Orientating the Board: Planning

Kate sighed and put her head in her hands. "Well. That was not at all what I was expecting."

The dawn's light was just barely peeking through the window that Dick had propped open to climb into Kate's office. He had helped Bruce get the portable x-ray machine back home before racing over to the GCPD precinct where she worked, catching her just as her shift started.

"So let's break this down, Julie- that would be his daughter Julia Cleo Falcone- was the instigator of a takeover and the murder of her father. Mikey, her brother Michael Alexander Falcone, knew about the plan. That would be enough to bring them in if we had any kind of proof. But that's a pipe dream. The Falcone gang's pockets run deep for bribes and defense attorneys. Beside we wouldn't even be bringing them in on murder charges, just attempted murder charges.

"Because Carmine Falcone is alive, except his skin is silver and he's talking like he's a recently dethroned Roman emperor."

"I think an actual Roman emperor would be speaking more Latin," Dick said.

Kate laughed. "True. Carmine's nickname in the criminal underworld has been the Roman for years. He's apparently got a bit of an interest in that period of history. Didn't expect him to actually try to become one. There have probably been weirder reactions to being betrayed and nearly dying, but I can't think of any."

"He fought off Julie's bodyguards," Dick said. "It was three against one. He's dangerous."

"And most police officers won't want to get involved in the case since it involves the Falonces." Kate frowned. "I'm going to stock up on supplies and talk to some people."

"I could fight him."

"Are you sure? I'm thrilled to have the help of someone outside of the GCPD's web of corruption and you clearly know what you are doing but I don't want you putting yourself at risk."

"I'm sure." Falcone had been skilled but Dick's enhanced reflexes should be a match for him. It wasn't the Owls but Dick wanted to use his skills to protect people.

"Okay, he's probably going to keep going after Julia. First priority is to track him down-"

She was interrupted by the door handle turning. Dick jumped into the corner behind the door so that the person coming in couldn't see him.

"Kate-oh," The woman who came in was an officer with red hair a more orangish shade than Kate's. "I heard you talking so I assumed Renee must be here too."

"I was just thinking aloud. I might have some new leads on those Falcone murders. I don't think Renee gets in until later. Did you need something, Barbara?"

"I wanted to make sure you had seen today's headline." She handed Kate a newspaper. Dick couldn't see the headline from where he was standing but thankfully Kate read it aloud.

"'Man Found Dead from Crucifixion in East Gotham.' Oh Jesus." She looked up at Barbara. "Was he…?"

"The article doesn't say but I looked him up. He worked for the Falcones."

Kate let out a loud swear. "My new lead, Babs? It's that Carmine Falcone was recently overthrown by his daughter. She tried to kill him but failed and now he's out for revenge. And the whole 'Roman' thing is becoming very literal." She groaned. "Crucifixion. What a Roman way to kill someone."

Barbara was a little stunned, and fixated on the wrong bit of information, "Was that… a pun, Sarge?"

"I guess it was." She groaned. "He's definitely escalating. Crucifixion. That takes time, hours." She skimmed more of the paper. "This man was dead when they found him. That means last night…"

Dick felt a chill go down his spine. Either Falcone had left from the meeting in the graveyard and gone straight to hunt down this man, or more likely, he had already done it when he had arrived. That whole time Dick and Bruce had been watching the fight, a man had been dying a very painful death in East Gotham.

"Wait, Sarge," Barbara asked. "How do you know this?"

"I got a source. A new one but a good one." Kate shook herself a bit then put the newspaper down. "Okay. You said you already looked into this man a bit, could you get your hands on the autopsy report? I'm going to start looking into places Falcone could be using as a hideout. He doesn't have too many known haunts outside of his gang and those are all controlled by Julia now. And if his skin is sparkling silver he's not going to be walking around during the day."

"Sure. I can help you with that once I get the report."

"That would be great. And if you see Renee when she comes in, please send her my way. We need to bring her up to speed."

Barbara nodded and hurried out of the room. She was too distracted by all the new information to notice one of the shadows in the corner was darker than usual.

Once the door had closed behind her, Dick stepped back out into the open.

"So. This is bad."

Kate let out another groan. "Understatement of the year. Julia will have her own people out looking for him at this point, so we're going to be competing to get to Falcone and stop him first." She leaned back and stared out the window before continuing. "The awful thing is, even if we get to him first, she might have a better shot at preventing him from ever being a threat again. As things stand, right now we have minimal evidence connecting him to the murders. We'd have to produce that in order to bring him in on charges. Without it, he could just walk away again. Julia would probably just order him shot on sight like last night. And then it would be done. He'd never kill anyone again."

"But then he would be dead," Dick protested. "It would be easy but it's not really justice. Besides, isn't part of justice bringing it out into the light of day? A person or a group of people don't have the right to just decide who they want to live or die without scrutiny." The Owls did that. They just decided who they wanted dead and sent them into the labyrinth. Just because people got in their way. "She doesn't want to stop him because he's killing people. She wants to stop him because he's in her way."

"You're right," Kate said. She turned away from the window to look at Dick. "Sorry for rambling, this job just gets to you sometimes. A lot of very thankless work. But if we're tracking him down anyway, there's no reason we can't find evidence in the process. I don't suppose you'd be willing to testify on the witness stand?"

"No...I...I can't really be that public."

"I thought not, considering the whole stealth and secret identity thing, but it was worth asking. Do you have any ideas for what we could do?"

Dick thought for a moment. "Do you know any places where members of the Falcone gang hang out? I could hang around those areas and try to catch him when he goes after his next target."

"Excellent idea! Here, I've got a list." Kate dug through some of the papers on the desk before coming up with a torn off sheet. "Most of these come from my own observations. It's not a complete list but it should give you a starting place."

Dick folded up the paper and tucked it into one of his pockets. "Thank you. I'll get started right away."

"You can take a nap first. You've been up all night and he probably won't start again until the evening. Even serial killers need sleep. Also," She paused for a moment before continuing. "Barbara and Renee are going to have more questions about my source. They've heard the same rumors about a helpful shadow that I had. Are you okay with me telling them I was getting information from you?"

"Do you trust them?"

She nodded. "Yes. They are two of the only other clean cops in this pit of corruption called a precinct."

It was an odd thought becoming known to more people. But if they were all working together to help protect people it made sense. "Don't share any personal details with them, please."

"I don't know any. But don't worry, I won't." She smiled a bit. "The good news about all this is, there is definitely no Atlantean involvement so no one is trying to start a war! I should alert the people we contacted over there about that. I'll just say that new evidence rules it out."

"Won't they want to know why?"

"Maybe. But it's our case. They can't exactly butt in."

AN: So! It's been a while! Sorry about that. I finished up my final exam season for my degree and ThreeBlackCats got her vaccination! That's one of us two! Regarding my final exam season? I passed! Just need to complete a couple of hours and I will officially have 'graduated'!

At least you got a quadriple upload? The schedule should be back to normal now, see you next fortnight for our next little arc. ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ It's gonna shift the field.

Thanks once again for reading! If you'd like to contact us via tumblr, my handle is eastoniablogs! Reviews appreciated!

Cheers,

East