Jack Frost Nipping at the Nose

Selina had no idea what to feel about this.

Last night was a huge disaster, there was no mistaking that. A good chunk of the men that had split off to join this upstart Scarface and her men who defended Calabrese turf were currently either in a holding cell or a hospital bed courtesy of everybody's favorite vigilante, a number of fronts and businesses were damaged or destroyed, and the following investigation into all of it was only going to hemorrhage more and more money.

There was a masterstroke here, but it wasn't done by her. You could say that Scarface came out ahead because he had only lost that which he had only recently gained. Any of the resources he had started out with, theoretically, he still had. You could argue Batman came out ahead as he had been utterly vicious with his takedown of the situation and his fan club helping out. Meanwhile, everything Calabrese was hurting and hurting bad. They had lost more, and already you could hear the whispers.

You would have thought after everything, these assholes would know where the cash cow was, but no, apparently stupidity never took a break. Inside, she was seething. When everything had been going so well, everything consolidated, and now this had to happen. Why did people have to be so stupid? On the cusp of having everything and it still wasn't enough.

You could lead a horse to water, but you couldn't make it drink. Truer words had never been spoken.

It would take some time to figure out the full extent of the damage, and it would take even more time getting the names of every single traitor that had chosen to go Benedict Arnold on her. Ol' Daddy Rex would be insistent that all of them face the consequences for such a poor decision. Until then, Selina retired and tried to get a fraction of the recommended forty winks. Morning is when she would deal with the fallout.

But sleep would not come easily for her, not as it did for Isis. Thinking about how everything was threatened and could collapse like a house of cards. Any sign of weakness would be pounced upon. There could be no room for error here. If any shark smelled blood in the water, then a true feeding frenzy would start.

Morning was unwelcomed. Daylight was not seen as a gentle friend urging her out from under the sheets. No, today it was a harbinger that things would only get worse from here.

If she could sleep through this day, she would, but as the kingpin of crime in this city, Selina needed to attend to her responsibilities now. Groggy, grumpily, and disgruntled, her day would start out under the nozzle of a shower, hot water washing away any signs of weakness.

Getting dressed followed, a few encouraging pets for Isis, and then she was leaving her bedroom with a plan to get her hands on some coffee first. It wouldn't be long until Chris made his presence known and update her on how everything was being handled. A meeting with the remaining family heads was going to be happening today, but thoughts of that could wait until after her infusion of caffeine for the morning.

If there was one activity that the nighttime cat burglar still did for herself, it was brewing a nice cup of Joe. She knew what flavors she preferred, which brands, and how much creamer was needed. No one was going to take this from her.

Well, maybe the pleasure of doing it this morning might end up as a casualty.

There was some mail waiting on the penthouse kitchen counter. Bills, junk mail, another aspect of her previous life that hadn't changed at all. Normally, she would throw it all away and get back to more important things, however, it was with the mail that the joy of getting her morning coffee just right became the previously mentioned casualty.

Was it fate? Something else that liked jerking her chain? Whatever it was, it had a sick twist of humor. At the very top of a small stack of mail was one in particular, one that had an address she knew by heart, and a name she loathed more than anything.

It was broader than most letters, and opening it up revealed that it was an invitation. As if not enough salt was being rubbed into her wounds, but right here was the reason for going through all this. Max was so up his own ass, that was the only reason he would name a masquerade party after himself.

She knew of it. It was one of the end of year highlights for the wealthy and privileged. A gross occasion for opulence and decadence, and all about feeding the ego of Max, Max, Max, Maximillian fucking Shreck.

Now she couldn't even enjoy her coffee.

Her name was on it. She was being invited to a soiree she wouldn't attend, even if it was a life or death choice. This was like another insult to injury, and she wanted nothing more than to rip the damn invitation up and throw it away into the garbage where it belonged.

Yet…she didn't.

The pads of fingers were digging into the invite, distorting it slightly, but there was no ripping or tearing. This right here was the reason Selina was doing any of this. Running a mob family, organizing criminals, and empowering an illegal enterprise with a utility contract were not things a cat burglar did. Breaking and entering, stealing, taking anything she wanted, that's what she did.

All of that was starting to come apart now. Going out of her comfort zone had brought the dark-haired kingpin to this point. In her hand was the very reason for it. If a crumbling mob empire could not help her with getting what she wanted, then maybe going back to basics and taking what she wanted was what she needed to do.

Taking Max's legacy was an ordeal. What about ruining his big party? No, not good enough. There was no way that would ever be good enough. Lola deserved so much better.

Perhaps she should go further back and take a page from Hammurabi.

A life for a life.

As expected, Chip Shreck had gone to his father following his encounter with Batman. The bug beneath his shirt collar had heard their entire conversation.

What Bruce had heard from that conversation, he didn't like. In fact, he was completely distracted by it. Sitting in his chair at Wayne Enterprises, he had given up what he was supposed to be working on and was staring out of a window. He didn't really see the city's skyline, his eyes glazed over in thought.

He knew for certain that Max Shreck was connected to Scarface now. Money was switching hands, so all he needed to do was find the transactions that would link them. That wouldn't be too difficult.

It was the ease in which Shreck had spoken about having another person killed. He may not have said those exact words, but that was his intent. It was quite clear he had no problem having people removed should they get in his way. Selina was definitely in his way.

His thoughts were interrupted with a knock at the door and it subsequently opening. "Good morning, Bruce," Lucius greeted him as he entered the office.

"Morning, Lucius," the billionaire returned distractedly. He didn't need to be facing the man to know he caught the younger one's tone.

"I heard you had a busy night," Lucius said as he drew closer, eventually taking a seat in one of the empty chairs.

"It was moderately busy." Bruce slowly turned his chair so that he could face his friend. "Fruitful too."

"You don't look as if that is a good thing," Lucius observed.

The younger man nodded. "I placed a bug on Chip Shreck before all that unpleasantness broke out. I figured he'd run to Max and he did."

"What did they talk about?"

"Max is definitely connected to Scarface. He also talked about putting a hit on Selina Kyle."

A shocked, disturbed look appeared on the dark-skinned man's face. "You can't be serious."

"Unfortunately, I am. We've both heard of shady things surrounding Max, but I have it on record that he isn't above removing obstacles by any means necessary."

Slowly, the older man nodded his agreement. "So why hasn't Batman gone to visit him?"

Bruce shook his head. "Max isn't the man to take such attention lightly. In that light, he's very much like Lex Luthor. They're both unflappable in the face of pressure. I was able to catch Luthor off guard every so often, but Max isn't like that. We've both seen him spin a business negotiation into his favor; he could do the same in an interrogation, I'm certain. I could have him dead to rights, and he'd still slip out of it."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "That hasn't stopped you from confronting someone before, Bruce."

The dark-haired man shrugged his shoulders. "I don't feel like I have enough to make Max crack. And I certainly don't want to put myself into a position like I did with Luthor."

"Max isn't like Lex," the older man gently reminded him. "He doesn't try to kill Superman at every given chance. Max is just a businessman with the instincts of a shark. If what you've told me is true, he isn't above having people killed, but those people aren't Batman. If there was ever someone that could face him down, it's him."

Those were good points, but Bruce had dealt with Shreck before. The Computron talks weren't that long ago that he had forgotten them. No, if he was going to move against Shreck, it was when he was going to arrest him. Max could display all of his slippery methods in the court system then.

Lucius watched him mull his thoughts over for several moments. "There is another option," he suggested.

"And what option is that?"

"Max's Max-querade party. If you don't feel like Batman can get something out of Max, maybe Bruce Wayne can."

It was Bruce's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What makes you think Bruce Wayne can do something that Batman can't?"

"If there's one thing about your public persona, it's that people don't think highly of you," Lucius replied. "That's led to many of them to underestimate you, even ones that have seen how ruthless you can be in person. Right now, you see Max as a high-stakes poker player, one that you can't get a read on as your alter ego. But even the best poker players have a tell. He may be more inclined to show this tell to someone he views as a lesser player."

That was a good point too. Bruce considered this as well. "Then I guess it's a good thing I haven't torn up my RSVP yet," he mused.

"A good thing indeed," Lucius agreed. There was a moment's pause before he then said, "There is another matter I need to discuss with you."

"And what matter is that?"

"It seems your daughter has been industrious as of late."

Cassandra? "And what has she been up to?"

Lucius pulled out a flash drive from his pocket and set it down on the desk between them. "It seems Rob Swanson has been in the business of embezzlement for some time now. Cassandra found quite a bit of damning evidence on him."

That caused Bruce to blink his eyes. "Did she now?" He leaned forward in his chair so that he could reach out and pick up the flash drive. "She hadn't told me."

"She decided to approach me with the relevant files," Lucius explained. "I had our private auditors look into it, and they found the discrepancies."

Bruce was holding the flash drive up in front of his face by then, a small smile on his face as he eyed the device. "Good girl," he murmured.

That caused Lucius to narrow his eyes slightly. "You don't sound surprised by this."

The younger man lowered the flash drive and set it on his desk. "When I got out of Blackgate, I had quite a bit of paperwork on my desk, as you well know. It was as I was going through it that I noticed something was off with Swanson's department. When Susan came back from maternity leave, I felt it was something I could have Cassandra look into."

"I see. And Cassandra knew about this?"

"Nope."

Lucius stared at him before he chuckled. "That explains why she came to me instead of you. So you just dropped her in on the situation and hoped she'd figure it out."

"Pretty much. It worked out, didn't it?"

"Any reason for this?"

Bruce leaned back into his chair. "I wanted to see what she would do if placed in that situation. She took a little longer than I thought she would, but she passed with flying colors. That she didn't hesitate to inform you what she found when she had something definitive speaks to her integrity."

"Integrity you installed in her," the older man pointed out.

"There are a lot of other forces in this world that can make holding one's principles difficult. Peer pressure, the power imbalance between employer and employee, so on and so forth. Though Cassandra does have me as a back-up should she need reinforcements, there will be times where she'll be all on her own and she needs to figure out how to handle such situations."

"I suppose I see what you're getting at. How do you intend on rewarding her for her work?"

"Finding her another position, perhaps with a more capable superior."

"That's not much of a reward, Bruce."

"And not everyone receives what they deserve, unfortunately." Bruce paused. "Though, I do have an opening I'm eyeing for her."

"And what opening is that?"

"Stephan has been sending out job applications to Metropolis. I've been a reference for him in that regard. I'm going to be needing a new assistant when he leaves."

A smirk appeared on Lucius' face. "And you intend on moving Cassandra into his position."

Bruce shrugged his shoulders. "What's the point of nepotism if you can't use it?"

The morning after was mundane in comparison. Whenever something big went down, the small fries would keep their heads down for a while, wait out the shark in their midst, then get back to it. This meant paperwork could be caught up on, or in this case finishing the paperwork from the previous night.

There was a time when Sawyer was filling out these forms and turning them in where they needed to go. Anything above that was for the brass with the commissioner handling the political fallout. Now it was her turn in the hotseat.

The holidays were an unusual time for law enforcement. There was an increase in vigilance on top of an atmosphere of relaxation. The crime rate in December was similar to the other eleven months, but how it was perceived changed because of the upcoming holidays. So a sudden spike in violence, the murders of political officials, and a public crying about how this wasn't how the Christmas season was suppose to be like was different.

Right now, all attention was on this newcomer, this Scarface. Undercovers were struggling to find anything. It didn't matter if it involved the Calabrese crime family that had gone under the radar or those members who had jumped ship to the new game in town, getting someone in had accomplished nothing. Hell, no one had managed to get in yet.

They would be operating blind. Reacting when they needed to be proactive. This department was so much different from Metropolis where it legitimately was law enforcement handling the situation and backing off when a threat beyond them arrived, calling for a certain Blue Angel to handle it. There was no Superman here for this, and somehow it felt beneath him.

Just like the paperwork that was piling on top of her desk with a promise for a truckload to follow. There was so much to sign off on, others to reject, and then leading the department. Some of the paperwork here was her own doing, that to form a task force to hunt Scarface down.

Since everything was chaotic in terms of bureaucracy, there had to be one more thing placed on her plate. Detective Crispin Allen was intruding today, and one look at his face told the commissioner that he had found something.

Hopefully it was good news.

"Anything I can help you with, Allen?" An invitation for him to unload and tell her what he had sniffed out without him needed to find the words to do it himself.

"A possible lead," Allen told her as he approached her desk. Curiously, he had closed the door to her office behind him. He wanted some privacy for this.

Sitting back into her chair, Sawyer gestured to one of the other chairs for Allen to sit in. "Shoot."

"It's about the murdered Councilmembers," Allen began after he had taken his seat. His legs remained spread, not crossed, meaning that he didn't intend to stay here long. "I've been looking into them, looking for anything that might connect these three."

Sawyer raised an eyebrow. "You believe it was more than opportunity?"

"Part of the investigation was also looking into why the other four weren't targeted," Allen replied. That was an unintentional reminder of another case that Allen had been on. When it came to crime scene and criminal investigation, you did not only just look for evidence that proved you had the right man, you also looked for evidence that contradicted your suspicions. Let it not be said that the GCPD learned nothing from the Bruce Wayne fiasco. "I found that there were plenty of opportunities for the surviving Councilmembers to also be abducted, yet they weren't."

"Hardly a smoking gun," the commissioner remarked.

Another rule of investigating was that you didn't seek out one kind of evidence. You would always find it, even if it didn't fit with the investigation.

"Goldstein went missing because of his daily jog. There's ample opportunity to snatch him and give yourself time before anyone calls him in as missing. Urban was heading to the ladies' room when she was taken. Head was taking out the trash. Too short windows to be abducted. No, they were deliberately targeted."

She pondered over Allen's words. The man was confident in his work, no doubt. His conclusion was plausible, but that did not mean it was the truth. Small windows of opportunity were not exactly a slam dunk; they tended to go against you more than they helped you.

"What else do you have?"

You could say she was entertaining this, but she wanted more ammo to try and poke some holes into it. The harder it was to poke holes, the stronger the case was.

Allen extended a small stack of papers. Ah, more to add to her desk's collection. "With politicians, money is usually a good starting point."

"Bribery?" Sawyer asked pointedly.

"Donations," Allen corrected.

Campaign donations. A murky area at best, wonder why. Skimming over the information on the first few pages, Sawyer decided to have her guide point out what she needed to see.

"I looked for big numbers, the most is what is legally allowed. I turned to the dark money next. More than one person was going over the legal limit for donations, but that loophole allows for bigger leeway," Allen explained. "I checked as many as I could, from PACS, Super PACS, you name it. One name kept coming up the more I looked into the details. Maximilian Shreck."

Sawyer peered back at Allen. There was a feeling of Deja vu here. "Anything else?"

"When I figured out who and what could be traced to him, I added it all up and compared to the other Councilmembers. For the ones still living, there was about one hundred thousand donated to their election or reelection campaigns each. Skirting some rules, but no one would punish him or them for that. For Head, Urban, and Holdstein? We're looking close to five million each."

That was an attention getter. Through various sources, Shreck had funneled up to fifteen million to get these three individuals on the City Council. Still…

"Is this overall or one election cycle?"

"It was the last election. I also went into their previous campaigns. The amount was lower for those, taking inflation into account. Shreck spent more on these three in the last election cycle than in the previous eight years prior to that election. That's also taking into account the tendency of the wealthy to put their fingers into as many pies as possible. Politicians are more likely to listen to you if you put in any amount into their campaigns, even after the fact. He increased his spending by nearly a thousand percent."

It sounded damning, but there was one problem.

"But it was this Scarface that committed the deed," she pointed out. "Unless Shreck is somehow involved with Scarface, and you haven't put forth any information that would connect those two. For all intents and purposes, this is a red herring. A billionaire taking advantage of a corrupt system isn't exactly new and difficult to prosecute."

They needed to learn from the last time with a high profile individual. That time they had gotten it wrong. Shreck was also nothing like Wayne; Wayne was still keeping them at arm's length, but there were still donations though they were smaller than before. Shreck was a different kind of billionaire, and if his reputation meant anything, the man could hold a grudge. Like most, he tried to portray himself as a man of the people, empathetic to others' needs.

You spend enough time in a city with Lex Luthor, you learn how to read between the lines. Like the Metropolis billionaire, Shreck valued PR more than actually giving back. It was about showmanship, being the center of attention, all of it a distraction and a potential defense if any wrongdoing came to the surface.

"There is one last thing," Allen said, "and I had to call in a few favors for this, but there has been a lot of money moving around Shreck, and it all started about two weeks ago. This isn't money invested in the corporate empire, this is personal money. Countless transfers to different accounts, but the totals are always less by the end of the day. It averages nearly a million a day going missing."

Interesting. That Allen was able to find this all out in less than forty-eight hours was all the more impressive. It was indeed fishy that a large amount of personal wealth was disappearing, but that did not connect him to Scarface. They needed something harder, such as where that money was going and if it did reach Scarface, then how.

"Do you have anything else?" Allen was a smart man, and a good detective. He followed the evidence, even if that evidence was planted. If he could learn how to take a step back from a case, he would be an incredible investigator. For whatever reason, he always took each of his cases personally. It gave him passion, but that passion could be manipulated.

"One of the favors I called in, and now owe a favor in return, got me some useful information about Charles Shreck. I've gotten my hands on a photo that has Max's baby boy in the company of career criminals. Specially, these are names that have been getting traction lately—according to Bullock—and those occurred around the same time as the two bombings earlier this month." Allen was looking her dead in the eyes. "I have that evidence if you want to see it. Right now, there does not seem to be anything that connects Mugsy Callahan to Scarface, but Bullock thinks there might be something there."

If Bullock…the man might look like a slob, but she had learned to trust the lieutenant's instincts. It sounded like multiple investigations were coming together by accident here, and the picture they were painting…

"I want to see it all then. Everything you have," Sawyer stated. "If the evidence is suggesting that Max Shreck is involved with the kidnapping and murder of Councilmen Head, Goldstein, and Urban, then we need to tread very carefully and have all our ducks in a row. No missteps like with Wayne. The case needs to be solid, iron tight. Otherwise it'll be another fiasco, and I'm sure that's something we both don't want happening. When you have it all, bring it here and I'll make the call."

Allen nodded and pushed himself out of his seat. The detective left as quickly as he had come in, but the commissioner was not done thinking about his proposed case.

Missing money, murdered politicians, bombings, and a burgeoning mob war, and all at her doorstep during the most wonderful time of the year. How was any of this going to be solved? The chaos stopped? How much worse was it going to be?

If Shreck was indeed involved, they needed rock hard evidence. They needed a lead, a thread to untangle the mess. There was the tried and true method of investigation, but was there any other way to get more? Whether it was to prove Shreck's guilt or innocence, was there a way to find out more?

Hmm. Wasn't there a party? One that Shreck was hosting in the next few days? Because she was a high ranking official in the city government, naturally there were invitations to many social functions that made their way to her. Had she been invited to this party as well?

If so, maybe she could get close enough to Shreck to find out whether there was more or if Allen's hunch here needed to be buried.

He had wanted nothing more than to pick up Scarface's trail, find where Mugsy, Rhino, and their third friend frequented and follow them back to the dummy's new base of operations.

Batman had decided that was much too dangerous, pass on any and all information he could to the GCPD, and allow his old friend to handle this. In the meantime, there was another person that he wanted him to look into.

Reluctantly, Gordon had agreed. He didn't like it, but after the close call at the abandoned store and the night of violence that followed, caution was the better part of valor. Smart as that ventriloquist was, he was bound to make a mistake. They always did. It was a matter of time and patience. Their chance to bring him down would come, though how many bodies had to happen first remained to be seen.

To Bullock he passed along his findings. His former right hand would figure out where it needed to go. Hell, Harvey would prefer it came from him than a certain vigilante. There had been a remark that Allen would be interested in some of it, especially the photo with Chip Shreck.

Unfortunately, despite trailing the goons to their boss, Gordon hadn't obtained hard evidence between the crooks and their leader. That would make it harder to make any case against the Shrecks. Still, they were officers of the Gotham City Police Department, and when things got rough, they got to work.

Which brings Gordon to his new target. A woman who went by either the name Selina Kyle or Selina Calabrese. Regardless, this was the person who now led the Calabreses. Where had she come from? What were her goals? Dig up her past and you might find some answers.

Old contacts were mum about it. This meant that this Selina character had managed to get a stranglehold on organized crime and the career criminals had followed suit. It was a time old tactic of a new mob boss, only today there were fewer of those than ever before. Back in the days of Falcone, there would have been retaliation and several bloodbaths, all to reassert the Roman's control of the city.

None now had that position anymore, and the closest was this Selina woman. How she had managed to do so so quietly was a minor miracle. Hell, it had been a stroke of luck that he had even caught wind of the old crime family's return and that had been in the twilight of his tenure as commissioner.

So where to go after this? Records, naturally. The kind that were kept on anyone arrested. No one reached the position as the head of a mob family without one. Gordon had at least two names to check.

Calling in a favor, he was "allowed" to access the department's archives. Had a short window of time here because he wasn't suppose to be in an area of the building without a certain kind of identification, that being the badge. What was the point of having been commissioner if you couldn't take advantage of some of the prestige that followed you?

First and foremost, he came to an initial dead end as there were no Selina Kyles or Selina Calabreses in the system. Odd that, but it meant digging a bit deeper. Eventually, he found a name that did correspond with Selina Kyle, but it was sealed on the basis that it was a juvenile record. The only way for a layperson like him to get access to it would be if he were officially investigating it.

Initially, it seemed like a problem, but a quick call to Bullock had him obtaining it. That came at the cost of lunch.

Selina Kyle, worst she had ever done were some thefts and shoplifting. Nothing that indicated a budding criminal mastermind. Any and all charges involving the juvenile system stopped at age seventeen. At eighteen she would have been an adult, and any further crimes like that would have had an adult file on her. There hadn't been, so unless she had skipped town or turned over a new leaf…

The former, the latter was too unbelievable. Odds were she got better at hiding the crimes. Still, nothing to go on unless…right, parents. They might be able to get him somewhere.

No longer at the GCPD, favors already spent, he tried an internet search instead. Barbara was better at this kind of thing than he was; maybe he ought to see what she could do? No, she was busy with her budding career, he could not distract her from that.

So the Kyles. There were quite a few families in the city that had that last name, and he was going to have to meet up with all seventeen of them. One of them had to know Selina, or at least know of one person with that name.

It was a lead, and leads needed to be looked into, expanded, and where they took you could either be closer to the truth, or the wrong direction entirely. He trusted his old friend, and if he was sure that the name was Kyle, then he would seek out all he could find.

The Calabreses weren't about to talk any time soon. Why would they? Maybe when he found the right Kyles, they would be able to shed more light.