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LAST TIME ON EMII:

CJ and Lois looked at each other for a few moments in the sudden peace. Then Lois said softly, "I'm sorry about that."

"Doesn't matter," said CJ, equally softly.

A few more seconds passed, then CJ said, "Did you *really* say that lawyers were 'tape worms in the belly of humanity'?"

She nodded guiltily.

"I'm impressed," he said, and to her amazement, she realised that he was laughing.

"Really?" she said tentatively.

"Really. It's not often that a lawyer gets to hear a truly original insult."

NOW READ ON...


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


Lois pulled up outside the address Jack had given her, and eyed the bar with distaste. To call Bibbo's a dive, she decided, was to pay it a compliment. Lois suspected that the only reason it hadn't been closed down by public health inspectors was because the inspectors were too squeamish to enter the neighbourhood. There was litter scattered along the street, concentrating into soggy heaps that did not bear close scrutiny at the entrances to blocked storm drains.

She sighed and glanced across at CJ, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the beaten up Ford Taurus, and said, "Come on then. Let's get this over with."

They got out of the car, and Lois fumbled with the unfamiliar keys for a moment before she managed to get the central locking to engage.

She'd insisted on taking something from the Planet's car pool, saying that there was no way she was going to risk bringing her Jeep Cherokee into the waterfront district. Even the car she'd taken – as old and battered and smelling as strongly of stale cigarettes as it did – looked almost too smart for the neighbourhood.

Maybe it was her imagination – she hoped so, anyway – but, as she picked her way through the litter towards the pavement, she thought she could hear the scrabbling and squeaking of a family of rats.

Bibbo's was flanked on either side by derelict tenements. The bar, itself, didn't appear to be in much better condition. There was more bare and rotting wood visible on both the window frames and the sign above the entrance than there was paint. Several panes of glass were cracked; one was missing altogether, and had been replaced by a sheet of chipboard.

"Nice," said Lois sarcastically.

"Uh huh," agreed CJ. "Great view over towards the nuclear facility, too." He gestured vaguely towards a long abandoned dock, the murky water of the Hobbs estuary and the buildings on the opposite bank, which were barely visible through a haze of industry-induced fog. "Did you know that this part of the city has the poorest air quality of anywhere in New Troy?"

Lois shook her head. "Did Dr Saxon tell you that?"

"No. I heard it on the radio this morning. The weather forecaster added that little gem to his bulletin. Kind of makes me want to hold my breath for as long as we're here."

"Oh, and I thought that was just the smell. Do you reckon the sanitation department ever gets out here?"

CJ glanced around. Lois noticed him fiddle with his glasses for a moment before he said, "Judging from the contents of that dumpster over there, I'd say probably not."

Lois suppressed a grimace and asked, "Are you sure this is the right place?" She took a closer look at the bar. "I mean, I can't imagine this place having a cabaret."

CJ shrugged. "I'm sure Tessa said she was working at Bibbo's, and this is Bibbo's." But he also sounded doubtful.

"Well... Let's take a look." And, with that, she strode up to the front door and pushed her way inside.

Given the state of its exterior, the interior of Bibbo's came as something of a pleasant surprise. True, the decor was basic and the fittings were battered and worn, but everything was spotlessly clean. It was rough around the edges but welcoming all the same, a fair reflection, as they quickly discovered, of Bibbo, himself.

The bar's few patrons glanced up at CJ and Lois as they settled themselves on bar stools, then they turned away again, intently minding their own businesses or, more likely, given the hour, their drinks. Only borderline alcoholics, the dispossessed, or a pair of amateur detectives would be schmoozing against the counter at three thirty in the afternoon.

A deep voice, tinged with a hint of second or third generation Metropolis Irish, asked, "What can I get you folks?"

Lois turned to look at the speaker. His appearance matched his voice: bluff, open and, outwardly at least, honest. "Diet coke, please," she said.

"Beer or whiskey only. Don't get no call for nothin' else round here," answered the barman.

"Then... beer, please," answered Lois. It was too early in the day for her, but she couldn't sit in the bar without buying anything.

The barman looked across at CJ, who said, "Same again."

"Two beers. Gotcha."

As he quickly and efficiently got their drinks, Lois took in the barman's clothes with a practised eye. They were cheap, she noted, but not tatty. This man, she deduced, was poor, but respectable.

He put their glasses down and, as CJ pulled out a couple of notes from his wallet to pay, said, "Ain't seen you round here before."

Lois and CJ exchanged glances, then Lois said, "We're looking for someone. We... heard she works here. Tessa? Tessa Michigan?"

His eyes narrowed, not so much with animosity as with shrewd calculation. "Whatcha want with Tessa? I hope she ain't in trouble."

"No," said CJ hurriedly. "Nothing like that. We just want to talk to her. A friend told us that she worked at Bibbo's, so, here we are."

"Look, she's a good kid, and I don't want no hassle, okay?"

"No hassle," promised CJ. "Uh, who are you, anyway?"

"Bibbo, o'course. It's my place." He considered them for a few moments, then apparently decided to give them the benefit of a very small doubt. "Tess won't be long, I shouldn't think. She usually turns up round three thirty. Helps me out back before doing her act, later on." Then, in case there was any doubt about what she might be doing "out back", he said, "She does the washing up. Stuff like that."

Another customer came in, diverting Bibbo's attention. This one, from the look and the pungent smell of him, was a homeless man. Lois and CJ discreetly picked up their glasses and moved, finding themselves a table tucked away in a corner that had a good view of the bar and entrance.

Lois watched with barely concealed fascination as Bibbo invited Mr Odoriferous to sit down then disappeared through a door marked private. A few minutes later, he reappeared, carrying a tray of food, which he set down in front of the bum.

Bibbo said little during the whole sequence of events, and the other man said nothing at all, and no money changed hands. Lois was left with the impression that this was a matter of routine between them.

She looked around the bar again and noticed that several other people also had trays in front of them. Amazing, she thought. Bibbo seemed to be filling the gap that the neighbourhood social services apparently couldn't or wouldn't. It was almost a pity that she didn't write human interest stories; there was definite potential for a touchy-feely piece on the bar-cum-soup kitchen.

She glanced across at CJ. She hadn't felt remotely touchy-feely before he'd come on the scene. He face warmed as she acknowledged the double-meaning attached to that thought, and she was grateful that she hadn't voiced it out loud.

With nothing to do but ignore her beer, nibble on the bowl of peanuts that had been set out on the table, and wait, Lois found her thoughts meandering. They finally settled on something that had been troubling her on and off throughout the day.

She turned back to CJ and abruptly said, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" asked CJ, sounding genuinely puzzled. "It's not your fault we're having to wait around here. Besides, Bibbo said Tessa wouldn't be long."

"Not for that," Lois muttered. "For... for being so horrible to you in the past."

"You don't have to worry about that! Lois, that's behind us now."

"Is it?" she said.

CJ creased his brow. "Isn't it? I mean, I thought we were getting on pretty well these days... this morning's argument notwithstanding."

"We are!" she said. "I didn't mean to suggest that we weren't. It's just..." She hung her head, discomforted.

She felt CJ rest his hand on top of hers, squeezing it lightly, and she looked up as he said, "It's just what, Lois?"

"It's just... I feel really bad. I mean, the way everyone has reacted to us today. Mayson, then Perry... Jack... Jimmy... They all reacted the same way, thinking that we hated each other, and I know that you wouldn't go around spreading stuff like that, and the guys at the Planet hadn't ever met you before, anyway, which means that it must all have been coming from me and that means that I must have really been unfair to you and now I—" She gasped for air, her need for oxygen suddenly overcoming her power to spew forth words. "Why would you even want to give me the time of day after all that, let alone...?" She glanced down at their joined hands.

"Why?" asked CJ. "Why would I want to spend time with the brightest, most vivacious, intelligent, kind, wonderful woman in the world... who, incidentally is also rather gorgeous, too?" He shrugged. "Gee, Lois. I've got no idea."

"I'm serious, CJ."

"So am I. Lois... You are all those things and more. You're... unique. Special. And I was serious about all that other stuff being in the past. If other people can't adjust to our new relationship, then that's their problem, not ours. As for us? I think we're just fine the way we are. Don't you?" He lifted her hand and brushed his lips across her knuckles.

Lois felt his feather-light caress throughout her whole body, as a tingle of nerves down her spine and into her toes. How could he affect her so profoundly with so simple a gesture? She looked at him unblinkingly. Did she think they were fine? Then she nodded slowly. How could she not, when, even with a history as complicated as theirs, they were capable of arguing without holding grudges, of disagreeing while respecting each other's values, of kissing with passion and of laughing together over the tiniest things? And, she thought wryly, the fact that he was extremely handsome didn't hurt matters, either.

*****

CJ's beer glass was empty and Lois was picking the last three peanuts out of the bowl when CJ heard the front door open again. He glanced around in time to see a young woman enter.

While his previous impression that Tessa Michigan was pretty had been right on the mark, CJ nonetheless almost failed to recognise her. She was young, something he had failed to notice in the dark. Indeed, she looked too young to have ever set foot inside a bar, let alone to be working in one. If she was a day over twenty, CJ would have been very surprised... which meant that she had been barely more than a child when she'd got caught up in Toni Taylor's world. What had Taylor been thinking when she'd put Tessa Michigan up on the stage in her club?

"She's here," he said softly to Lois, remembering that he wasn't supposed to know what Tessa looked like and trying not to draw attention to the fact that he did.

Lois turned discreetly so that she could see what Tessa Michigan looked like for herself. Then she murmured softly, almost in disbelief, "That's her?"

CJ could understand her surprise. The woman who'd just entered, didn't look like someone who sang in a down at heel bar in one of the city's worst neighbourhoods. In fact, she looked as clean-cut as they came, like everyone's idea of the perfect daughter, cheerleader, and all-American girl. How on Earth had she come to be working in a place like this?

Tessa walked with a cheerful bounce in her step, glanced around incuriously, her gaze passing quickly over everyone, halting only when it alighted on Bibbo. She waved at him, grinned, and said, "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," replied Bibbo. "Good day?"

She shrugged. "Same old, same old." Her voice lowered as she approached him so that, by the time she was bellying up to the bar, CJ was having to concentrate to hear anything. Lois, he knew, wouldn't be able to make out any of the words.

Bibbo leaned in towards her. "Them two," he said, jabbing a thumb in CJ and Lois's direction. "You know 'em?"

Tessa glanced in their direction, shook her head and said, "No." Her intonation made the negative into a question.

"They're here, looking for you. Been waiting 'bout a half hour."

"Why? What'd they want with me?"

"Dunno, unless it's about the weirdo from the other night. They don't look like cops, though. They say it ain't trouble, but... Thought I'd warn you before introducing you."

She smiled at him gratefully, appreciative of his efforts. "Thanks, Bibbo."

He shrugged away her gratitude as if it embarrassed him. "You want I come over with you?"

Tessa hesitated for a moment before responding. Then she nodded, slightly jerkily, uncertain.

CJ and Lois rose from their seats as Bibbo came out from behind the counter and led Tessa towards them.

"This is Tess," he said, by way of a laconic introduction.

CJ held out his hand towards her and said, "Hi. I'm CJ Kent. And this is Lois Lane. We wondered if we might have a word with you."

Tessa glanced at Bibbo, who shrugged. "Your choice, kiddo. You don't have to tell 'em nothing if you don't want." He glared warningly at CJ and Lois, then took a couple of steps back – enough to put Tessa in charge of her own affairs, but still close enough to intervene if need be.

Tentatively, Tessa took CJ's hand and shook it, almost as if she had little experience with the gesture. And maybe, CJ thought, she didn't. He suspected that polished manners were a little thin on the ground around here.

When Tessa had released his hand, he pulled out a chair for her and gestured for her to sit down. She did so, perching uncomfortably on the edge of the seat, and gripping its edges with her hands. Her eyes flitted nervously between CJ and Lois.

Lois, trying to be friendly, said, "Do you want a drink?"

Tessa frowned as she answered, "I don't drink. Bibbo won't let me."

"Too right I won't," he said. His tone was stern but affectionate, almost paternal. "I run a respectable place."

Something appeared to occur to Lois then, and, almost accusingly, she blurted out, "How old are you?"

Tessa's face hardened into an expression of teenaged belligerence as she replied, "How old are you?"

"Old enough to order a beer without being carded."

CJ knew he was going to have to try to make peace. They needed Tessa's help, and they wouldn't get that if she thought that Lois was making fun of, or sniping at, her. Plus, they were reliant on Bibbo's hospitality, so it didn't make sense to antagonise him, either. Holding up his right hand in an appeasing gesture, he said, "Sorry. We didn't mean to suggest—"

To his surprise, Bibbo grinned at him. "I know you didn't. You was just a bit shocked, right? I mean, she is young."

This time Lois addressed her question to Bibbo. "If she's so young, why is she here? Shouldn't she be in school or something?"

Lois was looking at Bibbo as she spoke, so she missed the way Tessa's chin tilted defiantly upward and her eyes narrowed. CJ didn't, however, and so he wasn't surprised when Tessa said, "Hey! I'm right here, you know! You want to know something, ask me. He isn't my father, even if he acts like it sometimes."

Bibbo shrugged good-naturedly. "She's got you there," he said. "And she's right. I ain't her dad. I just try to keep an eye out for her, that's all."

Lois turned her attention to Tessa. CJ was mildly alarmed to see the way that the two stubborn gazes locked. Somehow he suspected that these two were more similar in temperament than either realised.

Lois tried again, this time directing her question at Tessa. CJ doubted that the others noticed, but he could tell that she was forcing herself to sound calm. "What are you doing, working here?"

"It's better than being on the streets, isn't it. And I've got eat."

Fair enough, CJ thought. But surely there were better life-style choices than being a high-school drop-out, which, given the age at which she'd apparently been working in the Metro Club, she must have been, and being hit on by drunken louts at chucking-out time. "Where are your parents?" he asked gently.

"Michigan. Where else?"

"Michigan?" asked Lois. "As in Tessa Michigan?"

"Yeah. It's a, what do you call it, a stage name. When I came to Metropolis there was no way that I was ever going to use my real name. Last thing I wanted was to be shipped off back home by some well-intentioned cop – not that I've ever met a well-intentioned cop in this city, but, hey. Now I'm over eighteen, I guess I'm past that stage, but I've kinda gotten used to the name. I like it, so it's mine."

CJ wanted to ask what had been so bad about her home life that she'd felt the need to escape it, but that wasn't what they'd come for. Besides, he'd read enough articles about runaways in his time, and he'd seen enough of them in court, to make a fairly intelligent guess. Nobody left home so young, unless they were desperate. Fathers abusing sons, mothers' boy-friends hitting on daughters... and once on the streets, the runaways getting into drugs and prostitution...

That Tessa had managed to avoid that fate was a kind of triumph.

From the sound of her, she'd probably had a respectable middle-class upbringing and had received a decent education... until life had become unbearable enough to drive her away.

She'd been lucky, he thought, to have met up with Bibbo, who clearly meant her no harm.

"So Bibbo looks out for you," he said.

Tessa nodded.

"And Toni Taylor... Did she look out for you, too?" Lois asked quietly.

Tessa's tough mask slipped and CJ caught a glimpse of the young girl hidden behind it. "How'd you know about Toni?" she whispered.

"You mentioned her the other night," said Lois. "When you were saved from those would-be rapists."

"How'd you know about that? There wasn't anything about Toni Taylor in the paper afterwards. I only—" CJ could see the precise moment when Tessa put two and two together. "You know him, don't you? The freaky guy who saved me. You spoke to him. You must have done, if you know that! Who is he?"

"A friend," said CJ. "Just a friend."

Tessa thought about that for a moment, then said, "You do me a favour? You tell him from me, thanks."

CJ opened his mouth to tell her that she'd thanked him already, but managed to catch himself before the words slipped out.

Tessa chewed on her lower lip and worried nervously at the hem of her T-shirt for a few seconds, then she said, "He's really a friend of yours?"

"Uh, huh."

"For real?"

"For real," said CJ.

"Well, I guess I owe him one, and since he's friends with you... For him, then. What do you want to know?"

"To start with, how well did you know Toni Taylor?" said Lois. "And how did you meet?"

"I'd run away from home. Took all my savings and jumped on a bus to Metropolis. I had enough cash to stay in a flop-house near the bus terminal for a few days, but when it ran out..." Tessa shrugged again, attempting to make light of what must have been a terrifying situation. "I hung around the terminal for a few days, begging off the passengers. It was okay for a while, but then... Then the police came to move me on."

"Go on," prompted CJ, sensing that Tessa was tempted to renege on her earlier promise.

"They..." For a moment she seemed scared, but then her timidity metamorphosed into retrospective anger. "It wasn't right what they did! They told me that I was on a prime site, and that if I wanted to stay, I had to pay protection! Protection! I couldn't get enough money to eat, and they wanted a cut of whatever I could get?

"They told me they'd been watching me. That they'd continue to watch me, and if I didn't do exactly what they said... Well, they made it clear that whatever happened, it wouldn't be good. And then... And then they said that if I wanted to make some real money, a pretty girl like me, they had connections. If I knew what they meant." She shuddered. "I knew what they meant, all right. The way they were leering at me. They'd pinned me against a wall, and one of them... I can still feel his hands."

"They didn't...?" asked Lois.

"No. They didn't. But I thought they were going to." Tessa grimaced, her mouth twisting into ugly shapes as she sought to master the memories. "I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd been a little more desperate – you know, if they'd waited a couple more days before approaching me. Or if they'd been just a little bit nicer to me. If I hadn't been so scared of them, maybe I'd have listened, and what would I be now?"

CJ couldn't think of anything to say to that. He hadn't considered the possibility that Tessa was positively grateful for the life she currently led, but that, he supposed, was presumptuous of him. After all, Tessa had seen even worse might-have-beens. Maybe she had ambitions for better things, maybe she didn't. But she knew that what she'd currently got was better than some of the alternatives, and she found it in herself to be grateful for that.

CJ found that remarkable. He found her remarkable. She was unfailingly grateful for any help she received, and she'd retained some shreds of optimism, even when life had tried to throw the worst it could offer at her.

He vowed not to underestimate her again.

"Anyway," said Tessa, continuing with her story. "I still had enough self respect – or fear, maybe – not to do what they wanted, so I moved on. I didn't know Metropolis, so I didn't know where I was going. But somehow I found myself in West River."

CJ nodded. It made sense. West River, as it then was, was close to the bus terminal, and the street between the two had been direct. It was an easy walk, and one which anyone wondering aimlessly about was likely to take, unwittingly being guided by the configuration of the buildings and roads.

"One afternoon, I saw some business men going into this club. They was dressed better than most people around there, so I thought maybe they'd give me money. Maybe I'd get more from just one of them than I'd make in a whole day otherwise. I mean, it was obvious they could afford it, right?" She snorted derisively. "Boy, was I wrong about them! They came out a couple of hours later. They were... horrible, I guess. Not frightening horrible, like the police. Just really, really rude. They called me names, then threatened to call the cops on me."

CJ didn't need Tessa to tell him how frightening that threat must have been, given her previous experiences. The way she shivered was enough to convey the message.

"But it was an empty threat, surely," said Lois. "I mean, the last thing the Metro Club would have wanted was attention from the police."

Tessa nodded, but the gesture conveyed her doubt. CJ guessed that her distrust of the police was too ingrained for her to suppose that they would have been on the side of the law, and want to close the Metros down. "I guess so. But at the time... I was about to move away when Toni came out.

"I still don't know why she helped me. I think, at least to begin with, it might have had something to do with wanting to undermine her brother. But, anyway, she invited me inside, gave me something to eat, and then we got talking. She let me use the bathroom to clean myself up, gave me some clean clothes, and then next thing I knew, she was showing me around the club.

"Johnny was auditioning some singers for the cabaret. When he saw me, he didn't recognise me from outside. He just assumed that I'd come to try out. Toni thought it'd be a laugh if I had a go. Anyway, she'd done so much for me, so I thought, why not, if it amused her?

"Neither of us expected me to make the cut, I don't think." Tessa shrugged. "After that, Toni always kept an eye out for me. Made sure that Johnny and the rest of the guys left me in peace."

"She protected you," said Lois.

"Yeah," Tessa nodded. "She let me stay at her place for a few weeks, until I got enough money together to put a deposit down on a room of my own."

"So, she was good to you," suggested CJ.

Again Tessa nodded, her eyes growing misty. "She was my friend. I know what the papers said about her when she died – that she was a mob boss – but she was a good person, you know?"

"A criminal with a heart of gold?" suggested Lois.

CJ wasn't sure he bought that. Nobody could run the rackets without being prepared to put the frighteners on people. Running the prostitution rings, drugs operations and numbers games required a certain ruthlessness. Maybe Taylor had been good to Tessa – he couldn't deny that all the evidence pointed that way – but that certainly didn't make her a saint.

Then again, Taylor hadn't lasted very long at the head of the family business, so maybe she hadn't been hard-hearted enough to be a success.

"I still miss her," said Tessa. "She was my first friend in Metropolis, and she helped me when I needed help most." A tear crept down her cheek, and Tessa swept it away absentmindedly with her hand. "I wish I could have helped her."

"Maybe you still can," said CJ.

Tessa frowned, genuinely confused. "How?" she asked. "She's dead. He killed her."

"Who, Tessa?" asked Lois. "Who murdered Toni Taylor?"


TBC