Part 2
A/N: The version of Ellen Lane that appears in this story is the character portrayed by Beverly Garland.
****
No one could have survived that fall, Henderson knew instinctively. By the time he made it down to the ground floor, and through the large glass entrance doors to LexCorp Tower, officers had already blocked off the gruesome scene from outside eyes. He spotted Lois in her wedding dress, being consoled by Perry. He and Perry briefly locked eyes, as Perry nodded in understanding. They wouldn’t leave until Henderson could speak to them.
He ordered a few officers to assist the lead investigators in gathering evidence in Luthor’s office, while others were collecting statements from the various wedding guests, and employees, Ms. Cox had already been escorted to the precinct to be interviewed there. As he finished directing the team, one of the officers that had been assigned to guard a fire exit in the alley, appeared.
“Sir, we’ve found Superman,” the young officer said, while trying to see what was being blocked from view.
“Where?”
“He’s around the side, Inspector. At the fire exit.”
Henderson followed the officer, noticing how much quieter it was in the alley.
“Superman!” He exclaimed. Why was Superman here? Why had he not saved Luthor?
“Can I speak to you?” Superman asked. “In private?”
Henderson turned to the officers who were trying hard to look like they weren’t eavesdropping. “You can both join everyone else taking statements at the entrance.”
“Yes, sir,” the men replied and hurried towards the action.
“Luthor?” Asked Superman.
“Dead,” Henderson stated. “Took a swan dive off his penthouse balcony when we confronted him.”
“Lois?”
“She’s safe, she’s fine. She’s with Perry White. He’ll take her home once she’s given her statement.” Henderson watched curiously as Superman seemed to falter on his feet.
“What was so urgent, Superman?”
Henderson listened in growing concern as Superman described a glowing green cage in a cellar, watching as Superman’s body language screamed at him that something wasn’t right. At one point he reached out, fearing the hero might crumple to the ground, pulling his hand back when Superman seemed to regain control of his balance. Whatever that cage was, Superman was terrified of it, he could see it in his eyes.
“I need you to destroy that cage,” Superman stated.
“Can you tell me what it is?” Henderson asked, startled at the idea that something had hurt the invulnerable Superman.
“The cage is made from a material that is dangerous to me.”
Henderson sucked a breath in quickly. Hadn’t Lane and Kent written an article about some ex-military psychopath who claimed some space rock could harm Superman?
Superman continued, “I don’t know how to destroy it; bury it, sink it, it just needs to be somewhere where no one can find it.”
Henderson noticed Superman wouldn’t meet his eyes, and reached out as if to give him a reassuring pat on the arm. Superman flinched at the motion, and he heard himself gasp as the cape slipped, exposing burns on his arms, hands, and one particularly long and painful looking burn, running up his neck.
“How long?” Had Luthor done this? How? Why? The thought of the torture the Man of Steel would have to endure to feel pain, made Henderson’s stomach roll.
“Not quite a day,” was the toneless response.
“Do you require medical assistance?” The wounds looked bad, and from experience, even if that was all of the physical injuries, Henderson knew there would be mental stresses too, from being confined and tortured.
Superman finally met his eyes. “No, I should be fine, I’ll recover quickly. I need to get out of here before I’m noticed.” Superman held up his cape. “I’m pretty conspicuous.”
“Well, we’ll get your statement and then….”
“No,” Superman interrupted. “No, I can’t risk it… Luthor, Nigel, maybe Mrs. Cox, they all know about this. I can’t have this on record. You’ll have every criminal, wanting to kill me off, looking for it.” Henderson mulling over that last statement, considering the long term effects of a written record of this mysterious substance. All he needed was the next crime lord discovering Superman’s Achilles heel.
“Come down to the station. We’ll say you’re giving your statement, if anyone asks, and I’ll help you slip out in disguise. Give me about thirty minutes, and I’ll be back with a car.” Henderson understood what Superman was saying, but didn’t like it. He’d rather have a record of every crime Luthor had committed, and most of the people that had crossed Luthor hadn’t survived to become witnesses, he needed every voice he could get.
Mulling over what he’d just learned, he left Superman by the fire exit, alone, and headed back to the street, where the coroner had arrived to take Luthor’s body away. Henderson sighed; Luthor was dead, he would never pay for his crimes in the justice system. Adding one more crime against him wouldn’t change the outcome, and keeping the secret of Kryptonite away from public knowledge was more important.
He instructed an officer to bring Lois Lane down to the precinct as they needed her statement. White fought at first, until Henderson told him to go get Lois a change of clothes and meet him down there. They needed to ascertain how much she knew of Luthor’s criminal activity. He prided himself on his judge of character, and while Lois was annoying at times, and incredibly persistent, he doubted she would have been willingly involved in anything criminal. He grinned wryly, unless it was for a story, he chuckled. Still, he wondered, how had she missed Luthor’s true character?
****
After helping a disguised Superman leave the precinct, with assurances that Kent would be contacting him shortly, Henderson entered the interview room containing Lois and Perry. The ex-editor was agitated, the almost widow of Lex Luthor, no longer wearing her wedding dress, staring blankly ahead, seemingly unaware that he had just entered the room.
“I’m staying right here until her lawyer arrives,” began Perry.
“She doesn’t need a lawyer, we’re not charging her with anything. Just have some questions to help tie things together.” Henderson nodded his head to the door before lowing his voice. “Can I talk to you alone for a moment?”
Perry stood and followed Henderson out of the room, closing the door behind him.
“Is she ok?”
“Lois? Well, as well as can be expected after watching the man she was supposed to marry, fall off a building.”
“We both know he didn’t slip and fall,” Henderson stated bluntly. “He chose to not face justice.”
“Aw, hell.” Perry responded, rubbing a hand over his face. “She shouldn’t have had to witness that. She claims she called off the wedding, right before…”
Henderson held up his hand to stop him disclosing anything else. “I need that information from her.”
“Have you heard from Clark? He’s still missing.” Perry changed topic quickly.
Henderson, not wanting to reveal his conversation with Superman, and his suspicions as to Kent’s whereabouts over the previous twenty-four hours, answered non-committedly. “We’ve been informed he’s ok, but I’m waiting for confirmation.” He watched as Perry relaxed a little. “Don’t say anything to Lois yet,” he cautioned. “Look, you can wait in there with her until the lawyer arrives. As I’m sure you were told when you arrived, there is video surveillance in the room, so no discussing the events today, your investigation, or Luthor.”
White nodded in agreement, and headed back into the interview room alone. Henderson watched as he sat, gently pulled Lois towards him, as she began to cry on his shoulder. What an end to an investigation! He would have preferred to have brought Luthor in alive, but it was over, for better or for worse. They’d be sifting through the evidence and the webs of Luthor’s criminal activities for a while yet, trying to detangle it all, and bring all those involved to justice.
He headed back to his office just in time to catch a phone call from one of the men he’d left in charge of dismantling the cage in the cellar. Henderson gave the go-ahead for the destruction of the cage, thankful that would be one item taken care of. Once the metal was cut into smaller pieces it would be stored until Henderson could find a way to destroy it permanently.
He shuddered as he recollected his trip into the cellar earlier. Before giving Superman a ride back to the precinct, he’d chosen one of his senior officers, a guy he’d worked with for decades, a guy he knew would keep his mouth shut if needed, to check out the cellar with him. Just as Superman had described, they’d found another set of stairs leading to a lower level, behind the tapestry. The eerie green glow emitting from the cage made the hair stand up on his arms as he remembered the first sight of it. Wordlessly, he and the other officer had carefully entered the cellar, disturbed to see the axe sticking out of a partially destroyed wine barrel, a completely destroyed barrel next to it.
Despite only two of them being in the stone walled room, Henderson could hear voices, coming from the ceiling. A brief investigation showed a speaker embedded in the ceiling, the feed coming from, he guessed, a room where people were being interviewed, as he could hear the muffled questions being asked. Rummaging around, the officer found a series of switches near the second entrance, and eventually was able to turn off the sound. Again, Henderson pondered, what had Luthor been doing? Had he set up sound surveillance for his own wedding, or had it existed before, and what did it have to do with Superman?
He found the remote on the ground in the debris of the damaged barrels, and clicked the top button. When nothing happened, he tried the second button, and the glowing ceased. Henderson left with the remote, sending others down to the cellar to gather any evidence, and to arrange for someone to come look at the cage, an unspoken agreement between himself and the officer to never mention the green glow again.
Now, sitting in his office, he took the remote from his coat pocket and placed it in his desk, locking the drawer. Superman’s brief summary of what had happened to him, coupled with the visuals of the cage, the axe wedged into a partially destroyed barrel, and the painful looking burns that Superman had been trying to hide, made Henderson shudder. Why had Luthor hated Superman to the point of drawing out his death? The timing of Superman’s, and he presumed Kent’s, captivity with Luthor’s wedding to Lois, informed him that Lois was somehow involved, unlikely willingly, or even to her knowledge. She hadn’t known where Kent was, and made no mention of Superman’s absence. Luthor’s criminal activities exhibited a desire for power, for control. Had it been mere jealousy of Lois’ professional relationship and friendship with both Kent and Superman that had driven him to planning murder, or was it a desire to control his independent and strong willed future wife?
With the cage turning to bits of scrap metal at that moment, no one else would know what secret it held; it would just be a cage. He would destroy the remote later. He hoped he’d have some more answers on the rest once Kent contacted him.
****
Arriving in the lobby of LexCorp Tower, with Perry, Jack, and Jimmy, Lois, unable to hold back the tears any longer, sobbed. She cried for the ruined wedding, the fear she had felt walking down the aisle, and the relief after telling Lex no, she couldn’t marry him. The tears fell from shock over the police’s interruption, and Lex’s angry commands, shattering her illusion of a man who was always in charge of his emotions, consistently portraying a cool and calm demeanor. Selfishly, she realized, she cried for her wounded pride, her confidence in being a good judge of character severely shaken. Clark had been right, and she had been wrong, so very wrong. Little by little, odd bits of memories began to fit together, and a feeling of dread as she began to realize Lex had been manipulating her, turning her against her friends.
“Where’s Clark?” She asked again, as Perry gently guided her through the glass doors.
“Uh, honey…” Perry began, before faltering.
“We haven’t seen him,” Jimmy jumped in.
“What do you mean, you haven’t seen him? Since when?” She was still crying, her words sounding like a whine as she spoke through the tears.
Around them, pedestrians, wedding guests, and police looked up, pointing, and several people screamed. Lois followed their gaze and spotted what looked like a person, falling from the top of the tower.
Lex.
She knew it before she could see him clearly. In horror, she watched as he continued to fall, until the last few moments when she turned her head into Perry’s shoulder. As the sickening sound of Lex’s landing reached her ears, her legs faltered, stomach rolled, and she felt her bouquet drop from her hands. Perry’s firm grip around her waist kept her from collapsing, and she stayed with her head turned in her ex-editor’s shoulder, as Perry maneuvered them away.
She wanted to leave, change out of this monstrous dress, but Perry wouldn’t let her. He said something about talking to the police, so they waited, standing on the sidewalk, Lois staring blankly around. Her mother was somewhere upstairs, likely hitting the bar that had been set up for the reception. Her father hadn’t bothered to show, and Lucy, well, she wasn’t sure what had happened there. Lex had purchased a ticket for her to fly to Metropolis, but Lucy had missed the flight. At least, that’s what her mother had muttered yesterday.
Where was Superman? Lex hadn’t called for help, but she’d heard others in the crowd shout for him. What had happened to Clark? Had he been that angry with her he wasn’t going to come anywhere near her?
Shortly, an officer drove her to the precinct, Perry joining her there soon after. He arrived with her bag, containing the clothes she had worn that morning to get to her wedding. Thankfully, the police permitted her to change, though she had required some assistance from one of the female officers to get the dress off. Then she sat, with Perry, in the quiet interview room, waiting.
She was aware that Henderson had arrived, not reacting as she listened to Perry insist that there be a lawyer present. She had no idea who this lawyer was. Ordinarily, it would have been one of the lawyers for the Planet, but that wasn’t an option anymore., yet when the lawyer arrived, Lois was relieved to see a woman she recognized from the Planet.
As she didn’t know anything about Lex’s criminal activities, Henderson’s questions weren’t hard to answer. The lawyer interjected a few times to get Henderson to reword a question, otherwise she had stayed quiet, taking notes as needed. Lois knew she wasn’t being accused of anything, she had had no part in any of the crimes, yet she felt overwhelming guilt for not realizing sooner what Lex had been doing. Some of the things he may have been involved in were stories she had investigated. Had he intentionally led her down the wrong path on several occasions, and she had been blind to it all? Anger, and humiliation, burned within her, and as the interview dragged on, she grew more concerned for Clark’s whereabouts. Had Lex discovered Clark was investigating him, and done something to him?
The interview was interrupted once by an officer insisting that Henderson take a very important call. Henderson stepped out for a few minutes, and when he returned, Lois noted curiously, that he looked relieved. The interview wrapped up fairly quickly after that, and Henderson disappeared again. Exiting the interview room, and parting ways with the lawyer, she was led to the front desk and handed a bag containing her wedding dress. She numbly picked up the bag and scanned the area, spotting Henderson and Perry finishing a brief, yet intense, conversation.
“What was that about?” Lois asked Perry, as he reached for the bag, while Henderson walked away with a curt nod.
“Uh, honey, let’s get you out of here. Do you have everything?” Perry was steering her through the waiting area and towards the main doors.
“Yes. What’s going on? Is it about Clark?”
Perry didn’t answer, gently pushing her through the open door, and walking towards the parking lot.
“Perry!” Lois shouted, refusing to follow him. “Is Clark ok? What’s going on?”
“He’s… he’s…he’s ok.” Perry wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Ok? What does that mean?”
Perry sighed heavily. “Henderson said he received a call from Clark, that’s all I know.”
Lois began to walk towards him. “Is he home? Can we stop and see him?”
“Lois, honey, I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. Look, I’ve got a rental car for the rest of the day. I’ve already dropped Jack and Jimmy off, now, how about I take you home?” Perry wrapped an arm around her shoulders and walked her to the car.
