Chapter 6: Code of Silence

"Son of a bitch," Bagheera yelled as the bullet zipped through the thin flap of skin on her right ear.

Warm blood flowed from the small wound on Bagheera's right ear. She ignored the dangerous situation that she had found herself in as she rushed towards her car. The detective threw herself from out of harm's way on the passenger side of her town car. She leaned against the warm metal of the car and hissed at the pain throbbing in her ear. Her hand lurched forward to touch the wound. She could feel a deep cut moving across her ear. The adrenaline rushed through her as she heard someone screaming from inside of the home. The yapping of the small dogs filled the air around her as she forced herself to think clearly through the throbbing pain in the side of her head. She knew that she had been lucky that the

"Shit," Bagheera yelled through clinched teeth as she pulled her hand away from her ear to see her own dark blood staining the pale, white skin of her fingers.

"What the fuck happened," she heard the voice of the man that had beaten her exclaim from the porch.

Bagheera rolled her eyes as she heard a woman behind him crying as she tried to explain why she had shot right through their front door.

"She said she was a cop," Bagheera heard the unseen woman explain, "Just like-"

"Who's out there," the gruff voice of Bob called out to her, seemingly ignoring the woman's explanation.

Bagheera rolled her eyes and bit her lip as she ripped off her star from her belt to show to the Joker's henchman. She lifted her hand in the air, showing the Joker's main man her badge. She lifted her bloody hand into the air and bit at her lip as she held in the pain that radiated from her head.

"I'm coming up now," Bagheera said carefully as she slowly steadied herself on her shaking legs to push herself up, "Now, I am not going to pull my piece," she paused and added in an attempt to show her good word, "I'd like to not be shot in my other ear please."

"Well I'll be a son of a bitch," Bob announced as he took in Bagheera slowly pulling herself from behind her hiding place. He watched as the blood from her ear slowly dripped down her pale neck.

Bagheera's eyes took in the large man that had beaten her on the Joker's orders and to the shaking woman beside him. Bob looked comfortable in black sweats and a matching wife beater. The woman, his wife, stood with a gun shaking in her hands. The woman stood in pink floral leggings and a turquoise long sleeve shirt. Bagheera mentally placed the woman with lush, blonde, curly locks in a 1980s high school on a Saturday morning for detention. The woman seemed to have jumped straight out of an MTV music video from some old rock band that had just recently hit it big.

"Hello Bob," Bagheera stated flatly as she held her hands up, "Can I speak to you," her eyes moved over to the nervous blonde, "without being shot in my other ear."

"I'm sorry 'bout that," Bob said as he eyed his wife, "Dawn has been pretty on edge since the whole copycat thing."

"Yeah, well," Bagheera nodded as she pulled herself around the car that had served as her shield, "that's what I've come to talk to you about our mutual," she paused as she looked around the beautiful land that the man owned, "benefactor."

She knew it would be a lie to call him anything but a benefactor. It was true that she hadn't received any money compensation from the Joker, or even superstardom, he hadn't made her famous, but the Joker had given her something. That something was she could walk among criminals while receiving some sense of respect from them. He had let her capture him for that very reason alone, she knew.

"Let's get that ear looked at," Bob informed her as he waved her inside of his house as if she were an old friend, and in some odd way she felt like it fit even if he had beat the shit out of her. Their connection was a man dressed as a clown and they had both survived the madman's unpredictable behavior.

"I'm real sorry 'bout that," Dawn began in a heartfelt apology as Bagheera made her way towards them, "I thought-"

"Dawn," Bob stopped her quickly as he moved deeper into their shared home.

Bagheera didn't reply back to the woman's apology. She allowed Bob to guide her into their kitchen. Her blue eyes looked around the fairly clean home. Two small dogs, a tan Chihuahua and a black and white Papillion, growled at her from the couch, but neither dared to approach her.

"Nice place," Bagheera said as she blinked back the tears that wanted to form in her eyes from the pain.

"Where's the first aid," Bob asked of his wife as he looked in the cabinets in the kitchen.

"It's in the bathroom where you left it last time," Dawn answered with a roll of her tawny eyes as she took a seat at the small island in their kitchen. The overhead lights were bright on the black granite of the island. Bagheera took a seat beside her, but she was careful to make sure her bloody rubies did not drip upon the clean floor.

"Last time he had to use that, he was in a bad car accident," Dawn added with a shrug, "I swear if the Joker didn't pay him good then I'd tell him not to even try," Dawn looked over to the woman and eyed her carefully before adding, "You know, I believe you…about not being with the Joker."

Bagheera looked at her with confusion in her blue eyes.

"I mean," Dawn shrugged, "it's obvious to me. Bobby told me about everything that happened. I think you are a very brave woman. We were actually shocked that you shot him."

"Yeah," Bagheera answered absently, "Me too," her eyes looked over the clean kitchen and added, "So you knew about what Bob did for a living?"

"Oh yeah," Dawn answered with a smile, she shrugged as she added, "I mean at first I wasn't cool with it. He'd come home with someone else's blood on him, but I mean, it's something you get used to when he's puttin' food on our table and clothes on our back, and I mean," she rolled her eyes, "there's not a lot of work for vet techs in the city."

"What about out here," Bagheera asked, feigning interest.

"Nah," Dawn answered simply, "Most folks out here tend to their own animals. If they're dog gets sick they just put a bullet in its head, same with their livestock critters."

"Here," Bob announced as he hurried back into the kitchen. Bagheera turned back to Bob to see coming towards her with a small white metal box along with a bottle of alcohol.

"Bob used to be a medic in the Army," Dawn began, "before being discharged with-"

"Detective Lewis doesn't want to hear about me. She came to talk about the Joker," Bob informed his wife with a smile. She smiled back at him and patted his hand.

"You make sure you tell her why I shot at her," Dawn informed him as she moved away from her husband and the visiting detective. Her nervousness had settled down completely from when they had first encountered each other.

Bagheera looked at the Joker's henchman with slight interest in her bright blue eyes. He had beaten her as if he had practice with beating a woman, but his wife looked happy. She couldn't see any hint of abuse in the relationship.

"I'm not a bad person," Bob informed her in a hushed voice as he applied the alcohol to her ear to remove the blood away from her skin. He smiled lightly as the detective hissed, "Oh, don't whine. You took what the Joker dished out; I think you can take a little disinfectant."

She watched as his large tattooed arms moved with great skill as he took in the fresh wound.

"So you're wife's a real shitty shot," Bagheera said simply in an attempt to relax the tension that was thickening in the kitchen as the two stood alone. The last time she had been alone with him was when she had been under the influence of some pain killer that the Joker had injected her with.

Bob snickered at her keen observation, "Well that's not why I married her. Good thing too because I would have been six feet underground when we first got together."

"And why is that," Bagheera asked as she found herself becoming interested in the henchman's history.

"She was not too happy with what I did," Bob answered as he continued on with Bagheera's wound, "She tried to get me to stop what I was doing, but she never stopped believing in me and she didn't leave my sorry ass."

Bagheera couldn't help the smile that tugged at her pink lips at the man's words about his wife.

"She was my light at the end of a dark tunnel," Bob added, "I was a snowball headed for hell. The mob had planned on taking me out on their next fishing trip. When a man in clown make up came to me with an offer, it was Dawn that told me to take it."

The small hairs on her body stood rigid at the man's words about his wife. She felt all the color in her cheeks fade away as a cold understanding washed over her.

"Because you are the last pale light in the West," the Joker's words echoed in her mind from a past that she had longed to forget. She knew that the Joker wasn't a sentimental guy. She knew there was no love in his heart for her, but curiosity bit at her as she asked herself one simple question: What had she saved the Joker from?

"You lucked out," Bob answered as he took in the inflamed ear and pulled her from her darkening thoughts, "If she would have gotten any closer, you wouldn't be sittin' here."

"Yeah, I guess so," she answered with a soft smile as she watched his pudgy fingers moving towards the needle and thread, "You've done all of this before?"

"Working for criminals is a tough job," he answered with a calm voice, "Dawn is a vet tech. She taught me how to properly stitch up wounds so they wouldn't scar so bad when we first started dating."

"So she isn't worried," Bagheera asked as she felt the initial pierce of the needle into the cartilage of her ear, "about all of this? The Joker?"

"Yeah she is," he answered, "But here's a little known fact about my girl is that her father was big in the days of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. You know the bebop days of mobsters."

"Why the Joker? You both could have just," Bagheera shrugged her shoulders, "left."

"Who leaves Gotham," Bob asked simply as he continued working on her ear.

"Are you ever afraid that he will, well," she said as she leaned slightly forward in an attempt to ignore the pain that was flooding through her body, "kill you?"

Bob chuckled at her words and shook his head. Bagheera allowed a smile to come over her features as she watched the once ever silent man laughing at her.

"He's had an effect on you," he informed her.

"It would be a lie to say that he hasn't," Bagheera said honestly, she took herself off guard as she added, "I think about him at least thirty seconds of every hour."

"And just for the record, Detective Bagheera Lewis you haven't read me my rights," Bob announced as if she were wearing a wire under her clothing, "so I am assuming this isn't about what I had to do to you two years ago?"

"No, I hold no ill feelings towards you," Bagheera answered honestly as she felt a slight tug at her ear, "Ow."

"Almost done," he answered in a soft, fatherly tone in reassurance.

"I need to understand him," she said as she looked to the man that possibly had the answers that she needed. What she really wanted to ask was how he decided that she was the one to be the light at the end of the tunnel for him.

"Business isn't that busy right now," Bob asked, "I'd figure you'd be really busy with that killer you got running around here. Didn't he make a threat against you?"

"He did," she answered with a shrug, "but I have some help on this case. I don't think this copycat is going to go through with his threat on offing me though. The Joker is a big enemy to have," she turned to look at him with a serious glint in her eyes as he finished the stitches, "is he planning on escaping soon? I need to know if he is. It could cause a bigger shit storm in local politics that will involve-"

"I see the district attorney has rubbed off on you as well," Bob said with a small gruff laugh as he looked at his patient, "I didn't vote for him. My wife did, though. You look good with ol' boy on the tube."

"Have you talked to the Joker," Bagheera asked, ignoring the henchman's words about her boyfriend.

"I haven't talked to him in two years," Bob lied to the detective, "I couldn't tell you what he's planning."

"I know you've been to see him," she informed him quickly, "Now, you can help yourself and your wife…and me," she shook her head as she pointed to herself, "by helping me understand the disaster that is about to hit Gotham."

"Look," Bob started to say, "All I can tell you is that you are facing something big."

"What do you mean, Bob," Bagheera asked as she found herself leaning inwards, her blue eyes sparkled as she eyed him in an attempt to find any part of him that signaled to her that he was a man that couldn't be trusted. She couldn't find any signs.

"You were his hobby, Detective," Bob informed her, successfully changing the subject, "as soon as the rumor went out, you became his number one hobby. All his other interests ceased to exist. The streets were rampant with rumors that a woman was being brought in to fish out the Joker," he eyed her, "They never told you?"

"Told me what?"

"You weren't sent to Gotham because of your record," Bob said, carefully choosing his words to the detective, "you were sent to Gotham because you are a woman. They thought a woman would bring him out. They wanted beauty to kill the beast."

"That's not true," Bagheera informed him quickly and looked away from him; anger bubbled inside of her stomach as the words tossed around in her mind. She refused to believe that she had never been taken seriously, "Gordon wouldn't-"

"Gordon didn't know," Bob informed her, "it was the former commissioner and the mayor's idea."

"There's no way that you could possibly know that," Bagheera said in defense.

'Why are you defending them,' the logical side of her mind asked in anger.

"The Joker made me find out everything about you. What your favorite alcoholic beverage was, the color of your lingerie, what happened when you were a kid…I had to find out everything," Bob informed her, "Why do you think he let you capture him so easily when the Batman couldn't?"

Bagheera glared at the floor at the words that the Joker's man henchman was telling her.

"It doesn't change anything," Bob informed her as he took in her angered and seemingly betrayed blue eyes, "you still captured him. You still saved the lives of Gotham citizens."

A sob formed inside of Bagheera's throat, but she quickly swallowed it down in hopes of seeming strong in front of the man that had almost beaten her to a pulp. She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that the system that she had dedicated her life to had used her simply because she was a woman. She didn't want to believe that she was a pawn in a sick game. She didn't want to believe that she had been so disposable.

'The Joker didn't see you that way. In fact, he showed Gotham how important you are,' the dark side of her mind said.

'Barba saw you the same way,' the rational side of her mind argued back in an attempt to keep the Joker from getting further under her skin than he already was.

"Why did you wife shoot me," Bagheera asked in an attempt to change the subject.

The detective watched the man closely as he turned slowly in the direction of his wife's bedroom. He looked down to the ground and shook his head in disappointment.

"I've been in this game for a long time," Bob admitted, "but I've never once had to worry about anyone threatening my family."

"Someone threatened you," Bagheera asked, her eyes were now harsh as she thought of the manifesto that had threatened her life. She shook her head as she thought about how Dawn had tried to tell her from the very beginning. She felt as if she could slap herself. She had been so enrapt by learning about the Joker that she had forgotten to take in the people around her.

"A man came up to my wife," he answered, "she told me he said that he was a cop and that he knew about me. He showed her a badge and everything. He told her that if she didn't tell him about what I did for the Joker then some woman would come to the house and kill us both in a horrible, horrible way."

"And she was sure it was a cop," she asked.

"She came home crying," Bob replied harshly, "The son of a bitch scared her so bad that she wanted to buy some hyenas that the Gotham Zoo was trying to sell to the Metropolis Zoo. If I ever see the son of a bitch-"

"Joker told me that it was a woman pulling the strings," she informed him, "do you know any women that could have been obsessed with him? I never saw anything in his files that said that he had any sort of romantic relationships before?"

"I don't know," Bob answered, "His doc at the asylum and you are the only women that have been in his life since I've known him."

"Well, aren't I the lucky lady," Bagheera said with a roll of her eyes as the henchman handed her a round, white pain pill to ease the pain out of her head.

...

Ashley sat at the small desk in the large lecture hall at Gotham University. The young officer allowed her pencil to dance in her hand as her CJ professor lectured to the large class of eighty students. Her eyes looked down at the paper in front of her and shook her head as she looked at her scribbled notes and doodles. Jottings of the Batman symbol and the Joker's trademark smiles looked back at her between keywords from the chapter they were studying.

Thoughts of who could be the copycat killer rattled in her brain. She had pieced together that it had to be an important player during the Joker's rule of Gotham. The only suspects that were coming to her mind were Bagheera, the Batman, Gordon, and the Joker. She felt like she could trust Bagheera, who had kept her word to her father in bringing in the Joker, and her Jim Gordon. She understood who the Batman wanted to be in Gotham, and she felt like he would never do anything to bring harm upon an innocent civilian. The only person that was left was the Joker and he was locked away in Arkham Asylum. There simply wasn't any other person alive in Gotham City that knew intimate details about the Joker and she didn't want to believe that an officer of the law would go as far as killing civilians in an effort to bring down a fellow officer.

The young officer wished that things worked like they had in the movies and in novels. She wished that she could just visit her inner Clarice Starling or Will Graham to make the leap to connect the dots that had been missing from the puzzle.

"Can anyone tell me what the Blue Code of Silence is," her professor asked the lecture hall, "We briefly touched on it last week."

Ashley looked up from her notes and her thoughts pooled together to piece everything together.

"Isn't that were officers won't snitch on each other," someone in the front asked.

She silently listened on as her professor explained how hard it was to understand the percentage of police corruption because of the code of silence between officers and partners. Her mind quickly thought about how the two detectives had come to the conclusion that it was an officer that had gotten into the system to find out the information.

"Who is it," Ashley said under her breath as she pulled her things together and quickly exited out of her class forty minutes early, while knowing in the back of her mind that she would regret the early departure for the next test.

Mistrust fueled her legs forward as she hurried out of the Criminal Justice wing of Gotham University and towards the place where she knew she could think freely on her own. She looked to her phone and dialed the number of the one person that she knew could give her inspiration.

...

Detective Mark Hamill stood along the sidewalk. The sun was just coming down as he leaned against the wall. Cigarette smoke wafted on the breeze as he waited for his correspondent. His eyes moved around the scene that surrounded him. The Narrows were slowly coming alive as the resident vermin made their way out of their vermin ridden homes. He could easily tell who the criminals were from the hardworking men and women going to their second jobs from the way they held themselves when they walked out of their homes.

The cool November wind blew the tail of his jacket as he coolly leaned against the wall. He held the information close to his chest as he was told to do.

"What's the word Ham Hands," a high pitched female voice announced from the alley behind him. He rolled his eyes as the woman's irritating voice cut through his senses. Mark turned to face the woman hidden in the darkness of the alley and gave her a soft smile.

"So he's got you lurking in the street like a dentist with the ether," he asked as he took in the blonde woman dressed in clown make up. Her attire wasn't completely put together. She wore a simple red and black flannel skirt and a curve fitting black turtleneck.

"The make-up is spot on. The costume could use some work though," Mark suggested as he watched the brilliant psychiatrist glare at him through clown make up that resembled the Joker's own make up.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel rolled her eyes at his suggestion and replied in defense of her costume, "It's what I had to work with," her voice was screechy and her Jersey accent was thick, "Geez give a doc a break. I've been workin' non-stop for 26 hours!"

"Dr. Quin-"

"Ahh," Harleen announced in a warning as she placed a long finger upon the detective's lips, "No, no, no! Not in this get up! It's Harley Quinn."

"Isn't that what the Joker calls you," Mark asked suspiciously.

"Yeah," Harley asked, "So? Don't mean I'm workin' for him."

"But why would you ask for this," he asked as he pulled out a manila file that he had lifted from Gotham PD, "I mean, obviously he's in involved."

"And what's it to you," Harley asked as she yanked the file from his thick fingers that he had once used to throw winning touchdowns, "as long as you get what you need."

"I need to be reassured it won't be linked back to me," Mark informed her, "This is my career."

"Well, ya should have thought about that before ya made a deal for fifty thousand dollars then huh," Harley asked as she backed away from the detective.

"Is the Joker going to impede on what's going to happen," Mark asked of the costumed psychiatrist.

"And what if he does," Harley asked as she bit upon her lip.

"He'll be put down."

Harley laughed at his suggestion, "Ain't no one messin' with Puddin'. Especially some crooked low down cop like you."

"I was talking about the panther," Mark informed her with a devilish grin, "Detective Lewis. She's shot him once. I have faith that she'll do it again."

Harley returned his smile and asked, "So what makes you think she won't shoot you when she finds out you been skimming on the side of the bad guys? What makes you so special that she won't kill you, huh? You think you're safe because you are sending your take to some Make a Wish for the Rainforest charity thing?"

Mark felt anger grow inside of him as he looked down on the young psychiatrist. She had a point. If Bagheera found out that he had betrayed her, she wouldn't be very understanding, especially with what was going on in the streets. He had all the keys that could bring in the copycat killer, but he couldn't whip them out just yet. The detective had to bide his time until he could make his move.

"Thanks for the info Ham Hands," Harley announced happily as she threw him a brown bag of cash that she had been given for the exchange.

Mark watched in slight anger as the woman bounced away from him and disappeared into the darkness that was the alley ways of the Narrows.

...

The sounds of guns firing erupted through the underground gun range that resided under the old police station. Ashley held her gun high as she shot once again. She had been practicing for months and had yet to learn how to consistently shoot at the paper at the other end of the building.

She pulled the protective glasses off of her head as the paper target was pulled back to her. She could see the bullet holes that she had made as it came closer to her. She rolled her eyes as she looked at the bullet holes that riddled the paper. Only one bullet had hit the target and it had been a simple shot that grazed the edge of the paper man's shoulder. She pulled the noise reduction muffs off and glared at the inanimate object in anger.

"Damn," Ashley said in disappointment as she pulled another, clean target practice sheet out and placed it on the ring. She reloaded her pistol and sighed as she took a deep breath to calm her disappointment. She placed her protective

As she began to pull the muffs back on her head, she heard the sound of the door slamming in the distance. The sound of light footsteps filled the space between them, getting louder and louder as the visitor came closer and closer to her.

Ashley smiled as she watched her idol make her way towards her. She allowed the muffs to fall from her ears and upon her shoulders as Bagheera Lewis came up to her. The officer's eyes quickly moved to the bandaged up ear and concern quickly overtook her.

"What happened to you," Ashley asked.

Bagheera rolled her eyes at the question that she had been asked many times throughout the day, annoyance filled her voice as she replied, "I got shot at."

"You got shot," Ashley asked in disbelief as her eyes widened.

"No," Bagheera answered in defense of herself, "I was shot at. I'm fine."

"How'd it happen?"

"Occupational hazard. Gun shots, kidnappings, death threats, and stabbings are part of the job," Bagheera informed her. She watched as Ashley's eyes looked away from her and she quickly understood why the young woman had done so.

"I'm not ashamed of my scars," Bagheera informed her quickly, "I embrace them. Well for the most part," Bagheera offered the young officer a smile and she shrugged her shoulders, "well it was a little weird when I actually let Will see my scar. That was the only part that was slightly embarrassing, buy you get over it."

"Isn't it strange how men can have that effect," Ashley said, giving her own smile, "I've seen mangled corpses and the other night I was shaking like a leaf before I let my new boyfriend see me naked."

Bagheera chuckled at their shared experiences and moved to pull her side arm out to place it on the table, "How are you doing with this?"

"Eh," Ashley stated with a shrug, "I don't think I was cut out for shooting at people. I can't hit the damned target."

"Have you had anyone down here with you," Bagheera offered as she took in the young woman that had worked hard to get where she was, "to help teach you?"

"No, not really," Ashley admitted, "My partner has a family so he doesn't ever have the time."

"Well show me your style," Bagheera demanded as she stepped back from the officer. She didn't observe the rules of the gun range by placing safety glasses on or the noise reduction muffs on as she watched the future detective shoot at the paper target.

Bagheera watched as the girl stood in what seemed to be for her an uncomfortable and forced stance. She listened as the gun fired twice before she stopped her.

"Listen Ashley," Bagheera announced as she looked over to the young officer, "are you comfortable in that stance?"

"What," Ashley asked as she looked down at her stance and lowered her gun slightly.

"Okay so you are using an Isosceles stance," Bagheera informed her, "It's good, but not really perfect. You've heard of the Weaver stance?"

"Yeah."

"Well, let's modify that stance to fit you," Bagheera offered as she watched the young woman place herself in the Weaver stance, "now extend your arm; you want to do this to take advantage of your own body."

She smiled as the woman did as she said and shot at the target. She listened as the remaining bullets pierced the target in the appropriate places that could put a perp down.

Ashley smiled as the target came into view. A glow of pride came over her young features as she looked at the small bullet holes in the paper.

"Thanks," Ashley said happily, "it's not perfect, but it's better!"

"It's about what makes you comfortable," Bagheera informed her, "and remember you have to breathe when you take shots."

"I just," Ashley beamed, "just…wow! I can't believe I actually have it in me to bring someone down."

Bagheera smiled at the excited officer and recalled how happy she had been when her trainer had taught her how to stand with a weapon in her hand. It had changed her life when she learned how to bring a man down with a single bullet. It had given her a power surge in the knowledge that she could end a man's life if he stepped over the line.

"So what did you call me down into The Hole for," Bagheera asked as she looked around the old training area. She grabbed her side piece and placed it back in its home against her hip.

"I wanted to bring up something with you," Ashley answered honestly, "it was about something we've been studying in class."

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard of the Blue Code of Silence," Ashley asked.

"Well, I was known for skipping most of my CJ classes in college, but I think it rings a bell," Bagheera answered with a smug smile as she leaned against the dividing wall between the other training booth.

"So you said that it could be a cop," Ashley reminded her.

Bagheera eyed her carefully and said slowly, "I remember."

"What if it was a cop's partner? What if you suspected your partner in theory?"

Bagheera's brows furrowed as she looked the young police officer over. She knew the young woman had a lot to learn, but she had thought that this bit of information would have been something that would have been a given.

"Are you saying you can't trust your partner," Bagheera asked.

"No," Ashley answered in a hurried tone, "I trust him fine. But I'm just saying what if you didn't?"

"If you can't trust your partner, you get a new partner," Bagheera informed her quickly, "it's that simple."

"But what if you think that he-"

"You let IAB take care of it," Bagheera informed her, her voice was becoming harsh as she thought about having Mark potentially betraying her when she would threaten criminals, "you do not want anything to back fire on you. You got that?"

An awkward silence overcame the two women. Ashley lowered her gaze to the floor as she allowed her role models words of corrupted wisdom radiate through the grey matter of her brain.

"I get it," Ashley stated finally in an attempt to relieve the silence that had developed between the law enforcement officers.

Bagheera shook her head and said simply, "Look, I know you're new, but there is a code. It's a shitty code; yeah I'm not going to lie. But it's best that you can say you were ignorant of all knowledge than having an entire police department pissed off at you. Why are you asking?"

"Uhm," Ashley licked at her lips as she debated on telling the detective the missing dot that she had discovered, "I think your partner has something to do with what has been going on."

"What makes you think that," Bagheera asked as her eyes widened in slight disbelief. She had never once thought that her partner had anything to do with the events that had been going on in Gotham recently. They had been through so much that she was convinced that she would know when something was going on with him.

"You said it was a person with inside information," Ashley answered honestly, "I don't think it's you, so it has to be someone close to you and that knows things about how to not be found out."

"It's not Mark," Bagheera informed her in quick defense of her partner, "I've worked for him for too long. We can trust him. He's a good cop."

"Who else could it be," Ashley asked as he watched Bagheera walk away from her.

"I don't know," Bagheera admitted as she left the underground shooting range.

...

Bagheera found herself alone at her desk with only a single lamp and the screen saver from her computer as a light in her office. She could hear the other graveyard shift officers entering the building and cackling in laughter from the hallway. She ignored them as she looked at her desk. The words that Ashley Davies and Bob had told her rippled through her mind. Bob had told her it was a cop that had threatened his wife and Ashley had told her that she suspected Mark, though she had no evidence to support her suspicions.

She quickly moved the mouse on her computer and smiled as a picture of her soon to be husband and herself looked back at her from her computer background.

"I have no idea what the fuck is going on," she whispered in anger as she pulled up pictures of the Joker. She eyed him closely and shook her head as nothing came to her. She couldn't connect any dots with this copycat killer.

"I can't work like this," Bagheera whispered as she closed the pictures and looked down to her desk drawer where she kept the hard copies on every detail that involved the Joker. Her own observations had been placed inside the manila file; everything that had been involved in the copycat crimes had been in those files that she had kept safely hidden in her bottom desk drawer.

Bagheera felt a cold heat move through her as she looked down at the drawer. She wanted to believe that no one had gotten into her desk, but she knew the things that had been in those murders were contained within those files and in her mind.

Her hands shook as she eased herself towards the drawer. She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to open the drawer as if it was a band aid. She had been led to believe from her old grandmother that it was much easier to rip the band aid off quickly than suffering through the apprehension and that's how she had led her life for the most part.

The drawer pulled open with a loud bang as the back came in contact with the small pins that kept the drawer from falling out of its place. Bagheera's fingers quickly dug through the many files until she could touch the bottom file. The thickness of the file would tell her that it belonged to the Joker.

"Son of a bitch," Bagheera said in anger as her fingers pulled a thin file out from the bottom of the stack. She glared at the name on the file that glared back at her. The file that lay in her hand belonged to that of Jonathon Crane.

A small yellow sticky note in familiar handwriting said, "Everything you need to know, you already know -J"

A small knowing smile tugged at her lips as her fingers absently traced over his writing. The cryptic message reassured her as she looked out the window and into the wildness that was Gotham City. She shook her head as she wondered how Jonathon had snuck into her office to leave her the reassuring message or even if it had been her cousin that had slipped her the message.

But she knew that he had something to do with what was going on and he was going to supply her with information. Bagheera had two of the top surviving criminals in Gotham City at her fingertips that she could use to help her catch the copycat killer and the woman that was pulling the strings.

So lots of information in this very long chapter.

So is Mark a bad guy or a red herring? Hmmm...if he's a red herring who else could it be?

Tell me your thoughts! :)