[center][img]http://s27.postimg.org/5uuwygu27/latest_cb_20130813021947.png[/img][/center] [b]Blüdhaven Police Department, Blüdhaven[/b] Dick had spent most of the night searching for Harvey Dent. He’d listened in on police scanners, beaten on drug dealers, and [i]even[/i] tried following Vinnie using the tracker he’d slipped on him in case he knew more than he let on. Nothing. If Dent was in Blüdhaven then he was doing a good job of keeping his head down. At least for the time being. It had troubled Dick to think that Bruce’s rogue’s gallery might be spilling over into Blüdhaven but it made sense. Bruce had taken losing Clark hard, as one might have expected, and from what Dick had heard he’d poured all of his energy into tracking Doomsday. Maybe Dent was emboldened by that, maybe not, either way Dick intended to have Harvey behind bars as soon as he could. For the time being he would help Gannon with that double murder he caught over on Waterloo Docks as best he could without incurring Amy Rohrbach’s wrath. Dick stalked the halls of Blüdhaven Police Department in search of Gannon before heading up to Homicide. The first face he saw when he entered belonged to Detective Rohrbach. She rolled her eyes, pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear, and then shot Detective Gannon Malloy an incredulous look. “What is he doing here?” “Ignore her,” Malloy muttered as he leapt from his seat to greet Dick. “She woke up on the wrong side of the bed this month.” Dick smiled at that and followed Gannon as he lead him towards the small kitchen area in the corner of the office. Malloy fired up the coffee machine, poured out a coffee for Dick, and handed it to him. [color=skyblue]“Have you heard back from the lab?”[/color] Malloy snorted at that. “The lab? It’s been one day, Dick. The only people worse at their jobs around here than those humps down in the crime lab are IA. It’ll be a fortnight before we get the results back from the lab, maybe more, and that’s if somebody down there don’t [i]accidentally[/i] misplace a sample or something. Funny how often samples go missing around this place.” That was an understatement. Blüdhaven Police Department was famously corrupt. They made the schmucks in Gotham look like saints. [color=skyblue]“Yeah, well, lucky for you I think I might have something for you to go on.”[/color] Malloy’s eyes widened and Dick took an elongated gulp of coffee to draw out the detective’s anticipation. After a few seconds of pensive gulping Gannon punched Grayson in the arm out of frustration and Dick smiled mischievously. [color=skyblue]“The residue around the victim’s mouths was from a drug called “Schizo” that’s been making the rounds. Word has it that Two-Face has decided to expand out into Blüdhaven.”[/color] “Two-Face? Fuck, I thought we had it bad enough between Blockbuster and the Lagorio Family but if Dent has come to Blüdhaven the department’s really going to have their work cut out for them. The man’s a maniac. He should be in Arkham.” Dick shrugged his shoulders. [color=skyblue]“Last I heard he [i]was[/i] in Arkham.”[/color] Grayson walked over to the sink, poured out the last few droplets of coffee, and rinsed it out before setting it down on the side. He wiped his hands on a hand towel that rested on the side and then set the towel down again. [color=skyblue]“The drug drives people insane if they take too much, Gannon, makes them hear things, hurt themselves, and hurt the people around them.”[/color] Dick could see the gears grinding in Gannon’s brain as he tried to take Grayson’s statement to its logical conclusions. They might have been grinding [i]very[/i] slowly but they were grinding all the same. Finally a satisfied look appeared on the detective’s face and he nodded knowingly. “You think they ODed on this Schizo junk and started whaling on one another until they dropped dead?” Dick shook his head. [color=skyblue]“That [i]would[/i] make sense if not for the lack of defence wounds. There’s nothing. No skin beneath the nails, no scratches or bite marks. I think… I think they killed themselves.”[/color] A figure appeared in the clearing of the kitchen area. It was Captain Frank Redhorn. The captain was notorious within the BPD for being a hard-ass and from what Dick had gleaned from Gannon’s tales it was a reputation well earned. He was a heavyset man with a body like a brick wall and an immaculate crew cut. “Grayson.” Gannon stepped forward to defend Dick for the second time in as many days. “I can explain, Captain, Dick’s just here to h-” “Save your excuses, Malloy, I need a word with your wunderkid anyhow,” Redhorn sneered. [center][b]*****[/b][/center] Redhorn’s office was adorned with pictures from his military service. Redhorn had been a Green Beret before he joined the Blüdhaven Police Department. Dick could have told you that much by the way he spoke. Grayson ran his fingers around the edges of his cap as Redhorn stared out of his window at the Blüdhaven skyline. After a few seconds he turned to face Dick and smiled at him. “You’ve been making a lot of waves around here, Officer Grayson.” [color=skyblue]“Thank you, Captain.”[/color] Suddenly Redhorn’s smile twisted into something more pernicious. “Oh no, there’s no need to thank me, I don’t mean it by way of a compliment.” [color=skyblue]“What?”[/color] Dick said with a frown. [color=skyblue]“I don’t understand.”[/color] Redhorn let out an exasperated sigh and gestured towards the Division Room behind Dick. “How do you think it looks, Grayson, having some rookie that’s not even been on the job a year sticking his nose into my detective’s cases? Do you think that reflects well on this division? Do you think it reflects well on the ability of those detectives out there?” Dick shrugged his shoulders. [color=skyblue]“I’ve just been trying to help, Captain Redhorn.”[/color] A mocking laughed slipped out of Redhorn’s lips. “You want to help? You either get your nose out of this division’s shit or you come help us out full-time.” [color=skyblue]“What are you saying?”[/color] “You’re a smart kid,” Redhorn muttered. The reluctance in his voice was almost tangible. “You know exactly what I’m saying.” A broad smile appeared from Dick’s face and he stood up from his chair and offered his hand to Captain Redhorn. [color=skyblue]“I can’t tell you how much this means to me, Captain.”[/color] “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not go getting ahead of ourselves here. If you’re going to come work for me there are a few hoops that need to be jumped through first. You can’t go from working a beat to catching murder cases after a year on the job. You know that, kid. That’s not the way things work around here.” Dick retracted his hand slowly as he anticipated the words that were about to leave Redhorn’s mouth. “Look, I’ve got a mortgage, okay? I’m not the only one. We know you’re Wayne’s boy, Grayson, there’s not a soul in the department that doesn’t know you’re Wayne’s boy. I’m guessing it wouldn’t take you too long to maybe scratch together a little offering to help [i]expedite[/i] the process a little.” Redhorn was a crook. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t seen it earlier in the captain. Maybe Dick hadn’t wanted to see it. All the talk of Redhorn being a hard-ass had made him want to believe he was one of the decent ones. The opposite was true. He was out to line his pockets. Even worse, he’d been able to fool Dick. If he could fool him, he could fool anyone, and that thought scared Grayson. He took a few steps back from the captain and shook his head in disapproval. [color=skyblue]“That’s not what I’m about.”[/color] A derisive snort left Redhorn’s nose. “What? You think anything in this department gets done without a few palms getting greased? It’s the way things are, kid, and it’s the way things have always been. It’s not like the movies around here. You gotta pay your way if you want something.” The voice that left Dick’s lips was steelier the second time around. [color=skyblue]“Like I said, that’s not what I’m about.”[/color] Redhorn threw his hands up in exasperation and then gestured towards the door of his office. “There I was thinking you were cut out to do some [i]real[/i] police work. I guess I must have been wrong. Get the hell out of my office, Grayson, and make sure I don’t see you skulking around these halls again.”