Rules of Guilt
Folc4evernaday
Chapter 2
Clark groaned as he followed Lois up the City Hall steps. Lois was still muttering under her breath about the idea of being tricked into helping Intergang with anything. “Unbelievable morons…”
“Lois, you need to calm down,” He said, catching up with her at the top of the stairs.
“Calm down?” She echoed, glaring at him. “Some maniac is trying to steal a shipment so Intergang can hold the world hostage.” She pointed out, flailing her arms around as they entered the double doors to City Hall. “Not only that but they think they can…”
“Lane, Kent, what are you doing here?” Bill Henderson asked, cornering them in the lobby before they could reach the elevators.
“Doing what you should be doing, Henderson. Investigating.” Lois gave him a pointed look. “You know Jimmy didn’t do this.”
“Lois!” Clark chastised with an internal groan.
Henderson rolled his eyes at her remark, “I’m going to ignore that comment because I know you’re under a lot of stress after last week.” He pointed to the door. “For what it’s worth, I do hope you find whoever’s behind this and soon.”
“Actually, we think we might have,” Clark interjected.
Henderson stopped, looking at them expectantly, “Don’t you two work fast.”
“We think it was Lucky Leon.” Lois blurted out. “Go ahead. Bring him in for questioning.”
Henderson gave her a dubious look, “And what proof would I be bringing him in on?”
Clark sighed, “We don’t have any, but we do have our suspicions about him. He seemed very uneasy when we mentioned Jimmy hadn’t been arrested yet. He also was very quick to change the subject when Raul Borges’ name was brought up.”
Henderson nodded, “I still don’t see the world’s most obnoxious infomercial being behind this, Kent.”
“Same could have been said about Lex Luthor, but look where he’s sitting now.” Lois pointed out. “It’s no better than your theory that Jimmy killed Borges.”
Henderson snorted, “Except the overwhelming evidence that Jimmy was the last one to see Mr. Borges?”
“Says
one person.” Lois retorted.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Clark interjected, sensing Lois was about to go on another tirade. “I think he gets it, Lois.”
“I’ll try and talk to him after the forensics report comes back on Borges. I should know something by the end of the day.” Henderson said with a sigh.
“Thanks,” Clark called after him as Henderson headed out the door. He guided Lois over to the elevators, “You can’t keep jumping down everyone’s throat like that. They could easily go arrest Jimmy if you antagonize everyone enough.”
“Henderson is not going to arrest Jimmy.” Lois shot back. “He knows he’s innocent.”
“He will if he has an arrest warrant to serve.” Clark pointed out, pressing the call button on the elevator. “I want his name cleared as much as you do but we’ve got to be smart about this.”
“Really? Have you figured out how you’re going to explain to the number one member of the
‘I-Hate-Superman Club’ how he just happened to overhear a conversation with Intergang and Lucky Leon?” She inquired with a questioning gaze. He shook his head, uncertain how to respond. “Uh-huh, this oughta be fun.” She said as they stepped into the elevator.
“She has worked with Superman since then. Maybe her opinion has changed a little?” Clark guessed, leaning over to press the button for the floor the District Attorney’s office was on.
“Sure,” Lois said with a sigh, patting him on the shoulder. “Just in case you may want to work on a backup story though.”
The elevator chimed, announcing their arrival on the second floor. The sign in front of them read, ‘District Attorney’s Office’ with an arrow pointing to the left. “After you,” He gestured for her to get off the elevator in front of them.
“This is a bad idea.” Lois pointed out as he opened the door for her.
“Need I remind you of how we ended up kidnapped by Trask in Smallville?” He raised his eyebrows at her and gave her a knowing look as he leaned in to cup her cheek..
“I’m never going to live that one down, am I?” She pouted, giving him a half-smile.
“Nope,” He chuckled, leaning in to kiss her.
***
Jimmy crossed the street to the parking garage, ready to enjoy a much-needed break. Perry had him working on digging up everything he could on everyone he knew that worked at Lucky Leon’s factory as well as everything he could find on Raul Borges. Between that and the intense meeting with the legal counsel, Perry had found him he was wiped. He hopped into his newly restored convertible and started the engine, looking behind him to make sure traffic was clear before he turned onto the main intersection leading to Marci’s Cafe.
He turned his radio on, nodding his head to the beat as he drove past a construction crew. He turned down the next street and began to press his foot to the brake to slow down but found the pedal was unmoving.
“Hey!” Jimmy shouted, stomping on the brake again. This time the car jumped, pushing back on the pedal. He jerked his steering wheel trying to dodge the cars in front of him as he honked his horn shouting, “
Help!! I can’t stop! Call the police!! Hel—!”
***
Doris, Mayson Drake’s secretary walked down the hall in front as Lois and Clark followed, “Ms. Drake is expecting you.” She knocked on the door and opened it, “Ms. Drake?”
“Yeah, anything we can find on this Stanley Gables the better.” Lois heard a man say as the door opened.
“We’ll finish this later,” Mayson said abruptly as they entered the room. Mayson was looking at a dark-haired gentleman sitting in the chair across from her. “Lois, Clark,” She turned to them.
“Mayson,” Clark nodded to her.
Lois noted the guarded look Mayson wore but chose to ignore it, “We didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Oh no,” Mayson shook her head, “This is Agent Scardino. He’s with the DEA. He’ll be helping our office out with the investigation into Intergang.”
Agent Scardino stood to his feet, running a hand through his hair smoothly as he looked over at Lois with a lingering gaze, “Please, call me Daniel.”
“Agent Scardino this is Lois Lane and Clark Kent from the Daily Planet. They’ve been working with our office on and off this year and been helping with the investigation into Intergang as well.” Mayson explained, introducing them.
“Really?” He smiled back at them, “
Honest reporters? I didn’t know there was such a thing.” He gave them a glance and flashed a smile, “Well, I suppose we’ll be working together real soon.”
Clark cleared his throat from behind her, placing an arm around her shoulders, “We tend to be a bit careful on who we’re sharing information with Mr. Scardino was it?”
“
Agent Scardino.” he corrected, taking a step toward Clark, “But please call me Daniel.” He flashed another smile. Lois shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, taking another step toward Clark as Scardino stopped in front of them. She could tell from the expression on Clark’s face he was unimpressed with the DEA Agent. Scardino patted Clark on the shoulder, “Well, I’m sure we’ll get a chance to get acquainted real well, Kent.” He moved past him to head to the door. “Mayson, we’ll be in touch. If you need me I’ll be staying at the Bristol.”
“I’ll have Doris set up a meeting for this afternoon,” Mayson said.
Agent Scardino ducked his head out the door and then turned back and looked at Lois, “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but are those eyelashes real?”
She could feel Clark tense and silently cursed under her breath. How had this guy got assigned to a case this important? He seemed more interested in flirting than doing his job. She rolled her eyes at him and snipped, “Why don’t you put that astute observation to good use and try and stop Intergang?”
Scardino seemed dumbstruck for a split-second and then quickly recovered, “Please I can stop Intergang in my sleep.”
“They’ve been in operation for the last twenty years,” Mayson interjected with an amused expression of her own.
“They didn’t have
me on the case.” He grinned at her, “See ya around.”
“Of all the pompous...” She heard Clark mutter under his breath.
“I swear the more decorated the agent the bigger the ego,” Mayson grumbled, reclaiming her seat behind her desk. “So, you said you had some information for me?”
“Uh, yeah,” Lois glanced over at Clark who still seemed to have a ticked expression on his face. “We, uh, came across some information that we thought might be useful and being the law abiding citizens that we are we thought we’d tell you...instead of investigating it on our own.” She flashed Mayson a smile.
“How generous.” Mayson cracked a smile at her. “What information have you come across?”
“We think Lucky Leon may be in cohorts with Intergang.” Clark began slowly. “He was acting very suspicious after we left his office so we asked Superman to…”
“Wait a minute, this information is coming from Superman?” Mayson groaned.
“And us!” Lois interjected. “If you’d seen the way he jumped up trying to hide that notepad when we came in you’d have been suspicious too.”
“What piece of paper?” Mayson stared blankly back at her and Lois sighed, trying to get the ADA to focus on the task at hand.
“Look, just hear us out and look into it. It can’t hurt.” Clark added. “We’ve all been working this Intergang angle for months now. This could be the first real break in the case. Are you really going to ignore a lead just because it happened to come from Superman?”
“No, I guess not.” Mayson clicked her tongue then looked back at them, “What did Superman find out?” She pulled out her notepad and pen.
Lois took a long sigh of relief and Clark continued, “Lucky Leon is trying to steal a shipment off what we’re assuming is Route 128 by tricking Superman. The shipment is something Intergang wants to use to hold the world hostage.”
“I see,” Mayson said tapping her pen against her notepad.
“Look, I know you have your...We’ll call them qualms...about working with Superman but at the end of the day all he’s trying to do is help.” Lois interjected. “Help stop Intergang. Help protect the city. Help rid this city of criminals. Is it exactly how you’d like it to be? No, but you have to admit this city is a lot safer with him in it.”
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Mayson said with a sigh.
“Thank you,” They stood up to leave and Lois noticed a faraway expression on Clark’s face.
“Um, we should get going. We’ve got a lot of leads to follow up on. It was great talking with you, Mayson.” She said hurriedly, practically bolting out the door with Clark and leaving a dumbfounded Mayson in her office.
Once they were out of earshot she asked, “What is it?”
“Jimmy.” He said, leaning in to kiss her before darting toward the door marked ‘Stairs’ at the end of the hallway.
***
“Help!! I can’t stop! Call the police!! Hel—!” Clark heard Jimmy yell as he flew through the sky. He found Jimmy frantically pounding on his brakes. He came in to land in the passenger seat next to him. Jimmy looked over at him with a panic-stricken face, “Superman, I can’t stop!”
Clark leaned over and asked, “Well, Jimmy, did you ever think of trying this?” He turned the key in the ignition off and the car came to a jolting stop. Jimmy looked over at him in surprise and he shrugged, “See, simple?”
Jimmy leaned back against his seat and sighed in relief, “Easy for you to say.”
Clark floated out of the car and moved to inspect Jimmy’s car. “Open the hood.” He instructed. Jimmy leaned over to pull the lever and a click could be heard. He lifted the hood and grimaced when he saw black box attached to the motor. He reached up to remove it, noting the red blinking light immediately disappeared. “I believe I found the problem.”
***
Lois sat at her desk, going through everything Jimmy had dug up on Raul Borges along with everyone else he’d worked with at Lucky Leon Inc. After Clark had left to help Jimmy she’d come back to the Planet to see what she could find out on Raul Borges and Lucky Leon but so far no luck. It was as if Raul Borges only existed on paper and nowhere else. That and her mind wanting to constantly replay Clark’s proposal over and over had left her frustrated and desperately in need of caffeine.
<<"If Clark makes you happy then take a leap of faith.">>
<<“Just think about it, okay?">>
<<"So talk to him.">>
<<“Lois Lane, will you marry me?”>>
<<"Are you really going to let a great guy slip away because of how screwed up our parents are?">>
<<"I love you, Lois. I always have and I always will. I told you before I want forever, and I want it with you.">>She reached over to grab her coffee mug and get a refill when a small black box appeared in front of her. She turned around and looked to see Clark and Jimmy standing behind her. “What’s that?”
“It’s what someone attached to my car to try and make me wreck!” Jimmy snorted pulling up a chair.
Lois glanced at Clark, “Someone’s going out of their way to try and cover their tracks.” She then turned to Jimmy, “Are you okay?”
“A little frazzled but I’m fine.” He shook his head in disgust, “Thankfully Superman got there in time.”
“Thank God for that.” Lois looked up at Clark.
“What’s all this?” Clark asked, pointing to the paperwork in front of her.
“Everything Jimmy pulled on Raul Borges and Lucky Leon associates.” She gave a disgusted snort, “Not that it’s doing anyone any good.”
“Nothing?” Clark asked with a grimace, leaning over her shoulder to look at the empty search query she’d come up with on Raul Borges. She felt a flutter in her abdomen as his hand came to rest on her shoulder.
<<"So talk to him.">>
‘Not now.’ she told herself, forcing her mind to focus on the investigation at hand. “I don’t get it.” Lois shook her head. “Driver's license, home address, previous address, voter affiliation...But after that Borges drops off the radar.”
Clark frowned, “Like he only exists on paper?”
“Exactly.” Lois sighed, leaning back in her chair and facing Jimmy. “What about these guys you worked with. Anyone you can think of that might want to do this?”
“No,” Jimmy shrugged. “They’re just regular guys.”
A ping from her computer caught her attention and she turned back to see a ‘New Message’ icon on her screen. She clicked on it and read the message aloud, “Lucky Leon. Borges. Secret Shipment. From One Who Knows.” She turned to the email message and pointed, “There’s no sender’s address in the email.”
“If you were trying to remain anonymous, would you tell someone where you live?” Clark pointed out, still peering over her shoulder. She felt his hand squeeze her shoulder and a shiver ran down her spine.
<<“What?”
“Nothing. Just admiring the view.”
“I think you’re looking in the wrong direction, Farmboy.”
“No, I’m not.” >>
<<“Just think about it, okay?">>
<<"So talk to him.">>
‘Just stop it.’ she pushed the memories to the side, noticing the questioning gaze Clark had on his face. She cleared her throat and said, “We know Lucky Leon is trying to set a trap for Superman.”
“We do?” Jimmy asked.
“Superman overheard Lucky Leon’s plan earlier,” Clark explained hurriedly.
Lois turned to Jimmy, “Jimmy, do you think you can trace this and see where it originated from?”
Jimmy nodded, rolling his chair up to her computer. “You may not be able to use your computer for about an hour but yeah I can trace it.”
“Great.” Lois stood up, tugging on Clark’s hand. “In the meantime, we’ll do some digging into Raul Borges and see what we can find out.”
“How exactly are we going to do that?” Clark asked as they approached the elevator.
“Well, you can call Roger Templeton on the way and see if he can do some digging.” She said, pressing the call button for the elevator.
“On the way where?” He asked with a confused expression.
***
TBC...
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