Joker: Royal Flush.

[ben]

Scenario: Gotham City.

The Kane Memorial Bridge, both famous and infamous across town for being the only method of travel to and from the Gotham airport from the main city. It's storied creation rivals that of other such landmarks as the Wayne Botanical Gardens and Supreme Courthouse, in that it is one of the largest standing icons of the city's history. The infamy comes in the fact that, due in part to it's age, the bridge is routinely congested. Often times citizens have marked up their lateness for flights to the Airport Insurance to the bridge's inaccessibility. More often than not the Airport is forced to comp such flights simply out of fear from the loss of revenue that would come long term, given their inability to get the bridge updated in the face of liberal hippies wanting to preserve their "Historical Landmarks."

For most of the people who use the bridge, today will go down as no different than just about any other day. With the exception of the actual time it takes for the congestion to die down.

It began at midday. Not night, not morning, but the absolute middle of the day just before the rush of people trying to go out for lunch from their places of work or school. Gotham P.D. responded to calls emanating from the Bridge, suggesting an accident of some sort, just as they would have any other day; two uniform officers, well in to the twilight of their careers, each at the point when traffic duty is nothing more than a vacation from the beat-work they would otherwise have to undertake. Officer Charles Rusk (most people call him Charlie) and Officer Marco Timmons, the latter of whom was already looking forward to the end of his shift.

While it began like any other day, it was not destined to be so. In using the service ramp to the bridge along with their flashing lights and sirens allowed them to motor along to the scene. Their arrival coinciding with that of ambulance and fire-truck, setting the casual driver-by on edge for a much longer wait than usual.

There on the eastern walk-way, Charlie and Marco found themselves faced with macabre. A sight quite unlike anything they had seen before, as hung from the over-head i-beam superstructure of the aging bridge were four bodies. A scene for which Marco Timmons will seen when his eyes close at night for the rest of his, hopefully short life. The faces of the slain, unrecognizable from afar, obscured as they were by goofish clown masks the sort one would see on Halloween. Hands bound behind them, feed bound not only at the ankle but the knee, leaving no doubt of the impossibility of suicide.

Later they would find out from Gotham's crime labs, that each of the four persons was someone that they did in fact know. A city council-woman, one of the lesser criminal entrepreneurs of Old Gotham. The star Gotham Height's running back, son to one of the district attorney's aides. The fourth, a weaselly little snitch that Officer Timmons had known most of his career. Adding to the morbid curiosity was that each of the four held a playing card in their mouth.

An King, a Queen, a Jack and a Joker. Someone has just made a statement.

Information: Obtained from the Police (or alternative means of investigation) will result in characters knowing that the Victims of this crime were were found to be missing the day before. In the case of the young man and the council-woman, they were reported to police. While the two criminals were missed, but not reported for obvious reasons.

Each card was place specifically. The council-woman held the Queen. The minor-crime boss held the King. Running back held the Jack. While the snitch held the Joker.

Additional Info: Each of the four were abducted from fairly private locations, that they visited routinely. Further investigation of those would yield additional information.

[Charlie Brown]

He'd gotten the call from chief Gordon an hour previous, he'd already been out in his costume following leads on the cult that was plaguing Gotham. The bodies still hung from the bridge, their limp forms swinging listlessly in the silver moonlight. Gordon was waiting behind a line of police tape that blocked the bridge off from all traffic but he'd ensured there were no beat cops near one end of the bridge so Bruce might make his way to the crime scene without being seen. That much he accomplished.

Gordon was smoking a cigarette, the collar of his long jacket flipped up against the breeze that blew loose snow about his ankles when Batman swung from some unseen place landing with nary a sound. The police elder police chief may have been passed his prime but he was far from deaf, he turned at the sound unstartled by the sudden appearance. The last three years of working with the Bat saw him grow accustomed to the mysterious modes of transportation the caped crusader employed.

Bruce's eyes followed the iron bars all the way to the top, to the i-beam where the corpses swung.

"We found 'em like this" Gordon started, flicking his butt, a gentle sizzle as its flame extinguished in the snow. "Thought it might be that cult you're investigating... At first."

"I'm listening" Bruce replied in monotone.

"Well, something this public isn't their M.O. and the killer left a calling card. The trenchcoats figure we might have a serial killer on our hands." Jim followed Bruce's gaze to the swinging corpses. "You better work quick, I've stalled the coroner's office for a few hours but they've been on my back to cut these bodies down and get them onto the autopsy table."

Bruce was silent for a long moment, Jim was used to these stretches of silence as the detective's mind mulled over what little he had been told.

"The calling card. What is it?"

"Cards. Playing cards. A king, Queen, Jack and Joker. Stuffed in their mouths, like our killer is trying to send a message. Lord only knows what it might be."

"It wasn't done here. They were already dead by the time the killer strung them up. Strange, they were found in the middle of the day and your investigation turned up no witnesses? One thing is certain, this is not the work of the cult. This is something, someone else. Judging by how they are bound I'd say it's a lone wolf we're dealing with. If it were a group they wouldn't have secured their legs as well as they have been.."

Jim nodded his agreement before adding.

"That was my guess."

"Cause of death?"

"We're not certain yet. We'll have to wait on the autopsy report to paint an accurate picture."

Bruce looked over to the older man, a man he had come to greatly respect, not only for his steadfast honour in standing against corruption but also as a detective.

"What does your gut tell you?"

"My gut tells me this is just the beginning."

Bruce's brow furrowed beneath his cowl. He'd never known Jim Gordon to be particularly optimistic but he'd never before come right out and said he believed the worst was yet to come.

"Without seeing the bodies there's not much else I can tell you"

"No can do, can't tamper with the bodies until the coroner gets here" Jim pulled his sleeve up and glanced at his watch. "Which should be nay minute now. In any case, I thought you should see this before we cut them down. When the autopsy report comes in, I'll contact you again."

Bruce nodded, lifting his eyes to study the swinging bodies one last time.

"Do that. You should know, Gordon.." Bruce started, turning to face the police chief. "I might not be able to help the Gotham PD on this one. My plate's full and all the evidence is pointing elsewhere. I may be... Out of town for a time."

Gordon sighed and nodded.

"We've got a good team, they'll get he job done but damn me if you don't make things a halluvalot easier."

"Keep me posted. If there's time I'll look into it." Bruce turned and hopped up onto the railing the water rushing below was only half frozen and huge chunks of ice were being pushed along by the rapidly moving waters. He stopped short of disappearing as he usually did... "There is one thing you could do for me."

Bruce looked back over his shoulder.

"There's a doctor at Arkham Asylum, one of her patients is the cultist your men brought in last week. I need that file, to, as you say, paint an accurate picture. If you could solicit the files from the doctor and send along copies to me..."

he stopped short of saying here'd be thankful or appreciative. Jim shrugged noncommittally but said;

"I'll do what I can. These things are sticky situations, doctor-patient privacy and all that. I'll have to get a judge to approve the appropriation but I think I can swing it."

Batman nodded and dropped off the edge. Out of habit Jim moved to the lip of the railing and looked below, he knew he wouldn't see the Bat, and as he stuck his head out and saw nothing but empty air, his guess proved accurate. He heard the sound of an engine as the coroner's vehicle came rolling up the bridge. They slid out and their doors slammed behind them.

"Alright" Jim said "Let's cut these poor bastards down."

[ben]

[ Throwing out what "CSI: Gotham" and Gotham Longcoats would find. ]

Each of the Victims in question was hung postmortem, as was suspected. Cause of Death in each victim's case would seem to be through an exotic poison. Oddly this poison was injected in to the facial areas, much like Botox, causing muscular rictus in the jaw and eyebrow region. In all four cases the victims were left with smiles upon their faces. ( Not Jack Nicholson deformed smiles, but the sort of fake zombie smile you see in Hollywood after too much plastic surgery. )

The City Council member has been Identified as "Martha Jones." She was an activist in the City for the last few years. She has publicly spoken in favor of the Vigilantes of the City, as well as Gotham PD's stance that these Vigilantes are Heroes as opposed to criminals themselves.

The Gotham Heights running back was identified as "Mickey Smith." Outside of his football playing, there was nothing remarkable in the history file about him. His mother and father are John & Martha Smith, two of Gotham's more social elite. Their family has long supported the City's clean up and war on crime by any means possible. They created a charity to aide in restoration of property damage resulting in Batman (and other's) efforts to make the City Safe. [ Traces of residual heroine were found in Mickey's blood along with the poison. ]

While the small-time Mobster, "Harry O'Sullivan," was a member of the Irish Mafia. Though the Irish Mob in Gotham is second fiddle to the more traditional Italian families they have a long and often celebrated history in the City, known to 'cater' to the more black market crimes such as Arms Dealing and Illegal transport. Harry himself has been arrested multiple times for things ranging from small time petty theft, to vandalism, but most recently his crimes have seen escalation in to Armed Robbery and suspected racketeering.

Last but not least was "Rory Williams." A small-time crook, who has kept his nose clean for the last few years. This has come with no small amount of aide from Gotham PD itself, as Rory has been providing them with helpful information in exchange for immunity for the petty crimes he is forced to commit in order to remain on the inside. Rory's crimes include organization of a prostitution ring and limited dealing of a illegal drugs.

----------

CSI can confirm that the same poison killed all four people. As well, that the heroine found in Rickey's blood was a positive trace-element match to that which was later found in Rory's apartment. Both Martha Jones and Harry O'Sullivan appear in Rory's hidden address book.

So all four victims are in fact connected in some way.