A/N: This is a bit of a Gordon centric chapter, but you'll see a lot more of Bruce in later chapters. Who can find the Batman: Year One quote I hid somewhere?
The scene of the crime was a horrendous flood of activity as Gordon's team set up a perimeter around the Gotham Dockyards. The commissioner tiredly placed his hands on his hips and sighed as he observed the chaos around him. Ten unidentified victims, all armed to the teeth and all exept one was killed with a precisely thrown projectile to the throat or head. Gordon assumed from the massive volume of shell casings, they hadn't hit whatever it was they were shooting at. But what was curious, was the fact that the last victim found, was found on the south end of the dockyards. He was obviously trying to escape his unfortunate fate but was decapitated in the process. He looked down at the chubby man, with his terrified head laying between his legs, and judging from the gastly expression permanently fixed on the poor fellow's face he'd most likely be the only one to come face to face with the killer. If only for a moment.
"We got a name yet?" Gordon asked, running his fingers through his hair before being abruptly handed a plastic baggie by a young detective who quickly filled him in,
"Identification card says Robert Finch sir. The name doesn't show up in the database, but we'll be sure to cross check it for any known aliases." The young man stood from his previously crouched position to look Gordon straight in the face, as straight as he could get anyway being a full two feet taller than his senior officer. "That plus the prints they're gonna lift from the gun should at least give us a decent look at who this guy really is." Gordon blinked, it was only until he finished speaking that Gordon noticed he didn't even recognize the face in front of him. "I'm sorry," Gordon stammered, offering his hand to the weathered looking younger man, "Detective Monahan. You personally applied me to your team last week, I transferred from here from L.A." Gordon nodded quickly, dismissing his explanation, "Yeah, I remember now. Welcome aboard son." Gordon was much too tired for the run of the mill pleasentries, there'd be time for that in the morning.
The commissioner patted the lanky young man on the back , wandering slowly over to the boat docking area at the southernmost part of the dock. He examined the charred remains of the boats that floated idly on the the thickness of the saltly sea brine as a cool breeze blew past, carrying with it the scent of the ocean and feint smell of the gasoline drums that had been demolished along with the boats. Good God what a mess, he thought shaking his head, someone definitely didn't want them to escape. His shoulders slumped tiredly as thunder from the previous storm rumbled in the distance.
"Evening Commissioner." rasped a familiar deep voice causing Gordon's head to snap up to where the vigilante sat perched on top of one of the containers, quietly looking down at the older man from his place in the shadows. Gordon placed a hand on his hip as he stroked his mustache, trying to remain unsuspicious.
"How long have you been here?" Gordon asked while keeping his eyes off of the man crouched atop the container.
"Long enough." the Batman said, his eyes flickering over to the body of the large man being examined by Gordon's CSI team. "Robert Calzotti. He's been working for the Cassamento family for decades." The policeman's eyes widened and he turned to face the vigilante, ignoring all attemts at subtlety.
"The Cassamentos? I thought they'd all left after Jimmy Cassamento's murder. How can you be sure it's them?" The dark knight moved his gaze back to Gordon while he spoke, noticing the sudden alarm on the older man's features at the mention of the name. The Cassamento's were the one of the oldest families in Gotham, apparently Gordon had dealt with them before.
"They've avoided suspicion. Payments to the Berreti's keep things quiet. Only tonight, something went wrong." Batman watched Gordon as he paced slowly back and forth with his arms crossed over his chest, mulling over the new information in his head before speaking,
"That explains the other guys. You think whoever did this did it for the money?" Gordon never looked up, resuming his less conspicuous pose looking out over the ocean as he tightened his coat around himself to protect against the biting chill of the night air.
"It's possible. But that doesn't explain Calzotti. The projectiles found on his body were used only to disable him. If he wanted to kill Calzotti sooner he would have. He wanted him alive." Gordon's brow furrowed as something occured to him,
"Wait, you said 'he'. You're saying one man did this?" Gordon looked up to find that the perpetually still figure was gone, he had chosen to take his leave again before he could get an answer out of him, back into the inky blackness from wence he came. Still, what he had learned was potentially groundbreaking. Gordon strode off back towards the squad cars that were parked in various places around the docks to report this news to his men, the Berreti's and the Cassamento's wouldn't be happy about this, it was best to keep this on the down low for now to avoid any violent action on either of their parts.
But Gordon couldn't help but fear this was the calm before a storm. He began shouting orders as soon as he was in hearing distance of his men, "I want a search ran in the system for everyone affiliated with the Berreti and Cassamento families and all their recent activities! And search the name Robert Calzotti! It may shed some light as to who he's been working for!" As he approached, news vans screamed to a halt in front of the entrance to the docks. He was surprized they weren't here sooner, any other time they would've practically sniffed it out before it even happened.
After a flurry of questions and the repeated response of "no comment" Gordon was finally headed back to his car, and back to his home where his nice, warm bed would be waiting. He hated these late nights, he hated the job, he hated the gun. He wished he could just forget his troubles for a while and spend time with his family. And sleep. God he wanted to sleep more than anything at the moment. But he knew that with the amount of crazies in this city, that would be impossible. Even with hishelp. But to be honest, he was just glad someone other than him out there gave a damn and tried to do what he thought was right to help keep the city, and the people safe. He often wondered what caused someone like Batman to do what he did, what purpose drove him. But what ever it was, the masked man seemed completely and utterly determined and dedicated to what he did. What kind of social life would a man like that lead? Or if he even had one for that matter. And on his way home, Gordon pondered his true identity again for a fleeting moment. Giving it up due to his exhausted and overworked mind. He didn't really want to know anyway, Gordon figured it'd be easier that way. Once home, Gordon heated up the leftovers from dinner and ate without a sound before quietly trudging to his bedroom to find his sleeping wife wrapped in the blankets, completely oblivious to his prescence as he slipped into bed beside her and he sighed, tomorrow was going to be hell.
Bruce drove the pod back to the cave from where he had stashed it in an abandoned warehouse not far from the docks. It didn't seem to take him any time at all considering his preoccupied state. His thoughts had been full of the details of the crime he had just left.
"Eventful night, Master Wayne?" Alfred asked quietly as soon as the lift stopped it's ancient protests of use.
"More eventful than you know, Alfred." Bruce said breathlessly, unlatching the cowl and removing it. The older man strode quickly over and proceeded to help Bruce remove the rest of his armor while Bruce spoke, filling his butler in on the night's developments. "Some members of the Berreti and Cassamento families were attacked tonight. And whoever it was was able to avoid being seen and pick off every person there one by one by using shuriken thrown from a distance. I've never seen this level of precision with thrown weapons, not even when I trained with Ra's. Whoever this is, is highly trained. We need to be on the lookout for him from now on, he's too dangerous."
"You know, normal people would try and stay away from those kinds of things Master Wayne." Alfred said in a snide tone as he unlatched Bruce's cape and draped it over the back of a chair.
Bruce grinned slightly at the man, but gave him no reply, intead he continued, "They are not going to take this lightly. Large quantities of money stolen, their men killed by some assassin, there's no doubt in my mind they'll blame one another." He brought up Bobby Calzotti's file onto the computer. "This man was found away from the others, isolated. The assassin must've needed him alive for something before he killed him." Bruce examined the pictures, his hand resting against his mouth as he thought.
Alfred's brow furrowed, "What exactly leads you to believe this sir?" Bruce opened another window containing the pictures taken from the scene,
"This man was hit with three precisely thrown shuriken, and we've seen with the others that if he wanted to kill him with one he could have done it easily. These were meant to disable. He'd be alive long enough for the assassin to get what he needed from him and leave before the police got there." Alfred sat down in a chair off to Bruce's right and stared up at the screen as Bruce opened the rest of the pictures, all of them easily visible on the large screen. Alfred leaned forward to examine them closer, and bruced watched the older man in silence while he thought.
"All that blood. . . some of it's bound to have gotten on him." Bruce's eyes widened, as he faced his friend.
"Alfred you're a genius." Bruce stood and stretched his sore muscles before striding quickly over to the lift, Alfred following slowly behind.
"Naturally sir. I try my best to not to spoil the surprise of how he got away with it until after you've beat him to a pulp." Bruce chuckled and shook his head at Alfred's coy smile as he stepped into place beside his master.
"Remind me to set up a meeting with Lucius sometime tommorrow, I've got some ideas I think he'd find interesting." Alfred nodded as they reached their destination in the freshly completed manor and Bruce entered the code to slide the bookcase aside to give them entrance into the library. Bruce yawned when he finally made it to his bedroom and Alfred chuckled softly behind him,
"Why don't we make sleep the next thing on your agenda sir? I doubt Mr. Fox will disappear before you wake up tomorrow." Bruce shook his head tiredly at his oldest friend "Goodnight, Alfred." He practically collapsed onto his bed and was asleep before he even heard Alfred's reply, "Goodnight, Master Bruce."