Something came back…
Curiosity?
An elegant posture that was looking around the room.
She was curious, I was curious too.
Not because she was a gorgeous woman (at least from the back), but because I heard a cabinet door slightly click a few minutes ago. I had too much time on my hands not to be cautious about sounds.
So she was not just absent-mindedly looking around.
A bow and arrows, my latest tribute to apathy, were standing near the door so I took it.
I was happy that I was not wrecked enough to make my steps noisy, even with a cane.
I approached, placed a cane next to my leg and pulled the string.
She screamed so naturally, that for a moment there I thought that I actually imagined the cabinet door opened and that I scared a poor girl half-death.
For a moment…
Because a moment was enough to notice two things: she was definitely beautiful and she was wearing my mother's pearls.
"Oh, sorry, sorry. l'm so terribly sorry, Mr. Wayne. lt is Mr. Wayne, isn't it? Although you don't have the long nails or, heh, the facial scars, sir," she chuckled so sweet that I wanted to stay "bravo" to her acting skills.
"ls that what they say about me?" I asked to support this small talk.
Her eyes just darted to the left and right. Probably thinking of her chances to escape from a crippled man.
"It's just that no one ever sees you," she said and that actually sounded sincere. Well, it was true.
I felt like that I have been polite enough and I can finally catch her.
"That's a beautiful necklace. Reminds me of one that belonged to my mother. lt can't be the same one…" I frowned, trying to get her "bravo" on my performance, "…because her pearls are in this safe," I approached the cabinet with the safe, "…the manufacturer clearly explained...is uncrackable," I smiled in triumph looking at the empty safe.
Something came back…
Challenge?
I looked at her expression thinking of all the things that she could say, of the things that she can do now. But she said this:
"Oops," her posture changed, her look changed.
She was not a maid, there was actually completely nothing servant about her. She was a player.
"Nobody told me it was uncrackable," she said with such a regret that I wanted to believe that it would have changed anything.
"l'm afraid l can't let you take those," I said. Even though I enjoyed this calm collision, these pearls were not something I could let slide through my fingers.
"Look, you wouldn't beat up a woman
any more than l would beat up a cripple," she said approaching me with an inborn gracefulness. Before I even noticed that this was not right and that she smelled like rainy streets of Gotham, I was on the floor.
"Of course, sometimes exceptions have to be made," she said in a matter of fact manner and jumped on the chair.
"Good night, Mr. Wayne."
"Those are amazing skills," I thought to myself looking at her in the window frame. It was like she never used the doors.
One jump and she disappeared.
Something came back…
Something… not Bruce Wayne, not Batman, but something that was before all of them.
I spent half night, turning in my own bed thinking of this thief.
I had a rather valid reason for it. My mother's pears were missing and, more importantly, someone was curious about my fingertips.
Did she need them? Was she hired by someone? Most likely this someone was not interested in pearls. She put them on. She liked them and they did look lovely on her.
Around 3 am, I gave up. I needed to learn who she was. I left the bed and was going to the study, but I stopped midway and got back to my bed. I made it myself. I didn't want another mysterious maid in my room.
The air of the batcave felt as fresh as it could be. It was reviving. Everything was working. I never doubt that it would though. As if I knew it would call me back here.
I remembered a lot, old tricks that were helping me get the required information, I found a few databases that I lost my access to. I will need to restore it later…later? I didn't even question this intention. I needed it.
Most obvious searches didn't bring much, even though I gathered her fingerprints. However, tracker in the necklace did. She definitely liked them too much to be careful.
Something came back…
I forgot that my leg hurt. I walked back and forth on the platform excited when I finally got her name.
Something came back in me. It was curiosity, challenge, truth seeking. This forgotten feeling of discovery, rush from finding the answer, from unveiling a mystery.
A mystery whose name was Selina Kyle.