Book Two: Chaos

Chapter 15

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New Chapter, read, enjoy and review.

You might think I was prepared for this day but I wasn't. I realized this as I stood there frozen in fear. The air was actually knocked out of my lungs as I struggled to keep breathing. As if my body paralyzed in fear has forgotten completely how to function properly. It was the Joker and it was much more impressive and creepier than he was in the movie.

I snapped out of it as I saw him threatened one of the guests with his knife. "Drop the knife." I said loudly enough and surprised that my voice wasn't shaking as I expected it to. I drew out my gun and realized that it was probably not the smartest thing to do.

"Well, hello, beautiful." The Joker said looking at me. "The mysterious girl." He chuckled and I was stunned by the way he called me. Did he know about me? It can't be possible. "Oh, yeah, I know all about you, Mystery girl."

"Please call me Detective Sanders." I countered.

"Detective?" He raised his eyebrows walking towards me. "I'll drop this before I'll hurt somebody." But I stood my ground and didn't let go of my gun. He chuckled before grabbing an innocent bystander. "Drop your gun or I'll hurt this pretty lady." The horror in the woman's eyes, his knife under her throat was enough for me to lower my gun and dropped it on the ground. "That's better." He shoved the woman back in the crowd before walking up to me. He pushed my gun away with his foot and rounded me. I couldn't help but to flinch away from him. "You look nervous. Is it the scars?"

"Scars? What scars? I don't see any scars." I replied. I really need to lock it up.

"Don't worry. You can say it. I'm not ashamed of them." The Joker retorted. "You wanna know how I got them?"

"No. I'm good with not knowing." I replied before I could stop myself.

"Come here. Hey." He grabbed me by the back of my neck and pulled me to him. He pressed his knife against my face. "Look at me." I didn't move knowing well that it was useless. "So I had a wife. She was beautiful, like you. Who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to smile more, who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. One day they carve her face. And we have no money for surgeries. She can't take it. I just wanna see her smile again. Hm'?" I gulped down. "I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars. So, I stick a razor in my mouth and do this to myself."

"Romantic. Gruesome but romantic." I commented. "Let me guess, she left."

"You—you are really smart." He smiled crazily, waving his knife a bit too close to my face.

"Thanks." I said before kneeing him in the groin.

He laughed. "You got a little fight in you. I like that."

"Then you're gonna love me." Batman said as he appeared before punching the Joker in the stomach.

The other thugs started to attack Batman. I blocked one of them as they were about to kick him. I shoved his leg back before punching them in the face. I pulled another off of Batman, swung him around before punching him in the face. I was shoved on the table that stood on the side. I grabbed a silver plate on one of the table. I turned around and used it as a weapon. I slapped one thug with the plate and he fell down. The people around us started to run away from the scene. Batman and I fighting side by side would have been awesome if we weren't fighting the Joker and his thugs. And if I wasn't wearing heels.

Someone grabbed me from behind and I felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against my temple. "Drop the gun." Batman said as I was brought near the glass window. I wasn't looking forward the outcome of this situation.

"Oh, sure. You just take off your little mask and show us all who you really are. Hm?" The Joker said. I shook my head at Batman as the Joker shot the window behind us.

He pushed towards it and held me by the arm as half of my body was still inside and the other half on the wrong side of the window. "Don't!" I said remembering and knowing what Batman was about to say.

But he said it anyway. "Let her go."

"Very poor choice of words." And the Joker let me go.

The fear I felt before when I met the Joker was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. My heart was in my stomach, my senses was all over the place and I screamed at the top of my lungs. I saw Batman sliding down towards me, his hands reaching out to grab mine. We reached the end of platform and now I was really falling in the emptiness. I felt his gloves hands grabbed my arms, he pulled me closer to him as we kept falling down. Our course ended when we fell on the taxi that was parked in front of the building.

Twice, I've wanted to avoid Rachel being caught in a life threatening situation. Twice I ended up being in this situation instead of her. It was annoying.

"We're still alive." Was the first words that came out of my mouth.

"Are you alright?" Batman asked me.

"Next time when I say 'don't' just don't." I replied leaning my head on his arms closing my eyes.

I slid down the hood of the car after I recovered a little bit. My legs were shaking and my heart was hammering against my chest. Batman disappeared as a crowd started to gather around us. I couldn't walk just yet, so I leaned a bit on the hood, trying to get my heart to beat as a normal rate.

"Emma!" Sue exclaimed as soon as she stepped out of the building. "Thank God! You're okay." She breathed in my hair as she took me in her arms. "I thought you were dead." She said looking at me.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." I reassured her. "Harvey?"

"He's alright." She nodded pulling me back to her. "Don't do this ever again."

"Not promising anything."

I drove to the outskirts of town where John and the Judge Surillo were hiding. I had rented a small house a few weeks ago. No one knew, not even Bruce. It was safer this way. I walked up the front porch and knocked three times on the door.

"John, open up, it's me Emma." I announced through the door.

I heard the door being unlocked before John opened it. "Hey, Emma!"

"Is everyone alright?" I said stepping inside.

"Yeah."

"Detective Sanders." Judge Surillo nodded at me.

"Judge Surillo." I nodded back at her. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes. I'm ready to go home." She said.

"We'll have to make a stop first." I told her. "I'll drop John at the boy's house and you and I are going to the MCU."

"Why?"

"Commissioner Loeb is dead." I replied.

I dropped John back to the boy's house and made him promise that he would lay low for a while. Make himself forget, just in case. Better be safe. After that I brought the Judge to the MCU with me.

"The prosecution's over." I heard Stephens said. "Nobody's standing up in front of a judge while judges and commissioners are getting blown away."

"Already giving up, Stephens." I said as soon as I joined the small group.

"Loeb is dead." He reminded unnecessarily.

"And I'm sorry to hear it." Judge Surillo said stepping next to me. "But it's the moment for us to strike them, to prove to the mob that we aren't scared of them."

"Judge Surillo? We thought…" Gordon started.

"You have your detective to thank for this." She cut him off looking at me. "I don't know how she knew what was going to happen but she did save my life." Gordon and Stephens looked at me with baffled expressions. "The prosecution still stands." With that she turned around ready to leave our HQ. She stopped and turned back around. "I believe this is yours." She said giving me back my badge.

"Thanks." I smiled at her. "Do you want me to drive you back home?"

"I think I can handle it from here." I gave her the keys to my car.

"Just don't drive your car. I'll sent the bomb disposal expert to your place to work on your car."

She gave me a funny look like she was going to say something but as if she thought about it, she just turned around and left the MCU. I turned around and was met with Gordon's and Stephens' staring at me.

"Look, I can explain." I started but Gordon raised his hand up.

"Johnson called last night and gave me the result of the analysis." Gordon explained and then continued. "Something that you asked him to do." He glanced at Stephens before looking back at me. "Now, I don't know how you knew and I stopped asking questions a long time ago but you did a great job, kid. Once again."

"Anything more that you wish to share with us?" Stephens asked me crossing his arms over his chest.

I took a deep breath, looked around me and when the cost seemed clear, I spoke. "We really need to keep an eye on Wuertz." I whispered.

Gordon looked around him quickly and pulled us both into his office. "What do you mean?" He locked the door behind him, closed the stores and turned around.

"Dent was right. He is corrupted. He's working with the mob." I bluntly said. "We can't trust him."

"Come on, Rookie. He's one of us. He wouldn't do this." Stephens snorted.

"Do you have any proof?" Gordon asked me.

"Proof? I got plenty of this." I said dropping the file I was holding in my hands since I came in the MCU.

Both men got closer to the desk and opened the file. Gordon picked up the sheets about his bank accounts, Stephens picked up the pictures on which we could see Wuertz talking to thugs down in the narrows. On one of them we could even see Wuertz taking money from them.

"Is that proof enough for you?" I asked them leaning on the desk while they were still reading it.

Gordon paused slightly in what he was doing. "What do you suggest, then?"

"We let him think that we don't know. We don't confront him, not yet."

"What we're just gonna let him walk around the MCU with access to every information we have?" Stephens squinted his eyes at me.

"Not all the information we have. The information we are willing to let him have access to."

My heart was racing as I approached the city hall. I needed to know why Commissioner Loeb died in spite of my best efforts. In spite of everything I did to avoid that. I could have gone to Sue and checked with her if she's really done it but I just wanted to be sure before going to her.

It was already lunch time and I knew she had a date with Liam. So I took this opportunity to go and look into her office. I thought that maybe she has made the exchange but it didn't work because someone saw her. I hoped it was actually that. Everyone knew I paid her some visits sometimes, so they didn't pay attention to me.

I smiled to a few of her colleagues and walked behind her desk and sat on her chair. I looked under it where I saw her placed the bottle and what I saw—just made me furious. I stepped out of the city hall completely enraged. How could she lie to my face?

Sue said she did exchange them but she never did. The bottle and the glass were still sitting under her desk, wrapped up. I can't believe that I actually trusted her. I can't believe…

There must be some sort of explanation, right? Maybe, someone knew and just placed the bottle back into place. Yeah, that's it. She swapped the bottle but someone made another switch and that's why Commissioner Loeb died.

But in some part, deep down, I knew it wasn't the explanation. The truth was Sue has never made the exchange. And I needed to figure out why? I needed to know why she didn't do it? I needed to know why she lied to me? But not yet. Not now.

Tell me how are we supposed to feel when you realized that your best friend, your family betrayed your trust in them? How am I supposed to deal with that?

Alright, it's shorter than the previous one. Now tell me what you think? Is Sue a traitor or a friend?