented any Bonnie and Clyde look-alikes.”
“Bonnie and Clyde?” Sammy shook his head, “Nope, sorry.”
“See? Waste of time. Let’s go.” Lois said hurriedly trying to push her way past Clark.
“You know, it’s funny that you mention them. I had a guy in here a couple of weeks ago looking for gangster costumes.” Sammy added thoughtfully.
Lois stopped, turning her attention back to the sleazy agent. Clark placed an arm around her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze, “Do you remember his name or what he looked like?” Clark asked.
“Sure, I keep a record of all my business transactions,” Sammy said as he opened up a desk drawer. “How do you think I got to where I am today?”
Lois noticed the wads of scrap paper in the drawer and muttered under her breath, “One can only wonder.”
“Uh... here he is. Emil Hamilton. Rented a whole rack of gangster costumes.” Sammy handed them the piece of paper.
“Uh, do you mind if we make a copy of this?” Clark asked.
“Sure!” He pointed to the copier on the wall. “A dollar a copy.”
Lois bit her tongue, suppressing the urge to call Sammy out for his unethical business practices and lewd behavior. Clark gave her a look and pulled out a dollar from his wallet. Sammy took the paper and waltzed toward the copier to make the copy for them.
Lois grabbed Clark by the tie to whisper through gritted teeth. “Get me out of here
now .”
“Hot off the press.” Sammy handed them the paper. “Get it press? Like hot off the presses?”
“Very clever.” Lois forced a smile as they turned to leave.
The door opened, and she found herself face to face with Superman. She did a double take, looking back at Clark then again at the man in the very familiar red yellow and blue suit. “Don’t tell me…” She forced a smile, “
Superman? ”
“I love it!” Sammy cheered as the man in the Superman ensemble traipsed in with a briefcase in hand. “Gets ‘em every time. Folks, say hello to Barry.”
Lois exchanged a look with Clark who shrugged.
“Please, lady. Don’t ask me to fly out no windows, okay?” the doppelganger said in a thick New York accent.
Lois looked back at Clark who had a familiar faraway look on his face. “What is it?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“Robbery across the street.” He whispered back as ‘Barry’ began pulling out large glossy photos of
Superman for Sammy’s approval.
“Good. Let’s get out of here.” Lois whispered, trying to get as far away from Sammy the talent agent as possible.
“No, stay here. I’ll be right back.” He said, walking out the door. Lois was right behind him, slamming the door behind her. “Lois? What are you
doing? ” She looked up to see Clark now dressed in his Superman suit.
“Not staying in there another second.” She said, walking toward the Jeep.
“Lois, these guys are armed with some serious artillery.” He began to argue.
“You are not leaving me alone in there with Barney Fife and the Jolly Green Giant!” She hissed back. “I’m just going to head back to the Planet and…” she stopped, seeing the annoyed expression on his face. “What?”
“Just be careful.” He said.
Gunshots could be heard from inside the bank. He gave her a pleading look, and she glared, “I’m
fine . Go!”
“Be
careful .” He repeated before disappearing into a blur of red and blue.
Lois unlocked her Jeep and pulled out her mobile phone to dial, “Yes, I’d like to report a robbery...”
***
Inside the Metropolis Savings and Loan Bank, Clark could see a man that looked like Clyde Barrow pointing a machine gun at the crowd of customers. All of them were lying face down on the floor. He could make out the customers’ whimpering as they trembled in fear under the bank robbers’ shotgun. Nervous tellers were filling bags with money. Another man stood in the corner, keeping his rifle trained on the tellers…Clark did a double take. The man looked exactly like the photos he had seen of John Dillinger.
He was going to have to be careful. One wrong move and they could empty their weapons onto any of the innocent people in the bank.
“Take a good look, sister.” The Dillinger impersonator said to the teller, grabbing the bag before turning to the crowd, “All of you! 'Cause this is the face you're gonna see smilin' back at you from your evening paper. This is the face of John H. Dillinger.”
The bank doors opened and a blonde burst inside, “Hey! What's takin, so long?! I'm gettin' wrinkles waitin' out there.”
Taking advantage of the men’s distraction Clark chose this moment to super-speed inside. Everyone turned toward Clark as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, blocking the front door. “Aren't you boys a little late for Halloween?”
“Look who's talkin'. Who are you supposed to be...? 'Little Boy Blue?'” Dillinger shot back.
“Put down your guns,” Clark ordered sternly, watching as both Clyde and Dillinger turned their weapons toward him. Hopefully, if they did fire, he’d be able to catch all the bullets. They were still standing awfully close to the customers on the floor.
“Oh, my!” the blonde accomplice smiled, “Now he is one hunk of a man.”
Clyde took another step forward, unloading his machine gun at Clark. Clark moved at super-speed, grabbing the bullets and catching one with his teeth before spitting it out.
“What is this...a cap gun?” Clyde asked.
“You can't hit the broad side of a barn,” Dillinger said, grabbing the pack of six sticks of dynamite and throwing it at Clark.
Clark caught the dynamite and snuffed out the flame, glaring at them. “I’m not going to say it again. Drop the guns.”
The sound of police sirens could be heard outside. “We gotta get out of here now, Clyde!” the blonde ordered, pulling on Clyde’s coat sleeve.
Dillinger cocked his head, pulling out another three-pack of dynamite and threw it in the air. “Interesting trick. Let’s see you do it twice!” He pulled out a third pack of dynamite and threw one at Clark and the other toward the teller’s station.
Clark raced around the room at super-speed to catch both packages of explosives, snuffing the fuses out once more. Dillinger looked at him in shock. Clark moved at super-speed and grabbed him before he could pull any other tricks out of his bag.
“Everyone freeze!” Clark looked over to see a crowd of officers standing at the door.
He looked back toward Dillinger, “Looks like your bank robbing days are over.”
One of the officers approached, pulling his handcuffs out, “Thanks, Superman.” He looked around the room. “Where are the other two?”
“Two?” He scanned the room. The Clyde lookalike and blonde had escaped during his confrontation with the Dillinger lookalike.
“We got a call in about a bank robbery from an anonymous source.” The officer continued. “Said there were three robbers.”
“There were,” Clark said with a sigh, knowing full well who the anonymous source was. “Two of them escaped while I was handling this one.” He handed the officer the bag he’d taken from the Dillinger wannabe.
“At least we caught one of them.” The officer said, slapping the cuffs on Dillinger. “All right pal. Now we’re gonna find out who you really are.”
“Name’s John H. Dillinger.” He said.
“Yeah and I’m Madonna.” The officer shot back. “Last I heard John H. Dillinger was pushing up the daisies.”
“Who’s Madonna?” Dillinger shot back.
“Whatever. Keep up the act. We got ways of making you talk.”
“I don’t squeal.” Dillinger spat defiantly, jutting his chin out proudly and meeting the officer’s gaze with a menacing one of his own.
The officer pushed Dillinger toward a tall man with dark hair dressed in a business suit talking with one of the customers. His detective badge was clipped to his belt, “Hey, Wolf, we got one.”
The detective looked Dillinger up and down, “Nice get up. Unfortunately, it’s not going to save you from the book the DA’s gonna be throwing at you and your friends.” Dillinger just offered a smug smile before two other officers escorted him outside.
“Detective Wolf.” He held out his hand to shake Clark’s.
“Nice to meet you, Detective,” Clark said, shaking the man’s hand.
Wolf looked toward the door where Clark had dropped the pile of bullets that had been shot at him by the Clyde Barrow wannabe. “I take it this was your handiwork?” he asked, looking toward Clark.
“Yeah,” Clark frowned.
“So, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger this time. They’re expanding the cast I see.” Detective Wolf asked.
“Yeah.” Clark said, “The make-up, the acting, the costumes. All of it is very well done.”
“No clue who these clowns could be?” the officer asked.
“Sorry.” Clark gave the officer a helpless look.
“Lady, this is a crime scene. You can’t go in there!” One of the officers argued at the door.
Clark looked up to see Lois looking through the open door. “I’m with the press.” She said, “Lois Lane, Daily Planet.”
“Geez, news travels fast,” Wolf muttered under his breath.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! What are you doing here?” another familiar voice could be heard by the door.
He looked up and saw Mayson Drake standing in the doorway with Lois. ‘Oh, boy…’
“Covering a story,” Lois said. “What about you? Last I heard the DA’s office prosecuted cases and left the crime scene examination to the police.”
“How did you hear about this?” Mayson asked angrily.
“Great. Just what I need. A moody DA.” Detective Wolf muttered under his breath. “Mayson?” he waved his hand in the air. “Over here.”
Mayson looked at Lois, “I’ll deal with
you later.”
Lois rolled her eyes and turned to one of the officers to begin asking questions, remaining behind the police line. Clark sighed to himself. The last time he’d seen Mayson was when he’d left her at the diner after his and Lois’ fight. He’d called to apologize for leaving and misleading her but hadn’t heard anything back. He had no idea if she’d actually received the message since the power had gone out across the city half an hour after he’d left the message.
“Nathan.” Mayson nodded to Wolf then turned to Superman, “Superman.” She then muttered under her breath, “Why am I not surprised?”
“Come on, smile, Mayson. We finally caught one of them.” Wolf nudged her.
“Yes, and there are two more at large–No thanks to your team dropping the ball.” Mayson threw a pointed look at Wolf.
“They blew the tires out. What did you want them to do? Ride on the rims?” Wolf asked with a smirk.
“Whatever,” Mayson shrugged, looking around at the scene, “So, what happened here?”
“Dillinger, Bonnie, and Clyde decided to rob the bank. I stopped them at the door. The Clyde doppelganger emptied his machine gun.” Clark pointed to the pile of bullets one of the officers was sweeping into an evidence bag.
“No stray bullets?” Mayson asked, looking around.
“No, I was very careful,” Clark explained. It was always incredibly awkward being around Mayson as Superman. She treated him so differently than anyone else. He felt like he had to defend every action with her.
“From what I’ve been able to gather from witnesses, Superman took a couple rounds of bullets and stopped this Dillinger impersonator from leveling the place with TNT three times,” Wolf interjected.
“Well, good. Thanks for not crushing the evidence this time.” Mayson said with a forced smile. “We’ll need to have the bullets analyzed to compare to the weapons taken from the antique shop owner. Since they were collector items, we have the records from the twenties we can pull up and compare the ballistics to.” Mayson said, looking at the large bag marked 'evidence' with the pile of bullets that had been gathered.
Clark motioned toward the window. “If there isn’t anything else?”
“Sure, go on.” Detective Wolf patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”
Clark let out a long sigh of relief and stepped outside where Lois was talking to one of the officers by a tow truck that held two of the police cars that had been shot up.
“Where was this?” she asked.
“Three blocks from here. Right over by Old North Road.” The officer explained. “I got shot at four times. They missed.” He said smugly, tapping himself on the chest proudly.
“Well, that’s great. I’m glad they, uh, missed.” Lois said, tapping her pen on her notebook.
“Oh, hey, Superman,” the officer said, grinning with a smile.
“Hi,” he smiled warmly, crossing his arms over his chest as Lois looked back at him. “Can I talk to you?”
“Sure,” she said, following him as he walked away from the officer.
“What are you doing??” he hissed as soon as they were out of earshot.
“Covering the story.” She shrugged, readjusting her purse on her shoulder.
“You had no way of knowing about this robbery, Lois. You can’t just show up like this.” He whispered irritably. “How are you going to explain how you found out about it?”
“I was across the street, and I heard gunshots.” She shrugged. “Calm down.”
“How exactly is you showing up at a crime scene
seconds after the crooks left being
careful ?” he pressed.
“I didn’t chase them, did I?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. “Calm down. People are starting to stare.”
She looked over his shoulder. He looked back and let out a long breath when he saw Detective Wolf and Mayson standing in the front of the bank watching them. “No more showing up at rescues like this.”
“Fine,” Lois sighed, “Next time I’ll wait till you’re done talking to the police. Are you happy?”
“Fine,” he chuckled. There was no keeping Lois Lane away from any story…no matter how dangerous the situation.
“So, what’s the deal with Mayson showing up?” Lois asked, pointing toward the woman in question that was still talking with Detective Wolf.
“I’m not sure.” Clark sighed. “Where did that officer say they lost the other two lookalikes?”
Lois pulled out her notebook and read, “Old North Road.”
“That’s where the collector was robbed last night.” He frowned.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Lois observed.
A crowd of news vans pulled up and began to surround Mayson and Detective Wolf. “What do you think is going on?” Lois asked.
“I don’t know,” Clark said, looking for a place to change. “Why don’t you go find out while I change? I’ll meet you over there in a few.”
***
“Lois Lane, Daily Planet.” Lois pushed her way through the crowd of officers who were setting up a microphone in front of the bank.
“Hey, Lois,” Tom from LNN stood at the front. “You got any idea what this impromptu press conference is about?”
Lois looked toward the front where Mayson and Detective Wolf were greeting the police chief. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll find out soon.” She heard a familiar sonic boom and turned to see Clark forcing his way through the crowd toward her.
“All I know is our producer got a call to have someone down here in five minutes.” Tom rolled his eyes as the police chief straightened his jacket for the cameras. “Ever notice how this guy’s always taking the credit for everyone else’s work? I heard Superman stopped one of these gangster copycats. Watch him try and take credit for that one.”
“I…” she stopped herself, unsure of how to respond. She didn’t want to give too much away on what she knew about the robbery. “Clark, over here.” She waved at him, hoping that would be distraction enough to end this conversation with Tom.
“Hi,” Clark said, closing the gap between them. “Hi, Tom.”
“Kent, good to see you. How’d Lois beat you here?” Tom asked, “Aren’t you two usually joined at the hip or something?”
“I, uh…” he began to fumble.
“Had to put money in the meter.” Lois supplied for him.
“Right.” Clark nodded, turning his attention to the cameras around them. “This place filled up fast.”
“Thank you for coming, everyone,” the police chief spoke into the microphone, holding his hands up to calm the crowd. “This will only take a moment. At approximately three fifteen this afternoon, three armed robbers dressed as Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and John Dillinger–”
There was a rumble of snickering in the back of the crowd. Lois looked back to see Hank and Will from Channel 9 laughing uncontrollably. Their reaction seemed to be contagious because the snickering and giggling spread throughout the group of reporters.
"Yes, yes, I know, it seems ridiculous, but this is what happened according to several witnesses." the police chief interrupted, trying to steer everyone back to the topic at hand. “The assailants broke into the Metropolis Savings and Loan bank in an attempt to rob it. The robbery was stopped and the two assailants dressed as Bonnie and Clyde…” A snicker from the back could be heard, but the police chief continued. “…have escaped and are at large. The assailant dressed as John Dillinger has been taken into custody.”
A barrage of questions came from all angles. “One at a time. One at a time.” The chief said, shouting over the crowd of reporters.
The shouting quieted down, and the chief looked over to Wolf who nodded, stepping forward, “I’m Detective Wolf. This is ADA Mayson Drake, and you all know Chief Reynolds.” He introduced everyone. “As you all know we’ve had at least five instances reported where the assailants have dressed up as Bonnie and Clyde. Now that we have one of the accomplices in custody it’s our hope that we can bring the rest of the assailants in.”
“Our sources say there was another guy dressed up as Al Capone seen at the mayor’s office.” A reporter from the STAR called out. “Care to confirm that detective?”
“Not at this time,” Wolf said.
Clark looked at Lois, shaking his head and Mayson stepped up, “What we have is a group of armed and dangerous criminals. They’re wearing
really good makeup. That is all. We will catch these criminals and when we do they’ll be punished to the full extent of the law.”
“We’re asking that everyone take extra precautions. Don’t go out by yourself after dark. Lock your doors and windows and be vigilant.” The chief added.
“What is the police planning on doing?” Lois asked. “They’ve got the fire power of a small army. The police stopped carrying shotguns in the 1960’s.”
“We’ll do whatever’s necessary, Ms. Lane,” Mayson interjected before turning to the crowd of reporters. “That’s all the questions we’ll be answering. An official statement will be released to all news circuits this evening.”
Clark watched as Mayson, Detective Wolf and the police chief went back inside the bank. Something was going on. He just wasn’t sure what.
“We’ll do whatever’s necessary?” Lois echoed. Her gaze stayed on the retreating figure of Mayson Drake before turning back to Clark, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. “Have I mentioned I don’t like her? Because I don’t like her….” She said, shaking her head as the doors to the bank closed behind Mayson and the police chief. “What do you think’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Clark sighed. “but it can’t be a coincidence that the police lost these guys on the same street this antique shop got held up.”
“You know what I think?” Lois’ eyes lit up as the wheels began to turn in her head.
“Oh, no, you’ve got that ‘I’ve got a plan’ look.” He groaned.
“What?” she shrugged, “I was just going to say we should find out if there are any names connected to that Professor Hamilton in the area.”
“
And ?” Clark prompted with a knowing look.
“And maybe we could stakeout the antique shop to see if we can spot our Bonnie and Clyde.” Lois finished with a shrug.
“Absolutely not.” Clark admonished.
“Why not? It’s the only real lead we have right now. We can get Jimmy to check around and see if any other names come up and cross-reference those so we know where to look and….”
“Hey, guys!” Jimmy ran up to them with a camera bag on his shoulder.
“Speaking of which…” Clark chuckled, turning to face his young friend. “Hi, Jimmy,”
“I got some information you're going to love.” Jimmy said excitedly, “Turns out that vintage car the Chief borrowed once belonged to the real Clyde Barrow!”
Lois exchanged a look with Clark. “He did say his car but…”
“Exactly!” Jimmy said, following her trail of thought, “That got me to thinking, so I called the cemeteries where they’re buried…”
“Jimmy…” Clark gave him a look of disbelief. He wasn’t seriously considering what he thought he was thinking.
“I know it sounds weird but get this. Both cemetery directors said that a few years ago a scientist had their bodies dug up and took bone and hair samples.” Jimmy explained with a grin, “Pretty creepy, huh?”
Clark had a feeling he already knew the answer but asked anyway, “Did you get the scientist’s name?”
“Hamilton,” Jimmy said.
Lois and Clark exchanged a look once more, “Professor
Emil Hamilton?” Lois pressed.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Jimmy asked, confused.
“Bobby did say it was an experiment gone bad.” Clark reasoned aloud.
“Yeah, but
whatexperiment?” Lois asked.
***
Perry stared at the research Jimmy had laid on his desk with a raised eyebrow, holding up one of the Scientific Journals with a skeptical expression, “So, you’re saying this…Dr. Hamilton is, uh, doing what?”
“We’re not sure,” Lois said, crossing her arms over her chest as she paced in front of Perry nervously. What were they supposed to say? Bobby Bigmouth had insinuated an experiment had gone wrong, and that’s where these lookalikes had come from, but they still had no information on what the experiment was.
“Hamilton was working on something called DNA manipulation.” Clark replied, pulling the article out of the stack on Perry’s desk, “but what that has to do with these lookalikes we’re not entirely sure.”
“Most of these articles are written in a scientific lingo neither Clark nor I, are able to understand. We’ve sent copies to STAR Labs and are hopeful we can get some sort of translation but until then…”
“What do we know about this Hamilton?” Perry asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Not much,” Clark shrugged, standing behind her as she came to a stop from her pacing.
Lois nodded, looking back at him. “He dropped out of the public eye about a year and a half ago.”
“Any idea
why?” Perry asked.
“Not yet,” Lois said weakly.
“Is there anything you
do know?” Perry quipped with a grunt.
Lois braced herself for a lecture about hard facts and how journalists did things in the old days. None of it came. “We’re still running down leads.” She said weakly, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him for the moment.
“Well, maybe you should try and find out…” Perry said, handing her the files. “I want everything you have on Hamilton on my desk first thing in the morning.”
“But…” Lois began to argue but stopped herself. Seeing the expression on Perry’s face, she knew he meant business. “We’ll get right on that.”
“Good.” Perry nodded, “Get to work. The sooner we bag these lunatics, the better.”
Lois exchanged a look with Clark before following him out of Perry’s office. “Well, there goes our evening plans.”
“Sorry.” Clark gave her a weak smile. “I could still fly there and pick up some takeout from Heraklion, but it kinda loses the date feel by mixing dinner with ….
research.” he gave a roll of the eyes on the last part of his statement, turning to open the door to the conference room for her.
Lois followed him inside, “Well, maybe once we bag these nutcases you can make it up to me.”
“Count on it.” He grinned at her.
***
TBC...
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