On the aqua blue folder was a yellow sticky stamp; on that stamp was red ink that had been written very roughly, so roughly you could see the parts of the sticky stamp that was almost ripped clean through. The red ink spelled out, in big capital letters "These reports done by tomorrow or else!" this was on top of the thousands of papers that had long since consumed his desk. The phone poked out on the top right hand corner of the desk, all you could see was the top hump of the eggshell white phone. Eggshell white is what Barbra insisted it was when she visited his office once a couple of months ago. So thusly it had to have actually been Eggshell white. Detective Gordon knew nothing about the different shades of colors, including green, dark green and light green, they were all the same colors, so when it came to filling out this "detailed suspect description" Gordon was beginning to become frustrated.
"Killer Croc: Green, Dark Green or Light Green. Please check here" Gordon read out loud to himself. He sat staring at the question dumfounded by what to put. He looked at the Polaroid picture taken of Killer Croc after Batman had left him unconscious at the Gotham courthouse. Gordon grimaced at the appearance of the 'thing'; he had trouble believing it was human. He was deformed, no, the report described him as being "super formed" uncanny muscles, filed teeth and harden skin, much like a crocodile. Gordon shivered, these cases were becoming stranger and stranger, but Batman had stopped each one. It was making Gordon's job quite easier not to mention that every time Batman brought one of these outlandish thugs in Gordon got a promotion. The work was still tedious, he had to file reports on all of these criminals to give to the D.A. before tomorrow. It was Gordon's fault the Edward Nigma had not gotten to trial yet he hadn't sent in his official report, which he would tomorrow. There were just so many criminals running about and being captured by Batman that Gordon had hardly any chance to review them all. They were almost all fanatical, almost all using some title for a name like "Joker" or "Poison Ivy, and all being first time criminals but being so successful that they were being put in the category as career criminals. Some had even been admitted to Arkum Asylum like "Scarface" It was all so much to rap your head around, it could drive a sane man to the edge. Worse of all he was the only detective available to deal with these type of things because of the lower level crimes that were engulfing Gotham's sublevels. So he was the sucker to get stuck with the craziness, while everyone else got to deal with the petty crimes, filling in times and locations. As tedious as it was there was no one better for the position for the simple fact that Batman only trusted Gordon, the rest of the Gotham police department was heavily influenced by politics and money. While things were getting better there were still a few influential people who were not necessarily on the right or wrong side of the law, they shifted from time to time and in that sense they were a bigger problem than some of the criminals out there. That's the world Gordon was living in though, so, as much as he bitched and moaned about it he wasn't going to make a difference by sitting in his office and ruminating about all the people's fault it was, he would just have to focus his attention on one criminal at a time and when the time came for the corrupted political powers that be to fall under the weight of justice then Gordon would be there to watch them fall.
One of those falling political powers would be Mayor Hamilton Hill, Gordon knew, as did most people, that Mayor Hill was a corrupt, egotistical and self righteous egomaniac, but he was the Mayor and until the criminals, who were in the forefront, were taken down; undercover criminals, like the mayor, there was nothing Gordon could actually do about it. It was a troubled world and Gotham was defiantly seeing the worst of it but until Gordon could-
The wind blew and several papers on his desk were blown off, quickly he grabbed some more from falling and placed them under a stapler, which had ran out of staples over a week ago, and then sat back. The windows were closed and lock so the wind coming through it could only mean one thing.
"It's been a little while since you dropped by last" Gordon said as he turned around to face Batman, who had unlocked his window and stepped inside without so much as a peep of noise. Batman stood there like a demon from hell, but the odd thing was that his posture was that of a man, standing against the wall reclining slightly arms out of sight inside his cape. He looked like the most inhuman human you could imagine.
"I've been very busy…" He gestured towards the files on the desk. "…the criminals are getting more fanatical as the day's go by." Batman said his caped echoed in the wind and he moved only slightly.
"I've noticed that as well…" Gordon reached into his drawer and pulled out a handful of newspapers. "…so have the press." He tossed the newspaper in the general direction of Batman who still remained motionless, but Gordon knew his eyes were watching the papers reading the various headlines and dates.
"I suppose their blaming me for that as well." Batman added, he moved one inch, which Gordon noticed, uncomfortably.
"It could be worse they could be ordering your arrest." Gordon paused; Batman walked out the window and disappeared for a moment. Gordon knew to follow. Within five minutes the two men were standing on the roof. The Bat Signal, as they called it, had been used extensively since it's formation after the Ra's al Ghul disaster, aside from being the calling symbol for Batman it had also become the common meeting place for Batman and Gordon.
Initially Gordon didn't trust Batman; he didn't take to well to his vigilante antics, but Gotham was in need of change and when Batman came along he made it apparent that he was going to help Gotham regardless of whether or not GCPD approved or not. Gordon had to appreciate the change that came with Batman, it was true that there were more maniacal and dangerous criminals because of him, but there was this calm in Gotham now, a fear of the law. Batman had made crimes illegal again, opposed to just being frowned upon and for that Gordon had to respect that. Not to mention that their meetings had revealed that he and Batman shared a lot of the same passions, they wanted to make Gotham a city of people instead of its current title "The city of dark crimes", there was also the sometimes strange human like action he made, yet still, Gordon didn't trust him completely.
"Are they ordering my arrest?" Batman asked not facing Gordon, out of habit Gordon nodded at the man not facing him.
"They're considering it…" Gordon said; it was now in this tense moment, that he had to reveal to the man that trusted him that his institution was about to turn on him, that Gordon pulled out his cigarette and lit it. "…there is pressure to bring you in for what you did to Edward E. Nigma" Gordon explained.
Batman had taken down a plot from Edward E. Nigma to kill his workers using the use of bright lights and sleep depravation, the scientist were kidnapped and left to fend for themselves and kill one another. The entire plan was planned out in a notebook and a clue was left for the detectives in the form of a riddle. Batman crashed in on his plans during the final process in which the 'participants' were offered food, sleep and darkness for the head of one of their colleagues, and dealt the defenseless Edward E. Nigma a concussion, fourteen broken bones and, collectively, forty five stitches. Some called it a bit too far to go against a defensive and non lethal man, others saw it as too easy.
"He was a criminal…" Batman simply stated. "…and where is this 'pressure' coming from?" Batman asked; Gordon shook his head and puffed out some smoke.
"It's hard to say there are a lot of corrupt people who wants you out before you come after them." Gordon said he took another drag of his cigarette and walked over to the edge of the building with his back to Batman.
"It's time to start cutting them down at the base." Batman explained; Gordon sighed, he knew this day would come, the day when he would be ask to break the law for Batman, for the better of Gotham. There were so many high level criminals and politicians out there, the only way to bring them down was to work around the law and that wasn't Gordon's forte. One wrong move and he could, further, ruin the GCPD's reputation.
"Who's first?" Gordon asked, he turned around half expecting to see Batman there and half expecting him to have already left silently like he always did.
"District Attorney Whitman." Batman said simply, his body moved in a stiff, almost pained way, and from his cape came a stack of glossy pictures. The pictures landed in front of Gordon and he placed the cigarette into his mouth and leaned over to pick them up.
"Whitman…?" Gordon asked; there were few times where Gordon was completely stumped. "…Why him?" Gordon looked at the pictures one by one, the first three were just of Whitman exiting his car and then the next several pictures were of him meeting a young woman and then…
"Someone is paying him to not prosecute The Creep to the fullest extent of the law and they're paying him with money and girls…" Batman explained. Gordon again turned from Batman in disbelief at the pictures he held his right hand over his mouth and the cigarette burned lazily in his left close to the pictures, which also were held in his left hand. This disturbed him, he knew Whitman and never thought of him as being a criminal as well, the D.A. was a powerful man and if he fell in line with these thugs it could next to impossible to bring them down. Maybe it was a misconception, sure the woman wasn't his wife but that wasn't illegal.
"How do you know this woman is a prostitute?" Gordon asked still not facing Batman, the denial shamed him a bit.
"I don't…" Batman said simply; there was a pause and Gordon could almost feel Batman watching his back. "…I do know she's fifteen." Batman finished; Gordon winced as if someone had stabbed him in the side. A feeling of disgust began to bubble in his stomach, Gordon trusted in his instincts and the fact that he had not suspected Whitman made him feel uneasy about everyone in Gotham.
"You want me to present these to someone?" Gordon asked looking across to the building that seemed sloppily slapped between his office building and Gotham Museum of Natural History.
"No…" Batman paused. "…I want you to discreetly let him know that you know about his little habit and then apply pressure when needed." Batman explained.
"Blackmail?" Gordon asked a bit shocked; it wasn't his intention to do anything at such a low level, there had to be a better solution.
"Essentially, a time will come when Killer Croc is ready to go to trial; we can't afford to have Whitman tying that up with senseless politics." Batman answered; Gordon nodded, he knew it was true.
"Someone's paying him off for the well being of Killer Croc?" Gordon asked; He looked back expecting Batman to be gone but he was still there sitting, in fact, on metal exhaust pipe.
"Someone very close to you wants Killer Croc to get off with the insanity plea…" Batman began, Gordon interrupted.
"Isn't that the proper plea…?" Gordon asked. "…Wouldn't you agree Killer Croc is insane?" Gordon asked.
"No…" Batman quickly answered. "…What he did was insane but he was completely aware of what he was doing, he was in a sane state of mind and needs to be tried as so." Batman stood up and Gordon looked away almost embarrassed to have been staring at Batman sitting down.
"I suppose you're right…" Gordon answered, he frowned. "…Who's helping Croc?" He suddenly had the urge to know; there was a pause but somehow Gordon knew Batman was still there.
"Are you sure you want to know…?" Batman asked; there was genuine concern in his voice, which further proved that the answer would be a tough one to hear.
"Yes, I need to know." Gordon answered sternly.
"Commissioner Charleston." Batman said a moment later; he said it which such finality that he seemed to almost say it with reluctance. The same pain that hit him when he heard about Whitman did not return when he heard this.
"I thought as much…" Gordon answered. "…he's always been a little shady." Gordon finished.
"Killer Croc has shared some of his stolen funds with Charleston, hence the conflicting reports with the banks amount of what was stolen and what was ultimately found." Batman explained; Gordon nodded.
"That explains his new Jaguar." Gordon sighed; He bit his lip and rubbed his eyes.
"It's going to get worse after this but then it'll get better." The optimism in Batman's voice almost frightened Gordon.
"I've heard that one before…" Gordon said; he thought for a moment he still hadn't got the answer to his question. "…By the by, how would you describe killer Croc's color?" Gordon turned to face Batman for the answer, but when he did Batman was gone. He looked over the roof to see if he could see Batman retreating but he didn't. Five minutes he stood there just thinking about everything that had happened, He hadn't realized he dropped his cigarette so he took out another one and lit it, He took a drag and then let it out in one long, luxurious sigh. Gordon went back to his desk and looked at the Killer Croc report and checked dark green shortly after spitting:
"Fuck it."