Private Vengeance

Gotham entered another period of calm. The upper ranks had been thoroughly reshuffled, the middle ranks had been thoroughly reshuffled, and the lower ranks had been cleaned out again and again. Even if anyone wanted to stir up trouble, they would have to wait a while.

For Gordon, this was the best stretch of days he had ever had.

Ever since he had joined the Gotham Police Department, he seemed never to have had this much free time.

He could actually sit by the window in broad daylight, admire the view, and drink coffee.

Though he was extremely reluctant to admit it, Gordon had to say that he owed it all to that bat and that madman.

One had worked from the top down, the other from the bottom up. Their two-pronged purge of Gotham had indeed made the city much cleaner, something the police department could never have accomplished on its own.

To say nothing else, one of the Court of Owls members Batman had sent to Arkham had been a high-ranking figure in Gotham's police system.

Although the two of them had both mysteriously "disappeared" afterward and had not shown their faces for days, Gordon was quite happy to see it.

Batman had not seemed to be in very good condition last time, so this was a good chance for him to recover.

As for that madman...

Better not think about him. On the very first night they met, he had nearly cured Gordon of his longstanding chess addiction. That man's energy was just a little too overwhelming, in every sense of the word.

After taking another leisurely gulp of coffee, Gordon found himself somewhat unaccustomed to having no pressure from work for the moment.

But that was how things sometimes went. If, during a rare moment of leisure, you said, "This is way too peaceful," then that peace would soon vanish.

"Commissioner. You need to see this."

One of Gordon's officers handed him a report. Generally speaking, unless a case involved a special person—especially one of their own allies—an unsolved case still under investigation would not be delivered directly to Commissioner Gordon.

So...

Please don't let it be those two...

Taking the report, Gordon scanned it quickly. Good. He did not see photographs of either of them.

But after reading the report carefully, Gordon realized it was not much better.

"Arkham? When was this? Last night?"

"Yes, Commissioner. Six people. All dead."

"Let's go. Right now. Has the area been secured?"

"Yes, Commissioner. I'll prepare the car."

People had died at Arkham—six of them at once. That alone qualified as a major case.

What was more, the dead were the six people Batman had brought in during the Court of Owls incident.

Just days ago, they had said those people needed to be kept under close watch. Though they had escaped legal judgment, they were still meant to serve an alternative sentence in Arkham.

Only then could they be said to have given the public an explanation.

Yet who would have thought that only a few days later, they would be dead?!

By the time Gordon reached the scene, the preliminary investigation and autopsies had already been completed.

Although his subordinates strongly advised Gordon not to look at the scene, he went anyway.

And then he regretted it a little.

Those people had clearly not died normal deaths.

They had been tortured. Someone had wanted to get something out of them!

"What could it have been..."

Gordon knew little about the Court of Owls case, because both Batman and Lynn had clearly been deliberately concealing something, and they plainly did not want anyone else to know.

Gordon knew when to leave things alone. As long as the case could be solved smoothly, no more innocent civilians died or were injured, and the criminals could be judged and imprisoned, Gordon did not really care if some details were deliberately covered up.

How could someone absolutely upright and absolutely rigid survive even a single day in a place like Gotham?

Just reading the news and newspapers would make him furious to death.

Gordon did not even care all that much about the six dead men. When they had used their influence in higher places, the expensive lawyers they hired with money, and the threat of factory closures and worker layoffs to subtly intimidate the court, Gordon had wished some assassin would shoot through all six of their heads from a thousand meters away.

They were dead, so they were dead.

What Gordon cared about was whether the killer had truly obtained some information he wanted from them.

And whether that possible information was related to the things Lynn and Batman had been concealing.

This absolutely could not be treated as an ordinary case. They absolutely had to find that person, and Batman and Lynn absolutely had to be told about this!

Opening the autopsy report, Gordon—still nauseated from seeing the scene—opened the car door and sat sideways in the back seat. "The preliminary conclusion is that there was one killer... Death caused by blows from a heavy object... The killer is estimated to be one meter eighty tall..."

"One meter eighty-three."

"Oh? One meter eighty-three? That's a very precise number. Who's the medical examiner from forensics, so... huh?"

Gordon suddenly realized that he was sitting alone in the car.

"...The killer was close to one meter eighty..." Gordon repeated.

"One meter eighty-three!" A deep voice came from the utility room beside the institution.

Gordon: "..."

He got out of the car, slipped a hand inside his coat and rested it on his gun grip, then calmly walked to the utility room door and gently pushed it open...

"What a coincidence."

"...Lynn. Please, tell me you didn't do that."

Lynn, who was washing his hands, shook the water from them and turned off the faucet. "I'm sorry, but I'm not very good at lying."

Oh my God...

Gordon's head started hurting again.

He reached back and shut the door behind him. He also pulled his hand out of his coat, covered his forehead, walked over to Lynn, dragged over a filthy chair, and sat bolt upright on it.

"Lynn, why did you do this? This is revenge, this is vigilante justice, this is..."

"Batman? Hahahahaha, did he file a patent or something?"

Lynn looked utterly unconcerned. He wiped his hands on his clothes, folded his arms, and leaned against the wall. "Gordon, I respect you, and I respect everything you've done for Gotham.

I know you want to uphold the law, to place the right to enforce justice in the hands of the law rather than the people.

But, forgive me for being blunt, I have not seen any justice or dignity of law in Gotham.

I've said this to Batman before, and today I'll say it to you again.

Gordon, were those six people judged by the law?"

"I..."

"Look into my eyes, Gordon. It is rare for me to be clearheaded, so cherish it. Tell me, Gordon: did the law you speak of judge them?"

Gordon fell silent. Because he knew that no matter how he explained it, no matter what he said, even if he could deceive Lynn, he could not deceive himself.

Before those people, who were either rich or powerful, the law he revered had failed.

"But even so, you can't just... just... I mean...

Sigh..."

"Gordon, there's something I wonder if you've heard before."

Lynn patted Gordon's shoulder. "When the law cannot bring justice to the victim, private vengeance becomes justified from that moment onward...

It may even be noble."

Lynn raised a leg and headed outside. "Arthur Conan Doyle said it. Mm... he had Sherlock Holmes say it."

Please vote! If there are one hundred recommendation votes tomorrow, I'll post a third chapter.