Dick reached out his hand to feel the bouncing of the rain on his palms. Gotham was unnaturally inactive tonight, although the city still reeked of crime and rape and murder. He checked the time. 11:00 PM. Wally would be at the manor soon, and he wasn't going to risk being late. The speedster would never let that down. Dick looked up at the street sign.

31st Street.

Dick thought back over the memo. He was following up a lead on a drug lord, a Mr. Caselle, a lawyer who they say was fat with corruption and boiling over with pride. His house was not too far from the street sign, and 31st Street itself wasn't too far from the manor - a good five to ten minutes of solid running and jumping across rooftops.

11:01

Dick sprinted to the supposed house and quietly, stealthily, made his way to the uppermost floor. The window wasn't hard to open, even for someone who wasn't trained by the bat, and Dick wondered if a drug lord would have so little security. He wondered why anyone in Gotham would have so little security.

The inside of the floor was...different, to put it nicely. The carpet was soft and purple, and to the end of the room was an unmade single bed with gold designs engraved into it. There was a bookshelf in the shape of the letter "L" (rather impractical, Dick thought), and a single fluorescent light in the roof with no visible switch anywhere. Across the carpet were clothes strewn in all directions, and dotted along the walls were photographs that told a story that made no sense to Dick. There was a dressing table opposite the bed, with several creams lined unevenly across the top. A revolver rested patiently at the end.

11:10

Crap. Wally was going to be at the manor soon. Dick hurriedly rummaged through the drawers of the dressing table, but found only some clothes, some underwear, a Playboy magazine and some ammunition. Nothing that would help him find out if this really was Caselle's house. He closed the drawers of the table swiftly, just in time to hear a thud from downstairs - the sound of a door closing - and just in time to spy a small journal that was cleverly concealed behind the bottles of lotion. He swiped it without disturbing the bottles, and then somersaulted out the window. The fluorescent light turned on, and the bright light illuminated the bottom of the street. From the roof, Dick examined the journal. There was a lock on the leather cover, but Dick could break that back at the manor.

The manor. Crap.

11:15

Wally was probably already there. Dick sprinted across the rooftops, hardly caring about if he was seen or not, but he knew that nobody would be watching this time of night. Everyone would be to afraid to, in case they saw the bat himself. By the time he reached his room at the manor, Dick was completely out of breath.

"Evening jog, Master Richard?"

"Hilarious, Alfred."

"Did you find anything about Caselle?"

"A journal, I think. But I have to get ready...is Wally here?"

"I'm afraid not, Master Richard."

Dick checked his watch. 11:25. Wally was meant to be here at 11:20, and he wouldn't skip their little night sessions together. "Where is he?"

"And how would I know that?"

"I wasn't talking about Wally."

Alfred nodded with a newfound understanding. "He is in the batcave, moping as usual."

"Thanks, Alfred."

Dick ran off. Where could Wally be? They were going to head out to the park to have some harmless...fun, and Wally was never one to miss out on that.

He walked into the light of the batcave and sighed. The Flash was there, but that wasn't the speedster he was hoping to see.

"Hey, Dick! How's it going?"

"Fine, thanks. Hey, have you seen Wally?"

Dick saw the Flash's face fall. "I was hoping to ask you the same thing."

"He hasn't been seen in the last 15 hours." Batman's deep voice intercepted. Dick's heart rate went up.

"Where was he seen last?"

"We don't know."

"You're the friggin Batman! How could you not know!" Dick shouted.

"Because all trace of his existence has been deleted!" Bruce growled back.

The Flash sat down. "I'm sorry, kid. I thought you might have known, given how...close, you two are."

Batman stopped for a moment, then continued searching on the computer.

"Do you have any idea who could have kidnapped him?" Dick asked the Flash.

In that instant, Dick saw it in his eyes. The red of his suit helped to disguise it a bit, but to someone like Dick, who could read emotions like a book, he saw it clearly. The Flash knew who it was, definitely.

"I can't say I know, kid."

Dick's heart sank. Why would the Flash keep any information from the Bat? From him? Unless Dick was seeing what he wanted to see, not what was actually there. Dick didn't know. His head was a complete mess. When did this night go so wrong?

The three of them sat in silence, listening to the faint sound of the computer humming.

11:50

"Wals," Dick mumbled under his breath. "Where the hell are you?"