A/N - This was on the back burner, mainly to the credit of the absence of a muse to right serious material, but here goes another section...
There Was an Old Woman – Chapter 7
Chloe gazed out the window while Lex continued to stare at the signature from the store that Catherine had visited. He wasn't quite sure how this one little piece of paper was going to get them anywhere, but he had nothing to lose. Besides, he thought, Chloe was with him and that was the most adult comfort he had in a long time. He stared out at the clouds racing by and unconsciously put his hand on Chloe's knee. Slightly jumping, she noticed his grip tighten when the plane hit a patch of turbulence. She thought about speaking but saw his concentration somewhere else. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes as he continued to lightly tap his thumb nervously on her thigh. She gulped down the fire building in her from his touch.
Chloe followed Lex into the small store that she had been just a couple of days ago. Lex walked up to the counter and laid the small receipt down. "Excuse me, I need to know if you remember the woman that bought this. What did she look like?"
The older woman stared at him in awe, curling up her lip partially disgruntled. Looking back down at the receipt, she noticed a crisp one hundred dollar bill slipped under it. "Take that back," she stated as she tossed his money back. "Come." She motioned for the two to follow her to behind the building. "Your friend here only asked about the card, so I didn't think anything of it. However, if you're looking for her, there's obviously more to it." The woman stuck a key in a door on the outside of the back of her building. "Here. Maybe you can find out when she's going to pay her rent too."
"How much does she owe?" Lex pulled his wallet out and looked at the woman.
"You wouldn't have enough." The old woman nodded her head, turned up her nose, and waved in disgust.
"Try me."
"Five months rent and midwife – try $5000. I'm about to lose my store and that little hussy promised payment. Said she had a rich boyfriend – guess you're here. Too little – too late. She left me a note, which I don't know and frankly don't care about. Especially if she was in cahoots with you – I wish your family politics would just stay the hell out of Central City. We got enough problems without you rich boys making more trouble."
Lex handed her a check for $10000 and watched her mouth drop open. "I assure you that won't bounce. And you never saw us here. What did you mean by my father? I assure you I have very rarely need to be here except for the occasional business meeting."
The woman held the check up to the sky and checked the watermark before shoving it her pocket. She walked back over and went into the small apartment. "I mean his little weird workers came around two months ago and trashed the place while she was in labor at my house. We got back and that was on the wall." The woman pointed at the living room wall, which Chloe was already gawking at.
'Hush little baby, don't say a word
Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don't sing
Papa's going to buy you a diamond ring…'
As Lex continued reading he felt Chloe's hand grasp his and he put his arm around her.
'… And if that horse and cart fall down,
He'll still be the deadest little baby in town.'
Chloe gulped as she felt Lex tighten his grip around her and suddenly let go. "Have they been back?"
"She hasn't been here since that day. She took that child and left but gave me this." She leaned over and pulled a piece of paper out of her sock and handed it to Lex. "I didn't trust them so I kept it on me. No one hit my house – guess his expensive goons didn't want to mess with an old woman, a rifle, and a pit bull." The old woman laughed as she slapped Lex in the shoulder. "She showed up the day of your dad's so unfortunate demise, good freaking riddance I say, and bought the card. That's it. Here, you lock up." The woman handed Chloe the lock and key and left.
Lex looked at Chloe and opened the paper. Reading the scratched print, he looked at Chloe who was now digging though the mess on the floor. "What's it say?"
"It's random, but if she left it with that woman it meant something. 'On the coast of somewhere beautiful.' What do you make of it?"
Chloe read through the stack of papers and flipped though a couple of books as Lex started going through the drawers of the chest. Picking up a picture, he stared at it sadly. Chloe looked over his shoulder and at him. "She was smart and inquisitive, we actually talked." He took a big sigh and handed the picture to Chloe.
Chloe stared at the picture of the young woman with a swollen belly on the beach, holding shells in her hand and attempting to smile. She looked somewhat sad. It was dated three months earlier. The woman had a simple complexion and shoulder length sandy blonde hair. She glanced at Lex quizzically while he continued around the small apartment. She felt a small fire building inside of her, realizing the strange resemblance. Refocusing her thoughts, she looked at the background of the picture, seeing a sign on the left side. "Lex, what's that say in the background?"
Lex took the picture back and squinted. "You think you have something that might enlarge it a little?"
"We can try; let's go." He looked around the dank apartment that he had led the woman to live in and closed the door behind them. Locking the door, he looked almost sad. Chloe took him by the arm, "We'll find her." The two walked back though the store and thanked the old woman one more time.