In the time since the meteor shower, Emmeline had seen a lot of strange things, even more so once she became best friends with Chloe.
Today was no exception.
"Hey, Em," Chloe said as she and Pete walked up to her in the courtyard at school.
"What's up?"
"You know that old folks home not far from here? Apparently, a woman died there last night."
"Well, that's not unusual, is it?"
"Not until you hear the facts surrounding it."
"Like what?"
Chloe didn't have time to answer as Clark came running up to join them. "Chloe! I just got your note. I can't believe it. I just saw Mrs. Sikes yesterday."
"I know. I'm sorry, Clark," Chloe said to him.
"What happened?"
"Well, the official story is that there was some sort of a fire, but all they found were her ashes."
"And the unofficial?"
"Spontaneous combustion."
"She thinks the old lady just burst into flames," Pete said.
Chloe pulled up an article and started reading from it. "'October, 1978. Joyce Maslow was dancing in a disco in Elizabeth, New Jersey when flames burst from her head and back enveloping her. In seconds, she was a human torch, consumed before the eyes of her horrified boyfriend'."
"You don't have to look so happy about it," Clark told the smiling Chloe.
"I'm not happy, I'm intrigued."
"Which means you're still gonna look into it," Pete said as he looked at the article.
"Am I that transparent?"
"Yes," all three of them said together.
Chloe and Pete walked off, but Clark hung back, and Emmeline looked at him. "Clark, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he said, the tone of his voice suggesting just the opposite.
"Come on, Clark, you know you can talk to me," she smiled as they started to walk to class.
"It's my dad. We're having sort of an argument."
"What about, if you don't mind my asking?"
"We go fishing every year as a father/son thing, but I don't want to go. And when I told him that…it didn't exactly go over well."
"Well, how did you tell him?"
Clark looked at her sheepishly. "I may have lost my temper and yelled that I didn't even like fishing and I only went to make him happy."
"Well, there's your first problem. Look, I don't know too much about your parents, but I do know that you have one of the best relationships with your dad that I've ever seen. Don't waste it on some petty disagreement."
"You sound like my mother."
"Good. That means I know what I'm saying."
Clark smiled at her and they both headed off to class.
Later that day, Chloe was doing some research into the whole Mrs. Sikes thing while Emmeline proofread over the latest issue.
"I got something!" Chloe exclaimed. "Come on, I'll explain everything once we find Clark!"
The two of them roamed the school until they finally found him walking away from the basketball courts.
"Clark!" Chloe called. "We've been looking all over for you. Look what I found in the Daily Planet." She handed him another article.
"'Body Disappears From Metropolis Morgue'?" he read.
"Yeah, but look at the photo. The coroner's body was disintegrated into ash."
"Just like Mrs. Sikes."
"I don't know, but it sure would be nice to check out that house for ourselves."
Clark nodded, and that's how they found themselves at Mrs. Sikes's house checking out what exactly happened. Chloe started taking pictures of the bed that had the outline of a body on it left from the ash.
"You know, this is a crime scene," Clark said nervously.
"So?" Chloe smirked.
Emmeline rolled her eyes. Chloe's fearless attitude was going to get her in a lot of trouble one of these days. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but wish she had a piece of that.
She walked around the bed and looked at the other possessions. "Well, there's no other sign of fire damage anywhere, so you might want to dial back on that spontaneous combustion skepticism."
"No barking," Clark commented.
"I wasn't planning on it."
"Pepper."
"Who's Pepper?"
"Mrs. Sikes's dog. She turned into a barking machine anytime someone came over. Pepper? Come here, girl!"
"Well, animal shelter probably came and got her."
Clark looked around and then went over to the curtain. When he pulled it back there was a pile of ash. "Oh, no."
"Oh, don't tell me that's Pepper," Chloe grimaced. She walked over and took a couple pictures.
Clark then walked over to her bedside table. There sat a gorgeous white rose, but from the way he was looking at it, it was apparent he saw more than just a rose.
"What happened may have been combustion, but I have a feeling it wasn't spontaneous," Clark said.
"You can tell that from a rose?" Emmeline asked.
"It's complicated. I have to go."
As Clark ran out, Emmeline turned to Chloe. "I don't think I'll ever fully understand him."
That night, Chloe was busy in the Torch office doing more research on the whole spontaneous combustion theory.
"Find anything?" Emmeline asked as she put down her things. "Hope you didn't call us in for nothing."
"Yeah, that autopsy? It was done on a Tyler Randall. He works at Mobile Meals. Well…worked."
"Oh, yeah, I heard about what happened to Clark's mom. I'm glad she's alright."
"Same. Smallville would never be the same without Mrs. Kent."
At that moment, Pete walked into the room with Clark.
"Oh, hey!" Chloe said. "I've got something to show you." She clicked some keys on her computer and pulled up several pictures. The last one showed Tyler's arm bent back at a scary angle.
"Oh, that's disgusting!" Pete remarked.
"I guess I should have mentioned the 'may not be suitable for all ages' disclaimer. Your friend Tyler's been busy."
"What do you mean busy?" Clark asked.
"I mean 'he tried to kill his mother, rose from the dead, and escaped from the morgue' busy. My buddy Chad works weekends for the M.E. He zip-filed the toxicology report. Besides the fatal amount of pain killers, they also found fragments of an unknown green stone embedded in his skin."
"Meteor rocks," Pete and Emmeline put together at the same time. They awkwardly smiled at each other for a second.
"Yep," Chloe answered looking at both of them.
"If that's the case, why aren't all the dead bodies in Smallville rising from their graves?" Clark asked.
"I think it's the lethal combo of painkillers and meteor rocks that caused Tyler to pull a 'Thriller'."
"Wait a minute. Didn't you say Tyler tried to kill his mother?"
"Tried and failed. His mother recovered enough to be sent home."
Lana suddenly came running into the room looking really freaked out. "Clark, I just left Tyler in the graveyard," she said breathlessly.
"Are you okay?" Clark asked, quickly going over to her.
"He heard Whitney talking about his father. He said that he could bring him peace."
"Did you call the police?" Lana nodded and Clark immediately bolted out the door. "Where are you going?" She turned to Chloe, Pete, and Emmeline for an answer.
"Don't look at me," Chloe said. "He does that all the time."
"Several times in the last month alone," Emmeline added.
Chloe hung back at the Torch to wrap up everything while Lana went home and Pete and Emmeline headed out as well.
"Hey, Em," Pete said. "While we wait to see what heroic thing Clark did next, you wanna go grab a coffee?"
Emmeline smiled broadly. "I would love to."
