When Donatello suggested that it would be a good idea to try and find additional information regarding the two previous muggings, Leonardo agreed. Leaving Don to that task, Leo went in search of his other siblings.
Michelangelo he found in the dojo, working on the speed bag. It was a new acquisition and Mikey had taken to it, finding it more of a challenge than the heavy bag that Raph preferred. When Leo had showed surprise at the amount of time Mikey was spending in the dojo now, Mikey had told him he liked the speed bag because it improved his sense of timing and his rhythm.
"Meeting in Don's lab in ten minutes," Leo told his younger brother once he'd gained his attention.
Mikey reached out to still the bag and asked, "Something brewing?"
"Maybe," Leo answered, already heading out. "April dropped a little something in our laps."
He made sure he was gone before Mikey could ask more questions. Arousing Mikey's curiosity was the best way to get him to their meeting on time.
Leo took the elevator up to the garage where he knew he'd find Raphael. Don had scavenged a plumber's van from the wrecking yard and with Raph's help they'd hauled it back home. The two of them had been working on it for a couple of weeks, sometimes together, sometimes separately.
There were several positives about the new project, one of which was that such an innocuous vehicle would be practically invisible to the city's inhabitants. There were no side windows for anyone to look through and the ones in the front and back were covered in a dark film.
When Leo entered the garage he saw that Raph was working on the engine block, which was still suspended from chains attached to the ceiling. They wouldn't drop it into the van until it had been completely overhauled.
Raph appeared totally concentrated on what he was doing so Leo stood quietly and waited for his brother to acknowledge his presence. While they all had a working knowledge of automotive engines, Raph's skill was the only one on par with Don's in that department. Therefore it was usually only Raph who was allowed to work unaided on any of their vehicles.
Leo would have liked to share that with Raph the way that Don did. The two middle brothers had such an easygoing relationship that Leo was often envious of it. Don could communicate with Raph. It was more than simple conversation, it was a deep understanding that Leo wished he could achieve.
Too often when Leo talked to Raph one of them would say something that the other would misconstrue, and an argument would break out. Where Mikey wouldn't take Raph's words seriously, and Don would gently question, Leo's response to an aggressive tone was to push back. Their verbal shoving matches led to actual physical altercations all too frequently and that wasn't what Leo wanted at all.
They were at an uneasy truce at the moment and Leo was striving to maintain it for as long as possible. He wanted Raph to be more comfortable with him, to see him differently. The underlying antagonism in their relationship wasn't healthy for either of them, for their family, or for their team.
Simply finding an even rhythm to their interactions would satisfy Leo enough to last him a lifetime. He didn't dare hope for more and denied himself those thoughts when his mind grew rebellious and tried to imagine something better than that. The words 'happy' and 'fulfilled' weren't meant to occupy Leo's vocabulary.
Still he couldn't help how his eyes tracked every movement that Raph made. Leo couldn't help it that the sounds of Raph's exertions, the grunts or murmured curses, cut straight through him. He couldn't help it that the one brother he wanted to be around most of the time was the brother he didn't dare stay near.
"What's up?" Raph asked, finally acknowledging Leo's presence.
Though Leo was fairly certain Raph had purposely ignored him for an extra few minutes, he pretended not to have noticed. "Are you at a stopping point? We're having a conference in Don's lab in about five minutes. It's about something April asked if we'd take care of for her," Leo quickly added, wanting to avoid having Raph think he was being officious.
Raph looked thoughtful as he set his tools down on the work table. "Yeah, she did seem worried about something when she left," he said as he squirted hand cleanser onto his palms. Rubbing it in thoroughly, he grabbed a shop towel to wipe the loosened grease onto. "It ain't the Shredder is it? His thugs ain't been bothering her have they?"
"No, it's nothing to do with the Foot or Hun and his Purple Dragons," Leo said, falling in step with Raph as he started walking towards the elevator. "It will make more sense if I tell it while you and Mikey watch something that Don taped earlier."
"Big mystery," Raph said. The doors closed behind them and the elevator began to descend. "I hope ya' didn't sign us up to baby sit shoplifters. That ain't the kind of job a trained ninja needs to be doing."
Leo sifted through a number of answers, wishing he didn't have to worry so much about how he worded things. "No shop lifters involved," Leo said after a moment, keeping his tone light.
He noticed the sharp look Raph shot in his direction but was saved from having to react because the doors slid open just then. Leading the way, Leo went directly to Don's lab.
Mikey was already there waiting for him. "Don won't tell me what's going on," he said, making his words sound accusatory.
"I told him I wasn't going to explain things twice," Don countered, setting the facts straight.
"Go ahead and run a playback of what we saw in April's shop earlier," Leo requested. "I'll explain what April told me as we watch."
As Leo launched into a retelling of the story April had laid out for he and Master Splinter, Don started to play the recording he'd made a quarter of an hour earlier. Raph and Mikey kept their eyes glued to the video screen, their concentrated expressions letting Leo know they were following his every word.
"When I first saw Brittany I thought she was kind of cute," Mikey said after the tape played out and Leo stopped talking. "Now it's total 'Creepsville'. No way do I want an introduction."
"Don't ya' think she has enough problems without ya' threatening to show her your ugly mug?" Raph asked. "Besides, we don't need to meet her, what we want is the asshole who jumped her."
"I agree," Leo said. "As I promised April, we're going to start patrolling her neighborhood so we can try to catch whoever this mugger is. Did you find out anything more about the two previous muggings, Don? Were they in the same general area?"
"Yes they were," Don answered. "Though there wasn't much more to be found out about them, I did establish that the incidents took place within a mile and a half radius of April's shop. Here, let me show you."
Don pulled up a map of April's neighborhood and with a few keystrokes placed red dots on the places where the three muggings had occurred.
"Were you able to establish a timeline?" Leo asked.
With a nod, Don pressed another series of keys. Both dates and times appeared above each of the red dots.
"Brittany's was the most recent," Don explained. He placed a 'B' in the center of the red dot to indicate which belonged to her. "The first of the muggings with a similar MO occurred six weeks before Brittany's. A sixty year old widower on his way home from the bodega nearest to where he lived was grabbed from behind and pulled into an alley. Though he was carrying cash, nothing was taken."
Don typed a 'P' into the center of one of the two remaining dots. "His name is Harvey Plotkin. He survives on a fixed income and has been living in the same apartment for twenty-seven years."
Something Don said struck Leo as familiar and he asked, "When did his wife die?"
Giving Leo a curious look, Don said, "I wouldn't have thought to check that but the information happened to be in the couple of paragraphs the paper devoted to the mugging. His wife of forty years passed on just the month before."
"So it would probably be safe to say he's been pretty upset, right?" Mikey asked, catching on to Leo's train of thought.
"Unfortunately that fact isn't in the news reports, but I'd guess the answer is yes," Don said.
"Tell me that's just a coincidence and victim number two hasn't suffered a death in the family," Raph said.
"Victim number two," Don said, inserting a 'D' into the remaining red dot. "Victor Dominico. A thirty-three year old carpenter who moved here from Ames, Iowa with his partner Brent Stapleton four months ago. They'd been together for seven years."
"That's past tense, right?" Mikey asked.
"Yes," Don said. "His partner was killed by a hit-and-run driver a week before Dominico was mugged. As you can see, that mugging occurred exactly two weeks after Plotkin's."
"And Brittany's happened exactly two weeks after Dominico's," Leo said. "Certainly not a coincidence."
"Someone's targeting people in mourning?" Mikey asked. "What the shell for? Did they take anything from Dominico?"
"Nothing," Don supplied. "None of the muggings lasted beyond a few moments and nothing was taken from any of the victims. They were all attacked from behind and didn't get a look at the mugger. Each victim described the mugger as incredibly strong, saying that he wrapped one arm around their chest and grabbed them by the throat with the other hand before dragging them into a secluded area."
"What happened after that?" Raph asked. "He just what, let them go?"
"Exactly," Don answered, turning his head to look up at Raph. "I don't know what Plotkin looked like, but I can't imagine either he or Brittany could have put up much of a fight. Dominico on the other hand is a big guy; easily six-four and two hundred pounds. He told authorities he couldn't even fight the mugger because of the hold the man had on his neck. Apparently in all three cases, the mugger grabbed his victim in exactly the same manner, dragged them off, choked them a little and let them go."
"Okay, that's too bizarro," Mikey said, "even for New York City. How would the guy even know these people were in mourning?"
"Maybe he opens his paper to the obituaries first thing every day," Raph said. "I notice each of the muggings is farther from the one before it. They might all be within the same radius, but they ain't clustered. 'Course it's hard to tell from a sampling of only three, but I wouldn't stake our success on guessing he's gonna stay within those boundaries."
It was that type of astute observation that made Raphael such a good hunter. He sometimes even seemed to have a sixth sense on where to locate their quarry. It was a skill that Leo both envied and valued.
Leo wanted to offer Raph a visual acknowledgment of his conclusion, but Raph's eyes were on Don, so he settled for saying, "I think you're right. We'll have to find another way to locate him."
"If ya' can't find the bad guy the next best thing to do is locate his prey," Raph said.
Don's expression lit up and he beamed at Raph. "Brilliant! We know he's after people who are in mourning, so let's do what he probably does and read the obituaries."
Raph squeezed Don's shoulder as the genius turned back to his computer to begin a search. As Don scrolled through a long list of death notices, Raph leaned over him, his cheek nearly touching his brother's.
Leo couldn't help but feel a touch of resentment at how comfortable those two were with each other. Raph's hand lingered and Don seemed to enjoy his proximity, showing not the least bit of unease with having the larger turtle hovering over him.
As he watched the list of recent deaths scroll by, Mikey said, "Man, I didn't realize that many people died in the city every day. How are we going to narrow that down?"
"These aren't all from a single day," Don told him. "I'm compiling this list from several different papers over a two week period. After I have the names, I'll write an algorithm that incorporates location and survivor statistics. That should narrow it down for us."
"How fast can you have that done?" Leo asked.
"Oh, by dinnertime for sure," Don said. "Depending on the number, we might have to go with good old fashioned gut instinct to decide who we should watch."
"If the list is big, we'll probably have to split up," Leo said. "Raph, do you think you can get hold of Casey and have him on standby? We may need his help covering the potential targets."
"No problem," Raph said, straightening up and removing his hand from Don's shoulder. "He's been complaining that he's bored, so he'll be falling all over himself to help."
Don's focus was on his computer, where he was typing in a sequence of commands. "Then you guys better leave me alone so I can get this done on time," he said.
Raph's lopsided grin made Leo's heart skip a beat. "That's Brainiac's way of saying 'beat it'," he translated with a laugh. "I've got at least an hour on that engine before I'm ready to scrub the grease off of me, so Leo, either you or Mikey have dinner duty."
"We'll both do it," Leo said before Mikey could find an excuse to escape the chore.
The three siblings walked out of Don's lab and Raph headed towards the elevator. "That's probably the best idea," he said, looking meaningfully at Leo. "Leaving ya' to your own devices in the kitchen is usually a recipe for disaster."
"I'm not that bad," Leo protested good-naturedly, happy for once to be teased by Raph.
"Oh yeah?" Raph countered. "I'm gonna quote Donny-boy and say that statistically speaking, my statement was dead on accurate."
The elevator whisked him away before Leo could offer a retort. Turning to follow Mikey into the kitchen, the smile on Leo's face faded.
Seeing Raph and Don interact made him feel wistful again. Scratch what he'd thought earlier about their easy going relationship, it was more than that. They were genuinely close, Don having achieved something that Leo would have bet no one could.
Leo should have been happy about that. Having a brother who he could relate to helped keep the infamous hot head grounded. The problem was that Leo wished he was the brother in question rather than Donny.
TBC…
