“When the super lady lifted us off the road, I didn’t get a good look where she was taking us, but I’m pretty sure we came up Queen City to get here. It didn’t feel like we ever got on a highway. From the time it took us to get here, probably somewhere in South Fairmount. We were in the basement of what looked like an old warehouse,” Franklin said.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll drop you kids at the police station and I’ll have a look around that area.”
Walter did a flyover of South Fairmount and North Fairmount, checking every abandoned warehouse for signs of recent activity.
“You’d think they could do something better with the property, instead of just letting these sit here,” he said to himself.
Several did show signs of activity, groups of homeless people grabbing whatever shelter they could.
“Hey, Walter, what brings you to our fine neighborhood?” one of the homeless men asked.
“Well, I’m looking for something, but I’m not rightly sure what I’m looking for.”
“How can you find what you’re looking for if you don’t know what you’re looking for? I might not be overly smart, but that don’t make a lick of sense to me.”
“You’ve heard about a woman with powers like mine?”
“Yeah sure, haven’t seen her yet, but hearing a lot of stories. Right nasty bitch, from what people are saying.”
“That’s no way to talk about a lady.”
“If the stories are true, she ain’t no lady.”
“That might be true. I heard she might be operating around here in an abandoned warehouse.”
“So, the super villain lady has a secret lair in an old warehouse? Don’t that beat all. You’d think she’d come up with something cooler than that.”
“It’s not like the comic books. I just got an apartment in Clifton.”
“Man, dude, you gotta up your game. Superman can’t operate out of no apartment.”
“Hey, you do what you can, right?”
“Yeah, just look at me.”
“Maybe we can talk about that too, but I need to ask if you and your friends have seen anything suspicious.”
“Clarence is the one to talk to. Clarence don’t miss anything. Hey Bart, you seen Clarence?”
Another man ambled over and dropped a cigarette on the ground, crushing it under his heel.
“Clarence got a bit of cash. Went to get beer,” the man said, “Hey, ain’t you Walter?”
“Yes I am,” Walter replied, “and who might you be?”
“Name’s Bartholomew, but you can call me Bart.”
“Okay, Bart, nice to meet you.” Walter stuck out his hand.
Bart shook Walter’s hand and said, “So, what brings you down to our humble abode? Don’t get many visitors around here.”
“I told your friend here—”
“Joe, name’s Joe,” the first man said.
“Well, I was just telling Joe that I’ve heard reports about that powered woman being around here a lot, maybe using one of these buildings, and I was wondering if any of you had seen anything. Joe here tells me that Clarence is the one to talk to.”
“He’d be the one to talk to when he’s sober. He gets a couple nickels to rub together, and he’s off to the UDF to buy as much beer as he can get.”
“UDF? The closest one is up on Queen City. He walks all the way up there to get beer?”
“He likes beer.”
“So do I, but it’s not cheap. You’d think he could save up…ah hell…I’m about to put my foot in my mouth.”
“Go ahead and say it. It’s not like we haven’t heard it before. Bart smokes, Clarence drinks beer…we all spend a bit of money on stuff and folks always say that that’s why we’re street folk, ‘cause we waste money. Folks with houses spend way too much on Starbucks, and nobody says nothing about them.”
Walter disappeared and showed back up three minutes later, passing out beers to the men.
“Accept my apology?” he asked.
“When you put it that way,” Joe said.
“Well, to be honest, I’ve never really put much thought into guys like you. You see folks on the street every day and it just becomes part of the background of the city. Then you have the fake beggars downtown…you know the ones.”
“Yeah, drives me crazy,” Bart said.
“Well, speak of the devil. Hey Clarence, got somebody wants to have a word with you,” Joe said.
“Who in hell would want to talk to old Clarence?” Clarence asked, approaching the group, “Well, if it isn’t Walter. What brings you here?”
Walter handed Clarence a beer.
“Walter, you sure know a way to a guy’s heart.”
“Your friends here say you are an observant guy, that you notice things,” Walter said.
“Just keep my eyes open, is all. You live on the streets as long as I do, you learn to do that.”
“I hear that some unsavory people might be operating out of one of the other abandoned building around here. Maybe you’ve noticed something?”
Clarence pointed down the street.
“‘Bout three buildings down, seen a lot of vans in and out, but ain’t no company been there for darn near ten years. Don’t rightly know what’s going on there. Can’t be folks like us, on account of them having vehicles and that.”
“Thanks, Clarence, I’ll check it out. You guys take care, okay?”
“Wow, never thought I’d meet him,” Bart said as Walter flew off.
“Yeah,” Clarence said, holding up his can, “wasn’t that something, and he didn’t buy us cheap beer either.”
21
Walter flew over the warehouse Clarence had pointed out and didn’t see anything unusual at first until he saw the tire tracks.
‘People have been coming and going quite a bit, from the looks of it,’ he thought to himself.
He flew around the building, looking for security cameras, and not finding any, dropped down to walk around on foot. The main floor of the warehouse was like every other abandoned building on the area, broken windows, parts of broken pallets on the ground, some old 55-gallon drums against one wall, and an office against one wall that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. The metal desk was still there and an old office chair with two of the wheels broken
