Dead or Alive pt 9
Martha and Jonathan stood beside Perry and Lois on the other side of the cemetery wall. A sound of awe went up from the crowd as the red and blue clad man shot up out of the earth. Dirt flew in all directions, landing as Superman stopped to hover above the graveyard. His face looked serious. He didn't wave. Cameras flashed while microphones were held high above reporters' heads.
Martha breathed a sigh of relief. He'd gotten out in spite of all the kryptonite around. She was overwhelmed by what had happened. But boy was he going to get it.
Jonathan felt the same way. That son of theirs had gone too far. He may just have been better off staying in that coffin for all his getting out was going to do for him.
Still, Jonathan was relieved to see his son in the air again. Metropolis needed him.
Superman raised his fist, bent his leg and flew over the city and out of sight. The display was over. It was time for the weary parents of the wayward superhero to go home, or at least go back to his apartment.
"Perry, do you want to come home with us?"
"No, Jonathan. Thank you. Alice will be anxious to see me. Not to mention getting the paper out today. It's certainly been some day. I'm just glad he's out of that box. I must say, I had my moments when that kryptonite bullet landed in the coffin."
"You saw it land? I only saw the glow when Lois opened the coffin and took it out." Martha exclaimed.
Lois was watching the air above them. He was out. Thank heavens. She'd thought her world was going to fall apart when he'd been dead. Whatever had possessed him to fake his own death? Sure he'd told her, but that seemed like a pretty feeble excuse. Surely her getting mad at him wasn't enough for him to give up everything. She'd find out. What had he said about that red kryptonite? It had been in the hallway of the hospital outside the morgue when she'd found it. How had it gotten there? The hospital must have had video monitors in the hallways. Superman couldn't have brought it in, he'd come in the ambulance. He'd not had it in the clouds when they'd been together just before he’d fallen out of her window, so how had it gotten there?
Perhaps he'd been around it before they'd been in the clouds together, too. That would account for how he'd let her fall. That was certainly not like Superman to be careless. If anyone was careful, honest and honorable, it was Superman. This half of a person masquerading for Superman was certainly not the man she knew and loved. But red kryptonite could change him. It had done it before. What had he said, Perry's son had given him some? And what was all that about a desk?
He didn't have a desk. As far as she knew, he didn't own anything but his suits. Something very fishy was going on here. What was that about Clark Kent, too?
How was he linked to this? Hey, where was he anyway? She looked around. "Perry, where's Clark?"
Perry glanced around. "He's around here somewhere. I saw him earlier."
"Oh." she looked around at the crowd. Clark was tall, his head would be slightly above the rest, but she didn't see it. "Perry, where has Clark been? I haven't seen him in a few days."
"He took some time off work. He was pretty shook up about Superman's death."
"Phoney act, you mean."
"What do you mean, Lois? You saw he was dead the same as we did."
"I talked to him on my cell phone. He certainly wasn't dead. He never was. He was just brain dead, that's all. Red Kryptonite." She pulled the piece out of her pocket that she'd removed from the casket a few nights earlier.
Martha, Jonathan and Perry gasped, each in their own way. "Where did you find that, Lois?"
"It was on the floor in the hospital hallway outside the morgue."
"How'd it get there?" Perry wondered aloud. Clark had been acting very strangely the day he wrote that 'Superman died' article. He'd left the office with Lois, in fact. That's right, she'd told him she was taking Clark to find out about Superman's missing body at the morgue. So Clark must have had it in his pocket. That's why she'd practically had to drag Clark out of the office. He shook his head. Clark would be feeling pretty guilty about now. When had its effects worn off?
"It was in Clark's desk drawer, Superman told me."
"He said that?"
Lois nodded, pulling her sachel strap up over her shoulder. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."
With that, Lois turned on her heel and headed out into the crowd, back to her jeep. She wasn't interested in getting this Superman reappearance story for the paper, she was interested in finding out about that piece of red kryptonite.
She got in and started the silver vehicle, driving it slowly through the crowd that showed no interest in leaving the scene of Superman's appearance.
She parked in front of the hospital and headed inside. Sure enough the hallway where she'd found the kryptonite had a security camera mounted on the corner of the ceiling at the far wall. She's need to see that tape.
"Hello, I'm Lois Lane, Daily Planet."
"Pleased to meet you, Ms. Lane. Please come in. What can I do for you today?"
"Mr. Smith. I'm trying to find out about suspicious circumstances that surrounded the death of Superman, but more importantly, about the disappearance of his body and its reappearance at the morgue. I would like to have a look at the tape that your security camera recorded in the hallway outside the morgue."
Mr. Smith leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ms. Lane, you know that we are very limited by the privacy laws that surround our patients."
"Yes, sir. I am very aware of that. However, I beleive that the security of this hospital has been compromised. I believe that with my skills as an investigative reporter, I can find the information that will explain his disappearance."
"I see."
"Mr. Smith. I'm sure that Metropolis General doesn't want to be accused of wrongly sending a live man for embalmbing, does it now? Declaring a man dead when he isn't, is a very serious matter."
Mr. Smith looked at his fingernails. "Ms. Lane. I'm not sure what you hope to find on that tape, but I can assure you that my security team will go over it with a fine tooth comb if you feel your paper needs this information. I can't release the tape to you, however. Privacy laws you know.
"Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Smith. May I speak to the people who will be looking at that tape?"
"Ms. Lane, I assure you that if we find anything amiss, we will give you a call."
Lois stood up, pulled a business card out of her wallet and handed it to Mr. Smith.
"Thank you again, Mr. Smith. I hope you'll call me if you find anything unusual."
Lois turned on her heel and left the room. Shoot! That didn't go very well. She'd just have to get that tape herself.
She walked down the halls of the hospital, looking for the security office. There it was. She knocked on the door and pushed it open. "May I help you, Ma'am?"
"Hi. I was just looking for the ladies room. Could you tell me where it is, please?”
The woman behind the desk looked up at her. “There's one in the hallway, just outside."
"Oh, thank you so much." Lois looked around the secuirity offices quickly, spotting a row of neatly labeled video tapes, then turned to leave.
The sign on the door indicated that the security office was open from 9-5. However, security being what it was, there would probably be someone there all the time.
Lois put her satchel back in her vehicle, then returned to the hospital. She found a storage room, ducked inside and searched for some housekeeping clothing. When she found something suitable she put it on. She pushed her hair up under the cap, put a mask on her face and found a trolley with cleaning supplies.
It was nearly five. She pushed the trolley out of the storage closet and headed slowly down to the elevator, then down the hall to the security room. Just before five, she opened the door and pushed the cart in. The woman behind the desk didn't take much notice of her as Lois went about emptying the waste basket, then cleaning the window on the door.
She heard the receptionist turn off her computer, collect her things, and push her chair in. Lois moved over to clean the Venetian blinds, her back to the woman who was leaving the room. As soon as the door was closed, she pushed her cart over to the rows of black videos that lined the wall of a room adjoining the main office. She quickly looked for the date when she and Clark had come to the hospital, then searched for the tape labelled S1, the hallway the morgue was located on.
There were several tapes with the same date on them. Lois put all that date's tapes in the garbage container of the housekeeping cart, then looked for the tapes from preceding days, back to the time when Superman had begun his charade. When she backed out of the security doorway, she had many more tapes than she'd realized she'd have to look through.
She returned to the storage closet, found a box and stacked the tapes inside and sealed it. She wished she'd not requested the tapes be looked at by the security staff. Well, she'd deal with that later.
She removed the housekeeping outfit and carefully pulled the door open and peered down the hallway. The coast was clear. She gathered up her booty and walked down the hallway as if she had every right to what she was carrying out of the building.
