BATMAN: THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE

CHAPTER TWO: The Murder and the Mystery

Bruce was halfway across Gotham, rushing for the site of a gunfight at a pawn shop when Alfred's face crackled onto the comm-screen.

"Sir." The butler looked concerned, "Master Bruce, we need you here A.S.A.P."

"What is it, Alfred? Are you alright?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, sir, but I fear Mr. D'Arbanville does not share my status."

"What happened?"

Batman stared at the clock. It was half past two in the morning. Alfred must have let the guests stay, and surely people like D'Arbanville and Sanchez could take any normal intruder. Hell, Alfred was no weakling… that meant that either a supervillain was at Wayne Manor, or…

"He's been murdered, sir."

"Who the hell…?"

"I don't know, Master Wayne, that's the problem!"

Bruce turned off the screen and flicked on the police scanner. The line was crackling frantically:

"We need reinforcements! Someone get us some freaking backup! These punks are walkin' all over us!"

He gritted his teeth, and hurtled down the road, allowing the Batmobile to burst through into the pawnbrokers and he was out in a flash, loosing batarangs with pinpoint precision. Three guns fell to the ground, three gangsters went with them. Four more were standing, firing at the hero, with two others holding off the final cop- two policemen were down, and probably dead.

I failed. That was the Dark Knight's last coherent thought for half of a minute. Then he was just a beast, a primitive creature, yet as elegant and smooth as a ballet dancer. He felled two men with his eyes tight shut, and he just allowed his instincts to guide him, kicking one thug so he knocked over another, and he plunged down to deliver the knock-out blow!

Five of them, now really ready, dashed in, hoping to overwhelm him. Now, Batman was coherent as ever, eyes open. He had his grappling gun in hand, and fired a cord into the ceiling, flipping away, so the gunmen crashed together, and he dropped down, kicking with perfection. With a final elbow to a cocky thug's nose, the deed was done… but not without cost.

Batman inclined his head gravely to Jim Gordon, and was gone, up through a broken window and out, dropping into the alley. He had already set the Batmobile to autopilot and sure enough found it a few hundred yards down the road. He leapt into the cockpit and sped off for Wayne Manor.

"Sir! Hurry! The police are here and want to search the manor!" Alfred's rippling face appeared on the screen, which had evidently sustained damage in the crash, "HURRY!"

The screen flickered off. Batman flicked on the autopilot controls for the Cave's hidden entrance and then was soon speeding through mudtracks and bogs, until he left the road and crashed through a waterfall. The car slammed against the rock floor far too hard, and he felt a tire crack completely. Bruce ejected just in time as the car tilted sideways and hung loosely from two wheels.

It would need a little repair work, he thought, as he changed into his tuxedo, and set the Cave to maximum security. Panels and lifts activated to conceal any evidence of it being the Batman's residence, and then he slipped up and listened by the grandfather clock. There were raised voices outside- he recognised Alfred's and… oh god… Jim Gordon was there, with another cop.

Bruce leapt down the winding stone path, darting down to the centre of the cave. He stared up at the well high above, and then reached into his inside jacket pocket, producing a wound grapple cord. He whirled it and threw. The line looped around a high stalactite and he reeled up, then scaled the rocks with ease, emerging out of the old well in the grounds of Wayne Manor. He slipped by some cops and clambered a hedge, then took a long turn, so he soon managed to come hurrying in down the path towards the main gate. A cop saw him.

"What the hell's going on!?" Bruce feigned ignorance as he ran for the policeman.

"There's been a murder, Mr. Wayne, you gotta come with us," a second cop, a sergeant, spoke. He was tall and very thin, with scraggy blond hair. He was toying with his handgun, which made Bruce like him all the less.

"Who? Who's been killed? One of my guests!?" Bruce stared at the cop in fear. He had to be a good actor in the superhero business.

"Mr. Henry D'Arbanville, Mr. Wayne, and we need to question you," the other policeman was speaking now. He was clearly older- in his fifties- with greyed brown hair, cut short, and stubble covering the lower half of his face.

About ten minutes later, Bruce was sat in his study with Jim Gordon and a lieutenant who clearly seemed to have much better relations with Mayor Hill than Gordon- a man named Akins. Michael Akins. Indeed, for the five minutes before the interview (or interrogation) the two cops merely snapped at each other over who would control the interview, and soon enough Akins began questioning Bruce.

"Mr. Wayne, why did you leave Wayne Manor tonight while your guests stayed here overnight?"

"They were to stay overnight?" This was news to Bruce.

"So your butler says."

"I'm afraid Alfred must have made such an offer while I was out."

"And where the hell did you go!?"

Akins' breath stank of stale alcohol, and tobacco. He glared across at Bruce, leaning over the desk, and saliva flicked from his mouth over the billionaire.

"Akins…" began Gordon, starting to rise.

"Jim, I can handle this," spat Akins, not even looking at his fellow cop, "Mr. Wayne, answer the damn question!"

"I was called away urgently to Wayne Enterprises. They heard that the Sanchez Corporation was under attack, and wanted to know how we could possibly respond. We have our own assets at SanCorp too, lieutenant."

"I see…" began Gordon, but then Akins cut in, bellowing:

"Mr. Wayne, you are a primary suspect in this case so you better get your fucking act together or I swear to god I'll blow your pretty head right off here and now! Diego Sanchez is here right now, yet you didn't tell him about the Goddam attack on SanCorp!?"

Bruce looked up, perfectly calmly at Akins:

"First off, I was in a hurry, I wanted to get to and back to the party as soon as possible. And second… you're offending me with your stinking breath and your spitting, lieutenant, so either stop… or I will ask for you to get the hell out of my house!"

Akins was taken aback for a moment, and Gordon took the chance to say:

"Thanks. That's all for now. We'll have to ask you to stay in other lodgings tonight, naturally, with the murder investigation here. But be somewhere where you can be contacted and found at all times."

"Of course, Lieutenant Gordon."

Bruce hurried out, as Michael Akins shook with anger…