Chapter Seven

            Barbara pushed herself away from the computer and stretched. She'd been sitting in front of one monitor or another since the early hours of the morning trying to piece together the puzzle in front of her with little success and if she didn't take a break she was going to do some damage to something.

            Who was this woman, Libby Kanly? Why was she killed? Where was her daughter? What was her connection to the Joker and Arkham? She was now confidant there was a connection. The timing not withstanding, the lab report she just intercepted naming Desmond as the most likely candidate to be the killer cinched it. She was the Oracle, one of the top computer hackers in the world. There was nothing she couldn't find out, yet that's exactly what she had found: Nothing.

            And to make it worse, she felt like the answer was staring her in the face.

            She cut the power to her wheelchair and manually wheeled herself to the elevator. The physical exertion felt good. She took the elevator down one level where she kept a fully stocked gym. She used elastic strips to bind her legs together before puling herself up onto the overhead bars. The bars were set at different levels across the room, allowing her to merely reach across to some of them but making her swing to others. She knew she shouldn't be doing this without someone there to spot her, but right now she wanted to be alone.

            She worked out for 45 minutes before lowering herself back into the chair, beaded with sweat. She took the elevator down one more level to her apartment. The false wall panel swung open to allow her access. There were buffers set up around the apartment to keep the noise of anyone working out in the gym non-existent and the hidden panel here and on the ground floor of the building kept access to the upper levels a secret. Dinah had taken over the loft apartment in the mail clock tower room while Alfred had made his room in a small, single bed alcove off the kitchen upstairs. She had tried to talk him into rooming down here with her. Being a three bedroom apartment, it had plenty of room, but he'd refused.

            She showered and changed into fresh clothes. Her hair had been towel dried and pulled back into a pony-tail to keep it out of her face. A quick trip to the kitchen would be all she needed to get her ready to go back upstairs and tackle the puzzle again. But what else could she do. She had one more avenue to pursue but was reluctant to use it. It'd been so long since she'd talked to him she hated to call him up solely on business. He wouldn't mind, of course, but still…

            Back upstairs, she stared a while at the telephone before finally picking it up. She flipped a switch set into the base of the phone before dialing the number. The contraption kept any third party listeners from hearing anything but static. He picked up on the first ring.

            "Hello?" he said cheerily. She'd always marveled at his complexity. Always cheerful, the eternal optimist, yet so single-mindedly driven for perfection. Neither type A nor B personality. Dick Grayson, former Robin and current Nightwing; so much like his mentor, yet so totally different.

            "Hey, Dick. It's me."

            "Barbara!" She almost winced. She could hear his smile widening. "What's going on?"

            "Same old thing," she said. "What about you? How are things in Bludhaven?"

            "We've got a serial killer running around killing innocent Metas with their own powers, but other than that it's been pretty quiet. I think I've got a line on who this guy is but I won't know for sure until after I check a few things out tonight. I'm glad you caught me. I was getting ready to suit up and head out."

            "Got a girlfriend yet?"

            He laughed. "Between my days on the police force and my nights on the rooftops, who has time? Besides, you know I only have eyes for you."

            "Yeah. Me. And Donna. And Kory. And Bette. Who am I forgetting?"

            "Come on, Babs. You know you've always been the one for me. They were simply distractions to help bandage the heart you broke. You're the only one with the power to heal it."

            "Flatterer," Barbara said. "You'd better not tell any of them that of you might get your lungs handed to you."

            "True," he said. Then he grew sober. "What's on your mind, Barbara?"

            "Am I that transparent?"

            "Only to someone who knows you well. So c'mon, spill it."

            "Did Bruce ever mention a woman by the name of Libby Kanly to you?"

            "Not that I can recall. Who is she?"

            She told him everything that had happened over the past day.

            "And you can't find anything on her? At all?"

            "No."

            "Well," he said, his own mental wheels starting to turn, "Libby isn't a standard first name."

            "No," Barbara confirmed. "Her real name was Elise, although she never used it. Libby is a common nickname for Elise. Elise is also short for Elizabeth, and once you start getting into the nicknames for Elizabeth, you might as well plan on staying for awhile. I know. I tried them all."

            She could hear him mumbling the name softly to himself. "Elise, Elise." Suddenly he asked, "How was her last name spelled?"

            She spelled it for him. There was a brief pause, and then he broke out laughing.

            "Spill it, Bird Boy. What's so funny?"

            "Considering the circumstances, nothing. I just can't believe a puzzle guru like you missed it. Her name. Elise Kanly is-"

            As soon as he said puzzle, it hit her.

            "-an anagram!" she finished. Letters of a phrase rearranged to make another phrase. The letters clicked in her mind, and she knew. "That son-of-a-bitch! He knew all along!" She realized she was yelling into the phone and forced herself to calm down. "Dick, I've got to go. I need to let Dinah now what's going on. She's the one who's going to be in the middle of this."

            "Do I need to make a field trip?" he asked, serious again.

            "No, not right now. If anything happens, I'll let you know. I just need to talk to Dinah."

            "Fair enough. I'll take my COM link with me tonight, just in case."

            "Okay. And Dick…thanks."

            "Anytime red." His voice was smiling again.

            Barbara hung up and pulled on her headset. She punched in Black Canary's access code. "Dinah."

            "I'm here, cruising the highways and byways of Goth-"

            "Dinah, shut up. You need to hear this. I know who the woman was. Her name was an anagram. Elise Kanly was Selina Kyle. The girl you're looking for is Catwoman's daughter."