It had been a hectic few weeks. The attack on Gotham, and the entire planet, had been bad. Over four hundred dead, and nearly two thousand wounded, and that was just in Gotham. It was the single largest, organized villain attack in the city's history. But Gotham was rebuilding. Percy had a lot to say about his new home, but he couldn't say that they weren't durable. As soon as the morning after the attacks, construction crews were already hard at work rebuilding the destroyed portions of the city. It certainly helped that Bruce Wayne had pledged nearly unlimited funds in the efforts to restore the city. But Wayne wasn't alone in doing his part.
Percy and Montoya had been working nearly around the clock. Whether an intentional target, or simply an unfortunate accident, Blackgate's walls had been breached by the attack, and nearly two hundred inmates had been released into the city. Percy and Montoya had been spending their days pounding pavement, tracking down the fugitives, and returning them to their iron home. Thankfully, they hadn't been working alone. The FBI had pledged nearly a hundred of its agents to assist in the recovery. Normally Percy wouldn't have been pleased to be working with Feds, but with the Department being so low on manpower, he wasn't about to deny help when it came. With the help of the Bureau and their nearly unlimited resources, they had managed to find nearly two-thirds of the escaped convicts.
Percy pushed open the door of his car, and climbed out. Striding around the back of the car, he popped the trunk, and pulled out a pair of worn-out sneakers. Propping himself up on the back of his car, he began switching out his shoes.
"Really, Metro, wardrobe change?" Montoya asked as she lingered by his side, lounging against the side of the car.
"Don't mock, Monty," Percy shot back, "The last four guys all ran, and I'm not ruining my shoes again. I'm already on my third pair, and shoes are too expensive. Besides," He stood up, and gave a meaningful look at the shoes on Montoya's feet. She had showed up to work that morning, not in her normal dress shoes, but in a pair of all black athletic shoes, "Don't be calling the kettle names when you're the pot,"
Montoya rolled her eyes, and Percy closed the trunk. He walked back to the driver side, and opened the door. Reaching in, he retrieved a radio, and attached it to the belt on his hip. When cornering escapees, he had found it handy to have radios on hand just in case he and Montoya became separated. With his tasks done, he gestured at Montoya and the pair took off at a brisk walk. They were in The Cauldron, an industrial district on the Bleake Island Borough. They'd gotten a tip off from one of their FBI groupies, that two of their escaped prisoners were using an old warehouse at the far pier as something of a hideaway.
"So how much you want to bet we're about to walk into an utter shit show?" Percy asked, as he took out his sidearm, and checked the slide to make sure there was a round chambered. Then he ejected the magazine and made sure that the magazine was full. Slamming the magazine back into place, Percy re-holstered his weapon, and reached behind him to repeat the process with his personal sidearm, holstered on his back hip.
"I don't take sucker's bets Metro," Montoya said, as she began checking her own weapon. They approached the warehouse, softly, Montoya tested the door handle. To no one's surprise, it was locked, Percy gestured for her to step aside, and he pulled out a set of lockpicks.
"Pretty sure those aren't standard issue," Montoya said,
"Leftovers from my Teams days," Percy commented as he began feeling around for the locking mechanism, "Surprised you aren't giving me shit about this."
"Give you shit about what?" Montoya asked, as the lock clicked and Percy pushed open the door, "All I saw was you open the door."
She pulled her weapon free and stepped inside, with Percy following suit. Inside was an unlit hallway, reaching out with his senses, Percy could feel the water in the bodies of two individuals in a room halfway down the hall. Taking lead, Percy crept down the hall, taking care to make sure each step was soft, and unnoticeable. They stopped at the door, and Percy placed an ear to the door, he could hear the sound of a television on in the other room, and the muffled sound of men talking to one another. He stepped away from the door, and exchanged a glance with Montoya, before eying the hall. She gestured with her head and Percy nodded his assent. Checking the end of the hall, Percy saw that there was a second door around the corner of the hall.
These guys were amateurs, they were hunkered down in a room near the center of the building, there would be no exits from their room, leading to the outside, leaving them effectively trapped in the building. Percy nodded his head at Montoya, before setting up on his door. There was a beat of silence, before Montoya kicked the door in and shouted out,
"GCPD, hands in the air!" There was a shout of startled surprise, and the crash of something as it fell to the ground. Percy heard the brief sound of a struggle, before the door next to Percy exploded open and a large man tried to run through. Percy stuck a leg out and the man tripped, falling to the floor with a surprised yelp. Before the stunned man could process what was happening, Percy had a knee in his back, and was placing him in restraints.
"Metro, you good?" Montoya cried out from inside,
"Yeah, you?" He called back, over the grunts of the man under him,
"All good," Percy nodded to himself and stood up, wrapping a hand under the escaped prisoner's arm and hauling him to his feet.
"This is an illegal entry!" The man was hollering, "Where's your fucking warrant, huh? You can't do this!"
"Can and did pal," Percy responded as he led the man back in the room, "This ain't exactly a domicile, it's public property, currently waiting for demolition; don't exactly need a search warrant to enter a building that hasn't got an owner. Now shut up."
Inside the room, there was the second man sitting on the floor, also restrained with his hands tied behind his back. Montoya was a few feet away, investigating a small crate. The room was fairly bare, save for a few moth-eaten cots in a corner a few feet away, a tattered old sofa, and a worn down television, that Percy was sure had been stolen.
"Find anything interesting?" He asked, as he shoved the convict on the ground beside his compatriot.
"Not unless you consider tins of ramen and old beer interesting," She commented idly,
"Not since undergrad," Percy laughed, "Come on, it's nearly lunch. Let's mirandize these guys, and get them down to booking,"
"Sounds good, let's-" Montoya was cut off, as the far door was suddenly thrown open, and a man began walking in, several large bags of what looked like food in his arms,
"Hey, assholes, I brought ya some stuff from-" He stopped abruptly as he looked at Percy and Montoya. His eyes darted over to where the two escapees were restrained on the ground, before dancing back to the guns on Percy and Montoya's hips.
"Don't do it," Percy warned, taking a cautious step forward. The man dropped the bags from his arms, and took off at a run out the door,
"Mother fucker!" Percy cursed, as he took off after him,
"Channel Seven!" He heard Montoya call out,
"Check!" He roared back, as he tore through the doorway at full gallop. Montoya would stay behind and watch over tweedles dee and dum. He ran through the hallways, before leaving the building into an open area of pavement, the runaway only a few yards ahead of him. He was trying to make it to a nondescript green sedan parked by the entrance, in the lot directly opposite the lot he and Montoya had parked in. The building blocking both lots from view of the other.
The man looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened in fear, as he saw Percy was gaining on him. He veered off, apparently deciding that he wouldn't have time to get in the car, start it, and leave before Percy would catch up to him. He began angling for a construction site adjacent to the lot. He scrambled up the fence, and fell in a heap on the other side, before getting up and running again. Percy did a quick check to make sure no one was around, satisfied that there wouldn't be any witnesses, he cleared the fence in a single leap. He hit the ground on the other side at run, and was once more gaining on the runaway.
The man turned left, and ran directly into a mass of construction equipment. Being a weekend, there was thankfully no one in the lot. He wheeled around the side of an excavator, and pulled something from his pocket, before disappearing from view. Seeing the action, and suspecting the man had reached for a weapon, Percy suddenly stopped where he was, and dove behind a service truck. Pulling his weapon free, he rested his back against the truck, and peeked around the corner,
"GCPD!" He called out, "Come out with your hands up and behind your head!" Channeling his power, Percy could sense the man was stationary behind the excavator. Peeking his head out, Percy had to quickly withdraw, as he saw a flash of steel. There was an impact off the side of the truck, before the loud 'CRACK' of the pistol reverberated around the site. Percy quickly checked around the site, looking around the tops of several pieces of equipment, as another shot tore through the dirt beside him. When he saw what he was looking for, he swore violently. There was a surveillance camera a few yards away, pointing directly at his position. That made things far more difficult. It was considerably harder to explain away his powers when there was video evidence of him using his abilities. More annoyed than anything, Percy checked around him again. There was a windowed office trailer directly opposite the excavator. Through the glass, Percy could see the man approaching around the opposite end of the excavator, seemingly trying to flank Percy.
Percy waited until the man had cleared the corner of the excavator, before Percy began moving in the opposite direction. He turned the corner of the truck, just as the man leapt around the opposite corner of the same truck, his weapon drawn. In his adrenaline-fueled panic, the surprised man let out a series of shots.
"What the-where the hell did he go?" The man spluttered. Suspecting that Percy was executing his own flanking maneuver against him, the man spun around and fired off a few more shots. There was a click, as the weapon's magazine signaled it was empty. The terrified man, fumbled around his pants for a backup magazine, but Percy had already moved. As soon as the man had begun firing again, Percy had turned back around and was racing at the man's exposed back. Since he'd been doing nothing to mask his footsteps, the man heard Percy's approach. he spun around his eyes wide in horror as Percy barreled down on him. The man swung the empty pistol like a club, but Percy ducked under it. Hooking a leg behind the man's, Percy grabbed the arm holding the weapon, and twisted it. The man yelped in pain, and dropped the pistol, as Percy pivoted, and threw the man to the ground. He struggled, but Percy crawled on top of him, and shoved a knee in his back, before restraining him in a pair of cuffs.
"Of all the dumbass choices you could have made today, that was by far the worst," Percy ground out, as he wrestled the man off the ground, and began leading him out of the construction site. Reaching down to his hip, he grabbed the radio. Pulling it free from his belt, he thumbed it on and switched to channel seven,
"Monty, it's me, got the dipshit, heading back now."
It took some finagling, but they got their three prisoners into the back of their unit, and after battling their way through mid-day traffic, arrived at central booking. They handed their convicts and their extra collaborator off to a deputy, and were just about to head out, when the desk sergeant called out,
"Detective Montoya! Detective Jackson!" And he waved them over, Montoya turned and exchanged a look with Percy, who shrugged before the pair approached the desk sergeant.
"What's going on Ern?" Montoya asked,
"Bedlum, that's what," The tired looking desk sergeant said, looking exceptionally haggard, "Between the attack and the escapees, this place has been more of a madhouse than normal." He shook his head, as though to clear it, "Anyways, I got a call from the Plaza, telling me to tell you two, that you're needed at the Coroner's Office."
"What for?" Percy asked, and Ern gave him an annoyed shrug, "You think they tell me anything? How the hell should I know? All I know, is that I got a call from the Plaza, telling me to tell you two to head to the Coroner's as soon as you got here."
Percy didn't quite like the flippant attitude of the desk sergeant, but Montoya just steered him away,
"Thanks Ern," She said, as she pushed Percy towards the exit,
"What do think?" She asked as they exited Booking,
"Not a damn clue," Percy said, "But honestly? As long as it's not chasing down more gangbangers, I'll take anything."
BREAK
The Gotham Coroner's office was one of the few government buildings that had managed to escape the wrath of the villain attack. It was a rather unremarkable looking building, with a flat roof, and square walls. It looked like little more than a nondescript office building. Once inside, they had been led to the bowels of the building, and into the depths of the morgue. Once inside the room, they were treated to the sight of Commissioner Gordon, standing beside a table with an older looking woman. She was in her late forties, with graying black hair and dark features. On the table looked to be several case files stacked on top of one another.
"All my time in Metropolis, and I can count on one hand how many times I even saw the Commissioner, Gordon always this involved?" Percy asked in a hushed tone,
"Never could quite kick the job," Montoya said in an undertone.
"Detectives," Greeted Gordon, "Sorry for the short notice, but unfortunately we're on a bit of a time crunch."
"What's going on Jim?" Montoya asked, as they approached the Commissioner.
"I'm pulling you two off convict duty," Gordon said shortly, "The feds will clean up the scraps, this takes priority."
Percy and Montoya exchanged a look, whatever was going on sure as hell couldn't be good.
Gordon reached onto the table, and grabbed a thin looking folder. Picking it up, he strode over and handed the case file over to Montoya. Giving her superior a confused look, Montoya opened the file, and Percy read over her shoulder. It was a missing persons, dated some three and a half months ago. The woman, Patricia Kirkpatrick, had disappeared from her apartment at some time in the early morning, the exact time was currently unknown. There had been no sign of a struggle, and the door had been unlocked, not broken."
"You want us chasing down cold cases now?" Montoya asked,
"I'm guessing that's not the only one," Percy muttered, staring at the files on the table.
"You'd be right, Jackson." Gordon said gruffly, gesturing mildly with one hand at the stack of files on the table, "In the last three and a half months, there have been five separate, seemingly unconnected disappearances. Seemingly ordinary citizens, just up and vanishing in the dead of night. They were…sporadic, and occurred all over the city. At first, we didn't know what we were looking at."
"Kidnapping?" Montoya asked,
"It was hard to tell," Gordon grunted, "No ransom notes, no demands. For all we knew, they were simply runners. Strange but not exactly out of the ordinary."
"What changed? How do you know they were connected? Because from the way you're talking, I'm pretty sure they're all connected." Percy asked, feeling like he was about to regret it.
Gordon sighed, and sent a look at the Medical Examiner. She nodded and strode over to the fridges. She threw open a latch, and opened the door, before reaching into the small storage fridge, and sliding out the storage bed. On the bed was a dark body bag. The Medical Examiner repeated the process another two times, until there were three bags on display. Gesturing them to follow, Gordon led Percy and Montoya over to the first of the bags.
"Hope you two didn't have lunch," Gordon muttered, before opening the bag.
"Mother fuc-"
"Jesus Christ Jim! What the shit?!"
Percy was suddenly extremely thankful that they'd worked straight through lunch, because he was looking at the single most disgusting thing he'd ever seen before in his entire life. The…thing…in the bag might have been humanoid in appearance, but Percy could not say that it was still a human being. The legs were bandied, shriveled. There were suture markings around the knees joints, and same around the ankles, elbows and wrists. The skin looked dry, and cracked and was astonishingly pale, as though the poor soul hadn't seen the sun in weeks. They looked less like a human, and more like a horrifying attempt at a real Frankenstein's monster. But the true horror was the head. Where a normal human face ought to have been, was instead a porcelain mask. It was perfectly smooth, with hollow eyes, and false features. It looked to Percy as though someone had ripped the head off of a doll, and shoved it on the body of a real person. On a terrifying hunch, Percy knelt down beside the body, and inspected the neck. His stomach tightened and he felt bile building up as he stepped away. From the incision marks and sticking around the neck and ears, his suspicions had been correct.
"What kind of sick bastard does this?" Percy muttered,
"Get's worse," Gordon grimaced, before walking away and opening the bag on the second table. Another doll-like person, similar to the first, lay on the bed. Only this one was slightly…different. Where the first had looked like it had been held together with staples and stitches, this one was smoother. It was harder to find the surgical incisions, and the skin had a smoother quality to it. It no longer looked like it was made of leather, and while the skin was just as pale as the other lost soul's, the skin had a healthier look to it. Almost as though the person had been regularly moisturizing.
"He's getting better," Percy murmured, and Montoya and Gordon looked up at him. Percy just gestured vaguely at the body, then jerked a thumb over at the first victim, "Look at the two, the…quality of work here is a lot better. This person looks a lot healthier, like they've been taken better care of." He pointed at the stitching along the joints, and face mask, "The stitches are looking better, you can still see them but it's…"
"It's like he's been practicing," Montoya finished darkly. Gordon just grunted darkly, and strode over to the third bag. Knowing what to expect, Percy wasn't surprised when it was revealed to be a third person. Percy sighed, as he looked over the form. Unlike the others, it was damn near impossible to see where the stitching was. The skin was sewn together so well that it was seamless. The skin was a uniform shade of brown; no blemishes or defects that Percy could readily see. Even the mask was intricately sewn onto the face, in such a way that Percy genuinely couldn't tell where the skin ended and face began.
"Well I'm guessing this is how you connected the disappearances?" Percy asked.
"Yup," Gordon said simply,
"How the hell did you ID them?" Montoya asked,
"Wasn't easy," Gordon sighed, "Fingerprints were taken off, each of them had their teeth removed and replaced with synthetics, but we managed to get a rush on a blood sample to S.T.A.R. labs and they came back with three positives. First body was Kirkpatrick. Second was Monica EdGrow, and the third was Markus Henry. Kirkpatrick was the first victim. Found her two weeks ago, her body was dumped in Gotham River, and got picked up by a barge entering port. EdGrow was picked up a few days after Kirkpatrick, we found her body a week and a half ago. Henry was reported missing two weeks ago, and we picked his body up this morning. Found in a storm drain in the Cauldron."
"Jesus, we must have driven right over the bastard." Percy muttered,
"No sign of the other two yet?" Montoya asked,
"Not yet." Gordon sighed, "Which hopefully means they're still alive."
Nobody needed to say that the chances of that were slim to none.
"We're running this as a serial kidnapping and murder." Gordon explained. "Mayor's office wants this wrapped up quickly. I've taken the liberty to have all relevant case files and documents sent to the One-Seven; get yourselves acquainted and I want you to get started on this immediately. I'm taking you off all your other active cases. This is your priority. We're fighting against a ticking clock, every minute we don't find this twisted son of a bitch is a minute he's torturing another poor soul, or kidnapping someone else."
"No need for the motivational speech Jim," Montoya said darkly, casting another look at the poor people, as the Medical Examiner began packing them away.
"I think we both feel pretty fucking motivated"
BREAK
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This is going to be like finding a needle in a goddamn needle factory."
Percy agreed with his partner's assessment. Sighing, he leaned back further into the couch, and busied himself with another bite of his take-out. They'd spent all day in one of the department's conference rooms going over relevant case information. It had taken them most of the day just to sift through the stuff they had on their three confirmed vics. Eventually, they called it a night and retreated back to Montoya's apartment to continue their work. They'd decided that it was best to look at the case fresh, rather than relying solely on the work of the first detectives, they supplemented that information to help them form a new opinion.
They began by looking at each victim individually, making up a profile and a murder-book for each victim. They then began cross-referencing each victim with the other, looking for any loose thread that might hint at why they were specifically targeted. But no matter where they looked, or how hard, they were coming up short. Race, schooling, employment, friends, military, nothing. There was absolutely nothing connecting the victims together. They were beginning to think that the victims had been selected completely at random.
"We should prioritize the one's that are still missing," Percy said with a groan, "It's shitty, but unfortunately we aren't going to learn much of anything running down the leads of these three. Trail might still be at least warm for the other two."
"That's some cold shit Metro," Montoya said softly, "But you're right." She paused, and put down the folder she was holding, "Still, it wouldn't hurt to re-interview some of the neighbors. A fresh pair of eyes and ears and all that. See some of the scenes maybe. Might jump start something."
"All right, we hit them early tomorrow. Try and get something rolling and if it turns out to be a deadend, we move on." Percy said, then groaned, "We are seriously under-manned here,"
"Understatement of the century," Montoya said, "But you're right. Still, not likely to change any time soon,"
"How ya figure?" Percy asked,
"C'mon Metro, you have to know by now the rest of the precinct is dirty," Montoya said with an exasperated look, "You've been around Cavallo and Wise long enough now to know what type of men they are."
Percy sighed and crossed his arms. Montoya was right. He had spent enough time in the precinct to know exactly what time of men they were. Who they really served. Given the way they interacted with the LT, it didn't take a genius to know that all three were probably dirty.
"Fucking hate it," Percy grunted, roughly grabbing the next stack of files on the table and sifting through it,
"Welcome to Gotham, Metro," Montoya said cynically,
"Gods above, is there anyone in the entire department not on the take?" Percy asked,
"You, me, the commissioner, Harv." Montoya said,
"Short list," Percy commented,
"Gets shorter by the day," Montoya replied, "But that is, unfortunately, the nature of the beast. I mean shit Metro, you know what we're paid. Most guys look at an easy payday, a good way to provide for their families, and better still, damn near guaranteed protection, which is not a given in this city. Most folks got people to look out for, to protect. Not saying I agree, but I get it."
"Doesn't make it right," Percy said, and Montoya turned and gave him a deeply appraising look.
"No, it doesn't."
BREAK
"You people are never going to leave me alone, are you?"
"My apologies, I didn't realize our missing persons was such an inconvenience,"
The landlord spun around and put a finger in Percy's chest, "What's inconvenient, is your department keeping me from renting that damn apartment out to someone else,"
Percy arched an eyebrow, "This is an ongoing investigation, and you're being compensated for your loss in profits,"
The landlord just glowered at Percy, and spun around. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew his keys and unlocked the door to Patricia Kirkpatrick's apartment. "Thanks for your cooperation," Percy said, stepping inside, and snapping a pair of gloves on.
The landlord rolled his eyes but didn't say anything and stepped away. Percy and Montoya had split up in order to cover more ground. They'd meet back up at the third scene and go over notes after casing the last scene.
Patricia Kirkpatrick's apartment was exactly how the crime techs had left it the day the disappearance had been reported. Nothing was out of place. Kirkpatrick lived in a nicer apartment in one of the nicer districts near downtown. She had been a physical therapist at Gotham General. She had been a bright up and comer. From the reports, her co-workers had had nothing but good things to say about her. She had been a diligent worker, a good friend, and an all-around average woman. Nothing exceptional about her what-so-ever.
Percy began his meticulous walk-through of the apartment. He checked the door, checked the bed, the windows, everything. But there was nothing in the apartment intimating a forceful entry of any sort. He even opened the fridge, but apart from some now molding meat from a local butcher shop, there was nothing. The record had been clear that no prints had been taken off the window. Sighing, Percy crossed his arms. Catching sight of the dresser, Percy walked over. There were several pictures. One was one of Kirkpatrick with several friends. The other was a picture of her in her scrubs on what Percy assumed was her first day. The final picture was that of her at the end of what looked like a marathon. She had a large medal around her neck, and was posing in front of her score. Apparently she had been the winner. Sighing, Percy pushed off the cabinet, and resumed his search. Ultimately though, he found nothing of note.
Getting frustrated, he decided to move on. Stepping outside the apartment, he knocked on the door of a neighbor.
There was a click as the lock was opened, and the door opened. A younger man, maybe in his early twenties, opened the door.
"Can I help you?" He asked, Percy raised his identification, and flashed it at the man,
"GCPD, I'm Detective Jackson, are you Daniel Concord?" Percy said, the man stared at the badge for a second, his eyes wide, before he adopted a haggard look.
"I am," Daniel said, "Here about Patricia?"
"I am," Percy nodded,
"Didn't realize that this was still going on. Still no sign of her?" Daniel asked,
Percy hesitated for a moment, the families had already been notified, and it wouldn't be revealing to the case at large to confirm that she was dead. Percy would just be a detective working a homicide rap.
"We found her body," Percy said, and Daniel grimaced. His expression becoming very pinched. He crossed his arms and leaned against his door, his head resting on the frame.
"Fucking hell," He breathed out,
"I read your statement to the detectives, and I know it's been some time, but I'd just like to go back over the things you discussed with them." Percy pressed gently.
"Anything you need," Daniel said quickly,
"We believe that she was taken July 14th. At some time between the hours of two and three in the morning. Is there anything you can remember from that night?"
"Nothing much, unfortunately, I slept straight through the night. Don't remember anything weird happening." Daniel sighed, and Percy nodded,
"I assumed as much. Is there anything you can tell me about Ms. Kirkpatrick? Did you two know each other? Speak very often?" Percy asked,
"As much as anyone speaks to their neighbor I suppose." Daniel shrugged, "Ran into her on the stairs, in the halls, and doing laundry a couple of times. The night she disappeared we spoke in the laundry room for a couple of minutes. She told me how she was training for a marathon but that was pretty much it."
"No boyfriends or girlfriends? Never noticed anyone coming over at odd hours, or her getting into strange vehicles?" Percy asked,
"Sorry detective," Daniel said, shaking his head, "But I didn't talk to her much. Have you tried speaking to her family? I think I remember her mentioning a mother up in Miagani."
"She's on the list," Percy smiled, reaching into his pocket, he grabbed a business card and handed it over to the man. "If you think of anything, or see anything, give me a call, day or night."
"Of course detective," Daniel said, taking the card and giving it a look, with a final nod, Daniel re-entered his apartment. Sighing Percy ran a hand through his hair. This was going to be a waste of time. Walking over to a nearby window, he let out a breath and leaned against the frame. He watched as the pedestrians walked on the street below. His gaze rested for a moment on a woman and her young daughter. The woman led her daughter by the hand into a large bank on the street directly across from the apartment building. A gleam of something reflecting from the sunlight drew his attention away from the civilians, to a security camera. Percy stood up, feeling suddenly more energetic. The original detectives had gotten a warrant for the apartment building's security cameras but nothing had been found. However there had been nothing in the record about cameras in the building across the street.
After letting the building owner know to close up Kirkpatrick's apartment, Percy raced across the street to the large bank. He stood outside for a moment, directly under one of the street facing cameras, and turned. He followed the line of the camera, and saw that it would have had a clear view of the apartments on the other side of the street.
"Something I can help you with?" Came a gruff voice, turning, Percy watched as an older man in a security uniform approached. Percy flashed his badge and identification, and pointed at the camera's.
"How far back do your tapes go?" He asked, the guard looked up and gazed at the camera as well, before shrugging,
"Don't know off the top of my head. Not unlikely that the Cloud has backups for almost all of the footage we get." The guard said,
"Think you guys have tapes going back to July?" Percy asked, getting excited.
"May I ask what this is about, detective?" The guard asked suspiciously.
"Ongoing disappearance investigation into the apartment complex across the street." Percy pointed and the guard followed the action with his eyes, "I was hoping that your cameras might have gotten our guy as he was leaving the building."
The guard eyed Percy again, then gestured for him to follow. The guard led the way into the building. He had a brief, whispered conversation with another guard, before gesturing Percy inside a back door. Percy was led down a hallway, until he was dropped off by the guard outside a door.
"We'll need to wait here, one of the managers will want to speak with you." The guard explained, and Percy nodded. Pulling out his phone, he gave Montoya a call,
"Montoya," She answered after the second ring,
"Might have something here, probably going to be late to the third apartment." Percy said,
"Whatcha got?" Montoya asked,
"Bank across the street has camera's facing the apartment," Percy explained,
"You think they might have caught our boy leaving." Montoya finished, and Percy could hear the smirk in her voice,
"Bingo." Percy said, "Get anything on your end?"
"Not a goddamn thing," Montoya grunted, "Neighbors didn't see or hear anything either. Nothing suspicious leading up to the day in question either. No new special friends. Not staying out late. No suspicious activity. Girl was a fucking personal trainer. About as mundane as mundane can be. Only interesting thing in the entire apartment was a half-rotting slab of beef from the butchers. You?"
"About the same," Percy sighed,
"Well let's hope you picked something up on your end." Montoya said. There was the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, and Percy turned, seeing a well-dressed man walking down the hall.
"Same here, gotta go, I'll text you when I'm on my way." Percy said,
"Get us something Metro," Montoya said and the line went dead. Stowing his phone in his pocket, Percy approached the man, his identification already in his hands.
"Detective Percy Jackson, GCPD," He introduced, showing his identification to the man,
"James Warner," The man introduced himself, "I'm one of the managers here. I'm told you wanted to check our security footage?"
"I do, sir." Percy nodded, "Nothing inside the bank, I'm investigating the apartment complex across the street, and was hoping your cameras might have seen something,"
"Well, I apologize detective, but unfortunately I'll need a warrant before I let you have access to those cameras." Percy sighed, and calmed his temper before it flared too high. He had been expecting as much.
He channeled the mist into his hands, before subtly waving his hand at his side. There was a slight distortion to the air around Warner's head that was only visible to Percy. Then, his eyes glazed over somewhat. Percy didn't want to outright control the man's thoughts, but a slight manipulation to make the man more compliant to Percy's wishes was perfectly acceptable to Percy. They were running against a moving clock, and getting stalled out waiting for a warrant could be the difference between catching their guy, and finding another body.
"Please sir," Percy said, putting on an affected air of desperation, "This woman has been missing for too long now, much longer and chances are the next time anyone sees her, it'll be in a body bag. I don't find anything, we won't bother you again, and if we do find something, I'll get you your warrant, sound good?" A bit of a lie, but not too much of one to weigh too heavily on Percy's conscience.
"Well…" Warner said, looking somewhat apprehensive, "I suppose a quick look wouldn't hurt,"
Percy hid the triumph on his face, and gave the man a thankful smile. "Thank you, sir," Warner gave him a hazy smile. He reached into his pocket and withdrew an ID card. He swiped the card at a security terminal on the door, which unlocked with a soft buzz. Warner opened the door, and held it for Percy to enter. The room was small. There was a single chair, in which sat another security officer, who was staring at a wall of screens.
Percy was led over to beside the man, Warner placed a hand on the guards back and whispered something in his ear, the guard nodded, and looked over at Percy,
"Do you have records dating back to July?" Percy asked,
"Not on local files, but they'll be up on the Cloud," The guard explained. He typed a few command strokes into the keyboard on the terminal, bringing up a command screen. He spent a few minutes searching through old files, until he finally found what he was looking for.
"Here we go, what date did you need, detective?"
"The 14th," Percy said,
The man scrolled down until he found the correct date. Clicking on the file, the nearest screen flickered and then changed. An image of the street across from the bank appeared, the time of day was at Midnight.
"All right now wind it forward, please. Bring me to around 2:00 in the morning," Percy commanded, and the man did as he was told. The screen began to move as the time moved forward, at around 2:15 in the morning, a car appeared on the street, and parked outside the apartment.
"Stop," Percy ordered, "Play it in real time from here."
The guard did as ordered. The tape began playing in real time. Percy watched as a dark figure got out of the car. He was maybe five foot ten, and Percy clocked him about one hundred and eighty pounds. He was wearing a dark hoodie, with the hood pulled up. Percy watched as the man disappeared inside. Percy glanced at the car, but he couldn't see the plate from where the car was parked. The make was an old sedan, black. Looked like an old cruiser model. There was movement from up top. The moon was shining directly on the windows of the building, illuminating the windows. Percy could see movement on one side of what he knew was Kirkpatrick's apartment.
He watched in silence as nothing happened for a few minutes. Then there was movement from around the corner. A dark shape was moving around the corner of the building. The dark shape moved closer to the car parked on the street. There was a strange lump attached to the dark shape, and as it moved into the moonlight, it was revealed to be the suspect, with what Percy knew was an unconscious Kirkpatrick in his arms. The man popped the trunk, and they watched as the man dumped the unconscious woman's body into the trunk.
The man then got in the drivers seat, and took off.
"Pause it," Percy ordered, and the video stopped playing. "Can you zoom in at all?" Percy asked, and the guard shook his head,
"Our tech's good, but not that good detective," The man said, and Percy sighed but nodded. Reaching into his suit pocket, he withdrew a small magnifying glass, the guard watched in amusement,
"You carry that with you everywhere?" The man asked,
"Always be prepared," Percy muttered, holding the glass up to the screen and squinting. He could make out the plate slightly, taking out his pen and paper, he wrote down the number. "Thank you gentlemen, expect a patrol officer in the next few days with a warrant for that tape."
"We'll have it ready detective," Warner nodded, and Percy gave the man a thankful nod. He turned his attention back to the screen.
"Run, run as fast as you can mother fucker. I'm on to you,"
AN: You wanted it, and you got it folks! I have a shit ton of chapters ready for you and oh man oh man I had some fun with this arc. I dug deep into my twisted little brain for this one, and it took a while to put together, but I'm pretty happy with what I've created here. For any of my hardcore dc people out there, let me know what theories or ideas you might have about who or what could be the big baddie this time! I'm really excited for you guys to a hold of this, and can't wait to hear about what you think! Now for some housecleaning. Now I honestly doubt I need to tell my regular followers this because ya'll already know how I upload, but to repeat myself in case you don't read my other works. I've changed my upload schedule, I'll now upload my chapters once a week until I'm out of chapters to upload, and then I'll start uploading my next project. My hope is that this will allow me to upload fairly consistently, so you guys have a steady stream of content. I'll make no promises, but as far as One-Seven is concerned, you will be having weekly uploads for over two months! So I hope that excites you! Thanks for all the love and support you guys, I hope you enjoy what's to come, because I've been working really hard to make you guys content I think you'll enjoy. As always, if you like this story, but haven't read my other works, give them a try you might enjoy them! Stay safe, stay healthy, and I love you all!
Love,
LilDBS