Chapter Sixteen: Tension

Lindsey hated this room. She hated this annoyingly albeit sardonically cheerful pink and yellow bed. Most of all, she hated the framed poem that still lay at her feet. The Joker had obviously come in while she was trying to escape with the man- James – and made his own alteration to the nursery rhyme.

She was still unsure to whom he was referring to, but she knew there was a very good chance she would not be leaving this house alive judging by the fact that "Three Blind Mice" had been scribbled out with red pen and changed to "Two Blind Mice."

But deep down, Lindsey knew the Joker meant something else. A nagging voice in her head was screaming that Monica and Angela was been removed from their safety confinements and were somehow going to be put in this mad man's clutches.

Then he'll kill you off one by one, she thought to herself, Unless the batman gets here. But even so he'll take down any innocents like James…

James. The peculiar man who had attempted to help her to freedom was just another thing eating at her. With a quick glance to the bathroom, she began to wonder…

Monica could only stare at Serena from her spot in the chair across from the bed. The older woman finished inspecting the wound on Angela's head as she waited for Monica to ask questions about her explanation.

"So…Ray…the Joker actually paid him to turn us in? How did the clown know we'd be here? How did Ray even know who we are?"

"Well, that's the thing, dear," Serena explained calmly, yet her irritated undertone did not go unnoticed, "Ray only knows you by name, not by face. And he was paid up front. He wouldn't tell me how much, but he said enough to get us out of the Narrows. Ray's a...stubborn, dutiful man. I tried to convince him to take the money and run, not to put you girls in any danger, but…"

A man's voice sounded from downstairs, "Serena! I got the cars towed. Need anything else?"

Monica was out the door before Serena could respond to her nephew. She took the stairs two at a time and stopped short at the base. In front of the door, hanging his coat on the wall rack was who she assumed to be Ray Bristol, but did not look like the man she'd expected.

"Damn," she couldn't help but say. The very attractive man who didn't look a day over twenty turned to look at the raven haired girl whose large gray eyes seemed to be boring a hole through him. He smiled warmly and extended a hand, "Hi. I'm Ray. You must be the little car's owner."

Monica cleared her throat and took his hand, "Yeah...I'm Jessica."

Ray's million dollar Crest commercial smile widened, "So Jess, do you need a ride anywhere?"

Monica pushed aside her incoming fantasies about the man in front of her and remembered what Serena had told her. Monica knew she couldn't trust this man, but so far she was enough on his good side to use him just a bit.

"Yes, actually. I mean, if it's not too out of your way…"

Ray shook his head and grabbed his coat off the rack again, "Hey, don't worry about it. I just have to meet up with a few friends first. It'll only take a minute and we won't even need to leave the truck."

Monica smiled cheerily and followed him out to the old red pick up truck, already feeling her heart beat faster thinking about Ray's "friends."

"Are you absolutely positive that you want to watch this, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce only glared up at Elvira Benedetti after the thirtieth time she'd doted on him. She merely raised her hands in a surrendering position before nodding to Gordon, who started to play the unlabeled video.

When seeing Lindsey on the screen, looking absolutely terrified, with the Joker taunting her, Bruce resisted the urge to punch a hole in the TV. Elvira hit the stop button after Lindsey received the first kick. For a minute, Bruce's heavy angry breathing was the only sound in the room.

Gordon finally said, "We've got the location of where this and the body were sent from. The subway should help us find it too."

Elvira nodded, "Have they identified the body yet?"

Bruce quirked an inquisitive brow, but didn't need to be told that the Joker's tape had been sent with a dead man.

Gordon nodded somberly, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Benedetti. But you don't have a case now."

The woman's dark blue eyes widened as Gordon concluded, "It's your man, James Kinkirk."

"That bastard…how could we not have known? It was getting too obvious…"

Gordon explained to the confused Bruce, "Mrs. Benedetti and her husband have been tracking the case of a New Jersey psychiatrist, James Kinkirk, who went insane after his wife and daughter's deaths. He was transferred to Arkham a few years after he checked in to a ward in LA. When he disappeared, he was pronounced dead seven years later and the case was declared cold."

Elvira continued, "Then after the Joker first arrived in Gotham, Carlo and I received in the mail Kinkirk's case file. Then he would keep leaving more cute little oblique hints that indicated his identity. Carlo and I, even Joan Brooks, we were so sure it was him."

Bruce sighed, "You're right. It was too obvious. Did you really think that there was a soul in this ass clown that was just begging to be found out? Or maybe you thought he was targeting Lindsey because she and Joan would help his create a sick new family? That's right, he's just misunderstood."

"Where do you get off saying these things, you little pissant?" Elvira spat. A ghost of a smirk tugged at the corner of Bruce's mouth, "I believe those were your exact words. 'He's misunderstood.'"

Elvira shook her head and grabbed her purse, "Gordon, I'm not taking this unprofessionalism. When Joan Brooks gets here, just send her to my office."

Bruce chuckled and stood up, "Wait, Elvira?"

The terse woman pivoted and sat into her hip, arms folded. Bruce mocked her stance by crossing his own arms, "You said this man was from Jersey?"

"Yes."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you went to high school together."

Gordon blinked rapidly and looked between the smug Bruce and pissed off Elvira. She snapped, "What's your point, Wayne?"

"Well, you just seem to have had such a vendetta against poor James that it's made me wonder."

Elvira took a few antagonizing steps toward him and replied, "And pray tell, what is that?"

Bruce smirked down at the woman. Elvira was tall for a female, but Bruce still towered her. "Oh I don't know, maybe another girl was named Prom Queen, he refused a make out session at the drive in, gave you a fake number…"

"You think I was interested in that slime ball?"

Bruce blinked in mock surprise, "Dear, I'm having the hardest time figuring out what your husband is now."

Elvira poked him roughly in the chest, "Listen Wayne, I know you feel rightfully guilty about Lindsey being taken, but you will not turn this around on me. As far as I know, if you weren't personally invested you wouldn't give a shit about this criminal. Carlo and I followed a false lead as to the Joker's identity, but we do know that our man was somehow involved with the Joker. I want to put this case to rest to give his remaining family – friends of mine- some peace. We will find Lindsey and she will give us some testimony."

Bruce was glaring once more, "Get off your high horse and listen to yourself. You want to save an innocent girl to solve a case that might save your failing empire by kissing a rich family's ass for ten years. Like a said before, correct me if I'm wrong seeing as I'm not such a successful lawyer like you and hubby dearest."

Elvira angrily winced at his sardonic tone but kept listening. "But you did sound just a little incriminating there."

The woman sighed and shook her head, "Don't you dare insinuate that Carlo and I set up Lindsey's abduction."

Bruce snorted, "You didn't need me to that for you."

Before Gordon could intervene, another officer entered the room and approached him. "Excuse me sir, but we've received news on the other two girls."

Elvira's eyes grew wide in alarm. She grabbed the young officer's shoulder. "The other two girls? Angela and Monica? What about them?"

Gordon relayed the message he'd received from the officer in a hushed tone, "They've gone missing."

Coincidentally, Lindsey felt somewhat the same as Elvira Benedetti after reviewing the mounds of Kinkirk articles in the bathroom memorial type thing. She'd reasoned that the Joker knew he was going to kill the poor doctor from the start though.

The only unnerving thing now was the fact that she and her mother had made an appearance in the shrine. Albeit on the floor, but James Kinkirk hadn't been dead yet when he made his debut.

Lindsey pinched the bridge of her nose to keep the tears falling from her eyes at the thought of Angela and Monica. She knew he'd get to them before he touched her again. The fact that she could do nothing killed her worse than the thought of her being killed.

A few minutes later, that thought process was halted by the presence in the doorway.

So...it's been a while...