The following is a transcript from the confession of one Jonathan Crane, made of his own free will, in the presence of Gotham City Police Department investigators. Interrogating officers are Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya.

(tape begins with the sound of coughing, then)

Montoya: All right, we're recording. Ahem. This is Renee Montoya, interrogating officer 1.

Bullock: Harvey Bullock, Interrogating Officer 2, and senior officer.

Montoya: Crane, you wanted to confess?

Crane: Wanted is something of an exaggeration. I am willing to confess, yes.

Montoya: You are responsible for the deaths of twenty five persons during the month of February?

(a pause)

Crane: I am.

Bullock: Whoa, whoa WHOA! What the hell was that smile about, Straw Man?!

(sounds of someone getting up, presumably detective Bullock)

Bullock: If this is some kinda joke…

Montoya: Harvey, leave it for now. Moving along, why did you do it?

(A longer pause)

Crane: It was an experiment. My largest scale piece of research to date.

Bullock (quietly): Some research.

Crane: Indeed. I conceived of the experiment during my last stay in Arkham. One of the 'normal' patients went into severe withdrawl- just what drug he'd been taking I do not know- and began screaming for 'his stuff'. Not even the threat of punishment or electroshock therapy could silence him. I was intrigued by this- the power of his addiction seemed greater than the power of fear. I desired to see whether this was true of most people. To this end…

Bullock (interrupting): You poisoned the drugs coming into Gotham?

Crane (his voice testy): Among other things, yes. The experiment called for a gradual increase in the percentage of narcotics tainted- raising the odds against the addicts, and studying to see if demand fell off. My findings were quite astonishing- no matter how many died, demand remained relatively stable. Although the experiment was interrupted, it does seem as though addiction is more powerful than some fears.

Montoya: Wait, wait. What other things did you do?

Crane: I also took addicts off the streets, sometimes in groups and sometimes individually, and withheld their drugs of choice. Then I made them an offer: Accept a full day and night of exposure to my fear toxin, and I would give them a dose of what they needed. It was astonishing- nearly to a man, they all accepted. Even when they saw their compatriots die screaming, eventually they almost all agreed to the toxin.

Montoya: Harvey, make a note about that- we'll come back to it later. How did you go about poisoning the drugs?

Crane: It was quite simple. There are only a small number of truly professional smuggling rings operating in and around Gotham City, and these few bring in over seventy percent of the city's narcotics. It was easy to (pause) convince one or two individuals in each organization to do things my way. As for locally made drugs, despite media reports of Meth Labs in basements, this field too is dominated by a handful of professionals.

Bullock: Must've been expensive. All that convincing, plus the cost of chemicals, plus the cost of the warehouse… no wonder ya didn't have any goons on hand when the Bat came a'callin.

Crane: To the contrary. I maintained a fair sized force of (pause, then distastefully) 'goons', at first. But after such a long time with no sign of the Batman, I decided I did not need them.

Montoya: Wait. What do you mean 'such a long time'? You've only been at this for a little over a month.

(Crane laughs, then)

Crane: Such egotism doesn't suit you detective.

Bullock: Yeah? You wanna enlighten us, freak?

Crane: You assume that because you discovered my crimes a month ago, that must be when they began. I have been, as you say, 'at this' ever since my release from Arkham- over three months ago. And by my estimation, I have killed many more than the twenty five you know of. Many, many more.

(Crane laughs)

With a click, James Gordon snapped off the recording and looked out at the darkened city. The snow was finally letting up, and the stars were visible between the clouds.

"three months…" he said to himself. Of course, he should have known he wasn't alone.

"Yes" said Batman, emerging from the shadows "I checked around. Crane has been ordering the ingredients for his neurotoxin for three months."

Gordon started, then turned around "You know, one of these days that little trick of yours is going to give me a heart attack. You'll say hello, and I'll keel over dead."

"To the contrary" Batman said, and a smile tugged at one corner of his lips "You're in fine shape. According to your last physical your blood pressure is fine, your cholesterol levels are low, and your cardiovascular system is in excellent shape despite your smoking."

"What? How did you-? You know what? Never mind" Gordon raised his glasses to massage the bridge of his nose "That maniac has been killing people for three months- not just poisonings but kidnapping them off the streets to use in his sick experiments- and we didn't even KNOW. We wrote off their deaths as overdoses or ordinary bad drugs. We wrote them off like they didn't matter."

Batman put a hand on Gordon's shoulder. "What else could you do? There was no way to detect the toxin unless you already knew what you were looking for. The only reason we found out at all was that one of your detectives had a hunch."

"Bullock" Gordon said with a wan smile "This case has been good for him. Shown the rookies that old cops still know a few things the Academy can't teach."

Batman nodded "Some more good might come out of this. I've heard the DA plans to make Crane a deal- better conditions at Arkham in exchange for information on the smuggling networks and drug makers he suborned. Ordinarily, the gangs and the Syndicates would unite to prevent such testimony, but not this time. Remember the Jade Tigers? "

The Commissioner nodded. Many years ago, when the Rogues were just starting to take hold in Gotham, a powerful Chinese Tong called the Jade Tigers had tried to strongarm the Riddler. They demanded half the take from his robberies in exchange for their 'protection'. The response was immediate. Every Rogue in Gotham had turned their sights on the Tigers- soldiers were murdered, shell-companies were robbed, even the children of prominent Tigers were kidnapped. It didn't seem like an organized thing- more that every Rogue had decided, individually, to punish the Tigers insolence. By the time the Rogues had finished, the Tigers were finished in Gotham and a message spread throuout the Underworld: Do what you want among yourselves, we don't care. But don't EVER challenge our supremacy again.

"You think Crane will make the deal?"

Batman nodded "In exchange for access to research papers and psychology journals? Yes, I think he will."

Gordon frowned, determined to see the dark side. "So what? In a month, new networks will spring up to take over"

"Trure" The Dark Knight said "But they'll be less entrenched, less experienced, and easier to find. This could be a huge blow against narcotics in Gotham."

"Well, what do you know?" Gordon said, as his friend vanished into the darkness "A happy ending after all"


In his small one room apartment, Murphey stared at the rock of Meth that he'd bought that morning. He should throw it out, he knew. He'd gotten lucky last time- and given his track record, he knew that wouldn't last. The poisoned stuff was quickly vanishing from the streets as the smuggling rings and big labs were broken up. He might very well have the last poisoned meth in Gotham- or a perfectly safe rock.

But wherever a market niche exists, someone will try to fill it. Already, word was spreading that fresh drugs should be on the streets in a few days. He ought to get rid of this possibly-deadly crap and just wait it out. He'd gone a few days without meth before, he could do so again! He was strong! He was tough! He was…

He was weak.

Tears of shame and self-loathing coursed down Murphey's cheeks as he fumbled the meth into his pipe. He took a deep breath of the drug-rich smoke, and hated himself even as strength and relief flooded his body. He was weak, he was pathetic, he didn't deserve to live… but he took another drag anyway.

End

A/N

To princessebee: If you're still interested in the project we discussed earlier, send me a message and we'll see how to get it started.

To everyone else: Thanks for reading.