"Gotham Noir"
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It all belongs to Christopher Nolan and DC Comics.
Summary: "Gotham; this is where I was born. This was my home and this is where I died. But we'll get to that part later – first I'm going to tell you a story. It's the story of the most dangerous case I ever worked with a detective named John Blake. This is the story of how we met the Riddler." POST TDKR.
A/N: This is a different fic from anything I've done before. It's set post TDKR but it's noir-style narrated by our favourite Police Commissioner. I hope you enjoy it J
One
This is Gotham City; my home town. This is where I was born and surely this is where I will die. Yeah, I know, that sounds pretty dramatic but when you get older, sometimes you just know. It's that feeling you get in your gut that you can't quite shake. As a policeman, the first thing they teach you in cop school is to always trust your gut. It's helped me through a lot in the past couple years because sometimes not even solid evidence is enough to crack a case wide open. It was that gut feeling I walked out of my apartment with this morning; something was going to happen. It had been close to nine months since 'the Revolution' as they called it and the city has been quiet.
Too quiet.
It started as an average Wednesday at work with paper work to fill in, phone calls to the mayor and nearly endless amounts off coffee. It wasn't until nearly lunchtime when a young officer who had only been in the force for a few weeks knocked on my door and came into my office. A young woman, only in her early twenties or so but I could never remember her name.
"Sir – these just came through for you." she said. I sighed and thanked her as I took the envelope form her hand. I knew what they were; the divorce papers my wife had sent through. All I had to do was to sign it and then our divorce would be finalised. It wasn't the divorce itself that bothered because to be honest, mine and Molly's marriage had started deteriorating years ago. It was the thought of not getting to see my kids that broke my heart more than anything. The lawyers had decided to give Molly full custody of James and Callie because apparently I am unfit to look after them. I can't say I blame them really, my lifestyle is far from safe and if anything every happened to them on my watch, I would never forgive myself. The sound of the phone ringing snapped me out of my thoughts and I picked it up to answer.
"This is Gordon. Yeah, I'll be right there." A body had been found by the old abandoned Gotham Broadcasting Centre before the new one had opened some ten years ago. The old building was normally a hideout for the local junkies looking for a place where they could seek out their thrills without any cops lurking around. Often enough, one or two city officials were found in the area buying their dope off the dealers, thinking nobody would notice. Of course, people always did it was just that nobody dared talking about it. After Carmine Falcone's death, drug dealers had learnt to be more careful and it made the job more difficult for undercover cops. The old GBC building was close to the harbour and by the time me and a couple other officers got there the crime scene had been sealed off and our pathologist, Evan, was observing the body. It was a job I didn't envy in the slightest.
"Morning Jim; this isn't a nice one." I'd known Evan for decades. We'd been friends as kids and went to the same high school once upon a time. His wife had left him a year ago and cheated on him with a close friend so we were in a similar place. I walked up to the body, it was a woman in her maybe mid thirties. She had long ginger hair and was wearing casual clothes. Externally it didn't seem as though there'd been a struggle but her face was pale and cold.
"What happened to her?"
"Well, I estimate time of death at some time between 2.20 and 2.45AM. Look at this." Evan tilted her head and showed me a punctuation mark at the back of her neck which had left a sort of black smudge.
"She's been injected with some kind of poison. And then there's this." As Evan opened up her mouth I could see that her tongue had been cut off. Then there was something else strange, there was writing on her neck with a black permanent marker.
"'What's looser that a thread, a fish, flying ribbons?'"
"…a woman's tongue." said one of the younger officers. The poor kid looked like he was going to be sick but still managed to keep a straight face. Seeing your first dead body was something you would never forget. I bent down to have a closer look at the body. It was gruesome; This woman had been murdered and had her tongue cut off by some sick psychopath and left her out in the cold. This was going to be a fun one for the press to get their hands on.
"Her name was Jessica Niall Sir; she was married to Arthur Niall. He's one of the committee members of Wayne Enterprises." Ah, John Blake – I'd always kept my eyes on that boy. He had incredible potential and reminded me a lot of myself in my early days in GCPD. Maybe in a couple of years, he would be where I am.
"So, what would you to Detective?" I asked him.
"We check her phone, see who she last called and then we speak to her husband. She must've been out here for a reason." Suggested Blake and I nodded at him.
"Well done Detective; Wayne Enterprises it is."
"Can I drive Sir?"
I smiled. "No."
To be continued….
What do you think? Review? Yes? It makes me a happy author J