THE WRONG COMPANY

Joe's body lay on a stainless steel table. The coroner carefully peeled back the ragged skin with a pair of long pincers taking note that the tissue had already started to decompose. He talked to him self as he worked through the investigation.

"Flesh has already started to break down... subcutaneous layers seem the most effected." He bent down staring straight down into the trachea.

"Nothing is obstructing the air ways... vertical grinding patterns in the bone moving from the right to left side of the neck. Sudden deep tissue damage is very apparent." He held a magnifier over the skin again looking closer at the ripped un-identical patterns.

"Tsk... Well, who ever did this didn't have much finesse." He covered the body again, disposed of his latex gloves and started to enter more information into the computer, finalizing the autopsy.

The door opened behind him.

"Ah, Commissioner, come to get the latest I see."

Gordon nodded with out saying anything and came to stand next to him.

"So? What have you, uh, concluded."

"Well..." he said grabbing another pair of gloves and putting them on. "There was some interesting patterns in the bone." He uncovered the body and pointed to the gouged vertebrae. Gordon bent down to get a closer look.

"Who ever did this probably used a jig saw, there- you see the pattern?" Gordon nodded.

"Anything else? I mean thats all?" The coroner sighed and took a step back.

"Thats really it actually. I did blood toxin levels, checked for any other marks, wounds, broken bones, bruising, externally and internally, everything. He doesn't look like he had any pre existing conditions either. I went through the whole run down and my conclusion is... jig saw."

Gordon stood looking down at the body.

"We haven't found the head, don't know what happened to it." The coroner nodded not saying anything.

Gordon's cell phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket. "One moment."

"Hello?"

"Yes, Gordon? Hi this the police chief Spencer, im calling on behalf of Mr. Dent. He says he needs to meet with you, its urgent apparently. Uh, from what I got its something about the influx of inmates and something about the current state of the city."

"Yeah, yeah, its always urgent and its always about the "state of the city" and what we can do to cut down on crime and how the system is over loaded with the increasing crime rate, I got ya..." Gordon said running a hand over his face.

"Oh and sir?"

"Yeah."

"Theres something else..uh..." the police chief's voice was suddenly shaky. Gordon waited, now expecting to have some huge load of shit dropped on his head, he could tell this was going to be bad.

"We've lost four officers, sir."

"What?!" The coroner looked up, startled.

"Oh Jesus, who? What the hell happened?

"Uh, officers Connelly, Patterson, Brogan and Davis. They um... they were found in different locations around the city. They had all been strangled to death." Gordon closed his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, this was horrible. Just four more deaths to add the growing number of men lost on their force. The police chief's voice brought him back from his train of thought.

"Theres more, sir. The bodies were found with out clothes, all of them. The murderers stole the uniforms. We have no idea why they would do that..." There was a few moments of silence.

"Alright, Ill call you back after my talk with Harvey, im sure he'll have something to say about this. Make sure their families are compensated until we can do more." Commissioner Gordon thanked the coroner for his insight and left quickly.

The alley smelled like piss and the early morning sun cut across his face giving him an instant head ache. Jack slowly opened his eyes and stared at the dumpster directly in front of him, seemingly transfixed with the scummy runs of mystery fluid that dripped down the side. As his head cleared more he still couldn't remember why he had crashed so suddenly in some shit hole alley. Maybe it was the drugs but that didn't seem right. Maybe they were laced with something... Whatever, this was not a good place to be, given that nearly half the Gotham police force was after him along with Sam's crew, this was like laying out in the open with a target painted on your chest.

His hair stuck out in all directions, making his disheveled appearance even more extreme. The back of his coat was soaked from leaning against wet brick. He got up leaning against the wall and running a hand through his hair.

"Screw me, right? Now I have to hope to hell that no one sees me or, that skank doesn't spot me and try to avenge her play mate. Not like it would matter... I'd just do the same to her, at least it would add some color to the walls. This place is in need of some spicing-up anyway." Jack chuckled at his own thoughts as he meandered out onto the sidewalk still trying to clear his head.

He looked up to see a beefy man standing in front of him, he was a cop. Jack stopped and curtseyed. "Top o' the mornin' to ya." The man didn't say anything so Jack turned on the spot and started to walk in the other direction when another appeared. He stopped again and walked out into the street. Two more appeared from behind a black van. He was hit from behind by the two on the side walk and the others grabbed him also for good measure. As they dragged him to the van he looked up at the four men.

"Really ladies, you'll all get your turn but not all at once, now, its been a long night."

One split off and opened the sliding door on the van, and still without saying anything the other three threw him in the back, climbed in and shut the door.