My hearing would come back to me in spurts over the next twelve hours that were to follow, leading well enough into the subsequent day and through until the afternoon, I must have spent countless minutes pleading with her not to leave the apartment once we had finally gotten back safe and sound. However, as she had rationalized, this was something that was following me and so if I truly was trying to keep her safe then the best thing for her was to distance herself. Something had changed in her mannerisms and general way of speaking since last night, and unlike before when she would bare it all emotionally in my presence, it had felt as if she herself was reexamining whether or not to fully trust me. We had both agreed that, at least for the time being, we wouldn't bring up the issue of the car until a bit later on down the road for the sake of involving a bunch of other unnecessary attention. But yet, despite having ended the night on what I had assumed to be a pleasant note given the circumstances, there was this feeling that I couldn't shake, a sensation that was polarizing in nature. It comes and it goes with things I choose to do or not do, whether its as menial as whether or not to speed through a traffic light or as critical as who to lean on when all is falling down around you, in your mind you might get the lingering feeling that from there onward things could never again be the same. Penelope and I said our goodbyes for the day and she had assured me that she had found a sanctuary in a small shelter which had been aiding in giving single mothers and the homeless a place to stay and a warm meal for a few days or so at a time, leaving out the finer details out of mere desperation but I couldn't really fault her for it. The day had already been half over by the time I had readied myself and stepped foot outside of the flat, my wallet lightened by the absence of a pair of twenty dollar bills, and a burner phone once again was in my possession and a somewhat muddled memory had barely been able to recollect what a certain former officials number had been.
Hello...? A man's voice inquired after a series of dial tones sounded, the commissioner always had been a bit different then it was if heard in person, but that's to be expected. I cleared my throat heartily and then took a deep breath, deciding on exactly what I was going to say, considering what had transpired the last time I had seen him, not to mention that fact that he had been nearly foaming at the mouth.
"Have you been finding any new leads, commissioner?" Calmly and collectively I asked, making sure not to trip over my words as I did so, a brief pause hung over the next ten seconds or so as he began to recognize the voice.
"Well, well, I wasn't expecting to hear from you...or at least...not anytime soon. But no, as of right now, every case file we looked into has been either closed or labeled for reassignment to someone else to look into...and my sources are starting to ignore my calls." His words had taken me off guard, but there was something in his sense of inflection that had told me that he wasn't having much luck in moving the case any further, and an inner something at that moment had been urging me to speak up about the matter.
"I could say that maybe you just forgot to invite someone up for some coffee, but something tells me that there's more to your cold should then just silencing the press and you with it, not to mention just how obvious it would be if any more bodies turn up. Two is enough to establish a link, and not to mention the jewelry theft." Repeating myself in a flow of paraphrased data vomit would have been the best way for me to keep the pieces in place and try to see something that I had neglected to take note of before, now that we could also attribute the crimes to the people who may or may not wish to keep it under wraps and out of the tabloids.
"Three, actually, there was a third body which came up five days ago at the bottom of the east harbor. The body itself had been through far less abuse as opposed to the others, however, there were striations and signs of struggle as if he had been fighting off his kidnapper throughout. Oh, and that robbery we looked into before? The security tape came back, it was complete static, one guy I know claims that something like that might be possible using magnetics to corrupt camcorder footage. Whoever was involved, doesn't want to be in the spotlight." He added.
"Three? I don't understand this, how can they just close a case without even attempting to look for those responsible! Corruption or not, it doesn't make any sense, if they were looking to hide something there would be far more questions asked by closing the cases to begin with." I insisted, foaming at the mouth behind my own voices self-imposed harshness, despite the barrier between the two of us he could feel it almost instantaneously.
"Four separate statements were issued to the department from four different sources, each asking that the investigations be overseen by one of their own internally, someone they can trust. First it was the first victims wife, followed by a lawyer representing the second, and then the third victims wife who also just so happened to be a judge, and then to top it all off the owners of the jewelry store had sent something similar. They're in bad enough shape as it is after the station attack, they have higher ups answering to the mayor, they wont do anything that would lead to a legal battle and spend taxpayer dollars arguing in court." He explained.
"What...what do you mean the wife of the first victim? From the little you had told me about him, he didn't seem like the marrying type?" I inquired.
"Well...you'd be surprised, and he was given temporary assistance from the department, almost like being under witness protection: any and all ties to his true identity and family were kept secret, should anything go wrong." He elaborated further, taking a deep breathe as the gust of wind was cast against the phone's speaker.
"Well, its a long shot, but maybe the wife knew something about his time away from home that he didn't like? I still think we might be able to get some sort of statement out of the store owners, you wouldn't happen to have the information, would you?" I asked him coyly.
"Are you going to be giving them a house-call?" He chimed in.
"Maybe...just wanting to ask a few things for myself, the information, please?" I persisted, his own will not doing much in the way of a protest, and he began after a momentary sigh.
"They live on the east side of Jerelsky Parkway, it's a bit out there on the more ritzier part of town, names are Brenda and Jerald Kamner." His words couldn't have grabbed any more of a stranglehold of my attention if they had been laced with poison and launched from a foot long dagger and sent straight through to my heart itself, that simple name being such a game changer that had made me stutter and lose my gruff vocals for a second. The couple had been very influential in Gotham, there was no doubt about that, regardless of my own ignorance that they had just so happened to be the proprietors of said jeweler in question, but not only had they been a gluttonously diamond infused tribute to the dread Cerberus...they had a daughter by the name of Lilly. It had already been oh so long since I had seen them last, no doubt they hadn't exactly wished me well, nor had they spoken to me much at all after the two of us had stopped seeing each other. Would they be able to point me out, regardless of a poor mans attempt at anonymity with a cheap mask and days selection from a plain wardrobe? The more my mind dwelled on such, the more the idea had actually began to appear more likely to work out in my favor, and once again I rationalized that a hastily pieced together obscurity was not necessary in this case. "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, yeah...I just...I have to go. Stay safe, commissioner." I hung up the phone immediately afterwards, leaving the breeze to chase off the silence slowly encroaching from all directions, my feet carrying my slightly slumped over figure towards my next waypoint as best as I could manage.
