Oof, I'm so sorry for not updating this story sooner! For whatever reason I had some issues adding this chapter to my document manager and then I only updated this fic on my ao3 account and forgot to come back and try updating here again [for those interested, you can find me at ao3 under the name "theartofdreaming"] On the bright side, those following this story on are now getting 3 new chapters in a row! ;)

I hope you will enjoy these new chapters! Big thank you to everyone who hasn't given up on this story (and me) yet! 3

The Breakthrough

Over the course of the next weeks, their regular jobs and their work for the Circle claimed most of Dick and Barbara's time. While they were making good progress building their case for the feds, there was still one thing missing - even with their combined efforts, they had not yet managed to get anything substantial on Chief Redhorn himself.

"As long as we have nothing to charge Redhorn with, we can't make our move," Amy had explained in their last meeting with a grave mien, "it's too dangerous - by the time something might come up to indict Redhorn as well, he could have figured out who supplied the FBI with the info necessary to take down his cronies and knowing him, he will have made some 'arrangements' so that won't ever happen again - and frankly, I'm not willing to take these chances."

Barbara's "digital hunting expeditions" hadn't yielded anything of interest either.

"Ugh," she'd grumbled irritably after yet another attempt that left them with nothing to show for but an evening wasted,"this is pointless; Redhorn is of the old school - probably does everything face-to-face that isn't already well-established in this syndicate he has been building up since the 90's! He probably doesn't even know that his computer has a calendar function!"

Barbara had closed her laptop with a huff.

"If we want to get our hands on some incriminating evidence, we're gonna have to track down some good old-fashioned paper trail - and finding that is going to require a freaking miracle."

"Hey, remember that miracle you mentioned a week ago?"

Barbara looked up from her laptop, her previous frustration from another pointless try morphing into confusion, "uh-huh?"

She looked at the bags with their takeout in Dick's hand, amused: "Why, did you find our miracle while getting Chinese?"

"Maybe," Dick replied, visibly excited.

"How so?"

Barbara stowed away her laptop in the compartment of the coffee table, while Dick was setting up their food on the table top.

"Well, I actually dropped by Hogan's before getting our food and he told me something that could be a potential lead," Dick explained, handing Barbara some chopsticks and her dumplings before plopping down on the couch.

"Spill."

"Well, Hogan's heard some rumors of Redhorn being in a pretty bad mood recently and that he seems to be on a pretty relentless search for someone…"

Barbara's heart lurched.

"Well, that doesn't sound exactly good for us, does it?"

"That was my first thought as well," Dick admitted honestly, taking a bite of his spring rolls. "However, according to what Hogan picked up, it seems to be related to something or someone super personal to Redhorn - apparently Mac Arnot complained about getting told off for asking "too many damn questions"; and well, as you know, Arnot always prides himself on being all chummy with our dear Chief."

"Ugh, terrible sycophant that man." Barbara said, her disgust displayed plainly on her face.

Dick let out a chuckle.

"You don't have to tell me twice - he was actually enrolled at the academy at the same time as me; despite rarely attending our lessons, he surprisingly managed to start off his career as an inspector, which is not even an official position at the BPD - but we're getting off the track here. The real question is: Who is Redhorn looking for? If he's that secretive about their identity and connection to him that he won't give plain orders and explanations to his lackeys, it must be someone really close to him…"

Dick trailed off with a knowing look in his eye, clearly creating a pause for dramatic effect as he was preparing to drop a bomb on her.

Barbara couldn't help rolling her eyes fondly.

Always with the theatrics.

She gestured for Dick to move on, almost dropping the dumpling that was wedged between the chopsticks she was holding in that same hand.

"Well, it's conjecture, but Hogan remembered that, way back, when he was still in harness, there had been rumors of Redhorn having gotten married- what if he's looking for his wife?!"

"His wife ?" Barbara echoed, surprise evident on her face. In her mind, she combed through the scarce information she had gone over during her research, but she drew a complete blank on the chief's marital status. To be fair, she hadn't considered nosing around in such private, familial matters (she might act as an information broker, but she was no creep) and Redhorn didn't exactly strike her as husband material or a family man, but now that she was looking back on it, the complete lack of information on his marital status was kind of odd-

"Now that you mention it, I don't recall having seen any information on Redhorn's marital status whatsoever," Barbara said carefully.

She noticed the excited spark in Dick's eyes.

"At the very least, it sounds suspicious, doesn't it?"

Barbara nodded, "Definitely worth checking out."

"Of course," Dick mused, clearly trying to rein in his excitement over this new potential stepping stone in their investigation, "even if Redhorn is looking for his wife, there is still the question of why - has she been kidnapped by other criminals who could be blackmailing him? Has she simply left him and he's trying to get her back?" He gestured vaguely, as if to illustrate the endless possibilities."But my point is, if Redhorn is married, his wife could potentially have information that could be useful to us."

"Well, how useful that could end up being for us really depends on how attached she is to her husband," Barbara pointed out, "she could invoke marital privileges and refuse to testify against her husband even if she knows of his wrongdoings... If she wants to leave him, however, she might be more inclined to help us…"

Dick nodded, a grin on his face: "Should that hypothetical wife exist, that is."

Barbara chuckled, already shoving the half-empty take out container to the side to make space for her laptop.

She snatched her computer from the table's compartment, opened the lid, and booted it up: "Let's find out, shall we?"

Now that she knew what she was looking for, it didn't take Barbara long to unearth the sought-after information:

"Here we go: 23 years ago, Delmore Redhorn, age 31, married Mary Wallmer, age 20, in a private ceremony in the small fishing town of Snug Cay-" a few clicks on her touchpad and a couple of strokes of her keyboard later- "Mary was born and raised in Snug Cay, born to Albert and Lucille Wallmer, recently deceased, no siblings."

Barbara's eyes raced over the texts and documents, sifting through them for relevant information.

"While in high school, Mary worked at the nearby summer camp as a counselor. After high school, she enrolled in an office course to train to become a secretary… Then worked as a secretary for a small housing firm in Blüdhaven for a while… until the owner of the firm was assaulted and shot dead in his office in broad daylight, with Mary right in the next room."

Barbara felt Dick next to her shudder. What she read next did nothing to allay her own contempt for the perpetrators of this crime:

"Apparently, the firm had had a few properties over at Avalon Heights, in Freddy Minh's territory, something the mobster hadn't appreciated."

Dick let out a sound of disgust.

Barbara read on: "First responder to the crime was a certain Officer Delmore Redhorn… the wedding took place six months later."

Scrolling through the data, Barbara tried to find any other entry of employment for Mary. Nothing.

"Doesn't look like Mary took up another job after that."

"Not that surprising, considering..."

"From the wedding onward, there is very little info on Mary herself… hmm, a nearly dormant facebook account, maybe that'll yield something later… oh, wait, here's something!"

Barbara's eyes widened.

"Oh."

When no further elaboration followed, Dick shifted closer, trying to catch a glimpse of what she was staring at.

"What'd you find?!"

Barbara moved the laptop so Dick could get a better look at her screen: "A birth record."

Looking up from the screen, Dick looked at her uncomprehendingly: "So?"

"It's not Mary's birth record - it's from thirteen years ago; it's the birth record of her son ."

"Oh ."

"Yeah."

"And the father?"

Barbara tapped her screen, "Redhorn."

"Huh."

"Yup... A wife and a son would definitely qualify as "close connections", don't you think?"

Dick grinned: "Kinda."

Barbara smiled back, buzzing with excitement, now that this angle opened up a whole new perspective.

"Give me another hour to figure out whether this is connected to Redhorn's troubles," Barbara declared confidently, about to dig deeper into the piles of data ready at her fingertips. She paused briefly, looking at Dick, who had moved to the edge of the sofa, about to get up, "would you-"

"- put on some coffee?" He finished her sentence for her, smiling.

"Way ahead of you."

About one hour and two cups of coffee later, Barbara was ready to present Dick with the findings of her latest cyber expedition:

"Okay, so let me show you this online chat: It's mainly frequented by well-to-do middle class moms in the Gotham-Blüdhaven-area and their exchanges are mostly a mix of discussions on the deficits and benefits of local schools, challenges of achieving a good work-life-balance, complaints about their unruly offspring, and tips on where to find an excellent yoga instructor - but one thread stood out among the rest: A concerned user talking about how the recurring rumors of corruption in the police department and mayoral office are worrying her because she's afraid her husband could be wrongly accused of being "mixed up in such dreadful things". The user name? SnugCayfish78 ."

Dick let out a whistle.

"Sounds like you've struck gold."

Barbara grinned triumphantly: "Right? And there is more, my friend… Aside from recurring mentions of her concerns, SnugCayfish78 also dropped this bomb two weeks ago:

"He doesn't tell me much of his work (I know that he doesn't want me to worry), but I can tell that ever since another of his subordinate officers was arrested, something is weighing heavily on my husband… If only there was a way for me to ease his burden. Has anyone any ideas? Maybe the social calendars I've been keeping all these years will finally come in handy! Being able to show that my husband has only ever been in contact with the upstanding members of the public that have been so deeply invested in building up the Blüdhaven we know and love now, must certainly prove that my darling would never associate with such dishonorable policemen that are involved in corruption! Hopefully, this will be enough to lay my husband's worries to rest."

… and that's the last entry from this account. Coincidentally, that is also the date Redhorn's son posted his last picture on instagram."

Dick gave her a meaningful look.

"Sounds to me like Mary just realized that her husband might not have been some innocent bystander in the sea of corruption that makes up Blüdhaven's elite and decided to go underground. As an added bonus, Summer break started last week, so even if Mary just grabbed her son and left, there's no danger of inquiries from school."

"Would fit with what we have found out so far," Barbara agreed, "of course, there is still the question of what Mary's planning on doing with the information she has at hand and what Rehorn's planning to do once he finds her…"

Dick hummed in agreement, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Considering how her entire world view has been turned on its head, she probably doesn't even know what to do now that she has discovered her husband's vest is anything but squeaky clean," he reasoned,"but maybe she'd be open to handing over this evidence she's kept unintentionally all these years."

"Maybe," Barbara agreed, "nothing I have found suggests that Mary had been involved in Redhorn's illegal activities in any way; I guess she was truly ignorant of them until now. As for Redhorn - keeping in mind how he appears to be unwilling to deploy his goons in the "usual" manner, I guess we can assume that he actually does care about Mary and doesn't want her and their son to get hurt… That being said, I have no idea whether his love for them wins out over his sense of self-preservation," she finished grimly.

Dick nodded, steely determination displayed openly across his features: "Which is exactly why we need to be the ones to find her first."

"Agreed."

"You think you can find Mary and their son before Redhorn does?"

Barbara gave Dick a confident smile: "Even if Mary was a Luddite like her husband - she's in hiding with a teen; I'll find them, don't you worry."

Notes:

Nightwing #33: Mac Arnot talks to Dick in the cafeteria of the police academy and Dick finds out that they are supposedly in the same class although he hasn't seen Arnot attend any of his classes; Arnot just shrugs it off, explaining that he's "kinda advanced"
Nightwing #42: Chief Redhorn makes Mac Arnot an Inspector (based on shifty recommendations), while Dick gets turned down when applying for a job at the BPD
Nightwing #47: Chief Ebersol (who was appointed Chief while Redhorn took off for some time, hiding from Blockbuster, I think) points out that the BPD doesn't have an official position of Inspector, while Arnot lets Ebersol know that *he* will be running things in the background until Redhorns gets back... oh and he vaguely threatens Ebersol's family (I flipping hate Arnot, ugh)
Nightwing# 71-74: Mary Redhorn (née Wallmer) is important in this story arc; she's Redhorn's wife and is from Snug Cay (although they got married 33 years ago in the comics), Dick followed her all over Europe when police and Blockbuster's goons were coming after her for having a journal that detailed Redhorn's social contacts with plenty of questionable characters; in the comics, Mary's just super naive and probably wanted to use this journal to clear his name, having no idea how closely her husband was entangled in the corruption that is running rampant in Blüdhaven - I wanted to make Mary a little less clueless and give her a bit more agency/motive by having her be protective of a son that I made up
Nightwing #59: Dick wants to drop by Freddy Minh's in Avalon, only to find that Freddy Minh has been dead for some time, his empire now run by his wife, Madame Minh (I assume Chuck Dixon is referring to Avalon Heights and not Avalon Hill, because Avalon Hill is on the outskirts of Blüdhaven, basically in the middle of nowhere, whereas Avalon Heights is situated a bit more centrally, with access to some docks, according to the map in Nightwing Secret Files and Origins #1)