ELEVEN

ELEVEN

"Batman?"

The vigilante straightened up in Danny's living room and touched a hand to his ear.

"I'm here, Robin."

"Davidson's place is clean. Well, in a matter of speaking. No clues, I mean. Looks like he hasn't been here for a couple of days in fact, if the half-finished burger in the fridge is anything to go by."

Batman resisted asking him if he was sure. Robin had proved over the few years he'd worked with Batman that he was careful and vigilant. Once upon a time, Batman may not only have demanded to know if Robin was absolutely sure, but may very well have gone to the premises himself to conduct his own sweep.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Robin. It was just that he liked to be sure himself.

"I'd say he's been with his cousin since he took the tape."

"Anything there?"

"Plenty." The Dark Knight's voice was grim.

Half-eaten pizzas lay cold in their boxes, strewn on the coffee table. On the scratched linoleum of the kitchenette, a bottle of Jack Daniels had smashed, shards of glass lying scattered in the brown liquid. Another had been dropped near the window, its contents soaked into the carpet.

There were signs of a struggle. Objects had clearly been thrown, hit the wall near the door and fallen to the carpet. Batman had already conducted a thorough sweep of the place and was now focusing on the fine details.

"The Joker's been here," Batman said over the radio. "And it wasn't just Daniel and James he picked up. From the looks of things, there were two other men involved. They tried to fight him off – they threw a lamp, several cushions and a small magazine rack at the door when he entered."

"Yeah, I bet that did them a world of good against a man who's survived explosions, gun shots, electrocution and being hit by a truck," Nightwing came on the line, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Not to mention he would've had hired goons," Batman finished, moving away from the piles of dirty magazines and take away containers in the centre of the room to beam an ultraviolet flashlight over the wall. "Lots of high tech equipment here – flat screen, Wii, major stereo system – all of it up against the wall. Except for one blank stretch. Carpet beneath it shows a large, clean rectangular space. Joker must've had their computer equipment transferred with them."

"Well, we knew he wouldn't make it easy for us," Robin said dryly. "I'm heading over to Oracle's now. We can do some further searching, see if the cousins owned any other property…"

"He won't make it that easy either, Robin," Batman said shortly.

"You don't know what it could lead us to, Batman!" Robin said cheerily. "Anything else?"

Batman grimaced, his mouth twisting up as he stepped over the carpet to the entertainment unit. "Yes. Vast quantities of x-rated porn."

"Well, at least they're committed," Nightwing said with heavy sardony. "Hey, where is Oracle?"

"Her father phoned," Batman replied curtly. "She'll be back online once she's finished with him."

"I take it you're updated on the current situation, Robin?"

"Just the bare facts, but you'll forgive me if I haven't watched the murder footage personally."

"Well, that's not the latest," Nightwing continued. "I just got notification over the police radio Joker went live with the second murder. Some kid Joker was calling 'Enrique' did a "bukkake blow out" – "

"Ewww!" Robin's voice crackled over the transmitter.

" – It was acid." Nightwing finished.

"Ewwwww!" Robin said again, his voice dark with disgust.

"The same girl was involved too, done up like a geisha. She wasn't looking real happy about it, apparently, but Joker seems to have her pretty heavily doped up. But worse than that is, this time, three million people worldwide tuned in to watch the Joker melt this kid's face off. Even though the reports on the first murder went international within ten minutes of it happening."

"Morbid curiosity," Robin said darkly.

"Morbid enough to fork over the fifteen bucks," Nightwing's voice was clipped.

Batman's jaw tightened and he tucked away the tweezers he was using to carefully turn the pages of a much-read magazine lying on the kitchen counter. He spun on his heel and strode through the apartment, swinging through the window out onto the fire escape, his powerful arms hauling him up to the roof. He could've used his grappling hook but right then he preferred the pull and burn in his muscles.

"Leggo rents a small studio over in Chinatown. I'm going to check it out as a precaution. When you can get Oracle on the line, she'll need to investigate this Enrique and the porn performer Joker's using. Stage name Annie Maul. Got it?"

"Sure thing, Batman..." Nightwing began.

"Wait – " Robin interrupted. "Annie Maul? Annie Maul…"

"Yes, Robin?"

"Yeah, yeah – Annie. She's done a lot of pictorials for Bangers and Mash and – wasn't she the October Surprise on Cum Undone dot com - and... Oh! Wait, I think..." Robin suddenly noticed the absolute silence that had descended over the transmitters. "Er – was that her?" he finished in a small voice.

Nightwing's voice burst playfully over the airwaves. "Anything else Batman needs to know right now, Robin? Her measurements? Maybe her favourite food, or turn-offs? Hey, how about her Astrological Sign?"

Batman frowned as there came a muffled cacophony of sound over the radio, the scraping of a chair leg and the hum of a computer monitor being switched on, followed by distant mouse clicks.

"I use Google, Nightwing!" Robin said defensively "I'm lucky enough I just got back in and was right in front of my computer when Batman called, and I've got Google open right now and I'm researching, you know, like detectives do."

The receiver was flooded with the sound of Nightwing's laughter. Batman grimaced. It might have been funny. Under other circumstances.

"Nightwing, not now. Go on, Robin."

There followed the clacking of the keyboard followed by several more mouse clicks while Nightwing smothered his snickers, then Robin spoke up again, his voice bright with bravado.

"Yeah, it's her! She doesn't use her stage name, but it's her! She does Rogues Gallery porn. Mostly the Poison Ivy Dominatrix stuff."

Batman paused mid-step on the rooftop, his cape billowing out around him. Nightwing and Robin both waited silently for his response and with a start he realised his pause had been too significant.

"...Interesting. Thank you, Robin. "

Nightwing again burst out laughing and Batman bristled, feeling hot irritation swell through his tensed frame as he crouched on the rooftop, the twilight sky a mottled rainbow of red and purple in the distance..

"It's hardly a laughing matter, Nightwing. Joker has now induced this woman to aid and abet him in first degree murder – twice," he snapped brusquely. "You could show a little respect."

There was the shortest of pauses and then Nightwing spoke in a chagrined and slightly sullen voice.

"You're right, I'm sorry Batman. Tim – sorry buddy."

"No sweat, pal. At least I haven't copped an eyeful of Joker oiling Harley's gears." Robin couldn't keep the smugness from his voice and there was a sharp intake as Nightwing readied himself to respond when Oracle joined the line.

"Okay, team, what did I miss?"

"Joker's screened another murder. The same porn star is involved." Robin summed up and Oracle's voice grew quiet with shocked sorrow.

"God, that's awful. That poor woman."

Nightwing chose that poorly timed moment to get his own back on Robin.

"Yeah, enough to make you cry. Hey, Robin, got a Kleenex?"

"What?" Oracle questioned confusedly as Robin sputtered in outrage.

"Fuck you, Dick!" Robin snapped and Batman abruptly disconnected before rising from his crouch, fists clenched.

He knew Dick only meant to lighten the mood. That he wasn't deliberately insensitive or callous, that humour was his way of coping with adversity like this.

But that was of no comfort when it came right after Batman had learned three million people worldwide had paid to watch the Joker kill.

The wooden door of the utility storeroom splintered clean in half from the force of the kick he levelled at it.

--

Again, credit must be paid to zhinxy for continuing to aid me with this fic and share her wonderful ideas and thoughts. Yay for the magic collaborative team and especially for her keen wit, far sharper than mine.

Sorry for the delay with this chapter. I just wasn't feeling it for a while there. This fic actually got completely out of control to what I originally intended it to be. But hey, it's still fun! I hope you're enjoying it.

Finally, if you love JokerxHarley, then there is a community I run here on the site. It isn't under the comics/Batman category because I wanted to be able to add fics from multiple categories. So to find it, just go to my profile, and scroll down to where my fics begin, and look for the 'Communities' header. It's under there. It has a really fantastic range of stuff by very talented writers. You can subscribe to it to be alerted when there are updates too!

Until the next chapter…