I know, you guys are probably about ready to MURDER me right now! I am so, so, so sorry about the delay! Life has been so crazy for so long, but I wanted you all to know that I AM still alive! Lol! I hope that you will accept this peace offering that I present to you now! Please enjoy it! Also, I open up a LOT of mysterious plot points and tie some more things together, so hopefully that will help you with the absence of my chapter! Again, so sorry! I AM alive, please don't kill me! Anywho, enjoy it!
The information that Timbers had provided to Dick was better than he had ever seen the other hacker provide before. While it might not have been significant enough to bring their guilty party out into the light, it certainly was a start, and a bright spot in the seemingly dismal case.
Timbers had been able to locate a set of initials as well as a partial document with one of the bottom corners missing and the three remaining edges singed. Despite the scarce amount of evidence, it put Dick in a good mood, the knowledge that they were getting closer to their perpetrator sending the serge of adrenaline through his system.
He had attempted to contact Sparrow over the last couple of days, but she was apparently "out of the office" since he seemed to be unable to locate her on any of her typical sites. If he was being honest with himself, it was beginning to irk him a little bit.
Ever since he had first met Sparrow he had been performing his own research on her, determined that finding out the girl behind the screen would be the best thing.
And then he had met Dina.
She was funny, vibrant, and had a no nonsense attitude that captured both his attention and imagination. She had also shown for a great deal of intelligence in more than a few different fields, but what had really started to intrigue him was when he presented her with her new watch. She had learned so quickly how to use the new and foreign tech without much assistance from him. She certainly possessed an amazing affinity for technology no matter the make and model.
He had been suspicious of Dina for several months now, but he would need more concrete proof before he made his thoughts final; Dina and Sparrow were one in the same. And he was going to prove it.
Currently, Dick sat in front of his laptop, opting for comfort over functionality by sitting on his bed rather than at his desk, his fingers playing with the mouse pad in an attempt to clear up the photo that Timbers had come across. With a significant amount of effort, he was eventually able to get the image slightly clearer, an entire paragraph made readable through the process.
Dick let out a deep breath, collapsing back on his bed from the work. A moment later he sat back up, saved his progress and closed the top of his computer before placing it on his desk when his stomach decided to let out a loud growl.
"Snack time," he muttered, stretching out his limbs as he reached for his room key and exited his room, closing the door behind him before heading in the direction of the kitchens. If anyone found out that Bruce Wayne's oldest charge was a midnight snacker, the press would have field day and Dick understood that, so he avoided the cameras in the hallways like an expert despite his tiredness.
"If I remember correctly, I just gotta go through the girls' wing and the lobby and after that is the kitchen," he muttered to himself as he slinked beneath another camera, a sigh escaping his lips once he was in the clear.
He had just rounded the corner into the wing for the female competitors when he paused at the faint sound of laughter. He crept closer to the slightly open door and made sure to stay clear of the stream of light that shone across the floor. As he got nearer, he could make out the singular voice and to his surprise, he recognized it.
Dina laughed again, the melodious sound sending something through Dick, a smile voluntarily making its way onto his face.
"No, Artemis! I told you, I'm not gonna go out with David Whitaker!" she said quite adamantly. Dick put two and two together between not hearing an audible reply and the name Artemis, realizing that Dina was on the phone with her friend.
"He's just not my type, that's all. Artemis, you don't have to push the issue! Just because you have a boyfriend doesn't mean that I need to have one too. And if you had asked me if you should go out with Matt I would have told you, you were out of your mind! I know that's why you didn't ask me, that's why I said it!"
Dick could just imagine Dina rolling her eyes at whatever her friend was saying on the other end and it made his smile grow.
"I have my reasons," she said out of the blue. "N-no! I am not seeing someone else! I did not stutter!"
She let out a sigh and the squeaking of springs told him that she had gotten up from the bed she had been sitting on, her feet padding across the carpeted floor.
"Can we please change the subject Artemis? I don't really want to talk about boys right now," Dick realized that her voice sounded weary and his smile faltered. She wasn't used to being on the road like he was and she was probably missing her friends and family.
Dina thanked her friend and they transitioned over to speaking about the competition and Dick could tell that the girl's spirits were being raised from the verbal nuances she expressed.
"Oh man! I didn't realize it was so late! I should probably head to bed; I'll talk to you later, ok? Good night," and with that, she hung up the phone and placed it on the table with a click. Dick heard her leave the bedroom and turn on the sink in the bathroom, so he took the opportunity to peer in through the crack between the door and its frame.
From all appearances, the hotel staff had given her a very nice suite this time and he nodded in approval at the upgrade from her last room. Dina was in the middle of brushing her teeth when her cellphone rang, a catchy tune chiming through the air forcing her to abandon her current activity and leave the bathroom to grab it. Dick hastily ducked back behind the wall when she came back into the room, the echoing of her voice informing him that she was back at the sink.
"Hi Mom," she said to the phone laying beside the porcelain sink.
"Hey! How's my little kitty?" a female voice asked over the speaker of the phone, her tone sounding soft and caring, like the purr of a cat almost.
"This is Dina's mom," Dick thought for a moment, remembering the girl's tragic narrative about her father's passing and it caused the boy's attitude to grow rather somber with the thought.
"I'm fine mom," she replied, speaking around the toothpaste in her mouth before she spat it out into the sink and ran the stream of water to send the fluoride down the drain.
"I saw your routines on the TV tonight. You were fantastic! That Gordon girl obviously bribed someone to win. Either that or they hired legitimately blind judges!"
"Mom!" Dina chided her mother, wiping her mouth with a hand towel.
"Sorry, but I'm going to say what I think! Anyways, you'll get it next time Kitten,"
Dina sighed.
"I don't think there's going to be a next time. Now that Nationals are coming to a close, there aren't going to be any other competitions for us,"
Dina's mom gave a hum of understanding.
"But, doesn't all of this – participating in official competitions – make you want to pursue gymnastics again? It was your original dream after all,"
Dick was shocked at hearing that. He knew that the dark-haired girl enjoyed gymnastics, but he never imagined that she would want to brand it as her future vocation.
"We've already been over this mom," the girl said, pulling her hair out of its ponytail to brush through it with her fingers, shortly followed by her hair brush. "I'm not going to follow a career in gymnastics; not after Dad," Her voice choked up on the utterance of "Dad", her hand coming to her mouth to stop the cry that surely would have left her lips.
"Oh Sweetheart," her mother comforted through the piece of tech. "I know you miss him. I simply thought you might reconsider, but I won't mention it again,"
Dina nodded in reply before letting out a throaty mention of gratitude to the woman.
"Well then, no sense in being a Gloomy Gus, tell me about your day. Have you told that boy you like him? Oh, what was his name?"
It legitimately sounded as though she was wracking her brain trying to think of the name
"Mom!" the girl cried out indignantly at her mother's sudden subject choice. "We are not going to talk about boys!"
"Dick! That was his name. I looked up his picture. You sure know how to pick 'em Kitten! Not only is he a looker, but he's Bruce Wayne's heir and charge! Very nice. Not my cup of tea really, but I wouldn't refuse a date with his father; tall, dark, handsome? Yes please,"
He could feel his neck getting warmer in part from the unwitting confession and in part from hearing the mother's description of his own adopted father. His ears would never recover.
"Mom!"
Dina was blushing furiously now, her hands obscuring her face in reality as well as the mirror in front of her.
"What?" her mom asked, evidently unaware of her daughter's current discomfort over the topic she chose to speak about.
"Oh fine! Don't like that topic either hmm, well then how about, what have you been up to lately? Have you caught that hacker yet?"
Dick's ears perked up at that, the heat from his body suddenly feeling to an unearthly chill runs its fingers down his spine. Was his theory true after all? More so, was he going to find out if it was true right now?
"Actually I've been in contact with him," she admitted, grabbing her phone from the counter and taking it into the bedroom where she turned the speaker function off and placed it against her ear. "And he's been helping me. I – I'm actually starting to think that we might be the one's on the wrong side,"
she sighed again when it seemed like her mom had begun to speak again.
"I know!" she groaned flopping face-first onto her bed and effectively disappearing from Dick's line of sight. "But I can't help it! He's been assisting me with trying to crack this mystery, and I honestly think that we are close to cracking open something big. He didn't have to help me and yet he did. It's like, he's trying to find the truth over everything else and isn't that what you've always told me to do? Find the truth? I want to trust him because he's trusted me," she spoke, her voice sincere in its tone.
Dick was desperately trying to wrap his head around the information that he had just overheard, but before he could even scratch the surface, Dina spoke again.
"Alright. I'll talk to you later. Love you too,"
She hung up her cell phone before she rose from the bed to plug it into its charger in the wall, placing it on the top of the desk.
"Maybe mom is right," she muttered. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to abandon Robin. He trusts me and I need him,"
Dick saw her turn towards the door so he quickly hid back behind the wall and moved down the darkened hallway as quietly as he could in case she poked her head out. She didn't however, as he heard the door close and the lock click into place shortly afterward.
He ran a hand through his dark hair, as he paced in the hallway, making sure to not be in front of a security camera as he did so. "I still need that snack," he mumbled, continuing his journey from earlier.
Once he had gotten to the kitchen, he wasn't even sure what he wanted to eat, so he opted for the most unhealthy thing he could find, something that Bruce would most certainly ban from Wayne Manor and his son's "healthy" eating plan; a big bag of mini chocolate covered pretzels and a four gallon tub of Rocky Road ice cream.
Dick chowed down on the food, his mind momentarily forgetting the revelation from meme minutes ago in favor of the sugar-fest before him. He pulled a pretzel from the bag and dipped it in the desert, a large glob of the frozen confection atop it when he brought it to his lips. He loved the flavor of the ice cream and the salty sweetness of the combination, but he rarely got it due to the high sugar content and Bruce's insistence on a proper diet.
After he had eaten his snack and cleaned up after himself, he sat back down at the counter, his mind weighed down heavily with the information that he had learned tonight. His mind was reeling and nothing he did could help it slow down. He frustratingly pushed out his chair and headed back to his room, clenching and un-clenching his fists as he walked.
He almost slammed the door when he arrived, when he remembered he wasn't back and Wayne manor and there were people all over this floor who were sound asleep and would probably wring his neck for disturbing their slumber, so he opted for kicking his bed once he was behind closed doors.
He sat on his bed, raking his hands through his hair desperately, a whirlwind of feelings swirling inside him that he couldn't make heads or tales out of. Shouldn't he be excited that he had made the correct deductions and that Dina and Sparrow were in fact one in the same? Shouldn't he be pleased with himself for his detective skills in figuring it out in the first place? Shouldn't he be glad that he didn't need to wrestle between his growing feelings for two separate girls when they weren't actually distinct individuals after all?
But he wasn't feeling very positive about his discovery, instead he believed he had intruded upon Dina in her personal life, eavesdropping on a girl when she thought herself to be alone. Dick continued to mutilate his hair, desperate to ease the pain in his heart and mind.
How in the world would he ever be able to explain this to Dina? Or Sparrow for that matter? He had found out her secret, but to his knowledge she had no clue that he and Robin weren't differing people.
Maybe he didn't have to tell her.
As soon as the thought had entered his head though, doubt followed soon afterward. There was no way he could look into her honest blue eyes without feeling guilty.
Sure, she had no idea that her conversation had a visitor, but then again, that was why he was beating himself up so much; Dina didn't know, but he did.
This was going to drive him crazy! Man did he need to reel in these emotions! They were about to force him to submit himself to Arkham Asylum!
He looked up at his computer then and was suddenly struck with inspiration. He raced to the desk and sloppily pulled out the rolling chair, flopping down into it without a trace of etiquette. He hurriedly opened it up and logged on, scanning every site he could in an attempt to locate Sparrow.
Just because Dina had turned her lights off and closed her door didn't mean that she had gone to bed necessarily.
Right when he was about to give up all hope of finding her, she appeared, starting a conversation with him before he could begin one with her.
"Hey! There's my favorite hacker! How ya been?"
Her question brought a new surge of positivity into his life despite the nasty thoughts he was having mere moments. He was her favorite?
"If I'm being honest, it's been pretty odd lately," he admitted falling into the conversation quite easily.
"Odd? Odd how?"
Dick took a deep breath before he continued. He needed to word this just right, or else he might give himself away far too soon.
"I kinda… found something out about a friend of mine and I'm not sure exactly what to do,"
"Oh. Good or bad?"
"Not really sure. I wasn't really supposed to know this certain thing about this person since I really found out about it by accident,"
"Hmm… I think you should tell them what you overheard and ask them about it. If they are your friend, like you say they are, then they should understand. If they get upset with you, then they aren't truly your friend and you shouldn't waste any more of your time trying to be theirs,"
Dick's conflicted feelings started to ebb slightly, knowing that neither Dina or Sparrow would give him bad advice and since they were one in the same, it made it all the more credible. Of course, he could try her advice and it might completely backfire on him; he just prayed that wouldn't be the case.
"Thanks for the advice Sparrow. I'll think about it," and he truly meant it. "Now, down to brass tacks," he cracked his neck and his knuckles as he began the revelation he had secured earlier. "I have gotten some information from Timbers that you might want to see,"
He sent her the secured file with the photo and the document that Timbers had sent him with the initials. Moments later, he got a reply.
"This, this is fantastic! Timbers actually did a great job! How did he locate these?"
"I have my sources," a third person's conversation appeared on the screen and Dick groaned. He was praying that he could simply have a nice one on one conversation with Sparrow without any interlopers; but, he supposed he owed Timbers one for getting the documents in the first place.
"No really Timbers, where did you get such specificevidence?" Sparrow asked.
"Well, I know someone who works at our local police department and I may have pulled a few strings and applied several favors in order to assure some specific items. It honestly took longer to look through all the files and boxes of documents. It didn't take to much effort to get my hands on them though – they are copies of course, but I didn't think that would matter much,"
"These are some things that we can use! I'm sure about the initials," Dina replied, peering at the miniature letters, "AGP", her mind blanking as to what they could actually mean.
"I wasn't really sure about them either, but I figured you guys could use any kind of evidence that I could supply. They might come in handy later on? Possibly a security code or something like that?"
"Could be," Robin chimed in.
"I wonder where this paper came from where it could get so destroyed? It's practically ashes,"
Timbers took a moment to respond to her inquiry, but once he did, both members of his audience were stunned into silence.
"I got it from a car crash,"
Dina couldn't hold back the gasp after she had read Timbers latest message.
"I got it from a car crash,"
"That explains the fire damage," Robin replied a moment later.
"I haven't had much success in cleaning up the document, but I was hoping either one of you might be able to," Timbers said.
"I've been working on it for hours, but it's pretty slow going honestly,"
Dina was still frozen in her seat, tears prickling at her eyes at the thought that someone died in all of this. Someone who might have had a family; parents, siblings, a spouse, children.
This had just taken a darker turn than she had expected.
"Still with us, Sparrow?" Timbers suddenly asked her.
"Yes. Just trying to process the new info is all,"
"I have a program I could send you that might be able to help with making the project go a little faster," Timbers offered to Robin, Dina still rather out of the conversation at the moment. The pair continued to send messages between them concerning the nature of the document and how they could make it decipherable.
"Do you have a name?" Dina asked out of the blue, not even understanding herself where the question had come from.
"What?" Timbers asked.
"Do you have a name? You know, for the person or people that might have beenin the crash?"
There were about three minutes of silence and Dina was starting to type out "Never mind," when Timbers sent her a file.
"It took me a while to locate it earlier,but I was pretty curious myself, so I looked into the case and I was able to find the newspaper clipping that focused on the accident. It happened just over two years ago and I heard it shook up the community for a long time. People still go to the grave to pay their respects,"
"Thanks Timbers,"
Dina opened the file and read through the article, stunned at the violent recount of the incident. There a colored picture of the grey car, the sight of its mangled form causing Dina's stomach to twist uncomfortably.
"On August17th, 2010, a drunk driver swerved in front of Logan Nelson, causing him to lose control of his Saturn Aura. The thirty-year-old's car crashed into a nearby tree where coroners claimed he died instantly. When officials arrived on the scene the vehicle had since burst into flames, garnering quite a gathering of onlookers. Nothing was salvaged from the wreck. Nelson is survived by his parents David and Nora Nelson, brother Hunter Nelson, and fiance Marilyn Jules,"
Dina shook her head as she read, the tragedy before her capturing her emotions and taking them to a new level of grief. Such a young man, cut down in the prime of his life by a drunk driver; just like her dad.
She wiped a tear from her eye as she scrolled down, a photo of a young man smiling back at her. He certainly looked healthy and full of life in that picture, but he wasn't filled with that same zest anymore.
Something about the picture struck, as though she had seen the exact same photo before somewhere. She racked her brain trying to think of where she might have laid eyes on it.
"Do you happen to know the full story?" Dina asked, hoping Timbers could provide a little more information behind the story.
"I don't know much, honestly. However, I know he had a best friend who is still suspicious of the accident,"
"Do you have a name for me?"
"No, but I can find one. Give me a minute,"
"Sure thing,"
"Did you forget all about little ole me?" Robin suddenly asked her, desiring to be included the topic. Dina giggled at his comment.
"Of course I didn't forget about you! Remember, you're my favorite hacker!"
"I'm offended!" Timbers abruptly added.
"Sorry Timbers. Good try though," said Robin. Dina could just imagine that he was sticking his tongue out right about now.
"With that kind of attitude, maybe I won't give you that name you so badly desired!" Timbers typed, clearly offended.
"I'm sorry Timbers! Please forgive me!"
"I'll consider it. I will however prove just what an amazing guy I am and still give you the name even with all of your apparent favoritism,"
Dina laughed at that, but the laughter froze in her throat as Timbers passed the name on to her. Right there in electronic lettering, was a key that would blow this whole case wide open.
And to think she had had it in her hands all along.
She touched the name gingerly, her fingers brushing over the screen of her computer as though reverencing it. A whisper left her mouth as realization hit her harder than Logan's car hit the tree.
"Jason Mayhem," she breathed.
There it is! Yes! Finally got this chapter off the ground, working on it for two days straight to get it absolutely perfect for you guys! I hope this makes up for some of my absence! My next chapter will be longer, I gauruntee it! Thanks for your loads of patience! Please keep the reads, reviews, and follows coming! Love you all!
WOBE