Justice League And The Hounds Of Hell

Chapter 9: The Cat's out of the Bag

Bruce was not happy to find Ace in the manor; but, with Alfred on my side, he could do nothing to change it. The behaviorist came in to work with him that same day. She said he was one of the most severe cases of fear-agression, frustration, and emotional trauma she'd seen, and was excited for the journey with him.

My visit with the Oracle served me well, and the records I had asked my father to get in regards to Ronny Boxer gave me the answers I was suspecting. He'd been convicted a few years back for dog fighting, and while most of the public believed he had denounced that former life and turned away from it, (he'd even done a brief stint as an informant for the GCPD) the Oracle told me he was still seen in the pits at least once a week, placing bets on the dogs.

The information made me quiver in anger. If Ace had seen the inside of those pits--and the numerous scars that the vet found on him proved that he had--it explained his hatred toward other dogs and his mistrust for people. He was used to a world where other dogs are deadly opponents and humans are riotous, abusive beings.

As much as I wanted to make Ronny answer for his crimes against canine-kind, I couldn't distract myself with him until I figured out his connection to my missing birds, lion, and hyenas. I wanted to do it fast before another large predator went missing.

Meanwhile, no more murders had taken place but Batman was wary. The commissioner shared that the fur that was scanned had indeed belonged to a lion, and not just any lion, it was my lion. They kept the information a secret to avoid panic in the public, and I was urged more than ever to close the case. Despite the rising tension, I was glad he didn't take over my case. I think he really wanted me to close it on my own, and I wanted that more than anything, too. He was also too busy with work in the Justice League to think about touching my case. He spent a lot of days visiting their respective cities, and in the Watch Tower, compiling all sorts of information and contingency plans. I didn't know what it was all for, it looked like book keeping to me, but he was so engrossed in it that I didn't dare to bother him. Besides, if I did ask, he would have thought that I wasn't taking my case very seriously.

Other than Ronny and Jezebel Jet being my prime suspects, I was beginning to have suspicions about Poison Ivy as well. The Oracle had advised me to look into the tranquilizers so I could locate where they'd been purchased based on their ingredients. Tim scanned them for me, and behold, the toxins in the darts for both the lion and the hyenas had her DNA sequence in it. I just couldn't figure out whether she was in on the heists, because being protective of plant life was more her gig, not animal life. Or, if she had simply sold her toxins for money. I even considered the possibility that it may have been stolen from her. Batman let me have access to the information he'd gathered on both murder suspects, and there seemed to be nothing that connected the two. Not gender, sexuality, ethnicity, friends, family, occupation, nothing. They lived on opposite sides of the city, but they might as well have been from different poles of the world. The woman had a couple fines for littering, I could see that peeving Ivy enough to send a lion on her. But the man was an environmentalist, good looking too. He would have been more likely to die as a result of Ivy's toxic kiss rather than through a vicious mauling by a beloved city lion.

I still had yet to decide whether the incident I'd found Ace in at Channel Park was connected to my investigation, too or if it was isolated. My mistake early on had been the assumption of Penguin's responsibility. It narrowed my mind to all of the other roads before me. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I treated everything I learned like a single point in a Seurat painting. With more dots, I would get enough to see the whole picture, but until then, each bit of information was just a single spot of color on a blank canvas.

"Do you want me to investigate with you tonight?" Robin asked as we walked to our transportation. He'd been offering to help me every night since he closed the ninja case a week and a half ago.