A Villain's Hero

Chapter 5 - Matteo

"Revenger was spotted on Vista Avenue last night."

A newspaper landed in front of Matteo with a blurry photo of a man in a black outfit. Although the figure in the photo was small and turned sideways, Matteo had seen him too many times to identify him right away.

His teeth gritted together angrily, and he pierced the villain's face with his gaze. Revenger had slipped through his fingers again, and he still had the nerve to walk the city streets as if nothing had happened.

"What do you think he was up to?" Max asked, and Matteo finally looked up at him.

Steven Maxfeld was the commander of his unit. Matteo never learned his real age, but he knew he was in his fifties. In fact, knowing anything about Max was almost impossible. He had also only learned his real name from Ciara, who had once decided to get him drunk to get information out of him but hadn't been able to find out more than his first name.

"Probably scouting for information again," he replied in a calm tone, though he was far from calm. Only once had he managed to catch Revenger in the act of gathering information. The man he had interrogated had sought out the Legion to tell them about Revenger's unexpected visit and also the deadline he had set for him. Matteo more than enjoyed Revenger's surprised look when he showed up at the meeting place instead of the man in question. That, however, was the last time he managed to outsmart the villain.

Max sighed and ran a hand through his greying hair. "No one has contacted the Legion. Do you think they'll be keeping quiet again?" He didn't have to specify who he meant, because Matteo immediately understood that he was talking about another person Revenger had visited in the night.

"Probably," Matteo confirmed, though the thought irked him. "He's either bribed them or scared them so much they'll be afraid to say anything."

"I'll go over the surveillance footage from the neighbourhood," Max spoke up, and if he shared Matteo's frustration, he didn't let it show. "You go through everything from the Carter case again," he instructed, and Matteo nodded immediately.

Carter's case was one of the main components of Revenger's file. Michael Carter was the man Revenger visited to interrogate, and he later provided the information to the Legion. The superhero patrol spent weeks outside his house to make sure Revenger didn't harm him for his betrayal, but surprisingly, nothing happened. The Revenger never visited the man again, and from time to time someone from the Legion would contact Carter to make sure he was still alive.

However, all they learned from that meeting was that Revenger had asked Carter about a particular day in 2006 and whether he had seen any suspicious activity. Michael Carter was working as a security guard at the time and was on duty at the train station near the security boxes.

Michael told them the same thing he had told Revenger - he hadn't witnessed anything suspicious. According to him, it was a day like any other and nothing was reported to them.

Despite his words, the Legion requested the CCTV footage from that day, but as Michael said, they found nothing suspicious. It was a 24-hour recording from different angles of the station, so it took them almost a week to go through the whole thing in detail, and Matteo decided to do the same thing now, just by himself this time.

He knew he had a long day ahead of him, so he decided to start right away.

After four hours, when he felt that all his work had been in vain, he almost jumped out of his chair when he noticed something that looked all too promising. He quickly stopped the recording at the exact second and zoomed in.

Matteo took a screenshot in the hope that the image wouldn't be too blurry for the face recognition software.

Although he had only been with the Legion for a short time, every day he passed photos of former heroes and people who had worked for the organisation, as their photos were hung together in the corridors leading to the offices.

Matteo had unconsciously memorised their faces, and the more he looked at the man on the tape, the more certain he was that he saw him in one of these photographs.

A shiver ran down his spine as he heard the sound of the computer telling him the search was complete and showing a match. His eyes immediately scanned the screen, reading every detail, but stopped at something that made no sense. The man died in 2005. Almost a year before the recording was made.

"That's not possible," he muttered to himself and started the same search again. But again, he got the same result.

"I need you in the office." He pressed a button on the desk that connected him to his boss and didn't waste any time explaining. Max assured him that he would be right there.

"You found something," he judged as soon as he entered the room and saw his eager expression.

"I did," Matteo confirmed, nodding his head at the screen. Max leaned over his shoulder to see what he was showing him. "This man is on the recording on the 5th of April 2006, almost a year after his supposed death," he explained.

"That's not possible," Max repeated the same words Matteo had said when he found out.

"You think he faked his own death?" Matteo asked.

"George?" Max laughed and looked at Matteo as if he had said something completely foolish. "The man worked for the Legion as a secretary for almost 20 years. Most of the time he answered the calls."

"What if he overheard information in those calls that got him into trouble?" proposed Matteo.

"Possible, but unlikely," Max replied, continuing, "Anything important was always handled in person. Most of the time he only handled calls when someone wanted to arrange a meeting."

"What if we went through the call logs from his last week on the job?" suggested Matteo.

"We can do that," Max nodded immediately, looking proud of Matteo for coming up with such an idea. "George used to alternate with Henrietta. I can ask her if she noticed anything strange about him."

Matteo nodded, but then another question came to him. "Do you know how he died?"

The greying man looked as if he was thinking, but then nodded his head in agreement. "He had a heart attack. His wife found him on the floor of the bathroom."

"So she saw his body," Matteo murmured, more or less to himself.

"She did. I think she was the last person to see him like that, apart from the paramedics and the undertakers. If I remember correctly, the coffin was closed at his funeral," Max said, and the wheels in Matteo's head immediately began to turn.

"Would it be too morbid if we decided to open it now and check if it's where it should be?" He frowned at the thought, not liking to play with death, but it would probably be necessary.

"One thing at a time," Max cut him off before his thoughts could go too far. "We'll check things out at the Legion first, then we can dig up the graves."

"What about Revenger?" Matteo suddenly remembered the reason he had looked at this recording in the first place. "Do you think he was looking for George too, or is it a coincidence?"

"Honestly? I have no idea." Max shrugged. He seemed unfazed by this lack of information, and Matteo always admired him for keeping his cool. He, on the other hand, was frustrated by the fact that he could find new information but could not put it together.

"You can try asking him, but I doubt he'll answer you." Max's words hit him in the most sensitive place. Matteo had been sent after Revenger a year ago, and all that time the horned villain had managed to evade his questions. Most of the time when he spoke to him, he was either mocking him or flirting with him. Matteo had no idea what irritated him more.

"You did well." Max's hand landed on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. "How about you take the rest of the day off?"

Before he could protest, his eyes met Max's and he could only nod. Max had been a parental figure to him since he had joined his unit and so he had more respect for him than he would have for any other boss. He had never said no to him and doubted that would ever change.

"I'll work on it first thing in the morning," he gave as a condition, and Max smiled in response.

"I didn't expect anything less from you."

And so Matteo found himself in the club that night, a glass in his hand and a head full of worries.