I knew Batman

Chapter 2 - The autopsy results

After my encounter with Batman, I started to gather information about him when I had some time between my shifts and other hospital duties. It was not easy. He was more a legend than a well-documented vigilante. There were no photos of him in the media. Batman was really a shadow. I found one investigative article about his assumed appearances and roles in solving crime cases and catching drug dealers and serial killers. Vicky Vale, the journalist interviewed arrested criminals about Batman but all she found were rumours but not hard evidence. The criminals swore that Batman can fly and become invisible and that he is not a human at all.

Officially, the police denied Batman's role in solving cases. But my brother was a rookie police officer at the Gotham Police Department and I asked him about this during our usual Tuesday lunch. He said that it is an open secret that one of the detectives, Jim Gordon works together with Batman. He can solve cases that the police cannot. The Commissioner is not happy about it. For him, Batman is a wanted criminal.

For a few days, it kept me thinking about what his goal could be and what could have happened to him that night when he ended up on the rooftop of our hospital. But life went on, we had some hard cases at the hospital, drug wars were peaking and I almost forgot about him, when we met again. It was my night shift, and I was heading to my office in the emergency department, I had some paperwork to do. When I stepped into the room, I wanted to turn on the lights but it wasn't working. I clicked a few more times but nothing.

"Damn. I have to tell the maintenance guys." I said to myself. I turned on the small desk lamp and suddenly there he was, Batman, hiding in one of the dark corners of my office. He stayed in the shadows, I only saw his silhouette. I was out of breath for a moment, I was frightened, almost screamed but I forced calm on myself.

"You certainly know how to hide." I said.

He stepped forward but still stayed out of the lamp's light circle.

"I need your help." Batman said.

"I don't know you. Why would I help you?" I didn't feel threatened by him but the whole situation was weird.

"Because we are on the same side."

"Says the man in the mask." Batman didn't seem to react to my sarcasm. Part of me wanted to decline, he is a vigilante, and I do not know who he is or what he wants. But the other part of me was really curious. And my curiosity won. "Fine. What do you need?"

"I need you to look at some autopsy reports and tell me your opinion."

"I am not a pathologist. Maybe I am not the best doctor to help."

"I know. But you had experience with the effects of chemical weapons."

I was surprised. It was true, unfortunately, I have seen many types of chemical weapons in use with the Doctors Without Borders team. But how did Batman know about this?

"Someone did a background check." I remarked reproachfully.

"Will you help then?" Batman just ignored my comment and gave me a black pendrive. I sat down at my computer and opened the files. They were three autopsy reports from Gotham Forensic Pathology.

I asked him.

"Do you think there are chemical weapons in Gotham and someone used them? That seems too violent even for Gotham. We have enough problems as it is."

He seemed to hesitate to answer.

"Maybe, I have a suspicion."

I looked through the files of the dead bodies. Two of them were female and one male. All in their twenties or early thirties. The official result stated that there is no known reason for death. There was not any sign of illness or wounds or any other sign of violent activity. They were just dead. But the histology was interesting. They indicated hypothermia-like injury in the tissues.

"Where were the bodies found?" I asked him because I couldn't find the police report.

"One of them was in her apartment and the other two were found on the street. These two were homeless." Batman leaned over my shoulder to point to the reports. He was so close, I could hear him breathing. His breath was extraordinarily slow. It crossed my mind for a moment that maybe the criminals were right: he is not human.

"Well, my guess would be hypothermia." I said to Batman. "Which could be the result of sleeping on the streets in two cases but obviously not in the third case. And even in the case of the homeless, the usual street hypothermia does not cause this kind of tissue injury exactly. You need to be put into a freezer for hours to get these tissue injuries. All three died from the same cause, but I have never heard of chemical weapons, which can freeze victims."

Batman nodded.

"Thank you."

"There is something else." I continued. "I do not understand, why hypothermia is not mentioned in the conclusion of the autopsy report. It is easy to see from the results. A third-year medical student could recognise it. The forensic pathologist is either extremely incompetent or wanted to hide this fact."

I looked for the signature on the reports. It was Ed Nigma.

"Do you know him?" Batman asked me.

"I do not know him personally, but I have heard about him in medical school. He was considered extremely talented but had a bad bedside manner with patients. That is why he went into pathology."

I looked back to the autopsy reports, I wanted to look for other interesting details when I heard the window closing behind me. I turned around and Batman was gone.

This new encounter made me think again about him. What is all this about? Someone is really making a freezing chemical weapon? Is it possible at all? And I realized that I need to look into this closer as well.