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whiskey and poured a fresh drink and rolled a cigarette. She put the cigarette in her mouth, twisted it
from one side of her lips to the other, and this time, for the first time in ages, and without thinking, she
found her lighter and lit it. She read the report through again.
"Ho boy," she said. She checked her watch and made a phone call, crushed out the last of her
cigarette and lit another.
2
The Cave Beneath Wayne Manor, 4:00 P.M.
He hated going out in the daylight and usually avoided it at all cost. In the daytime the uniform didn't
work as effectively. His power lay in the night and the mystery of the night; there, shrouded in
darkness, he was Batman.
But Alfred was right about the photograph. You looked at it closely, through the picture window
across the way, you could see the glint of a little silver object hanging from the ceiling of the shop, an
object that under a magnifying glass was the lens of an in-store surveillance camera. It would be the
type of camera that rotated and at times pointed to the front glass of the store, and that meant it pointed
into the street. Perhaps---just perhaps---the assault in the alley had been recorded on it.
So after breakfast---Alfred had prepared one for him after all, but not without grumbling---he
surveyed his notes, analyzed his dream, and kicked it all around again and again. He didn't like what it
was pointing to.
He burned off some tension on the parallel bars and the punching bag, then decided, day or no day, he
had to pursue what the evidence suggested he pursue.
Slipping on his uniform, he got in the Batmobile and checked the dash monitors, saw there was no one
on the road outside of the cave's secret exit. He activated the facade of brush and rocks with a switch
beneath the dash, gunned the motor and went out of the cave and into the daylight, turned onto the main
road. He drove midtown to the station, went up and talked to Gordon, got him to request that the Boot
and Leather Shop turn over to him its surveillance video recorded on the date of the hit-and-run.
Gordon called the shop and Batman drove over there.
"Nothing in it will help," said the proprietor of Boot and Leather, a little guy who looked as if he had
been soaked in grease and hung out to dry. "I seen it already. I look at 'em now and then, and there was
a murder on it, I'd have called in and said so. Know what I'm saying?"
"I'd care to look at it just the same," Batman said.
"Yeah, sure. Watch it in health. Come on back."
Batman followed to the desk in the rear and the little man removed a videocassette from a drawer and
put it on the desk. Batman reached for it.
"Wait a minute," he said. "That ain't the one. That's a tape of me and the ol' lady, know what I'm
saying? Things get dull, no customers in the store, I pop it in the VCR back there, watch a little
personal action. Beats another Rambo movie. I can make you a dub if you want."
"No, thanks."
"Better than you'd think. I'm not so bad setting up a camera. Not too sloppy at the rest of it, either---
neither's the ol' lady, know what I mean?"
"I know what you mean. But no, thanks."
"Hey, you had the opportunity, right?"
"Regret sets in, I know who to call."
"There you are."
The little man removed the cassette, pulled out a stack of them, and put them on the desk. "Let me
see here. I don't think I taped over that one. Thing too is I keep the movies I watch up here with 'em,
you know. Usually tape over the store videotapes after I take a look at 'em. Like to see who's walking
by here at night. Get a good view of the front window with the camera, you know. Someone comes by
regular, looks like they're casing the joint, I can sort of watch for 'em they come in, know what I'm
saying?"
The little man sorted through the tapes. Some of them had titles stickered to their sides: Bambi; Evil
Dead; Gandhi; Our Christmas Vacation in Mexico City; Fifth Wedding Anniversary.
"Yeah, here it is. I got to have the tape back or some money for it, though. They ain't giving these
things away, you know."
Batman removed a bill from one of his belt pouches and put it on the desk.
"That gets it," said the little man. He palmed the bill, popped it between his hands, squinted his eyes,
and held it to the light. "Counterfeit bucks come in now and then. Can't be too sure. Not saying you'd
pass one, you know, but you could get one passed to you."
"That a fact?"
"Hey, happens to the best of us."
Satisfied, the little man shoved the bill into his pants pocket. "Hey, let me ask you a personal
question, all right?"
"Ask."
"That bat suit? It hot, or what?"
"Sometimes," Batman said, and he picked up the cassette and left the store.
Back in the cave, he removed the Batman uniform and pulled on his workout pants; then he slipped
the cassette into the voice-activated video computer, sat before the motion picture-sized screen, and
watched. It was pretty dull stuff. Various views of the store. None of the boots walked and none of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]