Lois walked into the crowded courtroom and spotted Ron Dombrowski on the end of the second row. He was valiantly attempting to hold a place for her against a pair of LNN talking heads beside him.
She tapped him on the shoulder and in her best Vivian Leigh ‘Gone With The Wind’ accent drawled, “Pardon me, suh, but is this heah seat taken?”
Ron’s head floated around and focused on her face. She got a glimpse of how he might look if Halle Berry or Sandra Bullock ever initiated a casual conversation with him. Then his expression fell as if dropping off the Atlantic Ocean’s continental shelf.
“Oh. It’s just you.”
“Gee, thanks for the ringing endorsement.” She lifted her gaze. “Hey! You two move over and let a lady sit down.”
One of the LNN guys began a response. “A lady? I’ll move – “
His buddy broke in and said, “Of course, Ms. Lane, we’ll scoot over. Come on, Sam, give the lady some room.”
Sam frowned. “You’re in my lap as it is, Rex! Let that snooty – “
“Shh!” Rex whispered in Sam’s ear. Sam paled and made himself even thinner.
Lois favored them with a cream-on-her-whiskers smile. “Thank you, gentlemen. I can get you a free trial subscription to the Daily Planet if you like.”
Sam and Rex both shook their heads ‘no.’ She shrugged. “Your loss. If you change your mind, you can just call my office.”
She took her seat beside Ron, who leaned closer and whispered, “Wonder what Rex said to Sam to get him to straighten up.”
“I’m sure I don’t know. Hey, is that the bailiff beside the judge’s desk?”
“It’s called a ‘bench’ and yes, that’s the bailiff.”
“Man! He’s must be at least seven feet tall! You can see that shine off his bald head from orbit! And he looks strong enough to pick up a taxi under each arm!” She shook her head. “Isn’t he something of a joke, anyway?”
“Don’t tell him that. He thinks he’s the ultimate bailiff on the Eastern seaboard, and no one has the courage to tell him different.”
“What about the judge? Surely he wouldn’t argue with the judge!”
“Judge Fields is pretty laid-back too. He thinks a huge, intimidating, and occasionally amusing bailiff helps keep the tension level down.” Ron tried to adjust to a more comfortable position, but failed. “I don’t know that he’s wrong, either. This has been a remarkably smooth trial so far.”
“Just wait till Reisman puts me on the stand,” Lois muttered.
Ron didn’t have a chance to respond. The immense bailiff frowned at the crowd and called out, “All rise, all rise. This court is now in session, the honorable Judge Charles Walter Fields presiding.”
Everyone rose and waited for the judge to enter. He went straight to his chair and whacked his gavel once. “You folks be seated. Mr. Reisman, are you ready to begin your presentation?”
Reisman rose. “The prosecution is ready, Your Honor.”
“Good. What about you, Ms. Hunter?”
Connie stood. “The defense is ready, Your Honor.”
“How wonderful for the beleaguered taxpayers of Metropolis.” Fields picked up his gavel once more and whacked it on the pad. “Let’s get this trial under way, then. Mr. Reisman, the prosecution may present its opening statement.”
“Thank you, Your Honor.” Reisman meandered to the jury box and nodded to several of the jurors. “You folks have a very difficult job ahead of you. You’re going to have to look at the specific facts of a specific case about a very famous and well thought-of individual, to find that he is guilty of the charges brought against him by the citizens of the state of New Troy.
“Superman killed Bill Church. This is a fact that cannot be ignored. Now, every person who causes the death of another person isn’t guilty of a crime. A police officer, for example, who shoots someone in the line of duty, while defending either himself or herself or one or more innocent persons, isn’t guilty of a crime.”
Reisman’s voice intensified. “But Superman was not then and is not now a law enforcement official for the city of Metropolis, the state of New Troy, or the Federal government. In fact, he declined that honor a few months before he killed this man. Superman was most certainly not acting in the line of duty.”
Reisman turned and slowly paced in front of the jury box. “What about a private citizen who kills someone by accident or in self-defense? Is that person always put in jail for this act? No. If one of you were threatened by someone with a weapon, or if your family were threatened, you would be within your legal rights to defend yourself and your family. And if, in your legitimate defense of yourself or your loved one, the person threatening you died, you would not be held legally liable for that act.”
He stopped and leaned on the rail. “But Superman wasn’t threatened. Bill Church wasn’t holding a gun to Superman’s head and threatening to blow it off. He wasn’t threatening another person at the time, much less one of Superman’s loved ones. He entered a private business office without permission and deliberately and unnecessarily killed Bill Church in a particularly gruesome fashion. You’ll soon see just how it was done.”
He straightened and put his hands behind his back. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we all know what Superman has done for us and for others. We all know how he’s sacrificed his time to save people who might very well have died if not for his bravery. He’s prevented property loss and damage, apprehended lawbreakers small and large, and has usually been a positive influence on our young people, unlike many other sports and entertainment celebrities we could name.
“But none of that makes any difference. Superman isn’t on trial for what he’s done over the years. He’s on trial for one specific, deliberate act, one which directly caused the death of another human being. After you hear the evidence, you’ll have no choice but to convict him of the crime of murder in the second degree. I ask you to put out of your minds the good things Superman has done and concentrate on this one very, very bad thing he did. I know you’ll do the right thing. I know you’ll vote to convict him.”
He smiled at the jury and sat down at his table. Connie made eye contact with the judge, who nodded at her.
She rose and began her statement. “Hi, folks. For those of you who don’t remember my name, I’m Constance Hunter. Blair Collins – that attractive young lady seated at our table, the one you spoke with during jury selection – will be helping me to conduct Superman’s defense in this trial.”
She crossed her arms and wandered back and forth in front of the jury. “Mr. Reisman was right about a number of things in his opening statement. He told you that Superman killed Bill Church. As much as I’d like to convince you that’s not true, I can’t, because that’s what happened. We’re not going to try to hide that fact. Mr. Reisman said you have a difficult job to do, and that’s correct, too. He also said you have to ignore what Superman’s done in the past and focus only on what this trial is about, and for the most part, that’s also true.”
She stopped, dropped her hands, and stepped back from the jury box. “But the part about Superman being guilty of murder? That part’s not true. We’ll show you evidence that will prove that Bill Church Senior – supposedly a well-respected, highly successful businessman – was actually the head of Intergang, a well-connected criminal organization involved in anything and everything illegal. We’ll also prove to you that Bill Church was not an innocent victim of a random crime, but was in the process of having more than forty people attacked and killed all in a single night. Several others were lucky enough to escape with their lives, but most of them suffered injuries that will affect them for the rest of their days.”
She stepped closer to the jury. Her voice lowered in volume but increased in intensity. “We’re not talking about someone killing someone else because of a traffic accident. We’re not talking about an argument that got out of hand over the last meatball sub at the corner deli. We’re talking about the demise of a man whose occupation was dealing out death and suffering on a wholesale basis.” She slapped the rail and raised her voice in anger. “Forget the legitimate retail businesses he ran as a front! Forget the charitable works he performed! Forget the homeless shelters he built!”
She calmed herself and backed away again. “Why? For the same reason the DA told you to ignore Superman’s past record. Because the facts that come into sharpest focus are the facts the bear directly on the death of Bill Church. Superman didn’t barge into a church and kill a priest. He didn’t swoop down out of the sky and take a saint or a generous philanthropist or a children’s cancer doctor away from us. He didn’t end the life of a man whose life held joy and good deeds and was full of promise for the future. He took the life of a murderer, a thief, a corruptor of the innocent, a defiler of anything good, a man whose hands were so stained with evil that everything he touched was polluted and foul. That’s the man who died that night.”
She raised her voice again. “And not only that, but Superman’s actions that night put a stop to the terror that Intergang was wreaking on our law enforcement and judicial systems! Do you know how many major news stories have mentioned Intergang in the three-plus years since that night, putting aside the ones talking about what happened that night or about other Intergang leaders who are on trial? I’ll tell you!” She lowered her volume dramatically and lifted her fingers to illustrate the number. “There have been seven.”
She pointed at Superman. “When Superman killed Bill Church that night, he stopped a series of murders, robberies, extortions, and other crimes, the like of which haven’t been seen since the start of the Mafia at the beginning of the twentieth century, or the gang wars in Chicago in the nineteen-twenties. Bill Church’s death prevented countless other acts of violence, some we know were being planned and others that will never be considered, and many that we’ll never know about.”
She stepped closer once more. Her voice took on an intimate, friendly tone. “I’m sure you’ve heard that it’s a bad defense to pillory the victim to gain sympathy for the defendant. I agree, it is a bad defense. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I haven’t tried a criminal case in court for quite some time. But I’m not trying to win your sympathy or push you to make an emotional decision. I’m trying to show you the truth about both the defendant – Superman, a true hero – and the dead man – Bill Church, head of Intergang. I’m going to show you that Superman took Bill Church’s life because he’d seen and heard too much for any law-abiding man to take without doing something about all the death and destruction that floated in Bill Church’s wake.”
She straightened. “The law about second degree murder says you aren’t guilty of second degree murder if you can show that you were under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance, and you had a good reason for being emotionally disturbed. It also helps if the person who ended up dead contributed to this emotional disturbance. That certainly defines Superman the night Bill Church died.”
Connie crossed her hands in front of her and put the tiniest of sobs in her voice. “I’m certain, ladies and gentlemen, that after you hear the testimony of the witnesses and view all the physical evidence, you’ll come to the same conclusion I have, that Superman is not guilty of the crime of murder in the second degree. Thank you all.”
She sat down. The judge paused, allowing the moment to continue. Just before the DA ran out of patience, Fields said, “It’s time to present witnesses and evidence. Mr. Reisman, you may begin.”
Reisman stood and locked eyes with the judge for a moment, then nodded to Melanie Welch. She stood and adjusted a video player which was connected to a large-screen television at the front of the courtroom. “Your Honor, the prosecution wishes to present a videotape recording of the night in question.”
Connie rose. “The defense renews its objection, Your Honor.”
Fields frowned. “On what grounds?”
“On the grounds that the prosecution isn’t planning to show the entire tape. Besides, this evidence shouldn’t stand by itself. It should be buttressed by witness testimony.”
Reisman responded immediately. “Your Honor, this tape establishes the fact of the victim’s death and the manner of it. And it will be buttressed by the testimony of others.”
“The defense is willing to stipulate to the death of Bill Church at the hands of Superman, Your Honor.”
“The prosecution is not willing. The members of the jury need to know exactly how this man died. They need to see just what the defendant did to him.”
“Your Honor, the defense – “
Fields raised his hands. “Enough! You’re both beating a dead horse. Let me reiterate my earlier ruling. The prosecution may show however much or however little it wishes of this tape, as long as what is seen is has a direct bearing on the case.”
Connie frowned. “Your Honor! We – “
“I’m not through, Ms. Hunter. As I stated in my earlier ruling, the defense may also use this tape as evidence, if you so desire, again as long as what is shown to the jury has a direct bearing on the case.”
Fields looked from one frowning lawyer to the other, then said, “Well, like I said before, if neither of you is completely happy with my ruling, I must be doing something right. Mr. Reisman, you may proceed.”
“Thank you, Judge Fields. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, spectators, members of the court, please prepare yourselves for something fairly gruesome. This is a security camera recording from Bill Church’s office made on the night in question. I assure you, I did not make the decision to play this videotape lightly. You must be in possession of all the facts in this case, and this is the primary fact of which you must be aware, even if it’s extremely unpleasant.” He nodded to Melanie, and she started the video tape player.
The scene was that of Intergang’s underground control center. Superman stood facing Bill Church, holding him by the shirtfront. Both of them were in front of a bank of video monitors, each of which showed a different face. Their expressions ranged from irritated to horrified.
Superman’s voice came over the speakers. “You killed a lot of people tonight. One of them was an assistant DA. Her name was Mayson Drake. You blew her up and burned her to death like she was nothing! She meant nothing to you! You have no respect for human life! You murdered her for trying to protect the weak and helpless! You’re less than human! You don’t deserve to live!”
Then Superman lifted Church into the air with one hand and punched his other hand deep into Bill Church’s chest. Church screamed in agony. Then Superman pulled the criminal’s heart right out of his body. Blood fountained onto the monitors, the chair, the floor, and onto Superman. The hero held the quivering organ in front of Bill Church’s face as the former head of Intergang folded in on himself and died.
Melanie stopped the tape. No one in the courtroom spoke. Except for a few gasps or muffled sobs, no one made a sound.
Lois, who had viewed this scene more than three years earlier, was once again shocked by the intensity of the action on the video screen. She turned her head away and glimpsed Ron’s profile.
He was stunned into silence.
Jack Reisman cleared his throat. “I’m – I’m very sorry you had to see that.” He turned away from the jury and rubbed his hands over his face once, then turned back to them. “This is the crime of which Superman stands accused. The woman he mentioned on the tape, Mayson Drake, was an assistant District Attorney involved in the investigation of Intergang. She was also a personal friend of mine.”
His voice steadied and he stepped towards the jury box. “But those facts do not give anyone the right to take another person’s life.” He turned towards the defense table. “Not even Superman.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, then thought better of it and returned to his seat. The judge leaned back in his chair and exhaled. “Ms. Hunter, I know you can't cross-examine a videotape, but is there anything you wish to say or do at this time?”
She stood slowly. “No, Your Honor. As long as we can display other parts of the tape at a later time.”
“You may. Mr. Reisman, call your next witness.”
He stood. “The prosecution calls Jay Chamberlain.”
A tall, slender young man with long, dark, wavy hair stood and came forward. He stopped beside the witness box and faced the bailiff.
The bailiff extended a Bible in his right hand. “Place your left hand on the book and raise your right hand, please.” The young man did so. “Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
“I do.”
The bailiff nodded. “Please take the stand and state your full name.”
“John Jay Chamberlain. I go by my middle name, Jay.”
Reisman stepped close. “Mr. Chamberlain, were you in the vicinity of Superman and Bill Church the night Mr. Church was killed?”
“I sure was.”
“Would you tell us what happened that night?”
Chamberlain gave Superman a fierce glare before speaking. “I was operating the video conference equipment. I’m a certified electronics technician.”
“So you were in the employ of Bill Church?”
“I was working for Cost Mart, actually.”
“Thank you. Go on.”
“The conference had just started when I noticed some interference on one of my channels. It felt like an earthquake at first, but it kept getting louder and stronger and closer, then Superman busted through the wall. I started to shut down the video and audio feeds like I’d been told, but Superman used his heat vision to burn my hands.”
“So you were injured? Before Superman killed Bill Church?”
Jay leaned forward. “Yes! That – the guy nearly fried me! I was lucky to live through it!”
“What happened next?”
“I heard Mr. Church tell Superman he was trespassing and he should leave. Then Superman picked up Mr. Church and – and he – you saw what happened!”
“We did. What else, if anything, did Superman do?”
“He looked at the people in the monitors and told them he was coming to get them and if they made him look for them they’d be real sorry!”
Reisman backed away a step. “Those were the defendant’s exact words?”
Jay waffled his head and hands. “Well, no, but I could tell that was what he meant.”
“Very well. Mr. Chamberlain, do you see the man who did all those things in this courtroom right now?”
Jay’s eyes blazed. “Yes! That’s him right there!”
He pointed to Superman. Reisman turned and looked at the defendant, then nodded to Jay. “Thank you, Mr. Chamberlain.” He turned to Connie. “Your witness.”
Connie stood and smiled at the witness. “Mr. Chamberlain – do you mind if I call you Jay?”
“Go ahead. It’s my name.”
She smiled slightly. “Thank you. Jay, what exactly were you doing in the bunker that night?”
He frowned. “It wasn’t a bunker, not really, just an underground office.”
“Ah. Like Adolf Hitler’s ‘underground office’ in Berlin in 1945?”
Reisman leaped to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor!”
Connie waved her hand. “Withdrawn.” She stepped closer to the witness chair. “Exactly what was your job description that night?”
“I was responsible for the real-time video and audio transmissions. It was a real neat setup. Mr. Church could see and hear all those people and they could all see and hear each other.” He smiled. “That was kinda my baby. You have to be careful with two-way audio, otherwise you get all kinds of feedback – “
“Thank you. You said your hands were burned?”
“That’s right! That super-maniac nearly fried my fingers off!”
“Ooh, that’s terrible, Jay. Tell me, how much work have you lost due to those injuries?”
He seemed to shrink in on himself. “Well, none, really.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“I – uh – I been out of circulation for a while.”
“Out of circulation where?” He didn’t respond. She leaned closer and spoke gently. “Jay? Where have you been for the last three years?”
He met her gaze and spoke harshly. “I been in prison, okay? All because of him!” He pointed at Superman. “That’s the guy who – “
“You’ve already identified the defendant, Jay, we know who he is. Let’s find out some more stuff about you. Have your hands healed or are they still damaged?”
He lifted them so she could see them clearly. “No, they’re okay,” he answered reluctantly.
She made a show of examining them. “Hmm. They don’t look badly scarred.”
He dropped his hands back into his lap. “They’re all right, I guess.”
“So there’s no permanent damage, is there?”
He shifted in the chair. “No.”
“So once you get out of prison, there’s nothing physically stopping you from working in your chosen profession, is there?”
He hesitated, then said, “No, I guess not.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now, Jay, can you tell me what went on in that bunker – I’m sorry, in that office that night?”
“I – I wasn’t really listening. I was watching my equipment, keeping everything running smooth, you know.”
“Really? You don’t know what Bill Church and his associates were discussing that night?”
“No.” She stared at him, but he shook his head. “I swear to ya, I don’t know!”
“You’re telling us you had no idea that Intergang was being run from that bunker?”
“I never paid it no mind! I didn’t do nothin’ wrong!”
“You never did anything wrong there?”
“No!”
“You just took money from thieves and murders, right?”
Reisman almost jumped over his table. “Objection, Your Honor!”
Connie lifted her voice. “Your Honor, this speaks to the witness’s credibility. If he worked for people who broke the law on the scale that Intergang did, he had to know something about what they were doing.”
Fields nodded in thought for a moment, then pointed his index and middle fingers together at the DA. “Objection overruled. Mr. Chamberlain, you may answer the question.”
Jay fidgeted some more. “Look, all I did was make sure they could see and hear each other! I never talked to any of them and they never talked to me! I was paid to not listen, y’know what I mean? I never broke no laws!”
“I see.” Connie turned and stepped towards her table, then stopped suddenly and spun around to face him again. “Jay, if you saw someone in an accident and you could stop to help but you didn’t, wouldn’t that be wrong?”
Jay’s face lost some color. “I – I guess so.”
“If you saw a child drowning in a public swimming pool and you didn’t dive in to save her or at least yell out to the lifeguard, wouldn’t that be wrong, too?”
“Yeah. Guess it would be.”
“Then how can you sit there, knowing what Intergang did that night, and not tell us? Isn’t that wrong?”
“Objection!”
“Your Honor, it speaks to Superman’s state of mind that night – “
Reisman interrupted. “The witness has no way of knowing what Superman was thinking at that point in time! He wasn’t inside Superman’s head!”
Fields nodded. “Objection sustained. Take another tack, counselor.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” She nodded and slowly walked towards the jury box while keeping one hand on the witness rail. “Tell me, Jay, did the district attorney promise you anything in exchange for testifying in this trial today?”
Reisman jumped to his feet. “Objection.”
“Overruled. The witness will answer the question.”
Connie leaned closer as Reisman sat down. “Jay? Did the DA promise you anything in exchange for your testimony?”
He grimaced, then nodded. “Yeah. He said I’d get some time off my sentence.”
“How much time?”
He shrugged. “I was doing seven to ten for conspiracy. He said I could be out in three months or so.”
“Is that contingent on a conviction?”
“Huh?”
Connie smiled. “Is the deal good only if Superman goes to jail?”
“Oh, no. It’s good no matter what happens at this trial.”
“I see.” She pursed her lips in thought. “What will you do when you get out, Jay? You obviously can’t get a job with Mr. Church again.”
He shrugged. “I’m still a good light and sound tech. There’s lotsa bands I can work with.”
“Oh?” She brightened. “You’ve done concert sound for big-name bands?”
“Sure. I worked for LNN as their main video tech for four years, too.”
She took a step towards the witness box and stopped. “Jay, you said your hands were burned. How did that happen?”
“What do you mean, I said it? They were burned! Ask the doctors in the jail!”
She lifted her hands in a placating gesture. “Easy, Jay, easy. I don’t doubt you were hurt that night. I believe you, I really do. Just tell us what happened, okay?”
He pointed at the defense table. “That big – Superman burned them! With his heat vision!”
“I see. He grabbed your hands and held them still while he burned them?”
“Well – no, not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Please tell us what exactly did happen?”
“I was trying to close the feeds – “
“Wait. I thought you said that your job was to make sure the video and audio feeds stayed open.”
“It was. But if somebody came in who wasn’t supposed to be there, I’d shut off the signals to the transmitters and receivers.”
“How long would that process take?”
“The way I had it set up, about four seconds.”
“I see. So, you were trying to turn off the video and audio signals because – why?”
“Cause Superman was there. He wasn’t supposed to be there!”
“Thank you, Jay. Please continue.”
Jay frowned in thought, as though he suspected he might have said something he shouldn’t have, but went on. “I started the shutdown process, but Superman fried the control panel and stopped me! That’s when my hands were burned!”
“So Superman disabled the control console and your hands were burned because they were too close to the panel?”
Reisman tried to object again. “Your Honor, please!”
But Jay angrily lifted his hands in front of him. “He burned me! He burned my hands!”
“How badly?”
“What?”
“Your Honor, I repeat my objection!”
Fields waved him back. “I think we’re past that now, Mr. Reisman. Please continue, Ms. Hunter.”
“Thank you, Judge. Jay, how badly were your hands burned?”
“I couldn’t work! I couldn’t even plug in a microphone!”
“You said the doctors in the jail treated you, right?”
“Yeah, they did.”
“What was their diagnosis?”
“Diagno – oh, yeah. They said they was burned like to a first degree.”
“First degree burns?” He nodded. “Like a bad sunburn?”
Reisman jumped up again. “Your Honor, I object! This witness is not a physician!”
Fields waved his hands before Connie could say anything. “Not this time, Jack. He’s not diagnosing some exotic cancer. Mr. Chamberlain may answer the question.”
He frowned. “Yeah. ‘Bout like a nasty sunburn.”
“But they’re healed now, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Don’t change what he did.”
“But you’ll be able to work when you do get out of jail, won’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
She smiled. “Good. I’m glad to see that you weren’t permanently disabled.”
Reisman stood again. “Your Honor, defense counsel is mocking the witness’s injuries.”
“No, Your Honor, I’m merely pointing out that his injuries were neither life-threatening nor disabling.”
Fields nodded. “The prosecution’s point is valid, Ms. Hunter. Please find another line of questioning.”
“Of course, Your Honor.” She slowly leaned close to the witness box. “Jay, did you see Superman kill Bill Church?”
Jay’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah! He picked up Mr. Church with one hand and stuck his other hand inside him and yanked his heart right out of his chest! There was blood everywhere and Mr. Church screamed for a minute then just went slack like a dead cat!” He sat back. “’Scuse me for being so descriptive, ma’am.”
“That’s okay, Jay. Tell me, how did Superman seem to you at that time?”
“Aw, he was mad, real mad! Almost crazy, like outta control!”
“I see. So, after he killed Mr. Church, Superman killed some other people in the room?”
“Naw. He took off after the other folks Mr. Church was talkin’ to.”
“I see. Did Superman destroy the room itself, or destroy the contents of the room?”
He frowned. “You mean, did he trash the place?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
He shook his head. “No. He just dropped Mr. Church’s body, told the other people he was comin’ to get them, and flew away.”
“I see. He didn’t kill you, of course.”
“Course not! I’m still here.”
“Did he kill the other people he went to find?”
“Uh – no, he didn’t.”
“Then Superman wasn’t quite the out-of-control super-powered monster the District Attorney has been describing, was he?”
Reisman quickly got to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor!”
Connie lifted her hand. “Withdrawn.” She turned and walked towards the jury box again. “Jay, you said you’d run sound for some important bands. Which bands might those be? Have I heard of them?”
His eyes widened. “I hope you have! I did Utopia’s first national tour, and I worked with Carly Taylor in Boston back in ‘92, and Dave Masterson wanted me to go with him on his Europe tour but I didn’t want to leave Mr. Church, and I did the Falcons’ reunion tour a few years back – “
“The Falcons!” She perked up like a teenager. “I was at the Falcons’ show here in Metropolis on that tour! They were great, weren’t they?”
“Oh, yeah, that was a blast!”
“They are such a monster band.”
“They can rock the house better’n anybody else I ever saw.”
She giggled slightly. “I loved that opening number, ‘Takin’ It Simple.’ That’s one of my favorites.”
He tilted his head to one side. “Oh, no ma’am, they did that song in the second set that night. They opened with ‘Loving on Easy Street.’”
She frowned. “You sure about that?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure.”
“Okay. But didn’t they do ‘California Living’ for the second tune?”
“No ma’am, that was the fourth song. They did ‘A Life in a Minute’ second.”
“Oh. I guess I’m remembering it wrong.”
He grinned. “That’s okay, ma’am, as long as you liked the show.”
“I did. Tell me, Jay, did they do the same songs in the same order every night?”
“Not them guys! They changed it up every night to keep from getting bored and to keep the fans guessin’ on what they’d play next.”
“You remember that set list after all this time, Jay?”
“I remember all of them. I was the main sound man. I had to know what was going on.”
“Really? Out of all the concerts they played during that tour, you remember the set list from each show?”
“Sure I do.”
“But you don’t remember what Bill Church was talking about that night?”
Jay’s mouth fell open and stayed open for a long moment. Connie stood still and held his gaze until he closed it again. “Well – seems like I mighta heard somethin’ that night.”
“About what, Jay?”
He looked at Reisman, but there was no help for him there. After another long moment, he said, “Somethin’ about people gettin’ killed.”
“Being killed for what, Jay?”
He sat back and deflated. “For messing around with Intergang’s business.”
“What kind of messing around?”
“Some investigation or somethin’.”
“I see. So Mr. Church ordered more than forty murders because he didn’t want to go to jail, right?”
“Objection, Your Honor!”
“Sit down, Mr. Reisman. The witness will answer.”
Jay looked at his shoes. “Yeah. That’s about it.”
Connie straightened and spoke more sharply. “So Superman broke into a master criminal’s lair, destroyed the audio-video controls and inadvertently burned the tech’s hands, killed the one man responsible for more than forty deaths in that single evening, arrested the lieutenants without harming them, then left without killing or injuring anyone else, and without causing any additional property damage?”
Jay hesitated, but eventually nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”
She smiled warmly at him. “Thanks, Jay. No more questions for this witness, Your Honor.”
Ron nudged Lois in the side of her knee and whispered, “Wow. She’s good. I just hope she never turns her talents to the Dark Side of the Force. She’d wipe us all out.”
Lois nodded back. “That’s for sure. Hey, maybe I’m up next.”
Reisman stood. “Your Honor, we’d like to take a short recess before we call our next witness.”
Fields looked at the clock on the wall. “Very well. Everybody be back in your places with bright shining faces at three o’clock sharp.” He whacked his gavel again. “Court is in recess.”
