Ch 3. The Second Interview
"Your looks won't get you shit from me!" His voice yelled at me again, and again, and again. I watched his lips move. It was dark and the only thing I could see was his face, yelling at me over and over.
I woke up like surfacing from deep dark waters, my mind becoming conscience with a gasp as I sat up in bed. The morning light was soft in my studio apartment in central Gotham City. I looked around seeing the vibrant colors of my possessions in my home, it felt very relieving after that dark dream. I hopped out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom to pee, my bladder was very insistent when I woke up. While I sat on the pot I checked my cell phone, finding a text from my cousin Sarah saying she would love to get together for drinks tonight.
Harleen replied she was down.
She got out of the bathroom and made herself breakfast, ate it, and headed to the gym. Harleen worked out about three days a week, always on Saturday's. She did her routine at the gym and sat in the hot tub for a while afterwards. It was noon by the time she got out and she stopped for lunch at a bistro around the corner from her home. She was mid bite of a sandwich when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Then a man sat down across from her at her table. It happened to be the man that she saw Dr. Lisbon arguing with the other day. She only recognized him because he was wearing the same clothes from last Wednesday. Black collared shirt, khaki pants, a receding hairline.
"Hello doctor." He said plainly. His eyes met mine mindly.
"I am here on the behalf of my employer, someone who is one of your patients at Arkham. He wants you to do him a little favor."
I blinked at him. I couldn't believe that the Joker has been locked down for less than a week and he has already sent someone to threaten me.
"This is a shake down?"
He shook his head. "All he wants is that you write good reports about him for the courts."
It was simply asking me to lie.
"Why would I do that?"
"You want money?" He looked at me hard ball, like he wanted to give me a low offer. It pissed me off quickly, I hated people treating me like some low life.
"No!" I yelled at him. Other people looked at us and he cringed away from their stares.
"Okay, okay!" He growled at me.
"If he wants me to write good reports then he can be good during our meetings and stop hurting our staff." I shook my head. "All he has to do is be a good boy for three months until his first behavioral overview."
The man just stood up and shook his head at me. "Just write good reports doc, or you'll regret it." He walked out of the bistro, I could see him move away through the glass windows. I sighed and rubbed my temples. He had threatened me, but only a little.
Was it crazy that I hadn't just gone along with it? That I had just told one of the Joker's henchmen no, I wouldn't be bullied or bribed? I was surely in danger now, but, somehow I wasn't scared. I was...stubborn. I refused to give into intimidation or threats.
I just told the most powerful crime lord in all of Gotham no. I have balls.
I felt powerful and maybe a little tense. I worried that the henchman would be back to threaten me again. So I needed to arm myself. I left the bistro and used my phone to search the best gun store in Gotham and went there. I looked through the glass cases of guns, I tried handling a few I liked and picked out a metallic blue colored Colt 45 pistol and a thigh holster for it. After leaving the store I went to the local gun range and practised with it.
Yes, I casually bought a gun after being threatened by a gangster. This is a normal thing when you live in Gotham City.
It annoyed me that men kept asking me, "What does a pretty little thing like you need a gun for?" As if a pretty lady could never get in trouble, or maybe she should just let men handle her problems. No, it's my life and I am going to protect it myself.
I think, that I was safe tonight. So I didn't need bring it with me to meet up with my cousin Sarah. I hung it from my bedframe at home and got ready to go out. I wanted to feel sexy tonight, since five days a week I had to be unnaturally conservative. I decided on my tight red bodycon dress and my red heels that I wore on Wednesday. I curled just the ends of my long golden blonde hair and put on some gold jewelry to accent my outfit. Looking in the mirror was like looking at the cover of a fashion magazine. Every woman would want to be me.
It was about 9 o'clock when I text Sarah asking her where she would like to meet up. She told me to go to Gonzie's,an awesome chinese restaurant with a full bar. She said we would start there and walk to the other bars that surrounded the restaurant. I liked her idea because Gonzie's was a very short cab ride away. I put my phone, cards, keys, and lipstick in a small gold clutch purse and left my apartment.
I hailed a cab and took it to Gonzie's. I walked in the front door and immediately spotted Sarah, she was dressed in a bright canary yellow dress, it was that classic 1950's style with a halter strap. It looked great on her. We made quite a pair as we hugged and sat down at the table with about a dozen of her friends.
Sarah was a very attention needy socialite type, she only went out if it was with a large group and she was the prettiest woman there. Which meant that she usually didn't call me to go out. So this was kind of a special occasion for me. She was so bright and bubbly today that I understood how she thought that I wouldn't outshine her tonight. Not when she was dressed like the sun!
I began talking with her friends, charming the shit out of them. There are many perks to having a doctorate in psychology, the ability to integrate into a group of people is one of them. Well, it's not something that they trained you to do in college or med school. But, after taking dozens of psychology classes, if I didn't know how to talk to people then I would fail as a psychology major, right?
So I ate delicious food, drank fancy sake cocktails, and talked to Sarah's snobby friends. After only an hour I knew that two of the couples were cheating on eachother, and that Sarah was sleeping with at least three of her friends husbands/lovers. Most of them had killer insecurity issues, and one of them even had an oedipus complex, constantly talking about his horrible step father and angel mother. I felt like I was doing group therapy at Arkham. Not that I let this bring me down.
You see, everyone has issues and baggage from their lives. No matter if they have had great parents and a rich upbringing, everyone walks away with issues. No one is perfect, few are "normal", and most adults are extremely childish. Gotham was a city filled with people wanting to become what they always dreamed they would be. So even though the crime rate is outrageous and we have giant destructive monster battles every few years, thousands of people came to Gotham city every year to try their stake at fame and fortune.
It is any wonder I became a psychiatrist?
"Let's go to Treble!" Sarah yelled over the table so everyone could hear her, her friends cheered. She was ready to move on to dancing if she wanted to go there, Treble had the best dance floors in town. So we all paid our bills and headed over there.
I liked this club, because it had a dance floor for all types. The first one when you walk in is the usual club scene with colored lights, fog machine and shitty DJ. The second floor was a disco theme, which was a lot of fun. The third floor was a patio outside in the back for us old time dancers who loved swing, salsa and the foxtrot. It had rope lights and small romantic tables on the sides with candles and flowers.
Sarah liked the club floor, some of her friends liked the disco, I was the only one who went outside. As I approached, I saw several men stop and stare at me. I knew I had my pick tonight. I chose a tall dark haired man who was obviously had more exotic blood than the average Gotham citizen. I liked that.
He took my hand and kissed it, begging me softly to dance with him. I accepted. Then, while knowing he was watching I bent down and grasped a small gold zipper on the side of my dress and pulled it up to become a leg freeing slit on the side of my very tight dress. I was now able to do the salsa like I wanted. I told him so.
The wolfish smile it brought to his face was what I had wanted to see all night and my body began to warm up as he pulled mine to his. His hand burning hot on the small of my back while we danced. Which we did for a while. After three sets he asked me if I would like a drink and I accepted again. I ordered a vodka cranberry.
I was almost done with it when Sarah came out to get me. "Harleen! Harleen! There you are!" She pranced up to me and completely ignored my tall dark companion. "I am ready to move out of here. How about the Zoo?"
That was an african jungle themed bar nearby, another one of my favorites. I nodded. Even while I didn't really want to leave, I figured that this night was more about her than me so I let her drag me away. My dancing partner was quite disappointed and he made sure to kiss my cheek and slide me his number before she could drag me away.
While sipping a giant pina colada at our new destination, I noticed someone familiar. I realized that I had seen him at Gonzie's and at Treble, and now he was sitting here at the Zoo. We were being followed. I had a feeling though, that it must just be me. I talked and chatted with Sarah and her friends for a while more. I kept our follower in the corner of my eye, it only took a little while to realize that he was using his phone to take picture of us, and me.
It was almost one in the morning now, and while I knew that Sarah would stay up most of the night I couldn't relax anymore when I knew I was being watched and followed. So I feigned being tired and apologized and said goodnight to Sarah. She hugged me a dozen times and let me go.
I called a cab and went home. After locking my door I realized that I really had been tired. I stripped out of my dress and jewelry and passed out in my bed.
Sunday morning I took slow and easy, and didn't leave my house at all.
--- --- ---
Monday morning I got to work, and only remembering my auspicious new patient when I stepped into my tiny office and saw the file boxes on my desk. I had meant to read the rest of his files over the weekend, but I was suddenly glad I hadn't. My mind flashed to my gun at home and wished I had it here, which was ridiculous of course, I wasn't allowed to have a gun in the hospital. Even though the new security detail did.
I read a little more of his files before walking down the long halls to the other side of the building where his cell was in high security and padded room section of Arkham. This time it was Robert, our oldest security guard who was standing in front of the Joker's cell.
"Robby! Hey Robby! Robby! Robby! Hey! When is my lady gonna see me again? What kinda hospital is this?" The Joker was yelling through his cell again. I wondered how long he could keep up his energy levels.
Upon seeing me Robert turned and opened the window slider to look in on the Joker, "She's here, now shut the fuck up!" He said to my patient. I couldn't blame him one bit. He slid the window cover closed again and grabbed his walkie talkie, requesting the usual detail for the move of the Joker to the interrogation room.
"Robert?" I asked him politely. "Has anyone else seen him since Friday?" Robert nodded, "The Mayor came by, Lisbon with another man, and.... Him." At first I wasn't sure who he meant, but of course I knew. Gotham City's notorious hero Batman, who was the eternal dance partner of the Joker. The dark hero and the silly villain who have battled for decades here, every citizen grew up watching them on the news, avoiding being killed in the crossfire. Gotham was their territory, their city, their hill to be King over. The King of Darkness and the King of Crime. Order and Chaos.
The team arrived and they went into the room to chain him up so they could take him out. I did what I had done before and waited patiently by the wall while they did. As they picked him up to bring him out I began walking down the hall ahead of them. I wanted to show the Joker that I wasn't afraid of him this time. That his threats didn't scare me.
The interrogation room was in the middle of the building, it was also the same room used for the electro shock therapy treatments. Now that I think about it, it's appropriate for the Joker's sessions.
I could hear his muffled cackling behind me, they must have gagged him.
