Ch 8
After they finished eating, Lois relocated to the couch and pulled out of Clark’s gym bag the reports that she had picked up at Dr. Zeigler’s office, setting them on the coffee table along with all her notes for the story that she had printed out the day before.
“Is that my bag?” asked Clark as he joined her on the couch after clearing the dishes.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks for picking that up. I didn’t want to carry it to my interview. I don’t know how I would have explained it.”
“Actually, it was very convenient, giving me something to carry all these papers in.” Lois pointed to the stacks of papers she had placed on the table. “I take it you’ve had no problems adjusting to the Star?”
Clark shrugged his shoulders. “Just about as I had expected. It’s not the Daily Planet and Carpenter’s no Perry White.”
“Did Carpenter say anything about the restaurant?”
“He mentioned it and bought my story without a question. He didn’t even try to hide his smirk when I started telling him about the troubles at the Planet, nor did he question why I would want to leave.”
“Our fight was all over the Planet grape vine as well. Who would have guessed our lives would become so interesting that we would end up front page gossip? I’m surprised there weren’t pictures and a sidebar on the whole thing titled ‘Feuding Partners Split, Junior Joins Metropolis Star’,” said Lois only partly joking.
“Junior?” Clark just chuckled and shook his head. “If there is, I haven’t seen it yet, which I’m glad. I never really pictured seeing ‘Clark Kent’ in a gossip column. I’m really not that interesting.”
“That’s what you think,” said Lois with a smile. Clark smiled back at her, causing her to blush slightly and change the subject. “How long did it take before Linda had herself partnered with you?”
“Actually, Linda didn’t need to do that.”
“What, you volunteered?” she scoffed, trying to hide her jealousy and self loathing over how she reacted to first being paired with Clark versus how Linda probably reacted. “Couldn’t you wait more than five seconds after being hired?”
“No,” Clark replied quickly. “Carpenter sent us both to the jewel presentation right after I finished getting a press badge.”
“So are you guys partnered on all your stories now?”
“I don’t think we’re officially partners, but so far we’ve covered things together.”
“Well, just remember, you still have an official partner.” Lois leaned over and patted his chest.
Clark looked down at her hand before raising his gaze to her eyes. “And she’s the only one I want.”
Lois felt a chill travel down her spine. She pulled her hand away and diverted her attention to the table. “Should we get to work?” she suggested, picking up the stack of papers and dividing them into two piles; one in her left and one in her right hand. “Where do you want to start? Medical reports?” She held up her right hand. “Or medical journal or whatever this is?” She held up her left.
“Well, Lois, unless you’ve brushed up on your German in the last two days, I’ll take the whatever.” He pointed to her left hand.
“Suit yourself,” she said and handed him the copy she had made of the journal. “Though, don’t expect me to understand all the mumbo jumbo medical stuff in this report either.”
“I don’t,” he said jokingly.
Lois swatted his arm. “Let’s get started.” She grabbed the notebook she had taken to the Hager interview and opened it to an empty page. She took the first report off the top of the stack and began reading it.
Clark leaned back in the couch and opened the journal. He jotted down a few notes as he went through each page. Half an hour later, he was finished and set the book down on the table.
Lois looked up from her reports. “You’re done already?” she asked in astonishment.
“Yeah, sorry,” he gave her a sheepish grin.
“What does it say?” she asked impatiently.
“It seems as if it is the doctor’s personal notes on his patients. It doesn’t list any of them by name, just by a number. It talks about their progress and how long their treatment schedules need to be. It mentions three phases, but doesn’t talk about them specifically. There’s about fifteen patients in phase one, fifteen in phase two, and three so far in phase three.”
“Doesn’t he give us any hint on what the phases are about?”
“No. Just notes about how often they came in for treatment and different aerobic and anaerobic tests that were done each week and their results. There’s nothing about what the treatments or goals of the treatment are. Did you find anything in the medical reports?”
Lois glanced at the report she was currently reading before handing it to Clark. “Honestly, I’m not sure what all I’m looking at with these reports. Other than they’re all male and in good health, which is what Zeigler told me over the phone, I’m not sure what to make of it. There are still blanks in a lot of the sections. We may just have to wait until the whole report is finished with the full blood and tissue analysis before we can find anything useful.”
“Well, that’s disappointing, but not unexpected that we would have to wait for the full report to find out anything.”
“Do you think the patient number matches the samples we took from his office?” asked Lois.
“Possibly. Some of the numbers in the book are the same as samples I took. If that’s true, then they’re all phase two samples. It’s strange though. That book is very descriptive, yet very vague at the same time. He wrote down pages and pages of how many bench presses, or how long they could run in a full sprint on the treadmill, or how high was their vertical leap, but there’s no notes about what the doctor was expecting, or if progress had been made, or how any of this data pertained to their injury. If these are all athletes with injuries, shouldn’t there be an end goal? What would be the point of cataloging this much detail?”
Lois shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t want to put that stuff in writing. It would seem as if whatever he was doing now, phase two, with these boys coming in the middle of the night isn’t legit like the treatment Hager and those other guys received. Maybe they don’t have injuries at all and they’re being used as lab rats.”
“Could be. So you think that Hager, Lagner, and Ramirez are all part of Phase One and that kid we saw the other night was part of phase two?”
“It’s starting to look that way,” she agreed. “You should chart out everything in that book by their number. Maybe we’ll find a pattern or something that matches up with the sample results.”
“I agree. I’ll take the book home and do that later tonight. Do you want me to take the reports as well and look them over?”
“Sure. I’ll keep the patient files. Those I can at least decipher with a medical dictionary. Oh, that reminds me; I listened to the tape from the last night. The kid that we saw came back and Goldberg ran a few tests on him to reassure him that the knee was fine.”
“Did you happen to catch a name?” he asked.
“Tom. His last name was never said.”
Clark sighed. “Well, that doesn’t narrow it down much. Was there anything else on there?”
“Not really. It sounded like Dr. Goldberg spent most of his time working on paperwork. All I could hear was mumbling and papers shuffling. He didn’t have any other visitors.”
“Humm…what about the other files you scanned?”
“I didn’t get to them yet. It took me all day to just get through Hager’s file….Ugh,” Lois groaned and ran her hands through her hair in frustration. “This story’s making me wish I had paid more attention to my father when he would go off on some medical breakthrough he was discovering. Maybe then reading these files would make more sense.”
“Have you thought about calling your dad and asking him to look them over with you?” Clark asked carefully, knowing full well that her father was a touchy subject.
“No, I’m not that desperate, yet. Look, Clark…I know you have a great relationship with your father, but you’ve met mine. I’ve barely managed two conversations with him since the boxing incident, which was months ago. I don’t want to hear anything like ‘See Lois, you should have listened to me and taken those med classes,’ when I ask him for help.”
“Do you really think he would say that?” Clark asked skeptically.
“I don’t have to think,” replied Lois. “He’s said it to me before. It’s been a little while, but the man hasn’t changed in twenty-five years, Clark, I don’t see him changing now. If I need to bring him in, I will, but for right now, I will work my way through these reports. Plus, I can always give Dr. Zeigler a call. I figured when he finished the tests, we’d go over there in person anyway to discuss them.”
“Okay, but keep your father in mind, please.”
“Clark, it’s not like I’m going to forget that the man exists. If I get desperate, I’ll call,” she said flatly, clearly trying to end this line of conversation.
“Good. Did Zeigler say when he thought he would be done?”
“He was hoping maybe early to middle of next week. That should give you enough time to wrap up your story at The Star and rejoin the big leagues,” she teased and swatted his arm playfully.
“Let’s hope so. It’s not a bad place to work, but it just feels like a job, nothing more.”
“Not even with Linda there?” she asks softly, genuinely curious about his response.
“Lois, as much as I think she’s a good reporter, she’s not you.” Clark reached out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her left ear. “She’ll never be more than a co-worker and friend to me.”
“And what about me, Clark?” Lois asked bashfully. “What am I to you?”
“Lois,” Clark said, reaching out and picking up her left hand. “You’re my partner and my best friend. You keep me on my toes and lift me up when I’m feeling down. You inspire me to help make this city a better place. You’ve done more for me than I can find the words to say. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world having you as my partner.” He brought her hand in his up and kissed the top of her hand.
“Clark,” she murmured, tears sparkling in her eyes. “No one has ever said anything like that to me before. Thank you.”
“Lois,” Clark said, cradling her hand between his and placing them on his knees. “Please, stop worrying. I want nothing more than to get this story over with and get back to working with you. I have a bad feeling about what’s going on with Dr. Goldberg. Metropolis needs their best reporters together to solve this case.”
Lois wiped away the tears that had formed with her free hand. “I have that bad feeling also, Clark,” she said softly. “They’re just kids.”
“I know. I wish there was more we could do at this point, but until we get that full report, we don’t have much to go on. Hopefully, once we get that all the pieces will start to fall in place.”
“Yeah, hopefully,” Lois slowly pulled her hands away and picked up the stack of papers on the table she had set down earlier. “Well, we still have the other reports to go through and I need to research what Scleroderma is.”
Clark snatched the papers out of her hand. “How about I give you a break, and I take the reports for now?”
“You’ll get no argument from me. I think that medical book I brought home has something on autoimmune disorders. I’ll see what I can find on Gage’s condition.”
“Okay, let’s give it another hour and then call it a night. I still need to work on that chart tonight.”
“Sounds good.”
*********
“Clark,” Linda yelled at him as he was crossing the street to the Met Star building. Clark jogged over to meet her as she hailed a cab.
“There’s jumper at Brandini and 3rd. Let’s go.”
Clark looked at the cab and then at Linda, stalling for an excuse not to join her in the cab. “Why don’t I meet you there? I’ve got to make a phone call first.”
“There’s no time. Come on.” Linda grabbed Clarks arm and pulled him into the cab.
Ten minutes later, they arrived their destination. Linda shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked towards the sky in search of the jumper. “There he is, Clark.” She pointed to the top of the building on their left.
Clark looked up and saw a man sitting on the ledge of the roof of a ten story building swinging his feet as he looked at the crowd that had gathered below. “I’m going to go and talk to the police chief and try to find out if anyone has talked to him. See if you can get some statements from the fire department,” he said, not waiting for Linda to respond before he ran off towards the police vehicles and disappeared into the crowd.
Returning a short time later as Superman, Clark approached the chief of police for an update on the situation, but was interrupted by screams coming from the crowd. Superman quickly turned around and rushed over to the falling jumper and caught him while he was still several feet in the air. He quickly turned over the man to the EMT’s. When he turned around, Linda was standing there with her tape recorder on.
“Superman.”
“Yes, Miss King?”
“That was a close call. Good thing you were here. Did he say anything about why he jumped?” asked Linda.
“No, he hasn’t said anything yet. You’ll have to ask the police if he said anything before I arrived. He jumped before I had a chance to be briefed.”
“You’ve covered jumpers before, was there anything unusual about this one?” she asked.
“Not that I could tell. Like I said he jumped as I arrived on the scene. I didn’t have time to assess the situation.”
“Well, thank you again.”
Superman nodded before taking to the sky. When he returned as Clark, he found Linda already engaged with the Chief of Police.
“Clark, where have you been?” Linda inquired.
“I was trying to find if anyone in the crowd knew anything, but it sounds like nobody knows who he is or why he was up there.” Clark only had the chance to ask a few people as he made his way through the masses, but he didn’t think interviewing the whole crowd would turn up anything. As Superman, he had assisted in many suicide attempts. This guy didn’t give off the same vibe as the usual victims he has saved. Clark had no doubt that this attempt was staged.
“That’s what the police were telling me. They say they’ll do a psych evaluation on him and try to find out why he jumped. We’ll have to find out later. I did get some fantastic pictures of Superman though.”
“Good. I think we’re done here. Shall we report back?”
“Actually, we’re supposed to report to the Lucchesi trial, but I checked in this morning and they’re still trying to clean up the fire damage. They said they were trying to get the room ready for a hearing at one.”
“Okay.”
“So we’ve got some time and I know it’s early but I was hoping we could grab a quick bite to eat. You hungry?” Linda asked impatiently.
“I suppose I could eat something light.” At ten in the morning, Clark wasn’t hungry, but he had the suspicion that Linda wasn’t hungry either and just wanted an excuse to talk to him, so he agreed.
“Great, I know this fantastic French bistro not too far from here. Let’s go.” She grabbed his arm and led the way down the street towards the restaurant.
*******
“So, Linda, is there some reason we’re getting lunch just after ten?” asked Clark. He could tell from her heart rate and the way she was fidgeting in her seat that she was anxious about something.
“Actually, there is. I wanted to go someplace so we could talk.”
“I gathered that, and we couldn’t do this back at the Star?”
Linda looked around the room which was empty except for the waiter. “No, I think this has something to do with the Star,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking and I wanted to ask you if you think it’s strange that I, or we, keep getting all these front page stories? I mean, I know there’s being in the right place at the right time, but a big story every day this week. You’ve been in this town for awhile, is that normal?”
Good, she’s figured it out. Clark looked down at his water before picking it up and taking a sip. “No, it’s not normal.”
Linda studied him. “You’ve been thinking about it also?”
“Yes,” he said hesitantly, knowing that he was now going to have to come clean and tell her the truth, and hating himself for having strung her along for so long on the lie.
“And, did it seem like that jumper waited until Superman showed up to jump?”
“Possibly.”
“What do you think is going on?” she asked quietly.
“I believe someone is setting them up. Maybe not all of them, but I do know the elevator shaft wasn’t an accident. The line was cut.”
“You’ve known this all along and you didn’t say anything?” Linda asked, her voice raised slightly, miffed that he had kept this to himself.
“I’ve had my suspicions. Now, I need to tell you the truth.”
“And that would be?” she inquired impatiently.
Clark took another sip of his water. “I still work for the Daily Planet.”
“You’re undercover?” Linda asked surprised and a bit resentful at the thought that she was just being used for a Daily Planet exclusive.
“Yes.”
“And I bet Lois is in on it as well,” she stated snidely.
Clark looked and Linda and cocked a half smile trying to lighten her mood and make her understand why he went undercover. “Lois and I staged all of our arguments in public and the fight at the restaurant. It was done to make my exiting the Planet seem believable.”
“I would say it worked. So you’re still partners?”
Clark could hear the hint of jealously in her question. “Yes. Now that you know, the three of us should work together to solve who’s behind the setups.”
Linda leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes with annoyance. “The three of us? So, you’re not going to cut me out of the story?”
“No.”
“And your partner is okay with this?” asked Linda skeptically.
“Let me handle Lois.”
“Good luck! Do you have any ideas on who is doing this?”
Clark ignored her obvious skepticism of the three of them finishing the story together. To him, Lois was already in on the story. It was only fair to Linda to have her in on it as well. “My suspicion is on Carpenter. He’s always telling you where you should be and calling to verify you’re exactly where he’s sent you. He doesn’t need to do that. He’s your publisher. Not even an editor would micromanage at that level. Plus, he seems to put editorials together faster than he should.”
“As much as I don’t want to believe that, I guess you could be right. Do you have a plan to prove it’s him?”
“I do, and now that you’re in on it, let’s meet up with Lois and finish this.”
When the waiter came, Linda and Clark ordered their sandwiches to go, including one for Lois. They then headed for the Daily Planet.
*********
“Miss Lane, Mr. Kent, Miss…?”
“King. Linda King, Metropolis Star,” Linda shook Inspector Henderson’s hand as she introduced herself.
“Nice to meet you, Miss King. Lane,” Henderson scolded, folding his arms and giving her his usual stern look. “It’s after ten o’clock at night. This better be good.”
“Henderson, when do I bring you information that is not good?” Lois asked mockingly.
Henderson ignored her statement. “What do you have?”
“We think Preston Carpenter may be planning an assassination on Secretary Wallace,” said Clark.
“Ah ha…And what makes you think this?” asked Henderson skeptically.
Linda answered first. “We’ve been investigating him all week and last night we acquired evidence that makes us suspect he’s after Wallace. He’s already written the editorial about his death, which is set for Monday afternoon.”
“And how did you acquire this information?” Henderson kept his stern look. He suspected he wouldn’t like their answer.
Lois shrugged. “We stumbled across it?” she threw out there.
“You guys know I can’t use evidence that was obtained illegally. Do you have any other proof that would let me get a search warrant?” Henderson asked.
“All the rest is just speculation,” said Clark.
“Then my hands are tied. I can mention to Wallace’s security team that we’ve received an unsubstantiated threat against the Secretary, and they can decide what they want to do with that information, but I can’t arrest Carpenter or get a search warrant unless you get something better.”
Lois was disappointed that Henderson couldn’t do much with the evidence they had put forth, but she wasn’t going to let his reluctance stop her. “We’ve got a few days. We’ll see what we can do.”
“I’m counting on it, Lane. Kent,” Henderson said, pointing to Clark, “make sure she stays out of trouble. Nice to meet you, Miss King.”
The three of them left the police station and called it a night. Linda and Lois shared a cab while Clark took a detour home, stopping by the doctor’s office to pick up the next tape.
********
“Clark, it’s been two days and both of you still haven’t found anything on Carpenter?” Lois griped.
Clark had remained undercover at the Star with Linda. Together, they had spent their working hours, when not on assignment, looking into Carpenter and trying to find something that would get them the evidence they would need for Henderson to solve the case. It was now Sunday evening, and they still didn’t have the evidence they needed.
“None,” Clark said with frustration. “Linda and I have put word out with everyone we know, but Carpenter must pay well because nobody’s talking.”
“Have you guys checked into his finances?”
“I had Jimmy look into it. Carpenter’s no Luthor, but the guy’s got money and it’s everywhere. I called Jimmy before I came over, and he was still working on it. I told him to call here if he found anything.”
“We can only hope that Wallace’s men take the warning from Henderson seriously.”
“I’ve also informed Superman,” Clark added.
“Good thinking. Did you also get the tapes from him for the last few days?”
“Um…I did. I haven’t listened to them yet. They’re in my coat.” Clark took the tapes out of his coat pocket that was hanging over the back of the couch and put the tape from Friday night into the player.
An hour later, and only halfway through the first tape, they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Lois answered. “Hi, Jimmy.”
“Hey, guys. I think I found something on the Carpenter case,” Jimmy announced, holding up a stack of papers.
“Great come on in,” said Lois.
Clark cleaned up the notes they had been taking from the tape and placed them in a neat pile with the rest of their story notes to give Jimmy room for his papers.
“So, after trying to track large payments he made recently, I got this idea that maybe it was someone who had been with him a long time and was on payroll rather than on the side. There were three guys on his payroll who have been around for almost five years and make a hefty salary.”
“Nice work, Jimmy,” Clark complemented the young man.
“This guy here,” Jimmy said, pointing to a man standing behind Carpenter in a picture he had found. “Mr. Stark seems like he could be the main guy. Other than being paid the most, $3000 a week, he’s had a military career as well as a prison record. Here’s another picture of him.”
Clark took the picture and stared at the man in the military uniform. “I’ve seen this guy before. He was at the courthouse the morning the fire broke out.”
“Which fire?” asked Lois.
“Remember, at the Lucchesi trial, where a fire broke out in the judge’s room. Superman put it out before it could spread. This guy, Mr. Stark, was at the courthouse,” explained Clark. “Weren’t you there?”
“No, Applegate was covering it for the Planet,” said Lois.
“Oh right, I saw him there,” Clark replied, slightly confused as he recalled Lois telling him that she had witnessed a Superman rescue that day.
“Do you think there’s any evidence he was in the judge’s room before it broke out?” chimed in Jimmy, breaking Clark from his thoughts.
“Only if there’s a courtroom camera,” Clark replied.
“Let’s take this to Henderson,” Lois suggested, starting to put the evidence in a manila folder. “Hopefully, assuming there is one, he can get a copy of the tape, which will prove he set the fire and then he can get the search warrant for Carpenter’s office.”
“We’ve got to hurry then, it’s almost eleven,” added Clark. “We’ve got less than twelve hours before Wallace is suppose to make his next appearance.”
Lois grabbed her purse and keys and followed the guys out of her apartment, who were already quickly heading towards her Jeep.
********
“Ugh, she did it again,” said Lois as she picked up the latest edition of the Daily Planet and read its title. “’New Age Kane Nipped in the Bud by Lois Lane and Clark Kent, special contribution Linda King.’ Yeah, right!”
“Well, how did she do that?” asked Clark.
“I don’t know,” Lois said, setting the paper back down on the stand in disgust. “We were the ones who convinced Henderson to look at the courtroom surveillance footage that got him the warrant to search Carpenter’s office. Her only contribution was a dinner date with Carpenter to get him out of that office, so we could take a look in there.”
“Still, she did play a part.”
Lois was about to respond when the elevator door chimed signaling its arrival on their floor. Lois and Clark looked over to see Linda give Perry a kiss on the cheek before exiting the elevator and heading in their direction.
“Mr. White is such a generous man,” Linda said as she approached Lois and Clark.
“You have no shame,” stated Lois.
“Yes, I do. Not a lot, but some,” Linda clarified.
“So, what’s next for you?” Clark asked Linda, quickly changing the subject.
“Hollywood. I optioned my film rights on the inside story of Preston Carpenter’s fall from grace. It’s obscene how much money those Hollywood producers will throw at you.”
“So, who’s going to play you?” Lois wondered.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Linda said flippantly. “They’re going to get some big name, but I did have it put in my contract that I get to play one small part.”
“And what’s that?” Lois asked skeptically. She couldn’t believe some Hollywood producer would cast Linda.
Linda pretended to pinch Lois’s cheek. “I’ll try to do you justice.”
“Me?” Lois choked in disbelief. “You’re going to play me and turn me into a blonde?”
“I can dye it black if you ask nicely,” mocked Linda.
“My hair is not black, and what do you mean ‘small’ part? Clark and I were the ones who figured out who the henchman was. Wallace might have been killed if it wasn’t for me,” Lois pointed out.
“But he wasn’t; besides, you weren’t at all the scenes where the action was taking place. You were always showing up late, or not at all, which severely limits your screen time. We don’t really need you sitting at the Planet sulking, because you were scooped in the script.”
Lois was fuming, but couldn’t respond before Linda spoke.
“I am hopeful that they get someone handsome to play Clark. He’s got a fairly large roll as well, unless you want to keep our partnership together and join me?” Linda snuggled up on Clark's arm.
Lois glared at Linda before Clark could come up with his usual overly polite way of saying no.
“I’m kidding,” Linda said as she pulled her arm away from his. “Look, Lois, I was hoping to have some time to talk to you and apologize for my behavior all those years ago, but I have a flight to catch soon. It will have to wait. I’ll call you next time I’m in town.”
“Great,” said Lois brusquely.
“I enjoyed working with you both. Take care.” Linda gave Clark a quick hug.
“Bye, Linda,” he said.
“Bye,” replied Linda.
Lois just waved.
They watched Linda exit the Daily Planet. “I’m glad that’s over,” said Lois, relieved that her former rival was now gone.
“She’s not that bad, Lois, and, who knows, maybe she’ll do a good job playing you,” said Clark optimistically.
“Highly unlikely. Not everyone can be Lois Lane.”
“Very true.” Clark put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a tight squeeze.
“Ready to get back to work?” asked Lois.
“Absolutely, partner.”
******
End of Chapter 8
