Commissioner Gordon sighed, "I'm not accusing you of anything, but someone knew where they were, and we need to find out who. Juliana was going to testify in open court in a few days, and with any hope, put more than a few mid-level mobsters behind bars but now." Gordon's voice trailed off with a weary wave of his hand.
"Well I'm sorry you lost a case, but I lost four human beings. You see we at Pathways actually care about these women seeing past the trial date and long into the rest of their lives." She answered him coolly, crossing her arms across her chest and staring at him evenly, not flinching from his gaze.
The commissioner was shocked into silence by the honest opinion from such a young woman. He was certainly aware of this in his mind; that victims were not often referred to by names, but only for the sake of keeping a distance, so as to remain emotionally detached from the victim because if it became personal, it got messy. "You're right. But right now, that doesn't matter much. What matters is someone stole their way into a locked apartment and butchered a woman with no one seeing or hearing anything!" The commissioner was riled up now, his deep chocolate eyes flashing with a dangerous glint deep from within.
His admission was enough to momentarily distract Leigh, but only for a few seconds, but soon she was back on task, her mind clear. "Cheryl and Jamie came to find me, but when Catherine and Juliana ended up in the hospital about three months ago, I was called in. I suppose someone could have seen them, but no one else besides Hannah knew about Catherine and Juliana. " Leigh answered the unasked question that was floating somewhere in the Commissioner's jumbled and thinly stretched mind. Leigh felt kindly towards the man, he was one of the last good cops in Gotham and that wasn't a small feat, especially with the mob paying so high. Leigh was fortunate, as the daughter of the Mortimer family, one of the richest families on the west coast, she had never felt the pinch for money and therefore never felt the need to go see the mob. "These woman were all in witness protection, it's possible that one of them let information slip about where they were, who they were or what they were doing." Leigh spoke carefully, choosing the right words to get her point across. Of course they could have let it slip leaving everything you've known is hard, Leigh knew that much.
"One of them could have said something, but I doubt it. And the probability of all four telling someone is even more unlikely. They were running from the mob and most likely wouldn't want to go back." Gordon answered half-heartedly, his voice betraying how tired he was of all the violence.
Leigh nodded slowly, waiting for the idea to seep into his mind and soak in, the words beginning to mingle with all his questions and her answers. The Commissioner was impressed by the young woman in front of him, she couldn't have been older than twenty-five and here she was, fighting loosing battle for these women and trying to give them another chance. No longer was Leigh defensive, and her answers had become much more observant and helpful.
Gordon fell into a thoughtful silence as his eyes slid down to his old watch, bound to his wrist by old brown leather. It had been his fathers and was gifted after his death to Jim, one of the only things he had to remember the man that made him want to become a cop. "I need to go, here's my card. Call if you think of anything else. " He handed her the small rectangle of paper and showed himself out, leaving the brunette to question what had just occurred in her office.
"Leigh? There's a new girl here. She's speaking Spanish and we don't have anyone who can speak and understand the language other than you at the moment." Hannah said as she began to fiddle with the sleeve of her jacket. Leigh nodded, her blue eyes widening but she followed her blonde co-worker all the same.
Down the hall the co-owners went until they reached a rather large library, where a sobbing woman of Hispanic decent sat upon a leather chair, her battered and bruised arms wrapped around her fragile frame, brown-almost black hair- hanging down in front of her face and her body wracked with sobs. "This is Luisa. Can you help get some information, I don't know any Spanish." A woman named Lara asked, begging Leigh with her light brown eyes to help save this woman who had obviously been through so much.
"I'll see what I can do." Leigh said firmly, hoping that her Spanish would be good enough to communicate with the young and frightened woman.
The two women conversed, Leigh struggling to understand and reply appropriately, but before it became too much for the young woman to talk, Leigh had achieved the information needed to start a file on Luisa.
"Leigh we need" Hannah trailed off as she took in Leigh's pale skin and glassy eyes. "Are you coming down with something?" Hannah narrowed her eyes suspiciously and stared pointedly at Leigh. Leigh was caught; she couldn't say that Luisa's story had moved her to tears, as she had seen worse and still found herself unable to cry, but she couldn't say that she was sick, feeling feverish and woozy. "Your silent, meaning that you're practically too sick to function." Hannah attempted to joke, but the underlying truth in her statement was too great. Leigh wasn't arguing, a telltale sign that she was sick. Leigh nodded and turned to walk out the door, feeling Hannah's eyes watching her retreating back as she quietly walked down the stairs as not to disturb any sleeping children or clients.
Maybe it was lack of sleep or that assumption the caped crusader had instilled so much fear in the criminals that still lurked in the dark or her fevered brain that allowed the thought that walking home in the dark would be a safe idea. It was a clear night, the moon visible, abnormal deep in the heart of the dangerous city of Gotham. The pavement was cracked and covered with filth and discarded gum, among other things. Some squares of cement had names written or footprints of little children.
Her apartment was certainly in a better part of town as apposed to Hannah's apartment in the Narrows, but that didn't mean it was nearly as safe as the Palisades nor did it mean criminals didn't lurk in the dark alleyways and corners across the desperate city. As Leigh walked by deeper and deeper into the city that bled and breathed like a human with a beating heart, two rough hands grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into the dark alley where no passerby would see or hear her. "Money; hand it over." The deep voice was soft and deadly, not loud and drunken unlike the voices she was used to.
Leigh began to ruffle for her wallet, positioning her feet into a fighting stance that would hold her weight equally. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the shadows shift, revealing two more men, now surrounding her five foot, five inch frame. Her petite hands clenched into even smaller fists as she made herself ready to hit the first man in the face. It was so dark and he was nearly impossible to find, obviously this man was better prepared than most street criminals, a thought that struck terror into her heart.
Leigh's leg kicked out, hitting one of the men to the left of her while straining to rip her right arm away from the man opposite her. Behind her, the man struggled to keep a hold on the young woman, writhing to get away from her attackers.
Finally, Leigh escaped with a dirty blow to the crotch and slithered her way out of the alley and tore down the street, almost as if she was water flowing over rocks. Leigh didn't stop her sprint until she was safe inside the coffin-sized elevator of her apartment building. The elevator music no longer seemed light hearted and cheerful, instead it was sinister and almost like a time bomb, waiting to go off as soon as it hit Leigh's floor, leaving her exposed to whatever waited on the other side. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open painstakingly slow to reveal a brightly lit hallway. Normally, the walk down the hall Fumbling for her key, Leigh finally opened the door and thrust herself in, locking the door securely behind her and flicking on the lights. Nothing was out of the ordinary, her mound of books from the Gotham Public library were still piled on her small wooden desk on the corner right next to her two year old Mac book, which had a calico cat sitting upon it contentedly, her eyes closed and tail vaguely swishing. With a sigh of relief, Leigh made her way cautiously to her bedroom flicking on each and every light on in the apartment. With staggering footsteps she made her way to the bathroom to inspect the damage that was inflicted upon her frail and feverish body. Her blouse was torn, the right sleeve torn and barely hanging on by a thread, Her skirt was slit up to her mid thigh, and her shapely calf had a small line of blood trickling down. Her wavy hair that was previously tied up in a severe ponytail, accentuating her face, was now spilling in waves of amber down her shoulders and to her mid back. Upon her pale face was a light scratch that went straight across her left cheekbone. Luckily it was a thin scratch, probably acquired when Leigh was struggling to slither past the large man and the brick wall, but how her calf was cut she couldn't figure out. Deciding to investigate it in the morning, she began to strip gingerly out of her tattered clothes and throw them in the trashcan. Her steps were quick and fairy like as she crossed to her dresser, her muscular arms reaching behind her and unsnapping her bra before throwing it off into a corner. Leigh pulled out a top and was about to grab some shorts when she heard the ruffle of a coat behind her. Instinctively, Leigh swung around and came face to face with the man that she had hoped she would never see; the Batman.
Batman gingerly pried open the window and slunk into her living room just in time to see Leigh Mortimer throw her ripped clothes into the trashcan and begin to unsnap her plain white bra. Unintentionally, his eyes made a slow sweeping motion over her curvaceous body, taking in the half-naked woman in front of him. He watched as she pulled a baggy shirt and was about to pull on some shorts when finally his mind cleared and he made a swish of his cape, alerting the half-dressed girl to his presence. She spun around to face him, her body tense with fear and anxiousness. Her piercing blue eyes widened and became dark with fear, even under their glassy look. Batman was honestly quite confused at the moment, the girl he had decided to investigate was attacked and obviously sick, and yet she wasn't screaming for help?
"What do you want from me?" Her voice was exasperated as she stood up and crossed her arms over her generous chest, and leaning on one leg, causing Batman to let a laugh slip at the now very girlish stance. "What's so funny? Just tell me what you want then go, okay?" Leigh was irritable and she knew it, otherwise she would have been scrambling for her phone to call the police.
Batman just narrowed his eyes at her, and set his mouth in a firm line. Leigh had to admit that he was definitely a terrorfying sight and could understand why the crime rate had stopped its rapid rise. "What do you know about Juliana Mongomery's murder?" His voice sounded like a truck running on gravel,
"Nothing, other than that it was brutal." Leigh's voice dropped down to a whisper. She was now completely infuriated, first Gordon thought that she was a mob informant, and now Batman? "Did Gordon send you here to see if I would screw up my story?" Her voice shook with the anger that spread through her body making her almost break out in a sweat from anger, or fever but at the moment Leigh couldn't really tell a difference.
"Gordon came to see you?" His voice was still very gutteral, but the words were easy to make out so long as her eyes remained glued to his lips.
"Yes, I approached Jamie and Catherine at the hospital, and Juliana and Cheryl were sent to me. " Her voice strong and unwavering, a sign to the Batman that she wasn't lying; of course it helped that her blue eyes remained glued to his brown ones.
"I see, did anyone"
'Else know about the four? Two came right into the front door of Pathways, but the others, Jamie and Catherine, were at the hospital so I was called into see them. Only Hannah knew who they were, and she wouldn't tell a soul." Leigh vouched for her oldest friend, ignoring the fact that she had just interrupted probably one of the most dangerous, but helpful, people in the city.
"How do you know?" This was new, he hadn't heard of a 'Hannah' before.
"She used to be one of them." Was Leigh's simple, non-betraying answer. Leigh had been there for Hannah when no one else was, when her husband was off getting drunk and fucking any whore he could find.
Batman still looked skeptical but that didn't matter to Leigh. A breeze entered the room she shuddered, wondering why she was so cold, then looking down at her bare legs. Her pale face flushed red as the realization that she had been half undressed the whole time that she had been talking to the Batman hit her. "You pervert!" She shouted, her voice horse from whatever was making her ill. She grabbed the closest thing to her (a particularly high heeled shoe to be exact) and threw it at his head with all her might. Of course he dodged the projectile with ease, but the caped crusader still let out a sigh of relief. He would have had a hard time explaining the bruise to Alfred if he had gotten hit, and he was certain the old butler would never let him live it down.
"I'll be back." He grumbled and launched himself out of her open window and into the dark alleyway below. Leigh scrambled over to the window just in time to see a large tank like structure, but smaller and without the gun. She shook her head and closed the window, locking it this time, before turning off the lights and crawling under the warm and inviting covers and laying her head down upon the old cotton covered pillow that lay upon the blue and white sheets.