A Clever Fascination

Chapter 3 - Interrogation

As soon as Kit entered the precinct, coffee in hand and a good nights sleep behind her, all hell broke loose. She expected to have a calm, dull day of paperwork and the odd walkabout job, here and there. But alas, Gotham was never boring.

"Valentine! Gordon told me to tell you he wants to see you as soon as you clock-in." Officer Gulliver had almost tackled Kit to pass on the message. He was one of the better policemen there, if not a bit clumsy, and he meant well. If she was being summoned to Gordon's office then chances were there would be another lead to follow up on in one of her cases. Probably Zsasz, given that they got his location yesterday and his arrest had been on the news. The press were often the bane of their lives in times like this. All it did was alert other criminals and conspirators of who was in and out of custody. Kit nodded, thanked the man with a tired smile and then turned to go up the stairs, in the direction of Jim's office. "No, he's in the interrogation room. With Zsasz. Been there since 5am."

"Oh good." Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she offered her colleague a quick smile to which he returned and chuckled slightly.

5am. If Jim hadn't beaten the beady eyed assassin to a pulp yet, there was a chance she'd get to witness it. Great, more paperwork. She knew they'd spent all night trying to apprehend Zsasz, who was not going to be fun to deal with. As Kit thought about how the settle her boss, she approached the area of the precinct that she'd been summoned to. All Kit could think of was how red Jim's face was about to be.

As if on cue, Jim emerged from an interrogation room. Red with anger, as she predicted. He was still wearing his clothes from yesterday, he must not have gone home. She knew this meant he'd be more irritable than usual, he always was in these cases. Perhaps he'd already beaten Zsasz to death before she got there? Then she could atleast get on with her reports.

"Kit." Gordon both greeted and asked for her to join him with a nod.

"Everything okay?"

"No. Yesterday got out of hand. The arrest on Zsasz became a shoot out. Two wounded on our side. We detained him eventually, but the bastard is now saying he planted bomb sometime in the last 48 hours," Jim was surprisingly not smoking from the ears yet as he relayed information to his brightest detective. "He could be bluffing but I can't take that chance. Protocol says we gotta take threats like that seriously. I wouldn't put it past him so if it's true, I need that location. I don't know how long we have. Play some mind games, would ya?"

Getting information was what Kit was good at. Either he was going to blow some building sky high or send the GCDP on a wild goose chase. Kit was going to find out which.

"Of course. Do you he's telling the truth?"

"No, I think he's full of it. I wouldn't usually put it past the psycho, but he didn't start talking about a bomb until he'd had his phone call. I think whoever spoke to Zsasz told him to cry wolf. But I cannot take a terrorism threat lightly, not from Zsasz. The new DA is gonna have my head if it gets out that I didn't follow anti-terror procedure. We gotta know either way." He rubbed a hand over his tired face and slurred some words in exhaustion.

Kit agreed with Gordon's decision. This started out as her case after all, she should be the one to close it.

"Come on, let's go and talk to the new Unabomber." She patted the weary Commissioner on the back and pulled a face that Gordon agreed with wholeheartedly.

Jim turned to lead himself, and the young detective, into the room.

Zsasz was a strange looking man. Most noticeably he had no hair, but he also had very deep eyes that had watched lots of people bleed out and a voice that was surprisingly playful and rather charming. The assassin's humour was surprisingly light for his line of work. He was cuffed to the table with a neutral expression painted on his pale features.