Closer Than Your Shadow

Goodnight Gotham

December 12th 11:48 p.m.
Gotham
Batcave

I remembered what Dick said about always having a jail broken USB on him. Just in case their was something he couldn't possible crack. Bruce taught him that.

Bruce also taught Barbara Gordon that.

Her computer had everything.

Videos. Call logs. Texts. News clips. Medical files from when he was a kid. Lenny's old documents from the army. A digitalized version of Lenny's Arkham file. Bianca's criminal record. Practically her whole life in photos.

It sat in-front of me, splayed out like puzzle pieces.

A video played of a small street corner. A man with a black hoodie sped past buildings and shops. He threw a thousand glances over his shoulders and never let his guard down. I watched it over and over again.

I clicked on the next file.

Lenny's visitation requests from Arkham. The calls he made. The mail he received. Anything I needed to know.

Greg Lennox

Visitation Requests:

LeLand Marks 11/24/14

Abel Tubbs 11/25/14

Joseph Waco 11/26/14

Jake Mariner 11/27/14

Call requests:

Alesandra Tubbs 3:34 p.m. 11/13/14

Alesandra Tubbs 1:08 p.m. 11/17/14

Alesandra Tubbs 10:46 a.m. 11/19/14

7 more calls from Alesandra.

13 mailed letters. All of them un-opened and returned to sender.

I clicked the next file.

It was a picture of Lenny when he was in the Army. He was caked in mud and covered head-to-toe in camo. He was huddled up with 3 other men. They had their arms around one another, and they were biting their dog tags as the jungle towered behind them.

More pictures of them smiling and laughing.

They were at each other's weddings. They held each other's kids.

My breath caught in my throat as the next picture popped up. Mark's sliver chain was wrapped around his neck so tight it dug into his flesh. I clicked on the next file. Tubbs tags were stuffed into his mouth. I clicked on the next file. Waco's tags were... Oh my god. I allowed myself a second to process what I saw. The indescribable pain inflicted on...Lenny's friends.

Marks... died 6/12/13

Tubbs... died 7/29/13

Waco... died 7/30/13

Mariner... died 8/18/13

Lenny never told me they were murdered...Lenny never told me about any of them. Just vague men accompanying his stories, but they were tortured...

I clicked on the next file.

The article Barbara sent me earlier.

17-YEAR-OLD KILLED IN ATTEMPTED RIOT.

There was another article attached. An online column about crime in Star City.

Star City has too long had to deal with the devastating aftereffects that Green Arrow has brought with his vigilante justice. It's a virus coursing through some of the biggest cities in the United States. We allow fake gods and superhero moralization just for our children rise up to the task to be the ones to worship or defy. Just yesterday, 25 counts of robbery and assault were reported to the SCPD, and that's not including the home invasion that happened over the weekend following the graduation celebrations of local high schools.