"Cobblepot, you're late," Maroni said as his lip curled up in a sneer.
"It makes no sense calling me down here. What is the purpose of this meeting? Why meet in the Narrows?" Cobblepot said as he shoved Chi Chi off his seat. He sat down and glared at Maroni.
"We wait for answers, and you waste our time. Enough of your postering," Bobo said.
"I, too, am tired of waiting," said Falcone.
"Cough it up," said Tyler Bramford. "We don't got all day."
"Speak, or I leave," said Freddie.
Maroni didn't speak. He pulled a few pictures out of a file and threw them onto the table. Everyone took a pic and looked at them before they passed them to the others.
"What does this have to do with us?" Charisse Carnes told him.
The pictures displayed different people either tied to or dangling from light posts. They had notes stuck to the front of them. Some stated the person was a thief. Others called them out as drug dealers. A couple showed thugs being abusive to the elderly. There were a handful of domestic abusers. One said the person kicked a sick dog in front of a child. All the notes were signed 'Courtesy, Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.'
"I do not understand. You waste my time on the silly actions of a boy wearing a onesie," Pamela Isley said and shoved some pictures away from her.
"Deal with the freak on your own. You don't need us," Freddie said after agreeing with Pamela Isley.
"This is happening in your territory, Maroni. Why call us in for something so innocuous?" said Jaina Hudson, the White Rabbit.
"You think something like this only affects my territory? You are wrong. It spreads. This freak, as you call him, is getting too confident. Tell us, Bullock. How far does this spread?"
"All over Gotham. He doesn't work alone, either. He also takes orders from the Red Hood. Currently, he's working on a big case with the Commissioner."
"Tell us about this big case, Bullock."
"I couldn't tell you anything."
"You can't, or you won't?"
"It's not my case. I was frozen out. Spider-Man doesn't trust me on account of my dealings with you."
Bullock would never forget that day. He was in the Commissioner's office when Gordon received a call about an off-the-books pedophile case. Gordon told him he was going in alone but told Bullock to check in on him in an hour if he hadn't heard from him. An hour later, Bullock walked into the Holly Street Apartments. A CSI wearing casual clothing ran into him at the stairwell and directed Bullock to the right floor.
Bullock regretted showing up when he did because Constantine appeared out of nowhere. From Bullock's point of view, he did it to scare the living hell out of him. Gordon had to calm everyone down. Bullock put away his gun and grumbled unhappily. Constantine lit a cigarette and waved away a curse he'd begun to cast. Spider-Man dropped down from the ceiling and stopped threatening to mummify Bullock.
Once the dust settled, Spider-Man conjured up—from thin air, Bullock surmised—a file with surveillance photos showing Bullock taking bribes from Maroni. Bullock wasn't worried Gordon had known all about his dealings with Maroni.
Spider-Man didn't care to listen. Instead, he pointed out a photo that showed an underage child being exchanged right under Bullock's nose. Bullock couldn't remember that night or that child. It looked like Bullock saw the entire exchange from the angle the photo was taken and did nothing about it. He didn't have a leg to stand on. Not that Bullock cared what Spider-Man thought of him.
Spider-Man told Gordon he didn't want Bullock anywhere near whatever they were planning. And just like that, Bullock was ousted from that case and any future cases that Spider-Man brought to Gordon.
"But you were there from the start," Maroni said with utmost certainty. "Here," he pointed at the table, "in the narrows with the Commissioner. At the Holly Street Apartments. And you didn't say a word to me about it. What were you doing there?"
"It was a pedophile case. The perp had the bedroom set up as a porno studio. Both the VIC and perp were unknown."
"How did that turn into a big case? Pedophiles are like cockroaches. You get rid of one, and more come out of hiding to find a way to save their skins. Are you telling me they unified?"
"What do I know? According to the DA, there wasn't enough to convict the perp. Unlawful entry. Evidence tampered. And to top it off, the child went missing."
"Just like that."
Bullock shrugged.
"I don't buy it," Chi Chi said with a shake of his head.
"There's more to this. What are you holding back?" Cobblepot asked, sounding annoyed.
"It's like pulling teeth with this bozo," Falcone said to Pamela in a low voice. She didn't reply, but she did turn to look at Bullock in expectation.
"There was a motion to suppress the evidence. The judge ruled in favor of the defendant!" Bullock said defensively. "Since there wasn't any other evidence to prove their case, the prosecution's only choice was to dismiss the entire case. That's it. Case closed!"
"It was the catapult," Maroni said and glared at him. "So tell me what that piece of shit has to do with the case that the Spider and the Commish are collaborating on?"
"Like I said, I'm not in the know. And it's off the books. How did you hear about it?"
"I have eyes everywhere."
Silence punctuated his statement until Bullock grumbled.
Maroni tossed a few more pics on the table. Everyone turned to look at them.
There were more than a handful of photos of Spider-Man talking to the Commissioner in different parts of Gotham. The Commissioner wore jeans and ball caps in every picture. In some, he was beside other people; they all carried backpacks. Those same people were also seen in headshots as paramedics or CSIs, respectively. They were not Gotham natives. A few had the word Metropolis written on the border. Others had a question mark.
A few photos were of a woman walking away hand in hand with a child covered in a poncho. Each picture had a different child. Every picture had the same woman. Written on the border of the headshot was the fact that she was an out-of-state caseworker.
"Where did you get these?"
"I have my ways."
Bullock stared at him with an unreadable expression and dropped the photos.
"Why am I here?"
"To send a message," Maroni said, a sardonic smile on display.
"To who?"
"Spider-Man."
"I don't exactly have his number."
"The Commish does."
"What's the message?"
Maroni took hold of his tie and pulled it up in a noose gesture. He raised his eyebrow. Bullock sighed. Maroni dropped the tie and made a shooing gesture.
"Now, get the fuck out. I'm tired of looking at your fat ugly face."
Bullock grumbled something inaudible and stood up to leave. When he made it to the door, Maroni told him to wait.
"What was his name?"
"Whose?"
"Who was the person who lived in the Holly Street Apartments? The one who walked?"
"How the fuck would I know?!"
"I know you, Bullock. That's not something you forget. Not when there's a child involved. What was his name?"
Bullock ran a hand over his face and looked at Maroni with hate-filled eyes.
"He was a John Doe. Just like the kid. Nothing came up on his fingerprints or facial recognition. He had no paper trail. The username he used in a chat room where he uploaded videos was the only identifiable marker. VichentoBoy."
No one said anything. They all simply looked at the table. Maroni sighed heavily and turned away from Bullock. The detective took that as his cue and walked out.
"What does any of these crimes have to do with my business? Spider-Man catching them is a good thing, no?"
"You only say that because of your boy, Mila. The fewer pedophiles in the city, the safer you think he is. And maybe he is. Or maybe it doesn't make a lick of difference. You keep him heavily protected. As I did with my boys. If anything like that happens to any of our kids," Maroni looked around the room, "whoever the fucker was wouldn't even know what hit him. He'd be nothing. Doesn't mean we want it to happen to other people's children. But family comes first.
"Both of my boys are dead. Falcone's are grown. The rest of you, besides Mila, I don't know if you have kids or not. And frankly, I don't give a shit. But this," he pointed at the photos on the table, "I care about. This brings heat. The type of heat that at the moment doesn't touch us."
"Maybe we're stupid. But from the looks on everyone's faces, no one has a clue what you're talking about. So enlighten us. I'm dying to know how any of this affects my business," Tyler said and tossed a few photos toward Maroni.
"When was the last time the FBI came knocking at your door?"
Tyler furrowed his brow. He looked at the others. Everyone shook their heads.
"That's right, the answer is never. They don't come here. The mayor and the senator keep them at bay. We make them a lot of money. We also make them look good by doing most of the policing for them."
"And how does keeping pedophiles off the street and saving these kids put an end to that?" Freddie asked.
"You heard what Bullock said. They have to look up the identities of these sickos and the kids, as well. They start with the Gotham Police database. When they don't get a hit, they widen their search nationally.
"That type of search goes through the FBI database. And if they keep searching for missing kids," he pointed at one of the kids being led hand in hand by a caseworker, "in a national database, the FBI is going to get curious. They will send someone here even if they don't have permission because they don't need it. Gotham is their jurisdiction if they say it is. And if they're nosing around here, who do you think they'll look into next?"
"Us," Cobblepot said with a sneer.
"Damn straight, us."
"How do we prevent that?" Falcone said and leaned forward.
"It's not the GCPD or the Commissioner that find these lowlifes. It's the Spider. He doesn't need a warrant or probable cause. He goes wherever he wants. For all we know, he sets up these idiots for the fall.
"We take him out. The police go back to finding these sickos the old fashion way. And the FBI doesn't have any reason to fuck up our business."
"You called in the Black Spider," Charisse said.
Maroni nodded. But there was more he was keeping to himself. The meeting had been set up to trap the Spider. He came to the meeting with the others in a truck supplied by a third party interested in ridding Gotham of the Spider. He knew the truck would draw the wall crawler in. He was hoping the Black Spider would invite him into a brawl. One that would get the attention of others in the wings, waiting to pounce. He had another trick up his sleeve. One he set into motion as soon as the meeting started. He smiled to himself. The Spider had no idea what was coming to him.
"He might be a mercenary. But he's no match for Spider-Man," Jaina said, remembering how Spider-Man took out the Joker.
She wasn't the only one who was considering that the Spider would not be easy to contend with. Falcone looked over at the others and let out a sigh. If they couldn't rid Gotham of a bat—not for the lack of trying—getting rid of a spider would be that more difficult. Did Maroni really want to start up a war? Here and now? It wasn't going to end well.
Falcone sent a message to his driver with a quick text under the table. He wasn't the only one to do so. Everyone present knew the meeting would be coming to an end sooner rather than later. And the last thing any of them wanted was to be caught in the crosshairs of a fight between a mercenary and Gotham's newest superhuman hero.
"You got that right!"
Everyone flinched and looked up at the voice. They all backed away from the table just as a webbed-up Black Spider landed on it with a loud thud.
