Chapter 5

Jim Gordon looked through the one way glass at the woman in the interrogation room. He wasn't alone. Three officers and two detectives were keeping their eyes on her. It seemed that half the cops in the precinct had been in to at least have a look at this dark-haired lady who had supposedly managed to take down five of the West End Boys by hand--- a feat which bordered on water-into-wine as one of the more astounding things Gordon had ever heard of.

"How old is she?" asked Detective Levinson. "Nineteen, twenty?"

"She says she's twenty-two." answered Montoya.

There was no answer but silence from Gordon.

"How the hell did she pull this off?" asked Levinson again

That was an excellent question. Gordon had many of those that he wanted to pose to this Faith individual. The fact that he hadn't already was reason number 845 that he didn't like her.

Twenty minutes after voluntarily walking into the Nineteenth Precint with Officers Montoya and Riggs, Faith--- if that was her real name—had be causing all kinds of stir. The first thing that she had done was make a phone call.

Fifteen minutes after that, three attorneys in suits had shown up. Ten minutes after that Gordon had gotten a phone call from the Mayor telling him to get the hell over to the Nineteenth's building. Nor was he the only person to receive a phone call. In the past three hours, three watch commanders, two ADA's, two councilmen and an aide to the Governor had all made visits to make certain that this woman was handled properly, whoever she was.

He hadn't been allowed anywhere near her, and by the time the attorneys had finished, they had somehow made it happen that this woman who had voluntarily admitted her guilt on five first-degree assault charges was totally immune from prosecution of any kind.

Gordon didn't think that even a Congressman had this kind of pull, much less a girl who apparently hadn't graduated college. He demanded two of his detectives do a background check on her. What they found bothered Gordon even more than what the woman had managed to pull off already.

For starters, there was no criminal record for anyone by the name of Faith Wollenchuk. Wollenchuk was her supposed last name. In fact, the only record of anyone by that name was a birth certificate on file in Boston.

The detectives had had more luck tracking down her fingerprints. She did have a criminal record – of a sort. In February of 1999, a woman named Faith Wollencheck had been taken in to custody on charges of armed robbery, as well as the assault of a police officer in some town called Sunnydale. Three months later, her name had appeared again, this time on a police blotter – she had been a suspect in the stabbing death of Allan Finch, the town's deputy mayor.

The problem his detectives were having was that all of the records were computer entries. When they had attempted to contact the Sunnydale police, they had been unable to do so. In fact, they had discovered that the entire town had disappeared without a trace. There was no physical evidence to verify that any of the crimes she had been accused of had ever even taken place.

Things had become even stranger when they had tried to find out if she had spent any time behind bars. They had found a criminal, using the name 'Faith' as her only identification, had been in a prison in Los Angels from the spring of 2000 until the February of 2003.

The real problem had come when they tried to find out what the charges against her had been. The detectives had contacted the LAPD and had them check their records, only to discover that they had been expunged. That wasn't unheard of, but the only people he had ever heard of having their records 'wiped clean' were the relatives of business CEO's and politicians. This Faith character didn't look like she ran in their circles.

How did this Faith have that kind of pull? And, more importantly, what was she doing in Gotham?

Gordon knew that with what was going on in Gotham City's underworld, this incident was not the kind of thing that he needed to occupy his time. But there had been a lot of old troublemakers in Gotham recently, and if there were any new ones, he wanted to stop them now, before they got started

ADA Stone chose that moment to walk in the room. "Commissioner."

"What is it, Ben?" he asked wearily.

"She wants to talk with you."

"Well, I'm so glad she has deemed me a person worthy of her time and energy." said Gordon sarcastically. "I don't have to make an appointment?"

Stone looked more than just a little annoyed. "Jim, don't shoot the messenger. I'm sorry that they put you through all this bullshit but…" He trailed off.

"But what, Ben?" said Gordon a bit more quietly.

"This woman has pull. I don't know who the person is that's pulling the strings for her, but this is coming from somebody with a lot of money and power. The mayor, the governor, hell, it could even be someone from out of state. This girl has a very important guardian angel."

Gordon hesitated a moment, then walked towards the door. "You want back-up, boss?" asked Montoya.

Gordon gave a small smile. "I can take care of myself, Officer, but thank you."

Gordon walked out of the room with Stone straggling behind him. "Ben, what do you think of this girl? Aside from the hullabaloo?"

"Off the record?" Gordon nodded. "There's something really wrong with her. You saw her record; somebody has gone to a great deal of trouble to clean up her past. That probably means that she's has committed at least one Class A felony."

Gordon paused. "You think she's killed someone?" he said as he turned to face Stone.

"You're a better judge of that then I am, Jim. But given her attitude, it certainly wouldn't surprise me."

Now came the real question. "Why did she insist on talking to me?" Gordon asked.

"All she said was that it was something that you and only you could hear."

An unpleasant picture was beginning to form in Gordon's head. His daughter had told him stories the last time he had spoken with her--- stories he didn't want to believe, but that he could not ignore. He wasn't sure that he wanted to hear whatever it was she had to say, but he knew he had no choice.

"All right." He said to the ADA. "I'll take it from here." Gordon put his hand on the doorknob, and then hesitated. "One more thing. There's no way we're going to be able to keep this quiet for long. However I'd like to try to for as long as possible, so…"

"I'll do my best on my end. What about you?"

Gordon turned around. "I trust my people."

"All of them?"

Gordon thought that he knew what Stone was insinuating, but he couldn't say that he trusted Batman as much as anyone on his force, if not more. So he muttered a curt "Just see to it," and opened the door in to the interrogation room.

The girl turned to face him as he entered. He had gotten a vague impression of this Faith from the fishbowl, and now he quickly added a few others. For one thing, it was now well past three in the morning, yet she didn't look tired. This in itself meant nothing--- most of the people Gordon knew kept late hours--- but there was more to it than that. This girl was more than alert. She looked wound up as if she was ready to spring into action at the slightest gesture. Gordon knew someone else who was like that, too.

There was something else about her--- her eyes. They didn't look like any eyes a twenty-two year old girl should have. They looked as if they belonged on a woman more than twice that age. They were very world weary.

He realized a moment later where else he had seen eyes like that--- when he looked in the mirror. They were the eyes of anyone, cop or criminal, ghetto dweller or homeless person--- who had seen the absolute worse that the world had to offer. He had seen similar looks on child prostitutes and twelve-year old drug dealers, but it was still something that he hated seeing in someone who was younger than he was.

"Feeling comfortable, Miss Wollenchuk?" he said as he walked to the table.

"Wollenchuk is my mother's name, Commissioner. Mine has been Faith all my life." The girl sounded serious.

"Is there anything that I can get you, Faith?" Gordon was now speaking sardonically. " Coffee, soda, Denver omelet?"

"No thank you Commissioner. " Faith gave a hint of a smile. "I'm five by five."

"You should be," Gordon said calmly "considering that you've turned this precinct into your living room."

Faith sighed. "I'm very sorry about that. This whole thing was a lot more complicated than I wanted it to be."

"Yet you did it anyway."

Faith shrugged. "I needed to get in touch with you, and I didn't know a better way to it."
Gordon considered this. "You could have made an appointment with me."

"I didn't think that you would speak to someone whose only credentials were a rap sheet."

"So you thought a five-body memo would be more discreet?"

Faith actually smiled at that. "By the standards of some people I know, it was barely a blip on the radar, Commisioner."

"Could we come to the point?" said Gordon. "Who are you, really, and what are you doing in my city?"

"Alright. Like I said before, my name is Faith. And the reason I'm here, Commissioner, is because your city has a problem."

"This is a big city, Mis--- Faith. You're going to have to be a bit more specific."

Faith exhaled. "Alright. Since it appears you need things spelled out, here it is. V-A-M-P-I-R-E."

Even though Barbara had done as much as say that this was what had been going on, actually hearing the word used made a small chill run up his spine. He tried to deflect it.

"Vampire? What are we taking about? Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee?"

Faith gave a small laugh. "I've spent ten seconds on the subject and you're already making jokes."

His voice was incredulous. "Joke? Joke? You're saying vampires are responsible for half the crime in this city and you expect me to take you seriously"

"Is that more difficult to accept than a woman who has the power to control plants?" Faith was bearing down. "Or a man being able to survive with a body temp maxing out at zero degrees?"

Her point was valid. "All right, let us say that I accept your argument. How exactly am I supposed to solve this? Arm my detectives with crosses and holy water?"

Faith nodded. "That's actually a pretty good idea. I wonder why the cops in Sunnydale never thought of that."

Gordon saw an opening.

"Sunnydale? That would be the down where you killed the deputy mayor?" Faith looked away from him for the first time since he had entered the room. "I take it that's a yes, then?"

"It was an accident, Commissioner… one that I am deeply sorry for." Faith said calmly.

"And did you pay for this accident?" Gordon needed to know the limits of this woman.

"If I were a man, I'd ask why you were breaking my balls over this."

"Vampires don't fall under the purvey of my office Faith, at least not yet. Murderers do."

"You want the truth? Fine." Her voice was flat as she stared at him. "Yes, I killed a man. Yes, I spent some time in prison. It doesn't change the fact that there are vampires in your town, Commissioner and that they need to be stopped."

"And you are the solution to our problem."

"I'm part of it, yes."

Gordon looked at her. "How is that?"

"I'm a Slayer."

Gordon considered this, walked over to the other side of the room to make sure that the microphones in the room were off, and then turned around. "How does that help me?"

Faith sighed. "God, I should have listened to Wesley when he tried to explain this." She rubbed her hand over her face. "Okay. 'Into every generation a girl is born. She will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.'" She came to a stop. "Man, those English are pompous."

"So I take it you are that Slayer?"

"One of them."

Gordon looked at her. "There's more than one?"

"Do we really have to go into this?" She was starting to sound the slightest bit exasperated.

"If I have to have someone fighting these--- things, I'd prefer someone who wasn't a felon."

Now Faith really sounded pissed. "Christ, could you stop being a cop a second?"

"A cop is what I am, Miss Wollenchuk. And let me tell you something. I don't know how you have so much pull, and for the moment I don't care. This is my city. My people take criminals off the streets; we don't put them back on them."

"And if I remember the papers, you're really doing a bang-up job of it."

"Don't get—" Gordon started.

"All right, I'm sorry. That was over the line." Faith stood up slowly. "Look… I realize that you have a difficult job, and these vampires are making it harder. You're obviously very good at your job, I'm very good at mine. You may not want me here but I can help you."

Gordon mulled over what she was saying--- the whole package. By itself, it was the story of a lunatic. Combined with what Barbara had told him, what he had seen at the morgue and the general word on the street--- well, it was still crazy, but it was easier to believe. But still, to consider this legitimate, to accept this woman's help--- it would be admitting the situation was out of control—

Newsflash! The situation IS out of control!, he thought to himself. The city is just a few more attacks from erupting into full scale war. You need all the help that you can get!

Yes, but her? Faith had already demonstrated that she was a firebrand under normal circumstances, and chances were she probably had a history of instability. To turn her loose on the underworld of Gotham could be like throwing gasoline on to a fire.

Gordon knew that he needed more time to make an unbiased decision but he also knew that he didn't have time to agonize over it. What it came down was that he was considering putting a vigilante on the streets. And there was only one other person that he could trust with that kind of responsibility.

"Get up Mi--- Faith." he said to her.

The dark-haired woman considered this for a moment and then got to her feet. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"We're going to meet the only person who I can trust to put a leash on you."

They were at the door when Faith stopped walking. "I don't like it when people try to rein me in."

"Well that's a shame Faith. Because the only way that I'm going to let you loose in the city is with some kind of supervision."

"I have supervision, Commissioner. I didn't come to Gotham alone."

"And where is this command and control?" Gordon demanded as they began walking down the hallway.

"One of them is at the Regency, setting up a base of operations." Faith paused. "I guess that you could call him my Watcher."

"He's the one who arranged for your legal counsel."

It wasn't a question.

"He knows some people," Faith admitted. "The other guy, he's been in the city the last couple of days, doing recon on some of the more dangerous parts of town."

"Is he going to cause trouble too?" asked Gordon.

Faith shook her head. "He can be quiet if he has to be."

Gordon considered this. "I'm not just letting your people keep an eye on you." he finally said.

"First of all, I wouldn't call them 'my people'." Now Faith sounded amused. "Second of all, I can't work with cops following me."

"That won't be a problem, because I'm not having any cops follow you."

"Then wh--- ohhhh." She smiled faintly "So I'm going to meet him, then."

"First, you're going to talk with my daughter, who I understand you know already. Then, if she considers it appropriate, she'll introduce to the other members of the crime-fighting world."

"And she'll take me to Batman?"

"No. He'll come to you." A very small, humorless smile briefly crossed Gordon's face. "That's how he works."

"But I will meet him?" Faith seemed perfectly calm at what was about to happen.

Another humorless smile appeared on Gordon's face, this time for a little longer. "Oh, he's going to want to meet you."