*Bonus Chapter!*
Chapter 10
Stories detailing the museum break in filled the Batcomputer's screen. The story had even landed on the front page of the Gotham Gazette. Famously jaded, the Gazette had stopped reporting on most city crime years ago simply because there was too much of it. In an editorial explaining the decision, the editor famously wrote that a day without crime in Gotham would be newsworthy. But even they jumped at the chance to run a story about a terrorist organization attempting to steal a priceless gem.
"We made the front page," Selina said, as she came up beside him. Her costume looked better than new.
"The Daily Planet didn't mention the ruby was a fake," she said after scanning an article.
"None of the articles did. Which means the police are deliberately withholding that information from the press-"
"Or they don't know," she said.
"Or you were wrong."
"I'm not wrong. It's a good fake and it could have gone unnoticed if the lighting wasn't so wonky."
"Is that an industry term?" he teased.
"Bigger question - Why did Red Claw want it in the first place? She's a terrorist, not a thief." Distain dripped from her voice.
"Sullied your noble profession, has she?" he asked lightly, unable to stop himself from teasing her again. He shouldn't flirt with her but he forgot his extensive list of reasons why whenever she smiled.
"He gets shot and suddenly he has a sense of humor," she shot back, smiling playfully at him.
He hit a few keys and Red Claw's face appeared next to a dossier.
"Red Claw has occasionally gone after items like this before. Paintings, sculptures, gems - if they're connected to Kaznia, no matter how tangentially, she's interested. However, no such link exists between Queen's Ruby and Kaznia. It was discovered in Myanmar in 1906 and has been privately owned by British or American collectors ever since."
"So why go after it?" she asked, studying the pictures on the screen. He called up hacked security footage from a rooftop camera located next to the museum. Red Claw's men could be seen breaking the skylight, dropping something through the hole (the grenade, he guessed) and then repelling into the building.
"That's the museum?" she asked, her brow furrowing with doubt.
"From last night."
"Someone disabled the security system before they arrived."
"You?" he asked.
"Don't insult me. There's no challenge in getting past a disabled system. The real artistry comes from getting in and out through a live system."
"Artistry?" he asked, incredulous.
"That's the trouble with art. It means different things to different people," she said, playfully winking at him. God, he'd missed her.
"How do you know the security system was disabled?"
"Because the system in that area is a containment system. If they'd busted the skylight while it was still armed, we would have been caught inside."
He cocked his head, waiting for her to continue.
"Instead of triggering a silent alarm like in other areas of the building, this area is designed to lock down if an alarm is triggered. Once the alarm is triggered, steel panels slide over the windows, bomb-proof doors slam closed, and bars cover the air vents. And it all happens within 6.3 seconds of a trigger, making it impossible to get out. Until the boys in blue show up, anyway."
He studied her. Breaking the law was something she did because she could. Because she wanted to. Because she was good at it. But she treated her jobs seriously and did her homework. He admired the hell out of that, which bothered him in ways he couldn't quite articulate.
"A disabled system doesn't explain the police call I heard. My sources indicate that there is no discernible cause for the call - no tripped sensors of any kind and none of the guards reported suspicious activity or placing a call to the GCPD. And you weren't on the security feed." He looked at her. "Looped thirty second playback?"
She shrugged.
"Just because I like a challenge doesn't mean I ignore security cameras."
Mentally he flipped through the small catalogue of evidence. A mystery alarm. The fake ruby. The disabled alarm system. Red Claw's sudden appearance.
He went back to the moment Red Claw appeared at the crime scene. Catwoman taunting Red Claw about being beaten to the ruby. Red Claw calling her a fool. Red Claw turning the gem over in her hands and then becoming angry...turning it over -
"Red Claw expected the ruby to be a fake," he said as it hit him.
"You're sure?"
"She turned it over. She was looking for something." He stood and walked over to his lab equipment. Liquids of varying colors bubbled in flasks and beakers and tubes. Three computers ran analysis on a beaker full of blue liquid containing the sample of corrosive residue from the gem case. The analysis wouldn't be complete for awhile.
"Let's go back tonight and we'll see if we can find anything," she said. He stopped himself before he nodded in agreement. He couldn't work with her. She was a thief and she couldn't be trusted. Plus he couldn't think straight when she was around, especially after he'd seen her face on the video (and her perfect ass when he untied her hospital gown). That look made him believe there was something in his future beyond the darkness of the cave and the pain of his parents' deaths.
The Bat was harassing him, insisting he do something, anything to get her to hate him, to make her storm out and put an end to it right now so he could get back to work. Everything else was begging him to make her stay. She was smart. She was quick. She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. She was still a criminal, but she was proving useful...
"As long as you stay on my side of the law you could be beneficial to this investigation." he said, keeping his voice as monotone as possible.
"Don't use up your romantic lines all at once, handsome," she teased, smirking. He almost smiled.