Seeing the Sights
A Batman/Vertigo fanfic by Brian Doyle
Chapter 1
Night, Gotham Police HQ
Commisioner James Gordon sighed and stared around his office, anything to prevent himself having to look at the crime scene photos.
He used a trick he'd learned years ago to while away the watchful hours of the night; trying to find patterns in random patterns of light and dark around the room. It was an urban version of watching clouds he supposed; that patch of light, for example, looked a bit like a wooden horse he'd had when he was a boy; those spots of light cast by the shadow of the Venetian blinds looked like a string of beads his wife had been fond of wearing; that patch of streetlight on the wall over by the window could almost be the outline of a familiar stylised bat.
He shook himself out of his reverie as the pattern of the patch moved by itself, a human shape seeming to materialise around it from the shadows.
"Good grief man! How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long" replied the Batman "You seemed to be deep in thought, I didn't want to disturb you. What can you tell me?" he gestured towards the file on the desk.
"His name was Nicholas James Evans, known on the streets as Nicky. He was 15 years old. Small time hustler and prostitute with a minor rap sheet. A runaway who just kept on running away, ended up in Bludhaven of all places, poor kid. The usual busts for possession and vice. Social services files an inch thick, but not a big player by any means."
"I take it Bludhaven PD aren't bothering themselves to investigate?"
"The boy worked out of Bludhaven, but he was from Gotham originally and the Motel is slightly closer to us than to Bludhaven, so they kindly decided to flimflam us and dump it onto our caseload. They at least sent his file through."
"Well, at least that improves the chances of the case being solved by at least a factor of five."
Gordon smiled mirthlessly, then looked down at the desk again and his face became stony again. "True. If ever a town needed a Batman more than Gotham City, Bludhaven would top my list."
"Mine too, but I have too much to do here to worry about other cities. Such situations often breed their own heroes, one will come along eventually."
"I hope you're right. But we have matters of our own to deal with."
"I know, I saw"
"No you didn't, the body wasn't found until 10.30am and that's way after your bedtime. You didn't see what I had to see."
"I was there tonight, checking things over."
"Once the body as gone it's always easier."
"I checked the body too, down in the morgue. Believe me, it's not easier."
Gordon sighed heavily, "You treat this place like we just lease it from you sometimes."
(One part of Batman's mind automatically registered that technically the GCPD did exactly that. Wayne Enterprises owned the freehold on the building and let them have it for a peppercorn rent. He didn't even view his habit of making such odd, seemingly trivial connections as strange, you could never tell when it might form the basis of a useful link in a case.)
"The post mortem confirms death followed blood loss from drastic ocular trauma."
"'Confirms'? What was there to confirm? The damn kid had his eyes cut out with something like a hunting knife, then the sick.... " Gordon groped for a word obscene enough and gave up "...whoever did this, half-ate the eyes. Chewed them up and then left the remains behind like on the bedside table as if they were nothing more than peanut shells, whilst the boy is bleeding to death in front of him. And to top it all off, somehow, somehow he managed to do this without leaving a single piece of physical evidence. No hairs, no prints, nothing."
"Dental records for the teethmarks on the eyes? Saliva?"
Gordon shuddered, "How can you say that so matter of factly?"
"The same way you can look at those pictures, we need to find whoever did this. I'll stress out later, in my own time. The teeth marks are a clue that needs looking at."
"The dental work is being sent up to Quantico for analysis."
"The post mortem also confirmed that there was evidence of recent sexual activity, but it's unlikely that whoever did this was his first customer of the night, or that they didn't use protection, so that's a slim chance of being any use. We're not even sure there was sex involved in this case."
"Rape, not sex. The boy was a minor."
Gordon threw the photos on the desk in front of him. Each showed, from a different angle, the body of Nicky Evans. Curly reddish hair hung around his face, but any attempt to read an emotion from his face was made impossible by the fact that where his eyes should be were two bloody holes. Even the remove granted by the fact it was a photograph couldn't prevent the reflexive wave of nausea both men felt.
Gordon took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose "Dear God, you think I'd be used to this sort of thing wouldn't you. In this town death by serial killing is practically listed as 'natural causes' by the coroner."
"I hope we're never that inured to death Jim. And there was nothing natural about this."
The shadowed figure paused for a moment before continuing.
"I checked, and his pimp had no quarrel with him."
"We haven't even been able to find out who his current pimp was!"
"Try the Emergency Room at Bludhaven General... Goes by the name of Sammy Wilkins. I took a little trip over there this evening. He thought I was who ever it was that killed Nicky coming to do the same to him. I decided not to disabuse him of that notion for a while and he kept falling over running away from me."
Gordon didn't ask any more, the rule of law was one thing, but he had a feeling Batman had possibly done the Bludhaven Vice Squad more of a favour than they would ever know, or deserve.
Batman picked up the photograph and looked at it, his face perhaps more determinedly stony than usual, though only someone like James Gordon would have noticed the difference.
Gordon spoke up again, speaking quietly "He's younger than my Barbara, and I guess about the same age as...."
"About." The voice was firm, agreeing, but brooking no questions.
"One request. Keep the boy out of this."
Batman didn't turn but nodded once "I was already planning on sidelining him on this. Some things he's not ready to see this close. Deep down, I'm not sure I am."
"Any ideas as to a perp?"
"Yes. I think you already know what the most likely one is."
Gordon nodded resignedly, "I keep up with the FBI profiling reports. I was hoping that you might be able to disabuse me of the notion."
"No such luck, Jim."
"God forgive me for saying this, but in some ways I almost wish it were one of the loonies at Arkham, those we can predict, this is a new player."
"Is he?"
By the time Gordon turned to ask him what his friend might have meant, he was alone in his office and the two words he whispered went unheard
"The Corinthian"
A Batman/Vertigo fanfic by Brian Doyle
Chapter 1
Night, Gotham Police HQ
Commisioner James Gordon sighed and stared around his office, anything to prevent himself having to look at the crime scene photos.
He used a trick he'd learned years ago to while away the watchful hours of the night; trying to find patterns in random patterns of light and dark around the room. It was an urban version of watching clouds he supposed; that patch of light, for example, looked a bit like a wooden horse he'd had when he was a boy; those spots of light cast by the shadow of the Venetian blinds looked like a string of beads his wife had been fond of wearing; that patch of streetlight on the wall over by the window could almost be the outline of a familiar stylised bat.
He shook himself out of his reverie as the pattern of the patch moved by itself, a human shape seeming to materialise around it from the shadows.
"Good grief man! How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long" replied the Batman "You seemed to be deep in thought, I didn't want to disturb you. What can you tell me?" he gestured towards the file on the desk.
"His name was Nicholas James Evans, known on the streets as Nicky. He was 15 years old. Small time hustler and prostitute with a minor rap sheet. A runaway who just kept on running away, ended up in Bludhaven of all places, poor kid. The usual busts for possession and vice. Social services files an inch thick, but not a big player by any means."
"I take it Bludhaven PD aren't bothering themselves to investigate?"
"The boy worked out of Bludhaven, but he was from Gotham originally and the Motel is slightly closer to us than to Bludhaven, so they kindly decided to flimflam us and dump it onto our caseload. They at least sent his file through."
"Well, at least that improves the chances of the case being solved by at least a factor of five."
Gordon smiled mirthlessly, then looked down at the desk again and his face became stony again. "True. If ever a town needed a Batman more than Gotham City, Bludhaven would top my list."
"Mine too, but I have too much to do here to worry about other cities. Such situations often breed their own heroes, one will come along eventually."
"I hope you're right. But we have matters of our own to deal with."
"I know, I saw"
"No you didn't, the body wasn't found until 10.30am and that's way after your bedtime. You didn't see what I had to see."
"I was there tonight, checking things over."
"Once the body as gone it's always easier."
"I checked the body too, down in the morgue. Believe me, it's not easier."
Gordon sighed heavily, "You treat this place like we just lease it from you sometimes."
(One part of Batman's mind automatically registered that technically the GCPD did exactly that. Wayne Enterprises owned the freehold on the building and let them have it for a peppercorn rent. He didn't even view his habit of making such odd, seemingly trivial connections as strange, you could never tell when it might form the basis of a useful link in a case.)
"The post mortem confirms death followed blood loss from drastic ocular trauma."
"'Confirms'? What was there to confirm? The damn kid had his eyes cut out with something like a hunting knife, then the sick.... " Gordon groped for a word obscene enough and gave up "...whoever did this, half-ate the eyes. Chewed them up and then left the remains behind like on the bedside table as if they were nothing more than peanut shells, whilst the boy is bleeding to death in front of him. And to top it all off, somehow, somehow he managed to do this without leaving a single piece of physical evidence. No hairs, no prints, nothing."
"Dental records for the teethmarks on the eyes? Saliva?"
Gordon shuddered, "How can you say that so matter of factly?"
"The same way you can look at those pictures, we need to find whoever did this. I'll stress out later, in my own time. The teeth marks are a clue that needs looking at."
"The dental work is being sent up to Quantico for analysis."
"The post mortem also confirmed that there was evidence of recent sexual activity, but it's unlikely that whoever did this was his first customer of the night, or that they didn't use protection, so that's a slim chance of being any use. We're not even sure there was sex involved in this case."
"Rape, not sex. The boy was a minor."
Gordon threw the photos on the desk in front of him. Each showed, from a different angle, the body of Nicky Evans. Curly reddish hair hung around his face, but any attempt to read an emotion from his face was made impossible by the fact that where his eyes should be were two bloody holes. Even the remove granted by the fact it was a photograph couldn't prevent the reflexive wave of nausea both men felt.
Gordon took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose "Dear God, you think I'd be used to this sort of thing wouldn't you. In this town death by serial killing is practically listed as 'natural causes' by the coroner."
"I hope we're never that inured to death Jim. And there was nothing natural about this."
The shadowed figure paused for a moment before continuing.
"I checked, and his pimp had no quarrel with him."
"We haven't even been able to find out who his current pimp was!"
"Try the Emergency Room at Bludhaven General... Goes by the name of Sammy Wilkins. I took a little trip over there this evening. He thought I was who ever it was that killed Nicky coming to do the same to him. I decided not to disabuse him of that notion for a while and he kept falling over running away from me."
Gordon didn't ask any more, the rule of law was one thing, but he had a feeling Batman had possibly done the Bludhaven Vice Squad more of a favour than they would ever know, or deserve.
Batman picked up the photograph and looked at it, his face perhaps more determinedly stony than usual, though only someone like James Gordon would have noticed the difference.
Gordon spoke up again, speaking quietly "He's younger than my Barbara, and I guess about the same age as...."
"About." The voice was firm, agreeing, but brooking no questions.
"One request. Keep the boy out of this."
Batman didn't turn but nodded once "I was already planning on sidelining him on this. Some things he's not ready to see this close. Deep down, I'm not sure I am."
"Any ideas as to a perp?"
"Yes. I think you already know what the most likely one is."
Gordon nodded resignedly, "I keep up with the FBI profiling reports. I was hoping that you might be able to disabuse me of the notion."
"No such luck, Jim."
"God forgive me for saying this, but in some ways I almost wish it were one of the loonies at Arkham, those we can predict, this is a new player."
"Is he?"
By the time Gordon turned to ask him what his friend might have meant, he was alone in his office and the two words he whispered went unheard
"The Corinthian"