CHAPTER FIVE

"In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality."


Dread hung in the air as Alex pulled up in front of Commissioner Jonathon Pike's residence. The air was thick with fog, from the torrential downpour that just ensued over the city. Petrichor filled the city, as always.

She anxiously clenches her hands into fists. "C-commissioner Pike? You're kidding-" Alex stammers, sounding like a scared child.

"God damnit I wish I was Flores. You know the address, right?" Gordon's voice wavers slightly, crackling through the phone speaker.

"Yes, I do. Shit, what the fuck..." Shock poured over her.

Alex stepped out of the car, jitters coursing through her. She slammed the door after herself, locking it up. She seemed to be earlier than others, which made her feel a bit better. She didn't also want scrutiny from her colleagues, adding more pressure to the situation.

The moment she steps into the residence, a grim feeling enters her. Down the hall, a light is on, and some murmuring can be heard. She leans slightly to the right and can see a woman in hysterics, clad in a nightgown, holding onto a young girl. An older officer she recognizes has a gentle hand rested on her shoulders in a comforting manner.

As soon as the call dropped Alex fumbled with random stuff sitting on her nightstand and finally grabbed the small device. Nervously, she rode to her feet and admired it for a moment, and hurriedly hit the green button. A beeping sound entered the space of her bedroom. "C'mon.. c'mon..." the first time she uses this thing, she doesn't want it to be a fluke. Fuck. She starts pacing absentmindedly, then finally, a crackling sound, then,

"Hello? Ale-Flores?" Desperation sounded through the device. Phone, it was a phone for fuck sakes.

"It's me. Hi, B-Batman." The name felt weird leaving her lips.

Alex glanced at the spiral staircase and made her ascent upwards. Each step felt more surreal than the last. Up up up. Her feet bring her to the room with the most commotion, though it wasn't that busy just yet. She entered the bedroom, and there were some older detectives, Jim Gordon included, talking quietly among themselves. The older detective had more respect for her, she was glad to see their faces here.

Their faces do drop though, when their eyes land on her face, her neck, marked with purple. Shit. She had forgotten just for a moment, what transpired hours prior. Her mind was focused on the untimely death, or rather, murder, of their newest commissioner.

"Do you know for sure its Commissioner Pike?" He gruffly asks through the speaker.

"I'm just getting ready to go to the scene. Gordon told me. I trust the man." Alex explains.

"I trust him too. Not that I'd like to in this case... 2 commissioners in under 2 years." He sighs.

"I know." She nods along, rummaging around her living space, pulling on clothes, grabbing credentials, etc. "I guess I will see you there."

"I'll be there." Then suddenly, it's dead. She slides the 'phone' into her pants pocket, where she usually had it for safekeeping.

Alex rushes over to where the corpse of Commissioner Pike is laying on his queen sized bed. His white sheets and pillow case are coated in freshly spilled blood. Cheeks sliced open, identical to Samuel Locke.

"Flores..?" Gordon whispers.

She ignores him. "What happened?" He asks flippantly, eyes fixated on her neck. She gives him a 'later' look.

The men share a glance, and stare at her squarely, but decide for her sake to drop it. "Kid was sleeping in bed, and the wife was out with her sister for the evening. When she arrived home..." An older male, Detective Jensen speaks, before motioning a hand towards the scene before them. "Found him here. Nothing was taken or broken."

Alex nods and leans in to examine. She can feel all their eyes on her, but out of concern. So it doesn't bother her as much as it does when it looks of disgust, or something similar. The poor wife. Nobody should have to witness a scene like this.

The cuts look slightly cleaner than last time.

"Guess the guy did it quick before he could make a sound, or did the kid stir?" Alex asked.

"Quick and dirty."

...

The crowd outside of the Pike residence was growing wild. Police lights illuminating the Commissioner's house; a crazy sight to say the least, especially for nosey neighbors or Gotham's crazies running amuck.

Batman made his way over on his motorbike, parking far enough away to stow it. Making his way up onto rooftops, agile enough to not draw attention. He observes the outside, wondering what his best entryway could be. A window perhaps, so he doesn't have to push through the crowd of people, who obviously will lose their minds at the sight of him. He could be passive though. A trait he achieved well over time.

Commotion in the crowd grabs his eye. Two dirty looking men shoving each other, inevitably pushing into those around. A weird mob breaking out into a group fight. To the right, some police officers make their way over for 'crowd control'. If they were doing it right in the first place, these citizens wouldn't be outside of a crime scene. Then, he noticed silver item flashing under the moonlight in a man's hand

Without a thought, Batman swoops downwards, landing harshly on the pavement. The action itself pauses the fight. "Hey, what the hell-" before the grimy man can finish what he's saying, Bat grabs the back of his collar like a stray. A few officers who push their way through come face to face with the vigilante.

"What are you doing here?" Bat's eyes go up to the sky where his signal shines high. The officers and some citizens' eyes follow upwards. Gordon was quick with it. But in reality, he was here because of Detective Flores' call. The signal saved his ass, and hers. For the moment.

"Control the crowd." Batman seethes, shoving the guy towards the officer and marching towards the front through the sea of people. People gasp, point, murmur, but he simply keeps walking. The only thing on his mind was getting inside, and meeting up with Detective Flores. He noticed her car outside.

No, he in fact had not noticed her car the first time they met. He might have been doing some spying, but he was so good she'd never have known. It wasn't an excessive amount, but simply when she'd leave work, he'd perhaps hang around the station. See what she and Gordon were working on some nights. He didn't let it distract him from helping the Gotham Citizens though. He found himself with free time on his hands, only on occasion. Also hearing some chatter and watching body language, he picked up on the fact her male counterparts weren't fond of her. They disgusted him, the stuff he'd hear them say of her.

He bounds up the staircase, noticing the police presence beginning to increase. He wasn't used to getting here earlier than most, compared to usual scenes, it's quiet.

The first thing he notices when he enters the bedroom isn't the corpse, Gordon, the other detectives... but her. In less than a second his eyes land on the purple thumb prints on her neck and a darkening bruise under her eye. She's speaking intently with Gordon and Jensen. When he steps into the room, all eyes turn to him, the masked vigilante himself. He stood, stoic in his dark armor and thick boots. He enters and Gordon meets with him halfway.

Alex is shy of being overwhelmed at this time. The chaos of the evening, the dead commissioner, now him. The Batman. Their first meeting had left her wondering about him.

Who was he under the disguise?

"Mouth's sliced open... similar to that bartender last week. Bit cleaner this time around though, doesn't look like the guy played around with his blood this time. Although, it would have made more of a statement if he had." Gordon begins explaining to Batman, but his eyes are still trained on her. Although he's listening, he drags his eyes away and stares at the Commissioners' body. He approached the body, Gordon following close behind.

The room is filled with multiple different conversations, pertaining to the death of their new commissioner, making it 2 in under a year. Words about how tragic this loss is, what happens next, how's the family, and so on. Crime scene investigators had now arrived, snapping pictures and looking at the room, and the scene themselves. Bat glances down at the body. He caught a quick glance at some crime scene photos from the first murder, and he could already tell this would escalate into more, precise work. Alex makes her way over and stands beside the two men. Batman can sense her presence, and glances down at her.

"The fuck is he doing here?" This catches both Alex's and the Bat's attention. Officer Bradley Smyth looks Batman up and down then looks towards Alex. His eyes widen when he sees her injuries but also, the death stare she's giving him. He repeats his statement, mainly to someone to his right. "What the fuck is he doing here?" An accusatory finger pointed at Batman. Alex's blood boils, but all Bat does is stare at the man. He was a man of few words, sometimes.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Alex asks incredulously. She then begins marching over to him. All eyes are on her, but she ignores it. "Huh? I don't remember asking you to come here." She prods a finger against his chest. "Get the hell off my crime scene, go outside and do crowd control."  The room falls quiet, staring at the two interacting.

The guy scoffs, ego clearly bruised. "What did I do?" His eyes then move to the other bodies in the room. "Why is she here, look at her!" He motions to her purple painted skin. The rest of her complexion turns red with rage and now, embarrassment.

"If you didn't know, Smyth, I'm lead on this case. Now you go outside and control the goddamn crowd." He looks to the other male detectives to come to his defense but unfortunately for him, they stay silent.

"Smyth, listen to her." Gordon calls from a few feet behind. "Go."

The scene rattles the room from the actual task at hand. And when Smyth is gone, it's back to normal, as normal it could be. Chatter resumes. Alex turns around, trying to keep her ragged breathing at bay, and places an insecure hand to her neck. He just had to embarrass her. She couldn't even register if she defended herself well, or made herself look like a fool in front of her colleagues and well, Batman.

She strides over and stands next to him, almost close enough her arm touches his armor. She can feel his intense eyes burning into her. She ignores, and scans the body and the sheets beneath Pike. Something slightly glossy sticks out from underneath the pillow his head is on. Alex reaches into her blazer pocket and pulls out a pair of some plastic gloves. She reaches and grabs what's underneath, or rather placed underneath the pillow. She pulls out a playing card, specifically a joker playing card.

She holds it up, in front of Batman's line of vision. "I suppose he didn't fall asleep with this under his pillow..."

"I suppose not." He replies gruffly. He was appalled at that officer she just had to kick out, for questioning his presence and for pointing out her state. Seeing her in action was something though. He hadn't figured out much about her. She was strong and assertive, which is what this town needed. She wasn't scared; even though she came in here looking like a victim of crime herself.

"A joker.." Detective Jensen hums, a quizzical look on his face.

"Bag that, Flores." He pauses. Gordon replies. "Good find. We should let the crime scene guys finish up, and go complete our reports."  She places the card into a small evidence bag and hands it to one of the crime scene investigators.

"Yeah we should." She nods, then turns to Batman. "Uhm, I'm not sure how welcome you'd be at the station. I mean, you could come to my office..." she trails.

"We can meet after. Just, call." He begins to back away but stays at the doorway. She exchanged a confused look with Gordon. She glanced at Bat over her shoulder. "Can you come with me for a moment?" His voice was quiet, barely she even heard. The question shocked her to the bone. For a moment, she thinks he wants to ask about the scene without a crowd. She nods and follows him.

They descend down the steps. He scopes out the first level, some sad sobbing heard from the kitchen that  grabs Alex's attention. She glanced over towards the kitchen, but she gently pulled to the other direction out a side door by the vigilante.

The rain beats down harshly onto them, she steps as close as she can to the side of the house to avoid getting soaked to the bone. She watches the rain glide down his own armor, not getting through. The only part of him that actually gets wet is the part of his face the cowl doesn't cover. He just stares down at her, she notices he's not a man of many words, or maybe that's just around crowds. This was their second meeting. "Why did you want me to come out here with you?" She can't help but ask.

"Give me a name." He says, words monotone. She hums, wordlessly questioning what he means. "The name of the person who did that to you."

Alex was even more shocked, the night was just throwing one surprise after another at her. She assumed he would walk away and they could conspire later with Gordon. They weren't on any friendly basis. Maybe more like co workers, though he was hated by most of her actual colleagues. "It's fine, I handled it."

"What do you mean by that?" Suspicion laced in his tone. She meets his gaze, which is already on her. The first time they met up, she was slightly intimidated, this time she could tell he was trying to put off a similar stature. She could see through it slightly, and wasn't scared to mess up her words while speaking with him. Maybe since he saw her working. She felt so good telling Officer Smyth off. It gave her a rush.

She taps her hand onto her holstered Glock on her hip.   "I held my ground."

He believed her, but he still wanted to help, or rather, deal with this issue. He can only assume she was at the hands of abuse, which angered him more than he thought it would. She would have had time off if this happened at work. The bruises looked fresh, hours old, they darkened since he first saw her this evening.  "I still want a name." He replies.

"Why?"

He remained silent, something he does best.

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