Everything She Saw

That Was Then, This Is Now

I crumbled the newspaper in my hands. Jonathan had escaped Arkham again. He had done it once before in the past year, and the last time it had taken only a week for him to be recaptured. I had been worried the last time he might have tried repeating what he had done in the Narrows. There was no doubt in my mind that was his goal. I hoped that he would be captured again before he could succeed in anything.

Someone knocked on my door. Then there was another knock. Then another.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" I dropped the newspaper on the table and looked through the door's viewer.

Zoey stood outside the door. I unlocked it and let her in.

Zoey was a nice enough person. When she first moved in, I avoided her because of her gothic appearance. It took about a month for me to start talking to her. She wasn't offended. We became friends very quickly after I started talking to her.

"Did you read the paper?" she asked, walking into my apartment. She sat down on the sofa.

"Yeah, I did. What do you make of it?" I asked as I sat down beside her.

"He wants to fuck up people's lives, that's what I make of it. That damn asylum can't keep anyone inside. It's not just Crane that's out now. Joker's out, too, if you remember," Zoey said.

"I'd almost forgotten. He's been quiet lately." The Joker had escaped the month before. I supposed if I lived in another city, knowing a green-haired clown was running rampant in Gotham would have concerned me. But I lived in Gotham; therefore, this was normal.

"Makes me nervous," Zoey muttered. "That only means he's got something big planned."

I nodded. She was right. The longer the criminals were out, the bigger the crime.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss when the mobs ran the city. You know, Falcone and Maroni. I'd rather deal with them than with the likes of the Joker," I said. Zoey shook her head.

"I'd rather no one ran the city. The mobs were just as bad," she said. She grew up here. She would know more than I did. If she said they were bad, then I had to believe her, even if I couldn't believe it.

"Are you worried Crane will come after you?" Zoey asked.

"A little, I guess. Honestly, there are more important things for me to worry about."

"I wish I was that lucky, to have more important things than getting fear gassed to worry about. I mean, to Amber Connery, wondering when Edward Nigma is going to ask her out is far more important!"

"Edward and I are friends."

Zoey raised her eyebrows. "Right. I know what 'just friends' looks like, Amber. What you and Edward have, it's not that."

"Name one thing we have in common," I challenged.

"You both have red hair."

"That doesn't count!"

Zoey laughed. I didn't think it was very funny. Edward was alright to spend time with, but I didn't think a relationship with him would last. It wasn't realistic. We weren't compatible in that way.

"Sure. But back on the subject of Crane. You're not worried at all?" Zoey asked.

"Not for myself. For others, yeah."

"Do you think Crane still cares about you?"

"You're assuming he ever did."

Zoey's face last any trace of humor. I'd told her about Jonathan and I. She believed he had cared about me. He might have when we were younger. I wasn't so sure he cared as much when we met again as adults.

"The way you talk about him makes it seem like he cared about you," Zoey said. "I think he did love you. Maybe not when he was arrested, but I think he did once."

"Maybe it was my fault for waiting so long," I said. Zoey shook her head. I knew she would disagree with me. I really didn't even believe that myself. Jonathan had always been cold. Part of me wanted a clear answer, a clear justification for why he did what he did. The other part knew I would probably never get one.

"So, any other news?" Zoey said, changing the subject.

"Yeah. Remember when I told you about the Arkham story I worked on a while ago?" I asked. Zoey nodded. "Paul wants me to start over. Apparently there's more shit going on there and since I'm the expert, it's my job. Someone else was on it, but they gave up."

"Jesus. I take back what I said about you being lucky. You are one of the most unlucky people I know," Zoey said.

"No kidding."

Zoey stayed for another hour until she had to work. I knew what she did at night. I wanted to ask her to stay instead of leaving. But I knew that would only cause problems for her.

When she left, I got to work on the damn Arkham story. Again.

The asylum story. It had been a long time since I'd been on that story. Of course, I'd kept the notes. Most of them were on Jeremiah Arkham, who was already incarcerated. Some on Jonathan, also incarcerated. One sentence on Hugo Strange. The story, unlike last time, was not about abused patients. It was about missing ones.

I pored over the notes. Neither Jonathan nor Jeremiah seemed to have the ability to make people go missing. Not while Jeremiah was locked up and patients had been reported missing before Jonathan had escaped the first time. This made my sole suspect Hugo Strange, and only because I had no idea who else could make patients disappear without too many worrying about it. And there had to be a reason there was so little information about him.

This time, I would not visit the asylum. I would make an extraordinary effort not to speak to anyone associated with the asylum. That meant no Victor Zsasz. That meant no Jonathan. Going to the asylum last time had been a mistake. I would be avoiding Arkham at all costs.

Hugo Strange was the newest director. The German doctor who I had found no previous information about. I repeated this over in my head. There had to be something else. Something missing.

Even after so long, he was still an enigma.

Enigma?

I reached for my phone. It was no matter of Zoey's if I had Edward's phone number. And this was a business matter. Not a personal call.

"Edward Nigma speaking."

"Hi, Edward. It's Amber." There was a pause before he spoke again.

"While it is wonderful to hear your lovely voice, I must say that I am doing something very-"

"It'll be quick, I promise," I said, cutting him off. He sighed into the phone.

"What is it then?"

"Do you think you could find information about a certain person for me?"

He scoffed into the phone. "Of course I can. There is nothing I can't figure out. Name?"

"Hugo Strange."

There was a silence before he spoke again. "The director of Arkham? Why?"

"A story I'm working on. I'll pay you," I offered.

"No need. I'll do it as a favor for my dearest friend."

While I highly doubted I was his dearest friend, I was appreciative of his help. I sorely needed it if I wanted to avoid the asylum.

"Thank you, Edward. I appreciate it. I'll let you get back to what you were doing." I started to pull the phone away from my ear when he spoke again.

"It really wasn't very important. Would you like to continue a conversation?" he asked.

I almost said no. This was meant to be a business call, not a personal one. But I didn't say no. I should have said no because I had the story to work on. I should have said no because I didn't want a relationship. I should have said no for a plethora of other reasons. I would have in the past.

But I guess that was then. This was now.

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Chapter title borrowed from S.E. Hinton