kitmerlot_1213 | Fic: Shadows of the Past (Reply)

Chapter 4

"Daniel Todd, age twenty five, was arrested for the brutal murder of his wife and daughter. Megan Butler Todd, age twenty-one, was found in the kitchen, lying in a pool of her own blood, with her throat cut. The couple’s daughter, Emma, was drowned and found lying half in and out of the sink. The police arrested Daniel Todd at the scene of the crime. As of this press time, Mr. Todd has not offered an alibi. He refuses to answer police questions."

Chloe printed out all of the articles in The Planet’s archives. She then went to The Ledger’s archives and began a search for any and all records of the Todd’s and their immediate families. She found articles about Megan and Daniel’s engagement and subsequent wedding. There was also a copy of their wedding photo. Chloe stared at the picture, and found her eyes filled with tears. Megan looked so happy that day, and then, three years later, she was dead.

Chloe shook her head, and chastised herself for getting so emotional over the death of a woman and her child, nearly a hundred years ago. Yet, it seemed like they were alive just yesterday. ‘Come on, Chloe, get your head in the game. We’ve got a story to investigate.’ With one more glance at the picture, Chloe turned back to the files with new determination.

After two hours of diligent searching, Chloe had a stack of articles about the murder and Daniel’s arrest. She also had articles on Daniel’s family and in particular his father, Michael, who tried to rejuvenate Smallville’s economy by bringing the railroad line to town. But it was in the last file drawer that Chloe struck the mother lode. She found The Ledger’s old publicity photos, dating from 1910 to 1929.

Chloe promptly sat on the floor and began to systematically go though the pictures and sorted them by year. She paid special attention to the photos from 1917 to 1920. After she had them all organized, Chloe went back over all the ones from the specific years she was looking for.

There were plenty of pictures of the Todd’s. In fact, they were considered minor celebrities, and in one photo, were riding their car in the 4th of July parade. Chloe couldn’t help but laugh at Daniel’s obvious discomfort, but Megan and Emma were smiling and waving to the crowd as they rode along. Chloe placed the photo to the side and continued to go through the stack. There were not that many more pictures, and the ones that featured the family had to do with the railroad.

Chloe gathered up all of the articles and photos she had made copies of and left the file room. She needed to get home so she could reread the articles about the murders. Something kept whispering at the back of her mind that she had missed a crucial clue. Her dad was in Metropolis for the day, so Chloe would have the house to herself. She could take over the dining room table and her dad wouldn’t be able to grouse at her, good naturedly of course, about her leaving her junk around.

When Chloe got home, the first thing she did was put on a pot of coffee. While that was brewing, Chloe took out her outline, the articles and the photos, and spread them all over the table. She grabbed a cup of coffee, some chocolate chip cookies and set about going over all of the evidence.

An hour later, Chloe drank the last of the pot of coffee, she was sick to her stomach from eating cookies, and she still hadn’t made any brilliant deductions. She pulled the photos towards her one last time, when something caught her eye. It was the photo of the Todd family riding in the 4th of July parade.

Chloe nearly smacked herself in the head for missing something so obvious. But, now was not the time to reprimand herself. She had her phone in her hand, and the number she needed to call speed dialed in a matter of minutes.

"Lex? It’s Chloe. I have something to show you. I’ll be over in 10."

*****

"Chloe, what exactly am I looking at?" Lex tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice, but he was sick of playing twenty questions.

The minute Chloe walked into his study, she thrust a faded photograph in his hand, and told him to tell her what he saw. A number of replies went through his mind, the majority of which would cause Chloe to blush adorably, get flustered, and then, punch him in the eye.

He wisely kept silent and gazed at the picture, hoping to get some clue as to what he should say. Ten minutes passed, and Lex was just as mystified as to the significance of the picture.

Finally, Chloe broke the silence. "I knew I wasn’t losing my touch. It is so obvious that you actually over look it."

Lex interrupted Chloe in mid-rant. "As much as I usually enjoy listening to other people’s innermost thoughts, I would really like to know what the hell I’m supposed to be looking at."

Chloe smiled apologetically and hurried to his side. "Okay, remember the journal you bought for me? With the lilac cover?"

At Lex’s nod, Chloe continued. "This is the picture of the woman who owned the journal, with her husband and daughter. Do you see anything familiar?"

Lex looked closely at the picture, and then he saw it. He looked at Chloe and saw her grin of triumph. "You see it now, don’t you?"

Lex slowly nodded, but he appeared to be lost in thought. "What were their names?"

Chloe answered readily. "Daniel, Megan, and Emma Todd."

Lex closed his eyes, half in relief, and half in panic. "Well, the dreams make a little more sense now."

************

"The house is dark, which is strange because Megan always has the lights on in the front parlor. She thinks it makes the house feel more homey. I walk into the front door, and think how silent it is. I can usually here Megan cooking dinner and Emma playing jacks in the hallway. But neither of my girls came running to meet me."

"I don’t know when it started, but I’m afraid. I make my way towards the kitchen, and that’s when I smell it. The coppery smell of blood and death, and I’m reminded of the battlefield. But it shouldn’t be in my home. Never my home. I brace myself, and walk into the kitchen…"

Chapter 5

"Blood was all over the floor. Megan had jagged, gaping wounds all over her body, and I could see that there was still some blood coming out of them. I rushed to her side, but her eyes were unseeing. Oh God, I was too late. Her body was still warm, and her beautifully pale skin was just beginning to turn a bluish shade."

"Oh Christ, where’s Emma? I looked around in a blind panic, and then I saw my little angel by the sink. I ran to get her out of the water, but again, I was too late. The sink had been filled and my baby girl was drowned in it."

"Who would want to hurt my wife and daughter?"

Before living in Smallville, Lex Luthor would never have admitted to being envious of any person. Yet, here he was, actively jealous of a man he had never met. When he came home from the auction, Lex was proud of the purchases he made. He was able to give Chloe a gift, and he bought himself a vintage 1920’s Pierce Arrow. It was a gorgeous car, and a crown jewel in his collection.

For the first time in many years he was a contented man. His father was in jail, he was running Luthercorp, he reaffirmed his friendship with Clark, but most importantly, he had Chloe back. Her friendship was one that he deeply treasured, and when they weren’t speaking, it had pained him more than he cared to admit.

He could have blamed Lana for all his troubles, but that wouldn’t have been fair. Lana had always been self-involved, but she became even more self-absorbed since returning from Paris. And Lana was never one to do things half way. She came back to Smallville with the air of having been gone years, instead of just three months. She completely changed her wardrobe, her hair, and her friends. He supposed that she still retained her friendship with him, because in her mind, he was the only person in town who could understand her now. But then again, Lana was never what anyone would call complicated.

Lex smiled ruefully to himself, and grimaced at his blunders. He had thought encouraging Lana to leave Smallville would help broaden her horizons, and show her that there was more to life than corn fields, football games and small towns. He would never have guessed that she would have returned to Smallville with a new boyfriend, who oddly enough reminded him of Whitney, and that she would have begun her new life by ignoring her old friends. Lana had never been intentionally cruel to anyone, but her indifference to other people’s pain was a difficult trait to overlook.

Lana had changed, but they weren’t all positive changes. Lex found himself more aware then ever at what a wonderful friend Chloe had been to Lana, but also to himself. He knew that neither one of them deserved her. Normally, he would have just put himself in that category, but the post=Parisian Lana was now a dues paying member.

His mind wandered to his blonde friend, and he smiled wryly that he would ever have had a reporter as a close friend. But Chloe was so much more that a reporter. She was smart, witty, and loyal to a fault. And for some reason known only to God, she trusted him. She trusted Lex to protect her and her dad, and to keep them out of harms way. And he didn’t want to let her down, and risk having her be disappointed in him. These were very unusual feelings for him.

So when the dreams started, he chalked them up to wanting what he could never have. The man in his dreams seemed very happily married to a wonderful woman and they had an equally adorable child, a little girl. Lex yearned for the type of happiness this man had, but he feared he could never find it. What were the chances that he would meet an intelligent woman with a keen wit whom he could woo into falling for him? He couldn’t even begin to think about persuading her to marry him. But first, he had to find this woman, if she even existed.

And what if he managed to find a woman, a woman who was not after his money, his company or his life? Someone who loved him just for him. Would he ever be able to convince her to share his life with him? He was in the public eye constantly. People were always trying to take him down, one way or another. Their married life would consist of a series of fabricated scandals, sold to gossip magazines. Any woman worth her salt wouldn’t go anywhere near him, let alone fall in love with him.

He hated being maudlin, and detested it in others, but this was what his life was. He would likely destroy any decent woman. The press would dig up any information and use it as a blunt instrument to strike her over the head. She would wind up hating him, and he would lose another woman he loved. And that would probably explain why he found himself filled with such jealousy for this man and his perfect family.

The couple in his dreams had none of these problems. They seemed very happy together, and Lex would get quick flashes of what their life was like together. He saw where they first met, and where they first kissed. He saw their wedding night, and the birth of their child. He saw the man’s arguments with his father, and when his wife comforted him. Sometimes, he felt like he was intruding, but usually, he felt privileged to be a part of it.

Lex couldn’t always see their faces clearly, but he had a sense that the woman had bobbed brown hair with pin curls, and she seemed to be wearing a flapper dress. He could usually only catch a glimpse of the man, but he had the bearing of man of wealth. The little girl had blonde hair and a smile like her mother’s. The most telling detail of the couple was their obvious love for each other, and their child.

That was enough to fill him with envy, but his sub-conscious decided to kick his emotions up a notch. The last three nights that he had dreamed about the family, his mind replaced the brown haired woman with an image of Chloe. At first, he had been startled, but he realized that he had replaced the dream man as her husband. Lex was surprised at how easily he and Chloe seemed to fit together.

Of course, that was when his rather vivid imagination threw a monkey wrench into his dream martial bliss. Darkness began to filter into their lives. Chloe became withdrawn, and she often appeared pale and shaken. She never said anything out loud, but she seemed scared, for herself but also for their daughter. Lex would try to get her to tell him who had her so frightened, but then the dream would start to get cloudy, and he would wake up, his gut twisted with fear that he couldn’t protect his wife and daughter.

This last morning, he had woken up in a cold sweat because the dream images were now soaked in blood. Lex finally admitted that maybe it was time to talk to his therapist again, when he was saved by Chloe’s call. He sighed visibly, glad that she would be arriving to take his mind off of his troubles. He decided not to mention any aspect of his dream to her. He didn’t want to worry her, and if he kept it to himself, he wouldn’t have to acknowledge anything was wrong. Not a very sound decision, but then again, he hadn’t been sleeping well.

****

As soon as Chloe said their names, he knew it was true. The faces of his dream family stared up at him from the photograph. Megan, Daniel and Emma Todd felt so familiar to him that he was glad that he now knew their names. But he also felt a profound peace of mind knowing WHY he was dreaming about them.

He smiled at Chloe, and he suddenly realized that he owed her his life and his sanity once again. She continued to be his savoir, and she didn’t even know it. He would have to tell her about his theory. Intuitively, he knew that Chloe wouldn’t laugh at him, and she’d probably have her own theory.

He glanced down at the picture again, and shook his head in amazement. The picture was from Smallville’s 4th of July Parade. The Todd family was sitting in their car, a 1920’s Pierce Arrow. The same car that Lex had bought at the auction.

***

"I don’t know how long I sat on the floor, hugging my wife and daughter, but soon the police were in my house. The police will know what to do. They will find out who wanted to hurt my girls. The police will catch who killed them. They’ll just have to. I don’t know what I’ll do if they can’t…"