Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HerePart 115Part 116**************
Finders Keepers**************
Cat leaned against the railing of the wharf overlooking Hob’s Bay. Her brother-in-law Simon had gone down into the water not five minutes before. She shivered in the evening breeze as her hair blew over her shoulder and across her face. She pulled her fleece jacket more snuggly around herself, glad she had chosen to wear pants for her trip to the water’s edge.
She heard footsteps on the stairs leading down from street level and glanced over her shoulder to see a tall thin man approaching. He wore a long raincoat over a business suit, and his mouth broadened into a smile when he saw her. He wasn’t unattractive for an older man with salt and pepper hair, but she wasn’t in the mood to pick up a man on the docks. She turned back to watching for Simon in the water, wondering if he would find the watch. She only saw bubbles rise up from his scuba tank from the murky beyond. Cat was curious if the watch really was made of Kryptonite as Lois had said, or if the woman had finally taken that last step off the bridge of sanity.
The man walked up to the railing near her and looked out over the water. “Hi.”
Cat nodded, acknowledging his existence, but nothing more.
“What’s a nice looking woman like you doing in a place like this?” he asked.
“What is this? Harry’s Bar?” Cat scoffed.
He laughed. “You don’t look like the regular girls I see around here,” he said.
“That’s because I’m not one of the
regular girls,” she retorted. “I’m a woman.”
“Clearly.”
Just what she needed to make her day complete, being confused for a prostitute the one day she had dressed in ‘normal’ clothes. “If you’re looking for a working girl, you’ve come to the wrong place,” she told him. “Try a different block.”
“You don’t work?” he said, sounding surprised.
“Of course I work,” she corrected. “I just don’t accept money for sex with strangers.”
“Hmmmm. Good to know.” He went quiet for a moment as they both once again watched the water. “So, whatcha doing down here if you’re not trolling for men?”
“Really? Do I look so desperate that
this is where I should troll for men? Gee, thanks, buddy,” Cat said, not sounding at all thankful.
“No. No. This just isn’t the usual touristy spot,” he went on.
“Great,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes. “Now, I look like a tourist. Have any more compliments to toss my way because my day hasn’t sucked enough as it is?”
Cat hoped her impression of Lois was enough to scare off the man. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
“You’re not going to jump in, are you? Even with the sunny days we’ve had lately, the water is colder than it looks,” he said.
“So, I’ve heard,” she replied.
“I’d hate to have to jump in and have to rescue you.”
“You could always call for Superman,” she reminded him, which was reason enough not to jump into these waters.
“I could,” he said. “But I’m more the rescue the damsel in distress myself type of guy.”
She looked him up and down. “You forgot your noble steed.”
He appeared to be pinching his lips together to stop himself from responding to her jest. “I left him up at the street with my suit of armor.”
The corner of Cat’s lip tugged upward. “If you must know, I came to watch the sunset.”
The man bobbed his head as he contemplated that information for a moment. “Hob’s Bay is east of the city.”
Well, duh! “So?”
“The sun sets in the west.”
“Sure, if I were in the mood for pretty colors painting the sky, then I’d look to the west, but tonight…” Cat sighed. “I’m in the mood for the darkness to swallow the colors as it overtakes the city with sparkles of light from the heavens. This is one of the few spots where you can actually see the stars at night here in Metropolis.”
“Wow,” he actually sounded impressed.
“What?” she asked, turning to look more closely at the guy.
“That was deep,” he said.
“You’re pretty shallow, if you think
that’s deep,” Cat replied. More than a few deep penetrating jokes flitted across her mind, but she didn’t know this guy, and he might not understand she was only joking. She put the jokes in her treasure chest to save for later. Clark would appreciate them. If not, he’d still get to hear them.
The man chuckled. “Not
deep. Poetic. I wasn’t expecting that from you.”
Cat turned and leaned her back against the wooden railing to study the man with her arms crossed. Tall and thin, she had noticed straight away. He wore small round glasses, but she knew she wouldn’t find Superman underneath them. First of all, he wasn’t Clark. Secondly, his frame was too wiry. Again, she noticed he wasn’t unattractive, but he wasn’t attractive either. “You were expecting a street walker, so anything I said which was somewhat intelligent would have been unexpected.”
“I never said I was looking for a street walker,” he said.
“Oh? Then why are you here?” she asked.
He nodded towards the bay. “To watch the sunset.” He smiled, and held out his hand. “I’m Bill.”
“Hi, Bill. I’m Catherine,” she replied, shaking his hand.
Cat was for friends, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be friends with ‘Bill’, yet. She turned back and faced the water again, looking for Simon’s bubbles.
“I don’t think you’re going to find what you’re looking for down there,” he said.
“Oh? Why’s that?” she asked, knowing that ‘Bill’ couldn’t possibly know what she was expecting Simon to find.
“Perhaps what you’re looking for is here, on dry land,” he said.
She raised a brow. “Do you think you’ll help me find meaning in my life, Bill?”
“More than those cold waters will,” Bill replied.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m waiting for a friend,” she said, glancing back to the water and seeing more bubbles rise to the surface. Simon was coming back up. “Besides I don’t date married men.”
He seemed a bit surprised by this unsolicited announcement. “I’m wearing gloves. How do you know if I’m married?” he asked.
“I felt your wedding ring when we shook hands,” Cat explained with a shrug. It was one of her talents. “Too bad. You’re not unattractive.”
“Thanks… I think,” Bill said. “I’ll let my wife know.”
“I’m sure she’s already familiar with your assets,” she replied.
“It wouldn’t hurt to remind her that a beautiful woman thought me attractive,” he said.
“I didn’t say that,” Cat said, but his compliment had been welcome after her string of failures lately. She watched as the dark head of Simon’s wetsuit bobbed to the surface. She walked to the ladder and called down to him, “Did you find it?”
“Nah, I didn’t see it,” Simon replied, climbing up to join her on the docks. “Sorry, Cat.” He saw that she was no longer alone. “Inspector? What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Miller. I heard through the grapevine that you were playing in my crime scene and I thought I’d stop by to see if you uncovered anything new that might be of interest,” Bill replied, calling down to him.
“Inspector?” Cat bristled. “You mean you’re a cop?”
Bill tipped an imaginary hat. “Inspector William Henderson at your service, Miss. Catherine Grant, isn’t it? Of the Daily Planet?” he said. “I’ve got to give Kent credit. When he lied about there being someone else at his apartment, besides Superman, when Joe Rory attacked him, I thought he was protecting Ms. Lane. I see now he has two women in his life worth protecting.”
His voice sounded full of admiration. Did
he think she was sleeping with Clark too? It was amazing that Lois didn’t believe it as well. “Clark doesn’t lie,” Cat insisted.
“Oh, I know that he doesn’t, unless it’s a matter of life or death,” Bill said, leaning towards her. “Don’t worry; it was just for my personal curiosity. I don’t like holes in people’s stories. It won’t go into the file. I’ll keep it secret.”
“What’s he talking about, Cat?” Simon asked, pulling off the hood of his wetsuit and revealing a mop of almost platinum hair.
“Nothing. It isn’t important,” Cat mumbled.
“So, you want to revise your statement about what you’re doing out here tonight, Catherine?” Bill asked.
“Not particularly, Inspector.”
“Oh, come off it, Cat. It’s no big deal,” Simon said as he finished unhooking his equipment and removing it from his back. “A friend of hers lost a jeweled watch in the water and thought it was finally warm enough to start searching for it. Isn’t that right, Cat?”
Bill crossed his arms, and looked at her when she didn’t answer. “Oh. A friend?”
“Yeah, a
friend. Someone gave her the watch, and… and… she wanted it back,” Cat explained vaguely.
“She?” Bill inquired.
“Yes,
she. Contrary to what some people think, I do have female friends, Inspector,” Cat said, wishing Simon would hurry up with his gear so they could leave. “Anyway, most men don’t wear jeweled watches.”
“You do realize that this is the same spot, the exact same spot, where Clark Kent was found half-frozen and without any memories, don’t you?” Bill said. “You wouldn’t have any information about that, now would you?”
“Of course not,” Cat retorted truthfully. “It’s a coincidence. Anyway, Lois lost her watch back in December.”
“Oh-ho,
Lois lost the jeweled watch. Interesting,” Bill said, his face beaming. “I never would have thought you two as being friends.”
“You’re right. She’s more of a friend of a friend. But you’re wrong about this being interesting. She was here reporting on some D.B. pulled from the water back in December, and the watch fell into the bay. She didn’t want to be accused of tampering with a crime scene, and the water really was icy back then, so she waited until the weather improved and asked me if I knew anyone who could dive. End of story. Not at all interesting,” Cat repeated.
“Did she happen to mention from whom she got the watch?” Bill asked, as Simon watched her.
“No,” she said. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Lois hadn’t stated outright that it was Lex, and neither had Cat, but they knew they were talking about the same man. Wait, now that Cat thought about it, maybe Lex’s name had been mentioned once or twice during that conversation.
Bill rubbed a finger over his lip as he deliberated this information. He appeared as if he had more questions to ask but was resisting whatever temptation he might have to ask them. Finally, he chose one. “If Lois is just a friend of a friend, what are you doing down here on the wrong side of the tracks instead of her?”
Cat smiled. “Simon’s like a brother to me. I like to protect him from the grittier things in life.”
Bill chuckled.
“Gee, thanks, Cat,” Simon said wryly.
“Nah. She’s right, Miller,” Bill agreed. “No one is grittier than Lane.”
Cat shook her head. “Why are the good ones always married?” she murmured, as a picture of what could’ve been with Phil skittered across her memory bank. She would forget him. She
would. She just needed more time, maybe some distance, and a great deal of above-par sex. She sighed. The desire for that lifestyle just wasn’t there anymore.
Perhaps a good lobotomy would help.
***
“What do you mean her bail hearing isn’t set until tomorrow morning?” Perry shouted into the telephone before slamming it down. He looked at Clark, standing dejectedly next to his desk. “Buck up, Kent. Lois got herself into this mess; perhaps it would do her some good to spend the night in jail. Maybe she’ll learn a valuable lesson in all this.”
Kent looked at him doubtfully.
“Yeah. You’re probably right,” Perry agreed. “She’s more obstinate than… than…” A suitable metaphor escaped him. “— anything.”
“I should’ve been there, Chief. I was
supposed to be there,” Kent mumbled.
“What were you going to do there?” Perry asked.
“Lois wanted to show Laderman the video that Jimmy shot of Mrs. Harrison’s mystery man and see if he recognized him,” Kent explained. “If I hadn’t gone to the fire…” He shook his head. “No, I was needed… to cover the fire.”
“Darn right! You’re lucky Detective Reed didn’t find you there or she would’ve arrested you too, and I’d be down two reporters instead of just one. Your time was better spent covering that CostMart warehouse fire, and you know it. I understand it was a three-alarm fire that spread quickly to neighboring buildings.”
“Yes, Sir. Superman concentrated on saving the warehouse workers, security guards, and a deliveryman, but the main warehouse and all its contents were a complete loss. According to the fire chief, arson is suspected,” Clark replied, but it sounded as if his heart wasn’t in it. “It’ll all be in my story.”
“That reminds me, I should call Bill and get a quote from him about this,” Perry said, jotting himself a note.
“Bill?”
“Bill Church, Sr. owner of the CostMart chain,” Perry explained. “We’ve been friends since way back.”
Kent nodded vaguely, and Perry could tell his mind was on his partner in jail.
“Harboring a fugitive,” Perry said with a shake of his head. “Oh, Lois. Not only that, they found the gun Laderman stole in her briefcase and are holding her for possession of an illegal and unregistered firearm.”
Kent winced as if Lois’s mistake was his fault. “She wanted me to contact Superman for her,” he said, after clearing his throat. “It’s possible that she planned on turning over the gun to him.”
Perry raised his brow. “So, you didn’t know about it?”
Kent shook his head. “Lois never mentioned it to me. I may have grown up around guns on the farm, but that doesn’t mean I want Lois to be carrying around one. She gets into enough trouble without being armed.”
“Do you think she would’ve told Superman about Laderman at this meeting?” Perry probed, knowing she wouldn’t have to because clearly Kent already knew about the fugitive hiding in her apartment. As Superman, Clark could no longer ignore the infringement of justice, or would he have because it was Lois?
“She was building a good case for Laderman’s innocence, Sir,” Clark said.
“Even better. If you two can prove Laderman’s not guilty of the murder then the charges against her should be dropped, and you won’t have to worry about your image being tarnished by associating with a known felon,” Perry said with a wink.
“I wasn’t thinking anything of the kind, Chief,” Kent adamantly denied.
Sure, he hadn’t been, Perry thought wryly. “I knew something sneaky was up between you two. Yelling one minute and thick as thieves the next. I’m almost surprised you didn’t push everything off your desk and start necking.”
“Chief!” Kent gasped, his cheeks darkening with color, and Perry knew his words had been right on target. “We’re partners,
only partners. We were working this case together… that’s all.”
“Uh-huh, and Elvis was the King of Folk Music,” Perry said under his breath, and then realized that Kent could probably hear him just fine. Ooops.
Ah, what the heck. I didn’t become editor because I can yodel.“They won’t let me back to talk to her until after her bail hearing,” Kent grumbled, and then glanced up at Perry as another thought struck him. “Will the Daily Planet fund her bail?”
“Off the record, Kent, the Daily Planet’s Board of Directors, who voted to give themselves yet another raise at the end of last year by the way, is currently considering cutting paid sick leave to trim expenses,” Perry replied a little more honestly than he would have to any other member of the staff. “As this was a story related arrest, it should be considered something they would fund. Truthfully, son, I really don’t know. I could see them taking the angle that Lois had stepped too far over the line this time.” He had already discussed it with Alice, and she had agreed to let him sell some stocks to pay a bondsman to bail Lois out, if the need arose. Perry stood up. “That’s where I’m going right now, to talk to the men upstairs and plead Lois’s case,” he said, patting Kent on the arm. “Wish me luck.” He was going to need it.
***
Lois signed the personal effects worksheet, having double-checked to make sure every last dime and bottle of mace was accounted for, and then pulled her briefcase strap over her shoulder. “At least, they didn’t take my lock picks,” she grumbled.
“Lock picks aren’t illegal,” the man behind the desk said, taking back his clipboard. “But still considered highly suspicious.”
Lois sucked on her top teeth with annoyance. “I have a tendency to lose my keys,” she lied.
“Right,” the man answered dryly. “Like I haven’t heard that one before.”
She didn’t respond as she marched down the hall to the lobby. She was still furious that the judge wouldn’t accept her plea of “innocence” at the bail hearing two hours earlier. There was “guilty” or “not guilty”, but both of those included the word guilt, and Lois was certainly
not feeling guilt for helping out Eugene. Eugene was innocent, therefore, he should be a free man, and so
she hadn’t done anything wrong… except not get rid of his gun that she took away from him. She kept forgetting it had been at the bottom of her briefcase.
It took Perry long enough to bail her out. Not only had she been made to waste her time overnight in jail, but then she had to cool her heels another two hours before anyone got around to bailing her out after her bail was set. After an hour, she was beginning to think no one would.
The night before, Lois had debated for a long time who she should telephone with her one phone call. For the last hour, she was beginning to think she should have saved it until this morning.
Since Lois was arrested during the course of a story, it was right that she should notify her Editor-n-Chief to come and bail her out. By the time that she had gone through filling out the paperwork, getting fingerprinted, and photographed, Lois figured Perry must have already heard about her arrest along with Eugene’s capture. The Chief must have been busy working diligently to get her out.
Clark
should’ve really been the one to bail her out, though, if the jerk was the one who turned her in. She could see him doing that just to teach her a lesson but, in her heart of hearts, she didn’t want to think Clark guilty of ratting her out to Reed. Anyway, Cat had said that he had been distracted by an emergency. That sounded more like her loveable lunkhead than a lesson via steel bars.
Therefore, it was probably someone else who told Reed. Maybe the mysterious ‘cable guy’, who had barged into her apartment, recognized Eugene’s photo from the news, and called in a tip to get him out of her apartment. Lois merely was caught in the crossfire. Not that Lois wouldn’t still have been arrested when Detective Reed's men had found Eugene in her apartment. At least, being on the outside she would have had Clark’s help to elude police until they could prove Eugene’s innocence. Then again, that would be assuming that Clark would’ve helped her elude police, which was debatable.
In the end, Lois decided not to call Clark’s apartment to bail her out. The last time she checked, he still hadn’t gotten himself a new tape for his machine, and she would hate for her one call to ring off the hook, while he was busy off being Superman.
Anyway, she had needed to call in her story to the Daily Planet. Although, knowing Perry, he would’ve told her that she was too close to the story to report on it without bias. Ha! That didn’t stop her. Lois had used her one phone call to call Doris, who luckily was still on the copy desk, to call in her version of the story. Try to beat
that scoop, Linda King!
Before Lois made it to the lobby of the police station, Inspector Henderson blocked her way. He had his feet shoulder width apart, his arms were crossed, and he stared intently at her. He must have been taking lessons from Superman. She slowed her pace.
“This better be important, Henderson, I’ve had a long night, and I have an innocent man to set free,” Lois said.
“Not exactly the wisest thing to say after being arrested for harboring a fugitive, Ms. Lane,” Henderson retorted.
“Hardy-har-har,” Lois grumbled. “He’s innocent, Harrison’s still alive, and I’m going to prove both! Since Detective Reed and MPD aren’t doing their jobs and are arresting the wrong people…”
“We got you, didn’t we?” he said wryly. “But that’s not why I’m here. I just have some questions for you, if you’d be so kind to accompany me to my office.” He held out his hand towards the elevator, down another hall.
She glared at him and stomped off in the direction he indicated. “Fine, but you’re going to regret it. I’ve gotten little sleep, I’m pressed for time, and grouchier than ever.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Lane, I’ve smelled worse,” he replied.
“Don’t press your luck, Henderson.”
“Tsk. Tsk. Are you threatening me, Ms. Lane?” Henderson asked, his eyes alight with humor. “I’m one of the good guys, remember.”
“Not feeling very pro-good guy at the moment,” she grumbled, stepping into the elevator. Where in the hell had
her good guy been all night?
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Henderson said, and pressed the button for his floor.
***
From his seat across from Lex in the limousine, Nigel St. John with some puzzlement on his face, said, “I’m sorry, Sir, but you
wanted Ms. Lane to spend the night in jail?”
Lex enjoyed keeping even his most trusted advisers on their toes. “I arranged for her bail hearing to be postponed until this morning, making her even more appreciative of my assistance in bailing her out. As you recall, Nigel, we had our weekly dinner engagement last evening, which we certainly couldn’t have missed,” Lex explained.
“Quite right, Sir.”
Once a week, usually every Wednesday evening, Lex hosted one dinner party, arranged by his ark liaison, Asabi, for him and Nigel to wine and dine with the different members of the LUC, or the Luthor Underground Community. That was its official name within his ark. With Arianna, Lex referred to it as LUX, Luthor Underground Experiment.
Last night’s party included the medical staff, the five doctors in the fields of medicine he had deemed most important when building a new society, and their nurses. All had graduated top of their chosen fields, and none of them had any vices, although Lex hoped soon to discover one doctor’s intimate ones. She had made it to his short list with just one glance. His fingers had practically itched to run through her long red tresses. To keep the doctors busy within the ark, Lex had required that the medical staff give a physical examination to all members of the LUC and their general mental health recorded. He had granted Arianna special access to the two-way mirror in the psychologist’s office, as long as she supplied him with any dirt his villagers might reveal under confidence.
“I had Bender send one of his lesser known attorneys to handle Ms. Lane’s bail hearing. I didn’t want her to dismiss Bender as her attorney due to her association with his nephew,” Lex said, returning his mind to the present.
“His nephew?” Nigel repeated as he contemplated. “Would that be Paul Bender of the Mayor’s Public Relations Department in Gotham City? I remember he cornered you at that soirée that the Wayne Foundation threw last summer for the new public sculpture garden and wanted you to donate money for one of the mayor’s pet funds in exchange for personal information on Ms. Lane, with whom you had been pictured at some function the week prior.”
“I made it clear to Bender that he needed to convince his nephew that it would be better if nobody tried to extort money from me. Bender informed me later that afternoon that Paul had dated Ms. Lane at Metropolis University, only to throw her over for someone ‘a tad less frosty and more willing’ to get the job done. Hardly information worth paying for in my opinion,” Lex explained, and Nigel nodded his agreement. “The reasons for the delay were thus: I didn’t want anybody else to bail Ms. Lane out before I could be here in person to pick her up, so that she could be fully aware who the benefactor of her freedom was.” Moreover, whomsoever bailed Lois out of jail
owned her until her court date, and Lex liked the idea of owning Ms. Lane, if only in name.
Lex glanced back down to his watch. Lois should have exited the precinct by now. “Go and check what the delay is, Nigel. Bender should have delivered the bail funds to the police and Ms. Lane released ten minutes ago. I don’t like waiting.”
“As you wish, sir,” Nigel said with a slight bow of his head, before exiting the car.
Although, now that Lex thought back on the information Bender’s nephew had provided, it did agree with what Lois had said on the phone the previous weekend about waiting until marriage. Pity.
When Lex had ordered the background check on Kent, he had decided it would be in his best interest to order one on Lois as well. Unlike Mr. Kent’s glaring holes, Lois’s history had read as Lex had expected with only one interesting twist.
Lois Lane’s father, Sam Lane MD, whom Lex knew due to his work on Menken’s cyborgs, was known to have stepped out numerous times on Lois’s mother, Ellen Lane RN, causing the former Mrs. Lane to become an alcoholic. She only recently had started turning her life about with sobriety. Lois also had a leggy younger sister, whom Lex remembered fondly from his video surveillance from the previous summer, now currently residing in Los Angeles and attending USC.
The brother mentioned by the man Lex had sent to install new surveillance in Lois’s apartment, didn’t exist and instantly drew a red flag. After further questioning and a description received, Lex had figured out exactly whom Lois’s ‘brother’ was: that escaped murderer, Eugene Laderman, Lois couldn’t stop droning on about.
Lex didn’t like Lois drawing attention to herself by breaking the law so openly and blatantly. When one broke the law, one needed to be covert about it. One absolutely didn’t hide escaped fugitives in one’s own home. Lex decided it would serve Lois a good lesson to fail in this endeavor. He was sure that between him and his legal team, they could eventually have Lois’s charges reduced or dropped altogether, for which Ms. Lane would certainly see him as her savior. In the meantime, it would force a rift between her and Superman as the man with such high moral values, and a hard-on for the American Justice system, couldn’t chance to be seen as friends with someone who flouted the laws of the land. Win-win.
Lois’s biography had gone on to say that she had graduated top of her class from both Metropolis High and Met. U., having been Senior Class President at the former and Student Editor at the university paper at the latter. Under the guise of getting Lois a security clearance with EPRAD, which she was never granted due to being a bad security risk – poor woman – Lex’s security team had interviewed Lois’s former classmates and fellow co-workers. Lex learned that while Lois went on occasional dates with several men of her acquaintance, she had never become close with any of them, except one…Well, three, if Lex now counted Kent and Superman.
Not one of Lois’s friends or co-workers believed Ms. Lane’s reticence to be due to her being a lesbian, but the word ‘frigid’ had been mentioned more than once, which, personally, Lex found difficult to believe. Lex had bedded several frigid women in his time, including his very dear ex-wife Arianna, and from what Lex had seen during her time under Miranda’s Revenge, Lois certainly was not frigid.
No, Lex believed that a combination of factors had led Ms. Lane to her current position of no sex before marriage. First would be how her father had treated her mother. Women were always overly sensitive regarding such matters. Secondly, would be her treatment under the hands of her first lover, Claude Lefluage. The incompetent man had been a colleague of Lois’s at the Daily Planet and, according to rumor, had seduced a drunken Ms. Lane to his bed, almost four years ago now.
Lex remembered Lefluage well. The man had used the prestige from earning a Meriwether Award on a story, about Congolese importers smuggling guns into Metropolis, to earn him a job at some French paper in Paris. Between interrupting Lex’s gun shipments from the Congo
and taking away Ms. Lane’s innocence in such a cavalier manner, Lefluage had earned himself a grisly death in the catacombs under Paris in January. Lex smiled. Revenge was definitely a dessert worth served well chilled. Lex had enjoyed inflicting pain on the man, who had not only lost him quite a bit of money with that article but had cemented Lois’s stance on abstinence until marriage. Lefluage had been lucky that Lex hadn’t known the latter at the time, or the man’s death would have included being drawn and quartered.
Nigel returned to the car alone.
“Well?” Lex snapped as Nigel opened the door.
“It seems, Sir, that Ms. Lane was released twenty minutes ago. If she didn’t exit out these doors, she must have left through another one,” Nigel replied.
Lex swore under his breath, opened the sliding panel beside him, and pulled out the tracker. “It says that she’s still in the building,” he told his majordomo, holding out the machine to him.
Nigel swallowed. “If I may be so bold, Sir, it says that the LoLex watch with the tracker in it is still at the Twelfth, not Ms. Lane.”
Had Lois forgotten to pick up her personal effects? No, she must have. She needed her purse with money and keys to get back into her apartment. Lex only hoped his man was able to place the surveillance in plenty of time, during the night. Had the MPD retained the watch he had given Lois, had someone stolen it, or had she thrown it away? “Let’s be off,” Lex grumbled with a scowl.
“Yes, Sir,” Nigel said, informing the driver.
This was a disappointing development indeed. Although it sometimes irked Lex, her fierce independent streak was one of the most intriguing aspects of Ms. Lane’s personality. To bend such a person to his will made this challenge even more diverting. He was glad she wasn’t making it easy for him.
***End of Part 116*** Part 117 Comments
