In The Web Of Gotham

The Two Detectives

As the two of them examined the sample of the woman's blood, an immediate observation was made by Peter.

"The Scare never fully dissolved into her blood. It never absorbed," Peter noted, pointing towards the layer of almost fine sand that was seperate from the layers of blood and plasma.

"Which means that this woman had an allergic reaction to one of the components of Scare. Due to the distillation process of Scare, along with the high concentration of Scare in her system. Her body would have been attacking itself to the point of breaking down," Batman elaborated.

"Is that significant at all?" Peter asked as he looks to Batman.

"It is, because that means that if we can isolate the compound that induced the reaction then we can start attacking Crane's supply chain of where he gets his own ingredients," Batman said as he began analyzing the sample of the blood of the woman to try and get a biological profile of her.

"So if we can pull up her medical records, we can figure out any allergies she might have and work from there right?" Peter asked.

"Think you can do that?" Batman asked the police detective.

"Yeah I might be able to do that. Just pull up what hospital she got admitted into," Peter said as Batman entered in keystrokes on the Batcomputer and narrowed down locations through various tappings into the network of dispatch frequencies. Finally, Batman had narrowed the signals down to Gotham General Hospital.

"Cool, I can get down there and try to scope out what I can about her records," Peter said as he began buttoning and closing up his detective clothing, using his regular belt to obscure the high tech looking belt underneath his clothing and his pants.

"Alright I'm heading out. I'll tell you anything I find," Peter said to the Batman. As he turned to leave though, his Spider-sense went off and his body instinctively extended an arm to catch whatever the Batman had thrown his way. Looking over the object, he saw that they were a set of glasses.

"They're surveillance glasses. Hidden cameras that backup all footage recorded directly into the Batcomputer for further indepth analyzing. Record everything while you're out. Anything is valuable in this scenario. There's also a secure earpiece built into them, so we can communicate as well," Batman instructed. Peter put the glasses on and went to the pneumatic elevator. Entering in the coordinates for the exit closest to the hospital, Batman watched as Peter went up into the ceiling and out of the cave back into the city. Taking out his GCPD radio and keying in to dispatch.

"Dispatch, this is Detective Parker. I'm going into an investigation at the Gotham General Hospital to gather further details into the incident on the Gotham train line," Peter said into the radio, waiting for a moment for a response.

"This is dispatch, Commissioner gave a 10-4 on your investigation. Anything you find goes to the GCPD records and to the Batman," The woman over dispatch responded.

"Understood," Peter said as he put the radio back into his coat pocket and put the glasses onto his face. He felt the hidden button on the top of the glasses frame and clicked it in. The camera on the glasses beginning it's feed to the Batcomputer.

"Can we also back this footage up to the GCPD? I was instructed to report whatever I find to them, and this information would be invaluable to them if we find anything," Peter muttered into the earpiece within the glasses.

"Anything of interest I find goes to the GCPD regardless, and detailed breakdowns of the evidence we find would be better than the raw evidence itself," Batman replied.

"I hate and appreciate the fact that I can't argue with that," Peter joked as he entered the hospital. Immediately going to the front desk and pulling out his badge to show the man working the desk.

"Good evening, I'm Detective Parker for the GCPD. I'm here to investigate some further details concerning a woman's medical incident on the subway system earlier tonight?" Peter immediately began, jumping to the point while maintaining a civil demeanor about himself.

"I can ask a nurse to guide you to Mrs. West, however her condition hasn't improved since she arrived. She's stable, but I don't think you'd be able to get many answers out of her if that's what you're hoping for," The front desk clerk explained. Peter put his badge away and nodded his head.

"Understandable, I was rather wondering if you could direct me to the medical records and pull her file for me," Peter inquired. The hospital clerk looked confused and Peter had to elaborate.

"We suspect that she was exposed to a drug, but that her body had an allergic reaction to something inside of the drug's chemical structure. If we can identify whatever allergens she may react adversely to, we can narrow down the area and crack down on the drug dealers who did this," Peter explained. Suddenly the clerk was more understanding of the situation.

"I see, I can arrange that. I'll get a doctor to bring Mrs. West's record for you," the clerk said as he picked up a phone. Peter walked back and sat down in the lobby. Taking in the scene around him, a good amount of people were just here due to simple illnesses. He did see a good amount of people being rushed into the hospital through the emergency corridors, because they had been affected by some of Gotham City's nastier faces. Some of them having white sheets draped over them, a clear indicator of death on arrival.

After about 3 minutes of waiting, a doctor walked up to detective Parker and shook his hand.

"Detective Parker, thank you for waiting. I'm Dr. Burton, and if I understand correctly you wanted Mrs. West's record?" Dr. Burton introduced as Peter followed. The record room had a computer terminal mounted to the farthest wall, presumably for communication and relaying of information between this hospital and others. Next to it was a large fax machine with a phone mounted on the wall connected to the phone's PA system.

The rest of the room was filled with filing cabinets, labeled with various patients from the long history of this hospital's operation. After perusing some of the cabinets, Dr. Burton clicked the handle and yanks the drawer open. Fingering through the various files inside and pulls the manilla file folder with the name Audrey West on it. Dr. Burton hands the file to Peter, who begins looking through the medical file. Something he noticed immediately was the first allergen on her file.

"Penicillin," Peter muttered. Dr. Burton nodded and began to speak.

"Mrs. West has a common allergy, but to a severe degree. She has an allergy to penicillin, but instead of the common hives and rash...it induces a severe shock to her system, similar to anaphylaxis," Dr. Burton explained. Peter was feeling a bit dejected, because this lead seemingly went nowhere. Penicillin could be damn near anywhere in this city, especially since Dr. Crane has connections. His illegal drug trade is still technically a secret, but Ichabod Pharmaceutical is still a legitimate drug production and distribution company. As Peter finished looking over the file, he handed the folder back to Dr. Burton.

"Thank you doctor, I'll have the GCPD be in touch if we discover any new leads," Peter said to Dr. Burton. The two said their goodbyes and headed out of the hospital, muttering into the earpiece in the glasses.

"We at least are able to deduce that Dr. Crane is getting his supply through Ichabod Pharmaceutical. Legitimate, clean and innocent labs are providing these chemicals to Crane,"  Peter sighed.

"Makes things more difficult for us, since it means our only plan of attack is to try and knock out the distribution paths. Try and find the junctions, trace those junctions back to Crane himself," Batman instructed.

"Well normally we'd try to follow the financials back to the source, but the source is an actual business. With a trusted name attached to the invoices for legitimate business transactions of bulk purchases for delicate goods that are used for genuine good. I have to give the Scarecrow this, he's nothing if not thorough with his operations," Peter elaborated.

"He has a flaw in his operation, everyone does. We'll find it and bust Crane," Batman said.

"For now though, let's switch gears towards the Banedoleros. I had one of my connections set up a meeting with Sophia Falcone. With a security detail including one detective Peter Parker," Batman instructed.

"Tell me where and when we'll be meeting, and I'll be there. Also send over everything you might be able to gather to the GCPD if you could please,," Peter said as he began heading back to the station.