4. Dinner Psychology
That weekend, I heard nothing from the Joker. I went to work that Friday, did my job, went grocery shopping again and went home to work on my evaluations. That Saturday, I worked on evaluations and that Sunday, I worked on evaluations. However, on Sunday night, I got a phone call from someone unexpected. I was sitting on the couch in my living room working on the evaluations and the phone rang. Startled by the unexpected ringing, I jumped up and answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Giada, it's Bruce,"
"Oh hi Bruce! How are you?" I asked
"I'm just fine, thank you. I was calling to invite you over to a small dinner gathering I'm having with a couple friends of mine," Bruce explained.
"Oh…I'd love to—what time?" I asked.
"Be here around 7," he responded.
"Will do,"
"See you then,"
"Alright. Bye now,"
"Good bye,"
I hung up the phone and looked at the clock on under my TV on the cable box. 6:04. Great. I jumped off the couch and ran to the bathroom to take a quick shower. I then dried my dark curly hair, applied some make-up and threw on a nice casual dress. Quickly, I shuffled into my kitchen and searched the cabinets for an unopened bottle of wine. I could not go to someone's home for a dinner party empty handed. It is not the Italian way I was taught. Luckily, I found a bottle of unopened chianti. I grabbed my purse, turned off the lights, left the my apartment and locked the door behind me.
I arrived at Bruce Wayne's humble abode at exactly 7:00. I was greeted by Alfred, a very kind British man.
"Good evening, Miss Giada," he greeted me with a smile.
"Good evening," I responded with a smile in return.
"Mr. Wayne is right this way," he led me down the hall and into a magnificent dining hall.
"Ah, Giada, you made it!" Bruce said the moment he saw me. He immediately placed his glass of champagne down on the table and took my hand in his.
"Thank you for inviting me. I brought you some wine," I responded, handing him the bottle of chianti.
"Oh you didn't have to," he replied with a smile.
"Well, I did," I smiled back at him.
"Come, I'd like you to meet a few people," he led me over to a handsome couple.
"Giada, this is Rachel Dawes, my oldest and dearest friend, and this is Harvey Dent, her boyfriend," Bruce introduced me.
"A pleasure to meet you both," I replied as I shook their hands.
"Nice to meet you," Rachel said.
"Oh Bruce, a Bostonian," Harvey said with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm from Boston," I laughed, "How can you ever tell?"
"I wasn't going to say anything—I wanted to see if you noticed!" Bruce laughed.
"Go on, say it! Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd," Harvey joked.
"Give me a little more wine and I'll say it later," I laughed back at him.
We all took our seats at the table and commenced to talking about various things. Bruce mentioned that I worked for him do cognitive and behavioral analyses on his employees and he talked about how Harvey is the District Attorney. The conversation soon escalated into a conversation about Gotham's crime rate and what the GPD needs to do in order to keep the peace.
"Well, the GPD can only do so much, next to Batman," I said finally, not really knowing if it was the decent thing to bring up. Rachel and Bruce exchanged a glance.
"Batman is what Gotham needs. Batman is Gotham's hero," Harvey explained to me.
"No, Harvey. You're what Gotham needs," Bruce responded.
"I understand that, and someday when Batman feels like he can do this no longer, I'll still be here. But for now, Batman is what Gotham needs for the behind the scenes action we're all missing right now," Harvey explained.
"Batman saved me at Wendy's a few nights ago," I said with a slight laugh.
"Oh, he did?" Rachel asked with a small grin.
"Yes, he did. I was glad he did, because I don't think the cops ever came to the sight," I responded.
"The GPD can only do so much, and with the Joker back in action lately, they've got their hands full," Harvey said.
"The Joker, huh," I said, taking another sip of wine.
"I think Batman will get the Joker," Harvey stated.
"The Joker's a mad dog," Bruce said flatly as he finished his glass of wine.
"A mad dog or not—the man's clever and has sufficed not getting caught by the GPD for years," Harvey explained.
"I think this conversation is boring Giada," Rachel chimed in finally, glancing over at me.
"Oh, no, I'm fine! I think this is all quite fascinating. The crime out East quite like this," I replied with a smile.
"Well, you're a behavioral analyst. What do you think of the Joker?" Harvey asked me finally.
"Well, I'd have to meet him to decipher that," I lied. I don't know why I lied. I should have told them he broke into my apartment, but I didn't.
"The Joker's a raging psychopath. It doesn't take an expert to figure that one out, Harvey," Bruce responded coldly.
"Actually, Bruce, Gotham City might be quick to categorize the Joker as a serial killing sociopath, but if you look at his crime habits, he's anything but a serial killing sociopath. Serial killers don't kill mass amounts of people—they tend to target types, for instance, you may have a serial killer who only kills blonde prostitutes. Along with that, the killings are always in the same exact manner, like the Boston Strangler—it's a ritual. The Strangler only killed certain women and in the exact same way every time. The Joker has no ritual. He has no plans. He's far from a serial killer," I responded.
"Well, he's still a mass murdering psychopath who needs to be caught and sent to County," Bruce explained.
"The Joker is neither a sociopath nor a psychopath. A sociopath is a person who gets gratification from hurting others for no apparent reason. I don't see the Joker getting any gratification from hurting others. He just simply kills for no reason. This doesn't give him any kind of joy. He just does it. A psychopath is someone with a severe mental disorder. They tend to be aggressive and yes the Joker is aggressive, but not in the sense that he doesn't know what he is doing. I am not saying the Joker doesn't exhibit any sociopathic behaviors, because he certainly does—but I would not diagnose him as a sociopath," I stated.
"Fair enough. Maybe once we catch him, we'll bring you over to County and you can interview him for one of your analyses," Harvey replied with an eager smile, "I'd love to see what you had to say about him after meeting him,"
"Yeah, I bet he'd change your mind," Bruce stated.
"Well—maybe. I'll never know until I can meet him and have a conversation with him," I replied with a grin.