"Jacobs, I've been thinking lately..." Ben Smith's voice trailed.
"Hallelujah, finally something happened in the upstairs region!" Jacobs remarked with a smirk.
Ben ignored the comment; "Miss Dawes sure gets a lot of attention from this circus. The media found out about the last victim and how those poor girl's deaths are linked together... isn't that strange?"
"It's a good story."
"Yeah, sure it is, but no one's managed to see this bastard, no one, except for Miss Dawes herself!"
"You're not suggesting she's a part of this?"
Ben nodded.
Fast steps on the stone floors echoed in the building. In that exact same moment stormed Rachel into the bullpen. "Who the hell leaked?" She barked in a very un-Rachel-like way. She held out today's paper. "The papers have almost half of our investigation in print!"
"Calm down!" Ben roared back.
"When the city starts to rip itself into pieces again?" Rachel turned to him. "Gotham does not need another villain, we are not going to feed the wolves! This investigation must remain top secret!"
Jacobs lowered her voice to a whisper. "Smith! I don't think she's fooling around with info the way she's screaming now!"
Ben leaned in. "She might be a good actress."
"One hell of an actress in that case!"
:::
Terence called them.
One morning when the investigation didn't seem to head any closer to the finish line, the suspect picked up his phone and called them. His voice had changed slightly, he had changed his whole approach. Terence spoke with a careful and soft tone, he asked for Rachel and waited patiently, not seeming to care whether the police of Gotham could track him.
Jacobs handed over the phone to Rachel and mimed; "Keep on talking!"
"This is Rachel speaking."
"Hello dear." Terence said with a sigh. "My love..." his voice trailed. "I'm tired of playing games."
"Alright. I believe you." Rachel lingered before she continued: "I understand you. You want to be free."
"You understand me so well, sweetheart."
Silence.
The technicians worked with frenetic energy. Buttons were pushed. Possible wormholes tested. Dead ends were found. Back to square one.
Terence knew damn well that he was being pushed into a corner. He enjoyed it. "Rachel, sweetie, I want to confess... I suppose you're saving this call for the future."
"You're right."
"Good. Because I don't think I will be there for you in the future, to tell anyone about my actions and how they affected Gotham."
"Continue." Rachel offered with a suspecting tone in her voice.
"I want to prove that I am Terence Williams, the person that has killed two women and abducted Rachel Dawes, current DA in Gotham."
"I want you to recite your social security number out loud." Rachel answered him with a dead tone. Finally was she going to find out who he was!
"I have no social security number."
:::
What kind of person was he? How could he have fallen away from the society like this? The technicians hammered on their keyboards, desperately to find a way around the virus that blocked Terence's position.
"How is he going to prove himself to be the murderer?" Jacobs whispered.
Rachel leaned towards the phone. "Terence, do you hear me? I want you to tell us something only the killer could know."
Ben snorted. "Impossible since half of the investigation is out in the media."
"My house is currently burning down." Terence voice stated. The sound of plastic to plastic was heard through the phone line. "Right now."
Ben picked up his phone. He paced around in the bullpen, collecting information. With a sigh, he returned to the chair next to the open phone line with the murderer. "The house Dawes reported as Terence Williams' is on fire right now." He confirmed. "I was in contact with the fire department, the house can not be saved."
"I do not like leaving trails."
Ben snorted. "We know that."
Terence's voice came back with anger. "I believe I gave orders to only speak with Rachel Dawes!"
Ben's face grew blood red. He ran his fingers through his graying hair. Jacobs put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
Rachel tried a wild card. "Your house is gone, game over. Tell me where you are!"
"Everything has its rightful moment... I believe it's now." Terence gave them coordinates.
Jacobs worked with quick finger and after split seconds, the address was known. One of the most sweating technicians let out a howl. He punched the air with his fist. The others smiled with wide smiles. "We're through. I have his coordinates!"
"Check if they are the same he gave us!" Rachel ordered.
They were.
"He's in a warehouse in uptown."
Rachel smiled. "Listen Terence, it's over, we're coming to get you."
A laughing noise, together with cries was the answer. "Dear Rachel, you must have misunderstood the whole thing. You are not in a position to tell me what to do just because you happen to know where we are."
"We? Who is we?"
Jacobs knocked on Rachel's shoulder. "We just had a call. A threat note has been handed into the Wayne Towers. Apparently there's a bomb in the cellar. Tick tock."
"Any hostages?" Rachel whispered, deadly afraid that Terence would hear.
"No, everyone are safely evacuated."
"Do you think it's him?"
"Why wouldn't I? Ask him!"
Rachel turned her focus to the phone line again. "There's a bomb in Wayne Towers."
"Exactly!"
"Why?"
"Chaos!" His answer made him sound way too much like the Joker. Rachel shuddered. "Rachie, love, I have the trigger in my palm."
"How do we know you're not faking?"
"Check your email. You will find a link." Came the cryptic answer.
The technicians opened up the mail client and found a new mail named 'Tick Tock'. The link lead to a site where a video was streamed in real time. It was a simple video. Just a video of a digital screen and digits. Digits that were counting down.
"Rachie, love, I want you here in the warehouse in 15 minutes before I push the trigger. I want to simply see your face before I hand over myself."
:::
A small microphone was sewn into the coat, a equally small camera was placed strategically on her. The woman who made sure the spying kit was put on Rachel had a hard time containing herself. "I'm sorry." She excused herself. The woman tied a taser to Rachel's lower arm.
"He said 'unarmed'."
Jacobs turned up behind the womans shoulder. "Rachie." She said, using Terence ridiculous pet name. "You're not exactly walking in with a shotgun."
"Are you sure Ben can handle the bomb?" Rachel asked and changed the subject.
"Of course he can. He's going to disarm it before any of us can blink." Jacobs assured. Her dark eyes sparkled."I'm not worried about him, he's got the best bomb team with him... I worry about you. You are all alone with that monster."
"Don't worry, it doesn't suit you." Rachel smirked at the dark woman in front of her. They had a bad start but Rachel was starting to get fond of Jacobs.
"Ha! But I sure wish for our caped hero."
Bruce.
Batman. This is something he deals with everyday. How does he manage?
:::
He said third floor. Right under the roof. She steered herself up the stairs. Rachel was cold sweating from fear and suspected Terence could hear her heart beating. It slammed against her ribcage like a sledge hammer. One could almost smell her fear. Something flied past her, close. She almost jumped out of her own skin. "Only a bird or a... bat." She tried to calm herself and forced herself to put another foot in front of the other.
She had reached the top floor. Somewhere in front of her glistened light in the dark. Behind that door, approximately 15 meters away, was he waiting. Her shoes made irritating sounds on the wood floor, making it obvious for everyone around (Terence) that she was on her way.
The door flung open.
"Welcome." He greeted her like an old friend he hadn't expected to come for a visit.
She stepped into a room with gasoline tanks and two chairs in the middle. A naked light bulb shined in the middle of all the misery.
Terence looked like he always did. Except for the fact that his hair was completely shaved. He sported the plastic clothes as always. "Please, have a seat."
She sat down.
"I'm sorry we're not meeting on better terms." He tilted his head. "Oh my, you are beautiful." The words came out his mouth like a moan. He came closer and extended a hand to touch her face.
Rachel closed her jaws with much more force than necessary.
Their faces were close. His nose was destroyed from her punch, he hadn't even tried to make it heal straight.
She could smell his dead breath. It smelled like rotting meat. Her nostrils widened. Along with the more and more present smell of gasoline gave her a cold feeling in her whole body.
"Where is the detonator?"
Terence's head snapped. "I don't have it."
"You don't have it?"
He shook his head. "I've never had it."
"Excuse me?"
"Did you do the proper background check before you sent two thirds of the Policemen in Gotham to Wayne Towers? Did you check surveillance cameras? Did you check if the video was fake? Did you?"
The answer was no to all of the questions. She had been fooled by him. He had fooled the whole police department of Gotham all by himself.
He grabbed her by the collar and dragged her across the room like a rag doll. Rachel struggled. "It means we don't have much time. But don't worry, dear."
One of the gas tanks was open. As Rachel got closer she almost gagged on the smell.
"We will be together, forever!" Terence chanted.
"Get your act together! Stop! Don't go down this road!" Rachel tried. "I've got police cars just outside."
"Perfect, they will see our act perfectly."
She kicked him. Rachel struggled as she got closer the gasoline and she tried to bite him.
He barely noticed. The bite marks appeared on his arms but not in his face. Pain wasn't something he knew. She was nothing more than a fly to him. "I've always been overlooked. But now I'm taking back what's mine. Do you know what it's like to be nobody? To know that no one bothers about you?" He yelled with a frantic voice. "To know that the woman in your dreams fears you?"
"Stop!" She screamed. "I am not the woman!"
He didn't listen.
She closed her eyes and mouth as he pushed her face into the gasoline. She prepared herself to die, to drown in the gasoline. But suddenly she was up again, breathing.
Terence held her by the hair. "I am nothing! I've always been! I've lived my life in the shadows all my life. I was denied an identity. I was denied everything."
"Don't do this!" She screamed back and kicked the tank.
"Surely you wouldn't deny me the show of a lifetime? At least we will go out with style!" He laughed. "You hear me, my tinderbox! We will burn." He reached for the matches. "You are not getting out of this!"
Rachel was pushed under the surface once again, deeper this time. Her head span as she was brought back to the air again. "Please." She whimpered.
As if he had listened to her pray, he dropped her, she fell to the floor while panting heavily.
Someone else was there. Someone with a cape.
He moved quickly over the floor and knocked Terence over. Terence stood up again with a smirk.
Rachel crawled over the floor, leaving trails of gasoline after herself. She tried to get herself standing and pulled herself up with a cable. The cable, however, appeared to be extremely frail or had already been damaged (perhaps by Terence). It broke and she fell again. Rachel got up and stared into the darkness. What if Bruce sidestepped and fell in the darkness? She knew that she had do help him. It was the least she could do after this! Rachel ran across the room to find a power switch to the lamps. She swore as she pressed a switch down and nothing happened. "Shit! Shit!" A bigger switch caught her attention. A circuit breaker.
The fighting continued behind her. The fighting couple came closer to the electric cable, that currently was sparkling of electricity, hanging in the air. Rachel coughed and wondered how the hell it could be possible for the electrons could be flowing through an open system. The sparks stopped and the cable caught on fire. The smell of burned rubber filled the air. The room turned dark again.
Terence punched Batman's armored chest. His fingers broke. The pain didn't affect him, Congenital insensitivity was a blessing and a curse.
"Why are you doing this?" asked batman and threw a punch.
Terence was hit on his chin but remained standing. "I just saw her, and I knew she would be mine."
"You are insane!"
"I might be, but my predictions are coming true!"
A second of hesitation gave Batman what he needed and threw Terence into the tank of gasoline. Terence retrieved a knife to stab batman. Out of disorientation, he stabbed in the air and got himself tangled up in the burning cable. He brought it with him as he fell.
It looked like something exploded. When the fire met the gasoline. Everything that had touched the gasoline caught on fire. The deadly flames rapidly followed every trail. It took her a split second to realize what was going on. How it would end. She was back at square one. The first explosion had lead up to another. And this time she wouldn't be able to cheat death. Because her savior already burned in the flames. Rachel turned around and a scream slipped her lips as the fire crept closer. The last thing she heard was Bruce's voice.
At least I will leave this world with style. It will be beautiful. An explosion to lit up the whole city.
:::
Name: Terence Williams
Age: Estimated 36 years old from analysis of teeth.
Occupation: Unemployed
Social status: Unmarried
Social security number: -
Additional info: A person that have slipped through the government's net for over three decades.
His birth is not recorded anywhere.
Apparently home schooled since he wasn't analphabetic.
No record of ever going to school. No high school diploma.
He have never owned a car nor a license.
No bank account. No credit card.
No record of him outside of USA. No family stepped forward when his picture wandered around in media.
"His" house was registered on a unknowing woman who currently lives in Texas. Her paperwork, ownership of the house, had burned down in a fire in 1996. During a formation/fusion of the state's public offices had the state's copy of her ownership vanished. No other copy is possible to find. The house had simply disappeared from the government's eyes. Since the house appeared to be well kept, no one complained and drew attention to him.
Terence Williams remains a mystery.
Tinderbox