Dark in the City (Gotham fanfic)

Chapter 6: DollFace

Hey, readers! Sorry this took so long, but I've had very minimal wifi and couldn't finish the chapter until tonight. I hope you like it!

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Red was sitting in a chair next to Penguin two days later with a glass of gin in her hand as she listened to him giving orders to the boys.

"Jerry, I want you to run the bar. Red, I need to discuss a project with you," he said, finishing the jobs for each person and dismissing everyone except Red. Once the room was empty save the two of them, he told her what he wanted her to do as she finished her drink.

"So basically, I'm going to stalk down the Maniax and find out who their leader is because it's not Jerome," she restated her job back to him to make sure she hadn't missed anything.

"Yes, and be sure to take many pictures."

She nodded and stood, waving goodbye to him as she left. Pulling her satchel over her shoulder and the straps of a camera over her head, she left the club and went to search the night life for the group of Arkham escapees.

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Tabitha Galavan stood on the building across from her and her brother's apartment, watching as a young girl in a cropped red jacket, black camouflage short shorts, and red converse climbed up from the other side of the roof. Tabitha stood behind the roof's generator as cover from the girl as she looked around, holding a camera loosely in her hand.

The girl turned then to face the building where Theo Galavan and the Maniax were having a late dinner and crouched down behind the edge of the roof. She raised the camera and snapped a few pictures before Tabitha moved silently forward around the generator and had raised her whip in preparation to slice into the girl's back, but she suddenly stood and whipped around before seemingly falling off the rooftop.

Tabitha looked down to see her corpse lying spread-eagle on the now bloodied concrete below. She quickly walked to the other side of the building and climbed down one of the fire escapes. Once reaching the bottom, she hurried around to the front of the building only to find a small puddle of blood and the girl gone along with the pictures of her brother hosting the Maniax.

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Gordon was at his desk filling out a report when out of the corner of his eye he saw someone approach. Looking up from the report, he sighed in annoyance upon seeing Oswald Cobblepot standing before him holding a folder.

"Hello, Jim," the young man said, smiling his odd smile. "I have something for you."

"What is it, Oswald?" Jim asked impatiently, wanting to hurry the bird-like man out the front doors.

Oswald handed him the folder and waited for Jim to open it before explaining. "I had a friend of mine go on a search for these 'Maniax'. She found that and got fantastically great pictures for you."

"I can't believe it...," Jim breathed as he looked over the pictures, ignoring Oswald's explanation. "Theo Galavan is the leader of the Maniax."

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"What do you mean the police know about our little project?" Theo asked his sister after having been told what she had seen.

Tabitha nodded, swinging her whip loosely as she paced across the room and back. "I saw some girl taking pictures and just before I could get her she fell from the roof. And then she disappeared, no body, no camera, nothing but bloodsplatter. Someone must have taken the pictures to the police."

Theo nodded. "Then we move into another apartment tomorrow. We also have to replan the attack for the Children's Hospital Gala.

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A team of police officers stormed into the suite once inhabited by the Galavans and their criminally-insane guests. The furniture had no proof of ever having been used, the closets and drawers were entirely bare, the flooring and walls in the same pristine condition as always; to the officers and detectives it seemed as though no one had ever rented out the space. They searched around, trying to find any clue that had been passed over by the criminal group, but found nothing, not even crumbs.

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Nathaniel walked down the empty street, typing quickly on his phone without bothering to watch where he was walking. Just as he reached the door to his apartment, he looked up and froze in shock and fear, his phone dropping from his hand and hitting the pavement with a loud crack.

Hanging just above the doorway was the corpse of an elderly man, naked save for the khaki pants sewn onto his hips and legs. His head was hanging down as though staring down at the doorway, but his eyes had been covered with black buttons with his eyelids sewn over the tops of them. His mouth had been sewn shut in an eerie grin. A Halloween wolf mask lay on the ground, obviously having fallen off the corpse's head.

Nathaniel fell back onto the ground and scurried back, finally gaining his voice to scream in terror.

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Gordon and Bullock arrived at the murder scene, immediately noticing Edward Nygma crouching next to the deceased man's body. "Hey, Ed. Got anything?" Gordon asked, standing opposite the strange younger man.

"Gordon, Bullock. What's written and read and gets children in trouble?"

"God, Nygma, could you just give us a straight answer for once in your life?" Bullock complained, crossing his arms and standing next to Gordon.

"It's a note, right?" Gordon asked, ignoring Bullock's complaints.

Edward nodded with a grin and produced a piece of paper that had many creases in it, handing it to Gordon. "It was in the victim's mouth."

Gordon read the note aloud, "'This is the first of many. You've stopped one chase now you'll stop another. Leave Penguin alone or the next doll is you.' Signed 'L-R'."

"'L-R?' Left right?" Bullock offered unhelpfully.

"Little Red?" Edward suggested, raising his eyebrows in questioning.

Gordon nodded toward Edward. "Probably. She's stepped it up to murder now, great. It seems she and Cobblepot are a lasting team now if she knows about Captain Barnes' plan to take him out."

"Yeah, or she owes him one for saving her and this is how she's gonna repay him. Mobsters always like having people owe them," Bullock offered, gaining nods from the other two men.

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Penguin stood outside his building, holding his phone to his ear as he waited for his call to connect. Once he heard the click of the other line opening, he spoke. "Hey, how's their investigation going?"

He paused to listen before speaking again. "So, they were able to leave before the cops got there. What a shame-," he paused again, "Oh, the Children's Gala? Perhaps we could intervene somehow."

He said goodbye to the person on the other line before ending the call and slipping the phone back into his pocket. He went inside his apartment and straight to bed.

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So, this is a bit short, I'll try to make up for it next chapter, which I will work on as quickly as possible.

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Til next time! Byeeeee