Only in Case

Back home.

"You're saying you saw Catherine, but Catherine may already be dead?"

After listening to his wife and two sons' account—green-glowing skeleton, shapeshifting, a corpse, money... Jonathan was momentarily confused.

"The person who received us at the Antique Shop was probably the one who robbed the bank."

Combined with what Clark had said earlier, David felt the matter was obvious.

"First Lex Luthor, then Catherine. She has the ability to shapeshift and become other people."

"Who could that person be?"

Martha was deeply unsettled. She rubbed her arms. It was too terrifying—someone could become a familiar face and silently approach you.

Just now, she had not noticed at all that the person was not someone she knew.

Clark frowned and thought hard. First, they could be certain that the person's skeleton was female. Second...

There seemed to be no other clues for the moment.

"It's Tina."

After frowning in thought for several seconds, David suddenly spoke.

The gazes of the other three in the family, full of confusion, turned toward him.

Clark asked, "Why Tina?"

"She has that kind of ability. Why become Catherine? After killing someone, she could have simply run away. The police could never have found her.

"Unless—Catherine was dead, and the police would definitely come looking for her."

After analyzing and speculating, he concluded that it was Catherine's daughter.

Only Tina, Catherine's daughter, would inevitably be questioned by the police no matter who had killed Catherine, because she was the victim's only relative.

"Tina stole the money and killed her own mother. She only did this because she felt guilty."

"Catherine!"

Martha grieved for the death of someone she had once known well.

"Don't be so certain, son."

Jonathan held his wife's cold hand to comfort her and frowned.

"A daughter killing her mother, that's..."

Such a murder, one that defied all human morality, was simply too horrifying!

David raised an eyebrow at his father's instinctive unwillingness to believe such a tragedy, but said nothing.

"I saw that her skeleton was somewhat different."

Clark carefully searched his memories and finally recalled another clue, though he did not know whether it counted as one.

"It gave off a strange green glow, and the shape of the bones was a little odd."

Unlike the smooth, natural lines of ordinary ribs, that person's ribs varied in thickness.

"When Catherine was pregnant with Tina, she was already quite old. Tina was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta."

Martha seemed to recall something frightening, and her face went slightly pale.

"She and her husband sought medical treatment everywhere. The doctors believed she would not live to see first grade. They spent money finding connections to get her many experimental drugs still in development, but none of them worked."

Jonathan took over with a heavy voice, frowning. "Later, with no other choice, they brought Tina back to town. Somehow, a miracle happened, and Tina gradually got better."

He now somewhat believed his son's reasoning. The murderer was Tina.

"Desperate people sometimes clutch at any straw."

David stroked his chin and looked at Clark.

"I heard that when the Meteorites first fell, some charlatans came to town claiming the Meteorites were gifts from God, and that drinking water they had soaked in could cure every illness..."

There was no need to say the rest.

It was easy to imagine that Catherine and her husband, with nowhere else to turn, would refuse to give up and try it. When they saw their daughter improve so dramatically, they must have been overjoyed and thanked God.

But Catherine likely never imagined that she would one day die because of her daughter.

"David is right. That person may really be Tina."

Clark's eyes widened.

After his brother's analysis and the information from his parents, every clue had connected.

No wonder that person's skeleton glowed like a meteorite. She had been drinking water soaked with meteorites ever since she was little!

"Since you saw a corpse, call the police first."

Jonathan thought for a while. Not wanting to give the murderer a chance to escape, he picked up the phone and called the police.

He briefly explained the situation: they had discovered money that might have come from the bank robbery at Catherine's Antique Shop, and they had also smelled the stench of a corpse.

The police immediately dispatched officers to the Antique Shop.

"All right, kids. The police are already on their way."

Having been discovered on the spot, Tina would not be able to escape even if she could become someone else.

David frowned.

This was not reliable.

The couple did not know that, besides her shapeshifting ability, Tina's body was tough enough to withstand bullets. Ordinary police officers might have difficulty dealing with her.

"I'm taking the afternoon off from school."

David suddenly said.

Kryptonite was undoubtedly the reason some people in town had gained abilities.

"So if someone spent more time around Kryptonite, suffered more Kryptonite radiation, or even ate Kryptonite, would that make their powers stronger?"

His eyes flickered. Was that what had happened to Tina, who had drunk water soaked with Meteorites from childhood onward?

"I'm taking leave too."

Clark immediately followed suit. He had not lowered his guard, and his eyes were serious. He wanted to protect his parents from any harm.

David glanced at Clark.

If it were anywhere else, he would have found it absurd that some Metahuman who had appeared in a random small town could make him, with his Thanos Physique, unable to easily protect his parents from even the slightest injury.

"But even Superman sometimes encountered enemies who gave him trouble, or even posed a danger to him."

Better safe than sorry. It would be safer if both he and Clark stayed behind to protect the couple together.

Even if it turned out to be a false alarm, that would still be better than something happening that he never wanted to see, something he would regret for the rest of his life.

"Why?"

The two sons' strong reaction puzzled the couple.

"Are you afraid Tina will come attack us?"

Knock, knock!

Just as the two were about to explain, someone knocked on the door.

Through the glass of the outer door, they saw Lex Luthor standing outside in the dim sunlight, a polite smile on his face. His voice was friendly. "May I come in?"

Jonathan and Martha immediately grew somewhat tense and rose from their seats. David and Clark stepped forward, shielding their parents.

David secretly gave Clark a look.

Clark tried to activate his X-ray vision again to examine Lex's skeleton outside.

But because he was nervous, he could not activate it for a long while.

"What's wrong?"

Lex Luthor opened the outer door and jokingly asked in confusion, "It's me, not my evil twin. I'm not holding a gun either."

He raised both hands to show the family.

"Clark, David, Mr. Kent... you know I'm innocent."

Come on.

Clark focused and struggled to control it. Finally, his vision once again became like an X-ray image. He swept his eyes over Lex's entire body, sighed in relief, and spoke with a smile, hinting to his brother and parents.

"Lex, what brings you here?"

The skeleton was normal. It really was Lex Luthor.

Jonathan and Martha relaxed as well.

David secretly loosened his tense body.

If he were alone, even ten Metahumans would not make him this nervous. But his parents were right behind him.

"I came to thank Mr. Kent and Mrs. Kent.

"Without your testimony, I still wouldn't have cleared myself of suspicion."

A trace of hidden suspicion flashed through Lex's eyes at the Kent family's strange reaction, but he smiled.

"Please come in, Mr. Luthor," Martha invited.

"I watched the closed-circuit television footage. I have no idea how that person did it, but they looked almost exactly like me. If it weren't for the different handwriting, I might already have been penniless."

Lex voiced his genuine surprise and confusion.

"It's a strange feeling, watching someone wear my face and nervously rob a bank in broad daylight."

He had originally intended to use the opportunity to thank them to pay a visit and become more familiar with Clark's family.

But after arriving, Lex suddenly felt that the atmosphere in the house was somewhat heavy and strange. It did not seem like a good time to visit, and his plan had gone wrong again.

This time, he did not display his sharpness and intelligence by offering to help if they were in trouble.

"If someone bears ill will toward you, the smarter you appear, the more guarded and resistant they become."

After chatting for a few moments and sincerely expressing his gratitude, his eyes flickered as he said goodbye and left.

Vroom!

Leaving the Farms, Lex got into a silver-gray convertible sports car. He looked at the Kent family in the house twice, frowned as though thinking about something, then drove away.

They told their parents that Tina might be a powerful Metahuman.

After thinking for a while, Jonathan arranged leave for both sons, giving spring flu as the reason.

He did not let David go to school, afraid that David might be attacked while alone.

"David, stay home with us. Clark will protect us. In a little while, I'll ask some acquaintances about the police's results. Maybe the police will catch Tina after all."

The update was a little late. I wrote an extra six hundred words.