Chapter Eight
Too Many Heroes
Cary Young lived by himself in the penthouse apartment of a ten-story building in one of Gotham's more affluent sections.
The wide, sculpted terraces around the four sides of the building formed part of the deco architecture. The concrete railings and the balusters curved inwards, so they were virtually invisible from the street, making the building appear as if it had unsupported shelves suspended at regular intervals along the sides.
A line, attached to a small wedge of black metal cut to resemble a bat's wing, wrapped itself around one of the ornate railings and held fast. A moment later, a black-gloved hand caught hold of the structure, followed immediately by another. Batman pulled himself onto the balcony, muscles rippling under the grey fabric of his costume. At the same moment, a pair of green-clad legs dangled from the rooftop overhead. With an inward swing at the last minute, Green Arrow landed gracefully on the terrace. Like the other crimefighter, his arrival was virtually silent.
"Not bad," he told his companion quietly. "Maybe we should have raced."
The other man ignored him and turned his attention to the steel security screen stretched across the French windows. Very paranoid thing for a simple, honest denizen of the theatre to have around. After studying it thoughtfully for a few seconds, he fished in his utility belt for an electronic lock-pick that would disable the locking mechanism without alerting anyone to the presence of the intruders.
A small figure detached itself noiselessly from the shadows. Green Arrow, instantly alert, moved toward the potted shrubs...and stopped dead at the sight that greeted his astonished eyes.
"Well," he breathed. "What do you know? Is this the surprise you were saving for later, Pretty Bird?"
The moonlight glinted off her wig and turned her skin pale as she looked up into his face with a huge, beaming smile that made his heart melt. "Do you like it?" she asked him softly. The smile on his face was all the answer she needed.
Dinah herself was ecstatic, for another reason besides the sheer thrill of getting back into the action and doing something for herself instead of sitting around wringing her hands and feeling helpless. He'd called her Pretty Bird again. The endearment had all but disappeared from their relationship the last several years. The term itself called to mind Black Canary, and thus, the absence of her former identity. It hurt Dinah to hear it and, after seeing his lover flinch a few times, it hurt Ollie to say it.
Batman cleared his throat, reminding the couple of his presence. "Black Canary the Second, I presume?"
He gave her the once-over and was apparently impressed by what he saw. Beneath the half-mask he wore, enough of his expression was visible to make Green Arrow dubious. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he put a possessive arm around her shoulders. She looked up at her boyfriend and shook her head.
"Nice to meet you," she told Batman with a polite smile. Her inspection of him was just as appreciative, if more furtive. Unfortunately, there was just enough moonlight to give her a good look at his costume, and the term 'man-panties' popped unbidden into her head. She bit her lower lip to stifle a nearly irrepressible urge to laugh. You and your stupid sense of humour, she thought, looking at Oliver.
Batman opened the terrace door. "Ladies first," he announced cavalierly, holding the door open for Black Canary. She was glad to escape into the darkness of the penthouse. Green Arrow gave the other man a glare as he followed her inside, but failed to register the look of amusement on his face.
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The threesome separated and began to search Young's home office. They worked swiftly and noiselessly. Batman, putting his safe-cracking skills to work, noted the professionalism the other two showed in the endeavour. He hadn't expected that level of competence from either one of them, based on his preconceptions and the brief time he'd spent with the undisciplined Green Arrow. The girl in particular seemed skilled at this kind of delicate ransacking. She might be years out of practice, but she hadn't lost the knack.
Green Arrow clicked his tongue in satisfaction as he discovered a false bottom in one of the drawers of the massive mahogany desk. "Ah ha!" he said a moment later, perusing a ledger with the aid of his penlight. "Gotcha!"
"What did you find?" Black Canary left her search of the bookcase and crossed the room on silent feet to peer over his shoulder. Batman looked up from his work for a moment to see about the latest development.
"Not a lot," the archer admitted in a quiet voice. "But it's more than we found in the office downtown — told you we should have come here first. He does have a second set of books, just like we thought. Check this out: here's a payment sheet in the name of one John Gee."
Batman went back to rifling the contents of the safe, only slightly impressed. "It's a start," he admitted in his taciturn way.
It was also a finish; though the trio searched for almost an hour, they found nothing else that could tie Young to Ballard, Johnny G., or Diana Lance.
Fed up, Green Arrow suggested, "Let's just go roust him out of bed and force a confession out of the bastard."
His girlfriend viewed the idea with concerned skepticism, but it was Batman who vetoed it absolutely. "No way," he said coldly. "We've done all we can here."
Oliver's mouth fell open in consternation as he watched the tall man leave through the French windows and make his way up to the roof, clearly expecting his companions to follow him. The couple exchanged glances of shock and disapproval. He had no right to be giving either of them orders but they followed him anyway, out of boredom and sheer frustration as much as any sense of agreement.
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He hadn't bothered leaving any of his neat toys behind for their use. With a scowl, Green Arrow gave his girlfriend a boost up to the cornice framing the top of the door, then hauled himself onto the roof after her. Batman stood in wait for them, arms crossed over his broad chest. His body language managed to convey his impatience with them without stating it overtly.
He seemed to have appointed himself the supreme authority in command of this case. His territorial attitude smacked of medieval feudalism at its finest; merely crossing the city limits — or was it the state line? — was, in his apparent estimation, tantamount to giving him permission to take over any investigation.
However, Green Arrow was not the sort of man to step into a subordinate role gracefully. The bowman stalked over to the Dark Knight and stood nose to nose with the other man, his posture aggressive.
"Listen to me, you insufferable, long-eared lunatic. What exactly gives you the right to think you can tell us how to run an investigation?" he demanded. "I've been in this business as long as you have, mister, and Canary's a trained detective. We're more than capable of looking into this mess without having to rely on the help of the great and wonderful Batman. This doesn't concern you."
"That's exactly what gives me the right," announced Batman calmly in that raspy, deep voice of his.
The blond archer seemed poised to jump down his throat, but a light touch on his arm restrained him. Oliver looked down at the woman by his side; she wasn't looking any too thrilled with the Bat herself, but she indicated her willingness to at least listen to what he had to say. Her partner scowled fiercely at the other man, but he stood down.
"I could get away with waging a campaign of aggression, but you can't. Not under the circumstances. There's a good chance your identities have been compromised, so you have to tread lightly. There's a time to be a detective, and a time to be a thug," he announced pompously.
Oliver had been in a good humour most of the day, but Batman was having a detrimental effect on his positive mood. "You do know you're the biggest hypocrite in the known universe, don't you?" he asked the cowled figure belligerently. He'd think thug in a minute.
"And do you realise that if you go too far right now, Young could turn around and accuse you of harassment?"
Dinah cast her eyes heavenward. What colossal egos they had! Honestly, one of them was as bad as the other. Before the tension between the two men had a chance to escalate, she moved between them.
"Excuse me," she interjected, "but if you two little boys don't mind, there's this little matter of protecting my mother I'd like to get back to. Feel free to join me if you're through with your macho pissing contest."
And with that she stalked off to the other side of the roof, leaving the two men to stare after her for a second or two before exchanging surprised glances. Women, they were both clearly thinking.
Impressed, Batman commented wryly, "Kind of feisty, isn't she?"
"Oh, yeah!" the other man confirmed, one side of his moustache quirked up in a smile. Dinah always had been "feisty" but it had been a long time since he'd seen her in her element. Just like the spirited teenager he'd first met. He gave Batman a look of sudden suspicion. "But she's also taken. So don't go gettin' any ideas, bud."
Batman gave his companion a look of mild contempt. "Hardly. There are enough costumed females in this town already."
Green Arrow nodded. With sudden interest, he asked, "That woman in the cat suit — is she the same way?"
"She has claws."
"Ah."
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Black Canary seated herself on a rooftop air-conditioning unit, and sat scowling at the lights of the city. Men! she thought mutinously. Can't trust a woman, even an experienced one, to do "man's work", but they can't be bothered to do it for sniping at each other. I should have sent Oliver to New York and put on the costume again the second anything happened.
The two "little boys" put in an appearance, Batman on one side, making no attempt to sit; Green Arrow on the other, sitting down close to her but making no attempt to touch her. Typically, neither of them seemed chastened in the slightest.
"It's time we discuss this whole situation like three rational adults," pronounced Batman, strongly implying the idea was his all along. His demeanour gave the impression that he believed himself to be the only rational adult present.
Like most long-term couples, Dinah and Oliver could communicate without words a good deal of the time. She turned to him with an expression that clearly said, I see what you mean about this guy. However, he wasn't about to get off easily, either.
"Well, it would be a nice change," scoffed Black Canary. "But it's not exactly surprising we haven't managed it so far. My partner here has that effect on people."
"Hey!" her lover objected fondly.
Batman ignored the by-play and concentrated on business. "I think we can take it as a given that Young is the one who's been targeting your mother. But he's always been incredibly good at covering his tracks. We have to find some conclusive link to criminal activity before we dare move on him directly. At the moment, all we have is a tenuous connection to Johnny G."
"There's nothing on his computer?"
"Nothing. He must keep his important files on backups and delete them from the hard drive. But the recovery software didn't come up with anything. It must have been overwritten already."
Green Arrow scuffed the gravel pensively with the toe of his boot. "Okay, he doesn't have anything like that at the office, he doesn't have it at home, unless it's in another room we didn't get a chance to look in. It's got to be somewhere, dammit."
"We better find something soon, before he succeeds in killing Mom," Dinah reminded them.
Batman hastened to reassure her, "She should be safe for awhile. Commissioner Gordon has a police guard outside the door of her hospital room after the attempt on her life last night."
"I know that, but forgive me if I don't have a whole lot of faith in the competence of Gotham's finest. Especially considering we're having to do their job for them."
"They're not incompetent, just undermanned," argued Batman. "That's why they need occasional help from people like us."
"Well, they've done a hell of a job acquitting themselves so far," she shot back. "If they could have been bothered to believe us when we told them she was in danger, she never would have been attacked in the first place."
Green Arrow nodded his agreement, but Batman disagreed. "They had no reason to assume there was anything more to the case than a simple attempted burglary. You're too close to the situation; you've lost perspective." She shot a furious glare in his direction, but he continued, "That's not to say there's no urgency in getting Young out of the way before he can harm your mother, but we have to find some hard evidence. Perhaps if you —"
"I still say we take off the kid gloves and go after him directly, right here and now," Green Arrow interrupted.
"No, Oliver, he's right," Dinah said softly. "At least about that. We have to get enough evidence so the cops can have a reason to hold him. I don't think I could stand it if the same thing that happened with Derek Rambaldi happened here."
He had to think a minute before he remembered Rambaldi, and the details of her last case. She'd spent months accumulating incriminating evidence on the powerful drug czar, as had the Seattle police department, but the courts hadn't considered it conclusive enough to go to trial. His walking away from the indictment unscathed had been the final straw in her decision to get out of the crimefighting business. It had taken a long time for her to recover from that blow.
"Perhaps if you tried talking to your mother," suggested Batman, as if he'd never been interrupted.
"Her mommy doesn't want her anywhere near this case," Oliver said scathingly. He felt sorry for Diana, but his general feeling toward the woman hadn't changed, especially regarding the way she treated her daughter. "And it's not like I could get anything more out of her,"
Dinah rounded on him furiously. Her fear and frustration were wearing her nerves to shreds, and she wasn't up to listening to any more of his sarcasm. "Maybe that's because she knows you don't take this seriously," she told him unfairly. "You don't care what happens to her, you never have."
Green Arrow turned to her with a shocked expression. "Take it seriously!" he shouted angrily. "Dinah, goddammit, think a minute! If they succeed in killing your mother, and they don't find what they're looking for, there's a good possibility they might decide to come after her next of kin. How seriously do you think I take that!"
"I told you it was my problem in the first place —" Black Canary began, but Batman didn't let her finish.
"Keep your voices down!" he ordered. "This is no time or place for a lover's quarrel."
"Butt out!" they both told him, but their voices were lower.
He wondered if that sort of volatile romantic relationship was endemic among people in costume. Disapprovingly he said, "It looks as if we're not going to accomplish anything productive tonight. There's someone I need to talk to. I'll contact you tomorrow," and disappeared off the side of the building, leaving them to fight it out. At home, with any luck.
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Commissioner James Gordon was awakened by the pressure of a hand on his shoulder. "Hmm?" he inquired sleepily, rolling over.
Silhouetted in the moonlight streaming through the light draperies was a frightening figure, massive and dark. Gordon sat bolt upright, clutching at the bedclothes, and waited for his breathing and heart rate to return to normal. He was used to his old friend's sudden appearances from out of nowhere — well, as much as anyone could get used to something so inherently startling — but not in his bedroom! He darted a fearful glance at his wife's sleeping form, relieved she hadn't been disturbed by his momentary panic. Sarah wasn't much of a fan of Batman at the best of times.
The dark figure put a finger to his lips and moved silently to the bedroom door and out into the upstairs hall. Gordon picked up his glasses and followed reluctantly, knotting the sash of his bathrobe as he moved downstairs.
"What the devil do you think you're doing, breaking into my house in the middle of the night?" he demanded of his old friend. He remembered to keep his voice low to avoid waking Sarah.
"You weren't at the office," Batman answered unapologetically.
"Well, what is it you need to talk to me about?" groused the commissioner.
"I thought you might be interested to know who was behind the attack on the woman in her hospital room last night," said Batman.
"All right, what have you got?"
"Not much at the moment," admitted Batman. "But the threads are starting to come together. You think it's possible to offer our little injured friend a deal in exchange for information about his boss?"
Gordon considered the proposition carefully. "I don't know what the D.A. will have to say about it, but it might be worth a shot. If you're talking about the guy I think you are, we've never been able to get a scrap of evidence on him."
Batman gave him an enigmatic look. "If you can get the grounds to arrest him, Jim, I'm fairly sure I know where to find all the evidence you need to make a solid connection with organized crime."
"That'd be a relief," Gordon told him. "You know, I used to know the woman who was attacked. Diana Drake, her name was then. Her dad was a hero of mine when I first joined the force...he was the guy everybody who wanted to be an honest cop looked up to. I haven't seen Diana since his funeral. How did she end up mixed up in this mess, I wonder?"
"Maybe she decided to carry on her father's work," Batman suggested. There was a hint of something Gordon took to be irony in his voice, and the older man snorted.
"Maybe. I don't suppose you happen to know how her assailant ended up with an arrow through his leg, do you?" The dark eyes behind the cowl narrowed slightly and Gordon felt, as he usually did, an unwilling compulsion to explain. "At first he claimed it was somebody who was working for you."
"Hardly my style, Commissioner."
Gordon nodded in agreement. "That's what I thought. Though I'll be honest with you, there are others in the department who aren't so sure. At any rate he's changed his story a couple of times since then. Now he seems to think Young or somebody else he worked for is out to get him. He even claimed at one point that it was the lady's son-in-law that shot him."
That tidbit caught the other man's interest. "Did you follow up on that?"
"Yeah. The fellow wanted to know how exactly we figured a middle-aged florist was gonna climb up the side of a public building and into a fifth floor window. And Diana Lance has no idea who her rescuer might be."
"If Johnny's that paranoid about his boss, that might be to our advantage."
"Just what I was thinking," the commissioner replied. "I'll talk to the D.A.'s office tomorrow, see what I can work out. Meanwhile, do me a favour? Next time, if you can't catch me at the office, don't come through my bedroom window anymore."