THEORIES

August 30, 1995

1 Day, 8 Hours

MRS. COLLINS:

She was sitting cross legged in the center of her bed when I opened the door. She looked up from what she'd been reading and forced a smile. "Hello, Mrs. Collins," she greeted.

"I hope I am not disrupting you," I answered.

She smiled. "Oh, no. I was just getting ready to leave, actually."

"Where are you going?"

There was a moment of silence, and Anna sighed. "Leonardo believes that he knows who bombed the orphanage."

I froze. "Really?"

"Yes," she mumbled. She turned and stared at me. "But he doesn't know why."

I shook my head slowly. "I can think of no reason why anyone would want to."

"I'm going to meet with him to talk about it. Perhaps you should go too."

I considered that for a moment, and shook my head. "I should stay here with the girls. But please go, and tell me what he says."

She nodded. "I will Mrs. Collins," she promised.

I studied her for a moment. "The girls tell me they named their kitten after Michaelangelo," I offered after a few seconds of silence.

"Yes," she smiled.

"It's surprising," I observed. "They speak as if he played roughly with them, but none of their injuries were disturbed."

She smiled, a faraway look in her eyes. "He was careful," she explained. "What amazes me is that he can simultaneously watch what he's doing to five different children, taking care not to disturb their wounds, and keep an eye on the other two who are planning their attack, without getting hurt himself."

We both laughed. "Yes, that is quite a challenge," I agreed.

She lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "It's funny. I never even believed they existed until the other night."

"Nor I," I admitted. "And at least you had heard of them!"

DONATELLO:

"It doesn't make sense," I mumbled, staring out into the street. The recovery crews had worked through the night, and the bright lights they used to flood the site had just been turned off to allow the morning light to show them where to go.

"What doesn't?" Leonardo asked, staring down at a cut on the back of his hand.

"It doesn't fit his signature, Leo."

He looked up at the recovery efforts. "Whaddaya mean?"

I sighed. "Every criminal has a modus operandi and a signature. The MO might change, depending on the situation or how much experience the suspect gains. But the signature doesn't change. It's the part of the crime that's satisfying to the perpetrator."

Leo considered that for a minute. "Okay, so it's safe to say that he didn't do this just for the satisfaction of having it done," he concluded. "He wasn't just trying to pacify his sadistic urge. He was after someone or something specific in that building."

I sighed, looking toward him. "Leo, you know Shredder," I whispered. "He's too damn confrontational to use a bomb."

"He's a coward," Leo mumbled under his breath. "He has no honor."

"No," I corrected. "You're wrong. Shredder's a lot of things, but he's not a coward. He's got no problem looking his victims in the eye. And that's my point. Bombing is non-confrontational, for criminals who likely couldn't kill face-to-face."

"So what are you saying?" he challenged, turning toward me.

"It wasn't a satisfying kill for him and I'm seriously questioning if it was, in fact, him who gave the order."

"Leo?"

We looked down as a slim figure walked into the alley. "Up here."

She looked up to the fire escape and brushed her hair back from her face. She smiled. "You can't stand keeping your feet on the ground, can you?" she chuckled.

I studied her as she walked to the ladder and climbed up to the platform. Leo offered her a hand and pulled her up easily. "Good god you're strong!" she laughed, looking away.

He smiled, but said nothing. "So you're Miss Anna," I observed.

She looked to me. I knew we'd met, but we'd never taken the few seconds to exchange names. "Anna Palmer," she greeted, holding out her hand. "You are?"

"Donatello," I answered, shaking hands with her.

"Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure's mine."

"Let's go up to the roof," Leo suggested, looking up. He glanced at Anna. "You okay with that?"

"Uh," she stammered. "Yeah, sure. I guess."

We climbed the stairs to the rooftop and walked to the edge overlooking the street. "Wow, that's a long way down," Anna mumbled, stepping back.

I looked down at the steep, ten story drop. "Yeah, kinda," I agreed.

Leo sat down on the ledge, his back turned toward the recovery crews. He studied Anna for a minute. "You ever hear of a guy named Shredder?" he asked. "Or Oroku Saki?"

She paused for a minute, then shook her head. "What about the foot clan?" I offered.

She shook her head again. "No, I'm sorry."

Leo looked over his shoulder, down at the street below. "That orphanage only housed girls, right?" he questioned.

"That's right."

I looked to Leo. "Given Shredder's exclusively male students, I doubt that he was directly involved with any of them," I mumbled.

"Possibly by relation," he offered, still looking down at the street.

"Or possibly through the relation of one of his foot soldiers."

"Or victims."

I sighed. "Leo, this is way too broad to try and track down one specific girl and find out what he wanted with her. Especially when we don't even know if she's still alive."

"The children killed in that explosion were all under the age of four except for two," Anna whispered, her eyes downcast. "I don't think a four-year-old could be involved in criminal activities."

"I don't think any of your girls were involved in criminal activities," Leo sighed, looking toward her. "But their fathers or brothers might have been."

"What good would it do Shredder to kill the sister or daughter of one of his allies or enemies?" I challenged.

"Revenge?" Anna suggested.

"Or an ultimatum," Leo added. "Do this or I'll kill your daughter."

I was beginning to get frustrated. "Yes, okay, that's like Shredder. But 'Do this or I'll blow up an orphanage' is not like him."

Leo looked up at me. "Donny, he's given us ultimatums like that before."

"Yeah, us, because we have a God-given responsibility to protect this city and he knows we'd give our lives for these people if it came to that. But the average drug dealer on the street's not gonna feel that way."

"What enemies could he have?" Anna questioned calmly.

Leonardo and I looked at each other. It was funny how she knew nothing about Shredder and yet she knew just what to ask. "That's a very good question, Anna," I mumbled. "Aside from Splinter, and us..."

"Who's Splinter?"

"Our sensei," Leo answered.

"What's that?"

"Teacher," I translated. "He also raised us. He's kind of a father figure although he's not actually our father."

"Oh."

"What reason would he have?" Leo thought out loud.

"Here's a better question, Leo," I mumbled. "What reason would one of his students have? Because I still don't buy that he gave that order and it's a lot more logical to believe that one of his students would have a grudge against an old girlfriend than it is to believe..."

"They said Shredder," Leonardo interrupted.

"Who did?" Anna asked.

"The foot soldiers," he answered quietly. "That I saw at the orphanage. That's how I knew about the bomb. I heard them talking, and they said they were gonna do it Shredder's way. They said his name."

"Maybe they thought the order came from him."

"Is it possible that the guy who said it could've been lying?" Anna offered.

Leo's eyes closed. "I don't know."

"That's more believeable," I informed.

"Maybe," Leo agreed, staring down at the ooftop. "But if that's the case, he didn't get what he wanted."

"If that's the case, Shredder's gonna rip his head off of his body!" I cried. "End of story. I don't think Shredder's gonna like one of his students making up orders and sooner or later, somebody's gonna slip."

Leo sighed deeply and turned around. He leaned on the ledge and stared down at the clean-up efforts. "I don't know Donny," he whispered. "It makes sense, but it doesn't feel right."

"You got a better explanation?"

There was a long silence, while Leo and I stared at each other. Then he turned and walked away.