The private jet touched down at the Keystone airport and taxied to the hangar. Bruce and Alfred already had their luggage collected and ready before the plane came to a stop. When the side door behind the cockpit opened and the stairs folded down, Bruce was first off the plane, followed quickly by Alfred.
A four door car of polished black was waiting for them. The rear door popped open, and a teenage girl with shoulder length black hair and startling blue eyes stepped out to greet them. The woman who exited from the driver's seat was an older version, but otherwise an exact copy, of the teenager. Both wore matching suits of dark black with white, button down dress shirts. Their apparel only reinforced their similarities.
"Zatanna, Sindella," Bruce said in greeting to the girl and her mother. He hadn't seen either of them since he'd left for Japan a little over two years ago. "It's good to see you both again, but I wish it had been under different circumstances."
"Don't we all?" Zatanna agreed, giving Bruce a quick hug.
"I'm sorry we had to call you back from your training," Sindella apologized.
"It's alright," Bruce dismissed. "What can you tell me about Giovanni's disappearance?"
"Get in, we'll tell you on the way," Zatanna instructed.
Alfred had already put his bags in the trunk, and he took Bruce's as well, adding them to the pile before closing the rear storage compartment on the vehicle.
Zatanna got in the back seat with Bruce, and when Alfred automatically took over the duties of the driver, Sindella took the only remaining seat, the front passenger. As all doors were shut and seatbelts buckled, Alfred pulled away from the parked jet and headed for the nearest street.
"Giovanni went to the store for a few items," Sindella explained, turning partly around in her seat to look at Bruce while she spoke. "He never came back."
"What about the police?" Bruce asked. "What do they have to say about it?"
"The police didn't think we had a case when this letter turned up the next day," Zatanna said, handing Bruce a folded piece of paper.
Bruce took the offered letter and unfolded it to read the hand written document. After reading it twice, he set it down in his lap, absently tapping an index finger on the car door beside him as his mind worked furiously to find a reasonable explanation for the bizarre communication.
"Is it his handwriting?" Bruce asked.
"Yes," Sindella confirmed. "We've checked it for hidden messages or code phrases; we even examined it magically, but we couldn't find anything in the way of a covert message explaining his real reasoning for sending this to us. You can see why the police don't think we have anything worth investigating."
"I can hear the wheels in your mind turning," Zatanna told Bruce. "Share with us your line of thinking."
"It's a very odd letter," Bruce began. "To begin with, a man who's intending to leave his family doesn't normally abandon them and then send a letter explaining it at a later date. He leaves the letter behind when he walks out the door."
"Exactly," Zatanna eagerly agreed.
"Also, the manner of the letter seems strange," Bruce mentioned.
"What do you mean?" Sindella asked.
"Most letters these days aren't sent by paper," Bruce explained. "Email and text messages are far more common. It's odd a man would just walk out, wait a day with no communication, then send a hand written letter telling his goodbyes."
YOU ARE READING
Bruce Wayne
FanfictieWhat does it take to be a hero? Orphaned at a young age, Bruce Wayne is plagued by nightmares of his parents' murder. His quest to fight against the fears in his own mind will lead him to discover the hero he can become. This is not a story about...
