Detective Barbara Gordon 2

"You look like shit." Barbara said as she entered the hospital room.

"I know..." Tanner replied with a faint smile.

"It's a good thing that you were able to get here yourself." Barbara pulled a chair and sat by the bed.

"I managed to get a cab."

"So, who messed you up like this?" Barbara scanned Tanner's body that was bandaged up.

"Some guy..."

"Did you know him?"

"Nope. I just bumped into him and we were both drunk."

"Hmmm...These are serious injuries." Barbara looked at the x-rays posted on the wall.

"I got my ribs and clavicle fractured. My left shoulder was also busted up."

"Damn. Was he trying to kill you?"

"If he did, he wouldn't have left me alive." Tanner chuckled.

"Do you get into fights a lot when you're drunk?"

"Yeah. It's bad. Haha."

"Would you recognize his face?"

"Stop." Tanner's face turned serious. "You don't have to find him. We fought and I lost. That's it. I guess I overestimated myself too because of our training."

"Why? Was the guy big?"

"Huge."

"Well, there you go." She chuckled. "Anyways..."

Barbara started to talk about the case she's handling.

"A serial killer?" Tanner is sitting up on his hospital bed.

"Yeah. The majority of the victims were women. All of them were stabbed to death. Multiple stab wounds that indicate frustration and anger. The few men that were killed usually were near the crime scene where the women were murdered. They must have been unlucky witnesses." Barbara replied.

She visited Tanner right after she finished her shift.

"No witnesses?"

"None at all."

"Ugh..." Tanner clutched his head.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. My head still hurts." Tanner grasped his head.

"Didn't think you were a lightweight." Barbara teased.

Tanner just faintly smiled. "Thank you for coming, Barbs."

"Don't mention it! We're friends!" Barbara punched Tanner's arm.

"Ouch!" Tanner clutched his arm in pain.

"S-sorry. I got carried away."

She was trying to make up for the embarassing scene she made at the bar's restroom the other night and handled it awkwardly.

-The following morning-

"If what you said is true, then we'll have to get the FBI."

"What?!" Barbara Gordon shouted.

"Don't shout."

"S-sorry, but the FBI?"

"This is a serial killer we're talking about, Gordon. It's protocol."

"I don't like leaving this in their hands."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, they'll ask for cooperation with us. You'll still get to work on the case."

"Wait! This is still just suspicion, Cap."

"I trust you. You're the best one I have."

"C-Captain. I'm flattered, but what would happen if your 'best' was wrong. It would embarass me, you, and the whole station."

The Captain made a thinking pose. "How many victims are related to this?"

"Fifteen women and three men. In the span of almost two years."

"God..." The Police Captain gasped. "To think that just one person could be behind all this."

"L-Like I said, it's still just a theory without enough evidence to prove it."

"Fifteen women dead. All of them unsolved. The three men died in the same night, in the same area as some of these women. It's too much to say it is coincidence. I'll risk my reputation on you, Detective." The Police Captain sternly said.

'That's too much...' Barbara thought. "Okay, sir..."

Barbara left the captain's office with a headache.

----

Later that night, Barbara decided to go to where the victim was attacked.

The place has already been searched for clues but she thought she still might find something there.

It was an area in the park where people would less likely go to at night.

"It couldn't be security..." Barbara muttered to herself. The closest suspect would be the security that found the body but then it wouldn't connect to the other murders and it just wouldn't make sense.

Then...

"!!" Barbara quickly turned around as soon as she felt something. "Who are you?" She asked.

The person in front of her was a woman with long blonde hair wearing a white collared shirt and black slacks.

"Why would I answer that?" The woman replied. She showed no emotions and her blue eyes that glimmered under the moon were sharp.

"I'm a police officer."

The woman made a faint smile. "Even more reason why I shouldn't answer your question" Then she turned her heel and started walking.

Barbara was pissed. She ran and tried to grab her shoulder, "Wait!" but soon after, she found herself flying through the air. "?"

It happened so fast that she wasn't able to react to it.

After being thrown, she rolled on the ground and hit a nearby tree.

"Ah..." She groaned in pain as she tried to get back up. Barbara looked around, but the woman was already gone. "Shit..."

After resting for a while, Barbara walked back to the street and hailed a cab to go home without gaining anything but a small bruise.

----

"What are you doing, Detective?" The captain approached Barbara.

"Captain. I was just searching in the records for a blonde haired woman."

"You found a lead?"

"Maybe...I'm not sure yet."

"Well, whatever it is, you can talk to special agent Sterling about it." The Police captain introduced the man behind him.

"Detective Barbara Gordon." Sterling held out his hand.

"Pleasure." Barbara stood up and shook his hand.

"I'll leave you to it, then." The Police Captain said before leaving.

"Please, continue." Sterling gestured to Barbara's desk.

"You're not going to ask me to brief you?"

"I already read the files. Victims were almost all female, right? The time gaps between the murders were irregular. Like the killer just happened to come across them. Indicating that he or she lives in that general area, or it was on their way home."

"O-okay." Barbara awkwardly sat down and continued her search.

"What are we looking for?"

"Blonde haired woman, blue eyes, sharp facial features." Barbara briefly answered.

"A suspect?"

"I don't know yet."

"Hmmm..." The FBI agent raise a brow. "Would you say that she's an attractive looking woman?"

"Hm? Oh, yes. Nice face, curvy but tight body that indicates she's athletic."

"Where did you encounter her?"

"I was searching for more clues in the area where the victim was found. She happened to be there and refused to answer my question."

"She didn't respond?"

"No...well, she did, but it was vague. Right after I said I was a police officer, she said that she refuses to answer my questions even more."

"That's why you're searching for criminal records with the same description. Because you suspect her to have one by the fact that she refuses to divulge any information to the police."

"Yeah."

"Well, what if I told you that you wouldn't find her there."

"I'm sorry?" Barbara tilted her head.

"What if I told you that she is a criminal, but she doesn't have a record... at least not yet."

"Do you know this person, Agent Sterling?"

"Just a hunch. If the person I'm thinking of happens to be the same person you're searching for, then, yes." He said as he started fiddling with his smart tablet. "Is this her?" He showed her a picture projected by the tablet.

Barbara widened her eyes as she saw the picture. "Yes! This is her!"

"I knew it." Sterling closed his tablet and put it back in his bag.

"Who is she?"

"The FBI doesn't only handle serial killers. We also handle organized crime. She's working for one of the biggest crime families here in new york. The Callaghan family. Her name is Elise Kate Davis."

"Do you know how to find her?"

"Yes. We're going there right now. Come on." Sterling started walking towards the elevator and

Barbara quickly got her stuff before following.

As soon as they got inside the elevator, Sterling started a conversation with Barbara.

"I read your file, Detective. You do some great work. Why don't you apply for the FBI?"

"Heh...Thanks. But my place is here."

"Because of your father, right?"

"Yeah." Barbara faintly smiled.

"He's done a great job as commissioner in Gotham. But I hate the fact that his achievements are always overshadowed by a goddamn vigilante."

Barbara furrowed her brows. "You mean Batman."

"Yeah. That creep. It's a good thing I was assigned here in New York where there aren't any of those freaks from the Justice League."

"What do you got against them? They're risking their necks just like us. They don't even get paid."

"..." Sterling felt he soured Barbara's mood with the conversation. "I'm sorry. It's just... I don't trust people that try to help others without getting anything in return. They must have a hidden agenda or something. It's too suspicious to me."

"Just so you know..." The doors of the elevator opened and Barbara got off first. "I'd also do this job without any pay or benefits."

Sterling widened her eyes in awe and just made a faint smile before following Barbara off the elevator. "I guess there are people that are genuinely like that." He muttered.

----

Cling clang.

The bell rang when the door of the bar opened.

Barbara followed Agent Sterling closely as he walked towards the counter.

"What can I get for you?" The bartender greeted the guests with an annoyed face that seemed to say they are unwelcome.

"I want to speak to your boss." Sterling said.

"I own this bar." The bartender said with a mischievous smile.

Sterling made a smile of his own and showed his FBI badge.

"FBI? So what? You think you can threaten me? That's against the law."

"Listen-"

Slap!

Before Sterling could finish his sentence, Barbara slapped the bartender so hard that his head jerked and the whole side of his face turned red.

"You bitc-!!" Before the bartender could cuss her out, he got slapped again and got pulled over by his collar.

"Get your boss right now if you don't want to keep getting hurt." Barbara said in a tone void of any emotion.

"Is this what the FBI does?!" The bartender shouted.

"She's not FBI." Sterling said with a calm smile.

Bang!

The bartender's head got slammed on the counter.

"Agh! My nose!" The bartender was teary eyed because of the pain.

"You better take this seriously. Get your boss here, now!" Barbara shouted in his ear.

Just when she said that...

"What's going on here?" A blonde haired woman came out of the back door with an annoyed expression. "You..." She uttered as soon as she found Barbara.

Barbara Gordon let go of the bartender and grinned as she reunited with the woman that threw her in the air last night.

"Elise Kate Davis..." Barbara uttered.