An office in the northern part of the Diamond District.
It was a pretty long ways from where he had been.
Searching for bodies connected to the man who traumatized his son to the point he needed different medications just to reasonably function.
Gordon wouldn't have summoned him unless it was important.
He'd only have called for me if it was.
The carpet squelched beneath Batman's boots as he joined the commissioner in front of a large desk. He took a quick scan of the room. Mapping the scene so he could revisit it back at the Cave. Once he had filmed the perimeter he turned his attention to the charred remains slumped in an office chair behind the desk.
The reason he suspected Gordon had called him about.
The ceiling directly above the corpse was blackened. Closer inspection revealed scorch marks spread outwards from the body and up along the wall. Yet the bookcases and filing cabinets had not been touched by the flames. Interesting, he mused as a chill wind fluttered along the scalloped edge of his cape. Deliberate or unintentional?
The fire department drenched the room while putting out the fire. Obtaining prints and other trace evidence would be difficult. Not impossible, he reasoned as Gordon shifted beside him. Just difficult. A disturbing odor fouled the air. The smell of burnt human flesh was, sadly, all too familiar to him and the man standing beside him.
"The fire department completed their preliminary inspection ten minutes ago." Gordon's glasses glinted in the thin light from the overhead light. "Forensics is waiting for me to give them access to the room, but I figured you'd want first crack at collecting whatever evidence there might be." He glanced at the watch on his left wrist. "You've got ten minutes. Maybe more if Bullock and Judson can keep Jung back."
"Ten minutes is more than enough," Batman assured him as he moved towards the desk. "I wish I could have gotten here sooner but I was at Arkham when I saw the signal."
He had been searching the asylum's cemetery as one of the possible places the Surgeon had used to dump his bodies when he spotted the signal. A quick scan of the police frequency let him know where to find Gordon. His only regret was the firefighters had gotten to the scene before he had a chance to examine it. He understood the necessity. The fire marshal had to verify the flames were out and deem the premises structurally secure before detectives and the forensics team could get to work. How much valuable evidence had been lost was anybody's guess.
Batman tilted his head back to inspect the blackened portion of the ceiling directly above the corpse. The sprinklers put out the fire before it could spread to the rest of the room. Completing his scan of the fire's path, he turned his attention again to the body in the chair. The head was more badly burned than the rest of the body.
"They burned their face to obscure identification."
"Dental records will confirm who they are."
"He wasn't caught in the fire." Batman's stomach clenched. "He was used to start it."
"That's why I had them fire up the signal." Gordon heaved a sigh. "This was definitely no accident."
"No," Batman agreed. "This man was murdered."
"Question is why."
"I am more interested in who." Batman leaned forward to sniff the remains. "There's no discernible smell from the accelerant they used."
"If they used one."
"They had to use one to burn the body like this."
"Cremation usually occurrs at temperatures reaching upwards of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit," Gordon murmured thoughtfully. "And usually takes two to three hours to reduce a body to ash. This burned for less than that."
Batman pulled a portable vapor trace analyzer from his belt. Nothing suspicious was in the air. The melted glass on the man's watch, though, indicated the fire reached a temperature of at least 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
"This fire was hot enough to burn them to a crisp but it didn't burn long enough to reduce the body to ash."
"What types of accelerants can cause a fire to burn hot in a matter of minutes but not leave behind a discernible smell?"
"A study in 2019 revealed arsonists were using bags of potato chips as accelerants."
"Potato chips?" Gordon's bushy brows shot up. "Seriously?"
"They are less suspicious than gasoline and burn in a way that leaves little evidence behind."
"Great." Gordon grunted. "We have a killer using bags of Lay's or Ruffles to burn people to crisps. Just what we needed."
"New York would call him the Potato Chip Killer."
Gordon snorted a laugh. "Do you think he was dead before or after he was set on fire?"
"After."
"I figured you'd say that." Gordon sighed as he stuck his hands in the front pockets of his trench-coat. "Can't imagine someone sitting still as they're being burned alive, though."
Batman couldn't either. He moved closer to inspect the man's hands and wrists, resting still on what remained of the chair's armrests. Ordinarily, a body curled into a fetal position as the cooked muscles contracted. The fact this man remained upright in his chair suggested something prevented his body from doing what it naturally would. A soft grunt escaped him as he made a gruesome discovery. Suspicious now, he crouched down to examine the man's feet.
"He couldn't run." He pointed to the nail in the man's right wrist. "See here?" Gordon came forward to take a look at the blackened nailhead hammered into the man's wrist. "His wrists are nailed to the armrest of the chair and his ankles to the legs."
Gordon grimaced. "This is an ugly way for someone to die." He grunted as he straightened. "Even by Gotham standards."
"Whoever set this man on fire wanted him to suffer," Batman said. "They came prepared. Left nothing to chance. Meticulous and methodical."
A few possibilities as to who that profile fit played through his head as he studied the surface of the wooden chair. It had blistered, the pattern reminding him of alligator scales. Another indicator of the extreme heat that emanated from the body as it burned.
Zooming in, Batman counted at least a dozen tiny punctures wounds in the carbonized epidermis. The man had been stabbed repeatedly before being set on fire. Why? he wondered as he studied the holes. Had his attacker been trying to extract information from him? If so, what?
That's what they needed to figure out.
"From what I can tell, he was tortured and then set on fire."
"As if the man didn't suffer enough." Gordon hunched his shoulders and blew out a breath. "Alright, which of our usual suspects do you think was capable of this?"
That was the question Batman had been asking himself. The first name that popped into his head was the Joker. However, burning bodies to hide his victims identities wasn't part of the Clown Prince's usual modus operandi.
Same with Victor Zsasz.
Talons were capable of this level of violence but there was no evidence to suggest this had been one of the deadly assassins.
Something about this particular murder bothered him, though. Beyond the obvious reason of the man being killed. There was something familiar and troubling about the manner in which he had been killed. Puncture wounds made by a sharp instrument. Either an ice pick or...
A batarang…
"The door was locked from the inside," Gordon said. "The chief said they had to break it down in order to gain access to the room."
A chill swept through Batman as he made another slow circuit of the room, starting a targeted examination of the room this time. Waterlogged books and papers littered the floor and lined the shelves not touched by the fire. A quick examination revealed them as mostly legal tomes and encyclopedias. A lawyer? His brow furrowed. For who? The Court?
Or someone else entirely?
"Were the windows open when you entered the room?"
"Yes." One of Gordon's bushy brows arched. "Why?"
"I'm thinking I wasn't the only one who chose the window to enter the office by."
"Explains why the door would still be locked when the fire department arrived."
Batman crossed to the sill and activated the UV lenses in his cowl. Minute traces of blood were on the outside of the window. He climbed out onto the ledge and scanned the exterior but found no additional blood to follow. Also absent were gouges in the brickwork to suggest that whoever entered the office had claws they used to scale the side of the building.
Meaning they used a grapnel line.
Like him.
"Whoever entered the office left the same way," Batman said after rejoining Gordon in the office. "Blood on the sill will also likely belong to the victim."
"So, the attacker left after setting the victim on fire." Gordon looked at the body. "Got what they were looking for then?"
Batman hummed softly as a theory started to take shape in his mind. The victim had been stabbed repeatedly with a sharp instrument. Potentially a batarang or something similar. The lack of blood splatter suggested they purposely avoided hitting a major artery. To maximize pain and prolong the torture.
The fire wasn't exactly new as Batman had seen it used before. Back when the Court had been searching for a formula that'd have granted them a power that'd have made them unstoppable.
Could that be what this is? he wondered as voices came from the hall outside. Or is that what someone wants them to think it is?
Someone, he reasoned now, blood chilling in his veins, who possesses my knowledge and gadgets and the Joker's proclivity for violence.
"What is it?" Gordon asked.
"Not sure," he replied. "Not yet."
I hope to God I'm wrong, though.
The key to figuring out who the attacker was lay in determining their reason for coming here. If the victim had been tortured for information, what sort of information did he possess? Stepping over to the desk, Batman conducted a quick sweep of the papers and files not destroyed by the fire or gallons of water.
The soaked documents seemed of little importance: mostly legal drafts, letters, bills, and other such things. Inked notes bled onto a soggy yellow legal pad. Nothing that justified torture or murder. The contents of a set of wooden drawers next to the desk were summarily unremarkable. There was a printer, but no computer or tablet in sight. If the victim was working late, he'd need one or the other to prepare and view his documents on.
"Do you see a laptop or tablet?" he asked Gordon as he straightened. "Or power cords that belong to either one?"
"No." Gordon grunted as he looked about the office for the specified equipment. "Think whoever did this made off with his computer?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Good question.
One he couldn't answer.
Yet.
Batman moved to a row of file cabinets situated along the interior wall. Each had a lock on them but opened when he pulled.
"Those weren't locked?"
"No."
"That's unusual."
Batman silently agreed as he began sifting through the overstuffed folders. Luckily, the files were in alphabetical order. Two, however, leapt out at him.
Ones marked "Berkeley" and "Whitly."
The contents of the folders, however, were missing.
"Find something of interest?" Gordon peered over his shoulder. "Berkeley and Whitly?" Surprise tinged his voice. "You think this has something to do with Matthew Berkeley and Martin Whitly?"
"I'm not ruling it out." They couldn't rule anything out at this point. Not with everything else going on. "Whoever broke in absconded with these files and only these files."
"Meaning they were after them."
"Mhm."
"What could have been in those files to warrant this level of violence?" Gordon shook his head. "Even taking into consideration who the files were about doesn't substantiate torture and murder."
He couldn't disagree. The victim having files on Whitly and Berkeley didn't quantify what had been done to them. While no place in Gotham was ever completely free from crime, this area of the Diamond District wasn't one that saw a high amount of criminal activity. Speeding tickets and parking violations were what mostly happened here.
What had this man known or been suspected of knowing that it cost him his life? Batman made a mental note to have Oracle look into the man once his identity was confirmed. The more he knew about him, the more he could deduce why the man had been murdered.
"How much more time do you think you'll need here?" Gordon pushed his glasses up. "Not trying to rush you but…"
"I'm almost done."
His cape swept the floor as he turned to examine the walls. Nails indicated where frames had once hung. Taken, he suspected, to further prevent them from identifying the victim. He finally turned to take one last look at the body sitting in the chair behind the charred desk. He wished he could conduct the autopsy himself. Protocol dictated he couldn't, however. He could watch the procedure virtually from the Cave. That left one last thing he needed to do. A test that'd either confirm or deny the doubt clawing at his insides. For that, though…
"I need a tissue sample," he told Gordon. "I wouldn't ask for one unless it was important."
Gordon obligingly turned his back. Plausible deniability. A hallmark of their decades long friendship and partnership. Batman removed a razor-sharp scalpel from his belt as he approached the body. He scraped away a few centimeters of burned tissue from the man's wrist, being extremely careful to not damage the body more than it was already. He deposited the sample in a compartment in his left gauntlet.
"Done."
Gordon turned to him.
"You have a theory about this." His eyes narrowed in the same way his niece's did when she was trying to gauge his thoughts. "Don't you?"
"A theory, yes."
"But you're not going to share it, are you?"
"No."
Gordon accepted that answer. Not happily but he accepted it.
"Any idea who's behind this?"
Batman couldn't voice his concern.
Not until the test came back confirming or denying his suspicion.
"Hopefully not who I suspect." His answer was as grim as Gordon's expression. "I really hope it's not who I suspect."
Because that meant he had everything wrong.
And placed the world in greater jeopardy than it already was in.
A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!
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