Chapter 11

I don't know how long I spent just... standing there. The metal door had slammed shut behind me as I had dived through it. It made me feel safer, knowing that I was no longer in the same building as... Eddie.

Was he dead? I'd panicked so much that I hadn't taken time to even check. He could be lying there in agony for all I knew. I felt like I was about to throw up.

My hand moved on its own into my jacket pocket, and clasped around my cell phone. However angry I felt toward Eddie, I couldn't just leave him there. Besides, there was Spider to think about as well...

I dialled 911. The dial tone greeted me – it rang a few times, and I started to worry that no one would answer. But then... a click, and a voice...

"Hello, what is your emergency?" the voice said.

"Um..." I hesitated. What would I say? "There's... there's been an accident at the Gotham Opera House".

"What is the nature of the accident, sir?" The voice was... horribly nasal. She didn't sound as though she were even interested in what I was saying.

"There are two people injured", I said quickly. "One of them might have broken his neck, the other looks like he's been beaten up badly. Send an ambulance quick".

I had tried to make it sound as though it was urgent... but the woman responded in the same dull, disinterested tone.

"What is your name, sir?" she asked.

I couldn't tell her. There was no way I could tell her. I didn't want anyone to know that I was here. My hand moved the phone away from my ear, and I spent a moment staring at it. After maybe five seconds, I could just about hear the operator repeat her question, and I cut the call off and prayed that she would actually send someone out to check.

And that was when things started to go to hell... again. I was about to walk away – to leave this place behind me and never look back. But I heard footsteps coming towards me. I couldn't risk anyone seeing me in the area. I was still convinced that the cops were looking for me – how could they not be? My house had blown up, my friend had disappeared, and I'd vanished from a hospital just before they were going to talk to me... I had to hide.

I dived behind the closest pile of trash I could, and hoped that the people coming towards me – whoever they were – wouldn't notice me.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, until they stopped barely a yard away from where I was hidden. There were a few moments of silence. From my hiding place, I couldn't see out – I couldn't see who it was. Hell, it could have been a drug deal for all I knew. Wouldn't that be ironic? I survive all this shit with Eddie, only to be killed after accidentally stumbling across a couple of fucking druggies.

But then... a voice broke through the silence. It sounded a little muffled coming through the black bags I was buried under.

"You said you knew who was behind the murders", a voice said. It was female, and it was deathly calm. Unlike me. As soon as the woman had mentioned murders, my heart jumped into my mouth. Looking back, it was a little bit ludicrous for me to assume that they were talking about Eddie's murders... but I guess I was a little paranoid. "A cop, you said".

A cop? That didn't make sense. At least, not if they were talking about Eddie...

"You didn't really buy that, did you?" another voice asked. This second voice was... a little familiar. There were more footsteps, as though one of the two people were pacing around. God, I couldn't think of who's voice that was. They were trying to sound... confident, I guess, but it just came across sounding small and frightened. I'd heard it not long ago... who the hell was it?

'What's your name, kid?'

It was Ramirez. Anna Ramirez, the cop who I'd gone to see the day before. What the hell was she doing here? I moved my position ever so slightly, trying to see through a gap in the trash. There was a little nose as I moved, and my heart stopped for a moment... but I guess they couldn't hear it over the sound of the rain hitting the ground around us.

|There was a long pause then. I don't know... maybe the two of them were trying to out stare one another. I could feel the tension from where I was, and I couldn't even see anything. Finally, the other woman spoke.

"I guess not...", she said softly. Then I heard footsteps again, but this time they were coming towards me. Shit, my head screamed. Had they heard me? Shit shit shit. As they got closer and closer I started to panic. I was on the brink of standing up and running for my life, but then the footsteps stopped just to my side. It seemed like whoever was moving was just heading towards the wall...

"When did you find out?" the same woman asked.

"Does it matter?" Ramirez replied quickly. "What matters is where we go from here".

Laughter pierced the tension. The second woman had moved close to the wall, and I could just about make out her shoes through gaps in the trash bags. "So...", she said. "You're not here to try to arrest me. I'm assuming you're looking for some kind of deal. Why don't you just cut the crap and tell me what you want?"

"I want the same thing that everyone wants..." Ramirez replied. "I want money..."

Was this the same woman that I'd met? When I'd spoken to her she seemed... full of remorse. Like a frightened child who'd done something wrong and was agonising about whether to come clean... Could she really be trying to blackmail this woman... whoever she was?

I saw the second woman's feet move away from the wall. "Still trying to pay those medical bills, huh?" she asked. "Why so surprised? We know all about you, Lieutenant. Every dirty little secret. And we know exactly what happened to Harvey Dent. What I don't know is why you're alive when he murdered everyone else."

Shit, I thought. This was about the Batman. It had to be. Why else would they bring up Harvey Dent, and the cover up? What are they planning? Is Ramirez about to sell Gordon out?

A long pause followed – so long that I half thought neither woman would speak again. When I'd first spoken to Anna Ramirez outside her house, I had noticed that she wasn't the best at concealing what she was really thinking. This pause felt... nervous. As though something had just happened that had derailed her. Was it the fact that the woman knew so much about her... or something else?

"Who's we?" I head Ramirez asked. There was a definite undercurrent of hesitation in her voice now. It seemed as though she were trying to play this other woman... but she wasn't very good at it. I hoped for her sake that the other woman wasn't good at reading people...

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you", the other woman said. "Let's just say that... a reckoning is coming, and I'm blazing the trail".

"How does killing three people blaze a trail for anything?" Ramirez asked. Her voice was quivering, and I knew that the game was almost surely up. If the other woman couldn't hear the fear in her voice, then she would definitely get suspicious about the question.

I don't know why... but I felt like I needed to help her. It didn't make sense to me. I'd only met her once, and that was only for a few minutes. Why did I feel so... responsible?

I shifted my weight forward, and tried to get myself into a better position to see the two women. But that proved to be a big mistake. I felt the trash bag move before I heard it... I had knocked one loose completely, and it slowly rolled down to the floor between the two women.

Fuck! My head screamed at me to run. I struggled to climb to my feet, but before I even took one single step I felt an iron grip plant itself on my shoulder and drag me away. It was the second woman. She kept me pointing away from her so I still couldn't get a good look at her face, but I could see Ramirez's face... and she looked just as frightened as I was.

The second woman stood me in front of her and kept me in place with a strong grip on my neck. I struggled to look around, and I caught the briefest of glimpses of the woman's face... and it was another face I recognised. The woman from the hospital... the FBI agent that I had knocked unconscious, and who had murdered one of the doctors...

"Well now", she purred. She wasn't even trying to hide the confidence in her voice now. She was in control, and she knew it. "What do we have here? A little spy, listening in on things he shouldn't be".

For whatever reason... I wasn't frightened any more. I don't know... it just felt right that it would end here. Maybe I was still in shock over what happened to Eddie, but I didn't even want to struggle any more. My eyes met with Ramirez's.

"This is a problem, isn't it?" the woman said to Ramirez. I could see her eyes dart around. She was trying to find a way out of this mess... but I couldn't see one. Not one that ended with both of us alive, anyway. "We need to take care of this. And by 'we' I mean... you". I saw Anna's eyes widen, and I guess the other woman did too because she let out another loud laugh. "If you want to strike a deal with me", she continued. "Then you have to prove that you're genuine. And the only way I'll believe you is if you have as much to lose as me. So..."

I felt her move a little behind me. One of her hands moved away from my neck and down to one of her pockets. Out of it she pulled a small knife, and she offered the handle to Ramirez. "I want you to take this knife – the knife that killed three of your colleagues – and cut this little boy's throat".

This was it. This was the end. I didn't know if Ramirez would really kill me to keep up her charade, but if she wouldn't then she would have to expose herself. But I knew what this woman was capable of – I'd seen how quickly and quietly she'd moved in the hospital, and I didn't think Ramirez would stand a chance against her. If Ramirez was really trying to bring this woman down, and punish her for her crimes like I believed she was, then she was the one who needed to live.

I tried to tell her. I tried to put everything I was thinking into my eyes. Do it, they said. Do it and take this bitch down.

Anna walked slowly towards the two of us and lifted her hand slowly towards the knife. I really believed that she would do it, and I really believed that it was the right thing to do...

But she didn't. Her other hand darted forward and grabbed my jacket. She yanked me forwards out of the other woman's grip, and threw me onto the ground.

"Run!" I head her scream. I struggled to get to my feet, and before I could even manage that I heard the gun shot. I spun round, and found myself face to face with Ramirez. She looked... confused. Like she didn't know what was happening.

Her clothes were slowly being stained with her blood. The other woman stood maybe a yard behind her, gun still in hand. Ramirez had been shot. I started to walk backwards slowly towards the end of the alley. I saw Ramirez collapse to the ground, still with the same confused look on her face, and I saw the other woman start to walk towards me.

She lifted her gun again and fired at me. I felt the bullet whiz past me head, and that was enough to shake me out of my daze. I spun round and ran as fast as my tired legs would carry me. Another couple of shots hit the wall near me...

I headed up Park Row... I didn't know where I was going, just... away from there. After maybe twenty seconds, I heard another loud gunshot coming from the alley behind me...

Ramirez was dead. I don't know how I knew, but I knew it for sure. She was dead, and it was my fault. That's yet another death on my conscience.

I heard the sound of sirens in the distance coming towards me. The ambulance I had asked for... it was here. I don't know why, but the sirens made me even more determined to get out of there. It didn't look like the woman was coming after me, but I didn't want to hang around. I dived into the nearest cab.

And I cried into the car seat.