Home: Murder By Earthlight -- 10/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"Probably. I also looked up Stephanie."
"Oh?" He looked quickly at her. "Find anything interesting?"
"Some," Lori said, keeping her voice carefully bland.
He wasn't fooled. "What?"
"Five years ago, she was accused of stalking a colleague at her place of employment. He took a restraining order out on her, which she subsequently violated. She pleaded no contest to the charge and was sentenced to six weeks of community service."
"Anything else?"
"No," Lori said, "but I can't say I'm reassured."
"At least it was pretty minor," Clark said.
"At least," Lori said. "But I think I'll keep an eye on her anyway."
"Me too. Now, which tours did Johnson sign up for?"
Lori told him. Clark nodded. "I guess we're going to see the Rainbow Caverns up close," he said. "And you wanted to try flying in Heinlein's Cave."
"I still do," Lori said. "What time is it in Metropolis?"
Clark glanced at the wall clock, which showed the time zones on Earth as well as local time. "About eleven in the evening."
"Then," Lori said, "I need to give Carla a call. I hope she's not out to dinner with Connor, or something, or in bed, because this can't wait. If anyone can track down where Talbot Grey was just before he came to Luna City, she can do it."
"While you're doing that," Clark said, "I just thought of something."
"What?"
"It's past midnight here, and dinner was a long time ago. I'm going to order something from Room Service."
**********
And now, Part 10:
In spite of the short night, Lori and Clark were out of bed at 0600, and, half an hour later, were entering the hotel's café. As usual, the place was moderately crowded but Lori only recognized four attendees of their convention sitting at the small tables that dotted the room. She nudged her husband. "Tal is here," she remarked softly.
"I noticed," he said. They followed the hostess toward a corner table and Lori noted that Talbot Grey, after one swift glance at them, had lowered his gaze to his breakfast.
"I wonder why he's up so early," Lori said. "The next presentation doesn't even start for hours."
"I could venture a guess," Clark said, "but you already know what it is."
"Yeah."
As they took their seats, Lori happened to glance back toward the entrance and her eyebrows snapped together. "Well well, look what the cat dragged in," she remarked acidly.
Clark didn't look around. "Don't tell me. Stephanie?"
"Yeah. And dressed like she's headed for the local red light district -- as one of the employees," Lori said.
Clark grinned. "Do you know I kind of like it when you're in this mode? Not that I like it when you're annoyed, but it's nice to see you staking your claim publicly."
Lori snorted. "I decided that if Stephanie wanted to give me the name, I might as well live up to it," she said. "She's on my enemies list as of last night." Her eyes narrowed. "She's headed over this way."
"Great." Clark turned his head to study the screen in the middle of their table, presenting the fare available to diners. He pressed the button that transmitted his voice to the café's computer. "I think I'll have the Full Moon Madness breakfast."
"It's a darn good thing you don't gain weight," Lori remarked. She pressed the transmit button. "I'll have the low-cal special -- the Crescent Moon." She hadn't removed her eyes from Stephanie as the woman slithered her way across the floor toward them. The eye of every male in the room was on her, but she was looking at Clark. She came to a stop by the table and leaned forward in a manner that made Lori fear for a moment that the low-cut blouse would be unequal to the task of containing the weight within.
She had reckoned without the lower gravity of the Moon. The contents of the blouse stayed inside -- barely. Lori gritted her teeth. "Forget your bra?" she asked sweetly.
Stephanie turned so that Clark could look directly down her neckline. Clark, however, shifted slightly so that his gaze rested on Lori's face. "Was there something you needed, Ms. Brook?"
"Ms. Brook?" she said coyly. "Clarkie, what a way to talk? I just wanted to return these." She laid a mass of black silk down on the table. "You left them behind, you know."
Clark met Lori's gaze. "You were right."
"I guess so." She found that she was struggling to contain a sudden fit of giggles. She reached out and picked up the black shorts, held them up and spread them out in such a way that no one watching could fail to realize what they were. "Making a collection?"
"Just returning them to their owner," Stephanie said loftily.
"I guess I'll need to buy you a few more sets," Lori said, addressing Clark. "They do look awfully good on you. They complement your complexion so well. But you know," she added, "you look even better without them." She smiled at Stephanie. "What did you think of his tattoo?"
Stephanie gaped at her for a moment apparently nonplused by her attitude. "His tattoo?" she said.
"Sure. The heart-shaped one on his butt that says --"
"Lori!" Clark said, sounding almost shocked.
"Oh, but Clark, darling," Lori said sweetly, "if you and Stephanie did what she claims, surely she knows what you had them put on the tattoo. Don't you, Stephanie?"
"I'm afraid I wasn't looking there," Stephanie said, somewhat stiffly.
"Oh?" Lori said. "That's funny, because the view is worth it." Clark, she noted, was in the process of turning three different shades of red. "How about the one on his chest? Surely you saw that one?"
Stephanie opened her mouth and closed it again. Lori got to her feet. "You see, there's one thing you haven't taken into account. I trust Clark, and you can't change that. You stole those boxers when you broke into our room last night. I don't know what kind of idea you've got in your sick little brain, but I'm getting very bored with this whole charade. I don't care if you do a striptease right here in the café; he's one fish you aren't going to hook, no matter how long you dangle your bait in front of him." She leaned forward, until she was almost nose to nose with the blond journalist. "Sometimes a guy just isn't interested."
Stephanie seemed struck speechless. She straightened up slowly. "When he tells me that, I'll believe it, but until then --"
"I've already told you, several times," Clark said. "I'll say it again. I'm married to Lori and I'm not interested in anyone else but her. Sorry."
"You don't mean that, Clarkie," Stephanie said. "After last night --"
"There was no last night," Clark said. "Not with you. Not ever."
"We'll see," Stephanie said. She turned and stalked away.
Lori sat down. "What's wrong with her?" she demanded. "I told her, you told her, and she still won't listen!"
"'There are none so blind as those who will not see'," Clark quoted softly.
"I think the term 'denial' just acquired a new level of meaning," Lori said. "Maybe the Moon really does drive some people around the bend." She picked up the black shorts and stuffed them into her shoulder bag. "So," she added, changing the subject firmly. "Which tour did you sign us up for first?"
Clark's cheeks were still noticeably pink, but he resolutely didn't look around at the various patrons of the café, some of which were still watching their table with interest -- those that weren't watching Stephanie stomp from the restaurant in an obvious rage. "Well," he said. "Heinlein's Cave doesn't seem a likely hiding place. There are people all over the place, and it's pretty thoroughly cleaned and maintenanced every day. If he tried to hide the things there, somebody would probably find it and drop it off in Lost and Found. Or maybe steal it, although theft is fairly rare here in Luna City. The Rainbow Caverns look like a better possibility, at least to me. They grow produce in the caves, but there's a lot of places that people stay away from. You can get lost if you don't stick to the marked trails, or the cultivated parts. I thought we'd try that one first, and then the Agricultural Tour. We can try Heinlein's Cave if the other two don't pan out. I'll ask Joanna to record the presentations for us again if we don't make it back before they start."
"Sounds reasonable to me," Lori said. She looked around as a young woman approached with a coffeepot. She poured the beverage into their over-large cups and smiled. "Your orders will be ready in a few moments," she said. "Is there anything else I can bring you in the meantime?"
"No, thank you," Clark told her. He was already loading his cup with cream and sugar. The woman glanced surreptitiously over his muscular frame and turned away. Lori smiled. Even though it occasionally led to situations like the current one with Stephanie, it was nice to realize that other women envied her the superb physical specimen to whom she was married. She poured a single container of cream into her coffee and stirred in a teaspoon of sugar. After the birth of their baby girl, it hadn't taken her long to regain her figure, and even the few tiny stretch marks that she had acquired in the last couple of months of the pregnancy had vanished, but she wasn't anxious to risk gaining a lot of weight. Fortunately, the enormous appetite that she had possessed while Mary Lucille had been on the way had vanished after the child had weaned herself the previous month. Lori hadn't been eager to stop nursing her baby, but Mary, with the usual determination of the Kent females, apparently had decided that enough was enough, and hadn't given her mother a choice. It figured, she thought, with resignation. Mary was probably going to be a handful growing up. If Mariann was to be believed, Mary Lucille came by it honestly. Besides, if she was indeed a distant relative of Lois Lane, she was probably lucky. It could have been much worse.
"You look like you're thinking hard," Clark said. "Care to share?"
Lori smiled a little, shaking her head. "I was just thinking about Mary. I have the feeling that she's going to be one of those kids that will give me white hair early."
"Oh." Clark grinned. "Well, Lois's didn't start to gray until she was in her eighties. Ronnie said it was probably my influence on her, but I think it was just Lois. Lara and Annie would have driven most ordinary women out of their minds, though, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mary takes after them."
"Great," Lori said, but she smiled. "I'm glad. I don't want any son or daughter of mine to be a wimp."
"Somehow, I doubt that will be a problem," Clark said. "Her mom sure isn't." He eyed her suggestively. "Son or daughter? Do you mean you're thinking of more children?"
"In a few years," Lori said firmly. "Not just yet."
Clark grinned. Then he raised an eyebrow at her. "Tattoo?" he added. "'The view is worth it?'"
"Oh that," Lori said. "Well, I had to say something. I knew she wouldn't be able to answer that right, and she knew I knew it. And," she added, "the view *is* worth it."
"Well, I could say the same about you," he pointed out.
"Well, maybe for you, but I doubt Stephanie would be interested," she said, with her trademark practicality. "It's you she's drooling over. I can't say I can criticize her taste, either -- just her sense of personal boundaries."
"Whatever the problem is, it won't do her any good -- and if she doesn't leave me alone, I'm considering taking out a restraining order," Clark said. "I will, if she keeps this up after we get back to Earth -- which I hope she won't."
"You think it's just because of the convention?" Lori asked.
"I don't know," Clark said. "Maybe it's just the challenge. I hope so."
"So do I," Lori said. "But I doubt it. Why the heck do we attract so many psychos?"
"Ronnie says it's karma," Clark said philosophically. "Maybe she's right."
**********
The crowd of tourists for the Rainbow Cavern Tour was mostly assembled when they arrived an hour later. The Rainbow Caverns tour was a combination of riding and walking, and Clark told Lori that it would definitely provide moments where Johnson could have concealed the bag where it wasn't likely to be found, at least immediately. Probably, he had intended to return within 24 to 48 hours to retrieve his property. There were plenty of places where something as small as the piece of luggage that Clark had seen could lie unnoticed for days. Lori looked around the waiting room, noting the illustrations on the walls of some of the engineers and excavation personnel that had found the huge cavern complex. Men and women in the old-fashioned clothing of the time, some seventy years before, all smiling stiffly out of the framed pictures at the crowd of chattering tourists. She moved closer to the pictures, looking for familiar faces. Sure enough, there was CJ, handsome and distinguished among his less spectacular colleagues -- "Dr. Clark J. Kent, Xeno-Environmental Architect", and, a few pictures further on, a much younger "Rachel Greer, Junior Structural Engineer of the Luna Company's Lunar Mining Team."
Somewhere in the background, a soft, feminine voice announced a five-minute warning for the start of the next tour and Lori returned to Clark, who was standing near the rear of the room. They had decided to place themselves at the back of the tour group in case he had to leave the group unobtrusively.
The door opened again and three latecomers entered the waiting room. Lori glanced idly in their direction and stiffened. She nudged her husband in the side.
"What?" Clark asked.
"We've got company," Lori said softly.
Clark glanced casually at the doorway and Lori could feel the muscles in the arm he had put around her waist tense slightly. "Curiouser and curiouser," he murmured in her ear.
Talbot Grey and Stephanie Brook joined the crowd of waiting tourists. Lori looked away from Stephanie's venomous gaze, and the shiver that had run down her neck and shoulders the night before, when she had thrown the woman out of her hotel room, was back. Grey and Stephanie were supposed to be attending the presentations that began in about three hours. It was, of course, possible that they could take the tour and still get back in time, but Lori refused to deceive herself over the possibility that the two journalists were here by accident. Stephanie and Talbot Grey were following Clark and her. Were they working together? If not, it was certainly an interesting coincidence. But how would Talbot Grey have any idea that she and Clark knew about the bag?
In any case, as Clark said, things had definitely gotten curiouser. Talbot Grey lifted a hand to her and smiled primly, in sharp contrast to Stephanie's hostile stare. Lori smiled back, and saw Clark raise a hand in greeting.
The double doors at the front of the room opened and a pair of the attraction's tour guides stepped through.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," one of them said, her voice amplified considerably by the pin-mike that Lori could just spot on the collar of her uniform. "Welcome to the Rainbow Caverns Tour. As you may know, the Rainbow Caverns were discovered not long after the first mining expedition arrived here, to establish the foundations of what eventually became Luna City, the first and oldest city on the Moon. The Caverns are enormous quartz caves, and, of course, the quartz refracts the lighting to produce the beautiful rainbow colors for which they are justly famous. If everyone will just step this way, our Cave-mobile is ready to take everyone to the cavern entrance, from which we will start our tour. Part of the way will be accomplished on foot, but you're cautioned to stay on the marked paths for your own safety. Large parts of the Caverns are unsafe, and off limits to the general public. There are a great many caves that haven't been fully explored, and we don't want to have to send in the rescue teams." She concluded the short announcement with a smile. "A word to the wise. We haven't lost anyone on these tours yet, and we don't want to start today. This way, everyone."
The crowd moved obediently forward. Clark and Lori hung back, allowing others to go ahead of them. Grey and Stephanie did as well. Obviously they also intended to be the last persons on the Cave-mobile. At last, they were the only persons left.
"After you," Clark said politely.
"No, please, you go ahead," Tal said, in an equally courteous tone.
Neither pair budged. At last Clark yielded to the insistence of the usher, passed through the doorway, holding Lori by the arm, and walked briskly toward the vehicle. Without hesitation, he guided Lori to the last seat, ignoring the attempt by the guide to shepherd them into the second to last one. The man frowned at them, but said nothing. Stephanie scowled at Lori, but Talbot Grey didn't comment. He merely stood back to let Stephanie board ahead of him.
Lori kept her expression pleasant but noncommittal as they took their places. The guide driving the Cave-mobile revved the motor. "Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times and remain seated," she said, but with a certain cadence to her voice that told Lori that she had spoken the same lines several hundred times before. "Be sure to strap yourself in and remain seated while the vehicle is in motion. The Cave-mobile passes through several narrow tunnels and we don't want anyone to leave any fingers behind."
Lori fastened her harness and put her hands in her lap. The Cave-mobile eased forward and slid smoothly along the magnetic rail. Lori sat back in her seat. Clark slipped his arm around her shoulders. In the seat ahead, Lori saw Stephanie remove her makeup compact from her purse and appear to touch up her lipstick -- except that the mirror was aimed in such a way that Stephanie's eye, reflected in the glass, appeared to be staring straight at Lori. Stephanie was taking a look at her in the mirror.
The Cave-mobile slid into a narrow passage, lit by a couple of floodlights that were fastened to the rock of the ceiling some ten feet above her head. The rock floor was slanting down, more and more steeply, and Lori had to exert all her willpower not to grasp Clark by the sleeve as the Cave-mobile tilted downward at what seemed a dangerous angle and slipped smoothly into the depths of the Moon's surface. The light grew dimmer as the floodlights became farther and farther apart.
"Easy, honey," Clark's voice whispered in her ear. "The Caverns are way below ground."
"Yeah, I know." She grasped the handhold beside her. "I'm okay."
Clark's arm tightened around her shoulders as the steep slant became steeper. Lori reminded herself that the lower gravity made it possible to do things here on the Moon that wouldn't be possible on Earth. These Cave-mobiles traversed this path a couple of dozen of times a day without mishap and besides, the guy sitting beside her was Superman. He wasn't going to let anything happen to anybody.
That reflection helped her relax and look around with more attention to her surroundings. There was no way that Edgar Johnson could have hidden his bag anywhere in this initial part of the trip. If he had hidden it anywhere in here, it was more likely that it had been while he was walking along the tour path, inside the actual caverns.
The cut stone walls opened away suddenly and the Cave-mobile slowed its downward rush, leveled out and slid to a gentle stop at the bottom of the tunnel. Before her, some twenty feet away, Lori could see a rock wall with sliding metal doors set into the living rock, to her left was a platform that looked for all the world like the platform of an old-fashioned train station of the Nineteenth Century, except that it was constructed out of stone. To her right was another platform where a crowd of perhaps thirty persons waited. The tour guide stood up and faced her passengers. "Please exit to the platform on your left," she directed. "As soon as everyone has disembarked, this train will be collecting the party you see to your right to return them to the surface. We'll be entering the first cavern in a moment. Please remember to stay on the trail."
Lori got to her feet and carefully exited the vehicle. The platform was solid under her feet, and she moved back from the edge while Clark jumped lightly out to join her.
The rock enclosure in which they stood was lit by a number of lights set into the wall around them, and Lori became quickly aware of the echoing quality of the place. Voices bounced around, raising the level of noise considerably. The high, shrill voice of a toddler, who was apparently accompanying his parents on the tour, made her wince and cover her ears.
The guide had also disembarked and now stood waiting for the crowd of tourists to sort themselves out.
"You've no doubt noticed," she said, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the voices of the chattering tourists, "that sound is amplified in here. This is also true in the Rainbow Caverns, themselves, so for the sake of everyone else's ears, try to speak in low voices or we'll all be deafened in no time." She cast an experienced eye over the crowd and continued, "If you'll all follow me, we'll begin our tour. This way." She started toward the double doors, which rolled aside as she approached.
As she stepped through the doors, Lori couldn't restrain a gasp at the sight that met her eyes.
The cavern was so huge that it almost felt as if she were standing in the open. Lights from the walls and from above made the place as bright as a spring day on Earth. They stood on a platform that was railed off from the main body of the cave, and across the floor of the cavern she could see row upon row of growing grain. Belatedly, she recalled that Clark had mentioned that the huge caves were used for the growing of food for the Lunar cities. And the walls -- she had seen one of the Rainbow Caverns from the window of their hotel room but from the ground the full meaning of the name was apparent. The walls reflected myriad colors, shifting, brilliant hues as the millions of quartz crystals broke the light from the sun lamps, placed there to grow crops for the inhabitants of the Moon, into every color of the rainbow.
"Wow!" she whispered.
"Spectacular, isn't it?" Clark said.
"Yeah! Wow!" she whispered again. "It's how I imagined the Nome King's palace in Ozma of Oz -- only better!"
Clark grinned down at her. "And no Nome King to transform us into ornaments, either."
"That's always a plus," Lori agreed, trying to look in all directions at once.
The guide waited, allowing time for the initial sight of the Caverns to wear off, and then she spoke. "This way. Please remember to stay on the path. Besides the obvious objection to your getting lost, our agricultural workers don't want to run over you with their equipment, and they don't want you to trample their crops. Souvenir samples of the quartz from the caves is available for purchase at the end of the tour. Please don't take any of the crystals from the caves. Not only is it illegal, it's also considered bad luck by the inhabitants of the Moon." She led the way down four shallow stone steps and along a wide path carved in the rock, bounded on both sides by stone handrails. Clark and Lori hung back to allow everyone else to go before them. Talbot Grey and Stephanie proceeded ahead of them and Grey gave Clark an enigmatic look as he did so.
They trailed their guide along the path, headed toward another set of doors some distance away. Lori stared at the sights, aware that Clark was looking in all directions, searching for any place the bag might have been secreted. It seemed a little unlikely that it could be in this particular cavern, though. The floor was flat and hard near the path, and farther away, on both sides, cultivated plants were neatly arranged in rows. Surely if Johnson had tried to tuck the bag into some hiding spot here, there was too good a chance that some agricultural worker would find it and turn it in to Lost and Found or something.
Lori and Clark trailed the crowd toward the doors at the other side of the cavern and stepped through. Lori looked around, wide-eyed. This was obviously a cavern devoted to the growing of vegetables and ground-growing fruit, such as melons. Their path led them around the edge of the cavern, so close that they could have reached out and touched the crystal-embedded wall. At the end of this cavern, they boarded another Cave-mobile for the next leg of their trip, which crossed the sea caverns that were designed, the guide told them, for the growth of oxygen-producing algae, fish, shellfish and other sea life. Upon reaching the other side, they disembarked and made their way through a narrow tunnel into yet another cavern, which was devoted to the growth of orchards.
They followed the guide along the path that wended between the trees of an apple orchard. Lori stared in astonishment at huge fruit, several times the size of Earth-apples, hanging from the boughs. Flowering trees were surrounded by buzzing swarms of honeybees. The guide pointed out what Lori had already noticed since her arrival in the Rainbow Caverns: the air pressure was considerably higher here than elsewhere on the Moon. That was, the guide informed them, for the convenience of the bees that were used to fertilize the crops. The bees could not fly in the thinner atmosphere that existed elsewhere in the Moon cities.
She was going to have a lot to write about, she thought, irrespective of the murder, itself. She'd had no idea of the kind of civilization that the Moon colonists had built for themselves. It just underlined what she had always believed -- give Humanity half a chance and they would adapt to their environment, and adapt it to them, to form a successful civilization. She was already mapping out the story in her head.
"Any luck?" she whispered to Clark. So far, she hadn't seen any place that would be particularly safe for Edgar Johnson to have dropped off his suitcase, but they hadn't reached the end of the tour, yet.
Clark shook his head. "No, but we haven't gone through the undeveloped caverns yet. There are plenty of places there."
They were approaching the doors into the next section. Another Cave-mobile awaited them, and their guide directed them to take their seats. Moments later, they trundled through the double doors into a tunnel that led to yet another cavern. The doors behind them had barely slid closed when a violent jolt shook the vehicle, followed by a second and a third. The rocks groaned alarmingly around them, and a chorus of screams echoed deafeningly through the tunnel. The lights flickered abruptly and went out. The Cave-mobile tilted sideways, and Lori could swear that it was going over, when it seemed to pause in mid-motion and then slowly righted itself.
It had been Clark, she was nearly sure, who had righted the Cave-mobile. His lips brushed her ear. "Stay here. Don't move." Abruptly, he was gone.
**********
tbc
