As Detective Goren entered the interrogation room, the man sat up, exceptionally straight and began to clap despite his front-cuffed wrists. The applause was slow but reverent. Goren knew enough to know when he was being mocked. He made a mental note of this, most people, when they find themselves in a police interrogation room, facing multiple murder charges, are too focused on mentally going over the details of their crime, carefully choosing their words and demeanor to appear innocent, and calculating to make...well....jokes. Goren had been warned this criminal was more than dangerous, and the point was further illustrated to him by the extra restraints holding the man's ankles to the chair.
Goren took his seat at the silver table across from the man.
"So nice of you to join me, what is it?... Detective Goren. Yes, yes, very nice of you to come." The man shifted in his seat, flashing Goren a half-smile. Goren watched him from the other side of the table making a mental assessment. Then, almost out of nowhere, he lurched in his chair, suddenly and as much as the restraints would allow, attempting to startle the detective. Goren didn't flinch. Looking at the man now, as his face was closer. It was smeared with white make-up, caked thick and creased along his forehead. His eyes were circled thick with black, that ran down his painted white cheeks in small gray trails, similar to tears. But it was his mouth, clearly deformed, scar tissue built along the sides of his lips and swiped with blood red. The man revealed his teeth, for a wide smile.
"I like that, Bobby. I can call you Bobby can't I?" The man twitched in his seat, his green stringy hair hanging down over his face, "You're a man who is not easily flustered. Panic is the quickest way to failure, that's what I always say." He flipped his wrist and seemingly like magic a card appeared in his hand. He slid it across the table. "You should work with me....I could use your uh-vision." The man giggled wildly, as if he knew something Goren didn't.
Bobby reached for the playing card on the table and then turned it over. It was a jovial joker turned upside down.
Goren decided to speak, "You know, they say you are a very dangerous well...what are you exactly...I-I definitely wouldn't call you... a man...that would suggest you were....human. Or felt things the way a human would. You know, most of them just say you're a freak." Goren emphasized the word freak, taking this semi-insulting approach to start the interrogation, hoping to trigger some emotional response in this man to override his logic and get some answers. Joker bit back quickly.
"And you're the whack job...." Goren said nothing, Joker continued, "So I guess, were two of a kind." With another flick of his wrist, he materialized, two Ace of spades cards and placed them on the table face up.
"What do you have, multiple decks in your little purple suit there?...or are you all out of card tricks.?" Goren asked sarcastically, his neck twitching. Joker sneered and then flooded the room with cards, a seemingly endless supply, shooting from his palms. He laughed in the flurry, and then the cards stopped and his laughter trailed off. Bobby's intentional silence and lack of amusement made the room uncomfortable. Silence hung in the air. Both Joker and Goren shifted awkwardly.
Picking up on Goren's seriousness, Joker pretended his own brand of seriousness, taking on a false business persona.
"So like I said...you have my card.." He glanced around the room at the playing cards littering the floor, then he decided to level with the detective "you know- you don't need to be doing this...working for these clowns in their suits. They don't respect your.....genius. I could make many good uses of your talents, and nobody knows better ways around the cops than cops. That's why I requested they send me to you. I said- I told them -I'm not speaking until you bring me Robert Goren." Joker laughed again, high-pitched and slightly maniacal.
"You may be the whack job, they say you spent all last night in here, screaming for "Batman."...."
"Ah, the bat, yes- I'll get him soon enough, but right now, I'm uh- how you say- tied up." Joker raised his cuffed wrists for Bobby to see. Goren cut in.
"There is no "bat" or "batman". You know, they say you are a criminal genius....but you know what I think." Goren motioned his large hands, "I think you're just another delusional, off-balance, narcissist, who needs to be locked up."
"So society won't have to deal with me... and be confronted with all the ugliness that already exists inside them."
"Something like that. " Bobby responded coldly.
"Something like your mother." Joker added, slowly bursting into a fit of giggles as Bobby's anger began to show, "You wanted to kill the crazy bitch, I bet you did. I know you did." Suddenly, Joker turned serious, "You're like me, Bobby," his voice low, "I never told anyone this...but my mom was, well, ..different too...she's the reason I have my scars. "
The Joker's eyes suddenly darkened to the point it was frightening, his voice now barely audible and breaking from its usual comical tone into something more serious, "Shhhhhhhhhhh. Only you know the real reason." He said, before lifting his finger to his lips and then bursting into another fit of laughter.
Eames quietly entered the room.
"Someone wanna let me in on the joke." she deadpanned, looking around at the cards covering the floor and startling them both.
Joker eyed her up and down seductively then his eyes flashed to Goren. "Oh, is this your partner?"
He didn't answer.
"Tight package, eh?" Joker smiled and lowered his head.
Goren wanted to punch him for bringing Eames into this, in such a way, but didn't, because he couldn't give Joker any insight into his feelings and because they said he was infamous for inciting people do to things they normally wouldn't. Goren clenched his fists under the table.
Eames rolled her eyes, realizing this was an interrogation she couldn't participate in. "Bobby, come get me when you're done with this creep."
Goren never took his attention off Joker. Who followed Eames out of the room with his eyes and then turned back to Goren.
"Oh- oh- ohhhhhhhhh. The things I would do to her." He let his dead purple eyes fall on Goren, who was now tight with rage. "I bet she feels so ----"
That was it, Goren launched across the table and had Joker slammed against the mirror, still attached to the chair. His head rung with pain, he tasted blood in his own mouth. He laughed, baring his bloddy teeth and spit with a choke, hit by Goren's force again. "She really gets you going, doesn't she, that....Alexandra Eames." Joker sneered.
Goren released him, breathing hard. Then cocked his head, looking hard at Joker and then began to laugh hard, releasing him and letting the chair fall to the ground. Goren demonstrated he could change moods as quickly as the Joker, a move he hoped would make the criminal feel the need to stay engaged. He dusted Joker's shoulders off lightly and pushed him back to the table. Goren took his seat as well, wagging his finger playfully, "You're a funny guy." He said through light broken laughter.
Joker chuckled too, "It's just the way she said it...you know..how she said it..." then he suddenly stopped laughing and licked his lips hard, eyes searing the detective, " come get me when you're done with this creep." Joker's voice was sinister, "come....get...me....come....." They were silent.
Bobby's anger from within filled the room like steam, Joker added quietly hoping to push him to a boiling point, "I bet just her voice saying certain words gets you going....and then you replay those words....in your head at night....with those nasty thoughts....using her like a whore...." He licked his lips hard.
"No." Bobby interjected, his voice cracking.
"She loves it....you and I both know-girls like her....girl's who live their whole lives trying to please their Daddies." Joker twitched and laughed again, 'Want to be that girl's Daddy, Bobby?"
Goren lowered his head, "No."
Joker sat back in his chair, annoyed, and suddenly changing both mood and tone, "Well, look, when you're ready to give up this charade...and stop being a puppet" He brought his face as close to Bobby's as the cuffs would allow, painted white and intense "then let me know...but to be honest, I'm underwhelmed....I thought Detective Goren would have me confessing all my sins and crying for my mommy by now."
Bobby let his hand meet his lips.
"The same mommy who cut up your face?" he smiled.
Joker giggled, reveling in Goren's quick, slightly dry humor.
"The very same." Joker said smiling, feigning surprise and appearing amused.
"No seriously," Bobby leaned forward, using his own intense stare, "really...how did you get your scars?"
Joker suddenly seemed uncomfortable, but it faded, replaced by another more serene smile, enhanced by the red war paint across his lips.
"I told you Bobby, my mother....you know how it can be. One minute they love you, the next you don't exist, the next....you're the brunt of all that anger...and pain. She said my frown was making her sad...that the whole world should smile all day long...you see- she was on an upswing...and well, my face...it was just too much for her to bear.....so she went in the kitchen...pulled out a butcher knife, and slit me from cheek to cheek. Then she looked at me...oh, she looked so happy, as the blood ran down my face, and she said...'now you can smile forever.' "
Neither of the men said anything after than. Then Joker's haunting laughter began again.
"So you see, this is why I light up the room, wherever I go....she knew I was special."
"You don't blame her for deforming you?" Bobby asked.
"Oh, well- no - deformed - what? Look, people see me and they think they know what to expect, but they don't. Much like you, Bobby, it takes a keen eye to see what's inside...Deep inside guys like me and you. Jokes are not jokes. Rules are not rules. Lives aren't worth so much once, they are gone....you see that everyday. Nothing is what is seems. Nobody is who they say they are...everyone is wearing a mask...its all a big circus." Joker's voice raise to a strikingly high-pitch, "I just like to turn everything upside down...expose all these idiots to reality..."
"And what's the reality?" Bobby asked half- intrigued.
"Nothing matters, people cling to their rules, their beliefs, their loved ones, as if its going to save them when the shit hits the fan. But Bobby, you and I both know..." Joker wagged his own finger now playfully, "nothing is further from the truth....when things explode...even the people you love the most turn on you."
"That's why I don't love anyone." Bobby spit out almost subconsciously.
The Joker hit him back quickly, humor in his voice, wet-looking green hair hanging over his eye, "No, Bobby, that's why no one loves you."
Then he added, "I'm not saying another word, until I can speak to Alexandra Eames....alone."