Hi Evie!
To relieve the boredom, Lois counted the bricks on the building wall.
Four times in a row.
Then she considered banging her head against them, just for a change of pace.
Why her roommates choose significant amounts of libations to pass the time.
CAT: Did someone mention ‘banging against the brick wall to pass the time’?
LOIS: I was speaking of my head, not Superman.
CAT: Hopeless. I give up.
They were nice enough bricks, she supposed. It’s just that the builders had been so decorative with them that there weren’t as many as there should be on a normal brick wall. The whole bottom corner of the building was just one big foundational stone. It made the counting go a lot faster, leaving her without much of a distraction.
This is fun fun!
The irony wasn’t lost on her that she was facing a brick wall in this investigation, now both literally as well as metaphorically.
And quippy fun
even if her limbs were cramping after endless hours on unforgiving, newspaper-covered concrete.
She called the Star a newspaper!
She heard a car rumble slowly down the alley closer to her.
Just before it reached her, it stopped.
Cops? Or social worker?
An oversized white cargo van.
She felt her sixth sense for trouble kick in, tingling along the back of her neck as excitement rolled down her spine. These had to be her guys!
What if they collect homeless women?
The pair came back out, and she noticed a brown satchel under the driver’s arm. It looked a lot more like something that could hold tiny gemstones!
Maybe they deliver uncut safes into the warehouse and take the extracted diamonds with them to their next stop?
Her eyes slid back to the cab of the van.
He’d left the door unlocked.
She had to get a look at that satchel!
Oh, *that’s* why her danger sense had gone into overdrive!
LOIS: Huh?
“Clark?” She tried again, knowing he would have already been beside her if he’d been within hearing range.
It’d been worth a shot, she thought, but she’d known he wasn’t due back for at least another half hour.
Based on the size of the vans and the size of the crates, these guys would be long gone by the time Clark made it back for their undercover date. Lois shifted impatiently. She needed to get a closer look before the vans drove off and left her with no leads!
At least she can put “see? I tried.” on her gravestone.
she shook off her make-shift paper blankets, smirking as she left the Star in the trash where it belonged, her favorite and most petty stake-out tradition.
/points at earlier remarks/
They climbed into the van.
She pushed off with her back foot —
And a crash rang out!
Oh boy.
See you in the next part! Considering I’m catching up, I don’t mind the shorter parts
Thanks so much for the kind words about the writing. I definitely spend a lot of time to try to amp up the suspense - so happy to hear that it's working!
