Ghostwriter

Chapter 4

Jason Todd rolls his head back and glares at the man before him, not that the shriveling excuse for man can see his face through his red hood. Two thugs hold the man's arms. "You did what?"

"I, uh, I couldn't help it! I need the money for my sister!" John, or Jeremy, or whatever this punk's name is, shakes as he speaks. A row of narrow windows meets the ceiling at the at the top of the shaded warehouse. Pale moonlight from the windows falls at Jason's feet.

"You tried to steal four-grand from me and you think I'm going to let you get away with it because of a pity story?" Jason's fingers clutch the hilt of one of his guns, located on the side of his right thigh. One of the thugs chuckles.

The man bends over and shoots his hands up in surrender. "I'll pay you back! Twice as much! Please!"

Jason sighs—goshdarn waste of his time, he could be doing anything else right now—before he takes a couple steps toward, his feet striding forward. "...What's your sister's name?"

"...C-Christina." Tears roll down the man's eyes, but Jason's eyes roll into the back of his head.

Red Hood grabs his gun and cocks it. He tilts his head. "I smell a liar."

The man's knees nearly give out. The thugs hold him up. "Please! She's my sister! You can't hurt her—she didn't know where I was gonna get the money from! She's thinks I got an honest job." Ha! Jason may not know the man by name, but he saw him often enough to know that he was a low-class drug dealer. One of his dealers, to be exact.

Some of the man's buddies caught him in the act of thumbing through some of the tribute money that Ordela, one of the drug lords under Red Hood, was about to send to Jason for his protection. Hence the reason they wound up here, because Ordela was too lazy to take care of the thief himself. Red Hood would have to talk with him later.

"What's your sister's name, before I employ other methods to look it up and hurt the both of you for wasting my time." Bluff. Jason wouldn't hurt the sister if she was innocent. Heavy on the if.

The man looks down at the ground. "Layla. Layla Martino. She's in trouble, deep trouble, and I really got to get the money to her or they'll kill her."

"Who?" Maybe he could get some excitement tonight.

"Her boss. She works for Transfuse, and she got in too deep and they want her to do something so they've got something over her head, she said. They want her to steal the money for them, but I said I'd do it for her. She won't tell nobody. She's terrified of them."

Didn't Barb say something about Transfuse? Jason makes a mental note to check into it later.

Jason almost regrets shooting the guy, but policy's policy.

He points to one of Ordela's thugs. "Clean him up."

Red Hood jabs his finger at the other one. "Tell Ordela to deal with his own scum. Next time he sends one to me instead of being a man and taking out his own trash, I'm going to up the price and make sure he pays with a little of his own blood."

The two thugs nod, and Red Hood climbs out of the warehouse. He jogs over the rooftops, heading to the Clocktower. Gotham smells like pollution and cigarettes, and few stars struggle to shine through the veil of all the light pollution.

Jason wonders how Barbara's fairing and hopes she forgot about his attempt to... what was he even trying to do when he brought that up? Apologize for something that wasn't his fault? Council her? Heck of a job he did.