“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can cut the act with me. You think I’ve never seen a boy in love?” She sniffed once as she made a sharper turn than she needed to, sending her bag and papers sliding across the car’s back seat. “I’ve fallen in and out of love more times than I can count, and let me tell you—you’ve made a little room for her in that heart of yours. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this one’s probably not going to work out.”
Bruce tried to imagine the detective in love, letting down the authoritative shell she operated behind. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” she said. “Why do you keep talking to her, then?”
Draccon had been watching the security tapes closely. Bruce looked over at her to see that her expression had turned clinical, that she was fishing for more. He took a deep breath. “I don’t think Madeleine killed those three people.”
Draccon shot Bruce a hard glance. “And what makes you think that?”
“I was reading about the details of her crimes, and of her mother’s crimes. She seems like she’s protecting someone out there who’s still at large. You know those napkins she’s always folding? I don’t think she’s just doing them for fun—I think she folds them to send messages with her gestures via the security cams. And the mayor was murdered this morning. Someone else is still out there, committing the crimes that wethoughtMadeleine was responsible for. It just doesn’t add up.”
Draccon leaned forward against the steering wheel. “Wow—you’ve got it worse than I thought.”
“I’m saying this objectively,” Bruce snapped. “I’m not stupid.”
“No. You’re just naive.” Draccon’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “When we arrested her, it was at the scene of the final murder. I was one of the officers shining the spotlight on her. She was covered in blood, Bruce, with cuts in her gloves and knives strapped to her legs. Her fingerprints were all over the house. When the police questioned her afterward, asking if she’d done it, she nodded for each of the murders.”
“She’s far too smart to leave fingerprints all over the house,” Bruce replied. “You haven’t stood there and had a conversation with her. You haven’theardher. If you did, you’d understand what I mean.”
“I haven’t talked to her because shechoosesto talk to you. Why do you think that is? You’re questioning my work, Bruce, the work of the entire police department,” Draccon said. “She killed those people. Now she’s giving us—you—some information that’s slightly useful to us, because she’s finally realized that it might help her avoid the death penalty. It doesn’t do her any good to keep holding information back.”
“And what have you all done to try getting more information out of her?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you and Dr. James also authorize Arkham to treat her roughly?”
“What are youtalkingabout?” Draccon’s irritation turned into bewilderment.
“Herbruises.You must have seen them before, too. A while ago, when I spoke to her, she had deep scratch marks below her wrist, and her arm was black and blue.”
Draccon stayed silent. “That’s absurd,” she finally said. “No one has ever touched her.”
“It happened on the same day she said she got her IV medication. Did she get those bruises while she was in the medical wing?”
“Bruce, shedoesn’tneed IV medication. And even if she did, we’d administer it in her cell. She’s not meant to go anywhere outside her confines.”
Bruce hesitated at that. He turned to look at the detective. “She told me she got into a fight with the nurse when they tried to inject her with medicine.” But even as he said it, the words came out weak.
Draccon shook her head. “She was lying,” she replied.
“Then…” Bruce frowned, trying to understand. Did she bruiseherselfas a ruse?
“Maybe you should check the security tapes,” he said. “Send someone in there to check on her. If she really has bruises, then you probably need to make sure some employee isn’t going in there to hurt her. She’s still a valuable asset to you, isn’t she?”
Draccon hesitated, making an annoyed sound in her throat. “I’ll call the warden,” she replied. Then she glanced at Bruce. “I told you early on to be careful around this girl. She’s not normal, Bruce. She’s not someone you can open up to and expect her to do the same back. She’s not someone you can have a conversation with and then come away thinking you understand her better.” The detective looked sidelong at him. “Now. What else has she told you that you’ve decided not to pass along to me?”
Bruce hesitated.Leave Gotham City,she’d told him. But maybe she’d been lying about that, too.
Draccon slowed to a stop at a light, then turned to Bruce. “Listen carefully, kid,” she said. “If there’s something she told you that I should know, you need to tell me now. Got it?”
She needs to know.Bruce looked back at the detective. “She said I was on a hit list,” he replied. “She told me to get out of Gotham City, for my own safety.”
At that, the detective whirled on him. “A hit list?”
“She told me to get out of Gotham City, for my own safety.”
