A/N: as you may have guessed i don't own lois and clark or remington steele. some guy in LA does. i borrowed a line from the second season episode top copy.
FDK: love it!
mmm…you know what I could go for right now?”
“Let me guess, it’s derived from the coca bean, it has little to no nutritional value, and it’s probably going stale in the cafeteria vending machine as we speak.”
“Three for three Kent, not bad for a farm kid, I may actually have to keep you around for a while.”
Clark smiled as his partner bumped her hip playfully against his own.
Lois dug in her purse for the requisite amount of change, and cursed softly. She was short by ten cents. “Hey Clark, you got a dime?”
“Huh, o sure Lois.” Clark dug in his pants pockets, and then remembered he was wearing his tuxedo. There was little chance that any of his spare change would still be in the pockets. He knew he had a dollar in his wallet, so he pulled the smooth black leather case from his breast pocket…black leather? His wallet was brown, and it defiantly didn’t have a silver fashioner on the front. Clark gave the wallet a puzzled look, and proceeded to open it.
The side panel contained three platinum credit cards, and a discount card for an unfamiliar electronic store. The billfold contained several crisp one-hundred dollar bills, and a few twenty’s. there was also a recite from a tailor named Guido. The middle pockets contained a few business cards, one from the tailor, one from a night club with the name Rocky Sullivan on the front.
“Clark? Claark? Clark?!”
“What? Oh sorry…Lois look at this. I went to get my wallet out of my pocket a second ago and I pulled this out”
“So…?”
“Lois this isn’t my wallet how did it get in my jacket?”
“Did you take it off at any time during the night?”
“Yeah. I gave it to you when we went walking.”
“Well I sure didn’t put it in there. Maybe the person that rented it before you left it in the pocket. Is there any kind of ID in there?”
“yeah...there’s some kind of license in here.” Clark pulled the slick plastic from its holding place, and gasped at the familiar face smiling back at him. “Remington Steele…of Remington Steele investigations.”
“Remington Steele? I thought those offices were based in Los Angeles—“
“Lois, look at the picture.”
Lois mirrored Clark’s eairlier gasp “Clark that’s—that’s Anthony Ruggles, but I thought he was an insurance salesmen him and Myrtle—or Laura whichever-“
The wheels in Clark’s head started turning as he put the pieces together. Laura Holt was married to Remington Steele, he knew that when he rescued them from the alley earlier. So they were private investigators. Why didn’t he see it sooner? He knew, of course, that Remington Steele was a famous LA detective. What he didn’t know was why Mr. Steele, and his wife were masquerading as insurance salesmen, er women—people whatever. Things were getting more and more complicated by the second.
“Clark, what were PI’s doing at Lex’s party? If he’s up to something he certainly wouldn’t invite the closest thing to the police into his dirty dealings.”
“They could be just his friends, or they could be just as dirty as he is…allegedly.”
“No, they didn’t seem slimy to me, actually quite the opposite.”
“Regardless we need to talk to these people find out what they know…that man that Lex had removed, he rattled him really bad. Not to mention that Cretini was there too. And I don’t care how much of a humanitarian you claim to be inviting a mob boss to your party just screams ‘I have something to hide’”
“What about the person who put this in your coat” Lois said gesturing to the wallet in Clarks’ hand “I mean they obviously wanted to send you a message. Maybe they know something about this Steele Character that we don’t.”
“Maybe, or maybe their trying to throw us off Lex’s scent entirely.”
“We should contact Bobby see if he knows anything about our opinionated party crasher and his connection to LexCorp. We should also get a hold to Jeffery Cameo; word on the street is that he and the Cretini family used to do business.”
“I’ll call my friend Raymond at the LAPD, see what he can tell us about Mr. and Mrs. Steele”
“Great, if we hurry I’ll be able to write up my article about your apartment fire, before the morning edition. That way we can get an early start on this.
Early start…damn! He’d forgotten his, or rather Superman’s, promise to look into Mr. Steele’s mugging and give her a call. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks…Steele hadn’t been randomly mugged, Lex—it all lead back to Lex. Lois had told him That Steele and Holt left minutes after that mysterious man had words with Lex Luthour. Steele’s body was found in an alley behind the convention center an hour or so after the man was ejected.
Steele hadn’t been there for Lex, he must have been tracking the guy. A man with whom Lex obviously had some sort of association…
“Lois! I think I know what the connection between Cretini, Lex and that man is.”
“What are you talking about Clark?”
“Just bear with me okay. We broke into Cretini’s office looking for evidence of his involvement in that Jewelry heist last week right?”
Lois nodded recalling with a bit of sadness the fight that had followed “Yeah…so?”
“So, what did the police report say was missing?”
Racking her brain Lois tried to recall everything she’d read “A few jewels, some antique coins, oh and some papers from the safe.”
“The papers! Lois everyone’s overlooked the papers because the other stuff stolen was worth over three quarters of a million dollars. With all that money missing who’s gonna be concerned about the scratchings of an old jewler…”
“I don’t know Clark—“
“Just stay with me please! Misdirection Lois, it’s all about misdirection. We’re looking one way, while everyone else is looking elsewhere. What if there was something in those papers that this guy wanted?”
“Then why would he be talking to Lex? If Cretini was the one who broke into the store then he should have been the one on the receiving end of that tongue lashing.”
“Lex obviously invited Cretini to his party, that means at the very least he’s an associate. Lois what exactly did that guy say to Lex?”
“He said that they had an agreement, something about Protection. He threatened Lex; promised to tell the press”
“Anything else?”
“Nothing…except, he sorta spoke with an accent, German or Swedish I don’t know.”
“That’s it Lois!” Clark clapped his hands like a giddy school boy all the pieces were starting to fit “Lois, Felix Burmeister was Albert Haas’s business partner. They were both German Immigrants. I’ll bet you even money that Burmeister found out what was in those papers and sold that information to Cretini, not knowing that Cretini already worked for Lex Luthour. He must have figured out that the papers were worth more then Cretini was offering, and took them out of the safe before Cretini’s guys got there”
“He then went to Luthour with the information and asked for more money. Lex promised to protect Burmeister from Cretini’s wrath, but he never intended to help him at all. He just wanted to get his hands on those papers”
“Assuming that any of this is true, which I’m not saying it is, what’s it got to do with Remington Steele and Laura Holt?”
“I’ll bet you anything that Steele is here to investigate the Jewelry heist. He must have figured out Burmeister’s connection to all of this, and followed him to the ball last night. Steele must have figured something out, and Burmeister must have…”
“What Clark?” Lois prodded gently, seeing the far away look in his eye.
“Superman told me that a man was stabbed earlier, said the woman with him knew me. That’s why I’m at the Hospital. I found Laura Holt and Remington Steele in the ICU—he’d been stabbed.”
“My god—are you saying that Burmeister tried to kill Remington Steele”
“No, I mean not exactly. I think the person who was supposed to be on the other end of that knife was Felix Burmeister. I think Steele was just in the right place at the wrong time.”
“Clark, what am I doing right now…?” Lois extended her arm toward an invisible target.
“Grasping?”
“Nope try again.” She leaned a bit stretching her fingers further.
“Reaching?”
“Aha! And I am not the only one”
“Lois, I know this is a bit out there but it makes sense.”
“Clark—“
“Lois, how many times have I jumped in head first with you without checking the water level? How many times have we made front page headlines with no more then a hunch? I go along with your hunches because I trust you, you’re my partner and I trust you. I’m asking you to trust me now.”
“I do Clark, I trust you more then I’ve ever trusted anyone in my life. And if this means as much to you as you say, then we’ll look into it.”
Clark gifted Lois with one of his million dollar smiles. His good humor was contagious and she smiled back.
“Come on Clark we’ve got phone calls to make conspiracy’s to unravel, and chocolate, eventually we’ll need to ingest some chocolate.”
Clark laughed as they stepped into the elevator that was his Lois one track mind.
**********************
