Part 7

Not more than an hour later, Perry joined Lois, Clark and Jimmy in the conference room where the reporters were looking over the pictures that Jimmy had developed. The editor examined the copies of the Abbott files, then spread them out on the table.

"Tell me what you see here," he ordered.

"It looks like Stan and Al profited personally from the money they saved by not attending to the buildings, but there’s no evidence that the people at Bennett were aware of what was going on," explained Lois.

"What is most interesting, is that after we had Jimmy pull together his research from land-titles, we figured out that Stan and Al were neglecting the buildings so that Bennett had to sell them off at a lower price. Repairs and renovations would be too costly for them, or for anyone else," Clark added. "The most revealing part is that the day after a Bennett property was sold, Abbott got a hefty pay cheque."

"When we compared that to other dates in the ledger, it seemed that with each property sold, whether it was owned by Bennett or not, Abbott got a pay cheque."

"Obviously some kind of kickback," said Jimmy.

"That’s what it looks like, son," said Perry. "So do you know where the kickbacks are coming from?"

"We can only guess at this time," said Clark. "Campbell-Thompson Development bought up the land and has started some building projects on them or is waiting for zoning by-laws to change in order for them to build."

"That’s a mighty big company. You think that they’re in cahoots with the Rossis?" Perry asked.

"Very likely," Lois answered. "CTD has been putting up a lot of Costmarts all over the country, as well as here in Metropolis. That’s a big expenditure."

"And," added Clark, "we believe that Costmart is linked to Intergang."

"That’s ridiculous. I’ve known Bill Church for years, and he’s an honest man."

"That’s what people believed about Lex Luthor, too," Lois muttered under her breath. She wasn’t surprised when she felt Clark’s hand lightly touch her shoulder.

"Okay, boys and girls, what’s your next move then?"

Clark gathered the papers on the desk. "I think an interview with Bill Church is in order."

"Under what pretext?"

Clark looked at Lois for guidance. She was flipping through some pages that he hadn’t collected. "Chief, I think that Clark and I should be investigating a series on how big business, like Costmart, benefits the city."

"You’ve got it."

When Lois returned from making an appointment with Church for early the next morning, she pulled Clark aside, whispering to him, "I think we should check out Campbell-Thompson’s offices and see what we can find."

"Lois?"

"What?"

"It won’t be as easy getting in there as it was getting past Jeannie. We were lucky that she was as young and naive."

"Clark, how else are we going to find out what’s really going on? Do you think that Church will tell us?"

"No."

"So?"

"It’s dangerous, and it’s illegal."

"Has that ever stopped us?"

"It should."

"But it won’t. Are you coming with me or do you have a hot date, tonight?"

"I’ll have to forego any hot date just in case I have to protect you from yourself."

Lois scowled at Clark. He always had a ready comeback for her snide remarks. Lois, herself, was relieved that Clark was coming with her. Although she was prepared to do some midnight research on her own, she was getting used to having her partner tag along.

****************

Clark scrutinized his apartment and the streets leading to it before he landed on his balcony He had a few minutes before Lois was scheduled to pick him up to go to CTD’s site. He had surveyed the construction area on his routine flight over the city. Unlike most corporations, the office was not in a permanent building, but in a mobile structure on a construction site in the middle of LeVine, a northern suburb of Metropolis. The area included subdivisions and a large open area that would eventually house box stores, including a Costmart. There was a single night watchman on a golf-cart driving through the site. Breaking in, once they got the watchman’s schedule, would not be hard.

He wondered for a moment what Lois would think if she knew that he had reconnoitered the area already. Well, it didn’t matter, he thought. He pulled out a pair of black jeans and a black sweater and spun into them. As usual, Lois was right on time. He ran up the three steps, locked his front door and went out to meet her.

She too was dressed in black clothing, her hair tied back in a pony-tail. Without make-up, she looked fresh, younger than usual. She had a healthy glow. The excitement of the chase, he thought. He wished he could make her look that happy.

He hopped into the car with her and they drove off to the construction site. Without daytime traffic causing snarls and hold-ups, it was a relatively fast trip. She parked the car, as they had planned, in a housing subdivision a half a mile south of the site. They walked, Lois setting the pace.

Closer to the construction site, they hid behind a stack of bricks and planned their strategy. Skeletons of residential houses spread out behind them on plotted lots. The steel frame of a large warehouse-type edifice stood in front of them. The north wall of the structure was standing. To their right was one large trailer while on the other side of the open, dug up field was a second one with a light on.

"That’s probably where a night watchman is," whispered Lois.

They waited for a few minutes, but saw no movement. Clark lowered his glasses, and scanned the trailer. Lois was right. The night watchman was in the trailer drinking from a mug and filling out what looked like a check-list. Clark looked into a cabinet where two semi-automatic guns lay. The watchman put down the mug, picked up a cell phone, and exited the trailer. Clark tapped Lois on the shoulder and pointed to the guard who was making his way to the housing development.

"It’ll probably take him at least a half an hour to get back. Now’s the time to go," he whispered.

"I’ll take the trailer on my right; you go for the night watchman’s." She indicated the two trailers.

Knowing where the guns were and having checked the area out earlier, Clark nodded his head in agreement. Starting to move to his left, he stopped for a moment to make sure that Lois wasn’t having any problems. She moved deftly toward the office trailer. He stepped quickly toward his objective stopping frequently to listen for Lois’s even breathing and for any danger. On reaching the trailer, Clark could see that Lois was almost at hers. He opened the door, using the lock-picking tools that Lois had bought for his last birthday, and went in. He moved directly to the cupboard where he took out the weapons and jammed the pins, just in case someone would try to use them. He then began to look around. In front of him, on a coat tree, near the night watchmen’s desk was a tan trenchcoat. He looked through its pockets only to find a restaurant receipt, a gum wrapper, and a pair of hardened gloves. When he put the contents back into the pockets he noticed that it had a button missing from its cuff. He examined the other buttons carefully. They were similar to the one from 2047 Bayside Avenue’s laundry room. He retrieved the gloves, slipping them in his pocket.

He forced his excitement down and continued to look around in a systematic fashion until he was interrupted by an abrupt inhalation of breath and then the rapid beating of a heart--Lois’s heart. He lowered his glasses and peered into the second trailer. Lois was standing inside, her back against the wall, very slowly inching her way toward the door. In front of her was a snarling Doberman Pincer about to leap. Knowing that Clark Kent couldn’t get to her fast enough, he spun and, within a second, Superman was in the trailer shielding Lois from her attacker. Keeping himself between Lois and the dog, he slowly walked her out of the trailer, then flew her back to the Jeep.

Lois looked at Superman. As thankful as she was to him for getting her out of what could have been a very tense situation with an unfriendly dog, she couldn’t forget that he had betrayed her. But, she also remembered that she promised herself that she would be professional with him.

"That dog was scary," she said trying very hard to keep the quiver out of her voice. "Thanks." She stepped back from the superhero.

"You’re welcome...again."

"You seem to get me out of a lot of scrapes."

"Just being of service," he said. "But I wish you wouldn’t get into these scrapes. You have to be more careful."

"I’m just doing my job the best way I know."

"There are other ways, less dangerous."

"And who are you to tell me how to do my job?" Lois wondered if the irony was lost on Superman who seemed to be around when she was in physical danger but missed the emotional danger altogether.

"I don’t want you to get hurt."

"Right!" Lois said, not even trying to hold back the sarcasm.

Superman raised his eyebrows. Lois realized that he just didn’t get it. She forced herself not to allow his confused expression to sway her. She was angry, and for a very good reason. Her mind skipped back to the snooping she and Clark...

"Clark!" she said, remembering her partner.

"What about him?"

"He’s at the other trailer. He’ll be looking for me."

"Don’t worry. I’ll go back and send him over here," he said before taking off in the air.

No matter how she felt about Superman, no matter how angry, he still managed to save her. And yet, when her whole life was about to fall off the precipice of reason, he was nowhere to be seen. He just assumed that being told by Clark to be wary of Lex was enough. But this wasn’t just a matter of respecting her decision. Superman knew Lex’s capabilities and treachery. No, she had a right to be angry with him, and yet, he was such an important part of her life. That dog could have done considerable damage and there was no way that Clark could have gotten to her in time. She wondered at times if she’d still be alive if it hadn’t been for Superman.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Clark arrived at the Jeep. He was both concerned and excited. After Lois told him about the attack dog, and that she didn’t have time to find anything in the trailer other than the computer which she hadn’t managed to start, he told her that Superman had closed up the trailer, leaving the confused dog in it. He, on the other hand, had lucked out. He had found the trench coat with the missing button and a pair of very stiff gloves that he would turn over to Henderson.

They decided that they would pay a daytime visit to the construction site, but first Lois allowed Clark to drive her home. She was more shaken up than she expected after her confrontation with the guard dog. She didn’t argue with Clark when he escorted her to her apartment. Instead, after he had asked her a half a dozen times if she was all right and she told him emphatically that she was, he gave her a reassuring hug and left.

At home, getting ready for bed, she admitted to herself that she was more shaken than she let Clark know. It wasn’t only the dog that upset her, it was also Superman. She didn’t know how she would get over her feelings of betrayal. Why had she put this man on a pedestal, this god in tights, when he proved himself to be as unfeeling and unthinking as any other man? Like other men, he tried to tell her what to do, how to do her job, how to lead her life. At least Clark cared enough to warn her over and over again about Lex. She, in her most stubborn guise, failed to listen to him. It served her right in some ways, and she considered herself lucky that it was Clark, or at least her memories of him, who came back to her on the day of her aborted wedding and saved her from saying the shackling "I do".

Clark had become a very important part of her life. Yes, he was her partner and her best friend, but she realized that he was more. When she first knew him, he was a hindrance, a country yokel trying to make it in the big city. But, she knew almost immediately, although she wouldn’t admit it to him, that he was bright, witty and worldly. He wouldn’t get eaten up in the big city. Later on, he became her indispensable partner. She didn’t know exactly when that happened, perhaps in Smallville. Watching Trask aim his revolver at Clark scared her. The relief she felt when Trask sank into the pond was palpable. From that time on, she felt that her relationship with Clark had changed until she had brushed off his admission of love for her and accepted Lex’s proposal. What a mistake! To make matters worse, he withdrew his disclosure, before she could tell him that she also cared for him, that she loved him.

What would she do without Clark whose apartment she ran to when she needed someone to talk to, whose strong arms were available whenever she needed them, whose voice of reason calmly kept many of her off-the-wall impulses down, whose mind and imagination kept up with her, and she had to admit, even surpassed her at times, and whose heart had drawn hers in. Too late, she thought. Just as she finally admitted that she saw her partner in a different light, he was involved with another woman. Lois could kick herself for being so stupid.

She lay down in her bed, taking her teddy bear that Clark had won at the Smallville Corn Festival. "Good night, Clark," she whispered to the small stuffed toy as she hugged it closer to her.

***************

After Clark dropped Lois off at home, he flew a patrol around the city and, seeing that it was a quiet night, made his way to back to his desk at the Daily Planet. He decided to research Paul Drake’s role at LexComm. After hours of reading reports, Clark was disappointed. Mayson’s father seemed to be a straight arrow. He was a sharp engineer coming up with some very innovative ways of expanding telecommunications from which LexComm had profited. But Clark couldn’t find anything illegal. He realized that Luthor was very smart, covering up his illegitimate activities with legitimate ones, but he knew that if he traced the right threads he could make the necessary connections that would show how Drake was Luthor’s pawn. On the other hand, perhaps Drake was one of the legitimate workers, but had uncovered nefarious activities. Clark did a little more digging about other projects coming out of LexComm. Nothing satisfied his curiosity. The only explanation, then, was that Drake had knowledge that was outside the ken of Clark’s area of expertise.

Frustrated, Clark left the Planet building by the roof and took off into the cool night air.

Lois was right. Who was he to tell her how to do her job, if he wasn’t fulfilling his role as a friend. He could have gone to Lois, as Superman, and told her his suspicions. She would have believed Superman. He could have told her that night when she asked him if they had a future. He could have said the same "No" while at the same time warning her about Luthor.

He knew exactly why he didn’t. That night, he was hurt and angry. He could have spoken to Lois as the wedding date got closer....but Clark had challenged her to investigate. Lois hadn’t taken up the challenge; instead, she blindly went ahead with her wedding plans. That was in the past. Now, he just had to figure out what to do next.

He circled the city one more time before heading for bed.

****************
Lois was frustrated. Traffic was almost at a stand-still. The reporter on the local radio station announced that a jack-knifed tractor-trailer on the I-83 necessitated the rerouting of traffic through the city’s core. "Tell me something I don’t know," Lois muttered. She sat behind the wheel, having given up trying to weave her way ahead, grumbling about how futile the day had been so far. Her interview with Bill Church Jr. had revealed nothing new at all. Church, brazenly sitting back in his Brooks Brothers gray suit playing with a Cuban cigar between his manicured fingernails, happily explained the working of land acquisitions, the treachery of making one’s way through the labyrinth created by city bureaucracy, zoning by-laws and the committee of adjustments, and the up and downs of dealing with a variety of tradesmen and unions. But, in the end, the man had said nothing new or illuminating. She was no further ahead than when she had entered his office.

Meanwhile, Clark hadn’t said anything. Instead, he had played with his glasses and wandered around the office, gazing at the paintings on the wall, peering out the window to the city below them, picking up the sculptures on the desk, browsing through the well stocked bar in one corner, and glancing through magazines on the coffee table in the centre of the office. When they had finally left Church’s office, Clark had ambled over to the secretary who was typing something on her computer, and thanked her profusely for giving them access to Mr. Church. He had then flashed his prize-winning, full white-tooth smile at her. Lois could see the bimbo who worked for Church melt under his gaze. In the elevator, she told him that she might as well be working on her own, all the help he was during the interview. He just smiled that irritating all-knowing smile and shrugged his shoulders. When they were back in her Jeep, she asked him why he was sucking up to Miss Bimbo. He surprised her by saying that he had a chance to look at what she had been typing. A letter addressed to William Turner asking him to begin the acquisition of land around 2047 Bayside Avenue and to expedite the rezoning of the area.

Reluctantly, Lois admitted that she was impressed with what Clark had accomplished. It was more than she had in her interview with Church.

Afterwards, she had dropped Clark off at the courthouse where he said that he was meeting the assistant D.A. for lunch. She realized that it was not a business meeting that he was attending there, and she wondered, not for the first time, exactly what Clark’s relationship with Mayson Drake was. And she realized that she was not happy with his going on a luncheon date with her. They had work to do, after all.

No. That wasn’t the reason, and she knew it. She didn’t want Clark to see Mayson on a social basis, on a dating basis. Although she had told Perry that she knew she wouldn’t lose Clark’s friendship, she was worried that if he got involved with Mayson, her relationship with her partner would drastically change. And she liked their relationship exactly the way it was, didn’t she?

But now she had more important work to do. She entered a number on her cell phone. When she got a positive reply, she pulled a quick right into one of the side streets and threaded her way to the Metropolis Central Police Station parking lot. She needed to learn what more Henderson had found out about Stan and Al.

tbc...