The nursing home was a different from the one that Bullock's partner was holed up in. This was catered to more youngish people as well as those who had a criminal record. Nathan Sylos was around forty-seven with a criminal record for petty theft five different times before he had met Bethany.

"Guess she turned him around," Harvey said as they climbed the stairs to the building.

"If they loved each other so deeply what happened to make them want to separate?" James finished pondering. "Also the issue with custody over Riley and Marshall."

"Well hopefully Nathan can tell us."

Inside the two walked up the receptionist desk and asked for Nathan Sylos.

"He's just outside," the woman said. "I'll call someone to guide you."

"We've got it," Harvey replied ready to leave.

"This is a facility reserved for permanently injured convicts, two detectives walking in won't do them any good now would it?"

"Fancy way of saying 'its procedure,'" James noted.

The woman gave a small smirk. "Someone will be here shortly."

The two detectives moved away from the desk over to the far wall.

XXXXXX

Outside few patients were out either, smoking, talking or just milling around. There was a few attendant out too helping some of the lesser abled bodies including Nathan.

He looked older than forty-seven, a full decade older. Nathan's posture was slouched in his wheelchair, a permanent scowl etched into his face along with a few deep wrinkles and scars from his car accident. His grey eyes watched carefully as the two detectives approached.

"Detective Gordon," the First Detective introduced, "this is my partner Detective Bullock."

"What do you want?" Nathan growled his voice was hollow but still had a deep bass.

"A few questions about your sons Marshal and Riley."

Nathan let out a small puff of air before taking a cigarette carton out of his shirt pocket. He lit one and offered it to both detectives who declined.

"Why do you want to know about my boy and Marshal?" Nathan asked letting out a puff.

"Because they're both involved in a murder investigation," Harvey answered.

The man's eyes narrowed. "They didn't kill anyone."

"It's about Bethany Sylos."

Nathan's eyes narrowed in anger but there was a hint of sadness underneath it.

"Marshal ain't my kid, haven't seen the bastard in twenty- years."

"What about Riley?" Harvey asked.

"Comes and goes every once in a while, but his last visit was three years ago. He's being busy."

"Genetically modifying insects and killing people with exotic insect poisons."

Nathan's head snapped up and for a second he looked very convincible of standing and knocking the detectives flat on their back.

"My son isn't a killer."

"Your son figured out who killed his mother, Bethany, and is now on a killing spree of those who were involved."

"Fine, let him kill those bastards!" Nathan shouted. "They killed my Beth, and in front of my son of all things!"

"We have a man named Petri who is currently in our custody, he's a prime suspect. Do you know him?"

Nathan shook his head. "Never heard of him, but if he did do it – shoot that son of a bitch for me."

Harvey let out a short breath. "No one's getting shot old man, but a certain someone is going to be answering some questions."

"Why did Irene stay with you after you attacked her son Marshal?" James started off

Nathan leaned so far out that he alerted an attendant. "That son of a bitch deserved it." He drew back into his chair coughing violently.

"Why?"

"He was being an arrogant little shit, picking on my son and getting his friends to do the same. One day my boy came back with school with cuts and bruises, his clothes were dirty and torn and he it was clear he had being crying. It was clear that Marshal had his friends beat up my poor boy – and it wasn't the first."

"So you permanently disfigured his face because he was acting like a typical teenager?"

"I fucked up his face because he was being a no-good cunt."

James sighed. It was clear that something was being left out, he thought about pressing on when Harvey spoke up.

"Why did you and Bethany split?"

That seemed to dim Nathan's aggravated demeanour. His eyes grew distant and went downcast as he recalled a past memory.

"It was because we started to fall, financially and emotionally. We just couldn't hold everything together and we started to fight – it was just vocal but we knew that Riley was aware. So we decided not to beat around the bush and get a separation, it just wasn't working out."

"And how long have you two being married?"

"About seven years."

Harvey crossed his arms. "Usually divorces cause hefty problems for the little tykes huh?"

Nathan sighed. "Riley took the worst of it he was nearly two by the time we divorced."

"Who was going to end up with Riley?"

"Beth was she was able to prove a more…stable environment."

"That must've made you upset," Harvey said.

Nathan bit his lip and his eyes narrowed in slight anger.

"What about Marshal, how did he react when he learned he was going to have a new daddy?"

The cripple shifted a bit.

"His biological father was run over in a hit and run with Maroni's men, didn't pay up debts. His injuries killed him hours later in the hospital. It was hard to guess how the little shit felt."

"Any indication he was angry at you, before you slashed his face."

Nathan paused. "No, he was…almost happy to have another male around to talk about girls and stuff like that. Then when he heard he was going to possibly have a young brother, heh, well that just sent him through the damn roof."

"So he was happy about meeting Riley?"

"They had met a couple times before already and as far as I or Irene could tell there were no problems."

James took some pictures from his pocket and handed them to Nathan. The man flipped through them, with each passing picture he grew angrier.

"What the hell is this filth?!" he demanded throwing the pictures to the ground.

"That's Riley," James informed. "The hospital is required to document and report any incidences of child abuse in a home. Did you know that Irene was beating him after you slashed Marshal's face?"

For a moment his bottom lip started to tremble but he straightened the best he could. Clearing his throat Nathan spoke quietly: "Riley told me one night, it was when he was twelve and it started to reflect in his personality too."

"Why didn't you do anything about it?" James asked however unable to keep a hint of anger out of his tone.

"I tried I confronted Irene and warned her to stay away from my son."

"And how did that go over?" Harvey asked. "Did she pinky swear to stay away from Riley?"

Nathan was about to berate the detective when James stepped between them.

"What happened?"

"She…she said that the health insurance wouldn't cover the operation it would take to repair Marshal's face."

"Why not?"

"It wasn't a dire enough situation."

"Dire?"

Nathan sighed. "The bigwigs in health insurance department don't like their money gonna waste right? So since he didn't get it in a car accident, or that no one was stepping up to claim that it was their fault or that he was born disfigured." Nathan took another drag of the cigarette. "They didn't do shit."

"You didn't step in?"

Nathan's lips pursed but didn't say anything.

"It's gotta be more important than just Marshal being an ass for you not to step up and claim responsibility for his injury. To you know…restore the damage."

Nathan drew in a breath and kept his mouth shut. It was clear that they weren't going to get any more information.

"Mr. Sylos-."

The man's head snapped up so fast that he nearly struck James in the jaw.

"Don't call me that!" the man hissed, his voice came through clear and strong.

"Bu-."

His hollow voice came back suddenly as he screamed for an attendant to move him back inside.

Outside the support home James and Bullock climbed back into the cruiser.

"Well he's a nice fella isn't he?" Bullock sighed leaning back into the seat.

James didn't respond right away, he was busy trying to figure out too many new facts that were thrown at them at once.

"Ms. Terric is waiting for us," Bullock said closing his phone.

James nodded and put the vehicle into gear. He waited for a few seconds before driving back to the precinct.

XXXXXX

At the station James waited a few seconds before turning the engine off.

"Well this should be interesting," Bullock said unbuckling he was ready to get out when he saw his partner hesitate.

"He was ashamed and angry," James said.

"Of what?"

"When I called his Mr. Sylos, if he was truly saddened by his wife's death then that shouldn't have bothered him."

Inside the precinct a large number of civilians were crammed around the service desk, some were seated at the desk and others were waiting impatiently for their turn. Both detectives navigated their way through the crowd carefully before managing to get to the stairs to see their captain.

"So what's the occasion?" Bullock asked turning to all the people.

"They claim to have seen Flyboy, others claim to have seen a giant floating black cloud in the sky."

"We are holding Karen in an interrogation room, heads up guys she not too ecstatic about being here,"

"I wouldn't be a happy camper if I was brought in for illegal genetic modification either," Bullock piped.

James peaked into the room seeing Karen sitting in a chair, her arms crossed and his finger tapped lightly on her other arm. Her back was to them so they couldn't see her expression but it wasn't a contest to say what it was. "Let's not keep the little lady waiting."

As soon as the door opened Karen's head whipped around and sent a deep glare at the detectives.

"I've being here for nearly an hour," she said bitterly. "What do you want?"

"A couple questions about your genetic bioengineering program."

Karen's face tightened as she was about to protest until James withdrew her transcript sheet.

"Apparently if you continued you would've being a candidate for a Shield in Sciences and Technologies," James continued. "An award that is only handed out to the top academia in their class, the last one was handed out eight years ago. Why did you quit?"

"Personal reasons," Karen muttered, her eyes were downcast.

"What personal reasons?"

The secretary straightened. "The reason I said its personal is because it's private."

"Well then keep it private," Bullock interrupted. "Unless you want to spent a nice night in one of the cells."

"You're going to arrest me?" Karen shouted abash. "I didn't do anything!"

"Withholding information in a police investigation is a crime."

Karen's expression tightened again but finally she sighed.

"It wasn't my choice to, I wanted to continue but then…," Karen paused, her teeth bit her bottom lip. "I started to get these notes…these disgusting violent notes and…."

"They threatened you," James said finally seeing what Karen was trying to say. "They threatened to kill you to rape you if you didn't drop, didn't they?"

Karen's expression told the truth.

"They told you to drop the Biogenetics program."

"They told me to leave the school," Karen corrected. "Said they'd go after my boyfriend and sister as well if I didn't."

"But you stayed and went into International Business," James continued, "barely passed with a 6.45 GPA."

"And yet you landed a secretarial position at one of the most prestigious buildings in the city, after Welzyn and Wayne Enterprises of course," Bullock finished.

Karen pursed her lips before answering. "A man came up to me and said that if I went through International Business I could work for Velrun right after."

"Could?"

"I just had to pass," Karen shrugged. "He didn't say with what."

"So why such a low grade?"

Another shrug, "English isn't my strong suit, but I figured a job right out of the gate would do just fine, paying off my student loans and such."

James then took out an encased insect and set it on the table.

"Our forensics team looked at this and from the looks of it appears to be genetically modified."

"I didn't do that," Karen abruptly said.

"Why would we believe that?" Bullock asked innocently. "You were on your way to becoming the first Shield winner in eight years, you could probably come up with the proper sequence in your sleep."

"I didn't do it."

"Then who?" James demanded starting to get a little impatient. "Who do you think would be able to genetically combine three various insects into one and then unleash it to terrorize the populace."

"How should I know?" Karen shrugged casting a baleful eye on the pair.

James was about to say something when he stopped, he realized he was going at this the wrong way. Karen was willing to give up her career in order to save her family and friends from threatened harm. James couldn't go after her, it was wrong.

"What do you know about Riley Sylos?" James asked his tone was less hardened.

"He's a good worker."

"Anything else?"

"He's an extremely private man, hardly talks about his home life ever."

James took out Riley's hospital pics and laid them out on the table. Karen's body tightened and her face held a less than surprised expression.

"So much for being a private man," James muttered sweeping up the pictures.

"Wha-," Karen started.

"If he never talked about his life then you wouldn't have known that he was abused."

Karen faltered, "I didn't."

"If you didn't then your reaction to those pictures would've being very different," Bullock explained. "I take it that you two are more than just friends then."

Karen crossed her arms letting out a small breath.

"Did he see that you were unhappy working as a secretary and offer you a side job?" Bullock asked.

"I offered to help him."

Both detectives gapped at the woman's response.

"But I swear I didn't know that he was going to do."

"What did he say exactly?" James asked.

Karen paused for a beat unsure of how much she should tell them.

"Riley came to me for help, first to configure a genome sequence for regular flies. Then it started to get more complicated as he started to add in more bio-figures."

"You caught on," James said.

Karen nodded. "It wasn't hard to figure out what he was doing."

"Did you have any idea what he was going to do with the modified insects?"

Karen shook her head, her eyes were downcast with slight shame hinted on her face. She took in a small breath before continuing: "if I knew then I would've stopped."

James raised an eyebrow.

"I care for my friends detective, but not enough to pick their fights."

"Did he tell you about his mother?"

"Mother?"

"Bethany Sylos? She was murdered about twenty-eight years ago by a contact killer."

Karen frowned. "He told me that he has a stepmother."

"She's taking a dirt nap too," Bullock answered. "Fell down the stairs at home, suffocated to death."

The secretary took in a slight shaky breath, her brows knit closely together as she was coming up with the conclusion. She looked from one detective to the other and then straightened with realization.

"Does Riley have any other relationships with other co-workers?" James asked.

"No, he's sort of like the black sheep of the tower."

"Do you know if he has any relationships outside of work?"

Karen shrugged.

"What about his father? Does he talk about him much?"

Karen shook her head. "All I know is that he got permanently crippled in a hit and run."

There was a knock at the door. James walked over to the door to see the Captain through the fazed window, he opened the door just enough for them to talk.

"We have another death," Captain Essen sighed. "Male, 37, Caucasian, worked at a small thrift shop downtown but his neighbours claim otherwise."

"Are they sure that Flyboy had gotten to him?"

Captain Essen nodded, "positive."

James nodded and closed the door as his captain walked away. He turned back to Harvey who started to rise.

"Can I go now?" Karen asked feeling the atmosphere change in the air.

James paused. "Don't leave the city."

"Of course."

James stepped forward standing nearly toe-to-toe with the woman. "Also you're going to hand over all the notes and sequences that you wrote up for Riley to our forensics."

Karen stared at the detective as if he grew two heads.

"If what you say is true that you don't pick your friend's fights - then you will help us. What he is doing isn't justice, it's anarchy and it's getting innocents killed."

Turning away, she nodded.

XXXXXX

The crime led them to a rather handsome place in the city. It was just out of gang territory and was kept rather nicely and seemingly not a brick out of place.

"Fancy place for a thrift store employee," Bullock whistled as he walked through the front door.

James looked back to see some people already gathering around the police tape, the person who found him telling the officer what had happened in an off distant shaky voice.

"What've you got for us Nygma?"James called to the forensics expert.

The man's signature grin flashed as he beaconed the two to follow him.

"Time of death is between 5-5:30 am," Ed began calling off his notes. "He was heard by his next door neighbour and several others, but only one was brace enough to go in."

"What was the cause of death?" Bullock asked. "Another bee sting?"

Ed stopped short and turned sharply to the detectives.

"This one is more…open."

Ed opened the door with the same flourish as a magician revealing his trick. What hit the two the most was the smell – fresh blood. Blood had soaked deep into the bed that with every small press into the mattress, it gushed out in a small geyser. Lying on the bed was what interested them the most – a skeleton.

There was very little flesh left on the body, the bones were decorated with blood and tiny splatters were thrown this was and that by small footprints.

"What the…," Bullock whispered lightly.

"Army ants!" Ed answered, excitement hinted in his voice.

Both remained silent for a few moments unable to speak, just stare at the scene before them.

"Name…."

Ed blinked, "wha-."

"Dammit Ed, the guy's name!" Bullock sighed.

The forensics' expert opened his pocketbook again, "Terrance Dwellner, 34 and under the guise of a thrift store employee worked as a Manager."

"How do you know?" James asked.

"We found a fake bottom in his desk and discovered various papers from recipients and contacts to lowly hitmen around Gotham. All names are currently being processed."

"Is Petri in the name's list?"

Ed nodded.

James turned to his partner who gave the scene one last look before heading back out the way they came.

"We've got the Manager, the lowly hitman and all his friends," Bullock listed. "Anyone else we're missing?"

"The man who ordered the hit," James answered darkly.

Bullock sighed, "yep that's it."

James headed back to the vehicle with Bullock following close behind.

"Nygma said that they found the files, I want the file on Petri," James said. "It should give us more insight to the contract."

James started up the car and drove.