Part 2, Two: Pants on Fire

Monday, December 7

Today was the day. Jason and I were going to meet up and track down Derek Irwin. Yesterday, we'd successfully found the man's address. I'd planned how I could skip school for today, so yesterday I pretended to have a cough and the beginning of a sore throat. That way, today, it would be completely plausible that I was sick.

I woke up a little earlier than normal so that I could make myself look sick. I put hot water on my face to make it red and warm. To help increase my body temperature, I did jumping jacks as quietly as I could. Then I crawled back into bed.

When it became apparent that I wasn't going down to breakfast, Dick came in to get me. I made a bit of a show of 'not feeling well,' groaning and shivering and curling up into a ball, as if I had a stomachache. Dick placed a hand on my forehead, which, luckily, was still warm.

"Aww, you really don't want me to leave, do you?" Dick teased softly, brushing my 'sweaty' hair out of my face. I felt a pang of regret when I remembered that Dick was going back to Bludhaven today.

"'M sorry," I murmured as croaky as I could sound without it being obvious I was faking.

"Don't worry about it, sis," Dick said quietly. "You go to sleep. I'll tell the others you're not going to school."

"When're you leaving?" I asked.

"Right after breakfast."

Okay. So I had to pretend to be sick for a couple more hours so Bruce, Tim, and Dick wouldn't be in the house. But what about Alfred?

"'M gonna miss you," I said truthfully.

"Hey, you can call or text me," Dick reminded me. "I'm not that far away." He placed a kiss to my temple. "Get some sleep."

I pretended to sleep 'off and on' for a couple of hours. Finally, it was just me and Alfred in the Manor. I was trying to think of a way to get rid of him, or an excuse as to why he couldn't come into my room. But it ended up that I didn't need to worry.

"I need to go do errands, Miss Elle," Alfred told me quietly. "Will you be alright here by yourself for a couple of hours?"

I nodded 'sleepily.' "Yeah. That's fine." I paused. A couple of hours wasn't going to be enough. "If I'm still asleep when you get back, can you not wake me up?" Oh, geez. That sounded rude. "I mean –"

"No, that's quite alright," Alfred said. "I understand. I will stay out of your room, but I will be checking in on you when it's dinner time."

I grinned. "Sounds good."

When I was sure that he'd left and wasn't going to return, I leapt out of bed, pulled on clothes and shoes, and raced down into the city where Jason was going to meet me. Of course, after that, we had to stop by his apartment so we could change. Precious minutes wasted.

Luckily, with Jason's speed on his motorcycle, we made it to Derek Irwin's house in no time. We, as usual, made an entrance. Derek Irwin tried to hide in his bathroom. As if one more lock could keep us out.

He tried running several times. Each time, Red hood would punch him or slam him into the wall. I was a bit ticked off that he did that for me, but I had the more important part: interrogation.

Red Hood forced Irwin into a chair. I stood in front of him, eyes narrowed.

"Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them," I threatened.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna take orders from you," Irwin replied.

I nicked his cheek with my knife. "Yes, you will, if you know what's good for you."

Irwin didn't answer that time, eying the knife in my hand. I took that as my cue to ask my questions. Or, rather, question. Red Hood, having more experience at this sort of thing than me, told me to focus on one question that we need answered. We both decided that finding out where Irwin worked was the priority.

"What company do you work at?" I asked. No answer. "Where's it located? What do you do?"

No answer.

Red Hood stepped forward, cocking his gun. "You better answer the lady."

Irwin spat blood in my face. I punched him. I heard a crack as his nose broke.

"Try again," I growled.

"Fuck you," Irwin replied. "I'm not saying anything."

"That's funny, because you went to the police and the press about your company doing illegal manufacturing, or something, yes?"

Silence.

A cry of pain as I sank my knife into his shoulder.

"Yes?" I insisted.

"Please stop," he begged. "Please!"

"That's not what I want to hear!" I shouted, pulling the knife out, only to stab his forearm. Irwin screamed.

"Trevor Corporation!" he managed to say. "It's called the Trevor Corporation!"

I sneered. "Thank you for your cooperation." With that said, I slashed his neck.

To Jason, I said, "I'll check out the website."

"Kid –"

"I'm fine."

After another long ride and me using Jason's shower, I was finally back at the Manor. I snuck in through my bedroom window, hoping that Alfred had kept his word and not entered. I also hoped that he'd passed the message on to Tim. And Bruce, too, if he was home.

I wanted to start researching right away, but I decided to keep appearances instead. I made sure I looked like I'd just gotten out of bed before making my way downstairs for dinner.

"Hey, you feeling any better?" Tim asked.

I shrugged. "A lot better than this morning. Still feel a bit off, though."

Alfred had made me chicken noodle soup, which I had two and a half bowls of before heading back up to my room. Finally, I started doing the new round of research.

Or rather, I tried to. I couldn't find it anywhere. It didn't even come up as a result on Google, Bing, Yahoo … nothing. It was like it didn't exist. I even tried putting in addresses into the box up top: ; ; … I couldn't figure it out.

"They're good," I murmured to myself. "And careful … Too careful. There's gotta be a slip somewhere." There just had to be.

Figuring that the site address would be the only way to get to a website, assuming there was one, I kept trying different addresses. Funnily enough, it was because I'd misspelled 'Trevor' that I got a hit.

I'd found the website, all right. It was all science-y mumbo jumbo on the main page that I didn't understand. Of course, the main page was all I could access. I needed a password for the rest of the site, even the 'about us' page.

Yeah, like that wasn't suspicious.

I tried password after password, but no luck. I was surprised that, with how careful these people were, they didn't have a 'locked out after three wrong passwords' thing that, say, banks had. Lucky me.

But I couldn't get on the website. Tired and frustrated, I decided to go to bed. Maybe Jason would have more luck than me.