To Play the Fool
Chapter Twenty-Four
Batman tapped on Jenny's window. Normally he would just 'appear' inside, but with Jackie, Jenny, and their father already inside, he wasn't about to risk getting another concussion. Jenny opened the window herself. "Are you looking for Tex?" she asked.
"And Agent Harkness." Jenny waved a hand to grant him permission to come in, he climbed inside and approached them. Jackie looked up at him with one eye, the other being covered by ice and a towel. "What happened to you?"
"I had a customer that wasn't happy with the service I gave." She had a grin as she explained that, as if she didn't regret it for a second.
"Did you need something, Batman?" Agent Harkness demanded. He shared the same disdain for the vigilante as his oldest daughter, and made no secret of it.
"I have some information on the Mad Hatter case. I thought you might be interested in it."
Jenny immediately turned on her heel. "I hear my homework calling."
"You would probably be of some help," her father said, trying to keep her from leaving. He knew her talents well.
"I'm not getting involved with a serial killer. I just got rid of one psychopath for today, so that fulfills my quota for the month. Also, it's late. Good night all, and don't you keep Jackie up too late." That last part was directed at the newest visitor, and by far the most unwelcome. She waved and vanished down the hall into her room.
As soon as she was gone, Agent Harkness got the first word in. "Let me be explicitly clear … Batman. I do not work with murderers. I put them away. I don't know what sort of game you've got going on with the GCPD, but I'm not interested in being a part of it. I will give you one chance to leave." He loosened the gun in a shoulder holster under his jacket, but didn't pull it out. "I suggest you take it."
"Dad!" Jackie exclaimed. "He's the one who alerted the police about the Mad Hatter. If it hadn't been for him, you wouldn't be here yet. He can help us!"
"That's another thing." He turned to his daughter who was still at the table. "You are not on this case. You are not a private detective or some sort of secret agent, and I wish you would stop pretending to be." His cell phone rang and he excused himself to go answer it.
Jackie face fell visibly, and the temperature in the room chilled. Then she set the ice on the table, stood to face Batman and took a steadying breath. "What did you find?"
He considered prying into this bit of family drama, but decided that enough had been handed to him already. "The soil sample I took from the last victim's dump site comes from near the quarry. He might be hiding somewhere between the Quarry and the Palasades."
She nodded. "Okay. It'll take me about five minutes to suit up, but if you want to get going, I'll catch up in a bit." He nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry," her father said as he reappeared, "I have to go. Another girl's been kidnapped." Jackie and Batman exchanged a look, knowing immediately what they had to do. She turned to her room and he to the window. "Wait, Jackie, you're not coming!" Agent Harkness was cut off by her slamming the door in his face. "This is your fault!" he snapped at Batman. "You shouldn't have –" But the Batman was already gone.
"Her name is Audrey Garrison. Twenty years old, blonde, 5'3", 120 pounds. Last seen leaving the Del Sol Club at 10:40 p.m. Witnesses say she was forced into a tan Mazda Civic which got away from the scene, heading west. We were given a partial plate and we're running it down now. Suspect was described as 5'10", 200 pounds, and wearing a dark hat and long coat."
"Has the Amber Alert gone out?" Batman asked.
"Yes, but the news media aren't mentioning anything about the Mad Hatter. We don't want to spook him yet. Audrey's picture is everywhere. We need to find her fast. None of the girls lasted more than a week before they were abandoned to starve to death."
"Thank you, Gordon. We'll do what we can." He hung up on the Commissioner. "Did you get that Tex?"
"Sure did. The Del Sol's downtown, isn't it?"
"It is, but we're trying to get ahead of him. Patrol the Palasades. If you can, ask the neighbors if they've seen anything."
"Got it."
Tex broke off from the road, taking a right towards the high end of Gotham while Batman in the Tumbler II continued towards the quarry that was about a mile away from the mansions. The Tumbler was better equipped to handle the rocky terrain.
The problem with the quarry was two-fold. One, the rocks and gravel were shipped out daily all over Gotham and the rest of the east coast. The dirt he found at the dump site could have come from any number of construction sites that used the quarry's gravel. But the reason he was here was for the second problem; out here, there were nearly one hundred possible caves and hideouts far away from the city where no one could hear the girls scream.
The Mad Hatter was new to Gotham, so he wouldn't have had the time or experience to find the better hidden caves. Batman started with Newman Cave: not the one most of the tourists knew about, but still easy to find by the dedicated or intrepid hiker. The scanning equipment in the Tumbler II wasn't picking up any heat signatures, but if the Mad Hatter had been here, he would know. He got out of the Tumbler II, took a flashlight off his belt, and took a look around the cave. A smile briefly crossed his face when he thought of how proud Fox would be knowing that he was using his spelunking equipment for spelunking.
Just after the first bend past the mouth of the cave, he found two areas cleared of rocks and covered with pine needles – just the right size for a sleeping bag. Between those was a circle of blackened rocks. The ashes in the middle of them were less than a week old. If the Mad hatter killed Melissa here, whoever camped here would have known and wouldn't have cleaned up. This wasn't the Mad Hatter's base of operations. Probably just a couple transients staying for a few days.
A little deeper into the cave, he only found a few bats and a lizard, so he moved on.
Grayskull Cave, a name bestowed upon it by its He-Man fan discoverers, was next. This one had a bit of a vertical entrance, so Batman lowered himself in with a grappling cable. Inside, it was dripping wet with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. But it did seem habitable and a difficult place to escape from without the proper equipment. He landed on the cave floor and swept the room with the flashlight. The ground was too rocky for anyone to reasonably reside here for some time. However, he did come across a piece of paper stuck behind a stalagmite deeper in the cave.
As he got closer, climbing over boulders and such on the way, he realized that someone actually had been living down here for some time. He retrieved the paper only to find a ziploc bag with another stack of papers pinned under a rock. This was all near a rock floor that had been scratched smoother to get rid of the worst lumps. A lantern was hung on a taller rock with no oil left inside.
The paper turned out to be an envelope addressed to a Jacqueline Harkness in Serbia from Jenny Harkness in Gotham City. The letter inside had fared far better than the envelope that contained it. This cave was the hideout of Jackie. Or it used to be.
But as curious as he was, Batman could hear the time ticking by fast and there was still no hint of the Mad Hatter's hideout. He took both the letter and the bag of papers and got out of the cave.
The next stop was little more than a granite overhang with a small opening that led to a larger room below. He couldn't fit with his armor on, and when he had explored it before as a teenager, it had still been a tight, but manageable squeeze. It would be an unexpected place for a serial killer to use. He peeked inside with his flashlight, but the way was blocked by fallen rocks. Most likely the cave had collapsed years ago.
Wyvern Hole was close by, so he stopped in to visit. After a short walk inside, the floor suddenly dropped into a chasm. The walls showed signs of use by rock climbers: chalk hand prints, carabiners attached to the wall, a rope left behind still tied around a boulder. It would be a great place for the mad hatter, but there was too much traffic from rock climbers to be ideal. He wasn't using this cave.
As Batman left the cave, Tex's voice came over the radio. "Batman, I found her! He dumped Audrey at Wayne Manor!"
"I'll be right there," he replied, running to the Tumbler II. At least she was having some luck. "Call the police."
"No. I need you to follow a car. It's a tan Mazda, license plate SJI 847, heading west, back to downtown."
"Why can't you go after it?" Batman fired up the engine to chase him anyway.
"Because Audrey's still alive, but just barely."
That bit of information nearly floored him. The Mad Hatter made a mistake leaving his victim alive. "Understood." Tex cut off the connection to call 911, and he raced the Tumbler II towards the Palasades, all the while trying to figure out how Bruce Wayne was going to handle this. It only took him a few minutes to get on the road leading to Wayne Manor. As he was heading east,a small car passed him on the right going west. He immediately turned around to catch up.
The little Mazda wasn't much of a challenge, except according to the police scanner, they were on their way on the same road. Batman fired some road spikes over the car head of him, shredding the man's tires. He swerved to avoid the spikes and the car skidding to a stop. Before the Mazda had completely come to a halt, the driver tumbled out of the car and started running towards the hillside in a desperate bid for escape.
Batman parked the Tumbler II, opened the hatch, and fired his grappling cable at the man. He tripped as the cable wrapped around his legs, and Batman reeled him back in. The man was kicking and screaming as he was dragged through the grass and dirt. He picked the man up by his brown, filthy coat and slammed him against the car. "Going somewhere?" he snarled.
"Look man, the guy gave me three grand to drive his car downtown," the middle aged man with scraggly hair sniveled.
Batman punched him in the spleen. "You kidnapped a girl! Where did you take the others?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he protested.
Sirens started howling in the distance and the police lights were just becoming visible over the horizon. Batman had to get out before the police came, so his interrogation was cut short. With a growl, Batman handcuffed the man to the Mazda's steering wheel and he climbed back into the Tumbler II.
Instead of going straight to Tex, he took a bit of a detour back home. More specifically, he drove well off the road, through a waterfall, just around an underground lake, and into the Batcave under Wayne Manor. His arrival upset the coven of bats that lived there with him, and they began flying around in a swirling black mass. Batman tore off his armor under the cover of the bats, put on something resembling pajamas, wiped off the black makeup around his eyes, and raced upstairs via the elevator. AS soon as he emerged from the bookcase, Alfred was right there with a robe in hand.
"You're back early," the butler remarked.
"I need you to find the first aid kit," Bruce said as he threw on the robe. "Has Tex stopped by?"
"No. Why would she?"
He tied the belt around the robe haphazardly and put on some slippers. "Because that missing girl is on our front lawn." Bruce opened the door and started walking down the sidewalk around his front yard. On the end of the field, next to the road, Tex was crouched over someone and her bike laid next to her. Her hands were covered in blood, which was nothing compared to the body at her feet. "What's going on?"
Tex's head snapped up. "Are you Bruce Wayne?"
"Yeah."
"Can you get me a first aid kit or some bandages? She's bleeding bad."
"Sure. Do I need to call the police?"
"I already did. Please hurry."
Bruce ran back to the mansion, a feat complicated by his slippers and the recently rained on grass, and met Alfred at the door. "How is she?" Alfred asked.
"Not good. She could use your help." Bruce ditched his slippers at the door and raced back down to Tex and Audrey, while Alfred followed. As soon as he reached her, Tex opened up the little white box and took out the gauze. Most of it was piled on the girl's head and right eye.
"Apply pressure here," she directed. "Not too much. Her skull is cracked." Bruce did as she said and Tex got to work on the girl's neck and arms.
Bruce almost didn't recognize the girl from the pictures shown on the news. Her face was swollen with bruises. The eye that was visible looked like the socket might be fractured, her cheekbones were definitely broken, and there was a good chance her jaw would need some work. Her hair was sticky with blood from a cut on the top of her crown. There were slashes across the girl's neck and down her chest like her attacker swung a knife at her. Alfred arrived with extra bandages from a torn pillowcase to help stop the bleeding there.
Five minutes and an eternity later, the paramedics and the police arrived, one of the cars parking on the lawn. They picked up where Tex had left off and eventually took over for each of them. Tex stepped back, wringing her hands and looking over the paramedics' shoulders to make sure Audrey was getting the help she needed.
"What happened to her, do you know?" Bruce asked the vigilante.
"Kind of. Excuse me." Tex left Bruce and Alfred so she could give a quick statement to the police.
Soon afterward, the police came to talk to them too. They just needed to know where they were to eliminate them as suspects, and just some details as witnesses. According to Bruce, he saw something from his bedroom window after hearing a car drive by and a motorcycle stall on his lawn. The police had better things to focus on besides Mr. Wayne and his butler, so they let them go fairly quick.
Eventually, the police were finished with Tex and most of them left with the ambulance. A few stayed behind to pick up any trace evidence. She was left behind with Bruce and Alfred, wringing her hands of the blood. Alfred went over to her and touched her shoulder. "Come in and get yourself cleaned up," he said to her.
She looked between him and the police. "I think I should go."
"Nonsense. Come on dear." With a hand on her back, Alfred urged her into the manor.
Bruce went up to his personal bathroom to clean the blood off his hands. Alfred and Tex used the sink in the kitchen. Bruce had relatively little blood to clean off. However, he still had some black makeup under his eyes, giving him the effect of bags under his eyes. He quickly washed that off before heading back downstairs.
Tex was still scrubbing blood out from the corners of her fingernails and the crease between her wrists and her hands with a bristle brush. Alfred was wetting a towel to wipe some blood off her helmet. She must have touched her temple with bloody hands. "Well that was eventful," Bruce said to break the ice.
"Indeed." Her scrubbing got more furious until she just threw the scrub brush back into the sink. "My hands are shaking, and they don't shake."
"So what happened?"
Tex dried her hands off on a towel. "Audrey Garrison was kidnapped by a serial killer known as the Mad Hatter. And he nearly killed her."
"A serial killer?" he said incredulously.
"And a nasty one at that. I hate dealing with serial killers. Slimy, conniving, arrogant ..." She growled and pushed herself away from the counter. "I need to go. Thank you, Alfred, for the … soap. And thanks for your help, both of you." With a shake of their hands, she left the mansion and drove back to town.
As soon as she was out the door, Bruce raced back down to the Batcave to don his armor again.
Batman came to Agent Harkness' motel room over an hour later. Tex was already there with her helmet off. She sat on the foot of her father's bed just staring into space while he paced the room on his phone, giving orders to someone on the other end. He was about to pick the lock on the window when Jackie spotted him and let him inside, much to her father's consternation. He glared at the Dark Knight, but didn't voice his opinion. "Audrey Garrison is alive, but she's not out of the woods yet. She's in the ICU right now."
"She's going to lose her eye." Jackie returned to her seat on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chin. "She didn't deserve that."
"Did she see who kidnapped her?" Batman asked.
"Probably, but unless you have a way to get a statement from a coma patient, you're out of luck."
"Daddy, don't be mean," Jackie scolded half-heartedly. "The Mad Hatter didn't get a chance to lobotomize her. He tried, but he missed. Then he heard me coming and got rid of her. Tried to slit her throat, but her trachea stopped that.
"This was very unlike him," Agent Harkness mused. "He's usually cold and calculating, but tonight, this was an attack of rage. Something set him off."
"What about the driver?"
"Homeless," sighed Jackie as she laid down on the bed.
"He has vagrancy and public intoxication charges going back at least twelve years in Gotham," her father further explained. "He's not our man, says he didn't see the guy. My men are interrogating him right now. Did you find anything?"
Batman shook his head. Nothing related to the case, anyway. "If the Mad Hatter finds out Audrey survived, he might try to kill her before she can identify him."
"She's under 24-hour police watch at Dawes Memorial."
"She can't stay there. The Hatter is most likely a medical professional working there. Hardly any of the staff there are native to Gotham. He would have the best chance to dispose of her there."
"That makes no sense," Jackie said.
"No, it makes perfect sense," Agent Harkness argued. "Until the staff says it's okay to move her, everyone who comes within twenty feet of her will have a background check done."
"That's not what I'm talking about. Dawes Memorial was built because of the Joker attacks, but it's staffed by people who aren't from Gotham. Wouldn't it make more sense to have people from Gotham work there?"
Agent Harkness dialed the police. "I'll get those background checks done now. We're going to get this guy. He's not getting away from me again."
While Jackie's father was turned away, Batman took the opportunity to slip out and begin his own watch, and Jackie waved goodbye to him.