Watch the mouse run [Bullock] Flashback

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Phones ringing off the hook in the GCPD were nothing out of the ordinary. With the amount of crime that had taken hold of Gotham, even with the Batman, it was only expected for the first call to be 911. The operators worked as fast and quickly as they could, but their faces were haggard with exhaustion and they smelled of the slight tint of coffee. Ruth was a veteran to the phones. She had been doing it for years, and it was shown by her quick decisive hands in transferring calls to units in the area. It would have been a normal day, if she would have taken her lunch five minutes earlier. Instead, she picked up the next call. “911 what’s your emergency?” she asked into the phone.

“Kelly, shut up. Stop that crying! Hello! Hello! Finally, for fuck sakes,” a man’s voice spoke into the phone.

“Sir, what is your emergency?” she said, thinking it might be a domestic violence incident.

“Our daughter. Someone fucking kidnapped my daughter!” the man growled into the phone with rage.

“Sir, calm down. Are you certain she was kidnapped?” she said into the phone. It was a question she had to ask. A lot of children ran off from their parents especially parents in a bad marriage. She couldn’t waste police resources on a run away.

“What do you mean if I’m certain?!? She was fucking kidnapped. That bastard left some riddle! Do you know who I am!? I’m the fucking CEO of BioPharm! It’s that idiot in the green suits! What the fuck do they call him! Riddle. Question. I don’t give a shit! He took my daughter. I want the whole god damn police force on this!” the man shouted into the phone. Ruth’s eyes widen in horror. The Riddler had escaped Arkham Asylum a month ago. He was one of the new costume criminals in town, and the only way they had been able to capture him the first time was because Batman had stepped in. He had even managed to kill two people in his death traps, and handicap another man before the Batman had found him and captured him right before the Riddler had planned to rob a large company through some hacking program. If the girl had been kidnapped, it was likely she was in a similar type of trap.

“What is your address sir? We will send someone over right away,” she said in a rush. The man listed off his address before hanging up on her. She wrote it down, and immediately bolted out of her seat. She ran out of the room and headed two floors down to the police floor. Gordon was out of town enjoying some much needed R&R, but this needed a superior’s attention. She rushed into Officer Bullock’s office, not caring who might and might not be in the room.

“Officer Bullock! Officer Bullock! The Riddler has kidnapped the daughter of Martin and Jane Kingston, the CEO of BioPharm,” she said in a pant, handing the sheet of paper with the address.

Martin stormed around his living room in a fit. His wife was crying on the couch, holding a picture of their daughter close to her chest. Martin could not believe this had occurred to his family. Some crazy in a green suit came into his home and stole his daughter. When they found that piece of shit, he would give him a taste of his boot. There was an open box on the table. It was bright green and had a question mark on top. The cover had been opened and inside there was small paper. It read the following lines.

Riddle me this, what building has the most stories?

813.4092
104 3 1
440 5 23
90 10 3
340 19 9
601 7 12
405 8 15
55 10 4
287 14 1
223 13 21
342 3 16
506 3 2
342 3 30

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Harvey had just got back in from knocking on doors and trying to get information on a recent burglary. The day had been filled with knocking on penthouse doors and asking gaudy rich people if they knew anything, saw anything, etc etc. It was surely the Cat's work, but Harvey didn't like to leave any stone unturned. He had to make sure it wasn't some copycat or a bigger threat. He hated investigating her crimes, she always left little proof it had been her behind. Not to mention the scars and the outfit she poured herself into. That was enough to make any dog bark or any bull charge.

Harvey looked up to Ruth as she held the piece of paper to him exclaiming the Riddler has struck. Harvey could do nothing but stand, take the piece of paper and groan a little. He was not the most fit man, but he packed a punch and was an excellent driver. He pulled on his coat and put on his hat and began shouting as soon as he passed the threshold into the bullpen.

"Alright, listen up. We got a kidnapping, suspect is Riddler. Torres, Roth, Stark, you're with me. Foley, call me in a team, standard fair - I'll need a wet works team as well as forensics. You know what to do."

Everyone gave him a nod and Foley picked up the phone and began calling up around HQ to get what Bullock wanted.

About an hour later Harvey was standing in the living room of where the kidnapping had taken place and Riddler had left his clue. Forensics was taking photos, uniform officer were taking interviews, Harvey had finally managed to pull himself away from the family long enough to inspect the box. A couple of interns stood there looking at it.

"Isn't the tallest building in town the Wayne building?"

"Yeah, but what are the numbers for? Those aren't floor numbers."

"Maybe by stories he's talking about the Gotham Gazette's building."

"Or Gotham Live?"

Harvey stepped infront of the box, nearly startling the interns. They quickly got back to taking photos and tried to act like they hadn't been startled by Harvey. They watched him after a moment. Finally one asked him "what's it mean detective? Is it the Wayne building?"

Harvey shook his head and took a picture of it all with his own phone, making sure he could read the riddle and its numbers in the picture. He pocketed his phone and turned. He looked at a few of his officers.

"Alright, let's go. The rest of you keep busy, a couple of us are going to the library."

Within fifteen minutes Harvey arrived at the library with a three car escort. Seven officers accompanied him inside. The moment the receptionist saw them he looked a little off put.

"What's the meaning of this, officers?"

"Just followin' up on a little riddle. Where's you're index?"

"Right over there."

Harvey looked to wear the man pointed. He looked back to the officers.

"Pull the fire alarm, get everyone out of the building. I don't wanna take any chances. I'm gonna go do some research."

"But, Lieutenant, if Riddler's involved shouldn't we turn on the signal?"

"And what? Run up the electric bill? Bats can get a radio like the rest of us."

Harvey took off and over to the indexes he went. He pulled his phone out and began to look up the index cards in hopes that the numbers in the riddle would correlate with cards, at the very least he would be able to locate all the books.

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A green apple lollipop rolled in his mouth, as he sat back in his comfortable office chair, wearing his green suit that was trickled in question marks with his purple domino mask and gloves, topped with his favorite hat. It felt good to be wearing fresh clean clothing that was laced with expensive fabric instead of the itchy ugly orange jump suits they force on you in the asylum. It had taken him two months to escape that horribly disgusting place they call Arkham Asylum. He had no plans of going back there again, once was enough, and he was far too young and handsome to be washed out by the color orange.

All he could think about during his time, besides his continued hatred for stupidity was the man who had dressed as a bat and caught him. Who was the Batman? Was he merely lucky? Or did he actually possess a brain under that cowl? He couldn’t determine how the man had found his location and defeated his riddles. No one was smarter than him! Especially not a fool with an obsession for bats!

He had multiple screens on the wall before him, including the security cameras of the house. The GCPD had arrived as suspected, but they were hardly a concern. Each one of them was far too dim witted than the last. They provided no challenge whatsoever. He had to admit, he currently was verging on boredom. His girls had already made it to their designated spot, but it would take them another half an hour to get in and another to install what was needed. Until then, he could play his little game, but what fun was a game when you opponent didn’t put up a challenge?

He only perked up in his chair when he caught sight of the GCPD leaving the house and heading towards the library. Hm. It was the simplest of the riddles. He supposed he couldn’t be surprised that such an average mind had solved it. Realistically, a monkey could have solved it. If they figured out the code that would be something somewhat impressive.

He watched as the large bulky man entered the library and went straight to the indexes. Hah, he was playing with a fat child. Great. Where was the Batman? He leaned over to his computer, clicked, and entered in keys. His own webcam turned on, and his face appeared on all the computers within the library.

“I’m surprise they allow people of your size into such a place of learning. Your large bulky steps could shake most of the books of the shelves, but I suppose even the unintelligent need to be given the chance to read. The kiddie section is over to the right,” he smirked, before rolling the lollipop back into his mouth.

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Harvey pulled out a particular card from the index and began to march off with great purpose in each step. He hoped he was right. It seemed appropriate, but you could never be sure with Nygma, however this just seemed to fit so perfectly.

He was crossing through a bank of computer's when Riddler's unfairly handsome mug pulled up on all of the screens. Harvey could only growl under his breath and continued marching along his path. He knew this guy, he was likely watching his every move.

"I have been reading Game of Thrones lately, thanks for asking. You ever read that? Ain't bad, at all. You remind me of someone from it. Think you can guess who?"

Fucking Baelish.

Harvey kept a weary gaze about him, he didn't want to be caught off guard by a goon or something like that. Once he made to where he was headed he thumbed a few books. After a moment of searching he pulled one off the shelves. He looked down at it and at the picture on his phone. He went to an area where he could get pen and paper and set the book on a table as he began working through pages, looking for the answers Mr. Nygma so wanted him to find.

He absent mindedly hummed the Game of Thrones theme while doing so.

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His eyes watched the screen and the big man lug his body through the library like a giant in a miniature doll store. He was the perfect stereotype of the police spending too much time at the Doughnut shop. Why hadn’t Batman arrived yet? He hardly wanted to waste any more time with this idiotic cop. He zoomed in on one of the camera’s to take a look at the index card, and he was humorously surprised to see that jumbo had figure it out.

“I highly doubt you are actually reading George R. R. Martin’s work. Let’s face facts for what they are, you are caught in the fad of HBO’s graphic, sexual, and violent nature, like most buffoon men like yourself,” he mocked with a chuckle, leaning back in his chair again, twirling his finger in the air.

“The middle ages, quite a different time, the intelligent merchant who knew the value of currency could be quickly dismissed for a knight that merely came back from battle with blood in his hands. If it were myself, I would always prefer coinage over the utter nonsense. Riddle me this, how do you believe Gotham would fair if they failed to pay their debt?” he chuckled, rambling to himself, but those who had caught on to the Riddler’s tricks would know every word had a meaning, every word provided a piece of a puzzle. Of course, the Batman wasn’t here, so he was hardly afraid that the idiot before him could even comprehend his actual plan.

He noticed him pull out Atlas Shrugged. He did personally enjoy that book. It was a prime example of what happened when you coddled stupidity to breed. It would take the man quite a bit of time, but eventually, using the code Edward had supply, the following riddle would be writen out.

A man and his son are in a terrible accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical care. The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son!” How could this be?

“Is it far too hard for your simple brain? Why don’t you bring the Bat in to handle your work, like you pathetic cops always do? After all….she only has so much time,” he grinned, chuckling.

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"Are you kidding me? That shit is great. Arya's my favorite. She's a little bad ass. If I ever had a daughter of my own I hope she's that friggin' fierce."

Ah, children. Would Harvey ever leave a legacy? Hopefully, one day.

Harvey thought about his question as he worked to find the next riddle. Just as he found it he raised a brow and turned his head to the one of the screens for a moment.

"Hmmm, likely not any better than the seven Kingdoms. God... I don't even want to think about that."

Harvey read the riddle twice. He smiled.

"Ah, well, the doctor must be the boy's mother then. What's next Nygma, c'mon. Let's get this all over with. The sooner the better, eh?"

Ladies are doctors too, duh.

Harvey looked at the book for a moment and set it back down on the table before him with it open on the page the riddle was on.

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Where the fuck was Batman? He couldn’t deal with this idiot much longer. The man was missing the point of every word that left his mouth. He received a text from Echo and Query, he looked away from the screen to answer it, as he put together the riddle. He responded to the girls, and gave them the go ahead. If Batman didn’t want to play, he would move on without him. It wasn’t his fault the Dark Knight was falling behind on his duties. He had felt such need to get involved last time, when he didn’t ask for him to be there, he suppose this was justice in a way.

He looked up when he answered the riddle. His hand hit his face as he face palmed. He couldn’t believe this moron. Yes, that was the answer to that riddle, but what did that mean? He wasn’t going to spell it out for this idiot.

“Congratulations, you figured out something even a buffoon could, but you missed the entire riddle in itself,” he grumbled, and then flipped a switch causing part of the computers to show a new image.

It was an empty room with the girl. Her head and body snapped into a chair. Her hand was touching a computer screen that looked to be the game of match. The girl was crying, but kept moving her hand, playing the game.

“Hello darling, do you want to explain to this idiot police officer what will happen if they don’t find you in time?” he said sweetly. The girl started to cry, but kept moving. She was a teenager with dirty blonde hair and she looked to be in a mess.

“Oh, you’re busy. I understand,” he turned his focus the fat cop, “You have two hours to find her, however with the time you have wasted, you are at an hour and thirty two minutes. If you don’t, then BUZZ, you’re out of the game.” He chuckled.

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Harvey was deadly still as he watched the girl. He pushed himself to distance himself from it. If he invested in the case emotionally he would lose and fast. Harvey sighed quietly and thought on the riddle.

He was never a wordy man himself. Nothing was wordy about the riddle, but he never cared for word problems. He always made the point to try to deduct rather than abduct. Harvey looked back at the riddle, giving it more consideration. He looked at the page it was on, looked around him, reaching trying to find something. He could only think of mother. Stories about mothers? the girl's mother? The girl's a mother... No the riddle. There's no mention of the father as to his condition. What happened to him? Did he die? What? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUCCCKKKKKKK THIS GUY.

Harvey just stared at the screen trying to think. He figured he was over thinking all of it, but situations like this are wont to do that to a person. Harvey sighed and shook his head, reaching up to adjust his hat and look at the book again. He was so flustered with this quicker than he cared to be. Where the fuck is that cowl-head. No. I have to do this. He can go suck it. Ha. Good riddance, jerk.

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The longer he looked at this chubby idiot buffoon trying to think intelligent thoughts, the more pissed off Edward Nigma was becoming. He was the Riddler! He had terrorized this city for six months, creating riddles and puzzles to challenge people’s minds and force them to actually use their brains instead of wasting it on television and comic books. The world coddle the idiots while punishing the intelligence. Darwinism stated a clear fact, it is survival of the fittest, and instead of praising such a bold statement, society protected the weak. The weak would only bring destruction of all humanity. The people who died in his riddles would have only caused such destruction. People should be thanking him! They should be kissing his feet because he would push humanity forward to something brighter and better than it ever was before! He could have kept going if that stupid crazy man who felt the need to dress like a bat wouldn’t have gotten in the way! But if Batman wanted to play a game of chess with him, he was up for the challenge, except now, the Batman decides not to show up! He leaves him with this idiot!

His jaw locked. How hard was it to realize that by the answer being mother, it would mean the next riddle was on the mother’s person, likely the locket she wore all the time? It was so simple! A child would make that connection, yet instead of heading back to their house, this fat ass sat here like he had all the time in the day.

“Where is Batman? You obviously do not the skills to match wits with the Riddler. I suggest you run home to Gordon and send your flying friend instead. At least he possess something of brain,” he bit out, his finger tapping annoyed on the table.

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"No time to chat, Nygma, I gotta go. See you in a few."

His best option was to head back to the seen of the crime. His best bet was the mother of the girl. After getting outside and barking a thanks at the librarian on shift, Harvey called up the units on site.

"This is Bullock, I'm headed back. I need to talk to the mother of the girl."

Within only ten minutes Harvey had returned and thundered his way through their home and through other officers observing and cataloguing evidence. He cut off the sentence of a junior detective interviewing the obviously distressed parents.

"Ma'am, let's have a little chat."

Harvey beckoned her a bit firmly to talk to him somewhere a little more isolated from the others. He looked her over.

"You got anything special to you that is supposed to be about your daughter in some way?"

The woman was a little confused at first, but considered his question, putting her hand over the locket and toying with it. He instantly noticed the gesture and eyed her a bit closely.

"Can I see your necklace?"

"Why? I don't think it-"

"You want a living breathing daughter then you let me see the locket."

She was a bit off put by him but she unclasped it behind her neck and gave it to him. He looked it over before opening it up.