Within 15 minutes, the GCPD had descended onto Lacey Towers. Detective Bullock wasted no time cordoning the body off and herding the guests into the ballroom so that the uniformed cops could begin to take statements. Bullock himself was devoting his attention to the, in his biased opinion, most likely suspect.

"Alright genius: where were you when Kellerman got shot?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "As I've said, repeatedly I might add, I was here in the ballroom when I heard the gunshots. I have at least a dozen witnesses to prove it."

"He's telling the truth," Wayne spoke up. "We were together when we found the body."

Bullock didn't look impressed. "Yeah? Weren't you in charge of security here tonight? How'd this happen under your watch?"

"First of all," Edward growled out. "I was collaborating with Sharp on security, not in charge of it. Second, the murder happened outside the building, not during the actual event. Try all you like Bullock, but you can't pin this on me."

"Just stay here where I can see you, freak. And don't even think about getting close to the body. This is our case now." Bullock stalked off, probably to question the security team. Edward leaned back against the wall, cooling his heels and thinking about the events of the night. He'd been right when he'd told Sharp that the letter writer was escalating, but he hadn't expected this. This wasn't simply a crime of opportunity committed by a distraught survivor. Whoever did this had brought the gun, waited for the opportunity to get Kellerman unawares, and made sure to kill him in a place where they could escape from easily. But if the goal all along was to kill the doctors, then why had the culprit waited until now? Why not kill them at the asylum? Were they trying to make a statement by killing them at the event? Probably. Edward looked up from his musings to look at where the other doctors were clustered. A uniformed officer was taking Leland's statement as Liew comforted Cassidy. Only Young was unoccupied, standing somewhat separate from the others. Edward's eyes narrowed in thought. She'd left the ballroom only seconds after Kellerman. What had she seen? Before he could even think of going over to ask, Bullock had returned with an apologetic looking Dennis.

"One of the security guys says that you had cameras up," he said. "Give us the footage."

"Of course," Edward answered. That wouldn't be a problem. His program had a protocol written into it to upload the footage to his server back on his office computer. "Will that be all, or would you like to browbeat me some more? I have places I need to be."

Bullock waved a hand at him dismissively. "Just stay out of our way, freak." He left in the direction of the maintenance room. Dennis hesitated briefly as if waiting for Edward to give him permission to follow the corpulent detective.

"Go on Dennis," Edward said. Dennis jogged off to join Bullock. Now that Bullock was out of the way, Edward turned his attention toward the doctors. Liew and Cassidy were having their statements taken, but Leland and Young were gone. Edward stifled a curse. No matter. He'd get to the bottom of the Young matter. Soon. In the meantime, he had a client to consult with.

"Where are you going?"

Edward turned. Wayne was giving him an inquisitive look. The police had finished questioning him. What was he still doing here?

"Where does it look like?" Edward said. "I've got a murder to solve."

"Didn't Bullock just tell you to stay out of the way?"

"And when have I ever done what the GCPD said?" Edward tipped his hat to Wayne. "Goodnight Mr. Wayne. Stay out of trouble now." He left the room in search of Sharp.

Edward found his client near the front of the building, surrounded by the remaining security team, Kocen and, much to Edward's surprise, Vicki Vale and her news crew. Well, she certainly hadn't wasted any time. Edward had to admire that. Better her than that self-important jackass Ryder at any rate.

"Warden Sharp," she asked, pointing the microphone into his face. "Do you have any comment on the murder of Dr. Kellerman?"

"Of course we're absolutely devastated," Sharp answered in a tone that sounded anything but. "Dr. Kellerman was a valued member of the Arkham staff and will be greatly missed. I can assure you, my campaign will be cooperating with the GCPD to resolve this horrible tragedy."

"Do you think this will have an impact on your campaign going forward?"

"Now that's a bit premature," Sharp said. "My campaign is run on the promise of restoring safety to Gotham. Dr. Kellerman's unfortunate death proves how woefully inadequate the security of our city is. And we will not allow this senseless violence to intimidate us and silence our message."

Kellerman hasn't been dead for an hour and his death is being politicized. I'm no stranger to self-promotion, but this is grotesque even by my standards. Judging by her pursed lips and narrowed eyebrows, Vale agreed with him. Even Kocen had the decency to look slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sure that'll be a comfort to Dr. Kellerman's family," she drawled. "What about your 'partnership' with Edward Nigma?"

Seeing an opening, Edward stepped forward before Sharp or any of his staff could speak. "I can answer any questions on that end, Ms. Vale."

Vale quickly turned her attention to the former rogue, much to Sharp's annoyance. "Mr. Nigma," she started. "Do you have any comment on the murder of Dr. Kellerman?"

"My thoughts are along the same lines as Warden Sharp. This was a senseless tragedy. I personally don't have any recollections of Dr. Kellerman myself, but I'm sure he'll be missed."

"Do you have any insight as to why he was killed? Was this a random attack?"

"Now now, Ms. Vale. It would be a tad irresponsible of me to speculate on this without any kind of evidence."

"But you do intend to investigate this, don't you Mr. Nigma?" This wasn't a question.

Edward smiled. "But of course, Ms. Vale. Warden Sharp hired me to help improve security for his campaign and that's just what I intend to do." He turned to look at Sharp. "With the Warden's approval, of course."

Sharp looked a bit flustered but nodded in acquiescence. "Yes, of course, Mr. Nigma. Do what needs to be done."

Vale looked skeptical. "Not to imply anything Mr. Nigma, but is that really appropriate? Considering your past history with the staff at Arkham Asylum and the upcoming memorial, couldn't your presence do more harm than good?"

Oh, this song and dance again. "On the contrary Ms. Vale, who better to solve the murder of an asylum staffer than a former patient? It allows me a certain insight into particulars of the case. As for my past history, I've made it quite clear that I hold no ill will towards any of the staff at Arkham for, shall we say, our complicated relationship. They were simply doing their jobs. And with that," he finished with a tip of his hat and a small bow, "I leave you for now. I have a murder to solve."

He left her then before she could ask another question and made his way to the front doors. As he walked past Sharp, the latter reached out to him.

"Nigma," he hissed. "Where are you going?"

"Back to my office," Edward answered, turning slightly to make sure Vale wasn't eavesdropping. Thankfully, she had caught sight of Wayne and turned all of her attention to him. "I have to review the footage I took here tonight. I might have gotten part of the murder on camera, or at the very least, a plausible suspect."

"But what about the security for the campaign? We need to talk about what our plans are for the memorial!"

"I've already given an outline to Dennis. Once he's done being browbeat by Bullock I'm sure he'll share it with you. Now if you'll excuse me-"

As Edward turned to leave again, Sharp roughly grabbed a hold of his arm and spun him back around to face him. "Dammit, Nigma! I didn't hire you so you could go chasing after a murderer! I hired you to keep my campaign safe!"

Edward jerked his arm away from Sharp. "Don't touch me," he hissed. "You might be paying my salary, but don't ever presume that means you control me Sharp. I'm fulfilling my end of the bargain with security, but you also hired me to find out who was writing the letters. I warned you they were escalating and here we are. So unless you want to politicize more dead staff members, stay out of my way and hire a bodyguard." Edward stormed out of the building, leaving behind an enraged Sharp. He'd had enough indulging the man's ego. Now he had serious work to do.

Two hours later, Edward was back in his office, sipping a lukewarm cup of coffee and looking over the uploaded security footage on his laptop. He started on the footage obtained from the camera placed at the front entrance of Lacey Towers. He picked that location specifically to keep an eye on the traffic flowing in and out of the ballroom, but it didn't offer a view of the outside of the front doors. Edward frowned. In retrospect, he should have fought harder with Lacey Towers building management to get a camera placed on the outside of the building, but hindsight was 20/20.

While watching the footage, Edward took care to make mental notes about the movements of key people at the gathering. So far, he'd seen himself walking from the hall that led to the maintenance room into the ballroom and various guests arriving. About an hour in, he noticed Dennis making his way down the hall, talking on his cell phone. Dennis's movements during the evening weren't entirely accounted for, yet, but Edward remembered seeing him entering the ballroom not too long before the first shot rang out. That cleared him of murder, at least. After that, the traffic consisted mainly of guests arriving and Lacey Towers staff. Edward stifled a yawn. There were many differences between his past work as a criminal and his semi-legitimate work nowadays, but one thing they had in common was just how much dull minutiae was involved.

Finally, Dr. Kellerman made his appearance in the footage. Edward leaned forward in his chair. Kellerman stormed out of the ballroom, no doubt still irritated by his encounter with Young. Edward could see Kellerman reaching into his jacket pocket, then pulling out a carton of cigarettes. Once he'd pulled out a cigarette, he left through the front doors, out of sight. Poor bastard. Moments after Kellerman had left, Young appeared on camera. Like her unfortunate former colleague, she headed towards the front doors, but when she was close enough to push her way out, she hesitated. She then turned back towards the ballroom, before taking a right turn down the hall that led to the parking garage elevator. Edward tapped his fingers. She'd probably seen Kellerman through the glass doors and decided to avoid further confrontation. Still, he made a mental note to question her further about this. Among other things.

At last, he was in the final minutes leading up to the murder. As he predicted, the murder itself wasn't caught on camera, although Edward could see glass flying from where the bullets had impacted the door. He saw himself, Wayne and a few other guests leave to investigate, and the rest was pandemonium until the GCPD showed up.

Edward leaned back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Other than Young, no one had left the ballroom after Kellerman. No one had left from the direction of the direction of the parking garage either. That meant the killer was already outside, lying in wait. Furthermore, the killer knew to be out there to avoid detection from the cameras. This was matching up with Edward's theory about an insider being the culprit, but this didn't bode well for the other doctors.

Edward was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the noise of his window being opened. He did feel the early morning chill however and turned around.

"Oh wonderful," he groaned. "I was wondering if you'd show up."

Batman loomed over him, as if he was a supernatural creature from a nightmare instead of a man in a batsuit. "We need to talk Nigma."

"Sorry, but my consulting hours are from 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. You can come back Monday morning, through the front door."

"I'm not here to play games, Nigma. I heard about the note found on the body. And I know there's more to Sharp hiring you than what the two of you said on the news. What's going on?"

Nigma gave him a challenging look. "Fine," he admitted. "Sharp hired me because he was getting threatening letters at his campaign office and at the asylum. He personally requested my assistance actually."

"Did you know that this was going to happen?"

"If I did, don't you think I would have stopped it? A dead Arkham doctor doesn't exactly do me any favors, now does it?"

Batman ignored Edward's jibe, turning his attention to the filing cabinet propped up against the wall. "Do you have the letters?"

Edward pulled out his desk drawer, pulling out the letters in question. "Here," he said. "I already had them checked for prints. No luck there."

Batman leaned over the desk, reading the contents. "Hiding a murderer?"

"It's a reference to the breakout a year ago," Edward explained. "More specifically, to Dr. Young and her monsters."

"Did Sharp tell you about that?"

"Give me some credit Dark Knight," Edward sassed. "Sharp gave me the bare details, but I was able to work out Young's involvement on my own. That's what geniuses like myself do."

"So whoever did this knows that a doctor was involved in the Joker's riot, but doesn't know which one. They're also able to deliver the letters without being detected. Do you have any suspects, genius?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "I don't have any names yet. But any child could see that it's someone on the inside. My guess is a low-level security guard. I'm going through the list of names Sharp gave me after I finish reviewing the footage."

Batman said nothing. In Edward's experience, that usually meant that the vigilante agreed with him, but couldn't bring himself to admit it. Batman opened a compartment on his utility belt and placed the letters inside.

"I'm taking this for further analysis. I'm also going to speak to the doctors."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "I don't recall asking for your help on this."

"I'm not doing this to help you Nigma. All of the doctors who work at Arkham are potential targets now."

Edward raised a hand to him dismissively. "I am fully aware of that. In any case, don't let me keep you from your heroic duties. Just don't get in my way."

Usually, Batman would leave as silently as he came in, but instead, he continued to look at Edward. Edward pretended he wasn't tensing just a bit.

"You're usually more open to collaborating on a case. Why are you being so defensive?"

"I am not being defensive. I'm tired and I have a murder to solve." Batman just continued to look. Why couldn't he just leave already?

"I heard about what happened with Dr. Aesop." He said. Was that just a hint of sympathy in his tone? Edward must have been more tired than he thought. "If you need to talk-"

"I don't," Edward cut him off. "If I want therapy, which I don't, I'll talk to the twits at Arkham myself. Is there anything else?"

Batman's eyes narrowed a bit, but he dropped the topic, mercifully. "Just one more question: why didn't Sharp go to the GCPD when these letters started arriving?"

This question through Edward for a bit of a loop. "Sharp told me that his campaign manager did and that they told him it was a prank."

"Gordon said that he didn't know anything about this before tonight. Neither did Bullock or any of the uniforms on the scene."

Edward pursed his lips together in thought. "Sharp lied to me then. Why?"

"I don't know," Batman answered. "I'll look into it. In the meantime, be careful around Sharp. I don't think his interest in your reform is as benign as he claims." Batman left then, disappearing into the dark Gotham night.

Edward was alone then, mind reeling from this new information. What else was Sharp hiding from him? Just what in the Hell was going on at the asylum? Edward looked down at his case notes. Batman may be focusing on the medical staff now, but there was one doctor Edward needed to check in on himself. Perhaps Dr. Young may be a bit more honest than her former employer.

Sharp paced around his office like a caged tiger. "It was absolutely unacceptable Hugo," he sputtered. "He left me to go play detective! I lend him credibility and this is how he repays me? I ought to fire him for this."

"Now now," Dr. Strange soothed. "We knew something like this may happen. Who knows? Mr. Nigma may bite off a bit more than he can chew and the problem may solve itself. In the meantime, let the man have his fun."