Gotham City
It was All Hallows Eve in Gotham City, always a perilous time in a perilous city. For the past few weeks Batman had been hard on the track of a villain known only as the Scarecrow Killer. At each crime scene, always gruesome, there was found bits of straw and a crude drawing of a scarecrow. The press had got wind of the macabre setting, and thus another infamous serial killer was born.
The official police task force was led by Lieutenant Gordon. He was a good detective, but under funded and under appreciated. Most of the Gotham Police Department was owned by the Falcone Crime Family and the rest was too scared to do anything about it. Gordon was owned by no one, and as well as he could in a city as corrupt as Gotham, he served the law. Mostly the Falcones let him alone. One good cop could hardly spoil a city of bad ones. Besides, even in the most lawless of towns there had to be some law and order, otherwise everyone would move out and without people to harass and rob and govern corruptly, there was no money to be made. So Gordon dealt out what law and kept what order he could.
Thus, when the vigilante known as the Batman made his presence known, and the official order came down from corrupt Mayor to corrupt Police Commissioner to corrupt Police Captain, incorruptible Lt. Gordon ignored the order. Well, officially he obeyed it, but he didn’t try very hard.
On top of Gotham Police Headquarters, Lt. Gordon stood talking to the Batman.
“Oh, you’re under arrest, by the way. Remind me to take you into custody sometime, will you?”
“Sure thing, Gordon. Now, what about this latest murder by the Scarecrow. Any new leads?”
“Just one. We found a smear of makeup on the victim, but it wasn’t hers. The victim’s makeup was special order from a Paris shop. This stuff was more amateur hour, like what you find at a school theater or carnival or something.”
“I’ll look into it. Anything else?”
“Not yet, but the lab is going as slow as possible, so I brought you samples of all the samples we took. Maybe you’ll have better luck analyzing it. I’ve also got all the info from previous murder scenes here, if you want to compare.”
“Thanks, Gordon. I’ll get back to you. Oh, do you want to take me in now?”
“Yeah, but hang on, I’ve got to call my wife first, let her know I’ll be late for dinner. One last criminal to process, you see. Wait here.”
Gordon left the rooftop and went down to his office. He placed a call to his wife.
“Hello. Yeah, honey, its me. Look, I’ll be home in fifteen minutes. Meat loaf? Sounds delicious. Need anything? A gallon of milk. Ok. Consider it done. See you in a bit. Love you. Bye.”
And what with the gallon of milk and all, Gordon plain forgot to go back up to the roof to nab the Batman. It wouldn’t have mattered. Batman got bored waiting and left.
Bruce Wayne took off his Bat costume, just a simple black jumpsuit with the silhouette of a Bat printed on the front and a mask. A more complex, and battle ready, costume was on order, but for now, this would have to do. When he went prowling he wore hockey pads underneath. He hated being low rent, but even Bruce Wayne had to wait a few days for titanium reinforced kevlar biweave battle suits to be hand manufactured and secretly shipped, along with cowls and masks and boots and grappling hooks and, well, Amazon two day shipping didn’t cover super hero suits.
At any rate, he had the evidence that Gordon gave him and that would take time to sift through. So far the Scarecrow was killing at a rate of a victim a week, so he figured he had a little time. Serial killers sometimes escalated their time tables, but this one seemed to be building up to something, so he would keep to the schedule for now.
In reading through the back stories, Bruce came across something interesting: a link between victims. It seemed that all of them had visited the Gotham City Haunted House of Horror this month. It was a city run haunted house that had opened just at the beginning of October. This being Hallowe’en, it was the last performance and night it would be open. Batman strongly suspected that this was where the killer was finding his victims. Given the cheap makeup, he further concluded that the Scarecrow was possibly one of the performers at the haunted house. So, Batman decided that Bruce Wayne needed to take in the Gotham House of Horror that evening. Which he did. While there, a girl went missing, one that fit Scarecrow’s profile. Coincidentally, one of the members of the haunted house was missing as well: Jon Crane, a Gotham University drama student. He played a scarecrow at the haunted house. Batman had his man, and Bruce Wayne had a good time.
Now the hunt was on. Each victim had been tortured for eight hours before being killed. As tomorrow was All Saint’s Day, Batman knew that Scarecrow was probably planning a more elaborate killing and that meant a more elaborate torture. But where was the Scarecrow doing his torture? And when would he kill?
Batman had work to do.
a simple man 