2017.01.26 - Cold Case Part 4
This log is part of the Cold Case Plot.
Winter in the suburbs - foggy, with more mist rolling in from the estuary, hiding the nicely-painted row-homes near the edge of Otisburg - high-end townhouses often called the Gotham Painted Ladies because of their Victorian architecture and resemblance to the famous San Francisco houses.
Vivian Harris lives on a corner in the last of these homes - a luxury car sits in her driveway, dusted with snow, and the lights are on downstairs.
Robin-2 approaches the house and first checks the perimeter to make sure he knows what he's getting into. He looks for armed thugs (out of mostly habit), alarm systems, and anything else that might prove a nasty surprise. Once he's sure that he's not walking into an obvious trap, then he heads for the nearest entrance other than the front door, preferably a balcony or something, and goes to gently rap on the glass.
The alarm is your standard sort of door-force and window-break sort of thing, plainly visible from the small sign in her yard that she does, in fact, possess such a thing. On the first floor balcony overlooking the steeply-canted side-street that forms the other part of the corner, there is a chair and a few hanging plants. Moment after the rap, the curtain move as Vivian peeks out and is startled to see the masked youth there. Recognizing the costume, though, she opens the glass door. "Boy Wonder? Um, what is this about?" she says.
Vivian is a woman in her late twenties, currently dressed in a man's shirt with the top three buttons undone, pajama bottoms, and slippers. She shivers a little in the wind that whips in.
"Sorry to bother you, ma'am," Robin-2 says, "but I was hoping you could answer a couple of questions about Mr. Arnold Taylor. I believe you knew him?" He reaches into a belt compartment, producing a small photo of the man, printed off of the Batcomputer before he left the Cave.
Vivian's face goes stony at the mention of Taylor's name. "Come in. You have to be freezing in that costume," she says as she moves to the kitchenette. "Do you want anything to drink? Tea? Soda?" she says. She rummages, clearly stalling and uncomfortable. "The police told me he was dead, but nothing beyond that. The fact that you're involved, though.. he wasn't some sort of secret super-criminal, was he?"
Giving a grateful nod, Jason steps into the room. At the offer of a drink, he says, "No thank you, ma'am. I'm sorry to bother you with such an unpleasant topic, but we're concerned that Mr. Taylor was involved in some dangerous things--things that could hurt other people, too. It looked like his life was pretty normal up until the end, except for his break-up with you. We were wondering if you could shed any light on his... situation."
Robin sighs as she sets a tea-kettle on the stove and waits for it to boil, then picks some teabags out of an extensive collection in her pantry. She leans on the kitchenette bar and looks at the masked youth. "I told the police that it had been over between us for some time - out of the blue he broke up with me, and never did explain why." She looks away, then back to the youth. "Five years we were together and he.." She sighs. "He was different, after his diagnosis, but then.. he found something.."
Nodding, Robin-2 says, "That 'something' is what we're investigating. We have reason to believe it was dangerous, and we need to track down where he got his treatments. Otherwise, more people could get hurt." His manner is as sympathetic as he knows how to make it, but he stays "in character" and doesn't betray too much, either, and avoids needless movement. He even lets his cape settle around him, much like Batman sometimes does. "Anything you can tell us might be really helpful."
She's quiet for several seconds, then turns as the teakettle begins to whistle, and she pours the steaming water over the bag in her mug. "Plenty more, in case you change your mind," she says. "He was rich, I'm sure you know that. Very rich. He took the diagnosis like a personal insult, and he ... he went a little crazy. He flew all over the world looking for doctors. Then.. then there were no more doctors, so he started talking to other people. I tried to tell him that they just wanted his money, but nothing I said meant much by then."
She takes her mug in both hands and walks over to the media area, where she sits on the couch and pulls out a notebook from under the coffee table. "I only thought of this after I talked to the police, so maybe this will help. I kept a record of all the people he talked to - I handled most of his correspondence with them," she says, offering the book to Robin. She looks over the lean youth, obviously trying to memorize him. After all, it's not every day a celebrity walks into your home.
Robin follows Vivian over to the couch, and when she offers the notebook he reaches out to take it. "So, he may have gotten his 'treatment' from one of these people?" He opens the book, flipping through it, and asks, "Do you mind if I take this with me? I can see that it's returned to you once we've had a chance to examine it." Her story does make him feel for her, but he does his best to remain professional. Her attention does make him feel a bit odd, since celebrity isn't exactly something he's used to, but he tries not to let it show.
"You're sweet," Vivian says. "If you can find out /why/, though, /why/ he left, that.. that would be good." She sighs. "He returned from a business trip to Metropolis, and after that he was.. distant. Pre-occupied. And cured, he said. He did say that. I was so happy - I thought we could move on, then, but... then he said he had to break up with me. And that's all he said."
Jason nods, filing all that away. "I see. Is there anything else you can tell me?" To himself, he reflects that they really need to find the person responsible for this. Sure, maybe Arnold Taylor was a bit of a tool, but the guy's unfortunate end affected more people than just him. They really have to put a stop to it.
"There were others," she says after a second. "At least five or six - he said they were 'an exclusive club'. I knew a couple of them - Patricia Fields, CEO of the Fields Trust, and Leonard Combs, the actor."
Combs, at least, has withdrawn from public life following an almost-fatal car accident last year. Rumors of botched surgery were never confirmed.
Making careful note of these names, Robin-2 says, "Thank you, Ms. Harris. I really appreciate all your help. If you think of anything else, you can get a message to us through the GCPD hotline." He turns to go, then pauses and looks back to her. "We'll find out what happened, ma'am. We'll stop the ones responsible." And then he's headed back out into the night, taking his grapple gun in hand to swing away through the city.
Vivian stands at the window, watching the boy swing away, then turns back to finish her tea.
BACK IN THE BATCAVE....
Robin is sitting at the bat-computer, various tech diagrams on it - out near the garage bay, parts of the Robin-cycle lay here and there.
Jason's cycle comes speeding in, pulling smoothly to a stop in the garage area, and once he's put it up he makes his way to the computer station. Taking the notebook (which he'd carefully examined and scanned for possible tracking devices or such, just in case) from where he'd tucked it away, he lays it down on the workstation. "Those are the people that Taylor was associating with, and whatever happened to him, he wasn't alone. He claimed to be part of an 'exclusive club,' and Ms. Harris knew some of the names of others involved: Patricia Fields of Fields Trust, and Leonard Combs, the actor who had that nasty car wreck last year. There are three or four others she didn't know."
Robin smiles when he sees his brother, but grows serious when he hears this news. He taps at the computer for a few seconds. "Combs' accident was well-known, but his whereabouts afterwards are unclear. There have been a few reports in social media of people seeing him, but nothing corroborated," the masked teen says, bringing up Fields data. "Business chatter is that she's been noticeably absent from the past two major board meetings, reporting in via web-cam," he says, hmmming.
Nodding, Jason says, "I figure we'll have to follow up. Might be something based out of Metropolis, too, since he went there just before he changed." He stretches a bit and says, "Damn, it's cold out there tonight. I almost wore those sheer thermal hose that Alfred keeps recommending, but they just seem too... girly." He pulls up a chair, then, and grabs a terminal so he can start scanning in the information from Harris' notebook. "Any luck on your end?"
Robin pats his brother's bare thigh. "Hey, you have better legs," he grins. He shakes his head, then. "So far, nothing; Batman wants to go check out Arkham again - something Fries said, perhaps," he says, rolling his shoulders a little. "Place gives me the creeps, man," he says with a slight smile.
Jason laughs a little and flexes his thigh when Dick pats it. "Well, you're way more graceful than I am, and I'm pretty sure you've got better core strength. Legs are like the only thing I can do to keep up." He finishes scanning the materials so Batman can look them over later, then swivels his chair to face the original Robin. "Ugh, talk about chills," he says, shaking his head. "No fun."
Robin shakes his head, commiserating. he stands up and runs gloved fingers though his hair. "If I stare at this one more minute, I'm going to go nuts," he says. "And to top it off, my cycle is acting up. You wanna go out and swing around downtown in the freezing wind for a couple hours?"
Laughing some, Jason says, "As long as there's hot soup and a hotter tub waiting when we get back, I can do that. We can ride into town on my bike, if that's cool?" He hops up, too, and cheerfully plants a swat on the seat of Dick's little green trunks, so like the red pair he has on. "Last one there has to ride on back!" And he's dashing away toward the motorpool.
Robin does a vault over the railing and a somersault drop straight down into the motorpool, then sprints for Jason't cycle. "You're on!" he says, laughing.
Jason, who hadn't anticipated Dick's acrobatic move, tries to make up for it with a leap of his own, and impressive though it is, he comes up just short. Snorting a little, he says, "Shows what I get for challenging /you/ to a test of agility." He gestures to the bike and says, "Fine! You get to drive!" But he's grinning, and clearly he doesn't mind so much.
Robin hops on to the bike and clicks it to life, then waits for Jason to climb on behind him. Once the other hero is settled, he zooms out of the tunnel and into Gotham proper, dodging through the traffic, hurtling under a couple of trucks, and finally winding up near the downtown Diamond District, Gotham's 'Golden Mile' where the richest stores and largest firms have their offices and headquarters.
Jason scoots close and hangs on, not actually minding being a passenger since Dick is just as good at maneuvering the 'cycles as he is. It's a wild, chilly ride as they head into Gotham, and as they reach the "Golden Mile," the second Robin finds himself mentally going over all the usual considerations for this neighborhood, as well as the recent reports he'd checked. Far from the worst part of Gotham, you still never know when the higher-priced sort of criminal will be up to no good.
Robin stashes the cycle and activates it's lockdown mode, then fires off his grapple gun to reach the heights of the buildings around them - he goes flying up as the gun reels him up, then fires again to get to the rooftop levels. Up there, the wind is something fierce, and he wraps his cape around his shoulders.
Robin-2 arrives a moment later, stamping his booted feet a couple of times as the touch down, then definitely drawing his cape close around him. "Yep," he mutters, "already wishing I'd worn the girly pantyhose. It's colder than Freeze's balls out here!"
Robin laughs. "Hey, not as bad as being caught by his freeze gun," the Teen Wonder laughs. He opens his arms and lets his cape fly back, taking a deep breath of the freezing winter air. "Wow, I needed this. Clears your head.." he says, barely heard above the wind.
Below, the fog and mist rolls in off the harbor, covering the lower floors in a soft mist of grey.
Drawing a deep breath in slowly through his nose, Robin-2 also unfurls his cape and stands there, braced against the wind, taking in the sight. Raising his voice a little so as to be heard, he says, "Well, it's bracing--and a hell of a view. That's for sure."
Robin walks over after a bit and puts his arm around his brother's shoulders and shares his cape. "It is," he says, standing there and looking over the city from this vantage point. Faintly, faintly, comes the sound of multiple sirens below, coming closer. "Sounds like it's time to go to work, bro," he says, ruffling Jason's hair. He knows his bro needs some extra attention and closeness, what with the weirdness with Bruce, and he's totally happy to be there to provide it.
Grinning a bit, the second Robin says, "Lead on, bro." He appreciates the affection and support, especially since things have been weird with Bruce, and he just as readily welcomes the thrill of the job. Soon, he knows his adrenaline will be up, and then he won't even notice the cold.
Robin nods and runs and vaults off the side of the building - he hits the maintenance railing and pushes hard off the safety rails to throw himself clear of the safety netting and the buildings own wind currents out into the middle of the space between skyscrapers. He drops like a stone, cape fluttering, as he falls into the fog below. BOOM goes the grapple gun, and then he's on a trajectory towards the street below.
Jason vaults after Dick, sailing through the air with practiced grace, just before he brakes a bit with his cape and then fires off the grapple, swinging closely along behind until the street comes into view. He keeps his eyes on the original Robin, both subtly appreciating his form and also following lead.
Robin keeps his eyes on Jason as they swing down, down, and then see the swirling lights approaching from behind them as a large panel truck rockets down the center of the main thoroughfare below, running lights and sideswiping cars in it's mad flight through the foggy street. Thankfully due to the hour and the weather, not too many people are out this late, but this is also one of the largest MSA's on Earth - something is going on ALL the time.
Robin taps his mask. "Robin, I'm going to land on top of the truck - follow me in," he says, as they reach the bottom of their swing, feet above the street, going faster than the speeding truck for a few seconds -- and he clicks off the grapple gun, cutting the line and so he continues on in a straight line for the truck - He lands, the acrobatic teen sticking the landing, his momentum cancelled by the truck's superior speed.
Jason's landing isn't quite as flawless, but it's strong by any measure. He doesn't quite have the agility of the first Robin, but he finds ways to compensate. Once he's landed securely, he taps his mask, too, and replies, "On your tail, Robin." There's a smirk in his voice, as already he's feeling the rush he mentioned earlier.
The rush intensifies as machine-gun fire erupts from one window, aimed towards the cops behind them - Robin stands on top of the truck and motions to the cars behind to back off - some do indeed slow up, putting distance between them and the truck.
Then gunfire from the main body of the truck comes up through the roof - single shot pistols, three shots close together. One barely misses getting Robin in the leg. He carefully walks forward, hand dropping to his utility belt
Then the truck swerves hard right and then left!!
Robin-2 drops low, gripping the side of the truck's roof, and starts working his way carefully to that open window. He palms a few capsules from his belt as he goes. Then, if he can draw near enough, he'll toss the flash bang down sharply at the gun, hoping to shock the gunman into dropping his weapon.
Robin is almost tossed off the truck; he goes down on the other side, barely able to keep a grip on the icy rooftop as the truck sways and shifts and rams into the side of another car! The Teen Wonder barely manages to avoid being scraped off the side and hauls himself back up to the rooftop. Seeing Jason moving forward, he moves back and prepares to swing down into the main body of the truck itself.
Once the window is clear of gunfire, Jason looks down at the truck and runs a quick thermal scan via his mask lenses to see how many gunmen there are inside. Once he's sure that Dick is all right and that it's safe to go in, he nimbly swings over the side, diving into the thick of things, and aims a kick at the nearest gunman to disarm him.
Right in the window is the machinegunner, who tries to pull his gun up and use it against the caped teen, but is instead kicked in the head by a green pixie boot.
The thermal scan shows four people inside the truck, though only three seem to have guns.
As Dick moves towards the back of the truck, he unclips and jams a batarang into the seam, then steps back as the device blows up and opens the doors, which bang back and forth as the truck swerves again, scraping paint off a semi that then swerves out and back in the fog, effectively cutting off the police chasing them - suddenly the sirens and lights drop away, leaving the truck hurtling through the foggy night, the surrounding buildings only dimly glimpsed.
Jason moves for the first armed gunman, darting forward to move to shoot in a quick punch to stun him, then bring up a knee and try to disarm him swiftly. He moves to shift behind the guy, keeping him between Jason and the others, hoping to discourage any stray gunfire.
The driver suddenly has to contend with the whirlwind that is Robin-2, and he tries to get to his gun, clawing at it, as he tries to keep the truck from running into a building or something. The gunman Jason is fighting groans and offs, then tries to use the butt of his gun to brain the Boy Wonder.
Meanwhile, Dick tosses in a couple of flash pellets before he swings down into the main body of the truck, grabbing hold of one of the leather loading straps on the roof and holding onto that as he kicks two of the gunmen in the face as they claw at their eyes. "Sorry guys, don't mean to make 'light' of your situation..." he grins.
The butt of the gun does strike a glancing blow against Jason's mask, which absorbs most of the blow, but it does put Jason slightly off balance. This forces him to fall back a bit, toward the passenger seat, but he responds by flinging a sleep-dart at the driver. Whether this hits or not, he'll dive across the cab and grab for the wheel so he can take control of the vehicle.
The gunman in the cab turns and tries to tackle Robin-2, throwing himself against the caped boy in an attempt to keep him away from the wheel. "Shoot this brat!" the man yells at the driver. The driver then attempts to unsnap his holster, and almost fumbles the gun into the floorboard before he draws it. "I might hit you!" the driver yells. "I'm not your goddamn mommy, if it gets this little prick, shoot us both!"
Jason's sleep dart lodges in the driver's heavy leather jacket, dangling uselessly for now.
Meanwhile, Dick is punching his way through the truck before one of the half-blind gunmen decides the best idea is to fire as quickly as possible and hope he hits something! He does as one shot clips Robin in the shoulder, his ballistic leather vest blunting most of it, but the force spinning him around so that he falls to the ground the next time the truck swerves.
Grappled with the gunman in the front seat, Robin-2 finally drags out an electro-shock batarang and moves to shove it roughly into the guy's ribs. Hopefully that will put him down for a moment, but even if it doesn't, he's trying to get the gunman between him and the driver so he doesn't get shot!
BBBZZTT!! goes the batarang. AAAAII!! goes the gunman. The driver yelps at seeing the tables turn so quickly. He fires a couple of times at Robin-2, missing him and hitting the seats.
"Shit, Robin, are you OK?" Dick says into his mask-comm, as he hears the shots. On the floor, the Teen Wonder kicks the man with the gun in the head, and elbows another stumbling crook - who promptly punches Robin back so hard the youth stumbles back towards the open back of the truck...
Robin-2 aims a sharp kick toward the driver's gun hand, hoping to disarm him, and calls after Dick, "Robin!" He scrambles to get to the driver so he can take control of the truck, then, hoping to swerve in such a way that Dick will be tumbled against the side of the vehicle instead of out the back.
Robin grabs hold of that leather loading strap at the last moment, swings out into the fog and then back in to catch his attacker with two booted feet to the chin.
The driver cries out in pain as the gun falls to the ground and discharges - forward.
There are sounds from the engine that engines should not make, and the truck begins to slow of it's own accord. By now, more cops have swarmed in behind the truck, and are following.
The driver, seeing the jig is up, attempts to punch Robin-2 as hard as he can. "Stupid kid, we were almost home-free!!"
Robin-2 takes the hit, twisting to make it a body-shot, and even softened by the padding of his tunic, it hurts. He responds by flinging his legs out toward the driver to try to wrap them around his neck and put him in an improvised choke-hold. Meanwhile, with the truck slowing down, Jason looks furtively to the back of the vehicle, wanting to assure himself that Robin is all right.
Robin punches out the last gunman in the back, then walks forward to slide open the door to the cab - "Well, I see you have things well in, um, thigh," as the driver beats weakly at Robin-2's legs.
Grinning as he slowly, gently chokes the driver into the arms of Morpheus, Robin-2 then slithers free and gets to his feet. He slaps a pair of bat-cuffs on the driver, cinching his arms behind his back, and then turns back to Robin. "Well, I think we got this tied up. Ready to head out?" They could probably both use some attention on their injuries, even if just a hot compress, since getting shot or pummeled isn't much fun at the best of times.
Robin nods as the truck rolls to a gentle stop and is mobbed by cop cars. Robin steps out the back and fires off his grapple gun, and is quickly whisked away from the scene.
Robin-2 follows suit, tossing off a salute to the first of the arriving cops just before the grapple gun whisks him, too, away into the night.
Back in the alleyway, as the cycle unfolds itself from lockdown mode, Robin reaches to turn Jay around and look closely at him. "You get hit?" he says, doing a visual check.
"Nothing serious," Jason answers. "Worst was I got pistol-whipped on the eye, but my mask caught most of it. I'll probably have a nice shiner. Maybe a bruised rib or two. Nothing a hot bath won't mostly fix." He flashes a grin, then reaches to touch Robin's vest near where he got shot. "How about you? You all right?"
Robin simultaneous reaches out to stroke his thumb gently over that developing shiner. "Yeah, we'll need to get that down or your friends at school might start wondering what you do at night," he says. "Prescription: Hot tubbing," he grins. "Come on, let's get back home."
Jason winces a little at the touch, then says, "Yeah, good call. You good to drive?"
Robin nods and steps up on the bike, then settles into the seat. Once Jason is secured, it's a quick trip back to the cave, and then up to the steaming hot tub. Stripped out of his costume, Dick eases into the bubbling water with a long heartfelt ahhhhhhhh.
Jason follows just after, sighing contentedly as he slides into the steaming hot water. He winces a bit, then slowly relaxes into it. "Okay," he says slowly, "that's nice."
Dick Grayson soaks quietly for several minutes, letting the heat ease the cold from his strong body, then he slides hip-to-hip with Jay and leans over to him . "Let me take a closer look at that eye," he says, gentle concern on his face.