PREVIOUSLY FROM THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE...
“So how will this effect you if Paul decides that, because of this, he won’t publish your stories anymore?” Molly asked. “Don’t you have to have a certain number of stories published in the Ink and Quill to pass your year?”
Lois shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess if he starts rejecting my stories because of this, I could go talk to our faculty advisor or something. I just don’t know. And I really don’t want to think about it right now.”
“Okay then,” Charlie said. “How about a change of subject? I have a theory about who might have drugged your drink.” AND NOW...
Charlie’s words got both Lois and Molly’s attention fast.
“Who?” Lois asked.
“First,” Charlie said, “tell me something... Bob Stafford... Does he always take two coffee filters... you know, when he swipes filters from the Ink and Quill?”
“You think Bob...”
“Does he?” Charlie asked, interrupting her.
Lois thought about that for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I always thought it was weird, but why would that make you think...”
“Do you remember when I told you about certain extra items someone needs to make GHB?”
“Filters,” Lois responded, thinking back to that conversation. “But why would two coffee filters make you think Bob’s the one cooking up GHB in some sort of home lab? I mean, why couldn’t he just be making coffee?”
“I read somewhere that one coffee filter is not enough if you want to strain the GHB to change it from a liquid into a powder. But two supposedly work great.”
“Somehow you managed to leave out that little detail,” Lois said.
“Is the number of coffee filters really enough to prove that Bob is the one who drugged her?” Molly asked.
“No, but...”
“It got you wondering if it could be him,” Lois said., as her mind began working to see if he could be right. “Bob was definitely at the party last Friday...”
“And he’s a member of Beta Beta. In fact, if I recall what you told me, he’s some high mucky-muck in Beta Beta...” Charlie added.
“He was definitely mad at you for stealing Linda’s thunder. In fact, haven’t you two had several run ins since you first met?” Molly asked, obviously getting into the spirit of things now that they were examining the evidence.
“So many that Linda used to bug me about it. She’d say that if you like a guy, continually antagonizing his best friend wasn’t good tactics,” Lois said. “And on the night of the party, he did make some sexual comment to me. Something about my need to ‘get laid.’ I wrote it off at the time as just one more clash with Bob because I was more concerned about Joe’s warning about the football players.”
“Also he’s a senior, so he would have been around here last year,” Charlie said.
Lois suddenly reached out, grabbing Charlie’s arm. “Angelina Wesley!”
“What?” Molly asked.
“What about her?” Charlie added.
“Her roommate told us that she was working towards a science degree, hoping to get into med school next year. Bob is a science major.”
“So...?” Molly asked, not seeing the point.
“She could have met Bob in one of her classes. The roommate said Angelina never went on dates,” Lois continued. “And that she didn’t seem especially excited about this date either...”
“...so you’re wondering if maybe it wasn’t a date at all. That maybe she just used that term with her roommate because it was easier than explaining the real reason she was going out,” Clark said.
“Exactly! Maybe she found out what Bob was up to and planned to meet with him in order to confront him about it...”
“...and when she did, he drugged her and killed her.”
“Did you two practice that?” Molly asked, amused.
“But that’s quite a leap,” Charlie said.
“Is it? It fits with what we know about Angelina. The comment her roommate made about thinking the date went ‘better than expected’ always bugged me.”
“Do we have a list of what courses Angelina was taking?” Charlie asked. “It might be interesting to see if there could be a connection there.”
“Uhh... yeah.” Lois grabbed her backpack and rifled through it until she found a file folder containing their research notes. Settling back down, she opened it up. A moment later, she had what she needed. “Advanced chemistry with Dr. Simons at eleven a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Of course, they could have been in one of these other classes together, too.”
“Now all we need is to find out if Stafford was in any of the same classes,” Charlie said.
Both women nodded.
“Hey, wait a minute!” Molly suddenly said, jumping to her feet. “I bet I could get Bob’s class list.”
“How?” Lois asked.
“Alpha Nu Rho’s computer is connected to the university’s computer. So...” She crossed the study, taking a seat at the computer.
Lois and Charlie rose to their feet going to stand behind her, watching silently as Molly applied her magic. It didn’t take long before Bob’s course list was coming out of the printer.
“Stafford had advanced chemistry with Dr. Simons,” Lois said.
“At ten a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Charlie said. “Angelina’s class was at eleven. And there are no other classes here that match. So they weren’t in any classes together.”
All three stared in silence at the list for a moment, as if they just knew the answer must be there - and couldn’t quite believe it wasn’t.
“Okay,” Molly finally said. “So that was a bust.”
“I don’t think we should give up on Bob just yet,” Lois said.
“Then... what else do we know about the person who drugged you?” Molly asked. “Are we assuming the person who drugged you is the person Cat referred to as Einstein?”
“I think that’s entirely possible,” Charlie said.
“Well, that nickname would certainly fit with what I know about Bob. Trust me, Bob’s ego would love the nickname Einstein,” Lois said.
“Well, Einstein is the type of nickname you might give a science nerd,” Molly conceded.
“Not just a science nerd,” Lois corrected. “One who is taking a double major: physics and chemistry.”
“The chemistry major making it entirely possible he would know how to make GHB,” Charlie said.
“And the physics major giving him something in common with Einstein,” Molly completed.
“Exactly! Well, except... the football players on my list... you know, the ones not writing their own exams, might well consider someone Einstein who is just slightly more intelligent than your average slug.”
Molly and Charlie chuckled.
Suddenly, Lois was struck by another thought. “Oh my god,” she gasped.
“What?” Molly exclaimed, followed almost immediately by Charlie
“Do you think Paul knows about this?” She looked at Molly and Charlie as this new idea took hold. “Bob is Paul’s best friend. Now, I’m not saying Paul was actually involved in all of this, but... he sure was quick to quash a story that Perry White thought was good enough to put on the front page of the Daily Planet! What if the reason he quashed the story and the reason he was so furious with me today is that he was trying to protect Bob?”
Charlie and Molly stared at her in stunned silence. Charlie was the one who seemed to recover first.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first...”
“Finding the evidence against Bob,” Lois said.
“If it exists,” Clark cautioned.
“It has to exist,” Lois said. “It all makes sense now. I couldn’t figure out why Paul would quash my story. But if Bob was involved... I can’t believe I didn’t twig onto Bob the instant Paul killed my story.”
* * * * * * * * *
“Is this Cat Grant?” Molly asked into the phone.
“Sure is. Who’s this?”
“Molly Flynn. We met earlier today.”
“Hi, Molly. What’s up?”
“Any way of finding out who might have suggested to the football players that Lois was drunk... and that they might want to take advantage of it?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Cat promised.
Molly hung up the phone and looked up at the clock. She only hoped Lois and Charlie were careful. After all, she’d had the easy job.
* * * * * * * * *
Charlie wasn’t waiting patiently. His foot tapped. He paced. He muttered comments under his breath about how quickly Christmas was coming.
It should have annoyed Lois. But for some reason, she found it amusing. ‘You really have got it bad, girl,’ she told herself for the millionth time in the past hour. Pushing her distracting thoughts aside, she continued to work on the door to Bob’s room in the Beta Beta house.
Molly had given them the reason to be here - to pick up the Beta Beta membership list that she had requested. Slipping upstairs unnoticed after that had been easy enough - as was finding Bob’s room since the boys had been considerate enough to put name plates on each of the doors. Now all they needed was to get into the room.
Ping.
“Finally,” Charlie breathed as she pushed open the door to Bob’s room. “If I had known it was going to take that long, I would have sold tickets.”
Lois chuckled as she stepped inside. Charlie followed, closing the door and taking an extra moment to lock it. She handed him a pair of rubber surgical gloves before slipping on a pair of her own. “You take the bathroom. I’ll check around out here,” she said. Giving his backside a playful slap, she sent him in the appropriate direction. In the corner of her eye, she noticed Charlie’s curious look, but ignored it. There would be plenty of time for... whatever... later. For right now, they had a room to search.
“What a slob,” she said, as she took her first good look at the place. Dirty clothes, empty take out cartons, a half finished pizza, an over-flowing ashtray, dirty dishes... It had it all. Pushing her way through the mess, she wondered how she was expected to find anything in all this.
She stopped in the middle of the room, and made a slow circle.
“Funny. For a guy swiping coffee filters, you’d sort of expect him to have a coffee machine,” she noted absently while trying to determine where to begin her search in this pigpen.
She finally decided on the desk. Since there didn’t appear to be anything that would qualify as a place to make GHB in the room, maybe her best bet was to see if he had any notes on it. Instructions. A list of clients. Plans to take over the world. Wild discourses on the fallen nature of women. Something... anything on paper that they could use.
Quickly sorting through a number of papers, she found a half-written story for the Ink and Quill, a half finished essay, some class notes and a letter from some girl in Florida named Peggy. She stopped when she came across a copy of his course list. She’d already seen this. She was about to set it down when an attached document caught her eye. She took a moment to look at it before quickly stuffing the document in her pocket.
“Charlie, if Angelina was killed at the beginning of September... how many of her classes would she actually have attended?”
“Probably no more than one or two... Why?”
“Then we’ve been looking in the wrong place.”
Charlie stuck his head out of the bathroom. “What?”
“I just mean... we should be looking at courses they might have had together last year. Or...”
“What?”
She didn’t answer him, instead her attention was taken up by the DayTimer sitting on Bob’s desk. In the corner of her eye, she noticed that Charlie had disappeared back into the bathroom. Picking up the DayTimer, she began flipping through it when an idea suddenly struck. “Charlie, when did Angelina Wesley die?”
“Uhh... September 5th.”
She quickly opened the book to the appropriate date as Charlie stuck his head back out of the bathroom.
“Find anything,” he asked.
She looked up at him and grinned. “Not exactly, but... Can you think of any reason Bob might have torn ‘September 5th out of his DayTimer?”
Charlie’s eyebrows rose.
She redirected her attention to the DayTimer once again before... “Charlie, guess what?”
“What?”
“According to this, Bob was here for summer school.”
“Interesting coincidence. Didn’t Angelina’s roommate tell us that she was here for summer school?”
“We need his course list for...” her voice trailed off when she found a scribbled note on a page of his DayTimer in May listing the courses he took the previous summer. “Charlie, I think we might be on to something here. He took Advanced Physics in the spring session and Environmental Chemistry during July and August of this past summer. If Angelina took one of those classes...”
Charlie thought about that for a moment. “That would be our link. But I don’t think we found out what she took at summer school.”
“What about you? You having any luck?” she asked.
“Well, no lab. If he’s making GHB on a regular basis, he’s not doing it here. But I did find...” He held up a packet of small strips. “PH papers,” he explained to Lois’ confused look.
“Right. You mentioned needing PH papers to make GHB.” She put the DayTimer down and looked around again.
“Try under the mattress,” Clark suggested as he headed back into the bathroom to leave the PH papers where he had found them.
“Ooo... good idea,” Lois said, squatting down next to the bed to run her hand between the box spring and mattress. “Charlie, there’s something...” Her voice trailed off and her head snapped up when she heard movement outside the door. Quickly, she pulled out a baggy hidden beneath the mattress. She reached into it and withdrew a small packet of powder before stuffing the remainder of the bag back where she found it. “Charlie...” she hissed.
He was there almost immediately, grabbing her and heading for the window. She didn’t resist. After all, he could fly so...
He opened the window, picking her up and setting her on the fire escape outside before climbing through himself and then pulling the window until it was almost closed behind him.
She didn’t stop to worry about the fact that they weren’t flying. Instead, she adjusted immediately, scampering down the fire escape until both she and Charlie were standing on solid ground.
“I managed to find something else when we were in Bob’s room,” she said when she caught her breath. “I just didn’t have time to tell you about it before we were interrupted.”
“What?”
“He has a baggy containing various pills, packets of powder and even what appeared to be sugar cubes hidden beneath his mattress. Funny. With the stolen coffee filters and sugar cubes hidden beneath his mattress, I’d almost think coffee was illegal.”
“Sugar cubes,” Charlie said thoughtfully.
She shook her head, not understanding what he found so fascinating about sugar cubes.
“Is it possible GHB is not the only thing he’s cooking up?” Clark asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Lois, LSD is often sold in sugar cubes.”
Lois’ eyebrows rose. “I also managed to grab this.” She removed the small packet of powder from her pocket and held it out to him. “Given our talk about using coffee filters to change GHB from a liquid to a powder, I thought...” She shrugged.
He took the packet from her and looked at it before carefully opening it. He stuck his finger in, getting a small amount on his finger before sticking his finger in his mouth.
“Charlie!” Lois exclaimed.
“I’ll be fine,” Charlie assured her. “Well, it’s not cocaine or anything like that. Now, I don’t know what GHB tastes like, but this does taste salty.”
“So then...”
“Still... He didn’t have the capacity for a lab in his room.”
“So he must be making it somewhere else.”
“Assuming he’s making it at all.”
“Mmm...” She pulled out the paper she’d snatched from Bob’s room and looked at it again. Suddenly, a smile lit up her face.
“Charlie, where would a chemistry major mix chemicals?”
“You think he’s doing it in one of the labs at the university? Wouldn’t that be kind of dangerous?”
“Who would know what he was mixing?” Lois responded. “And think about it. When Angelina’s roommate saw our list of suspects, she didn’t recognize Bob’s name. So they weren’t friends. Which means it isn’t likely that Angelina found whatever made her suspicious in his room.”
“So if she did find out he was up to something...”
“...it would have to be because she discovered it somewhere else. And look...” She pointed to the paper. “I found this attached to his course list. I never even thought about it before, but... this says that he has lab space in Boyle Hall. That’s the chemistry building.”
“So...”
Lois smiled. “Come on. Looks like we’re not done yet.”
“Wait!” Charlie said, grabbing Lois’ arm when she started to walk off.
She turned and looked at him.
“I have a better idea.”
* * * * * * * * *
It didn’t take Cat long to figure out where Dick and Bruce were hanging out for the evening. All she’d had to do was to follow the breadcrumbs the football players inevitably left behind. Soon she found herself standing outside The Outpost, taking a deep breath. She had to admit, this wasn’t the most relaxing assignment. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that she had broken up with Donny. And even if he wasn’t here at the moment, he was likely to make an appearance at some point during the evening.
‘Well, here goes nothing,’ she said silently as she pinched her cheeks, ran her tongue over her teeth and adjusted her top to show a little more cleavage before stepping into the jocks’ favorite hang out.
“Hi, boys,” Cat purred as she prowled the room.
The ‘boys’ were suddenly sitting up just a little bit straighter, pulling in their guts a little bit more.
“Come sit here, babe,” Frank said, patting his knee.
She gave him a sultry look, but didn’t respond, taking a seat instead on the couch next to Bruce. “Hi, Big Boy,” she purred, reaching over to make abstract patterns on his upper thigh. “Is there room next to you for little-ol’-me?”
Bruce swallowed hard before nodding.
Cat smiled. Seemed she still had it. After catching Donny in bed with someone else, she had wondered if she still had the power to leave a man speechless. Apparently, she did because Bruce was still trying to find his voice - stretching his brain in an undoubtedly futile attempt to find something witty to say. Well, whatever his puny brain came up with, she would laugh appropriately. After all, she was positioned perfectly. Now it was only a matter of finding the right opportunity to get her information without making him suspicious. Well, no problem. She had all evening.
It was a good thing that her name hadn’t made it into the story Lois Lane had written... Or was it Linda King. She was still a little unsure how that whole thing had gone down. Still, if her name had appeared, she wouldn’t have the chance to get this information now. She would have to remember that in the future.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois wasn’t entirely certain about this. Still, Charlie had made some good points. So they had come here instead of making a trip to Boyle Hall. She only hoped Charlie was right.
She glanced over at where he was sitting next to her. Ever since he’d tasted the white powder, she’d been keeping a close eye on him. Yet he seemed no worse for wear. Maybe he was from a time far enough in the future that his body was no longer affected by the drugs of 1987. Given the fact that he could fly, she supposed that was likely.
There was another thing that had been troubling her. Charlie seemed to know an awful lot about investigating a story. It made her wonder exactly what type of work he did in the future. Were there even reporters at the time in the future he must come from - given his advanced biology? His familiarity with conducting an investigation suggested that there were. On the other hand, she supposed he could also be a private investigator or even a police officer. No. A reporter was more likely, given his familiarity with newsroom coffee.
She pushed her questions about Charlie to the side, directing her mind back to the investigation. There would be time enough to investigate the mystery of Charlie when Bob Stafford was behind bars where he belonged.
They’d stopped by the Alpha Nu Rho sorority house on the way here where they’d managed to obtain a couple additional pieces of information. Lois had watched in fascination as Molly again used the house’s computer to break into the university’s computer. This computer thing was going to be a great resource if that was the type of thing that could be done with it. On the other hand, Molly was the computer genius and, as Molly had explained, the only reason she could do this was because the sorority house computer was part of the university computer network.
But still... as a result of Molly’s skills, they had been able to confirm that Angelina and Bob had both taken Environmental Chemistry the previous summer. But the icing on the cake had come when Molly had discovered that during the summer session, Bob and Angelina had also been lab partners.
A call from Cat had topped up their research. And armed with what they now knew, they arrived at the police station and demanded to speak to Henderson.
“Uhh... I need to make a trip to the restroom,” Charlie said suddenly.
“Huh?” she asked, watching in confusion. His hasty exit almost looked like an escape.
“Lane.”
Lois turned her attention from where she was still staring at the spot she’d last seen Charlie to look in the direction of someone saying her name. Henderson had entered the room and was walking in her direction. When Charlie had suggested that their next stop should be the police, she’d known immediately who she would ask for.
As she rose to her feet, she glanced back at where Charlie had vanished. If she didn’t know better, she’d almost think that Charlie, in spite of his insistence that they involve the police, didn’t want to be seen by them. Or was it just Henderson? After all, he hadn’t had any problem going to the front counter with her.
“What did you want to see me about?” Henderson asked, recapturing Lois’ attention.
“Uhh... yeah.” Allowing herself one last thought for Charlie, she directed her mind to why she was there. “I think I’ve solved one of your murder cases for you.”
Henderson’s eyebrows rose. She almost expected him to challenge her and marshaled her thoughts to respond.
“Come with me,” Henderson said instead, leading her into the back.
Lois took a deep breath. It seemed she was on her own. Well, she had taken on Perry White and won, so surely Henderson couldn’t be any more difficult. Still, she stopped briefly at the front counter on her way to the back. “If Charlie King comes back looking for me, could you send him in?” she asked, just in case Charlie’s disappearance hadn’t been deliberate.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois went through the evidence, step by step, carefully laying it all out for Henderson, including the new information Cat had provided them: that Stafford was the one who had alerted the football players to her condition last Friday evening. She’d been relieved when Henderson hadn’t questioned her too carefully about how she knew there was a baggy full of what appeared to be illicit drugs stuffed under Stafford’s mattress or how she knew about the condition of his DayTimer or about the PH papers found in his room or how they’d found out that Stafford and Angelina had been lab partners during the summer session. It almost reminded her of the army’s policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’
He didn’t even question how she’d managed to swipe the little packet of white powder that she’d presented him with. What he did do, however, was instantly send it to the lab - which quickly confirmed that it was, in fact, GHB.
“Okay, I admit it does look like you might be on to something here,” Henderson conceded when the lab report came back. “But since GHB is not illegal, I’m still not convinced we have enough for an arrest.”
“Uhh... but is it enough to get a search warrant?” Lois asked, making the argument to him that Charlie had made to her when she’d argued this point during their discussion about whether or not it was time to involve the police.
“A search warrant to do what?”
“Bob has lab space at Boyle Hall. We have reason to believe that’s where he’s making his drugs.”
Henderson cocked his head to the side, as he considered that. “I’ll check with the D.A.’s office.” He rose to his feet, turning away before turning back towards her. “If I do get this search warrant, I suppose you’ll want to come along,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Okay. It will take a little time, but I think you’ve earned the right.”
Yes! Lois gave a silent air punch as Henderson went to make the necessary arrangements. She could hardly wait to tell Charlie.
* * * * * * * * * *
Hours of boredom followed by moments of excitement followed by hours of boredom followed by moments of excitement. That was how Lois would later describe the rest of the evening. Charlie had reappeared when she’d returned to the waiting room, bringing with him some take out Chinese food to sustain them while they waited for Henderson to make the appropriate arrangements.
He had disappeared again just before Henderson had come out to tell her he had obtained a search warrant and they were ready to go. Then, he’d met up with her again when she’d emerged from the lab.
Now that was what she called the successful execution of a search warrant.
Not only had they found bottles which were suspected to contain liquid GHB, but they had also found a number of homemade illegal drugs - including ecstasy and LSD - in Bob’s lab space. It seemed GHB wasn’t Stafford’s only source of income. If it could be made in a lab and sold at outrageous prices, Stafford had it.
After that, it had been easy for Henderson to get a couple of additional warrants, one for Stafford’s arrest and another to search his room.
When they’d searched Stafford’s room, Henderson had easily located his DayTimer and the plastic bag hidden under his mattress, full of more little goodies.
Getting convictions against Stafford for possession for the purposes of trafficking and production of narcotics was going to be a no-brainer - as would the custodial disposition that would undoubtedly follow.
But there was a problem. Yes, if DNA tests turned up what Lois expected them to, they could place Stafford at the scene of the poisoning of Angelina Wesley. And some additional research would likely show he was at the party Mayson Drake had attended last February. And certainly he had been at the party last Friday as Lois could attest. They could prove that Stafford had access to GHB. And with the information Cat Grant had come up with tonight, they could even prove that Stafford was the one who had set her up with the football players.
The problem came in proving that Stafford had been the one who had actually put the GHB in the women’s drinks. And even if, when the results came back on the semen found on Angelina’s body, a DNA match was made to Stafford, without proof that Stafford had drugged Angelina’s drink, it was still problematic that they could prove a murder charge.
“It’s not fair, Charlie,” Lois complained as they watched from a distance while the police snapped handcuffs on Stafford. “I want him for Angelina’s murder!”
“Lois, he’s going to prison.”
“It won’t be enough. There’s got to be a way to get him for her murder.”
“They got Al Capone for tax evasion. We got Stafford for drug production and trafficking. It’s not a bad result, Lois.”
“Still, if only...”
“You!”
Lois spun around at the exclamation to discover that Stafford had spotted her.
“You’re dead! Do you hear me? You’re dead!” Stafford shouted, straining against the restraints of the police.
Charlie stepped in front of her.
“I will get out of this,” Stafford continued to shout even as the police stuffed him in the police car. “And when I do, you’re dead! Do you hear me, Lane? You’re dead!”
Henderson left the car, walking over to her, and for the first time that evening, when Henderson approached, Charlie didn’t disappear. It seemed Charlie was more concerned about her than he was about Henderson.
“Bill Henderson,” Henderson said, looking at Charlie.
“Charlie King,” Charlie responded.
“Sorry about that,” Henderson said, turning his attention to Lois.
Lois shrugged.
“But don’t worry. We’ve got a good case against him. He’s not getting out for a long, long time.”
“But he will get out eventually,” Charlie said, obviously not happy with this development.
“Unless we can get him for Wesley’s murder and spiking your and Mayson’s drinks,” Henderson said. “I’m afraid so.”
“What do you need to get him for Angelina’s murder?” Lois asked.
“A confession would be great. Otherwise... Well, assuming his D.N.A. is a match with the semen we found on Wesley’s body, we’ve got a circumstantial case, and I’ll certainly be pressing the D.A. to prosecute. We might get lucky.”
“I think I know how to get a confession,” Lois said, directing the men’s attention to her. “Here’s my idea...”
TO BE CONTINUED...
ML
