Laugh Lines

Masterpiece

~ Count my cards,

Watch them fall,

Blood on a marble wall,

I like the way they all,

Scream~

~Billie Eilish~

Batman was trying Joker's patience. It had been a week, and Joker hadn't heard anything. No sightings of the bat no secret messages. Nothing.

Joker was fine with that, it just meant that he could move onto the next part of the fun. He had used the week to research Bruce Wayne. The man had a sad sob story, just like everyone else. The papers had been very thorough in recounting the gruesome murder of his parents.

It had moved him to his best idea yet. He figured that the attack on poor old Bruce Williams just hadn't been enough to push Bruce to the head space he needed to be. Joker needed to get more personal.

Now he was searching for the right people. They had to be perfect. It had taken over three hours, but he had found them. The stand in for Thomas Wayne was a store manager his face looked similar, and his name was Charles Thomas. Close enough.

The lady had been easy to find, dark hair and light eyes, slightly rounded face, and her name was Martha McDaniel. She was almost perfectly the double to sweet Martha Wayne. He had her work address and grabbed his to go bag.

He got in his car and drove to the apartment building looking for Red. He was out of his car and into the building, his smile almost painfully pulled across his face. It was going to be so good. He found Red asleep in one of the bunks.

He leaned down close to the man's face. He reached forward and tapped him on the nose. When his eyes cracked open Joker spoke, "Boo!"

He jumped up, hitting his head on the bottom of the top bunk. "Fuck!"

Joker laughed. "Get up, grab a buddy, we have work." Joker turned and moved out to get a van.

The air was getting colder and he could see his breath as he skipped over to the van. He pulled out the keys from his pocket and started the van, pulling it up to the back of the building. Joker leaves the machine running and got out to get his to go bag from his car.

He was tossing his stuff in the back when he heard the door open. Out walked Red and some plain faced guy Joker had never seen before. He looked at the two, "You drive." He pointed to Red.

They piled into the van and pulled away from the neighborhood. Joker gave directions as needed, it took only 10 minutes to get to the Laundromat where poor old Martha worked nights. Joker had Red park across the street and kill the engine. They waited.

After what felt like years, he finally saw Martha move through the building. Then disappeared. The side door to the laundromat opened and out stepped the small woman. She lit a cigarette and pulled out her phone. Joker watched as she stood there, completely unaware of the three of them watching her.

Joker moved and pulled things from the bag. Finally finding what he was looking for. The doused the rag in chloroform, then pulled the door open. He hopped down and made his way over to her, she didn't look away from her phone.

This was almost too easy. He walked up behind her, slipping the rag over her mouth and nose. She tensed in his arms, her phone and cigarette hit the ground as she tried to pull his hands away.

He body finally went slack, Joker tucked the rag into his pocket and bent down to lift her over his shoulder. He practically skipped across the street, he pushed her into the floor of the van and tucked her legs up and into it. He closed the door and moved to his bag again. He put the rag from his pocket into the bag and pulls out zip ties.