"Oooh, detective work!" Max says, rubbing her hands together enthusiastically. "Sure. What're you looking for?"
Terry sits down on the yellow beanbag chair in the center of her bedroom floor. "I need you to find some info on a girl named Melanie Walker. She used to be…"
"…in the Royal Flush Gang," Max concludes. "I know."
Terry nods. "I think she may be getting involved in some bad business again. Can you find out who she's working for? I bet she's on parole or probation, something like that, so it'll be on a record somewhere."
"Okay," Max responds, hopping into her swivel chair and turning around to face the computer. "That means looking in Gotham City police files. If I can't find it there, I'll try the state next."* Of course that information will be on a secured database, but it won't be that hard to hack it – she's done it before, she knows the encryption algorithms that the GPD uses to protect its data. Getting into the file doesn't take her more than five minutes.
"There you go!" Max proclaims triumphantly, kicking the swivel chair back from the desk and waving at the monitor. Terry thanks her and gets up to take a look.
On the screen are two mug shots of a young woman with platinum-blonde hair and pale blue eyes, one straight-on and one in profile. There's also a blown-up picture of her fingerprint. Under the graphics her personal info is listed – full name, date of birth, physical description, blood type, her criminal record, et cetera, et cetera. Terry taps the page down key a few times as he scans for her employment information. Suddenly he stops tapping the key and his eyebrows go up.
"Hey, what is it?" Max asks, walking her chair back to the desk so she can get a glimpse at the screen.
"She's a secretary at VibranTech now," Terry explains. "That's the nanotech plant that Kobra broke into a few days ago." He steps back, looking puzzled. "The police found out that someone else was behind it, but they don't know who." Terry starts pacing back and forth, his eyes on the floor in front of him. "Maybe she's connected with it somehow. I'll definitely have to follow up on this." He stops and looks out the window.
Outside, the sky over the rooftops is lit up with the colors of sunset. Terry spends a few seconds gazing at it – obviously thinking hard about something – and then turns back to Max. "I have to get going," he tells her. "Call me in an hour. There's something I have to do before I go out," he says, walking toward the door.
Max gets the feeling that Terry's hiding something from her. "What exactly do you have to do?" She asks.
Terry opens the door. "I have to meet someone. I'll explain later, when I know more about what's going on."
Max nods. "Okay. See ya." She waves. Terry waves back and exits, closing the door behind him.
"Hmm." Max turns back to the computer screen. She scrolls up the page, back to Melanie Walker's mug shots, and examines them for a few seconds, thinking that this whole thing is way weird.
And then, belatedly, she makes the connection. Terry wanted to get information about Melanie because she's the person he's going to meet with. But why didn't he tell Max? He's never kept any secrets from her, not since she found out about the Batman thing.
Evidently, though, he's now keeping at least one.
~***~
Terry feels kind of guilty for not telling Max the whole story. But he can't tell her about Melanie. That whole thing is too…complicated to share even with his best friend. Even Mr. Wayne doesn't know the whole story – he knows that Terry fell for Melanie, but he doesn't know just how far their relationship ended up going, in the short time that it lasted.
He leaves his bike in the garage under his apartment building and walks the few blocks to the now deserted park. When he gets there the last rays of the sun are just visible on the western edge of the sky. As he approaches he perks up his ears, keeps his eyes peeled. No telling what might be hiding in the trees and bushes, especially since the lampposts placed here and there are not bright enough or numerous enough to dispel the many gathering shadows. Sounds of chirping crickets and croaking toads fill the warm night air, all but supplanting the white noise one usually hears in a city.
Terry heads for the pond, walks toward the little cluster of trees and bushes where he met Melanie earlier this evening. Paranoia makes him decide to go around the clump instead of through it. Not paranoia picked up from Wayne, but the simple, sensible paranoia that anyone who has lived in Gotham City for any appreciable length of time tends to develop. After all, even with Batman around this town still has one of the highest crime rates in the country.
There's no sign of Melanie, but it's not quite after dark yet. She should be along soon. Terry realizes that he's trying to reassure himself that she will be here, even though he's also afraid of meeting her – especially since they will be alone, without the presence of other people to give them some measure of protection from each other's emotions. On his way here he came up with a few possible reasons why her boss might want to meet him. The most probable of these is the one he likes least. But he'll know one way or the other, soon enough.
His ears catch the sound of rustling grass. He turns towards the source of the noise and sees Melanie approaching from a stand of pine trees close by. Even from here he can tell she's as nervous as he is. That makes him feel a little better. But not much.
Melanie stops on the path in front of him, standing – very deliberately, it seems to him – just out of arm's reach. "I was afraid you wouldn't come," she admits, without preamble. Then she drops her eyes. "I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you. Right now, though, you'll have to trust me a little bit." Melanie looks up at him again, and he sees mixed fear and determination in her eyes. "I should warn you, what I have to say might…it might make you upset."
Terry didn't expect anything else. He nods.
She takes a deep breath. "Remember I said that my boss wanted to talk to you? Well, that's not exactly true." Melanie drops her eyes again. "She wants to talk to Batman," she confesses in a near mumble.
This confirms his worst suspicions, but at least it doesn't come as a big shock. Instead he gets a sort of numb feeling, as if all his panic circuits have just overloaded and shut down. "I figured that might be it," he says. "But tell me one thing – how did she know?" Maybe she's just one of those rare people who can match wits with Bruce Wayne. That's the most likely possibility.
Melanie looks up, a little surprised. "She doesn't. I just told her I knew how to get in touch with Batman. With you. I haven't told anybody."
Okay, so the most likely possibility turned out to be wrong. "Then I guess I should ask…how did you find out?"
A smile flickers across Melanie's face. "My parents taught me to pay attention to little details. I spent a lot of time around both of you – I mean, you and Batman – and I noticed a lot of little details." She chuckles, somewhat bitterly. "But I didn't add it all up until later. After the last time we saw each other." Then she pauses for a moment of thought. "Not when you visited me at the restaurant to ask about my family. I mean the time before that." Both of them are silent for a couple of seconds. "When did you figure out that I was Ten?"
This throws Terry for yet another loop. "What?"
"I told you when I figured out that you were Batman," she reminds him, her tone of voice saying that this gives him an obligation to answer her question.
Well, why not? The information won't do anyone any harm. "After you called me and said you couldn't see me again, I…I traced the phone number and went over there as Batman." Now it's his turn to drop his eyes. He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "It was a pretty stupid thing to do, I know. I found some stolen jewellery with a playing card on it," he explains. "You know the rest." Actually, he'd had his suspicions before then, but they were too vague to count.
Melanie sighs. He somehow gets the impression that she wants to continue this conversation, but she does just the opposite. "Sorry. I really got us off track."
"It's okay," Terry assures her. It was his fault, too.
She gets back to business, much to his relief. "Anyway, my boss wants to meet you – Batman – you know – at midnight tonight. You pick the place."
That was something – she is going out of her way to make sure he can meet her on his own terms. He thinks for a few moments, trying to pick a good place. "Tell her," he says, "To meet me at the big dock by the Pier." Although the Pier shopping mall and amusement park were still open and bustling at midnight, the dock near it would be empty. It was a good place, since it was easy to find but still relatively out of the way.
Melanie nods. Then she smiles. "Meeting with you will mean a lot to her. Thanks for coming." She starts backing up, waves to him and then turns to dart out of the park, like she wants to get away from him as quickly as possible. He understands why, since he too is relieved that their meeting is over. The history between them won't permit anything else.
Terry starts making his own way out of the park. Only when he finally leaves it and steps out onto the concrete does it occur to him to wonder what the hell he's just gotten himself into.
* My sources say that Gotham City is supposed to be in New Jersey, by the way.