File Stealing

Part Two

“So you think you know who’s doing this?”

“Two-Face.”

Batman gave Robin an enigmatic look. “You sure about that?”

“Almost.”

“Which isn’t good enough.”

“I’ll have the proof soon enough.”

Bruce removed his cowl. “I think you’re jumping the gun here.”

Dick hid his annoyance; he wasn’t exactly a rookie here. “Why?”

“Doesn’t add up if you look at everything.”

“That’s why I’ll find the proof, I’m sure it’s him. It’s the kind of thing he can do from prison by just writing letters and that last blurb had some pretty strong hints about the whole ‘two’ thing.”

Bruce shook his head. “I’m not convinced, but maybe.”

Dick glanced at the clock on the monitor. “’Gotta go. ‘Later.”

Bruce listened to the custom Ninja motorcycle roar out of the cave, hating that he still worried about how fast Dick drove the damn thing.

Two-Face? Maybe Dick was right, it was possible. It was the kind of thing someone like him would do to amuse himself while he was in a cell, but something about it struck him as being off.

Dick was good at what he did. If he put his mind and his resources to solving this, then he’d get it soon enough. In the meantime, most of the damage had been minor and more embarrassing than actually harmful. They could all afford to let this ride for a while.

‘So we’ve been talking to our little bird again and we’ve learned some secret dish, kiddies. ‘Remember how we told you about our young Bat-boy’s—ahem—exploits now that he’s (shall we say) a growing boy? It seems that he’s been spreading himself a bit thin lately and romancing more than one lovely lady at a time, that rascal. All we can say is that he needs to be careful about pillow talk so he doesn’t make one of those oh so embarrassing and unforgivable slips at an awkward time. Just a word to the wise, Honeybatbunny.’

“Hey Dick—you keeping secrets from your old friend here?”

Dick shifted the phone to his other shoulder. “What are you talking about, Roy?”

“Perez is saying you’re two-timing your girlfriend, you horn-dog, you.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend; Lori dumped me last week.”

“Yeah, well, this may be the reason. C’mon, Dickie-m’lad—that’s the kind of thing I get hung out to dry for, not you. Christ, you’re a frigging Boy Scout; famous for it.”

Dick looked over at Roy’s laptop. Yes, there it was the insinuation that he was screwing around on his non-existent girlfriend. Whatever. It was bullshit, it wasn’t true and it was harmless, just like Bruce said it was. The thing he didn’t get was why Harvey was wasting his time on this small potatoes kind of garbage. He was always good for some major stuff, not this minor harassment.

Well, fine. He’d take the bull by the horns, as it were.

“Where you going?”

“Akhram.”

“Why?”

“I want to talk to Harvey Dent about stopping this crap.”

“You want to talk to Two-Face face to face? Party-on, Robbie.”

‘Sadsadsad, that’s what we are. It seems that our little babybat has bee found out by his now former girlfriends and neither young lady is speaking to the young winged one. Poor baby is all alone in that big ole’ cave with no one to play with.

We are also officially stating that, no mater what you’ve heard—and we’ve all heard plenty—the only ‘tussling that happens in said cave is of the official training kind, not the kink kind.

Or that’s the official word, anyway.

Personally, we have our doubts. The non-official reason for the splits is lack of quality time with the dear lad but we’ve heard from our little bird that he has plenty of time for those he chooses to share with, if you know what we mean.’

Robin easily secured permission to question Harvey Dent, so long as the man’s lawyer could be present for any questioning. The three met in a small room deep in the fortress like prison.

“All right, Robin, my client has agreed to answer your questions, however you know there are areas we won’t discuss because of client/lawyer confidentiality. Go ahead.”

“Okay, let’s get right to it; why are you selling this crap to the Tabloids?”

Harvey had tossed the coin and it was, indeed, Harvey who was sitting across the table. “I’m not.”

Robin gave him a skeptical look. “Uh-huh. You know that selling confidential medical records is a violation. I can see that it adds a few years to your stay here.”

“That was an implied threat to my client, Robin. I’ll have to ask you to refrain from this sort of thing or we’ll have to terminate this interview.”

“Fine. Why should I believe you, Harvey?”

“May I ask why you seem to think I’m behind trying to tarnish your reputation?”

Robin pushed a piece of paper over to Harvey. It was a printout from one of the recent blind items with parts Robin had underlined: ‘So, we’ve been keeping our ears to the ground, but it seems that things are way too quiet in the Hero business, as it were—or just business as usual, I guess you could say.

Except for one lil snickerty-snack I happened upon just last evening.

Two of our senior heroes were out crime-busting, looking almost like twins in their oh so dark and way too form fitting uniforms (not that we’re complaining!) when they accidentally dropped a clue about their dual identities. Now I’m not saying anything and heaven forbid I drop that kind of serious info, but you can bet your bottom two dollars that this is too juicy to keep hidden forever.

Just a word to the wise, but these boys need to be a scoot more careful.’

Harvey and his lawyer looked the thing over for a moment before the lawyer spoke. “You’re reaching for straws here, boy. Coincidence and nothing more.”

“I’d like to hear what Harvey has to say about this; why should I believe he’s not involved?”

“Because I have no access to the information you seem to think I’m selling or giving away or whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing. I have no computer, no magazines, no book and all my calls—two a month—are monitored. All my mail, both in and out, is screened and I’m allowed visits with just Mr. Griffin here. In addition, this really isn’t my kind of thing when you come down to it. I prefer grander statements than slinging some gossip.”

Robin studied him as he spoke, he actually seemed to be telling the truth and Rob knew how thin his case was. Even he wasn’t convinced Harvey was the one but was hoping to get lucky. Maybe the guy was innocent. But… “So who would you suggest I speak to about getting this under control?”

Harvey laughed out loud. “You’re asking me? Jesus, you really are stumbling in the dark on this. ‘Somebody hitting a little too close to home for your comfort, boy?” He stood up. “Now, this has been a charming distraction but, if you’ll excuse me, I’m sure there’s lots for me to be doing in my cell.” The guards opened the door, ready to escort him back to solitary. “Don’t be a stranger, now.”

‘We’ve heard that our littlebat was under the mistaken impression that we are a hardened criminal out to steal his secrets and all of that. Well, we love secrets as much as anyone, but hardened criminal? We can’t go that far. It’s just that when a wealth of information falls into our lap, we can hardly be expected to turn a blind eye, can we?’

“That’s not like you, Dick, you’ve never accused someone with no real evidence or anything before. I mean, there’s a difference between a hunch and a stab in the dark, y’know?"

“Okay, maybe it wasn’t Two-Face, but I’ll find whoever it is.”

Wally shrugged. “Why does this bother you so much? You usually just let this kind of crap roll off your back.”

“You mean aside from the fact that it’s illegal to violate medical confidentiality and it’s annoying?”

Wally pulled another slice from the pepperoni box. “C’mon, this is part and parcel of the gig. You know that better than anyone, Robbie, lighten up about it.”

He did know this, in fact he’d been raised with it but this time it was getting under his skin and the more he thought about it, the more he began to understand why it was bugging him so much. It was the fact that someone was doing this just to be obnoxious. Sure, they were making money out of it as well, but it was like he and his friends were being lumped in with the latest starlets getting drunk at some club or getting into a DUI while underage or just generally being the kind of superficial jerks you always see in the tabs.

It was not only untrue, but was hurting their reputations and that was hurting their effectiveness against the criminals they were trying to stop. If they lost respect or the belief that they were doing the right things for the right reasons, if the heroes became just another slice of the cult of celebrity and were in the same category as Paris and Lindsay then there was no reason for anyone to pay any more attention to their work than to the latest movie or hot TV show.

When the Titans and the JLA became just another neato-keano reality show played out on the evening news, they were diminished.

“Rob, what’s the big deal? I mean, really.”

“It’s not good for us to become media stars, Wally—when signing autographs becomes a bigger focus than fighting crime, when that line blurs we lose credibility.”

‘So whenwhenwhen will our babybat admit that he’s more than okay with being a heart throb for a wider audience than just the teeny-boppers and their older sisters and mothers? If you know what I mean. In fact, darlin’ give me a call—any time.’


TBC
 

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