infomodder | IC contact [Mask or Menace]

[Now, for someone who's done law enforcement all his life and is currently in the process of getting back to it, it might make sense of Will's return call to be delayed. Scrambling to find tools to add onto his device so he can track whoever's calling down and all that fun stuff. Except Will is Will, tracks well enough on his own, so there's no delay. There's only enough time for him to realize he has a message, listen to that message, and immediately call back.]

Hello?

[No accusation in his tone. It's more of an invitation—hello, he's here, talk to him, tell him all about Freddie Lounds.]

[ If he does track the message, Will will discover that it's bounced back across several private satelites, and there's a jamming beacon fracturing the original broadcast's location into several images, all within the CBD of De Chima. Attempts to hack the identity would result in a bat symbol without fail, but then that's largely with the help of a certain technopathic boy genius.

Batman's voice is rough; gravely, and low. ]

She was disruptive. Dangerous. She didn't have a great many friends. Whether you considered yourself one of them is still a mystery to me.

A friend suggested I call you. He suspects foul play. I believe you do too.

[Rough, gravely, and low is all good. Familiar.]

Freddie and I were indeed close. [He doesn't mind revealing this, though the use of friendship, within those cropping up out of Baltimore, isn't generally common. Friendship means something very different, very not like friendship as most people consider it. Still, the reply comes quickly enough that the Bat on the line can imagine the close relationship is borderline friendship.] Which friend are you talking about?

[And yet he'll hide his full hand, here and now. He's talked to Clark. He's talked to Miles. He's talked to Frederick. All with various levels of details. Which one?]

[ Close. One word that masks so much, but from watching their interactions on the network it's clear enough that it isn't friendship in the strictest sense. Camaraderie would be a closer diagnosis.

Clark had come to him with this, explained the situation; had already established that he knew and trusted him. Now it was Bruce's turn to demonstrate that. ]

Clark Kent. He's a reporter from my world, one of the few who knows how to get in contact with me. [ A pause. ] He introduced me to you as a detective, of sorts.

[Diagnosis Batman is completely accurate.

That takes some (minor) guesswork out of it all, though the way he adds of sorts to the end gives Will room for pause. What Clark had gotten to see at that fair, an unexpected and unintentional look inside his mind and how he worked...had he passed that much along? If this guy isn't bringing it up right off the bat, no need for Will to, either.]

He's a good guy. [Seems like one, that is. Has extended Will courtesies that he's unfamiliar with, especially from someone in the world of reporting.] I had the title Special Investigator with the FBI, back where I come from. [Read: either wouldn't or couldn't jump through the hoops to get that coveted Special Agent title, had to give him something else.] I'm...working towards getting back into the field, here, so I can better investigate what happened to her. You're the...great detective who's solved many cases in the past, good at seeing what others can't or won't see he mentioned, I take it?

[There is a different inflection in a lot of those words in that last sentence, notably the ones that came from Clark himself. The inflection being, well, Clark's. Will's voice takes on his cadence, tone, timbre, without losing the sound being Will. It's essentially like hearing Clark speak with another voice—mimicry, not mockery. He'd never mock Clark, not to someone who liked (trusted?) him. No pauses or delays, all natural, as natural (to him) as an echo.]

[ You have no idea, Bruce thinks, in regard at least to Clark being a nice guy, but it's not quite the mood he wants to portray right now; one of professionalism and aloofness. ]

I bring a variety of resources beyond my own personal experience on cases. If there's anything to uncover - and I have no doubt that there is, considering the circumstances of her disappearance - I'll find it.

[ The change of voice gives Bruce pause. That is...very strange, not least because it's an odd power for someone to have, if it is indeed a power, and not an actual talent. It implies - either way, really - a sponge like approach to information, particularly where people are concerned. Special Investigator indeed. Some sort of Profiler, maybe. With experience in the field? That was certainly unusual.

Okay, so he had to learn more about Will too, but it would tie into his investigation of Lounds. ]

Before we speak any further, I should for the sake of clarity introduce myself; I'm known as the Batman. I wear a mask to conceal my identity, and protect the people I care about.

[Will wonders how much Clark said—if this Batman is expecting Will to find his summary of his abilities as something of an insult to Will's own skills. He's not the best team player, it's true, but when something happens that he can't handle on his own and there are others near who can help, or do it better, it would be ridiculous for him to puff up, get huffy and proud instead of accepting what's offered. Accepting that there are others around that are probably much more equipped, better than him. No shame, no real blow to the pride—finding who took Freddie out of the picture is far more important than him getting to stand on some box as the greatest bloodhound that ever walked through the halls of the FBI. He's not anywhere near that, here, and he's spent nearly a year away from that line of work. There's no offense taken, no posturing, no anything you can do, I can do better. Instead, it's much the opposite, quiet and hopeful and not at all about to comment on the strangeness of calling oneself the Batman (like he can really talk, serial killers have bizarre names all the time):]

It's good to meet you. I'm just Will Graham. [He's not getting down on himself with that, merely stating fact. Or what he'd like to be fact, because he's certainly not just Will Graham back home.] As far as I know, Freddie had lacerations on her neck, and they had planned to do some more testing, but...can't do that when her body. Vanished. Did you—have you been around a while? You saw her file leak—ah—scene?

[More of a circus, really.]

[ He does suspect it. It's not anything personal, really, it's just that with the volume of heroes that have been brought here, everyone thinks that what they have to bring to an investigation is all that that investigation needs. Bruce at least has some hubris - this one, anyway - and knows that other people have talents that he can reach out to. He's a talented investigator, but he can't look into a person's eyes and get a reading of their personality. He's not an attorney, or a police officer, or a superhuman from another planet.

He isn't trying to take over, but he can help. ]

I did see it--and your own response to it; which was proportional, I think, but may have opened her up for further retribution.

[ By which he means: don't be too guilty. Also he's investigating you, too. Because he's a professional. ]

As far as you know. A partial lab report was written, correct? And the police should have a preliminary report from the scene--photographs? I can get them, if you can't access them yourself.

[There's a heavy silence on Will's end, not because he feels any guilt over his "slipping" her file out there for the world to see—he certainly does not, and there is a good reason for that. Other than him having done quite worse and not felt guilt.]

They should, yes. But it won't be much. They didn't have her for very long before the second call came about her having disappeared. They didn't even have time to start, you know, scraping under her fingernails or combing through her hair for evidence...basic starting points. I didn't need to see any pictures when I came in, all her personal effects and the description were. Enough. [And he was dealing with an Abigail Hobbs currently in maximum freak out mode, so he didn't have as much time that day to hang around and demand reports, the few pictures they'd taken. Plus the disadvantage of being a bait shop owner here, nothing more.] My response, as you called it, wasn't...mine. It was ours. Freddie and I came up with it together to ease some of that retribution.

[Go ahead and investigate, Batman, he doesn't care. There's not much to find that he won't admit to, and what there is he would never want to admit to has been gone without a trace left behind for months now. He'll even help out with that, so readily confessing to a staged performance he felt even Hannibal Lecter would have had difficulty seeing through for what it was. Good times, getting to be Graham and Lounds butting heads again, normal Tuesday for Baltimore. Honesty delivered in a decidedly deceitful way? Nothing out of the ordinary for home, and nothing that Will Graham felt was beneath him, or hesitated over. Even Chilton bought it, which was a moment of victory. Sad victory, but still.]

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