As Harvey Bullock is standing in a dark alley, smoking a cigar while looking at his watch, Spider-Bat drops down behind him.
"Hello, Harvey." He says, scaring the detective.
"Jesus. Would it kill ya to stop doing that? Whatever, come on let's go look at some art."
Soon they walk into an apartment and sees a dead body pinned against the wall with thousands of knives.
"The landlord found him earlier today on a routine rent run. Went by the name Dante Martin, but when we ran it, turned out to be a phony. No I.D. in the apartment, nothing on his prints. Paid everything in cash. A true blue John Doe." Harvey says.
"Time of death?" Peter asks.
"Evidence points to five, maybe six days ago. When someone decided to use him as a human dart board. Thing is, whoever did it missed every one of Doe's major arteries- on purpose. Meaning they wanted to hurt him very badly, for a long, long time."
The vigilante looks closer at the knives.
"Antique throwing knives, professional grade. The grooves are filled with mercury for steadier flight. I'd like to take one." Peter says.
"Hell, it's not like we're gonna run out." Harvey replies.
Peter takes one of the knives out of the body and sees an owl symbol on it. He then looks under his fingernails.
"Looks like skin beneath the victims fingernails, possibly the killer's." He says, taking a DNA sample.
Peter then catches a whiff of something in the air. He walks over to a painting on the wall, staring at it for a moment then moving it off the wall, confusing Bullock.
"What? What is it?" He asks.
"Give me your cigar." Peter replies.
"My cigar?"
Harvey begrudgingly gives Peter his cigar.
"That smell is linseed oil. A common paint thinner. But the intensity is too strong."
"So what? Our guy spilled a can of paint thinner?"
"Maybe..."
Peter presses the cigar against the wall, lighting the paint thinner on fire to reveal the message "Harry Osborne will die tomorrow"
"Or maybe he was using it to leave a last message, a warning, before he was murdered."
"I guess it's safe to say he was a lousy fortune teller. If our time of death for him was a week ago, the "tomorrow" he thought would be Osborne's last day already came and went. So Osborne's in the clear."Harvey says.
"Unless John Doe knew when he'd be found. You said the landlord was making routine run. The victim knew he was going to die, knew he was going to be found today. So he left a warning that whoever killed him would be coming after Harry Osborne tomorrow."
"Damn. So the only question is- when?" Harvey asks.
Peter quickly thinks of the answer.
YOU ARE READING
THE AMAZING SPIDER-BAT
ActionAfter being bit by a radioactive Spider and the death of his parents, a young man goes around the world to train his mind, body, and spirit to become the hero his city needs.
