Misc. Tape [Open to GCPD]

[Deleted]

A brown blank envelope was left in the mail basket. It was addressed to GCPD Officials, but offered no information besides for the terrible handwriting. It had been cleaned of all DNA and fingerprints, except for the small child's prints from the boy that was asked to deliver it. There was no riddle, no sign of green paint, or question marks. It was a plain envelope that could be from anyone.

If the envelope was opened (which with the GCPD's lack of organization and complete incompetence would likely not be opened for a long time) they would find an old tape, the type that used to be popular in the eighties for making mixes for girlfriends. The old tape had a yellow post-it note on it, and written in the same scrawl of handwriting from the envelope was:

Who do you trust?

The tape, if the GCPD could find a tape recorder to play it, would play a very familiar voice.




The sound of cars in the background could be heard, as if whoever was holding the tape at the time was moving and breathing heavily. It would sound like nonsense, but then the walking would stop and the voices would become clear.

"If you have the payment, I can overlook his shipment," Gordon's voice spoke out of the tape.

"Ya know the boss, thinks ya overcharging us," a random grunt came from the other voice.

"It's more than reasonable. I keep my people away from Cobblepot." Gordon spoke thickly as if he wasn't entirely pleased with his words, "I run the risk."

The man grunted, "Whatever, here it is." A loud sound of a dumpster getting hit sounded in the tape. "What was that!?" the other man shouted. Heavy breathing and running steps became the tape and then it cut off.





It had taken Edward a month to make, a few lines, a few sound effects, but it was perfection. Gordon had so many press conferences that he had all the tones of his words and the subtle changes in his voice. With the right editing software, you could create something that had never happened real.

There was no way it could be traced back to Edward. He had been careful. He wasn't leaving riddles any more. His awakening in the pit made him realized that small little clues weren't the way to go. No, he was after something much larger, and if he was going to destroy Bruce Wayne, he would drag Gordon down with him. No one the Batman cared for would be safe.

When it is all over and they all see the large riddle at hand, they all will finally realized what a Mastermind Genius the Riddler truly is!

(I will not be responding to this thread. I leave the tape in GCPD's hand to do with what they will.)

[Deleted]

It's not that everyone was incapable of maintaining their duty; Gotham was just a merciless place. This town, this island, it had a way at being a true mystery. Indeed moment it'll give you the goods but then the next moment it had you on your ass. After that, it kicks you hard when you try to get back up. Being a cop in a town like this was all that a few times over. The amount of mail coming in daily was a nightmare.

Eventually, the tape was found and handed off to an intern. The sweet and bright girl came in early every morning to get settled in and have a cup of tea before starting the morning. She found the tape recorder to be slightly off putting but not unexpected. She listened to it a few times over unsure what to think or do.

What would protocol be here?

She kept playing it over half out of trying to make a decision and the other out of fear, going out wouldn't be real or was somehow a mistake or misunderstanding.

Bullock first.

----

"Umm, hi, Lieutenant?"

Harvey swiveled his chair round to look back to the intern.

"Whaddya got, Miss Spade?"

Finally, someone around here remembers at least part of my name,

"Can we talk in a less public forum, sir."

Harvey saw the look on her face. It was not one he liked to see on anyone's face. Orbs spelled something work place related was going. He's had to tell some of the guys to lay the ' swag' crap off the ladies of the workplace in and out of uniform. Harvey gave a nod and ducked with her to a break room and locked the door behind him.

"This private enough? What's knockin', kiddo?" He asked with an even tone.


"Sir, I found this a few minutes ago and honestly I don't know who would be the right person to bring it to, but then I thought about you. Look, this is heavy and I get that you two are pretty good friends and you wouldn't, like, you wouldn't try to pull bullshit moves on him. Here."

Harvey took the tape recorder the intern had plugged headphones into, her just held both speakers over his left ear. He listened to it times before he lowered it from his ear.

"Thank you for having wits, kid."

Harvey set out on the table and looked to Spade.

"I gotta think about what to do here, but for right now, I gotta ask that you don't mention this to anyone but me, alright?"

Spade nodded diligently.

"Yes, sir. Absolutely."

Harvey returned the nod.

"Anyone asks me or you what we talked about in here just tell 'em it was private matter."

Spade nodded again.

"Simple, short."

"Atta girl. I'll let you know when I find something here, Spade."

"Alright, sir"

Harvey gave her a look before unlocking the door and heading back out. He put the tape recorder in Bivins' desk while he was out on a scene and texted him to look into discreetly finding out more about the tape asap.

[Deleted]

Bivins grinned to himself at the text message, and at the revelation of the tape. He'd handed it with neoprene gloves, getting the fingerprints and a swab off of it. A few samples sent to the lab for later, he was thorough.

Finding the tape recorder was harder, and it required a trip to the storage lockers, amongst the yeah and old equipment he'd found an old pedal controlled tape recorder, the sort once used for typing and memos. While down there he snatched up one of the old laptops from before the new requisition. Metropham had donated new computers that were starting to get rolled in slowly, but it left a few older computers to mess with.

The programs he'd wanted were open source, free, he'd gone to Starbucks to load up the computer on one of his pastry runs, just another weird Bivins thing. In his head he hummed the mission impossible theme to himself while he chewed on a biale.

It had taken ten minutes to track the make and model of the cassette tape. Another thirty of reading over the audiophile boards to get some opinions. A new throwaway id and a question " what do you think of the Zyrtec 3000 hypermax? " the derision that came out was unanimous. The Zyrtec hypermax was NOTORIOUS for sound degradation, and low fidelity sound. If you had to fake a recording, this tape would cover up a lot of irregularities.

Finding places that still sold the tape took eBay and Google. A few phone calls, dead end. An afternoon visit showed a few cases of the old tapes, dusty, unsold. No live for the old technologies anymore. He'd made some purchases, asked to look at some records. Dead end. Not a lot of places sold magnetic tape anymore, and this one could have been sold at any time, kept in storage.

He still got a few of the uniforms to quietly request the purchase records for the type of tape at the various radio shacks and old audio stores about town. Might not lead to anything, but it was a legit request. He'd put the request as part of the Lamire case, odd line of inquiry, but it would distract from the real reasons.

Now it was night, in the office. Chinese takeout cooling under the desk lamps. He'd cleared his desk, sweeping the old files into a cardboard box. Chewing on Orange chicken he smiled as he took the digital converter and plugged it into the headphone jack.

He'd disabled the Wi-Fi, just pulling off the card first. Putting it aside in a plastic bag in his desk drawer, it WOULD be like one of these bastards to hide an audio program in the static of an analog tape to infect a computer to hack into the police network once digitized! Oldest trick in the book! Haha. Bivins was too smart for THAT! Why do the others keep calling him crazy?

He listened to the message for several hours, typing notes, documenting the clicks, the individual words and times. Coffee became his blood as images of X-files flashed through his head. Each word documented by timestamp by hand. He documented the cars by timestamp, and tried to use the sound software program to isolate the different sounds into different layers, though that took longer.

Paranoid? Who did Bivins trust? NOT THE MAN! That's for damned sure.

He'd have a report in the morning, half asleep, hopped up on caffeine and manic in his crazy way he gets when he brings out the wall of crazy...

[Deleted]

Harvey had spent the evening doing his own research. He looked up all the different arrests made at the docks, specifically ones involving actual employees at the dockyards. He was also looking at his own snitch sheets, calling them up, asking around about things. He'd asked if they'd seen any notable police down and around there, they were mostly turning up with nothing or would not say what they had seen.

When Harvey got home that evening he made sure to look through some records on the GCPD data base that would tell him what crime scenes Gordon had been at and when he had been at them in the last few months. He didn't believe what was on the tape. He'd known the man for years, of all the people he'd known in his life none was more incorruptible than Jim Gordon. Harvey was a good man, but Jim was a better man than he.

Harvey ended up falling asleep under a stack of files and his own cheatbooks, as he called them, little tiny note pads big enough to keep in his breast pockets that he took notes on. Most people did them on tablets, phones, and other devices, Harvey kept it old school, he preferred to write it down and tuck it away for safe keeping. He'd put all the dates, times, and any other innocuous details of his work in those books, including who he was with, how long they were there. Harvey liked to keep track of himself and those around them, an old and perhaps the best of his habits.

When he showed up to work the next morning he'd stopped off at the favored coffee shop of the Gotham City Police Department. A little hole in the wall coffee shop just two blocks away called the Booming Bean. Harvey chuckled at the name every time he walked in, no matter how long he'd been going to it. The girl behind the counter smiled to him.

"Heya, Lieutenant! What can I do ya for this morning?"

"Hmm, for free, baby."

She giggled and shook her head.

"Ah, just the usual for myself and Bivins."

She nodded and began to get Harvey their darkest roast, placing it before him, nothing added.

"Black and no training wheels."

Harvey picked his up and took a sip while fishing out his wallet and some cash from within it while she made the complicated concoction that she was used to making for Detective Bivins. She placed it before Harvey a moment later. It wreaked and was piping hot. It even had a strange greenish hue to it.

"And the coffee from the black lagoon for Detective Bivins."

Harvey handed her the money and smiled.

"Thanks, sweetheart, keep the change, you deserve it for having to make whatever this shit he drinks is."

The girl nodded with wide eyes.

"You really don't want to know, sir."

"Exactly, thanks, catch ya later."

"Later, Harv."

And within five minutes Harvey walked into the bull pen and placed Bivins' coffee before him, knowing it would wake the kid right up simply from the smell. Harvey urged the kid up with the tilting of his head.

"C'mon, Bivins, lets take a little walk up to the roof, eh."

Soon the two of them were on their own, on the roof. Harvey lit a cigarette and got settled, sitting against the building's ledge.

"So, you find anything useful?"

Harvey took a sip of his coffee.

[Deleted]

Caffeine was life, caffeine was great, the smell of the sugar and the hot sauce and mocha added to it just added a bit of oomph. Black Lagoon blend, because it was terrifying. He felt his lips moving towards the thing, his face inching closer and closer like a particularly unsubtle kiss on a date with that hot cheerleader dared to go out with you because she's trying to go through the initiation at the sorority and you have photographic evidence of the sorority president's longstanding sexual affair with her younger brother Billy, and suddenly you're the initiation ritual. It's that clear form of salacious anticipation in the face of resigned disgust that crafts a new rictus on Bivins half sleeping face, moving on its own accord by tongue power towards the Black Lagoon blend.

It's a match made from an unholy series of coincidences mixed with what socially SHOULD NOT BE, and it tastes a little like a mother's love: Disappointed and Sharp, with a little bit of a lasting burn. Bivins woke up and then smiled up at the boss, then said "Yeah, the roof's nice this time of night. . . " he looks down at his watch, "Day." 

--------------------

Bivins leaned on the Batsignal, thumbing through his phone, the modern cheat sheet, as he read off the information. "Hard to tell, really. Basically the tape's got some degradation, not abnormal with the type of tape. The forums are all abuzz that there's abnormalities and problems that always pop up in a tape like this. Frankly, if I were to fake a recording, I'd use this kind of audio setup. It degenerates quick and any expert witness could point out the abnormalities of the sounds to tape degradation."


He sips some more coffee, then puts the cup on the edge of the bottom lip of the bat signal, reading onwards. "The medium itself is clean, no prints, no samples, no nothing. I went over it to be thorough, but I figure anyone who can fake a tape like this won't make a stupid mistake. I even checked the surface of the magnetic tape itself to see if someone touched it while winding it or cutting it or editing it. Near as I can tell, no tape, clean copy. So they recorded something external. Maybe a digital recording, just recorded. I tried listening in for any extraneous background sound, so far nothing."

"But, I got the recording outlined, and I've been able to separate each word and background sound to the  minute and second, you're welcome. Did it by hand, and don't think it was easy. Seriously, boss, digital's so much easier for this. Whenever we find the mook that did this, I just wanna have ya sock em an extra one for putting it on analog. I mean, seriously, it's just a headache. It's like . . . throwing evidence into a pile of rice, it just slows things down and gives me a headache." He sighs and goes back to the phone. "Anyway, I could match a lot of words and samples to some of the commishes other speeches, but whoever this guy is, did it word for word, not a lot of sentences. Pasted em together, probably edited the tone to make it sound all regular and flowing.  . . edited in background. I can tell you where the background information was likely put together. Combination of trash, squad cars, seagulls, a dumpster strike, what sounds like a crane, minimal conversation,
It's somewhere near the docks, I'd say. That part did not seem edited together, so if I had to guess, our unsub recorded a bust down at the docks, probably just walked through it so that there'd be a change in tone and sound effects to make it sound like the conversation was happening while they was walking, then he used that recording as a background. Just had it edited together to add realism. There's enough background noise there to cover up any weird abnormalities, especially since they make it sound like the conversation's happening while they're walking, and I think our guy tried to edit out anything identifiable. BUT, either he made a mistake or he's trying to red herring us.  I made out a word or two in the background. A cop talking. I don't recognize the voice of the cop, though, but I was able to just sorta enhance it. . . here."


He pushes a few buttons on the phone, a clear voice came out "of course the perimeter . . . " the officer in question was recognizable to Bullock. "It's quick, it's coming on along with the sound of loud beeping and a crane, I had to edit down that part of the sound, luckily I could do that by taking the sounds of the crane and siren and just using it for comparison. . . and that was the only fragment left. I don't know if it's a lead or not, but it might get us some timing for when the background recording was made. I'm gonna try to keep matching the commishes conversation with other speeches of his, cause if it was me, I'd do it that way. Then again, if I was the commish and I wanted to reduce the damage, I'd release a public statement with all these sentences in it NOW, before the news breaks. . . but then again, I got issues." He shrugs as he looks up at the boss. "That help at all? And you want me to get Montoya in on this? She knows people, she might be able to help out with this." 

[Deleted]

Harvey smoked and listened, looking to the roof top or the skyline in general. He would offer a nod and eye contact once or twice briefly. When Bivins was focused and at least half way exhausted he really did great things. The little black dog had done its work.

Harvey's cigarette was burned down about two thirds by the time Bivins was finished. He let out a nod and sigh, smoke billowing forth from his nostrils. He took a drink of his coffee and looked back to Bivins.

"I been lookin' through all my own notes and documents. During work hours and maybe after work a few times out of the week we're in and out of eachother's sight. I doubt if the man has time to even hold up some thugs on the docks. We should just approach Gordon for now. Montoya should hear this tape, too. Maybe she can weigh in with her own notes. I don't think well without her."

Harvey had let his gaze wander down to his cigarette butt. He put it out and tossed it in an old coffee can he Gordon kept up there. They dumped it out about every other day.

"Stick to your normal workday. Close a few cases today. You need to go home and get some sleep tonight. You look like hell."

Harvey took another drink of his coffee. He looked at Bivins and finally furrowed his brow as he lowered the cup.

"I imagine our sender has a copy of this as well."

[Deleted]

The day went into night and then morning. It would be about one in the morning before Bullock would get out of work. He was getting ready to go home when he noticed Jim down the way, his office door open, the light leaking into the dark bullpen. Harvey thought about the conversation he and Bivins had earlier in the day. No one else seemed to be around. Jim might be tired, but at least the place was deserted.

Harvey walked over to the office door and gave it a few taps as he pressed the door open further.

"Jim, there's somethin' I need to talk to you about, you got the time?"

Harvey's expression was grim, not the usual smirk. He also called him Jim. Harvey called him Commish. He only called him Jim when something particularly bad was going down, about to go down, or had gone down.

[Deleted]

Gordon was busy, Gordon was always busy. The Commissioner took work home with him and took his home into work. It's said that he had a cot hidden in the back of his office next to the empty bottle he kept as a reminder "never again." It's said that he had a special red phone line in his office that connected straight to dark allies. A lot of things were said about Commissioner Gordon, and of course all of those rumors were ludicrous. 

Gordon didn't have a special phone line to allay the vigilantes, technically he didn't even use the Bat Signal, it just happened to be on the roof of the building, a stupid art project, obviously. No police officer even turned it on. Sometimes the interns got in a weird mood and decided to make shadow puppets in the sky at night. Sometimes Gordon liked to watch. 

Gordon didn't have a cot in the back of his office, that would suggest Gordon ever really slept. He never did, he just waited for another fire to put out, another emergency to come, and for another problem to face him down. He set aside time for breakfast with Barb. . . it was all he had, really. 

Gordon did have the bottle, though, but it wasn't hidden. 

He looked up from the computer on his desk, straightening his glasses and trying to make sense of the new reporting forms just approved by the Public Safety Committee, and the new budget guidelines from City Hall. They were gibberish, written in moonspeak and translated through some strange online product into gobbledygook and then translated BACK into moonspeak and then into Gibberish finally. That's the only thing that made sense. 


Gordon was busy, Gordon was distracted, Gordon had no time. . . except maybe for his men. And definitely for Harvey. "Yeah, Harv. Come on in." He shakes his head saying "It took ten people over five months to write this form. . . I could have done it in twenty minutes by hitting my keyboard and have it make more sense." He looks up again at Harvey for a moment. "What's wrong?"

[Deleted]

Harvey couldn't help but shake his head a smile just a touch at the Commissioner's comment about the form. He shrugged, removed his hat, and sat in the chair on the other side of the man's desk.

"Eh, well, that's probably why guys like us ain't bureaucrats, Commish, we got too much sense. Eh, what can ya do?"

Harvey shook his head for a moment and finally he looked back over to Jim. The smile was washed off his face now, no signs of happy-go-lucky-Harvey, nor the angry-scary-work-Harvey. No the worst of the Harvey's was present, bad-news-bears-Harvey.

Harvey reached into his coat and pulled out a tape player/recorder loaded with a tape. He placed it before the commissioner on his desk. He reached again into his coat and took a stack of folded papers, it was the research and and Bivins had done on the tape, all the relevant information they had managed to put together.

"You're not gonna like what's on that tape. I don't like it, neither does Bivins. I got it last night, the only people that know about it are Bivins, Miss Spade, myself and now you. Spade, that intern on the second floor, was the one who found it. She brought it to me, and I asked her to keep quiet. I took it to Bivins and he and I have been trying to figure out answers ever since."

Harvey looked grim. It was only a tape, but there was no telling who it came from and how many copies of it they had.

"I honestly don't know what to do."

[Deleted]

Gordon looked concerned for a moment, his lips pursed for a bit as he heard the tape. Quiet, he stared down as the tape finished. He looked up at Harvey for a moment later, his face wasn't pale, just thinking. 

"Well, you know of course this is fake. I'm not on the take, Harv." He sighs as he looks at Harvey's eyes and says "Yeah, of course you know that." He rubs the back of his neck saying "Well. . . I suppose we can do something that they don't expect. . . release it to the press before whatever madman tries to. Say that it was sent to the department with the intent of trying to blackmail me. . . say that it was faked, but get ahead of the story. . ." He shakes his head, it was a weird situation. 

"What've you got on it so far?"

[Deleted]

Harvey nodded. Of course he knew Gordon was never in on the take. Gordon was likely one of the few that truly knew Harvey himself had never been in on the take.

"Bivins got the tape figured out. He examined it and worked out the tech side of it pretty well. He's got a stack of notes about it that could send Tolkien runnin' for the hills. I worked out all your whereabouts in the last year. I could do five years back, I'm sure, but I am not going that far back."

Harvey looked notably tired. His own stack of notes on everywhere Gordon had been in the last year was nearly as large as Bivins' notes. He shook his head and looked back over to the commissioner.

"We don't have any leads on who sent it, but we're certain we can prove how fake it is were it to go to court for any reason."

[Deleted]

He leans back in the chair putting his hand over his face, exhaling slowly, his mind working, thinking over the angles. "Court of public opinion's gonna be where they crucify me for this one, Harv. You know that. Hill wants my head anyway, and if there's any excuse to take me out, he'll probably take it, if it comes out as fake, apology later, but by then I'll be out, his crony will be in, and they'll dismantle the MCU" He strokes his chin for a moment and then says "Any clue who's on the tape with me? Or where it's supposed to have been recorded?"

He's thinking quietly for a bit. "And what do we have on the Cobblepot case anyway? I mean, what proof do we really have that he's dirty?" He's thinking a bit, and Harv can almost follow the thought process. Is Gordon going to go the other way on this?