Oswald had been nervous ever since he met Grady. She was a wild card and difficult to calculate. When she showed up at Maroni's he would pretend he didn't know her and he assumed she would do the same. But he felt there was an element to her that he could not predict. She was like a time bomb. He didn't like it.
She arrived with a rush of cold air from outdoors and three metal boxes instead of one. She ignored Oswald completely when she entered which put him at ease.
"Ey! It's little O'Grady!" Maroni crowed. "Can I get you something? A beer? Some potatoes?"
"I wouldn't say no to either," Grady said but her smile did not reach her eyes.
Maroni chuckled. "Sense of humor. I do like this kid. I don't wanna like you but hey, I do. Penguin, you know Grady?"
"We may have met once. Pleasure to meet you Miss Grady." He offered her his hand while Grady's face remained still as stone.
"You do seem familiar," she said.
"Mooney's?" Maroni asked.
"That's right," Grady's eyes lit up, her child like features believable and innocent.
"Figures. This little shit will sell to anyone. But we need her," Maroni explained.
Grady ignored him and addressed Oswald. "Sorry mate, would have thought I'd remember a name like Penguin..."
"Didn't call him that then. New business, new name, eh Penguin?" Maroni clapped Oswald on the back so hard he nearly fell over.
Grady squinted at Oswald. "He looks like a person to me..."
"So much for a sense of humor. How about you get to work."
"About that," Grady said. "I don't think this should be installed on the underside of the bar. That's the first place everyone looks. There's always something nasty hidden under the bar."
"I know what I'm doing. The bar is where we talk business, the bar is where I want the mics."
"But even if I put something in the mirror -"
"Grady, who's paying you? Put it under the bar."
She didn't argue further but Oswald spotted her rolling her eyes as she shed the brown jacket. It hit the ground with a strange clanking noise as if half made of metal, the pockets stuffed with tools. She pushed up the sleeves of her holey sweater and began unloading boxes.
One of Maroni's men handed him a phone saying, "There's a deal going down at the warehouse you don't want to miss out on."
Maroni cursed and grabbed the phone, Oswald watched, waiting patiently to make his next move and Grady disappeared under the bar.
"Ten minutes," Maroni barked into the phone. "I'll be there in ten minutes, keep him there."
He shoved the phone back to his lackey and rounded on Oswald. "I hate it when things aren't scheduled. No schedule, I don't know who to send where," he flapped his big hand at the window. "Penguin, I want to bring you along. I could use you, but I need someone with half a brain manning this place. Especially with that one here working." He pointed to the bar.
"I can hear you, you know," said Grady's muffled voice.
"Just teasing ya," said Maroni but to Oswald he glanced at the bar and mouthed "watch her." He twirled his finger in a cuckoo motion then headed for the door. He knocked on the bar as he passed. "You'll have this finished when I get back?"
"I expect," she mumbled from beneath.
Maroni waved a flock of big men to his side and they all herded out the door. Oswald moved to the bar and although his days of pouring from the taps were through, he filled a glass with a dark beer and placed it on the bar above Grady's head.
"Brilliant. Cheers," she said. Her hand reached up and the glass disappeared.
"You're lucky Maroni left just now." Oswald slid onto one of the bar stools.
"Lucky. Right," Grady snorted.
"You did it then," Oswald confirmed his suspicions.
"I might have done. Just had a friend of mine set up a meeting he couldn't resist."
"Clever." Oswald peered around the restaurant, empty except for the staff behind the kitchen doors. The sinks and dishes clattered and the fans whooshed with enough noise to allow them to talk freely.
Oswald leaned over the edge of the bar and peered down. Grady wore a pair of goggles with multiple magnifying lens attachments. It made her look like a strange robotic bug. She crouched beneath the bar, concealing tiny wires along the length of the inner edge.
"Microphones for sound recording?" he asked.
"Aye," she grunted, her accent thickening as she focused. "How's the watch running?"
"I haven't tried it yet. There hasn't been an opportunity."
Grady lay flat on her back, still wrestling with wires. "If you could reach in that toolbox and hand me the screwdriver with a seven on the bottom and a small hammer with a green handle, it would be a great help." She mumbled this around a mouthful of wires. Oswald dropped the tools next to her shoulder and she snatched them up lightening fast, tinkering with the screwdriver and an occasional whack of the hammer.
"So you haven't used the watch, but I'm sure you've done something interesting this week. Word is, Fish's newest umbrella boy's gone missing. She does have bad luck with those."
"Perhaps she shouldn't break their legs," Oswald said darkly.
Grady's face emerged from under the bar, staring him down. "That's what happened to you? With the Penguin thing?"
He nodded while Grady exchanged hammers. "I figured as much. But I'm sure you know from working for her," she jabbed the hammer at him. "You got off easy compared to what could have happened."
"I suppose." He wouldn't call his miles long trek out of Gotham on multiple broken bones or his ridiculous gimping waddle easy, but it was preferable to dead.
"I know you're behind Fish's missing boy," Grady continued. "Do you know what you're going to do next?"
"I'm calculating. I have very delicate information. Powerful information." He did not bother to add that it was information he didn't want to share with anyone.
Grady stood up now and pulled the goggles from her eyes. "Let me prove my worth. Tell me. I'll help you."
"What I learned could be the downfall of Fish Mooney," Oswald told her. "Or it could be my own undoing. Why should I trust you with this?"
"It's not about trust brother, it's about making the right move. Think about it. I could prove to Maroni at any moment that you're playing him, but I haven't done it and I don't plan to. There would be no point. Maroni is nothing in the scheme of things. I recognize you Oswald. Maroni tells you he does, Falcone thinks he does, but only I've figured out what you're really doing. You're it, man. You may not be the major player yet, but you will be it. I see it. You think you can take down Fish? Excellent. Let's do this thing. Tell me what you know, we'll start planning."
Oswald jutted his jaw, thinking. If what she said was true, Grady was no doubt an ally, at least for the time being. But he was also aware that she was smart enough to know exactly what to say to get what she wanted from him. He could refuse and risk her getting angry and complicating things. Or he could take the leap and see what she had to offer.
"Do you know about Falcone's new maid...companion...whatever you choose to call her? Liza?"
Grady's brow knitted. "A bit. I haven't given her much attention."
Oswald grinned. Finally. Something he knew that she didn't. "She's a plant, Fish put her there. She reports to her."
Grady burst into unexpected peals of laughter, doubling over with a bright red face. She clapped her hands. "Mooney's trying to take down Falcone?" she whispered. "Brilliant. I love this. Well done, mate."
Oswald couldn't help but smile too. "Thank you," he gave a small bow.
"We need more than that though. More information. And evidence. You agree?"
"Evidence is powerful," Oswald nodded.
"Exactly," said Grady. "Now how to get it..." She drummed her fingers on the bar then grabbed a screwdriver and disappeared beneath once again.
"This girl...she sleeps with him?"
For some absurd reason, Oswald felt his ears growing red. "I - I believe this is Fish's intention but so far, I think - my understanding is no. No she does not."
"That's too bad. It's so easy to hide things in bedrooms. A small radio buried inside a mattress. You wouldn't believe what there is to learn."
"You don't have to tell me. I bought my life with the name of Fish Mooney's lover."
Grady rose again, running her hands along the underside of the bar, checking her work. "If I design something, can you make sure it finds it's way on this Liza girl?" "Of course," Oswald said.
"Good. Because honestly, that's the difficult bit."
"I'll find a way," he said confidently. These inventions certainly did create interesting possiblities.
"If you can steal some item she normally has on her or an article of clothing, I can work with that."
Oswald nodded absently, the gears in his head already turning.
"Test 1, 2, 3," Grady said to the open air then ran a wire to the stereo behind the bar and played back her voice. Next she walked round the bar a few times, eyes on the all the angles, looking for traces of the wires. "Anyone spots this, they assume it's the phone line or something for the register. Unless someone knows what they're looking for, so caution is key...but this bar is built nice. Someone would have to be nosing around, picking around inside the edge of the bar to find this. I still think it's a stupid place to hide it though. Maroni is an idiot."
Grady leaned forward. Oswald could feel her breath on his face, but he steeled himself and didn't flinch away.
"A couple modifications to this wiring, a power source...and I could make a bomb," she said quietly. "The moron would never know the difference. This restaurant could be rubble whenever I chose."
Oswald felt his eyes widen against his will and Grady grinned.
"Not today though," she laughed, seeing his concern. "It may be fun to do but not especially useful."
"Fish first?" Oswald said.
"Fish first," Grady agreed.
He could see that light in her eyes again. The glow that revealed a mind that was finely tuned, but a mind that was also irreparably broken. Oswald was pleased to see it. It was a flaw. And flaws could be prodded and worked away at until the entire structure fell to pieces.
