Batman: Hero of Gotham

23- Drugged To Kill

The next few seconds were a blur for Bruce. His ears were deafened from the two bullets that zipped right by him. The beeping of the monitor didn't help. Bruce looked behind him finally to see where the bullets had come from. Who stood there, Bruce did not expect. Officer Montoya stood there, her gun out, yelling obscenities that Bruce barely understood. He surprisingly heard the sentence she had yelled. "They're waiting for you in hell!" "They" meaning Bruce's parents. Bruce, without thinking, grabbed Montoya and forced her to the ground, disarming her. "The bastard had to die!" Bruce held her down as Gordon entered the room, seeing the horror that was Falcone's dead body. A nearby police officer pointed his gun at Montoya.

"Hands in the air!" The officer yelled.

"Stand down!" Gordon ordered the officer. "Get a doctor! Secure this floor! No one gets in or out! Go! GO!" The police officer ran down the hall and did what was asked of him.

The time was now 10:22 AM. Bruce and Gordon stood in a secluded room around a table where Montoya sat with her hands handcuffed. She was unconscious, mumbling in her sleep. Gordon lit a cigarette without saying a word. Eventually, Harvey came into the room and spoke. "We are in deep shit. I've bought us some time, but not much. Word's gonna get out, sooner or later. Why would she do something like this? We had Gotham's biggest crime lord in our grasp! This close. We were this close!"

" I don't, I don't know--I hardly recognized her when she burst in." Bruce said. "She was so different from the woman we met in the hall."

"It's a disgrace. Another officer gone rogue." Harvey assumed.

"It just doesn't make any sense!" Gordon spoke up. "She'd never do anything to hurt the department."

Harvey sighed. "Falcone's case meant justice for a thousand unnamed victims. And now it is a PR disaster! How can I run against corruption when our own cops are redecorating the precinct with their prisoner's brains? Listen, we gotta get out in front of this. We gotta spin it as best we can. Issue a statement saying that we have the shooter in custody. The details are still coming in and we're investigating. The usual."

"Slow down, Harvey. We need the facts first." Bruce said. 

"The simple fact is that she walked in and shot him." Harvey asserted.

"Then we need the complex facts like how and why." Gordon said. The door to the room opened and a police officer was there.

"Lieutenant...Mr. District Attorney...Falcone's lawyers are here." The officer reported.

"Christ." Gordon cursed.

"I can delay them for a little while. But we still need answers." Harvey volunteered. Montoya groaned.

"Tell me if she says anything. I have to know why she did this." Gordon said. Montoya moaned once again as Bruce put an earpiece in his ear to talk to Alfred. 

"Alfred--Falcone's been murdered.

"Good god." Alfred replied with disgrace.

"I'm looking into it, but I'll need access to the Batcomputer for anything I find." Bruce took out his phone and turned on a scanner. He started scanning peculiar things about Montoya's skin. Her veins were clearly visible around her mouth. He scanned where he thought he saw more veins. He realized it was an injection site. It was fresh, too. "Alfred, I think I found the substance. Analyze and forward me the result." Bruce sent the picture he took of Montoya's skin.

"Of course. I'll be in touch as soon as I have the results." Alfred said.

Montoya then lifted her head up. "Where am I? Mister Wayne?" She noticed she was handcuffed. "What's going on? I got this awful feeling something terrible happened."

"Sergeant, you have to think. What do you remember?" Bruce asked.

"Oh god--Falcone...I was hoping it wasn't real." Montoya spoke in shame.

"I believe you were drugged, Sergeant."

"I-It would explain a lot. Listen, you have to believe me. I talked big about hurting thugs like Falcone--but I would never--never-- betray the Lieutenant. Everything is so foggy. I remember a sharp pain."

"There's an injection site on your neck."

"Then I just felt light--like I could do whatever I wanted. No guilt. No consequence. There was a voice in my ear insisting that Falcone was gonna get off. And all I knew was that I had to stop that. I had to, no matter what. The reasons why I shouldn't-- they were a million miles away."

"Did you see a face? Could you ID a suspect?"

"I--I don't think so."

"You must remember some detail. Try."

"I remember a hand on my arm. Guiding me. Like a parent with a child. The voice-- it was saying something about 'revolution'."

Bruce eyes widened. "Cobblepot said something similar." Then, the door to the room opened and Harvey and Gordon had returned. Gordon ran over to Montoya.

"I'm so sorry, Lieutenant...I've let you down." Montoya cried.

"We've stalled Falcone's lawyers for now. But they'll be back." Harvey told Bruce. "How is she? Did she tell you anything?"

"Don't worry about that now." Gordon looked at Harvey.

"I found evidence that she was drugged. A fresh injection site on her neck." Bruce explained.

"I was out of my mind, Lieutenant. Please believe me!" Montoya apologized.

"I do. Of course I do." Gordon said. "Hey! Get forensics in here, now!" He yelled to a police officer who peered into the room.

"She remembers a voice saying something about revolution." Bruce said.

"That's not much to go on." Gordon commented.

"Now if you're bringing forensics in here, let's get Bruce out." Harvey walked Bruce out of the room. Bruce said goodbye to Harvey and he walked towards the elevator to go down to the main floor of the department to leave.

"Alfred, I've gotta get back to the manor-- I've got a lead on whoever's behind this."

"Bruce!" A familiar voice shouted. Bruce turned around to see Vicki Vale. "What are you doing here?" She walked up to him. "My friends in the GCPD have been telling stories about some kind of lockdown."

"I'm sorry, Vicki. I don't have time." Bruce turned back around.

"Don't brush me off. Word is there were shots fired-- near where Falcone was being held. Know anything about that? You must have been back there when it happened."

"Where did you get that?" 

"So it's true?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"Word is. you turned over enough dirt on Falcone to put him in Blackgate Prison for life. A day after he showed up at your house." Bruce clicked the button on the elevator to go down. "And now you're here. You can't afford to be associated with another scandal. I can keep your name out of whatever you want me to print, but you need to give me something I can use. Who fired the shots? A cop? I can tell by the way that you're brushing it off that something happened."

The elevator doors opened and a ding went off. "Please, get out of my way, Vicki. I'm in a hurry."

"Disappointing. Maybe you have more to do with this than I thought."

"Goodbye, Miss Vale." Bruce said as the elevator doors closed in front of him.