Justice League And The Hounds Of Hell

Chapter 4: Sideline Sidekick

"When you said you had someone in need of medical attention, I must say I expected a human being, not a canine." Alfred looked between the dog and I with skeptical eyes. 

"I'm sorry if I deceived you. He's really hurt." 

Alfred rolled up his sleeves and knelt down to inspect the damage. The dog forced out a deep rumble as he felt around. "Evidently not injured enough to protest." He looked into the dog's glaring black eyes. "I feel some swelling, he's badly bruised. His shoulder here is dislocated, and I think this may be a broken rib." 

"Can you help him?" 

"I can't, but there's a 24 hour animal hospital in Fort Clinton, just a few blocks from Saint Mary's Park. I'll drop him off there and see what the vets can do." 

"Thanks, Alfred." 

"Grab a towel from the trunk and lay it across the back seat." 

He laid the dog across it and wiped off his hands. The whole time, it hadn't ceased its threatening growl. He nodded at me. "For the safety of everyone, I think it best to leave the muzzle on." 

I hated to agree. I watched them disappear across the bridge, then I moved in the opposite direction to follow the van. It was long gone by now, but I had gotten a picture of the license plate and knew I could run them to track down the owner. Before I went to the cave to use the computer, I used the bicycle to take me downtown. I wanted to check out the Iceberg Lounge to see if the goons had gone to visit Penguin. If they had, then I would have the evidence I needed to incriminate him. 

The van wasn't anywhere in sight by the club. Activities continued there as normal as ever. I narrowed my eyes and used my binoculars to watch Penguin entertain his guests. None of his guards matched the ones I'd come across at the park, either. He went off to a corner and spoke under his breath to one man, they went over some paperwork, then he turned away with a sharp smile. I ground my jaw, I knew he was up to something, I just didn't know what. After watching the place for an hour, I decided I was going nowhere and went back to the cave so I could run the only real lead I had.

Robin was in the cave examining one of the shruikens the ninjas had tossed at him the other night. He didn't look up when I walked in. I went straight to the computer and brought up the plate runner. 

"Nice to see you, too." He said after me. 

I wanted to respond, but the image of the way he'd been speaking to his pretty little ex was still sour on me. If I spoke he would hear my anger, and I really had no reason to be upset, but if I didn't speak, he would know-- 

"You okay?" 

"I'm busy." 

There was silence. I typed the numbers into the system and waited. 

"So, what do you think of this whole Teen Titans thing?"

I thought for a minute and forced myself to sound as indifferent as possible. "I don't know." 

The results came back. The car belonged to a small man who looked to be in about his thirties by the name of Ronny Boxer. The car had been reported stolen two days ago, which coincided with the kidnapped lion. On another window, I reviewed the grainy photos I had taken. Those two men had to be the ones taking the animals. DNA from the eyelash didn't bring back any hits, but they had the looks of hired musclemen. Unfortunately, the photos were too grainy to get a facial recognition on them, so I couldn't use them to track down their employer. I leaned against the counter. I was missing a lot of pieces before I could figure it out, but there was a charity event tomorrow that I knew Cobblepot would be crashing, saying his invite was lost in the mail. I could take that chance to learn whatever else I could about him. On Friday I would check out the rally to see what else I could learn.