CH 2
“Clark, are you having any better luck than I am with the binoculars? I can’t see a thing,” Lois grumbled.
Unfortunately, Clark wasn’t having any more luck with them either and using his telescopic vision was of no help. From this angle inside the Jeep, he was only zooming in on their backsides, and teens in jeans and hoodies all looked the same. “No, they’re all facing the wrong way to catch a glimpse at any of their faces from this position. We should move closer to see what’s really going on in there.”
“I agree. That’s the second group of kids we’ve seen enter, and they don’t appear to be staying very long. What could he be doing to them in only fifteen minutes?”
“No idea, Lois. Did you get any background info on the doctor before coming here tonight that could give us any hints?”
“No, I just got the tip from Bobby saying we should check it out right before I told you about it. Come on. I’ll grab the flashlight; you get the camera,” Lois suggested, tossing Clark the black knit cap he had left on the dash next to hers, before they both quietly exited the Jeep.
The office was located on a block of converted row houses, each one separated by a few feet. Some were multiple stories, others single. Dr. Goldberg’s was a single story with a daylight basement and a raised first story entrance making the building taller than an average single story. It had a relatively flat pitched roof hidden behind a decorative façade that extended up from the front wall, but had begun to decay from decades of neglect.
As they approached the building in silence, Clark kept an attentive ear out for more teens approaching. To their knowledge, there were currently three in there. Before them, Dr. Goldberg had let in two others, who were inside for less than twenty minutes. Lois and Clark checked all the windows and found every one of them locked and most with the blinds drawn closed.
“Lois, look,” Clark whispered. He had found a window that was locked, but not entirely covered. Gazing through the window, he pointed towards the ceiling in which a skylight was visible. “When I was checking the windows, I saw a fire escape around the back that should get us up there.”
“This building has a fire escape? What for?”
Clark shrugged, pretending not to know even though he had done a thorough scan of the building from the car. “There must be a rooftop terrace or something. I imagine that fifty years ago this house had quite a view. Those buildings across the street weren’t built until the sixties when this area was rezoned to commercial.”
Lois rolled her eyes at her partner. “How do you know all that? Never mind. What are we waiting for?” she whispered back.
Clark led Lois around back towards the fire escape that he already knew was there. After boosting Lois up to the first rung, he took a running start and pretended to barely grab it before hoisting himself up. Quickly and quietly, they climbed the rest of the ladder to the roof and tiptoed to the skylight. They were disappointed to find it covered with a thick layer of dirt obscuring the view below.
“Here, Clark, spit on this,” Lois said, handing him a tissue, which he took and proceeded to do what she had instructed. She did the same with another tissue before they were both used to clean a small area on the glass. The clean spot wasn’t large but they still managed to get a good view of what the doctor was doing, even if they couldn’t hear what was being said.
“Clark, it looks like he’s just taking blood or something from different joints.”
Clark tuned in his hearing. He wouldn’t be able to tell Lois what he had heard, but it could clue him in on what was going on down there.
“How are you feeling, son?” asked the doctor.
“The swelling in my knee has gone down since the last round,” the kid replied.
“Good to hear. You still have several more treatments to go. I expect to see you back tomorrow night. Will you be able to get away?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. My mom thinks I’m sound asleep. I’ve got a game on Friday though. Will I be able to play?”
“I don’t see why not. Just remember to take it easy until then. The injections…”
“Earth to Clark,” Lois’s voice rattled his ears, interrupting his eavesdropping.
“What?” he replied as he shook the ringing out of his ears.
“You’re not falling asleep on me, now are you? You seemed out of it for a minute.”
“No, I’m fine. I was just concentrating on what they were doing and got lost in thought, I guess,” he lied.
Lois wasn’t buying his excuse. “Uh huh. Well, as long as you don’t fall asleep up here, I think we should wait a bit longer to see if any more kids come in and get a different treatment. We’re going to need to get a sample of what he’s either giving the kids or taking from them. It’s got to be something illegal. Why else would he be doing it at this time of night?”
“I agree. And I’m guessing from the gleam in your eyes some B and E is in order for that.”
“You read my mind,” Lois said with a smile as she looked back down into the room below. “Clark, look!” She pointed down to refocus his attention to the room. “It looks like he’s done with this group. Maybe that will be the last for the night and we’ll be able to get in soon.”
“I thought you wanted to wait and monitor some more patients?”
“I do, but it’s also going on three in the morning. He’s got to be shutting the clinic down soon to get some sleep. Don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” Clark paused to consider a new plan for tonight. “How about we give him another hour and if he’s not gone by then, we’ll come back tomorrow to get a sample? Perhaps earlier in the night before he returns. It looks like the samples are all being stored in the large freezer over there against the wall. Hopefully, they’re still in there tomorrow. Plus, I think we need to get some supplies before we come back.”
“Supplies?” Lois wondered.
“If we take the whole sample he’s probably going to notice,” he reminded her. “We should find out what supplies we need for extracting and storing a partial sample, and we’ll need to find someone we trust to analyze it.”
“Okay, I guess we’ll wait for tomorrow then. Do you see any more kids coming?”
Clark scanned the neighborhood, but didn’t see anyone. “No, but it also looks like he’s not ready to call it a night. He’s going over charts and papers, but I can’t see what’s on them from here.”
“Yeah, that’s too bad, but look, it appears as if he’s also jotting something down in a separate notebook. Maybe its got the list of kids or what treatment they’re getting. For all we know it’s a grocery list, but let’s hope he leaves that as well,” Lois said, doubting that they would get such a lucky break. “We’ll need the page scanner also.”
Lois and Clark waited another forty-five minutes without any more patients being seen before they left the roof and went back to the Jeep. After disassembling the surveillance equipment that was still out on the dash, Clark called the Planet and left a message with the night editor that they would be in later that morning. Meanwhile, Lois finished packing the equipment away. She then pulled away from the curb and headed back towards Clark's apartment in a far more subdued manner than the trip out to the doctor’s office had been.
Lois eventually broke the silence as they approached Clinton Street. “What time do you think you’ll be in?”
“Probably between ten and eleven. I’d like to get in a few hours of sleep,” and a morning patrol, he silently added. “Plus, make a trip over to STAR Labs to see if we can borrow some supplies. Unless you want to go there with me?”
“No, I’ll head into the office and get to work on background research on the doctor.” Lois pulled up in front of his building. “Here we are.”
Clark took off his seatbelt and opened the door.
“Clark!” she blurted before he could exit. Then she added more softly, “Goodnight. I’ll see you later.”
“Goodnight, Lois,” Clark replied before stepping out of the vehicle and closing the door behind him. He gave her a single wave and a smile, before turning and entering his building. Then, he watched her through the front door of his building as she pulled away and left for her own apartment.
******************
“Lois, so nice of you to join us this morning. I guess you think staff meetings don’t apply to you?” teased Perry as Lois approached her desk, which at the moment was obscured by a large green chalkboard covered with columns of numbers.
Working on only a few hours of sleep, Lois was not in the mood to be teased. “Clark and I were out late on a stakeout. He called and left a message saying we’d be in late. Didn’t you get it?”
“Oh, no. I got it. It’s just that late for you normally means nine and as it’s now approaching ten fifteen. I though you weren’t going to bother coming in today,” Perry continued to taunt.
“Ha ha, I got home at five and the only reason I’m in this early is that I’ve got a lot of research to follow up on,” she shot back.
“I see. Where’s that partner of yours?”
“STAR Labs,” Lois mumbled, not wanting to go into too much detail. “But he should be in soon. He just needed to pick up some things.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll let Jimmy fill you in on the meeting from this morning. Make sure Clark knows about it as well.”
“Will do, Chief.”
“And, Lois, when he gets in, you two come in and fill me in on your story. Got it?” insisted Perry.
“Sure thing, Chief.”
Lois turned to Jimmy hoping for an explanation on why she couldn’t get to her desk. “Jimmy, what is all this, and can we get it out of here? I’ve got work to do,” she said impatiently.
“Oh, sure. I’ll help you move it.” Jimmy grabbed one end and pulled the chalkboard towards the wall next to the small conference room.
“I’m guessing all this is about circulation numbers,” Lois said, pointing to the two columns on the board.
“Yeah. Apparently, our numbers are sagging and the Metropolis Star’s are skyrocketing. The Chief’s all worked up over their drastic increase in sales and subscriptions since Preston Carpenter took over.”
“Is it really that bad?” she asked, taking a second glance at the board.
“He seems to think so.”
Clark strolled in behind Lois and pointed to the board. “Hey, guys. What’s all this?”
“Morning, CK. As I was just telling Lois, this is the Chief’s latest rant on sales, on subscriptions, and how the Star is beating us in both cases right now.”
Clark was surprised to hear this news. “Really?”
“Apparently, they’ve been getting more scoops than us and it’s driving their sales up,” Jimmy said, lowering his voice with a hesitant glance back towards Perry, who was standing just outside his office. The Chief was already in a rotten mood and didn’t need any reminder of the cause.
“Lois, Clark, hotel fire. I want you there yesterday,” bellowed Perry.
“On it, Chief,” Lois and Clark replied simultaneously and rushed toward the elevator.
As they entered the elevator together, Clark suddenly stopped the doors from closing behind them and stepped out. “Lois, I just remember I forgot something. I’ll meet you there.”
************
Lois returned to the office irate. Not only had she been scooped, but that it had been done by Linda King, the Star’s newest reporter, who, to top it off, had gotten the Superman exclusive and not her.
“So, you got scooped, Lois. It happens. Now, you just need to focus on the next story,” Clark stated, trying to cheer her up.
“Spare me the Smallville pep talk. I wasn’t just scooped; a hideous part of my past just reared its ugly head,” Lois fumed.
He stopped them just short of the stairs. “Lois, just let it go. You know we’re on a possible major story right now. There’s no way she’s going to scoop us on this one. You’ve got to stay focused on that.”
She climbed the first step and turned to face him. “Yeah, well, it’s still not going to make Perry happy that we lost another story. We’re nowhere close to having anything to print on the doctor. We don’t even have an inkling of what’s really going on and we still need to come up with something today before Perry’s blood pressure goes up another ten points.” Lois paused to take a breath only to be disappointed by the figure strolling through the door. “Speaking of ugly, it just walked in.”
Linda walked up to them. “Hello, Lois, I thought we could get reacquainted.” She placed her hand out for Lois to shake.
Being petty, Lois waved her off, crossed her arms, and looked away.
“Or not,” Linda went on, moving her hand towards Clark. “Hi, I’m Linda King.”
Clark accepted her handshake. “Clark Kent. Nice to meet you. Lois was just beginning to fill me in about you.”
“Let me guess. ‘Has no conscious’? ’Will stoop to anything’?”
“Actually, we hadn’t gotten to that part, yet,” snipped Lois. “But thanks for saving me the trouble on filling in Clark. Now, why are you here?”
“Well, I know you guys get the most Superman stories, and I was hoping an introduction was in the realm of professional courtesy.”
“I have better idea, why don’t you stay away from Superman,” warned Lois.
Clark could tell that Linda was not affected by Lois’s bluntness. “Is he your personal source, Lois?”
“No. I just wouldn’t want him to be misrepresented in that rag you work for.”
“I believe my rag is outselling yours three to one these days,” Linda said with a gloating smile.
“Well, it’s easy to fill columns and sell papers when you use size fourteen fonts and bring the literacy rate for that fish wrapper down to elementary school level,” Lois shot back.
Clark had heard enough of Lois diatribe. “So, Linda, besides Superman what brings you here?”
“I was going to ask Lois if she wanted to join me for a dinner party tonight. Preston Carpenter’s throwing one at the Metropolis Press Club. I thought we could use it to catch up.”
“Sorry, I think not,” Lois said, taking hold of Clark's arm possessively and drawing herself towards him. “Besides, Clark and I already have plans for tonight.”
Clark backed up slightly to give himself a little space. “Lois, we could still make an appearance,” he offered.
“And why would we want to make an appearance at a Star event?” inquired Lois, not even trying to hide the snide tone from her voice.
“Because we’ve been invited and it would be polite,” he answered with an apologetic smile towards Linda.
“Fine, Clark, if it will make you happy and as long as you can find a tux.”
“Not a problem,” Clark stated.
“Good, I’ll see you guys there then.” Linda headed towards the revolving door but stopped short of entering to turn and get in one last jab. “And, Lois, make sure to wear something appropriate. This is a formal affair.” Before Lois could rebut, Linda walked out the door.
Lois was steaming. “God, that woman infuriates me.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Clark said sarcastically.
“Ha ha, Clark. You have no idea what she’s capable of and how low she’s willing to go to get what she wants. It’s disgraceful.”
“She seemed nice to me,” he countered.
“I see. So that’s why you want to go. Clark Kent red blooded all-American boy has another blonde hussy batting her eyes at him that he’s willing to drop the biggest story he has going for him to attend a party with her.”
What is with her today? thought Clark. He had never seen any another women get under her skin like Linda King was currently doing. “Lois, I didn’t say I was dropping the story, and I’m attending the party with you, not her. If we get there at seven and leave by nine that gives us plenty of time to go in and get a sample before the doctor reopens. And what blonde hussy? I haven’t dated anyone recently,” he stated. He was puzzled to whom she was referring.
Lois placed her hands on her hips and scowled. “Dr. Baines, Toni Taylor.”
“What? They meant nothing.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Clark. I’ll play nice, for now. We should get back to work and not waste any more time on Linda King. We’ve got a few hours left, and you never did get a chance to tell me what happened at STAR Labs,” she said, grabbing his arm and practically dragging him up the stairs.
Clark smiled as she hauled him up to the newsroom. He loved the idea of Lois’s jealousy, making her extra possessive of him. It was rare occurrence.
*** End of CH2***
For an idea of how Dr. Goldberg’s office looks, here’s an example:
office image The white single story house in the middle.
Just pretend that this is Metropolis, not San Francisco, and they aren’t built on a hill with the first level of underground parking. Also, that this is in a neighborhood that is now zoned commercial, not residential so neighboring houses are also offices .
