𝒞𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝒾𝓉 𝒜𝓋𝒾𝓈 ۵ 𝒟𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝓎𝓈𝑜𝓃

ii

Nightwing crouched on the edge of a rooftop looking in through the window to see a swarm of Gotham cops investigating a murder. His eyes narrow as he watches them take pictures and converse to theorize what happened. It was boring to have to wait for a couple hours for them to leave but he knows its worth it to know what they may have contaminated and what they might've overlooked.

Eventually, after midnight they started to trickle out and only Gordon remained. He precision jumps onto the balcony of the apartment and does a fancy flip just for flair. "Nightwing." The commissioner greets, the vigilante is not caught off guard - he's used to Gordon knowing one of the bats was going to show - and instead waltzes up to the door-frame with a light smirk. Smoke hits his nostrils hard.

"Commish." He makes a joking salute to the officer whom is smoking a cigar. He turns an eye to the crime scene, seeing how strangely clean it looked. "What do we have tonight Gordon?" Blood splatter covers only around where the body was -which was marked with yellow tape to contrast against the white walls. Not too much force, must've been precise and experienced. Pottery and flowers were still standing and nothing was shattered. A table in the corner still held keys and a wallet which mostly crosses out burglary-

"Murder, though not our only one with these calling cards." He informs, catching the cigar between his teeth. He pulls out a file and showing him a few laminated pictures of the scene when it was still uncontaminated. He places his index finger on the side of his mask and takes a couple of pictures of each laminates photograph.

"Lemme guess, the other coppers don't think these are connected with the ones from last month?" Nightwing asked, already knowing that Gordon had connected the dots from the similarity of the crimes. From his time from being an officer, he knows the rest of the department wouldn't really pick up on these clues.

"Not a clue, the stubborn idiots. Sometimes I wish I could be as blind, would save me a lot of headaches. Even if I was, even a rookie could see they're too similar. Its gotta be a part of something."

"Something bigger."

A hum of agreement comes from the older man and Nightwing decides to investigate further, he gently pulls the balcony tape up but not enough for him to go under it. "May I?" He retorts, looking at the man who's known him for more than half of his life. Gordon takes the death-stick out of his mouth his his index and middle fingers and just shrugging, smoke billowing out of his mouth.

Nightwing supposes that's enough approval.

He creeps under the tape and looks around, sharp eyes that were covered by white lenses glanced all around. Furthering the assessment that he had started before. Everything seemed to be in place, if it weren't for the blood and smell of death one would guess this was a regular room. He still decides to hold he button on the side of his mask, recording it -even if their masks are always recording on patrol- and sending it directly to his computer with a few taps.

His gaze flits to the commissioner again. "Anything your boys move or grabbed that I should know about?" He questions and Gordon pulls out a bag. "Just this, might be from a random bird. Was hoping you bats would know something about it."

Nightwing shuffled over to him and gently plucked the bag from his hands, careful not to squish the item inside. A white, crisp feather lay inside, pristine and with no blood staining its colour. His eye twitches underneath his mask at the sight of the plume but he doesn't let his figure stiffen in alarm. No point in alerting James.

"You recognize it, don't you." Gordon sees right through it - Dick doesn't have it in him to hide from the commissioner, having known him for so long- and he has it in him to grin. "You always have been the best at looking for emotions. Don't tell Batman I told you this but when it comes to sentiment coming from us, I'd say you're the better reader."