Dream Girl: Chapter 8 - Interrogation

Waiting outside the door in the hall, true to his word, was Pete bending over his boots.

"Hey man," he greeted cautiously. "You smooth things over?"

"Not really, " Clark answered, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Pete nodded. "You gonna track down this Carter Hogan?"

"We are gonna track down Carter Hogan. Come on." Clark and Pete walked down the hallway. Back outside in the cold air the two headed off in the direction of the Student Embassy where Clark planned to do some more snooping.

"I really think Lana believes there is more behind this than you wanting to find Chloe," Pete said after a few moments of silence.

"You develop super-hearing lately, Pete?" Clark said grimly.

"Didn't need super-hearing to see what was coming. You gotta admit though, Clark, you and Chloe have always been in a gray area," Pete told him.

"I don't understand it," Clark shook his head, trying to get thoughts sorted. "Lana tells me I need to be more considerate of Chloe until I feel I am walking on eggshells around her. When Chloe realizes I'm treating her different, she bites my head off. Now, with Chloe missing and in danger, Lana accuses me of having feelings for Chloe and putting Chloe before her. I'm about ready to wash my hands of both of them, Pete."

"You don't mean that," Pete responded with a laugh at Clark's emotional rant. Pete rarely got to see this confused side of Clark.

"I know I don't," Clark replied with a smile before continuing on seriously. "But it's gotten way too complicated for me. I want to tell Lana the truth, but she won't be safe from anyone if I do. She won't accept anything less than the truth from me either. Since my father..." Clark's voice trailed off and for a while Pete waited in silence. "We've become distant. I think it is the beginning of the end and I can't tell if I'm relieved or not. There it is," Clark pointed to the Student Embassy, a large building with many iron benches out front under trees lining the border.

As they walked the final steps to the building, Pete slung a friendly arm across Clark's shoulders.

"Clark, right now we gotta focus on this, but I will say this much. After we find Chloe, you're gonna have a choice to make. A choice between your old life and your new one; the one with Lana or the one without. I like Lana, I do, but I think if you examine your life without her in it, you'll find what you're looking for."

"You're talking about Chloe, aren't you?" Clark raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Let's go see if we can dig up anything on Carter Hogan." Pete punched Clark in the arm and jogged to the entrance. Clark followed, knowing exactly what Pete had meant.

Once inside, Pete kept watch while Clark broke into a guidance counselor's office. Seeing filing cabinets along the wall, Clark rifled through them. He found Hogan's file in a blink, thankful that not everything was put on computer. He needed all the time he could get and even a super-speed he was nowhere near the computer whiz Chloe was. He left the room just as he found it with exception of a big gaping hole where the doorknob once was. He and Pete hightailed it across the lawn to a group of picnic tables. Sitting down at one, Pete pulled out a pocket sized flashlight and flicked it on.

"I knew there was a reason I carried this thing," Pete quipped as he and Clark perused the file by the single beam of light.

"Looks like Carter Hogan is part of one of the most brilliant Pre-Med classes Met U has ever seen," Clark read aloud. "He lives on campus, not far from Lana and Chloe."

"Let's go check it out," Pete suggested as he slipped the flashlight back in his pocket.

"Definitely," Clark agreed.

The boys stood, leaving the file where it lay on the table and retraced their steps back toward the dorm buildings. Halfway there, Clark caught a glimpse of something gleaming on the grass. It was a phone; Chloe's phone. Jogging over, Clark snatched it up.

"What'd ya find?" Pete called.

"Chloe's phone," Clark told him as he walked back. "This must be where she was taken. But why would they leave the phone?"

"Maybe they thought it wasn't important," Pete offered.

"And if they don't think anyone finding Chloe's phone important-"

"They don't think anyone is gonna be able to find her," Pete finished their combined thought. "Clark, you don't think they're going to-"

"I don't know, Pete, I don't know." With one last look at the phone, Clark shoved it into his own jacket pocket. "Let's go find him." Clark reached and grabbed Pete by his collar.

"Whoa..." Pete remarked a second later when Clark deposited him inside the lobby of the dorm building Carter Hogan supposedly lived in.

"Sorry," Clark apologized as he bounded up the stairs the third floor.

"That was totally cool! I've never been conscious when you jumped into hyper-speed," Pete whispered from behind Clark as he followed him up the stairs. "This is 3A. His room should be mid-way down."

Clark and Pete walked quietly down the hall until they stood in front of 3G. Bass thumped heavily from inside and underneath it, Clark heard a voice.

"She hasn't come around yet? So soon?" Clark pressed his ear against the door. Pete followed suit, though he couldn't hear anything.

"No, no. I'll find another one. Yes, yes! I understand. No, there will be no questions. I'll make sure that all the blanks about the Sullivan girl are filled in."

"He's talking about Chloe," Clark told Pete whose face quickly filled with fury. "Wait, he's talking again." Clark pressed his ear to the door again.

"... can you? Tomorrow morning, I'll come and pick up her body then. Yeah, sure thing." A beep sounded, telling Clark the guy disconnected the call.

Clark stood back from the door, motioning Pete to fall behind. Once Pete moved, with a cry of rage Clark kicked the door open, watching it bust in on itself in many pieces.

A boy, Clark quickly noted looking nothing like Carter Hogan, scurried under a desk in fright.

"Who are you?" He screamed at a high pitch.

Clark took three long strides into the room. Reaching under the desk Clark grasped the guy's shirt and yanked him up like a rag-doll, holding him up nose to nose, legs dangling.

"Where's Cater? Where did he take Chloe?" Clark demanded.

"I-I h-have no i-idea," he stuttered.

"Carter your roommate?" The guy nodded with a pathetic whimper.

"I'll give you another chance. I know about your new death experiments. So if you don't want to experience old death you better get an idea fast about where Carter took Chloe Sullivan!" Clark tightened his grip with every word he spoke, slowly choking the guy.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the guy tried.

"Don't lie to me!" Clark yelled, fighting a smile as the guy flinched.

"OK, OK," the guy said, hoping to placate the big man ready to murder him. "The leader of New Death took her to the secret lab. I don't know where that is." All the madness that left Clark at the prospect of answers spilled back into him. He shook the guy until his teeth rattled.

"I heard you talking about a body! Where is she?" Clark trembled with the urge to slam him repeatedly against the wall.

"It's an abandoned warehouse we own! That's where Carter took her!" The guy screamed in panic as tears leaked out over his cheeks. "Over on the west side on Industrial Park! Red brick with busted out windows! Please don't kill me! Please!"

Clark threw him to the floor with barely leashed control. He turned to Pete standing like a bouncer against the closed door.

"Make sure he goes nowhere. Don't want him warning anyone either," Clark ordered.

           "Go man, I got this," Pete replied with a deadly gleam to his eye as he took his place in front of the sniveling boy on the floor. With one look back, Clark was gone in a heartbeat.

     To read Ch. 9, click here.