AN: Hmm… so, my fellow FanFictioners, who do you think the Felon is? Someone we haven't met yet? Or someone we have? I've laid an Easter egg or two out, but nothing major. Perhaps you'll have an idea by the end of this chapter.
I dedicate this chapter to my Dad, who turned 57 today. Happy birthday, Bruce Wayne!
After three weeks with no other leads and no new bodies, the precinct was beginning to fall back into their normal routine of arresting burglars and meth addicts.
By the second week of December, the two had fallen into the comfortable title of boyfriend and girlfriend. And even though Dick knew he should be worrying more about the Felon, the newfound relationship he was slowly building with Kory was making its way to the front of his mind more often than his job. Besides, he knew that the guys at the stationhouse were glad that he wasn't there from dawn to dusk for once. Usually Dick objected to change, but this transformation that was occurring… he had to admit that he rather enjoyed it.
This week's date included two tickets to the Gotham Knight's last home football game and two warm seats in the skyboxes at the top of the stadium. Kory gasped and pressed her face against the pristine glass that overlooked the crowds and field below.
"Dick, who on Earth did you sleep with to get these seats?" She took the glass of chilled champagne he handed her and sipped lightly, her green eyes still glued to the grass where the team was warming up.
"Let's just say I have some connections to the boss."
"The 'boss'?" She cast him that cute quizzical expression again and reminded him that although they were dating, he hadn't told her everything she needed to know. As fate would have it, the boss happened to stroll through the door with his gorgeous girlfriend, Diana Prince, at his side.
"Bruce, this is Kory Anders, Kory, this is-"
"Bruce Wayne?" Kory's voice squeaked at the sight of the mogul and she cleared it at once, repeating, "Bruce Wayne, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Her hand tingled lightly as the billionaire's lips connected with her skin. To her right, Dick's jaw tightened at the motion, but he reframed from letting the vile words he was thinking spill out of his mouth.
"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Anders," Bruce's smirk grew deeper, "Dick has told me so much about you."
"Really?" The redhead eyed her boyfriend with interest, to which he responded by shrugging, as if it didn't matter that he knew Mr. Wayne personally and watched football with him. "I cannot say the same, but I'm sure Richard will fill me in on the details later."
"Yeah. Later." Dick agreed wholly. Kory nudged her boyfriend playfully and thanked Bruce before moving over towards the expansive windows to introduce herself to Diana.
"Richard?"
"Shut up."
"Cute."
"Shut up, Bruce."
"I meant her. You always had a thing for redheads." The detective practically growled at his adopted father, eyes narrowed spitefully.
"Shut up, you prick. Kory's not Barbara."
"Oh, clearly. Let's hope you don't run this one out of town, either." Kory glanced from Diana back towards the two men who were now glowering at each other.
"Is something wrong with those two? They do not look like friends."
"Friends?" Diana chuckled, "Far from it. They're being their usual father-son duo. They always complain about the other, even though they're so alike that it's creepy, especially since they're not related by blood."
"Father and son?"
"Yes, Dick is Bruce's adopted son, from the age of eight. Didn't you know?" Kory shook her head and eyed their forms, wondering why she hadn't recognized it before.
"No, I did not."
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When halftime rolled around, Dick knew something was wrong. Even though she cheered at the touchdowns and thirty-yard passes, Kory had been strangely silent, which was something he was not used to. Usually, she would be chatting his ear off about everything she understood and questioning him to death about the things she didn't. He admitted that he liked listening and teaching her, but now she wasn't speaking at all, keeping her eyes trained solely on Gotham University's marching band.
The moment Diana and Bruce left to socialize, Dick grabbed the massive remote control and activated the bamboo panels to slide over the windows, shielding them from the outside world.
"Dick, why did you-"
"Kory, what's wrong?" She seemed startled by the question.
"What do you mean? Nothing is wrong; everything is wonderful." The disappointment in her answer must have shown on his face, because she continued, "Okay, so everything is not wonderful."
"Did I do something? I'm really sorry if I did, because sometimes I say things and I don't mean for them-" She shook her head, a shy smile gracing her lips.
"You did nothing. I was merely… lost in thought."
"About what?" The door creaked open and voices could be heard from the hallway, Bruce and Diana coming back from wherever they'd been, and Dick removed the panels from the windows. Below, the marching band stepped off the field, and the announcer began remarking on the opposing team, the Metropolis Metros.
"Don't worry, Richard. We will talk later." To drive her point across, she laced her fingers through his on the armrest and laid her head against his shoulder. She was right, he knew. Whatever she needed to talk about was best behind closed doors, without Bruce present.
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"Shh, my darling, please no talking."
"Please let me go!" The princess begged again, her plump lips straining against the gag around her mouth. Hands gripped her head; fingers tugging the cloth back down, and prepared another syringe. Jasmine felt her world tilt as the blood in her veins thickened. The putrid smell of wet fur and damp mud filled her nostrils. She gagged, but the cloth remained taught. "Please." She moaned pleadingly through the barrier.
"Don't worry, Jasmine, you need not fret."
"My name is not Jasmine." The drugs were taking a toll on her mind now. What was her name? She tried a few out in her mind, but she was no Katie, Serena, or Caroline.
"Yes, it is." The voice seemed a bit angered by her objection. "Now, hush, or you will wake him."
"Who? Where are we?" The strong arms wrapped around her, picking up her up as if she were a bride. "My name is not Jasmine." She needed the person to understand this. She could not die as someone else. "What is my name?" Another sting shot up her arm and as her heartbeat quickened, what was left of her vision slackened and danced with dense jungle leaves. "What… is my… name?" Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips, but met cloth. What was on her mouth? Who was carrying her? In the distance, a low grumbling sounded. She fought back a giggle. Someone was very hungry.
"Here, kitty, kitty. Your princess has come back for you." Another stomach rumbled.
"Kitty?" Jasmine called, moving her hand around to search for her cat.
"Yes, princess, kitty. He is going to take you to the others." The arms left her body and the smell of wet fur and nature hit her again.
"What is my name?" She pleaded again. She needed to know. The voice giggled softly, though, and by the crunching of twigs, she knew it was moving away. "What is my name?" From behind her, a large object lumbered and snorted out a steamy breath. "Kitty? Kitty, what is my name?" Something nudged against her neck, inhaling loudly, and a long, foreign wet object scraped across the sensitive skin there. "Please. Please tell me." The kitty growled- where did the stomach go that was just here? - and she swallowed thickly, trying her best to move away.
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"Thirty yards out, ladies and gents, and only one minute to go. With the score so close, it's anybody's game!" Kory's hand gripped Dick's tightly as the two watched the field intensely. The JumbroTron's time slowly ticked down as the players picked themselves up and began running the ball. The Metros anticipated the Knights' plan of a quarterback sneak so as soon as the center snapped the ball and the offensive line began to rush forward, the defensive line surged back and around, heading straight for the ball.
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"I am sorry. I am sorry. So sorry, kitty." She needed to find the voice. It had held her; it had kept her away from the kitty. Or had it brought her to him? "What is my name?" Jasmine exclaimed and frustratedly tried to move once more. Her limbs felt like Jell-O, though, and the slightest motion made her brain fuzzier. Her blurry vision caught the large orb of white light above and for the first time, she saw the kitty's yellow eyes shine hauntingly. "Kitty," Jasmine crooned one last time, "What is my name?"
The jungle plants around her shook with anticipation from the night's wind. The white light illuminated the yellow eyes that began to move closer. The tiger looked up momentarily from his meal to see the second figure moving in closely. He growled, barring his bloody teeth to keep the figure away. A single thunk and a skid were heard. Then all was silent and the tiger returned to the mysterious meat laid before him.
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The quarterback yelled to his team and suddenly, the ball was whisked out of his hands and was heading towards the end zone. "Wally West can't be outrun! That ball is gone!" The Knights' fans roared as their famed running back scoured a touchdown with less than thirty seconds to spare. "Touchdown Gotham!"
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"What is my name?" There was an instant of unbearable pain near her shoulder and when she looked down, she could see the white light reflecting off a pool of shimmery liquid. Go to sleep, the ripples whispered and she obliged, succumbing to the inky darkness as another wave of pain rolled over her delicate frame.
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Kory whooped and cheered from her seat, almost knocking the poor server, Chelsey, over in the process, and watched in elation as the team flooded the field in celebration. She flashed her grin at her boyfriend and they leaned in simultaneously for a congratulatory kiss. Soon after, they thanked and big goodbye to Bruce and Diana, making their way to the private parking garage underneath the stadium.
"The game was magnificent, Dick. Thank you for taking me." He beamed and opened the door for her, allowing her to climb in and situate herself.
"You're welcome. I'm curious, though: how do you know so much about football?" They pulled onto the main drag and Dick settled in his seat, knowing that soon the floodgates would open and they would be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
"Before we came to America, we tried to find things that were of 'America's past time.' Although many websites claimed the baseball game was, I did not find it as interesting as this 'football.'"
"We?"
"My sister, Komille, and I." Kory answered shortly, keeping her eyes on the car ahead of them.
"Where does your sister live now?"
"She owns an interior design company, called Centauri Design, downtown so her loft is not far from there." Dick was surprised at this information, so she began asking him the questions, hoping to move away from the current conversation. "You have heard of it?"
"Yes, actually. Bruce purchased some lighting for the aquarium he's building and I had to go and pick it up a couple weeks ago. The woman I met with didn't have your same hair or eye color, though."
"That is actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Richard."
"Your sister's looks?"
"No. Or, at least, not too that extent," Her fingers danced across each other, linking and twisting nervously, "It occurred to me that although we have been doing the dating for almost a month, neither of us know much about the other."
"Oh, ye have little faith, Kory. I'm the World's Greatest Detective. I know more about you than you do yourself." He winked and grinned cheekily. The half-smile he received in return told him that she appreciated his comic relief, but this was not the time.
"I'm serious. You may know my present and possibly my future, but there is much to be discussed about my past. And yours, as well." Dick cleared his throat in an attempt to stall because for once in his life, he had nothing to say. "I apologize if the idea makes you uncomfortable. It is disappointing, though, that I leaned you were related to Mr. Wayne from Diana, and not you yourself." She studied him closely and he panicked, knowing how well she could read him. He was the government-trained official- he should be the only one good at reading people. "Is there a reason you did not inform me of this fact before?"
"Yeah. Kinda. Maybe." Her dark eyebrow raised in humor. "Listen, how about we get out of this pain-in-the-ass traffic jam and grab a bite to eat? Then, we can swap stories and-" The familiar ring caused the couple to startle. "Detective Grayson." She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as he sighed and it became apparent their newborn plans had already fallen through. "At the zoo? How on Earth did- yeah. Mel there yet? Okay, okay, Brandon. I'll be there as soon as I can. What about Marty? All right, I know. Just get the damn thing put down before it mauls the squints." The cell phone was tossed angrily into the console, bouncing against the leather before landing at Kory's sandaled feet.
"You are needed at work?" She began innocently as she handed his phone back.
"I'm really sorry, babe. I thought we would have the entire night to, ya know, talk, but this Fairytale Felon gave us another bod- victim to work with."
"It is all right." His mind was already working on capturing the crook on tape from the webcams the zoo had recently set in every exhibit- a donation from the philanthropic Bruce Wayne. Dick held back an annoyed snort because this time, he had a reason to appreciate his father's need to spend money.
"Yeah, it is." This time, Dick may have caught the bastard.
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As she watched Richard pull away from the curb, she didn't feel any hope in the promises he'd made as she'd exited the Pathfinder. The words and ideas coming out of his mouth were obviously not registering with his brain. They were empty, zombie-like promises that thrived on a flurry of emotions and adrenaline, which Kory supposed her detective was experiencing as he headed to the crime scene. She turned and faced the cold wind before his taillights disappeared, and headed straight for her apartment building. Her mother had taught her that it brought bad luck to watch someone until they were out of sight. After depositing her things on the counter and replenishing Silkie's bowls, her dull green eyes fell upon the blinking machine on the corner of the bar.
"Hey, Kory, I know this is weird but… is there any chance you've seen Cahaya today?" Kory's breath hitched as she took a seat on a stool and listened as Sarah continued, "She was supposed to drive back to Boston last night and she didn't show up for class this morning, so her sister is worried something may have happened to her. I'm hoping it's nothing big, but… anyway please, whenever you get this, could you give me a call? Thanks, Kor." Before Sarah's recording ended, Kory was picking up the phone and dialing rapidly.
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Dick's hands shook with disgust as he snapped another photo. Kneeling this close to the body, he could practically feel the blood seeping through his boots, and he felt for a moment that he wasn't going to be the only one tossing his food. Several junior members of the forensics team- or squints, as Dick fondly called them- were already depositing their dinners outside of the cage.
"Soames?"
"Yeah, boss?" Brandon answered, his voice seemingly hollow as he averted his eyes from the mangled corpse.
"I want to kill this fucker."
"You and me both." A voice came from the liaison's right and both officers turned to see a blonde-haired man with shockingly forest green eyes standing a few feet away. "I'm Garfield, the veterinarian here at the zoo." The detective and the vet shook hands.
"You see anything?" Garfield shook his head.
"No. I was at home when the main office called me in, saying I needed to get down here to put Rajah down."
"Rajah?"
"The tiger. He was shipped in here from Baghdad after the war started. He's named after the tiger in that Disney movie Aladdin." Dick glanced over to where the body of the Bengal tiger lay slumped over and covered in flecks of blood. While he felt no remorse for the animal, he knew that all the blame was on the true killer- the Felon. Without him, the tiger never would have been tempted to devour the woman. "Whatever bastard put this woman in here might as well have killed Rajah, too. The media would've had a frenzy if we kept him alive, so we acted quickly. Of course, you can expect a couple activists to show up at your stationhouse."
"Yeah, our chief's been alerted to release a statement already. I'm sorry you had to put him down." Garfield sighed and nodded, his eyes darting towards the body of the victim.
"I'm sorry for her, too. Couldn't have been a very pleasant way to go."
"No. It wasn't." His phone vibrated in his pocket and he expected his chief on the other line, barking orders to seal the entrances to the zoo so the cameras couldn't get in. "Hello?" Dick snapped. The Felon obviously wanted them to know he wasn't done yet- made obvious by the barely-discernable body in the tiger's den and the gleaming Aladdin book a few feet away.
"I know this is a bad time, but my friend appears to be missing." Dick was shocked to find it was his girlfriend instead of the chief, but his attitude remained the same.
"So? Kory, listen, I'm sorry but this is a serious matter and-"
"I know, Dick. The way you accelerated away after you dropped me off made that perfectly clear." He almost winced at her tone, "I am calling because I fear the worst for my friend."
"What do you want me to do, Kory?"
"Cahaya is twenty-six and she comes from the country of Indonesia, so her skin is extremely tan- almost like mine- and her hair is a deep, chocolate brown, the same-"
"-color as her eyes?" Even though the torso and below was a mangled heap of tissues and organs, the eyes remained unscarred, though were starting to sink back into the skull.
"Yes." The heavy silence felt almost too thick to cut through. Marty was the one who was good with people, the one who handled tragedies like they were nothing. Dick could count the number of times he'd broken the terrible news to family on one hand. To him, this was a change, and one of the worst. "Then, she is...?"
"I'm staring at her right now, Kory. I'm sorry."
AN:
Chapter Five: "Speeding Cars" by Imogen Heap
If you'll notice, Cahaya is the first victim who is not a DC Comic character. I borrowed the "skyboxes" term from what the University of Tennessee calls their presidential rooms above Neyland Stadium, which I only found out from my sister (who had a slight cameo in this chapter!), who works as a caterer for UT. Thanks, sis!
Also borrowed the term "squints" from my favorite television show, "Bones." There might be another allusion to Bones in an upcoming chapter, too.
Interesting tidbit: My father's name is Bruce Wayne, and no, I'm not kidding here. I asked my dad why he didn't dress up like a bat and fight crime the way nature intended. "I'm only afraid of rats. Would you want to be related to someone who dressed up like a rodent and fought crime?" I told him he had a good point.
If you've read through this incredibly long author's note, then gracias, and you know the drill.