To Play the Fool

Chapter Twenty-Six

The news sent an electric jolt through his body. According to the message sent by Commissioner Gordon, Audrey Garrison had woken up from her coma and would recover. She would be fine. The thought of a lead gave him a surge of hope that they could finally catch the Mad Hatter. More than that, Batman could even get his hands on him and give him a pummeling the police wouldn't be allowed to give him.

But getting the necessary information from Audrey had to be handled with delicacy. Push too hard and she would probably clam up. But give her too much time, and another girl could be in danger of dying. Furthermore, he doubted that he could talk to her himself, not just because of the police presence, but because he did come off as a terrifying presence. Someone with more tact would have to go in his place.

He met up with Tex on the roof of Dawes Memorial Hospital where she was just getting off the phone with her father. "I know Dad. Batman wants to catch the Mad Hatter as much as you do. Well can you at least call me if you need help? Dad, this is Gotham. None of the police admit it, but they all have to rely on him at one point or another. Fine. Love you." She hung up with a sigh and put her phone away.

"I take it he's refusing our help," said Batman as he treaded lightly onto the roof.

She jumped slightly and recomposed her calm. "He's refusing your help specifically, and he never believed I could help in the first place. In either case, Audrey's not talking anyway."

"She can't talk or she won't talk?"

"The doctors say she might have lost her ability to talk. Dad thinks she just doesn't want to. She doesn't have any family in town, none of her friends have shown up to support her, and the only people who are trying to talk to her are the doctors and cops. If she can talk, I can see why she wouldn't want to."

Batman nodded. "She's scared. Let's give her a friend."

"How?"

"Well you saved her and you've been coming back to check on her. You're more of a friend than anyone else she knows, even if she doesn't know it."

She seemed to narrow her eyes. "I think I like where this is going, but because it's coming from you, I'm getting suspicious."

"All we need to do is have you talk to her."

Jackie laughed at him. "Easier said than done. They've got policemen watching her room, and Dad has specifically forbidden Tex and Batman from coming in."

Jacqueline going in as herself was out of the question because Agent Harkness wasn't supposed to divulge details of the case to his family. The other option was attaching a cable to Tex's belt and lowering her into Audrey's room. This was not an option she was fond of.

"Oh come on!" she protested. "I'm going to get caught." Still, she tested the strength of the cord and the knot like a good sport and jumped off the edge so Batman could help her rappel down the side of the building. Then she unlocked the window, climbed inside, and unhooked herself from the cable.

Intending just to listen in, Batman secured the end of the grappling cable to the building's edge and lowered himself down to Audrey's room. He found a spot to sit next to the window where he could still watch what was going on in the room without the patient seeing him. Somehow, in between the time Tex unhooked herself and he found a spot on the window ledge, she had managed to not only get Audrey to attack her with a pillow, but find reason to take off her helmet. Batman reigned in his fury at her stupidity so he could save it for later.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" she protested as quietly as she could.

The tiny blonde girl continued to thrash her, but Tex just patiently took it. Audrey had white gauze wrapped around her eye and head, and IV tubes springing out of her thin arms. How she was managing to swing a pillow was beyond his comprehension.

"My name is Tex. I wanted to see if you were okay." She held up her hands in a show of peace and barely tried to dodge the pillow. The girl couldn't aim well anyway.

Audrey stopped with her fluffy down assault and just frowned at her with a raised eyebrow as if saying, "You're Tex?"

"Yeah, I found you after you were dumped. You probably don't remember. Is it okay if we talk for a bit? Or, if you prefer, I can talk."

Without giving any indication that she would ever respond, Audrey invited Tex to take a seat in the chair clear across the room. Tex gave a half smile of thanks, turned the chair around, and sat down. Audrey got back into bed, keeping her pillow in her arms as a sort of shield.

"Are you getting enough morphine?" Audrey nodded. "Good. It's always the worst to wake up from something like ... what you went through, and think that it hasn't ended when it already has."

Pulling her hair back, Tex revealed the scars along the left side of her head in the moonlight. Well healed, but obviously painful at the time. "I could barely breathe when I woke up. I didn't realize that when the bomb had gone off, I had inhaled some of the fireball and singed my lungs. I thought I was still burning, and I couldn't scream. Thankfully I had a good doctor who was quite generous with the pain meds. Knowing the staff of Dawes Memorial, you'll be in good hands."

Audrey reached out a hand, beckoning Tex to come closer. She joined her, sitting on the bed close enough for the girl to brush back her hair herself, running her fingers over the scars. Tex unzipped her jacket and pulled it off so she could see how far down the scars ran. Her entire shoulder had burn scars that tapered off down her arm. Tex's missing ear seemed to fascinate Ms. Garrison the most, however.

"I was completely deaf for a few weeks. Completely burst the one eardrum, and there was no hope for the other ear. Still can't hear out of that side, as you can probably tell. At least I still hear half of what people are saying, and usually it's good stuff. I'm a lip reader too, so no one actually felt sorry for me. That was nice because it wasn't like I changed just because I got exploded by a bomb," she said with a slight laugh. Then the laugh left her eyes. "That's not actually true. Trauma tends to change a person more than we care to admit. My boss said I got darker, which is something I really didn't want to happen."

The girl retreated back into her stony expressions. "I'm guessing you were a little more verbose before I met you," Tex said. She gave a slight nod.

"Can I tell you what I know, Audrey? I know that what happened to you was completely unfair. I know it was terrifying. I know that you are scared of telling the police what happened to you. But I know that it's okay to be scared. It doesn't last as long as you think it will.

"What scares me is knowing that this man that kidnapped you and tried to lobotomize you, is going to hurt and kill someone else. My colleagues and I have seen this before. You're not the first, and unless you can help us, you won't be the last. He's usually far, far worse. With you, he acted in rage. The other girls have been methodically selected. We call him the Mad Hatter because he likes to find girls that look like Alice from Alice in Wonderland; blonde, innocent, small, maybe even a little curious. He keeps them captive for several days or several weeks, torturing them physically and mentally. The bodies that have been found show signs of electroshock treatment, starvation, and lobotomies. By now, he's picked someone else and he's going to kill her."

Audrey scooted away from Tex, curling into a ball of fear.

"It's completely up to you, but please talk to the police. Help us find this man so we can stop him."

Showing no sign of cooperation, Audrey just stared at Tex with her one good eye. After several long moments of extended silence, she got the message that she wasn't needed anymore, so she stood and put her jacket back on. "If you need someone to talk to, this is my number." Tex set a card down on the bedside table. "If you wonder if I'm still awake, I probably am."

With that, she replaced the helmet and climbed out the window.

Batman grabbed her arm and pulled her back up to the roof as soon as she made her escape. Tex was a little surprised at the gesture, but held on nonetheless. Once on the roof and away from prying ears, he laid into her. "What was that?" he roared.

Tex picked a different way to interpret the question than the one he intended. "The police are already going to question her. I didn't see the sense in doing it twice. Besides, it's more legal this way." She brushed him off like his question was answered, but he pulled her back.

"What's going to happen when she tells the police you showed her your face?"

"She's not going to tell them anything."

"How do you know she won't get her voice back?"

"Even if she does, Audrey won't tell them."

"And if she does?"

"I'll just deal with the fallout. You don't need to worry."

"You can't just expose yourself like that without knowing what the repercussions are."

"Do you really see this as being someone you'd want to confide in?" she demanded, pointing at her mask. "If I was her, I'd never talk to me or you. It was dark and her eyesight is still recovering. There are plenty of other redheads she can mistake me for."

"That is not a risk you should be taking. You could put her and your family in danger."

"Would you just stop? I don't have to do everything your way!" she snapped. "Believe it or not, I do know what I'm doing every now and again, and unlike you, I speak 'Scared Little Girl.'"

"How am I supposed to trust you when you off the books like this? I can't read any of your moves or motivations."

"So, me just being a good person doesn't cut it for you? Do you hold the rest of Gotham to that standard?"

"Not when you're working with me."

"Okay, let me put it this way. I know it's incredibly difficult for control freaks like you to not know everything there is to know about everyone. But I have had a lot of practice with keeping secrets. You can keep trying to find them out, but you won't find anything I don't want you to find." She pushed the button on her collar to retract her helmet. "You think you seeing my face was an accident? Because it never is."

Batman leaned down, getting right up in her face. He knew she wouldn't be intimidated by the move, but he wanted his point made clearly. "I do not have to let you follow me around like a little fangirl. I know you would rather have my cooperation than work alone. The only reason I continue to work with you is that you have, so far, proven yourself an asset. But that arrangement does not have to continue if I don't want it to."

Tex's cell phone buzzing with a text from her father interrupted their little spat. "Dad says that Audrey's requested to speak to the police immediately. They're sending a sketch artist. He'll be here in a minute. See? Audrey trusts human faces." She pushed Batman out of her face with one hand and walked away to the other edge of the roof.

Recognizing that she needed her space, Batman turned back to the situation going on a few floors below his feet. He put one hand to his ear so he could eavesdrop on the conversation with the bugs he'd planted while Tex had spoken with Audrey.

Tex sat on the ledge, her legs dangling over the side and was unable to hear anything while Batman listened to the conversation and drank in everything of importance. For nearly an hour, neither of them moved from their positions, although Tex would occasionally look back at Batman, scowl, pace, or pretend like he didn't exist for a while.

All the while, Batman collected a list of pertinent details from her non-verbal descriptions. Details such as: Audrey's attacker was blond, Caucasian, about six feet tall, and 180 pounds. He forced her into the car with a gun, but he never used it. He drove her to an empty lot or field where he pushed her out and beat her. He primarily kicked her and hit her with a pipe or crowbar. Most of her injuries were on her right side, meaning he was either left handed or favored his left hand. She remembered he was mad at someone called Alice, but kept calling her Alice too. When he had spent all his energy, he put an icepick in her left eye, but he fumbled around with it and dropped it a couple times. Either he was nervous or his hand hurt. After that, she blacked out.

"She's almost finished with the sketch artist," Batman casually mentioned over his shoulder. "We should have a picture soon."

Tex threw a rock off into the parking lot below. "Great."

"Are we going to be angry at each other all night?"

"Yep," she replied.

"You're not in Junior High, Jackie."

"I can act as immature as I darn well please, thank you very much."

He sighed in frustration. "Is it really just me that you're upset at?"

Surprisingly, she didn't answer him. Seeing as how he wasn't getting anything important from the bugs anymore, he went to Tex, crouching down next to her. She noticed his presence, but refused to look at him.

"Let me tell you what I've noticed about you," he said softly. "You're right, you are a good person. Probably more than anyone else in Gotham. But this case is bugging you more than when the Riddler nearly killed you or the Penguin blackmailed half of Gotham's elite. I have to ask, why would a case with a man playing with a young girl's brain, trying to turn her into his perfect puppet, bother you so much?"

Tears brimmed in her eyes as her face grew colder. "Stop."

"You're a good person, Jackie. But you're a Green Peace type of good person, not a vigilante. I think that all of this – this martial arts training, the metal hands, the armor – was all forced on you. You didn't want to become a warrior, but now you have to make the best of what you've been given."

"I'm not allowed to talk about it." The answer was a reflex, one that had been drilled into her.

"They tried to play with your brain," he deduced. "Turn you into their puppet. That's why you hate the Mad Hatter."

Jackie shot to her feet. "Do not keep digging. You will not like what you find. I bury these things for a reason."

"I'm worried that you're making this case personal."

"You don't ever come across a case that just makes you angry that it's happening again?"

"All the time. But as soon as I let my personal feelings interfere ..." He let the sentence hang so Tex could fill it in as she would.

"The Mad Hatter still deserves to have his kneecaps removed with a rusty spoon."

"Probably." Batman noticed men coming out of the building with photocopies of a drawing of a man's face in hand. "I think they've got a picture to hand out. Let's see who it is." After she put her helmet back on, he took her in his arm and carried her down to the ground via a grappling cable.

As the last few agents bled out of the hospital, Tex caught Agent Harkness on his way out to his car. "Agent Harkness!" she called even though he was obviously trying to ignore her. "What do you have?"

"Look Ja – Tex," he said, barely managing to catch himself. "You can't be in on this. I already told you that you can go looking when this information is released to the public. Until then -"

He turned to his car, only to be cut short by Batman leaning against the door. "We'd rather help now," said the Dark Knight.

"I don't need it," Agent Harkness insisted.

Batman snatched the paper out of his hands and took a look at the face. The gray-and-white drawing looked vaguely familiar. He took a quick picture of it with a camera from his belt. Then he passed it to Tex. "Recognize him?"

Tex's body instantly stiffened. "This is James Carroll, Jenny's terrible date. He punched me in the face."

"Carroll?" Agent Harkness repeated as he dialed his men. "It has to be a fake name."

"He was mad at Jenny the night he attacked Audrey. I have to go home." She barely paused to hand the paper back to her dad before she sprinted away to her motorcycle.

Batman was right behind her, headed for his Batpod, when something came over his radio. "Batman? Are you there?"

Tex must have left her radio at home. "Jenny? What's going on?" he asked as he waved Tex over.

Barely audible, she whispered, "It's the Mad Hatter. He's come for me. I'm hiding right now."

"Good. We're on our way. Are you well hidden?"

"No. ... He's going to take me."

"Then I need you to do a couple things. Put the earpiece in and describe him as best you can."

"Okay."

"And you need to get as much of his DNA evidence as you can. You need to fight back."

Her voice trembled. "Okay."

"Jenny, I am coming for you."

"I know." As Batman silently directed Tex to drive back to her apartment, Jenny remained quiet. Then she screamed. He heard breaking wood, scraps of images, a skull hitting the floor hard, then an electronic squeal when the assailant found and smashed the radio.

"What's going on?" Tex demanded.

"The Hatter's got Jenny."