Gotham City
Barbara's Apartment
3 a.m.
Barbara shoved her hair out of her face distractedly. Her small ponytail holder was failing to do its job. The worn elastic giving way under the bulk of red. Yet the diligent researcher paid it no mind. She only cared for the facts written down in front of her. Two days ago a patrol cop had found a dead body. The coroner had received it soon after and per standard procedure, done an autopsy. Everything was normal. Toxicology report, blood work, etc. The only reason why she was looking over the case was the left foot was missing. Sawed off at the ankle.
As static crackled in her ear she looked up from the paperwork and to the computer. All read outs looked good. Each of the three Bat boys featured on one screen, Batman included. Babs' eyes may have lingered on Dick's name, but only for a small second. Anyways, his read out was just like the others, good. Even the Drake kid.
Barbara leaned back and groaned as her spine creaked. A dull ache was working its way up to her shoulders. She eyed her pain killers for an even longer moment before she went back to the case. The facts were slim; practically non existent. If she was still Batgirl she would have visited the crime scene herself to gather clues, but she couldn't. Not in the wheel chair. She'd attract far too much attention. So she was stuck in her apartment with only the slender case file to work with.
Not that she really cared about the missing foot. No, she just needed a distraction. Ever since she had found herself cooped up in this wheelchair her mind had been exhausting. It never wanted to down shift. It was always going. Barbara had found the best way to keep herself sane was to keep her mind occupied. Plus it also kept her from dwelling on
The Event she never wanted to think of again. Therefore the distraction was keeping her occupied as she listened to the com-link on the off hand chance someone would need her before she knew they needed her. Those emergency situations didn't happen often, but she would never leave them high and dry.
The other task she was performing tonight was keeping and eye on Lex's servers. Luther was paranoid enough that she hadn't hacked his private servers. But she had noticed a small amount of chatter about them. And some suspicious activity. From New York. She probably wouldn't have noticed, if she hadn't been looking. Whatever it was, it was a good enough reason to keep an eye pealed. Lex might proclaim he was reformed, but Babs was still suspicious. The Injustice League wasn't the type of organization to just let a member go like that. Lex was playing some angle, and she only had a few of the pieces. Plus, whomever was messing with Luthor was good. There was something else there, but they just stayed out of sight.
Babs watched both tasks for a long while before going back to her foot case. Though instead of going back to the paper files she dug into Mr. Carrillo, the man who found the body. The man was in his late sixties. His last job was four years ago. All records said he was homeless. He regularly visited a soup kitchen on 15th. He had a daughter, Mary, who worked for Barnum and Smith as an accountant. Her daughter was going to school in California. He had no criminal record, even after being fired. All reports said he was a nice guy.
In Gotham, there was no such thing. Everyone had secrets. Even the best people she knew. Herself included. She tucked herself further into her chair and continued to dig. After a hour, maybe two, Babs sat back again and looked at her work. There was no sign Mr. Carrillo was involved in anything. Nor were there any signs of Mary being involved, even by proxy in anything. She covered her mouth as she yawned. Once done she tapped on her key board and few times and the case was flagged and set aside. She'd work on it later, when she wasn't so tired.
Barbara looked over her two tasks again. The Bat boys were all still reading fine. Again, her eyes lingered on Dick's name. Ever since he became Nightwing he had been different. Both in good and bad ways. In the bad, he was darker, more like Bruce. She had heard of a falling out, neither of them were too keen on talking about it. Still, he had kept in close contact with her. Something of a lifeline, for both of them. With another three keystrokes her screen turned off and the alerts set. If anything changed, she'd know within milliseconds.
As for Luthor. Babs eyed the new readout. Whomever was snooping was being cautious still. She tried to picture the person on the other end of the computer and failed. She pointed her finger at the screen.
"I hope you know what you're doing." She spoke aloud. The sound of her own voice startled her. It was horse and weary sounding. She rubbed her hands over her face. She needed sleep. After keying in the proper codes the last screen went dark.
Instead of wheeling herself into the bedroom, Barbara instead went into the kitchen and started up the coffee machine. It was almost six anyways. Might as well get a start on the day.
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mickilennial
