Home: Murder By Earthlight -- 5/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"I'm hearing a radio broadcast," he said. "There's been an accident at the solar energy collector."
"What happened?"
"One of the tour groups was at the Luna City Power Plant, out on the surface. A tourist stepped over the safety rail and walked right into the solar beam. He was burned to a crisp, almost instantly." He made a face.
A faint prickle of -- was it premonition? -- crept over Lori's scalp. "Suicide?"
"Looks that way."
"Do they know who it was?"
She watched as he cocked his head in the familiar way that told her that Superman was using his super hearing. His eyes met hers. "You won't believe this."
Lori swallowed at the sense of certainty that descended on her. "Edgar Johnson," she said.
"Yeah," Clark said.
**********
And now, Part 5:
"Let's get back to the hotel," Lori said.
Clark looked at her questioningly. "What for?"
"As soon as that Decker guy realizes what's happened," Lori said, "he's going to want to check out Johnson's room. And it won't be long after that that it will be swarming with cops. I want to see if there's anything there that we can see before that happens." She tugged his arm and he followed her toward the slidewalk.
Clark frowned. "If Johnson is dead, it won't matter," he pointed out. "Even if he stole what they think he stole, he can't do anything with it now."
"Maybe," Lori said. "I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean by that?"
Lori raised her eyebrow at him in such an exact imitation of his own mannerism that he grinned. "Doesn't it seem a little odd to you?"
"Odd?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yes, odd."
He waited, watching as his wife displayed one of the traits that had come directly down to her from Lois: the ability to make deductions from a minimum of information, and to arrive at answers that were more often than not correct or nearly so. "Look, if he's just an innocent party and didn't steal anything from Genie, this could just be an accident or a suicide. But if he did steal their what'sit, it's awfully convenient, don't you think? I mean," she pursued, "if he stole their stuff, they were bound to find out about it and he'd be arrested, either here on the Moon or when he got back. But suppose they thought he was dead? Suppose he's got another identity set up somewhere, so he 'dies' conveniently, goes back to Earth and sets up somewhere besides Metropolis with his new identity and --" She shrugged. "He's home free and clear with a lot of money. How does that sound for a theory?"
Clark considered that for a moment. "I guess it's possible," he agreed.
"So I want to get a look at his room before the cops get there," Lori continued. "Or at least maybe you can look at it, since you saw it last night. Maybe it'll tell us something."
They were approaching the Luna Hilton as she spoke, and stepped from the walk.
"And what," Clark asked, "are we looking for?" It fascinated him to watch her mind work and brought a simultaneous wave of memory. Lori's thought processes, when she was working with a hunch, were amazingly like Lois's. Or, perhaps not so amazingly after all, he acknowledged.
She shrugged. "I have no idea. We'll just go there and you can check to see if anything's different than what you saw last night. Maybe we'll know more once we've taken a look."
"Okay." Clark followed her toward the hotel entrance. "Shall we try to get somebody to record the rest of the presentations for us?"
"Yeah," Lori said. "We've got more important things to do. You know, I'm kind of worried."
"Worried?"
"Yeah. Something's bothering me about this whole affair. I think we need to talk to John as soon as we can and find out if there are any other problems."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, this happened in Marilyn's department. This thing is looking more complicated all the time. I wonder if maybe John's worried that Marilyn might be blamed." She frowned. "Something about this situation smells wrong. Coincidences are all very well, but I don't like them when it comes to crimes. It makes me suspicious."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know exactly," Lori said. "Something just seems funny to me and I can't quite put my finger on it."
That observation was enough to make his hair stand on end. If Lori was suspicious then there was a good reason for him to be suspicious too.
Ten minutes later, they had left Lori's recorder with Joanna Prescott and were headed for the fifth level. Clark, alert for any sign of the Luna City Police, reported that so far the place was quiet. "I guess they haven't finished with the immediate details yet," he said. "Let's not take too long, though. They'll be here soon enough."
Lori nodded. "Just keep those super ears of yours peeled," she said. "We're going to want some warning."
"Don't worry about that," Clark told her. "Black bag jobs may not be my specialty, but I'm pretty good at them anyway."
The floor was quiet when they reached it. A large number of the convention attendees had been quartered on Fifth and most of them were currently in the Galaxy Room, listening to the droning presentation of the latest speaker. He could hear the occasional snore from different rooms, from persons who were on different timetables than they, but for the moment the hall was empty.
Johnson's room, naturally, was locked with an electronic key but the wall was no barrier to Clark's x-ray vision. Standing before the door, he looked straight through it into the room and his eyebrows went up.
Lori was watching him. "What is it?"
"Decker is already in there," Clark said, "searching the place."
"Has he found anything?"
Clark squinted at the scene, examining everything in the room and in Decker's pockets. "No. Not that I can see."
"Well, do you see anything different from last night?"
"I'm looking." Clark slowly scanned each part of the room and compared it with his mental snapshot of it the night before. "There's only one thing different that I can tell."
"What is it?"
"His bags. He had a set of imitation alligator-skin luggage. There was a large suitcase, a medium-sized one and two of those briefcase-sized ones. You remember, he was carrying one when we saw him the first time. One had his toiletries in it and the other had a change of clothes, a razor, a manual toothbrush and paste. One of them is gone." He scanned the small case of computer chips that had been set neatly on the dresser. "Hmm -- and maybe something else."
"What?"
"I'm not sure but I think the box of computer chips isn't as full as it was..." He frowned, silently counting the chips and comparing the result with what he had seen. "Counting the one in his computer, there are two chips missing."
Lori nodded. "Well, did I have a point?"
"Maybe," Clark said. "We'll have to find out if he stuck them in the hotel's security safe for some reason. I can check it on our way through the lobby again but I don't see why he'd do that with a bag full of clothes."
"No," Lori agreed. "I'd say it looks as if Mr. Johnson might still need them."
"I think you're probably right," Clark said. "But if you are, how did he do it?"
"That's what we're going to find out," she said decisively.
"Oh, I agree. But before we do anything else, we need the whole story from John."
Lori nodded. "Why don't you get Superman to take a trip back to the Daily Planet and talk to him. I'll hang around here and see if I can find out anything more. I guess the first step is to get the police report."
"He's coming out," Clark said, nodding at the door to Johnson's room. As he spoke, the door opened and Jason Decker emerged. He moved away from the door so it could close and surveyed the two journalists without surprise. "Mr. Kent and Ms. Lyons," he said. "Fancy meeting the two of you here."
"We could say the same thing," Lori said calmly. "I guess you wanted to check out Mr. Johnson's room before the police got here."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, Mr. Johnson's apparent suicide," Lori said, widening her eyes innocently. "What else could I possibly mean?"
"How did you know about that?" Decker asked.
"I guess we could ask you the same thing," Clark said, giving the man a level stare.
The corners of Decker's mouth twitched. "Fair enough."
"Find anything?" Lori asked.
He shook his head. "No."
"Oh," Lori said. She looked at her husband. "Well, we'd better get busy, I guess."
Clark nodded agreement. "Why don't you give Zeb a call and explain what's happened," he said to Lori. "I'll handle my part."
Lori gave Jason Decker a smile. "Good luck," she said. Together, they turned and departed down the hallway. Clark was aware that the man stood in the hall, watching them until they turned the corner. As they did so, Clark glanced back, giving the other man a quick once-over with his x-ray vision. "Thought so."
"What?"
"He's got the box of computer chips in his pocket."
**********
Some ten minutes later, Superman approached one of the airlocks that led from Luna City out onto the surface of the Moon.
Unlike normal humans who had business outside, Superman wore no tracking bracelet. None of the supermen did, for they were capable of holding their breath for a minimum of twenty minutes and did not need pressure suits. If one of them had reason to think that he would be outside longer than that, a compact air tank was the only equipment that was required. Other than one of the tracking bracelets, no record was kept of persons entering and leaving, so while the man monitoring the airlock might be surprised to see him, it was unlikely that anyone would question his presence in Luna City.
As a matter of fact, the Airlock Monitor looked somewhat dumbfounded when he approached. Clark smiled at him in a friendly way, noting the name on his ID tag. "Could you let me out, Mr. Broughty?"
The man seemed unsure of what to say. "Um -- may I see your identification, sir?"
Clark smiled, gesturing at his costume. "Superman." He levitated a few inches from the surface of the walkway. "Is that enough identification?"
"Uh -- yes, sir." The man triggered the switch that opened the inner door. "Uh --"
Clark paused in mid-step. "Yes?"
"Uh -- will you be coming back, sir?"
"Probably," Clark said. "I've been visiting my cousin, Eclipse. Good day, Mr. Broughty."
"Good day, sir."
Clark stepped into the airlock and waited until the inner lock sealed. Before the air pressure began to drop, he took a lungful of air and waited. Less than a full minute later he stepped out onto the surface of the Moon and launched himself toward the white and blue crescent of the Earth, floating serene and beautiful in the black sky above him. Beyond the planet, the bright disk that was the sun blazed at him, unshielded by any atmosphere. Clark poured on the speed. It was definitely time that he and Lori learned everything that John Olsen knew about Edgar Johnson and the events that had brought him to Luna City.
**********
Zebadiah Kent looked up at the chime of his vidscreen. "Answer," he said.
The image of Lori Lyons flashed onto the screen. The appearance of his great grandfather's young wife always surprised him. He'd seen old pictures of his Great Grandmother Lois, who had died when he had been a toddler, and Lori looked so much like her that it was astounding. He'd met her at the family barbecue the previous summer and had discovered her to be an intelligent young woman, who obviously adored Clark. It was hard to reconcile the reputation that she had established as a successful, hard-nosed, award-winning journalist with the very attractive and apparently harmless girl who had married his grandparent but, as he knew from acquaintance with many of the other females in his family, appearances were often deceiving.
"Hello, Lori," he said. "Can I help you?"
"I think you probably can," Lori said. "I don't want to talk about this over the vidscreen. May I come over to your office?"
He felt his eyebrows fly up in surprise but answered at once. "Sure. Where's Clark?"
"That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Clark went to talk to John Olsen -- something's happened and I have the feeling that there's more to it than we've been told."
"All right." He gave her the address and directions. Lori thanked him and signed off.
**********
Lori exited the hotel room and headed down the corridor toward the elevators. As she approached, one of the platforms descended and slid gently to a stop. Stephanie Brook and two other persons stepped off. Stephanie stopped, regarding Lori expressionlessly.
Lori paused but Stephanie didn't move. At last, Lori spoke. "Do you plan on standing there all day? I'd like to get on the elevator."
The other passengers had vanished down their respective hallways. Stephanie tossed the blond hair back from her face and sniffed but didn't move. "Where's Clark?" she asked.
Lori smiled fractionally. "Why do you want to know?"
"I want to talk to him."
"Oh," Lori said. "He's busy right now. You'll have to 'talk' later, although I doubt he wants to talk to you."
Stephanie smirked. "What's wrong, Lori? Don't you trust your husband?"
"Implicitly," Lori said. "He even told me about his conversation with you last night. But you'll still have to talk to him later."
The smile vanished from Stephanie's face. "What did he say we talked about?"
Lori raised an eyebrow. "He said you propositioned him and he turned you down," she said bluntly.
"Oh he *did*! Well, for your information, *he* propositioned *me* but I --"
Lori snorted. "I can't help your delusions, honey, but I prefer to believe Clark. I've already heard about Brazil and about the things you've said about me since we've been here. Not to mention the 'whipped' comment at breakfast." She paused at the expression that crossed Stephanie's face. "Oh, you didn't know anyone would tell me? You obviously don't know your 'friends' as well as you thought you did." She gave Stephanie a saccharine smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment."
Stephanie didn't move. "What *is* your problem?"
Lori smiled again, this time genuinely. "No problem. I can't help it if you can't get your own man -- but keep your hands off mine. Now, do you plan on moving or are you putting down roots?"
Stephanie scowled and folded her arms. "You and I need to talk, Lori. You need to know a few things about Clark's past --"
"I already know about his past. You seem to forget that he had the reputation of being impossible to seduce -- I already heard that in Alta Mesa, three years ago. So I suggest you go back to the café upstairs and have a nice, cool glass of iced tea -- and then a long talk with a psychotherapist. Now are you going to get out of my way or do I have to call Security?"
Stephanie stared at her as if she couldn't believe her ears. "What are you talking about?"
"I said get out of my way. Is that clear enough?"
Stephanie hesitated and then stepped slowly aside. Lori went past her to the elevator.
"This isn't over," Stephanie said.
"Yes it is," Lori said. "Leave Clark alone." She met Stephanie's bright blue eyes levelly. "Lobby," she added.
**********
It was late afternoon over Hawaii when Superman entered Earth's atmosphere. Below him rolled the Pacific Ocean and he streaked eastward, leaving a clap of sound in his wake. Within seconds, he was over North America and rocketing across the Midwest on his way toward Metropolis.
Night had fallen over the East Coast and Clark made his way to the home of John and Marilyn Olsen. Silently, he touched down in the back yard of their home and walked up to the patio door. Lights on beyond the drawn curtains told him that the inhabitants of the house had not yet retired, so he knocked gently on the sliding duraglass door.
There was a pause while, he was sure, someone inside checked the security system to identify their late night caller, and then the door slid open. John Olsen smiled. "Hi, Clark. I figured we might be seeing you before long. Come on in."
Clark obeyed. Marilyn Olsen was seated on the sofa and she looked up with a smile. "Hello, Clark."
"What's going on?" John asked.
"That's what I need to ask you," Clark said quietly. "Lori had a hunch that there was more to the story than just a possible corporate theft and, if there was, we didn't want to risk using the communications line from Luna City. Is there?"
John glanced at his wife. Marilyn looked back and there was a long pause.
"Yes," Marilyn said.
"Want to tell me about it?"
"I guess we'd better," John said. "How did Lori know?"
"How does she ever know?" Clark said. "Some things happened and she had a hunch -- but I'd been wondering, too."
"What happened?" John asked.
"Why don't you tell me what the problem is here and then I'll tell you what's going on there," Clark said. "Lori is checking some things out and I need to get back as soon as possible."
"Fair enough," John said. "There isn't really much to tell. The computer audit found that Johnson had accessed the files on a very new, radically different piece of technology that Genie's people are developing -- and that someone made copies of the relevant files."
"Nothing else?" Clark asked.
"Unfortunately, there is," Marilyn said in a subdued tone. "They found that my electronic signature was also in the security log -- except that I didn't access the files. I'm on suspension until the situation is cleared up."
Clark was silent for a moment, digesting that. "I wish you'd told Lori and me that," he said. "That explains why the investigator wouldn't tell us anything. Can you give me any idea what the technology was -- what it was related to, I mean. I don't need a technical explanation."
Marilyn hesitated and glanced at John. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."
"You know Lori and I won't pass it on to anyone," Clark pointed out. "What I need to know is who might be interested in it."
"I can tell you that," Marilyn said quietly. "It's a new, more efficient method for harvesting minerals in an airless, near zero-gravity environment."
"Like the asteroid belt," Clark said.
"Yes."
"Thanks. That gives us a clue where to look," Clark said.
"What's happened with Johnson?" John asked. "You said Lori figured out there was more to this than corporate theft. What was it?"
"Johnson was apparently killed a couple of hours ago," Clark said.
"Killed!"
"Apparently," Clark corrected. "Lori thinks differently, and so do I."
"What do you mean?"
"We suspect he may still be alive," Clark said. "If he is, it raises a whole bunch of new questions, but what you've told me helps." He got to his feet." I need to get back. I have a suspicion that we don't have a lot of time to figure this out." He smiled at Marilyn. "Lori and I will do our best, Mari. That's a promise."
"I know you will," she said. "If anyone can figure it out, you two can."
Clark turned to John. "We'll try to keep you informed," he said.
"Just solve it," John said. "Marilyn's reputation and career are at stake."
"I know," Clark said.
**********
tbc
