Chapter 2: Into the Dragon's Den
So there is a character from The Animated Series in here (Jack Ryder), that I see as Eric McCormick (aka Will from Will & Grace)
Bagheera walked through the double doors into the main lobby of the mental institution. The walls were still covered in the same faded paint from the last time she had visited the Joker a few days after she had shot him in the chest. The strong smell of bleach and pine needle spray wafted in the air as she walked across the recently mopped tile floors. Her heels tapped against the white tiles softly as she made her way towards the main desk to confirm that she was visiting a patient. She smiled brightly at the aging woman that had been working for the hospital for quite a while.
Loud steps and a sudden bright light pursued her as she tried to make her way towards the desk of the elderly woman. She blinked as a recorder was placed in front of her mouth and a camera with the brightest of lights took in her surprised face.
"Detective Lewis," the man said with a demanding voice, who Bagheera immediately recognized as the classic tall, dark, and handsome Jackson "Jack" Ryder, GCN's new playboy anchor. The man could have put Bruce Wayne to shame with his publicized affairs with women. She held her breath as his thick cologne invaded her senses and the fibers of coat.
Jack looked back at the camera and said with his most dramatic voice, "Two years ago, the Clown Prince of Crime, aka The Joker, exploded on the scene of Gotham streets seemingly out of nowhere. He rocked the city with explosions and needless murders of innocent people. It was this," Jack looked over to Bagheera and gave her a quick wink, "lovely detective that the Joker is now behind bars. Can you tell us anything about him Detective Lewis? Who is he? Where did he come from? What do you think he's planning next?"
Bagheera took a calming breath as the camera turned on her to await her answer, "The Joker is planning on having a long stay in Arkham."
Her tone was simple and was obviously not the answer that Jack Ryder had been looking for.
"And what about you," Jack asked, "You have yet to come out to the public of what really happened between you and the Joker that night he kidnapped you. You are aware that people are linking you and the Joker with Clarice Starling and Hannibal the Cannibal? What is your reply to that accusation?"
Bagheera's brows furrowed at the thought of her being the Joker's little Starling. A small smile painted her painted lips as she thought of him calling her 'his little panther'; she was no one's little bird and had never planned on being so. The smile quickly escaped her as she took in the man's deep, dark brown eyes.
"I'm not his Clarice Starling, Mr. Ryder," she informed the TV crew with a harsh tone in an effort to drive home the point that she was in no way in a relationship with the Joker.
"Call me Jack," he informed just before he asked, "and what about what happened that-"
"Wait for the book," she said before adding with a noticeable hint of disgust in her voice, "Jack."
Jack glared at her for a nanosecond before the camera panned back to his TV ready, handsome face. He gave the imagined public a large, bright smile as he announced, "You heard it here first, the detective that caught the Joker has broken the news to us that she is going to write an explosive tell all-"
"You can't be here," the slight accent of a Nigerian nurse announced with anger in her voice as she came between Bagheera and the cameras, "Dr. Crawford has told you twice to leave. Now you need to go."
"Thank you," Bagheera whispered with a smile to the nurse who gave her a small nod as she followed the invading television crew out of the hospital. Bagheera took a deep breath, a trick she had learned from her many therapy sessions after the Joker was put away, and walked towards the small desk to the waiting woman.
"What's your name sweetie," the elderly woman asked politely as she opened the visitor's log on her laptop.
"Detective Bagheera Lewis," she answered as she leaned against the counter as the woman typed in her name, "Dr. Crawford asked for me to speak with-"
"The less I know about this place," the woman interrupted with a small, kind smile, "the better, Detective Lewis."
"Tell me about it," Bagheera said in a casual tone as if she had been talking to an old acquaintance from her years of working the beats in Baltimore.
"Dr. Crawford said that he will meet you at the elevator," she informed Bagheera with a smile, "The violent offenders ward is on," the woman paused and gave her a shrug, "Hell sweetie, you put the man here, I'm sure you know where he is."
Bagheera took a deep breath as she recalled the last time that she had visited Arkham. Her feet and her mind had brought her to the hospital while she had been in a strange daze.
"I remember," Bagheera offered with a forced tone of politeness in her voice. As she walked towards the elevator, the eerie silence and cool air brought goose bumps to her skin. She pulled her dark jacket closer to her body in a worthless attempt to keep the cool air away from her flesh. Her mind began to numb as she pressed the button to the violent patients ward where Jonathon Crane had spent the better half of his thirties. She looked down at the floor of the elevator and voided her mind from every bad thought that tried so desperately to enter her mind and pull her down into the depths of despair. Her hand absently played with the engagement ring on her finger as she waited for the elevator to come to a stop. Through the doors, she could hear loud screams coming from deep within the ward reminding her that she had come to a place where the sickest men and women in Gotham had to call home in an attempt to pay for their crimes or genuinely seek help for their various mental conditions. She had to remind herself that only a few of the patients in Arkham were hardened master criminals like the Joker or the Scarecrow and that most of them were genuinely afflicted with a disease that they nor their family members could keep under control.
The elevator opened with a ding. She looked up from the floor to see the pompous, smug smirk of Crawford looking down on her like a buzzard on a dead tree watching a starving, dehydrated animal in the desert.
"Ahh Detective Lewis," Crawford announced happily in a tone that made Bagheera feel like she was wading neck deep through a murky snake and leech infested pond, "You are a pleasure to see again. You are always a sight for sour eyes."
Bagheera ignored him as his eyes moved from her eyes down the length of her clothed body. She watched as his eyes brightened as he took in her exposed legs. She held her breath to keep her from saying something in response to his examining eyes; she needed him to be happy with her so she would have no problem with seeing the Joker.
"Dr. Crawford," Bagheera said in a tired voice in an attempt to pull his eyes away from her shapely legs, "I've had a very long day," her fingers moved through her hair out of a stressful habit as she gave him a forced smile, "I'd like to speak with him and then get on my way."
"Yes," Crawford announced slowly before walking forward in bitterness for yet again not charming the pants off of her, "I'm assuming you remember the rules?"
"Yes," Bagheera answered as she followed his quick footsteps. She had to take large strides in her heels to keep with the long legged man, "He hasn't spoken a word to you since he's gotten here?"
"Nothing except for the occasional joke or vaguely implied threat," Crawford answered in a matter of fact tone, "He's finally opened up to at least one doctor here at Arkham."
"I'll need to talk to Dr. Quinzel as well," Bagheera informed him in the same matching, professional manner, "Per the Commissioner's orders. Is she on duty tonight?"
"Yes, she is scheduled to work tonight," he said as he slid his card into the newly implemented high tech doors to the violent offenders ward, "I do believe she is just finishing up with the Joker. Her time with him was interrupted by Jack Ryder and his ilk."
"Did they get anything from him?"
"Just the vague riddle," Crawford answered with shrug, "But I knew that would happen. It's when they started asking about his treatment here at Arkham that I put an end to the interview."
"Dr. Crawford," she said as they both stopped in front of the violent offenders ward hallway, "He won't open up to me if anyone is there with me. He's comfortable with me," she gave him a soft smile as she added with a shrug, "Somehow he's found it in his mind that I'm his trustworthy ally."
The light at the end blinked as it neared the end of its lifespan. The sound of the heater rumbled through the hallway as it sprang to life to heat the violent offenders.
"Have you figured out why that is," Crawford asked as he looked her over carefully as if trying to find a telling sign that something unprofessional had happened between the officer and the criminal.
"No," she said honestly, "I wouldn't want to get inside his head," she gave him another forced smile as she thought of the old saying about flies and honey, "I have high respect for psychiatrists. You go where others are afraid to go…you boldly go."
Crawford smiled at her sweet words and nodded at her slightly as he tried to find his next words. She had momentarily driven him speechless.
"Uh," Crawford struggled, "Well you can have as much time as you need with him. You did catch him after all."
"Thank you," Bagheera said as she watched the man in the white coat walk away from her with his shoulders held high. She turned away from him with an accomplished smile, she could still manipulate him just as she had done the first time she had met him. She squared her shoulders and took another calming breath as she walked down the hall.
Violent offenders glared at her through the glass walls and metal bars. She could hear men whistling as she walked by their cages. The thought of what had happened to Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs rippled throughout her mind and she thanked her lucky stars that Arkham had placed a glass wall between the bars and the criminal.
She could see the metal chair that had been placed out for her by the orderly coming closer and closer. She took another deep breath as she felt her heart begin to race in her chest. She hadn't seen him in two years and the many what ifs in her mind raged like a thunderstorm across the desert. The heels that she wore seemed to tighten around her foot as she came within inches of the Joker's cell. A shiver rushed through her spine as she imagined what the Joker looked like now.
The clicking of her heels alerted the Joker to her arrival. She peered into his small cell to see him sitting upon his bed with a bored expression on his face as he looked out the glass wall. She shoved her hands into her coat pocket, careful to keep the engagement ring hidden.
'Why hide it?'
"Ahh you came," the Joker responded happily as he took in her dressed to impress attire, "Good! I'm glad it's you! I thought it was that Harley kid again."
Bagheera felt a smile tug at her lips against her will at his high pitched words.
"How's the knife wound," he asked of her as he hopped up from his bed and approached the barrier between them. Bagheera stood far away from the bars as she stood in front of him. She took in his appearance. The make-up had been stolen she could tell and half assed put on. He used old shoe polish and women's lipstick and white Halloween make up that a guard had probably gotten at a deal earlier in the November month from a sale on Halloween products. Bruises around his eyes peered through the make-up and an old cut in his lip indicated to her that he had been beaten by some of the guards or orderlies, whichever group he had pissed off the most.
"It's great," she said as if they were old friends talking about their children with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders, "How's the bullet wound?"
The Joker laughed at her response and clapped his hands as he replied between giggles, "That was a good one Baggy! You were always the uh," he leaned forward, "good sport and always up for the joke."
She began to reply to his comment, but he quickly stopped her from speaking by placing his index finger against his painted lips. Her brows furrowed in confusion and he signaled for her to turn around. She slowly turned and looked to the wall.
"The media wants all the dirt on what happened between you and me," Joker said in a dark, suggestively seductive tone as he watched her move her hands slowly across the red brick wall. The blinking light reflected on the new ring on her finger and he smiled as it sparkled as her hands sprawled against the hard wall.
Bagheera's fingertips grazed against the small recorder that had been wedged between a small crevice in the brick by Jack Ryder's ilk. She gently pulled it out and held it up to the light to inspect it. She smiled as she dropped it and quickly pressed her shoe upon it and smashed it into tiny shards on the cement floor.
"Now," the Joker said slowly as the amused smirk appeared back on his features, "We're free to openly speak," his tone found its old sing song quality as he added, "just like olllddd times, Baggy."
"Well," she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders as she found herself relaxing more and more under his dark gaze, "Here I am," an amused smile formed on her features, "Just like you wanted."
"And you never disappoint, Baggy," he said while he licked his wounded lip and took in her expensive attire, "and you are dressed impress," his voice was high pitched, "Was it all to impress little ol' me?"
"You flatter yourself," Bagheera answered as a brow lifted ever so slightly to drive home the sarcasm in her voice, "Actually I was on a date, a very important date."
"Oh with our new district attorney," the Joker said with amusement in his eyes, "Willy Barbarella. How is little ol' Barbie? You're moving on up in this big, bad world. You go from your cousin in the, uh, corn fields to a man of duh-stinction."
Bagheera shook her head as she glared at the clown and replied, "Don't be vulgar Joker."
"Can I see the ring," he said, putting more emphasis on the first syllables in ring.
"How did you," she stopped as she thought back to rubbing her hands against the wall in order to find the bug. She looked down at the new, almost alien metal on her finger and slowly edged closer to the barrier. She lifted her hand ever so carefully and she watched his reaction closely. She watched as he took in the sparkling diamond ring with bright eyes. The light from the blinking bulbs above them seemed to sparkle in his dark eyes.
"Tell me about your psychiatrist," Bagheera asked as she pulled her hand out of his view, "Some seem to think that she may-"
"Do ya love him Baggy," Joker asked, ignoring her given question.
Her brows furrowed at his sudden question and replied, "You know that I don't have to answer that."
"Does he know everything," the Joker asked suddenly, "about everything you've been through with little old me?"
She shook her head and asked, "What's there to know?"
"Why you missed my heart," he asked with a knowing smile and lowered his eyes so he looked up at her from under his low painted lids. He looked devilish as he stared at her. The Joker seemed to hold her entirely in his dark eyes that had seen countless brutality. Bagheera moved, seemingly against her will, closer to the bars that kept them a good distance away from each other, a noticeable shiver ran down her spine once again. The small hairs on her arms prickled and stuck into the fabric of her jacket as she stood alone in front of him.
She replied in a soft tone as she tried to hide her reaction, "Maybe next time I won't miss."
The Joker laughed uproariously at her answer. Bagheera stood there as the laugh that had invaded her dreams so many times in the last two years surrounded her almost like a warm blanket in the cold corridor of the violent offenders ward. Groans of annoyance erupted from several of the other patients from further down the hall.
"Why didn't you tell them that I was crazy," the Joker asked as the laughter died down, "Ya know, it's because of you that I am here and not on death row facing down a needle."
She shrugged her shoulders and answered casually as if it were the most sensible answer, "Because you didn't give them the recording of," she paused for less than a second, "us in the car drive to the Prewitt building…and because you didn't let me fall," Bagheera gave him a half smile and added, "Consider it a thank you. You saved my life; I saved you from the needle."
"You did all of that jumping through hoops just for me," the Joker asked like a star struck child as he looked up at her with an equally childishly grateful tone.
"Why me," she asked, "You wanted me here. Why?"
The Joker licked at his lip and fumbled with the white sleeves of his jumper, "I just wanted to see how you were holding up after our, ugh," he looked around as if he were about to spill a juicy piece of gossip, "little nights together. Ya look great, very beautiful…I mean it! Are you happy, Baggy?"
The detective smiled and nodded at him though her voice took on an emotionless tone, "I am very happy," she carefully allowed her eyes to grace his scarred features, "You don't look to peachy."
"Ah," the Joker said proudly as he pointed at her, "I knew my little panther cared about me!"
"Not really," Bagheera answered quickly, "Did a guard do that to you? An orderly?"
"See, that's why, uh, I need ya here," the Joker announced as he looked around his cell as if he were paranoid that someone was listening in, Bagheera rolled her eyes at his childish tactic, "I can't do anything about the…ugh," he leaned forward and placed his hands upon the glass, he licked his lips as he added in a dark tone, "sick things they try to do to me in here. See the guardsss, they like to uh get their jollies by beating a poor, innocent, defenseless clown."
Bagheera rolled her eyes at his confession, "I hardly doubt you are the poor and defenseless clown, and you are a no where near the field of innocent."
"Look Bags," the Joker started, but she quickly interrupted him.
"I'm not your caretaker Joker," she informed him harshly with a lifted brow as she eyed his day old wounds, "You have a lawyer for that."
A wicked grin formed across his painted features and said in a dark, predatory tone, "Not anymore."
Another shiver rushed through Bagheera's body as she thought of the man that had crawled out of a blonde bottle that had defended the Joker. He had been rather rude to her, but he didn't deserve whatever the Joker had ordered to happen to him.
"What's his name," she asked as she looked away from him momentarily to look down the empty hall in an attempt to ignore the fact that she was suggesting that she would help him.
The Joker chuckled at her question and answered simply with a pop of his tongue, "Phillip Williams."
She nodded and backed away from the bars, she placed her hands upon her hips, "I'll take care of it."
"That's my girl," the Joker announced happily with a clap of his hands.
"I'm not your girl," she said in warning as she pointed at him, "I'm not your Clarice Starling. I'm not yours, Joker."
'But you're okay with being his little panther?'
The Joker smiled as he watched Bagheera walk away from him with straightened shoulders. The confidence that she had possessed when he first laid on her was back and it caused a proud smile to come over his painted features.
"See ya later Baggy," the Joker called out to her.
Bagheera pushed her way out of the violent victims ward and smiled as a bright eyed woman with bottle blonde hair hurried towards her. The woman's bright white teeth sparkled in the light of the hospital as she gave Bagheera a soft smile.
"You must be Dr. Quinzel," Bagheera stated respectfully as the woman in the white lab coat came up to her.
"The one and only," the young psychiatrist announced with a high pitched, excited voice with a very thick Jersey accent, "You're Detective Lewis right?"
"Yes," the detective answered.
"You're really somethin' ya know," the thick Jersey accented doctor announced in excitement as she took in Bagheera's red attire, "He likes talkin' about you. There's a sparkle there. What makes you so special, huh?"
Bagheera smiled at the young woman and shrugged her shoulders and replied in a matter of fact tone, "I don't know. I don't even want to try to get inside of his mind."
"Ya know," Harleen said with a smile, "Red really isn't your color. You should try green, Detective."
...
Ashley Davies, now a rookie uniformed officer for Gotham PD, made her way out of the police car that her older partner drove. They had been called out by a female jogger in the late hours of the night in Gotham City Park.
"You ever see a dead body," her partner asked as they walked together with their flashlights on through the darkness of the jogging trails.
Ashley was slightly taken back by the strange question, but answered anyways, "GU has a body farm. I'd go down there for my forensic labs."
She held her breath as the metallic smell of blood entered her senses. Ashley's eyes widened as the naked body of a mangled woman was laid out in a presentation to any passing jogger.
"Oh my God," Ashley whispered as she immediately recognized the signature and the telling sign that the crime was committed by a copycat. The woman was cut through the middle with her legs spread eagle open. Her mouth was cut open in a perfect Glasgow grin. A wave of sickness entered Ashley's body as she took in the red paint that had been painted over the broken flesh on the victim's mouth while black paint covered the lids of the woman.
Ashley quickly grabbed her cell phone and dialed the number that her role model had given her when she graduated from police academy.
"Detective Lewis," Ashley announced over the telephone once she heard the tired voice of the detective answer her cell, "This is Ashley Davies."
"What's wrong," she heard Bagheera ask on the other end.
"I'm sorry to be calling so late, but-"
"No, it's fine," the sleepy voice of Bagheera said.
"We have a copycat killer," Ashley informed her, "The vic has been mutilated in the same style as Elizabeth Short, but the perp painted her face to look like the Joker."
"Davies," her partner called for her.
"Hold on," Ashley told Bagheera, "I think they found something, I'll call you back."
Ashley hung up her cell phone and hurried towards her partner.
"What's that," Ashley asked as she looked to the yellow spiral that he held in his hands. Monstrous doodles littered the yellow cover along with dark, demonic song lyrics.
"It's the killer's manifesto," he answered as he handed her the work.
Ashley flipped through it until a name stuck out to her. The mad man that had committed the atrocious copycat killing of the Black Dahlia had made a promise to the Gotham PD that he was going to eventually finish what the Joker started. The man was going to finish the Joker's job by finishing off the detective that had placed him behind bars.
I hope you liked this chapter. I think I spent a little too long with Bagheera and the Joker, but I couldn't help it. Once I had started with their scene I didn't want to end it!