To Play the Fool
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The significance of Alice in Wonderland was not lost on me. I read every one of Dad's cases when I lived at home, and I still go through them occasionally. Furthermore, I stay up to date on everything Jackie does. I knew about the Mad Hatter, and I knew that this was his calling card. I am the next victim of the Mad Hatter. I would be kidnapped, tortured psychologically and physically until I became Alice, lobotomized, and eventually starve to death when he grew tired of me. The fact that Dad hadn't been able to close the case yet meant there was almost no chance that Dad could rescue me in a worse case scenario.
But the knowledge paralyzed me like I had been thrown the idiot ball and I couldn't let go of it. I was vaguely aware that I was putting things back where they belonged, starting the dishwasher, cleaning up the kitchen, everything I would be doing if things were normal. There was an astonishing amount of things that I could do without my brain being completely there. Make my bed, brush my teeth, vacuum the living room, feed the fish, dust the furniture. I just wasn't there because I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to die, and there was nothing my sister or dad or the police or Batman could do about it.
Somehow, my hands landed on my phone and a thought crossed my mind. I could call someone. Yes, that was a definite possibility. I opened my list of people on speed-dial and started at the beginning. Jackie. It went straight to voice-mail. "Hi, Jackie," I said. "Can you come home? Now? Please?"
Next, Dad. It rang and rang until the machine answered. "Hi Daddy. Can you please come home. I need you."
Imogen Watson. My poor neglected friend. Her's also rang straight through to voice-mail. "Hi Imogen. Call me back when you get the chance. I need to talk to you."
Bruce Wayne. I hesitated on this one. He's my boss. What could he do? He did say to call him if things got worse. Things have gotten worse. I selected him and hoped that the billionaire playboy prince of Gotham wouldn't be busy on a Friday night. Straight to the answering machine. "Hi Mr. Wayne. You said to call you if I needed help. Things are getting weird. I'm pretty sure I'm being stalked by a serial killer called the Mad Hatter. It might be James, it might not be, but the fact that his last name is Carroll is making me think that it is. Please call me back when you get a chance."
That last voice-mail gave me the wherewithal to stand up and examine myself and my situation. Yes, I was in danger. Yes, the green sedan was parked in its usual spot watching my window. Yes, I had managed to feed fish that I don't actually have, with cookie crumbs. Yes, I had a copy of Alice in Wonderland in my hands. But I was not going to die. I survived Oswald Cobblepot and his cronies and I never wussed out like this. I marched (idiotically) into the face of danger. The Mad Hatter would not kill me after I survived that.
I looked at the time to see how much my shock had cost me. About two hours had passed since Jackie called me. I cursed my idiot ball. I could have run away to Imogen's place. Of course, as soon as I go outside, I'm dead meat. Call the police? Yes, that was definitely an option I should have considered a while ago. And if my place was bugged, James Carroll would have moved in by now if I had called them. Well, no time like the present.
Knock knock knock!
I darted to the door, grabbing my baseball bat and putting my stun gun within easy reach in my pocket. "James, is that you? I told you to leave me alone!"
"It's not James. My name is Jervis Tetch." The man's voice was muffled by the door, but it was definitely not Mr. Carroll. Even so, I was still deeply suspicious of anyone coming to my door that didn't resemble my family or Batman. "Are you going to answer the door?"
I put my eye to the peephole. This Mr. Tetch was dressed like a cab driver – brown jacket, dingy jeans, flat cap - had flat brown hair, and was a wiry sort of fellow. Just because I hadn't yet, I slid in the chain into the door to further secure it. "Unless you're a cop, you can just leave. I'm not interested in buying anything."
"I'm not a salesman, Jenny."
My heart froze in my chest. "How do you know my name?"
"I'm with the FBI. Your dad sent me." He pulled a wallet out of his inside jacket pocked and held his badge up to the peephole. I read through the basic data, which seemed to be in order, but without having it in my hand, I couldn't tell if it was made out of the right material. "Can I come in?"
"You're not on my dad's team, and he would have called if he was sending someone."
"I'm stationed in Gotham. I'm not on his team. Could you please open the door?"
"Not unless Dad calls and says I can trust you." I tightened my grip on the bat to keep my fingers from shaking.
"Why do you have to make this so difficult?" he groaned. And then kicked the door.
The door shook on its hinges at the force of the blow. The frame cracked where the bolt went into the wall. The chain was keeping the door from swinging open. I stepped back and raised my bat for his next blow. I saw him give me a malicious grin, step back, and kick the door again. The chain shattered and the door flew open, nearly hitting me in the face. I jumped backwards just in time.
The wiry man darted in through the shattered remains of my door. I reacted instinctively and swung my bat hard enough to hit a home run, aiming for his stomach. I hit him at least twice, feeling bones crack under my bat, but Jervis was stronger than he looked. He could take my blows and grabbed my bat mid-flight. For a split second, neither of us could move. Then my bat was ripped out of my fingers. The next instant, Jervis' fist smashed into my face. My cheek tingled with the sudden rush of blood, but I tried my best to ignore it so I could grab the stun gun from my pocket.
I switched on my stun gun and brandished it in front of me as I backed away. The electricity snapped audibly, letting him know I wasn't playing around. "You get away from me!" I growled.
His cold laugh cut through my forced confidence. "Poor choice of weaponry, Jenny. You want something that puts distance between yourself and your assailant, like an actual Taser -" I cut him off with a thrust to his ribs. It caught him by surprise, but somehow despite his twitching, he grabbed my wrist and yanked the stun gun out of my hands too. I retreated, but he tackled me on his way to the ground.
I fell on my face, hitting my chin. Jervis was having a hard time recovering. I turned around, kicked him in the nose, and scrambled to my feet. I needed a new weapon from the kitchen, and realized too late that I was going to be cornered. Grabbing the biggest knife in the block, I turned around only to find Jervis blocking my way with a wild look in his eyes and his hands up and ready to pounce. I slashed at him with the knife in my hand, but he only jumped just out of reach. He was right about having a weapon that could give me some distance.
Without turning around, I took another two knives out of the block and threw each of them at him. I wasn't sure if they hit him or not because I used the distraction to hop over the counter and race to my room. Jervis just barely missed me as I ran past him, brushing my shirt with his fingertips. I slammed my door shut, put a chair under the handle, and pushed my desk in front of that. I didn't have time or the strength to move my bed. A second later, Jervis rammed a shoulder into the door in an effort to barge in, but my barricade held. For the moment.
I could not stay in this room, but I had an escape. I moved the cup of beans next to my window over a bit, opened it up, climbed out, and closed it so it wouldn't look like I had gone out this way. I used the fire escape to go over to Jackie's window. She comes in and out of this way all the time, so it was easy enough to unlock it and climb inside, locking it behind me.
Jackie's room still looked like a guest bedroom with just a dresser, a bed, and the built-in closet. My options were limited. I couldn't leave because Jervis was right outside, still banging on the door. I thought I heard the wood splinter and him tear through the desk to get into my room. It wouldn't be long before he realized I wasn't hiding in there.
Come on come on come on. Jackie was a master of hide-and-seek. Mostly because she knew how to hide in unorthodox places, like the ceiling. I did not have the flexibility or the strength to try that, but there was always the false back in her closet. The back just slid aside, giving me about a small compartment about a foot deep. It would have to do. I closed the closet door, then slid the false back closed and held my breath.
The rampage quieted outside my room as he soon realized that I wasn't in there. Even after turning over the bed, he was confused. I imagine he looked out the window and figured I went down to the ground and ran. But there wasn't a ladder there, so it was impossible for me to run that way.
My hand brushed against something small and encased in hard plastic on the ground. It was the radio Batman gave Jackie. Would it be appropriate for me to call him and pull him away from his crime fighting? I decided that yes, yes it was. He was looking for the Mad Hatter anyway. What better way to help him? I slipped in the earpiece.
"Batman? Are you there?" I said as loudly as I dared.
"Jenny? What's going on?" he growled.
"It's the Mad Hatter. He's come for me. I'm hiding right now." I felt like I had a loudspeaker to my mouth.
"Good. We're on our way. Are you well hidden?"
"No." I heard footsteps coming closer to my door. I couldn't stay here forever. "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."
"Okay." Jackie's door creaked open.
"Jenny, I am coming for you," Batman said insistently, as if he could direct the way the universe fell.
"I know." I barely mouthed the words.
Jervis stepped softly through the room. His footsteps took him to the window, where he kicked some spilled beans around. Twenty-Seven of them. I realized in horror that I forgot about the beans.
"Interesting security feature," he remarked. "Kind of like the wood in the door frame. But once you know someone's been inside your home, what do you think you're going to do about it?" I heard him get down on the floor, his steel-toed boots making a dull thud on the hardwood floor as he knelt down. He was looking under the bed. "Nope. You're too smart to hide under there. But what about the closet?"
A bit of light shone through the crack of the false back as Jervis opened the door wide. His hand went through the top shelf, making sure I wasn't up there. He continued to look around the closet for nearly and entire agonizing minute. Then he gave up and closed the door.
"'The time has come,' the Walrus said," he muttered as he swept through the room again. "'To talk of many things./Of shoes, of ships, and sealing wax/Of Cabbages and Kings/And why the sea is boiling hot/And whether pigs have wings.'"
I bit my lip so hard that it started to bleed, but I dared not make a sound. How was I wrong about the identity of the Mad Hatter? I should have been able to tell that James is too incompetent. Now everyone will go chasing James Carroll, and not Jervis Tetch. The thought that my mistake will keep me from being rescued turned my stomach to mush. My ears strained to listen, but I finally heard his footsteps leave the room. I gave him another few moments to get even further away.
I let out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding.
Suddenly, Jervis ripped open the door of the closet. An instant later, he tore apart the false back of the closet and grabbed my hair. I screamed as he threw me across the room, hitting my head on the foot of Jackie's bed. Then he pulled me back up by an arm so he could punch me a few times in the jaw. All the while I screamed things like, "Six feet tall! 180 pounds! Brown hair! Middle-class laborer!" I screamed right up until he found the earpiece, ripped it out, and stepped on it.
My head rang and probably was bleeding, but Jervis hadn't finished with me yet. He took me by my feet, dragged me out of Jackie's room and into the living room. I grabbed anything I could get my hands on: the bathroom door frame, the living room bookcase, the couch, the television. I was making quite a mess. I held onto a couch hard enough that I was able to kick myself free and start running again, but Jervis just pushed me head first into the television.
The glass rained down on my hair. As I pushed myself off the TV, I grabbed one of the pieces and slashed at his face and arms, embedding it into my palm. I didn't exactly feel the pain so much as I felt determined to spatter his blood everywhere. Frustrated and desperate, Jervis put a knee into the small of my back to keep me from getting up again, and I cried out at the sharp pain in my spine.
"Your father was not lying when he said you were clever," he said, fiddling with something in his hands. It sounded like a cap unscrewing from a bottle, but I couldn't see what it was. A sweet smell permeated the air, an intoxicating scent that made me dizzy. "Unfortunately, so am I."
"He's going to find you, and you're going to pay," I threatened through my teeth and tears.
"If he was capable of finding the real Mad Hatter, he would have found me already. Deep breaths." He held a cloth soaked with the sweet stuff – an ether, possibly sevoflurane, I noted – over my nose and mouth. I tried to hold my breath as long as possible, but it just wasn't possible to keep from inhaling without becoming dizzy either way.
As I sank deeper into sleep, Jervis took his knee off my back, then put his hand in my pocket, pulling out my phone. I was somewhat aware of him going through the pictures, deleting a few, then setting it on the ground and stomping on it a couple times. He checked my pulse with a couple fingers on my neck, pressed the cloth to my face even closer, and I fell off into sleep for good.
Tex made it home first, followed immediately by Batman. All she really had to see was the state of her door to know that they were too late. She took off her helmet, revealing a face that had gone deathly pale. "She might be hiding. She could still be here," she said desperately. Then she started a room to room search. "Jenny!" she called. "Jenny, where are you?"
Batman knew that her search would be in vain. However, he let her hold on to her brief, albeit hysteric, bit of hope while he took a better look around. The first thing of interest that he found was the remains of a Droid phone, violently and deliberately smashed. With a pair of tweezers, he picked through the remains until he found a memory card. It was badly damaged, more than likely beyond repair, but he might be able to pull something from it. He put it in a metal compartment that attached to his utility belt.
Jackie came back from her room. "I can't find her, the false back in my closet is completely destroyed, and there's blood on the floor."
Batman guided her to a chair away from the destruction, ordered her to, "Sit down. Breathe," and walked down the hall to her room. Jenny's door and room were completely torn apart and destroyed, but Jenny would have known better than to hide in there. Jackie had the better hiding places.
Jackie's room suffered far less than the other one. There were beans scattered on the floor next to the window, meaning someone had come in from outside via the window. The bed was pushed aside and the dresser was untouched. The blood was on the foot of the bed and on the floor next to it. Judging by the splatter patterns, someone had been hit by the bed and bled out on the floor for a moment. More than likely, this was Jenny's blood. The bed was a straight shot from the closet. The false back had been torn away and whoever was inside – Jenny – was thrown across the room.
Batman found something else of interest on the ground by the closet. It was the radio he had given Jackie, the one Jenny desperately tried to use. The assailant had crushed it to pieces too. Batman swept it all into another one of his metal compartments, erasing the existence of it entirely.
He returned to the living room to find Jackie pacing nervously, one of her hands opening and closing in a circle. The wall had a bit of blood spattered across it, in a different place than the rest of it. That victim had been standing. All the evidence suggested Jenny had been bleeding on the ground. Batman found a white cloth stained with blood by the shattered television. He picked it up and examined it. It was soaked in something that wasn't water and smelled sweet. "What do you make of it?" he asked Jackie.
She took it and sniffed it. "Could be chloroform." She sniffed it again, much deeper this time, and nearly fell backwards. Batman had to catch her before she hit the ground. "Nope. It's ether. Definitely ether."
"Why is your hand doing that?"
Jackie looked down at the hand that was repeatedly opening and closing. "Being a dinosaur?" It stopped, then started to make different shapes, like it was spelling something out. "Car-bon Mon-ox-ide. CO, it's saying CO." She put on her helmet and swept her gaze through the room. "There's a carbon monoxide leak. It's probably why the neighbors haven't called the police or anything."
Just then, Agent Harkness arrived as the two of them were leaving the apartment. "What's going on? Where's Jenny?"
"The Mad Hatter kidnapped her," said Batman.
"And there's a carbon monoxide leak. We have to evacuate the building." She pulled the fire alarm on her way down the hall. "You two start downstairs!"
Batman retrieved two gas-masks from the Batpod and tossed one to Agent Harkness before he started on the bottom floor, pounding on the doors to wake up the residents. Several families from the third floor were coming down the stairs, woken up by the fire alarm. On the ground floor, the carbon monoxide was thickest, so he had to break in and pull them out. The first apartment had an asian family with two little girls. The girls weren't waking up, the mother had blue lips, and the father barely stirred. Batman had to carry each of them well away from the building, and lie them down on the grass. Getting them away from the source of the poisoning helped a bit, but they needed medical attention immediately.
As he was breaking down the third door of the floor, he heard the sirens of a fire truck and a couple paramedics. He carried out the little old woman and met up with Tex on the lawn. "We need to leave soon."
"Top floor's evacuated. Dad's got one more apartment on his level," she said as she laid a Hispanic woman down next to three children.
"This building has central air, doesn't it?"
"I think so. It's a newer one."
"I need to find out what the source is. Go through the last apartment for me." With that last order, he went around to the back of the apartment building to find the air conditioner and heater.
The system was housed in a small building a little way off from the apartment complex. The lock had already been smashed, and something was running inside. Batman kicked in the door and was hit by the smell of exhaust. Attached to one of the air conditioning units were three generators. The generators didn't seem to be powering anything, but the exhaust ports were connected into the ducts that led into the apartment complex. Their only purpose was to create carbon monoxide. Batman switched off the generators before severing the pipes with a batarang.
The firefighters and paramedics had arrived by the time Batman returned to Tex and her father. They were too busy treating all of the patients to notice that he was there. "The Mad Hatter was feeding the exhaust from generators into the building," he reported. "Probably to keep the other residents quiet."
"He's never done anything on this scale before. Then again, he's never had to kidnap -" His breath hitched in his throat. "He's never taken someone from an apartment before."
"We're going to find Jenny," Batman assured him. "I promise."
"I know. Jenny won't allow him to kill her." His phone rang, and he checked the caller ID. "It's my team. I have to take this."
When he walked away for a moment, Batman turned his attention to Tex. "You've got another problem."
"I have one problem, and his name is James Carroll," she growled.
"The police are going to ask questions. They'll need to know where you were, and you weren't at work."
Tex removed her helmet and pulled out her braid when the metal strips tucked themselves into her collar. Her face was streaked with tears now. "I went to a movie. It was a midnight premiere. I came home to find people everywhere."
"You'll need a ticket stub."
"I sneaked in." She tugged on her braid as she stared into space. "She said she was being followed. She took pictures. I didn't think it was a big deal because she didn't act like it was. I should have stayed at home."
"Tex, you need to make a decision right now. How are you going to deal with this? Are you going to be Tex? Or are you going to be Jackie?"
She finally looked him straight in the eye and held his gaze for a minute. "I want to be Tex. She gets to beat up bad guys and she gets to hang out with you. But right now, I can't pretend I'm her. I choose Jackie. More people need me to be Jackie right now."
He nodded, accepting her decision. "Then you need to hide your armor. Your family and your private life are about to be exposed to the entire city."
Jackie climbed up the back of the building and into her room. A few minutes later, she reappeared, landing softly in the grass with the help of the grappling cable she had borrowed from Batman. Now she was wearing a pair of jeans, black flats, a green mock turtleneck, and a tan corduroy jacket. She hesitantly handed him a backpack with the armor inside. "Ever since I got it, I have never been more than a few feet away from my armor. Please do not lose it."
"I'll keep it safe."
"Good, because as soon as Jenny's rescued, I'll want it back." Then she turned around and ran back to her father. "Dad, what's going on?" she asked as if she just arrived.
Batman took the backpack under his arm and ran for his Batpod to escape the descending circus. There was work to be done, and Jenny would not wait for anyone.