"No, not again" sighed Gotham City Lieutenant James Gordon as he stared down at the dead body laying on the ground in front of him.
He'd seen it all too often before and knew exactly what the card laying face down on the ground would be: A Joker.
Gordon bent down to scoop it into an evidence bag, but knew that it would turn up the same way that it had multiple times before, no prints, no DNA, nothing. It was almost as if this guy didn't exist.
"Alright folks, listen up" yelled Gordon to the numerous cops around him. "Let's get this crime scene taken care of, I think we all know the media will be here any minute." And with that warning, Gordon turned toward the street and saw multiple vans speeding toward him with their satellite dishes situated atop the vehicles ready to broadcast their messages to the rest of Gotham.
"Shit" muttered Gordon to himself. "Alright damage control folks, no one says a word to these shmucks unless I give the okay."
The body was covered, the last evidence photographed just in time to hide the specifics from the reporters.
"Lieutenant, Lieutenant" came the shouts from behind the police barrier.
"Neither myself nor anyone else here will be commenting on the situation, so just quit now before you really piss me off." Gordon said in response to the shouts of the reporters.
"Lieutenant, is this the work of the mysterious man often known as the Joker?" Shouted reporter Anthony Reese, the peskiest of all the reporters. At this remark, Gordon stopped in his tracks, spun on the spot and headed right for Reese.
"Listen, Reese, you and these theories you whip up aren't doing Gotham or its citizens the least bit of good."
"So Lieutenant Gordon is afraid to address the Joker rumors that have been all over Gotham the last few weeks, does that about sum it up, Jim?"
"Now you listen here Reeseā¦"
"GORDON!" bellowed police commissioner Hughes from the background. "Someone's here to see you, back this way."
Gordon gave one last glare at Reese and followed the commissioner around the corner so the media could no longer see them. It was so dark he nearly ran into the newcomer to the crime scene, who was dressed in head to toe in black and wearing the same menacing look as always on his face. Gordon jumped back in surprise before laughing slightly to himself.
"Jesus, why do you always have to do that?" Gordon complained to the stranger.
"Keeps things interesting." Replied Batman in his usual deep growl. "So what's the story?"
"Homicide, shot point blank in the chest, and guess what we happened to find laying next to the body" Gordon explained as he held up the evidence bag with the Joker Card inside of it.
"So the anonymous Joker is still out there" Batman said, taking the card from Gordon's hand.
"And we have still don't have the slightest lead on him."
"Wait a minute, Gordon, that's no longer entirely true." Interjected Commissioner Hughes.
"What do you mean Hughes?"
"We finally have a witness."
"What? Why are you just telling me this now?" Gordon asked as his eyes blazed with fury.
"Easy Gordon, we just found the witness now. They were up there watching as the murder took place" Hughes said as he pointed to a window a few stories above the alley. "We're bringing her over now."
"Let's get to it" Batman began walking forward but was stopped by the Commissioner, as Batman shot a glare at the human obstacle.
"Listen, you may be the vigilante hero the press eats up, but leave the real police work to us. Besides, we can't let the press know you're here working with us like this."
At this, Batman bent down towards the diminutive commissioner and rasped at him, "Listen Hughes, if this woman knows anything about who this Joker may be, then I am the one that needs to talk to her."
"Fine. But we'll bring her back here though. I'm not ready for the press to know that you're a de facto cop." Hughes said, realizing he was not going to be able to stop Gotham's super hero from doing pretty much whatever he wanted, but still hoping he could get some kind of compromise. "Bring her back Detective" shouted Hughes to the nearest cop.
As Tina Lewis rounded the corner into the back alley, she could hear a deep bellowing voice, and before she knew it, the source was upon her. Almost unable to think as she looked into the Dark Knight's cold eyes, Lewis stuttered as Batman attempted to get any information he could from her.
"Tina, Tina! Relax, there's nothing to fear here." Batman said, realizing he had frightened the young lady who couldn't have been older than 17. After several attempts at calming the witness down, she seemed finally to come to her senses.
"Tina what did you see?"
"It- it- it w-w-was terrible. I was sitting in my room watching TV when I heard this horrible laughter from outside. It-it was like nothing I had ever heard. Not a normal, happy laugh, but a terrible, evil laugh that sent chills down my spine. So I went over to my window to see what was going on. And I looked down, fr-from right up there," she said as she pointed up directly above where the victim lay dead. "And I saw, well I guess it was a man"
"You guess?" questioned Lieutenant Gordon at this vague recollection.
"Well, his body certainly was like a man, but his face, his hair, oh God, his mouth. His face was pale white"
"White? You mean like with makeup?" this time Batman was the one to interrupt Tina.
"No, no, I don't think so. It was like his skin had been burned that color, I can't explain it, but that's just the way it was. His hair, it was a greenish kind of blond, but it was like the hair was dead and just happened to still be hanging around on his head. And, oh God, his mouth. It was like he had lips that went wider than his mouth."
"What?" this time it was Gordon, Batman, and Hughes all at the same time.
"Yeah, it was the most awful thing I had ever seen, it was almost as if his lips had been sliced outward with a knife or something. Oh God, I can't go on, please don't make me."
"Tina, listen, I know this is tough, but you are the only one who can help us, now what was it that you actually saw happen."
"By the time I got to the window I think he had been talking to whoever that guy was for a few minutes, and he was still laughing like a total nut. The man he was with, though, he wasn't laughing at all, he looked terrified. And, then, well, the crazy man, the Joker I think they call him, he turned around so that the other man couldn't see what he was doing, and I saw him pull something out of his pocket. I couldn't see what it was, but I knew what was coming next. He spun on his heels and jammed a knife right into the guy's chest. I turned away and ran into my closet and starting crying, but even though I was sobbing, I could still hear what was going on outside. Laughter, that same maniacal laughter, only this time it was worse, much worse. Oh God, please I can't take it, what if he finds out I squealed, what will happen to me?"
"Tina, you've got to trust me. I will not let anything ever happen to you because of this, do you understand?"
She gave a curt, unconvinced nod as her reply, and they all understood that after seeing that kind of evil in her midst, no one could feel truly safe.
With her story complete, Tina was led away to the station to protective custody at the police department.
"Alright Gordon, I think I've gotten all I can for tonight. I'm off to see what else I can dig up." Batman said as he readied himself for a silent escape up the side of the building.
"What's your plan going to be? Go around looking for men with white faces, green hair and cut up faces who laugh a lot?" Gordon challenged the superhero.
"Any better ideas Gordon?"
"I suppose not, but we can't all go flying off into the night without worrying about consequences, can we?"
Batman gave Gordon a look of contempt at this remark, and spun on the spot, launched his climbing rope onto a nearby building and took off into the night.
