<<< Chapter Twelve >>>
Lois was looking forward to her date. She was having dinner not with Lex Luthor, the fourth richest man in the world, but with Alex Winfield, computer programmer and all-around regular guy. Dinner at Mike’s would be followed by a quick trip to Stern Communications Stadium to watch the hometown Dragons take the diamond against their division rival Gotham Spiders. Both teams were vying for the title and a shot at the World Series, and this late in the season every game counted. It was bound to be hotly contested and fun to watch.
Lois giggled as she thought about the visiting team’s logo and decided anew that – super-powered or not – she could never play baseball with a snarling arachnid stitched to her cap. All she’d be able to think about would be those eight hairy legs crawling down onto her face as she tried to field a pop-up or swing at a pitch in her wheelhouse.
I’ll have to run that one by Cat the next –
No. She couldn’t.
And she realized anew that she’d never see Cat Grant again. She leaned against the cab window, closed her eyes, and let one tear from each eye slip down her face. Both Dr. Friskin and Martha had told her that the pain would ease with time, that she’d learn to deal with it, but that it would never go away completely.
She remembered Cat telling her about a best friend she’d lost as at age twelve and how the pain would occasionally pop up seemingly out of nowhere and startle her. Lois sighed. Cat had joined Lana in Lois’ heart as a lost friend, making that emptiness just a bit larger.
She’d lost two good friends to the violence embodied by Arianna Carlin. There would be no more, she vowed again. No one else will suffer because of that evil woman.
However, there was nothing she could do about it now. Carlin had vanished again, and until the woman showed her face somewhere the only thing to do was to wait. And everyone needed a break now and then, even Ultra Woman. So Lois wiped her face, fixed her minimal makeup, and prepared to have a fun evening with the man who claimed to love her more than life or money.
But when she opened the front door to Lex’ apartment, she found him sitting in the middle of the front room surrounded by piles of paper of various sizes, shapes, and colors. And neither his body language nor the bit of his face that she could see made her think this was anything but good news.
“Lex? What happened? What’s wrong?”
His head slowly rotated in her direction. “Oh, no,” he moaned.
She stopped and planted one hand on her hip. “That’s not exactly the reaction any woman would want from her date.”
He rose with a groan and a momentary limp. “Lois, my dear, I’m so sorry. I completely forgot about our date tonight.”
She grinned and took his hands. “I forgive you. Now just go throw on some jeans and sneakers so we’ll match and – “
“I can’t go.”
She stopped with her mouth open, then closed it a nodded once. “Okay. The Spiders are in town for a four-game series, so maybe tomorrow – “
“No, Lois. I’m very sorry.” He turned and gestured at the paper around him. “I have two board meetings on Monday and one on Tuesday with various groups of people who want either answers or my head, and I’m not certain many of them have a preference for answers. They want to know what effect Arianna’s duplicity and Nigel’s criminal behavior will have on my business ventures, and I must have concrete answers for them.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, my accounting team has been unable to ferret out the answers to those very valid questions, and I am afraid that the task may be beyond my own capabilities.”
“Oh.” She looked at the almost-defeated expression on his face and sighed. “I’m sorry I was so selfish.”
He turned and hugged her firmly but not passionately. “You were not being selfish. You had no idea that this had happened. I should have called you and explained the situation.”
She leaned back. “I understand completely.”
He smiled. “Thank you. I will try to make it up to you next week.” He relaxed his embrace and leaned back. “Assuming, of course, I still have a business to run.”
She frowned and looked around, then stepped back. “I could help you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I could help you work through this stuff.”
“What? Lois, I can’t ask you to do that!”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering. Besides, you look like you could use a break.”
He rubbed his face with his hands. “I won’t deny that. But Monday is coming whether I work or play or sleep or just sit at the piano all weekend. At any rate, my dear, I don’t recall that you have any training or experience in finance.”
She put both hands on her hips and leaned closer. “I’m an investigative reporter, Lex. I can spot something out of the ordinary even if I don’t know exactly what the problem is. And I can recognize patterns and put items together with the best accountant. On top of that, a fresh and uncluttered perspective might just be the thing you need right now.”
He put his hands out and waved them at the room full of documents. “I freely admit that a second pair of hands would help, but we’re still talking about a two-week job that has to be finished by nine o’clock Monday morning. I just don’t think we can get this done by that time.”
“You’re forgetting something.”
“What?”
“I’m a little faster than the average bear.”
Before Lex could respond, she zipped around the room for less than a second. One piece of paper fluttered towards the floor, but she caught it before it landed. “Here’s the summary of special expenses for April of this year.”
He blinked. “Yes?”
She handed him two other sheets and pointed at the top one. “This one is an invoice for nine hundred sixteen dollars in office supplies.”
“That’s not unusual. The executive floor alone – “
“This second sheet is also an invoice for nine hundred sixteen dollars. Same supplier, same date, same item breakdown, paid by different checks.” She lowered all three papers. “One or both of these orders was skimmed, Lex. And – “ she lifted one invoice “ – Ogilvie Office Supply probably didn’t get both checks. Nigel probably directed one towards Arianna, assuming he didn’t just put it in his pocket.”
Lex reached out and snatched all three pieces of paper. “How did you – no, I know how you did that. But what made you look for them?”
“The date and the amount. When I looked closer I saw that the invoices looked identical, so I looked for the expense summary. There’s one listing for Ogilvie and one for Oglesby, close enough to be missed by anyone who’s not an auditor. And speaking of that, you might want to call in an outside auditing firm after your board meetings. Arianna probably has people on the inside.”
“I’ve worked with these people for years, Lois! I trust them completely! They’ve never done anything that would cause me to doubt them!”
She lifted her hands. “Hey, I could be completely wrong about that. I don’t know them or anything about them, and I have no evidence that they’re anything but squeaky clean. But I still say that I can organize this mess faster than any five normal people.”
Lex sighed, then nodded slowly. “You’ve convinced me. How can I help?”
She crossed her arms and glanced around. “I don’t want to come across as superior or anything, but the best thing you could do for now is just stand back.” One corner of her mouth curled up. “Better yet, you could go get some Chinese takeout.”
“What? But Lois, I can’t leave this information in possession of someone who’s not an officer of the company! It’s against the bylaws!”
“Okay. Then either stand way back or go get something from the kitchen and put it on to cook. I’ll have a preliminary summary of possible problems in about forty minutes if I can go full speed, and then you’ll have to figure out what’s legit and what’s not.”
He sighed deeply and waved his hands helplessly. “Take it away, Ultra Woman!”
She watched him stalk into the kitchen without looking back. Hope I haven’t bruised his self-image too badly, she thought.
*****
Lex turned on the oven and set it to pre-heat, then opened the refrigerator and pulled out the ingredients he needed to make a lasagna. He fumed to himself as he opened a container of sauce, a box of noodles, all the cheeses, and put everything together in the pan. He was the businessman, he was the financial genius, not Lois! These were his companies, and it was his responsibility to answer the questions put to him by the various boards!
As he checked the oven temperature and turned to prepare the garlic bread, he told himself to get a grip. If Ultra Woman – Lois – could help him to answer those questions honestly and completely, if she could help him satisfy their concerns, then it was the right thing to do, even if it bent his pride a bit.
He chuckled ruefully to himself. He’d never win any physical contest with Lois, no matter what it was, and she was at least as intelligent as he if not more. The only arena in which he could possibly outperform her was the business and financial one. He needed to feel that he had some kind of advantage over Lois in some area, else he’d risk becoming completely dependent on her.
And that was the problem, wasn’t it? His ego had just taken a serious blow, on top of the one he’d suffered in admitting that he couldn’t sort through all those papers by himself. Lois could make some general sense out of that mess in there far faster than he could, and it galled him. But as he slid the pasta into the oven, he realized that the mission was to get those records in order, not to prove himself better than Lois at something. It really didn’t matter which of them performed that task as long as it got done.
What a big man he was! He resented being pushed to the side by a woman as she did his job, and did it far better than he could.
He wished he could convince her to stay with him. For the entire night. And maybe even for the rest of their lives.
The thought pleased him greatly. The only thing that might please him more would be her agreement to his plan.
As he stirred the tea, he realized that the whirlwind sounds from the other room had stopped. Lois cautiously poked her head around the corner. “How’s it going in here?”
“Very well, actually. There will be a lasagna, a salad with my own special Italian dressing, iced tea, and if you can spare me for a few more minutes, garlic bread.”
Her soft smile lit up her face. “Sounds delicious. And the lasagna smells great.”
She hesitated and he stopped with the bread knife in his hand. “Have you hit a wall already?”
“No – not really. It’s just – I thought I should let you know that the information out there was sorted by industry and company, and a lot of the questionable transactions I’ve already found tend to go between companies at least twice. Working at normal speed, you never could have found them by Monday. Did you resort those papers or was it stacked that way when you got it?”
He frowned. “The way you found it was the way it was given to me. My actuarial staff sent it over with a note asking me to keep it – oh. Oh, my.”
She tilted her head. “What is it?”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Upon reflection, I believe you were right to suspect chicanery in the actuarial department. It appears that Nigel may have had his fingers buried deep in the Lex Industries financial infrastructure. If the auditing staff was involved in the cover-up, then they had to know about the embezzlement as it was happening, and they also had to know how difficult it would have been for me to unravel all that information by myself.”
“That’s likely, but that’s not something I’d be able to figure out from just looking at this data. That’s why I can’t do this alone. I can do the preliminary stuff really fast, and I can point to things that don’t look right, but I can’t be certain what’s kosher and what’s not without your expertise.”
He stepped around the counter and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for rebuilding my shattered ego, my dear.”
She stepped back. “That’s not what I’m doing! I’m not sugar-coating this for you, Lex, I really do need your help. At least, I will when I’m finished sorting all this stuff.”
He smiled. “I’m sorry. I was trying to make a joke. That should remind me why I am not doing standup comedy for a living.” He made shooing motions at her. “Now please leave my kitchen and complete your task. I will call you when dinner is ready.”
She smiled easily. “Okay, boss man. Sheesh, you’re such a slave driver.”
“You may address me as High Commander.”
Her voice bounced around the corner of the kitchen. “In your dreams, Lex, and maybe not even then.” Then the whirlwind sounds returned.
He smiled as he returned to his domestic chores. There was definitely hope for the two of them. A great deal of hope.
*****
They both had a good time at dinner. Examining the documents stacked up in the study did not make for a good time.
Lois handed Lex another handful of paper. “This one concerns Vasquez Construction, Inc. They did some site work at one of the secondary LexLabs facilities. Parking lot street access, foundation pouring, and the electrical wiring for the parking lot lighting.” She pointed to the amount on the first page. “This is what Vasquez billed LexCorp.”
Lex nodded. “It looks correct to me.”
“It probably is. But take a look at the second sheet.”
Lex shuffled the papers, and after a moment he frowned. “Why were two checks cut for this payment?” He looked closer. “And both on the same day?”
Lois grimaced. “I’d guess that Nigel took the smaller check and ‘convinced’ Mr. Vasquez to accept the partial payment. The difference is over two thousand dollars on a forty-two thousand dollar contract. On a job that size, two thousand bucks would have cut deeply into his profit margin.”
He nodded. “I believe that we met this man several months ago. Remember our date at the Miller concert? The bar where we had drinks after the show?”
Her eyes widened. “Yes! The one where – oh, what was her name – Rosita! Where Rosita took me aside and told me that Fernando hunted trouble when he’d been drinking. That was Fernando Vasquez?”
“Yes. His anger at Lex Luthor does not appear to have been misplaced after all.”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lex.”
He sighed and nodded. “This makes sixteen – or is it seventeen? Seventeen different instances in the current calendar year where Nigel diverted funds from my projects for personal gain. And these are just the ones of which I am aware. Surely there must be many more.” He slapped the papers together and shoved them down beside the chair. “It’s quite apparent that I am a horrible judge of both character and my own business acumen.” He stood up and rubbed his neck with both hands. “Perhaps the board members are correct. Perhaps I should step down.”
Lois stood beside him and spoke softly. “Nigel fooled a lot of people, Lex, not just you. From what you could see, your businesses were taking off and making money hand over fist. You shouldn’t blame yourself for one mistake.”
He chuckled humorlessly. “Even if that one mistake cost more than fifty people their lives? Would you excuse me for even that excess?”
“You didn’t kill those people. Nigel did, and he did it because Arianna Carlin told him to. She’s the one responsible for those deaths, not you.”
He turned to face her and dropped his hands. “I cannot simply ignore my culpability. Asabi warned me about Nigel on more than one occasion and I dismissed his concerns because Nigel appeared to be helping me to succeed.”
“He did help you.”
His voice rose. “By ‘convincing’ people to accept being cheated? By suborning my in-house accounting and legal teams to cover his tracks? By killing people? No, I am not without guilt in this matter.”
He turned away and leaned against a wall. Lois stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his chest from behind. “And now you have the opportunity to make those wrongs right. You can live up to your responsibility for what Nigel and Arianna did and atone for your mistakes.” She slowly turned him to face her. “I know you want to do the right thing, Lex, but I’ve learned that doing the right thing often means doing the thing you least want to do. It would be easy to cut and run, to hide from this, but it wouldn’t make things right! You need to face those directors and reveal the truth.” She cupped his face with her hands. “And I can’t do this for you, no matter how much I might want to. This is definitely not a job for Ultra Woman.”
He smiled slightly and pulled her close. “I know. I’m tired and frustrated, but I’m sure I’ll feel better in the morning.” He bent down and kissed her softly. “Thank you, both for what you have said and for what you have done.” He smiled. “You know, I am fairly certain that I am madly in love with you.”
She smiled back and kissed him lightly on the nose. “Thank you for that, too. And as much as I would like to help you with the rest of this, I have a patrol to make tonight before I go to bed. I’m sorry, but I need to go.”
He let her slip from his embrace but caught her hands. “Lois?”
“Yes?”
Now. He had to ask her now. “Would you – would you consider returning here after your patrol?”
She lowered her eyebrows. “To work on this mess some more?”
“No.” He licked his lips. “To – to spend the night with me.”
Her jaw dropped. “Oh.” She didn’t speak for a long moment. “Lex, I – I – “
He sighed again and squeezed her hands. “Never mind. I was out of line to suggest such a course of action. I’m sorry.”
“No, Lex, it’s not that – “
“Yes, it is. You are not ready for such a step in our relationship, and I should have been aware of that fact. I apologize.”
“Please understand, Lex, you don’t – “
He stopped her lips with a finger. “I do understand. Truly I do. My only defense is that you have completely bewitched me with your beauty.”
Her face softened. “You are such a terrific flatterer.”
He smiled. “Thank you, although I do not believe something is classed as flattery if it is completely true. Now go and perform your patrol. I’m sure Clark will rest easier knowing that you are on the job.”
She didn’t smile back. “I’m sorry.”
“No. I am the one who should be sorry.” He released her and stepped back to open the door. “Thank you for all your help. I believe I can make some sense of this now.”
She ducked her gaze and turned to find her purse, then walked slowly towards the door. He stopped her with a feather touch. “Lois? Will you – might you have an early dinner with me tomorrow? At the penthouse, where you first – interviewed me?”
She met his look. “Yes, I will. What time?”
“Four, I think. We can make it a very late lunch or a very early dinner with plenty of time to talk afterwards. If you are willing to risk it, I will cook again, and this time it will not be such a hurried affair.”
She nodded. “Four o’clock it is. I’ll see you then.”
“Shall I send Asabi to chauffeur you?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “That would be nice. Thank you.”
“I shall ask him to pick you up at three-forty, if that would be acceptable.”
She managed a small smile. “Sounds good to me. Three-forty it is, followed by dinner at four.” Her eyes shimmered slightly. “What’s on the menu?”
He almost laughed. “I believe I shall surprise you.”
“I look forward to it.” She leaned towards the door, but hesitated. Then she pulled him close to her and kissed him, soft and sweet and tender. “Until tomorrow afternoon.”
As the door closed behind her, Lex tried to catch up on his breathing. He seemed to have forgotten to inhale.
Tomorrow afternoon would not come quickly enough for him.
*****
By the time an exhausted Lex Luthor went to bed well past the midnight hour, he’d documented a total of thirty-seven confirmed instances of corruption within his organization and fifty-one probable cases. And he’d made enough connections to people on his actuarial staff to call in the district attorney, who would probably empanel a grand jury and start filing any number of criminal charges.
Some of those charges would be laid at his feet, he knew. He didn’t want to face them, but he knew he’d have to. It would be his punishment for hiring a thief and murderer.
Nigel had always been quiet and even a bit secretive, but he’d always performed whatever task he’d been given. It was a shock to learn how much more he’d done over the years. Lex wondered how much of the stolen money had been routed to Nigel’s personal accounts and how much had gone to Arianna.
Dear sweet, vicious, deadly Arianna. It was too bad the operation to detain her had failed. Some of the pressure he was under now might have already been alleviated had she not remained free. He knew she was still active, even if she was now working from behind the scenes instead of just being invisible in the public eye. She’d learned her lessons altogether too well, and thus far she had eluded the long arm of the law.
But now it was time for her to face justice, and Lex was determined not to allow her to bring him down. He’d fight back with every weapon at his disposal, and he’d win. It would surely cost him a great deal, but he’d see her in prison – or accept death himself – before he’d surrender to her onslaught. And the board meeting on Monday where they would surely try to force him out of his own company was surely her doing, just as the labyrinth of accounting he was facing was surely hers also. Thanks to Lois, however, that particular hurdle would be far easier to overcome.
And perhaps, thanks to Lois, he could also announce a new personal beginning to the world, that of a newly engaged man.
No prenuptial agreement would be required. Lois was far too honorable and honest to take cab fare from him without his knowledge, much less any significant money or property. In fact, when she learned that she was already one of his main beneficiaries, she would certainly mount a vigorous protest. But he knew that her innate openness and integrity would see her through any difficulties she might encounter along those lines.
And she’d have Superman as a personal advisor if she wished. Lex didn’t particularly like Clark Kent, but he did respect him both as a journalist and as a person. The two men had too many differences to be close friends, but Lex hoped that Clark thought as highly of him as he thought of Clark. If Lois needed any counsel at all, Clark would give her the most honest and forthright advice of anyone Lex could think of.
He slid under the covers and closed his eyes. Normal humans needed sleep in order to function at peak efficiency, and Lex had to be at his best for the next three days. He had a board meeting to prepare for, criminals to uncover, a dinner to prepare, and a proposal of marriage to deliver. He was swamped, and he needed rest. After all, if you haven’t got your health, you don’t have much of anything.
And he was very tired. He slipped into the welcoming arms of Morpheus almost immediately.
*****
Arianna put down her binoculars and smiled to herself. The Lane woman had left hours before, and Lex’ apartment lights had just now dimmed. She was sure he’d be baffled by the interlocking accounting trails she and Nigel had laid over the past year. The board would surely relieve him of his duties on Monday, and she’d be one step closer to her ultimate revenge against him, a truly wonderful going-away gift from her. It wasn’t quite as sweet as she thought it would be, though.
A thought crossed her mind. She dismissed it immediately, then called it back for further consideration.
Yes. Yes! That might be even better. She could arrange it so that the board meeting would be a mere formality, a recognition of Lex Luthor’s past service to his various companies, a requiem for a fallen community leader and philanthropist. He wouldn’t see it, wouldn’t know of it, but she’d know. And it would be truly sweet. It would be a day she could take out of her memory at any time to savor and taste all over again, a day she could frame in her remembrances of things past which would validate her life and her real achievements.
It would fit with her getaway plans, too. Preventing Lex from making any more wild accusations against her would ease her escape. She could already feel the sun on her skin and hear the surf gently caressing the beach where she would spend her money. And the nice part was that the beach she’d picked out lacked an extradition treaty with the United States. All she had to do was to put the plan in motion.
And the best way to do that would be to kill dear Lex herself. This job would not be sub-contracted out to some thumb-fingered dolt with a metal pipe or a Swiss army knife. No more hiring contractors to blow up doors and shoot up apartments. She’d perform the lovely deed herself, using the very nine millimeter pistol with which Lex had taught her to shoot.
Of course, she’d always have her backup weapon. Her dainty twenty-five caliber semi-auto had served her well over the years, most recently dispatching the Grant woman and the inept failure who’d tried for three of the hackers who’d invaded her financial privacy, and she just wouldn’t feel fully dressed without it resting in her purse. Not to mention that last shard of Kryptonite, her defense in case Super-Goof or the Ultra Bimbo tried to capture her. A quick dose of green, a small-caliber bullet between the eyes, and she’d be free from them forever.
When? Tonight? No, it was too late. The building was locked up for the weekend, and the secret passages Nigel had shared with her were useless without some entrance into the building itself, even if it was merely the parking garage. No, she’d bring water and some dried food and sneak into one of the dead Brit’s hidey-holes early in the morning to await the perfect moment.
Arianna didn’t know when that moment would come, but she was sure she’d recognize it when it arrived, the perfect final act in her career. Lex had taught her many things, some of which were not the lessons he’d intended that she learn, but he had also shown her the most important lesson – that winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing.
And she was determined to win, no matter who her opponent might be.
