Superman Movieverse Forum

Crimes and Circumstances
However wicked men may be, they do not dare condemn virtue openly. Thus, when they want to attack virtue, they pretend it is false or charge it with crimes.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
French Writer (1630-1680)

The skies really were as blue as the song said, Lois mused as they crossed the parking lot to the main entrance to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. To the right of the entrance gate was a neatly manicured rose garden. Lois wondered a moment about zoos and rose gardens. The Metropolis Zoo had a large rose garden as well. Maybe it was related to all the manure the zoo produced, or maybe some time in the past someone decided that a ‘zoological garden’ required a garden.

“I thought it might be a good idea to get the heck out of Dodge for a while,” Clark said as he paid cash for their entrance. Lois had noticed some time before that Clark almost always paid in cash when they were outside of Metropolis.

“It was getting a little tenser than normal in the newsroom,” Clark continued. He unfolded a map and asked Jason where he wanted to go first. Jason just shook his head, eyes downcast.

“Jason, you’ve been awfully quiet,” Lois observed, crouching down to be on his eye level. The girls in the Planet daycare center hadn’t mentioned any problems with him when she and Clark came to pick him up.

“Kiddo, what’s wrong?” Clark asked, keeping his voice low.

“Some of the grownups were saying bad things about Mommy and Superman,” Jason whispered.

“Jason, you know those things aren’t true,” Lois said gently.

Jason nodded, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “I know that, but I can’t tell anybody I know that.”

“I know it’s hard, but just ignore them” Clark said quietly. “They don’t know what’s really going on and as soon as we figure out who started it, it’ll all be okay.”

“Promise?”

Clark nodded. “The truth is rarely as scary as what people imagine is going on.”

Jason wiped his nose again.

“So, which way do we go first, right or left?” Clark asked.

“Do they have penguins?”



Ralph Gunderson glowered at Lois Lane’s empty desk in the Daily Planet bullpen. Princess Lois got the best assignments, hung out with aliens and billionaires. She was engaged to the boss’s nephew for five years for crissakes, and today she’d just flounced out like she hadn’t a care in the world – like she enjoyed the notoriety of being Superman’s main squeeze even though she was now a married woman.

“It isn’t fair,” Ralph groused to himself. He’d been in the business far longer than Lois Lane, and he was at least as good a reporter as she was, yet she was the star. She was the one who got the first interview with Superman. She was the one who could do no wrong in Perry White’s eyes.

Kent’s desk was also empty but Ralph knew the other man was working out of the spare office. How did he rate a private office and a cute little assistant from International? The rest of them were working on important stories, but somehow Kent was the one with the office with a locking door. Ralph had no doubts that Princess Lois had something to do with that, too.

And Kent… Ralph paused as he considered the man. He understood why Kent might be attracted to Lois – the meek mousy guys usually went for dominatrix type. But he couldn’t understand what Lane saw in Kent. The man was so mild-mannered he was nearly comatose – unless that was exactly what Princess Lois wanted, a man so blind and meek that he wouldn’t mind that she was doing the horizontal mamba with half the football team.

That had to be it, Ralph decided. Kent was so cowed that he didn’t care that his wife was being done by Superman. Maybe Kent even got off on the idea, or maybe Superman was doing both of them.

Ralph spotted Perry crossing the bullpen floor, coming his way. His heart sank. He knew what the editor wanted.

“Have you got confirmation on that story about the mayor’s aide?” Perry demanded.

“Perry, you know my source on this is good…”

“I know no such thing,” Perry stated, brindled eyebrows coming together. “And we’ve had this discussion before. No confirmation, no story. Get me something else.”

Perry walked away, heading for his next victim.

Ralph knew he had a great story but Perry just didn’t see it. He was certain that Princess Lois didn’t need extra confirmation on her stories.

With a grumble Ralph grabbed his jacket and headed for the elevators and the parking garage. If the boss wanted a second source, Ralph was going to have to find one.

A woman was waiting at the elevators. He didn’t recognize her but she was wearing a large hat and dark sunglasses that obscured her features. Her beige suit looked tailored and very expensive.

“Um, I was looking for Lois Lane,” she said. Her voice was low and sexy and sent a thrill down Ralph’s spine.

“She’s not here,” Ralph said. “But I’m a reporter too. Maybe I can help you.” He sidled closer to her and she didn’t back away.

“I really wanted to talk to Ms. Lane about Superman,” the woman said. “But I guess you’ll do. Tell me, do you know her well?”

“I know her as well as anybody does,” Ralph assured the woman. The elevator doors opened and she followed him inside. She asked simple questions and he answered as best he could. No, he didn’t know where Lois was nor did he know where Kent had gotten to. He didn’t tell her that Kent and Lane had probably left the building together.

“How about we stop somewhere for drinks?” Ralph offered as the elevator doors opened onto the hallway that led to the parking garage.

“Maybe,” the woman purred. Her hips swung lazily as she walked with him through the garage.

“That’s funny,” he muttered to himself. “Her highness’s car is still here.”

“That’s Lois Lane’s car?” the woman asked, pointing out the gun-metal gray Audi parked only a few stalls away from the door.

“Uh, yeah,” Ralph said.

“So, she’s still in the building?”

“Nah, it just means she’ll be back in a little bit,” Ralph said.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah,” Ralph assured her.  He moved ahead of her, toward his own car several aisles further down.

The woman called out in alarm, “Lois! What are you doing?”

Ralph began to turn when he heard a crack. He felt a burning pressure in his chest and then the concrete floor came up and hit him.



Inspector William Henderson had a headache, a Lois-Lane-size-pounding in his temples. But then, Lois Lane frequently gave him headaches. Lane was good at her job, but people like her frequently caught the attention of nut jobs. And Lois Lane caught more than her fair share of the attention of two-legged squirrels. Keeping an eye on her was a full time job for Superman, Henderson mused.

Henderson looked up as his office door opened and Emily Douglass walked in. The detective looked as bad as he felt.

“Just got a call from Met General,” Douglass announced. “Gunderson’s gonna be fine.”

“But…” Henderson prompted. He knew from her stance that it wasn’t all good news.

“But it’s going to be a while before we can talk to him,” Douglass said. “They have him heavily sedated. Plus, Dunning and his bunch have already gotten hold of the alleged eyewitness to the assault. They’re positively IDing Lois Lane as the shooter,” Douglass said.

Henderson sighed. He was acquainted with Barry Dunning, the host of ‘In Your Face’ – a perversely popular talk show on WGBS. Henderson knew the depths the man would go to in his conscienceless quest to sate the public’s desire for sleazy exposés featuring the influential and famous. So far the MPD hadn’t been able to get any criminal charges to stick against him, but it wasn't for lack of trying. One of these days some angry recipient of Dunning’s unwanted attention was going to kill him. Henderson just hoped he didn’t get assigned to the case when it happened. He was afraid of the repercussions if he handed the killer a medal before hauling him in.

“We’re guessing it’s the same person who made the first call to 9-1-1,” Douglass continued.

“What about the surveillance tapes from the Daily Planet?” Henderson asked.

“They’re not tapes…”

Henderson glared at her.

“We just got them and we’re going over them now,” Douglass said. “But lobby security confirms that Lane and Kent and the boy left the building together by the front door at a little after one. He remembers because Kent asked if there’d been any trouble and they were all a little tense. And Kent’s normally pretty mellow.”

“She left with Kent?” This was the first he’d heard that Lane had left the Planet building with her husband and son.

“Yeah,” Douglass said. “We figure she came back and um…”

“Emmy, Lane didn’t do it,” Henderson stated flatly.

“And how do you know that, sir?”

“The same way I know you didn’t shoot him,” Henderson said. “He’s still alive.” Henderson leaned back in his chair, his hands steepled in front of his face. “You said Dunning claims he has a witness?”

“Yeah.”

“See if you can’t get Judge Page to grant us a warrant to search Dunning’s home and office.”

“On what grounds? And what about his First Amendment Rights?” Douglass asked.

“First Amendment only protects you if you’re not lying,” Henderson said. “Dunning says he has a witness to an assault with a deadly weapon. A witness about whom we, the police, know nothing. So, either he’s lying, or his source is. In either case, he’s interfering in an active police investigation and very probably is an accessory to the crime.”

“It won’t stick,” Douglass warned.

“We can try,” Henderson said. “Has anyone tried to find Lane?”

Douglass shrugged. “Like I said, she left the Daily Planet a little after one. Her car’s still in the garage and we haven’t found any cabs that might have picked her up.”

Henderson started flipping through his phone file. “Have you tried calling her?”

“Her phone is not in service.”

“And that doesn’t strike you as a little odd?” Henderson asked. He picked up his own phone and keyed in a number from the list in front of him. After three rings the other end picked up. “Kent, where are you?”



Jason had cheered up while they walked through the zoo’s open-air exhibits. He chattered away excitedly over what for them was a very late lunch from a little kiosk near the wallaby exhibit. He was also hopping around like one of the wallabies, waving around his new kangaroo stuffed toy.

“This was a good idea,” Lois commented around her veggie sandwich.

“I thought you might like it,” Clark said. “You are supposed to still be on vacation after all.”

Lois’s expression went still and flat, as it occasionally did when she was faced with something distasteful. This time it was his observation. She didn’t like ‘I told you so’s, even when they weren’t actually stated.

“You think I should have stayed at your mom’s for a couple more days?” she asked.

“No,” Clark said truthfully. “I’m surprised you didn’t take the first available flight out from Wichita.”

Some of the tenseness left her mouth. “I wanted to, but your mom talked me into waiting until morning. Good night’s sleep, all that stuff. But maybe you’re right. Maybe if I had stayed that extra day, none of this crap would have happened.”

“We don’t know that. It might have happened anyway. We just weren’t as careful as we need to be. It’s not just you and me we have to worry about.”

Lois snorted. “There’s Jason, and his parents in a romantic triangle with only two people.”

“It’ll blow over,” Clark assured her.

“And if it doesn’t?”

“It will…” Clark’s cell phone chirped and he patted his pockets to find it. Bill H. was the name that came up on the tiny screen.

“Kent, where are you?” Bill Henderson demanded before Clark could say anything.

“Um, hi to you too, Inspector,” Clark managed to get out. “Why do you want to know?”

“Is Lois with you?”

“Yes.”

“She’s been with you all afternoon?” Henderson quizzed.

“Uh, yes, except for about five minutes in a restroom,” Clark responded. “Why?”

“Where are you?”

“We’re at the Woodland Park Zoo,” Clark answered cautiously. There was something extremely odd in Henderson’s questions – almost like he suspected them of something.

“And where is that?”

“Seattle.”

“Seattle? As in Washington State?”

Clark confirmed it was.

“Can you prove you’ve been there all afternoon?”

“We have entrance tickets with date and time stamps and Lois’s credit card receipts,” Clark answered. Despite his aversion to leaving hard to explain paper trails, Lois had bought snacks and souvenirs on her credit card. “Is that good enough?”

“I’m assuming the time on the entrance ticket is only a few minutes after the three of you were seen leaving the Daily Planet?” Henderson said.

“Closer to half an hour but, um, yes.”

“Would Superman be willing to sign a statement saying he flew the three of you to Seattle?”

“Bill, what’s going on?” Clark demanded worriedly. “What’s happened?”

“Ralph Gunderson was shot in the Daily Planet parking garage,” Henderson said. Clark nearly dropped his phone in surprise. “It wasn't a serious wound,” Henderson went on, “but one of the 9-1-1 calls claimed that Lois did it, and Dunning has it spread all over the airwaves.”

Lois scooted closer so she could hear the conversation. “When did it happen?”

“About ninety minutes ago,” Henderson said.

“We were in the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit,” Lois said. “We had to be on a security camera.”

“I’ll check into that,” Henderson promised.

“Do you want us to come back now or spend the night here?” Clark asked.

“Come back now,” Henderson instructed. “But be prepared to spend the night in a hotel. I’m told Dunning has your house staked out.”

Clark folded up his phone and put it back in his pocket. “Ralph getting shot isn’t a coincidence.”

“I know he’s an obnoxious sleaze ball, but who’d want him dead?”

“A better question is who would want to frame you for it?”



Jimmy Olsen was hard at work and ignoring the comments around him. He wasn’t reporting on the attack on Ralph Gunderson. That had fallen to Tom Weaver. But Jimmy knew of the rumors that Lois had been involved in Ralph’s attack. Jimmy also knew he had seen Lois leave the bullpen only a few minutes before Clark had and Clark would never let Lois do anything as foolish as shooting Ralph – no matter how badly Ralph might deserve it.

Besides, Lois was smart enough not to commit a crime in front of security cameras. Hell, if Lois wanted Ralph dead he’d be dead, the body would never be found, and she would have an airtight alibi for the time of his disappearance.

Jimmy frowned as he watched and listened to the recording of Superman and Lois. He had the volume turned up on his headphones and the audio was a squiggly waveform on his monitor. There… Superman’s head came up as though he heard something and less than a second later he was gone and the video stopped. The recording didn’t show Lois’s reaction to Superman’s sudden departure.

Not that Lois’s reaction mattered for what Jimmy was doing. He was concentrating on inconsistencies in the background noises – water, shouting voices in the distance. The microphone in the recorder had been overwhelmed by noise. Then the background noise disappeared and one word could be heard clearly – ‘Superman’. The voice sounded female. But what had caught Jimmy’s attention was that the background noise in that section didn’t simply drop as the automatic gain on the tiny camera microphone compensated for the change in volume. The background noise disappeared.

He copied and saved the audio snippet into a separate file. He doubted anyone would be able to identify the woman’s voice, but there was always the chance that someone would be able to do a voice print match. Maybe.

Jimmy hurried to Perry White’s office. The editor looked up as Jimmy closed the door behind himself.

“I’ve got something,” Jimmy announced. “That video of Lois and Superman… it was edited.”

“You mean the thing’s a fake?” Perry demanded.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jimmy admitted, “but the audio was edited to make it look like Superman took off because somebody saw them together and called his name.”

“And that’s not what happened?”

“Nope. Of course, I can’t prove what did happen.”

“Do you think Dunning knows the video was altered?” Perry asked.

“I don’t see how he or his people could have missed it,” Jimmy said. “I mean, I caught it as soon as I had a good copy of the video. It just took a while to get a high resolution copy of the untrimmed original.”

There was a familiar predatory gleam in Perry’s eyes. The older man was an investigative reporter long before he became an editor and he knew the smell of a good story. “Make sure Polly knows about this when she gets back,” Perry ordered.



Henderson had been right about the media circus on their front lawn. What he hadn’t mentioned was that Wayne Security was also there in the form of several very large and very obvious men and women in dark windbreakers, slacks and sunglasses. They were also very obviously armed. Lois suspected that was the only thing keeping the vultures with the video cameras off the lawn and on the sidewalk.

Unfortunately Lois, Clark, and Jason, were going to have to run the gauntlet to get past the media vultures to the safety of the house. Clark paid the cabbie and hefted Jason onto his hip as Lois climbed out of the cab they’d taken from Metro City Airport. Wayne Entertainment kept a jet parked there and Clark figured it made for a good cover – Wayne’s people wouldn’t talk to anyone without their boss’s express permission and leaving from the airport implied they had arrived there by plane.

“Lois Lane!” Barry Dunning yelled. Lois tried to catch up with Clark and Jason, but Dunning was fast for a man of his size and his cameraman wasn't much slower.

“Ms. Lane, I'm Barry Dunning.”

“I know who you are,” Lois stated, trying to move past him.

“Then you're familiar with my show, 'In Your Face with Barry Dunning!'” he gushed.

Clark had stopped to listen and two of the security men moved closer.

“Riveting journalism, Mr. Dunning,” Lois stated. She was having a hard time keeping the derision out of her voice. “Particularly your show on ‘Cross-Dressing Cousins and the Has-Been Child Stars Who Love Them.’”

Dunning didn’t seem to realize she was making fun of him. “Hey, thanks. That means a lot coming from you.” He moved closer, shoving his microphone in her face. “Ms. Lane, I want to give you the chance to tell your side of the story…”

“And what makes you think there’s a story?” Lois spat. She tried to move away from him but he moved in front of her again.

“What about the video, Lane?” he asked.

She ignored him.

“Are you or are you not having an affair with Superman?” Dunning demanded.

“No comment,” Lois stated.

“Well, what do you say to those who are calling you ‘Superman’s Super Strumpet?’”

“That’s quite enough, Dunning,” Clark warned.

Dunning ignored him, focusing on Lois. “Care to respond?”

“One, read about it in the Planet and two… get off my lawn before I call the police,” Lois warned.

“What about Ralph Gunderson?” Dunning asked. “Witnesses place you at the scene. What do you say to that?”

“Your alleged witnesses are lying,” Lois stated. Clark moved closer to her and Jason was glowering at Dunning.

“How can you live with yourself? Subjecting an innocent child to all this?” Dunning demanded. As he spoke he reached out a hand for Jason.

The next moments seemed to be in slow motion – Dunning’s hand grabbed her son’s sleeve and Jason began to scream. One of the security men pulled Dunning away while two others grabbed the cameraman and the camera. Another one went to Dunning’s camera van. The other TV reporters backed off, but their cameras were still running – Dunning was now the news.

“Oh, c'mon, Lane. I'm only after the truth!” Dunning whined.

“Dunning, you wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and bit you,” a woman’s voice called out. Lois looked over to see that a black Toyota had just stopped and disgorged two passengers – a short, stocky, dark haired woman in a tailored suit and Bruce Wayne.

The woman motioned for Lois to back off as she handed Dunning an envelope. Then she stepped in front of the cameras. “I’m Roberta Gonzales and I am representing Ms. Lane and her family. And that, Mister Dunning, is an injunction. You and your staff are ordered to remain at least five hundred feet away from Ms. Lane, Mister Kent, and their child. You are also prohibited from entering the Daily Planet Building.”

“You can’t do this,” Dunning sputtered. “I have rights.  Remember that little thing called the First Amendment?”

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or…” Gonzales began.

“What about the part that says I’ve got the right to do whatever I want because I'm a reporter?” Dunning demanded.

“We can all be thankful that that amendment hasn't been written yet, Mr. Dunning,” Wayne stated sardonically.

“Besides,” someone in the group of reporters added loudly, “haven’t you said you’re just an entertainer so you don’t have to abide by the rules?”

Dunning sputtered incoherently.

Gonzales nodded to the other reporters. “Mister Wayne has a prepared statement.”

Clark put a protective arm around Lois and guided her away from the cameras. They stopped at the front door to their house to listen as Wayne began reading his statement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as the publisher of the Daily Planet, I want to assure everyone that the Daily Planet whole heartedly stands behind Ms. Lane and her family and we are investigating the source of these vicious rumors and false statements involving Ms. Lane and the Man of Steel. The Daily Planet and her employees are also giving their full cooperation to the Metropolis Police Department as they investigate the attack on journalist Ralph Gunderson. Rest assured the person or persons responsible for this attack will be brought to justice.”

“Mister Wayne,” one of the reporters, Nola Potts of WNNC, called. “What about the 9-1-1 call that stated that Lane was the assailant?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss the MPD’s investigation into the matter,” Wayne responded smoothly. “However, as you can see, Ms. Lane has not been arrested and I have every faith that she will be fully exonerated and the actual perpetrator of this crime will be brought to justice as quickly as humanly possible. Thank you.” With that he turned and headed toward the house, Gonzales at his heels.

The other reporters called after him but the billionaire ignored them. He looked relieved when Clark closed the front door behind them.

Lois turned to Gonzales. “I didn’t know you were my attorney. Do I need one?”

“Mister White asked me to represent you,” Gonzales said. “I’ve been assured that you are not a suspect in the attack on Gunderson, but I should warn you that until the real attacker is apprehended, you’ll still be a media target. The allegations about you and Superman aren’t making it any easier.”

“But there’s nothing to them,” Lois protested. “The people who claim they saw me in a hotel with him are just plain lying.”

“Unfortunately, proving a negative is very difficult,” Gonzales said. “And the more you deny it, the more people are going to think you’re guilty. Of course, if Superman were to make a public statement…”

“Assuming he did make a statement, the only people who will accept it are the ones who already believe he and Lois are innocent,” Clark said. He sighed. “Right now there are a lot of people who are convinced he’s guilty. Dunning is just one of them.”

“Speaking of Dunning, do you want to press charges against him for grabbing Jason?” Wayne asked.

“Do you think we can make it stick?” Lois asked.

“With the way the kid screamed? Yeah,” Gonzales answered.

Clark turned to Jason who was happily ignoring the adults as he played one of his video games on the big screen TV. “Jason, why did you scream when Mister Dunning grabbed for you?”

Jason gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence. “That’s what Mommy and Daddy always told me to do if somebody grabbed me and I didn’t know them.”

“Smart kid,” Wayne said with a chuckle. “By the way, Inspector Henderson wants to talk to you.”

“I thought I wasn't a suspect,” Lois said.

“You’re not,” Wayne assured her. “But it’s possible you know something.”



“Can you identify her?” Henderson asked Lois. She and her son had arrived at his office only minutes before and she wasn’t in a great mood. Henderson didn’t blame her, considering they’d had to ford their way through the media circus outside police headquarters to get into the building. News of the assault charges against Dunning were already all over the airwaves. Dunning was screaming bloody murder about the police being in collusion with the Daily Planet to shut him down.

Clark wasn’t with Lois. She gave the excuse that her husband was stressed and sick from the ordeal in front of their house when they got home. Henderson knew the real reason – Superman was handling a multicar pileup on the Ordway. It was raining for the first time in several weeks and downpour made the streets slicker than usual. There would be a lot of accidents tonight.

Henderson watched as Lois studied the enlargement of the frame capture on his monitor. Wayne Security had placed cameras all through the Daily Planet’s parking garage when Bruce Wayne purchased the paper and the building.

Surprisingly there were security cameras covering the doors to the garage as well and those were placed at eye-level. It was a clever idea and Gunderson’s assailant was caught actually facing one of those cameras. She was a well dressed woman wearing a wide hat and sunglasses and carrying a large purse.

“She’s familiar,” Lois said. “But I can’t place her.”

“Could she be someone you’ve interviewed?” Detective Douglass asked.

“Could be,” Lois admitted. “But I talk to a lot of people.”

“Anyone hate you badly enough to frame you for shooting Gunderson?” Douglass asked. Henderson simply sat back and watched them. Douglass was good but she didn’t know Lois Lane.

“I’m an investigative reporter,” Lois said. “Before that I was on the city beat. Half the pols in town would like to see me disappear, but I can’t think of one of them who would actually try anything like this. Anyone who knows me would know I wouldn’t kill somebody on my home turf and I certainly wouldn’t do it in front of security cameras. Ralph’s a sleaze, but even he doesn’t deserve to get shot.”

The office door opened.

“Sorry about that,” Clark apologized as he walked in. Henderson simply waved him over. Douglass, however, wasn’t on the short list of people who knew about Clark’s other job. The policewoman grimaced as Clark shut the door and stepped closer to the desk.

Henderson pointed to the picture on the monitor. “Know her?”

Clark went very still. Bingo.

“Who is she?” Douglass asked.

“Lana Lang,” Clark answered.