Chapter 4
On January 27th approximately twenty-one thirty, Maroni's Italian Restaurant had been occupied with many known members of the Falcone crime family. According to Falcone's' attorney, they were celebrating a birthday. Other patrons not of the Falcones then placed masks over their faces. Armed with submachine guns, the masked individuals opened fire on the Falcones. An individual dressed in a black-pinstripe suit with a white hat and coat with a black skull-like mask burst into the restaurant with an assault rifle. The individual believed to be the one referred to as Black Mask fired on the Falcones along with his henchmen.
A drop of blood suddenly splashed on the black typing of the case report.
"Damn," Jim grumbled as he sucked on the tip of his thumb. His brand new captain's bars clattered to the table on top of the file.
"I keep telling you, Band-Aids should be included in your 'uniform updating kit." Jim looked up from the bar of the cramped kitchen across to the refrigerator. His seventeen year old daughter reached for a cup from the cupboard.
"What are you still doing up?" Jim inquired, checking his watch.
"I could ask you the same," Barbara responded as she turned on the sink and filled the cup.
"I am updating my uniform, you have a gymnastics final tomorrow," he stated with emphasis. Barbara bobbed her head in a nod while still in mid-sip with the cup to her lips.
"Five o clock sharp," she said as she swung the corner of the kitchen's bar.
"I won't miss it," Jim said, looking into his daughters' blue eyes. He gave a reassuring smile, one that she didn't share. With a skeptical look on her face, Barbara peered over her father's broad shoulder.
"Falcones were hit by 'Black Mask?' Who's Black Mask?" she asked. Gordon quickly flipped the file shut.
"Not for you to worry about," he said.
"I'm a citizen of Gotham aren't I?" she refuted snidely.
"Which is why you've taken self-defense classes. Besides, police work is not your concern," he restated.
"Red belt in Tae Kwan Do, thank you very much," she boasted. "And that's exactly why I should get become a cop!" Jim smirked as he watched his daughter. She had her mothers' face but everything else was his, his ginger hair, his blue eyes, even his poor eye sight. Above all, it seemed that his passions were her own, the effect of opting to live with her father at the start of adolescence.
"Graduate high school first, then we'll talk."