By queequag72 <cosmic@kingston.net>
Rated G
Submitted February 2000
Summary: A short Lois & Clark mystery that lets you see if you can solve it yourself first.
I'm trying something new here and please don't hesitate to let me know what you think! One of the things I love most about Lois & Clark (other than their relationship) is the way they solve mysteries together. So, I've decided to write a five minute mystery for you. At the end, you have to figure it out. If you can't, you'll have to scroll down a bit to find the answer. Have fun!
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Lois Lane sat in the row boat that she "borrowed" from a dock and drifted until the boat bumped against the huge freighter. It was especially dark down here on the water between the two big ocean-going ships. She felt as though she were in a tunnel, with the superstructure of the St. Andrew looming over her and the even bigger Russian Ship alongside, completing the arch. Still there was enough light from the city to see the mark from early this morning, the little paint scrape where she had bumped against the St. Andrew for the first time.
That had been with Inspector Henderson and Clark and the police boat, though, and Lois had been acting officially, as a reporter of the Daily Planet. However, there was nothing official about this trip. It was anything but. She was in restricted waters to boot. Tiny, privately operated rowboats were not welcome in the main channel of Hobb's Bay, and Lois knew if she were caught there, it would be hard to imagine what would be worse: Clark or Inspector Henderson's wrath. Clark wasn't of much use earlier anyway. He mumbled something about a lead lining and then said he had to pick up his dry cleaning.
That was why, at sunset, she had collected the rowboat. So far she remained undetected.
Lois shifted on the seat to relieve her sore back. The movement caused the little craft to rock, and it banged hard into the side of the freighter. The rowboat was aluminum, and to her, the sound in the tunnel between the two larger vessels was like a gunshot. But she knew it wouldn't be heard on deck. With the racket up there and in the hold, especially from the noisy diesels powering the loading winches, there wasn't a chance for even a normal conversation, let alone picking up a sound from the surface of the water.
The crew of the St. Andrew had been loading big containers full of automobile engines for several hours already when Lois and Clark had made their visit that morning. The two reporters were responding to a tip from Bobby Bigmouth.
"Something crooked in Hobb's Bay," Bobby had said. "On the St. Andrew and maybe that Russian one beside her—the Potemkin something. You and Clark should go check."
Inspector Henderson had not been very impressed. It was his opinion that some disgruntled sailor wanted to harass the shipowners and was using the police to do it. They probably fed the information to Lois' source. And their visit this morning, if anything, seemed to confirm that, for they'd seen nothing amiss. She and Clark had circled the ship inside and outside. There were no safety violations, no evidence of contraband, not even a suggestion of drug use in the crew's quarters. The St. Andrew appeared to be just a freighter being filled with cargo by a busy crew that did not want nosey reporters getting in the way.
It was Inspector Henderson's I-told-you-so expression that had got Lois' dander up. It explained why, later in the day, she had stood on the nearby docks for half an hour and checked the ship's papers twice with the harbourmaster. And it also explained—or so she told herself—why, sore back and all, she was sitting in a tiny rowboat in the smelly darkness of Hobb's Bay long after sunset.
"Well," she said out loud, "at least, it's paid off. At least now I know there is certainly something crooked going on. Tomorrow morning there's going to be another inspection so we can find out what it is!"
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What has led Lois to the conclusion that something crooked is going on aboard the St. Andrew? (Give up? Scroll down a bit for the answer!)
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On the second trip to the big freighter, Lois was able to see from her rowboat the paint scrape, where that morning the police boat had bumped into the side. Yet the St. Andrew had been receiving heavy cargo for several hours before the first visit, it was being loaded all day, and it was still being loaded when she made her night trip. A freighter receiving cargo like this setttled into the water as it was being loaded. Therefore, Lois should not have been able to see the paint scrape from the morning visit. By now, it should have been under water. Tomorrow morning she and Clark are going to have a careful look at the cargo, probably to see whether it is really automobile engines, or maybe to see if there is any cargo at all.
THE END