15905/One of the Fingers

One of the Fingers
Date of Scene:	22 September 2023
Location:	Old Gotham - Founders Island
Synopsis:	Barbara shares some details with Steph on the mysteries of the Five Fingers Murders. It is a rainy day, a lovely Gotham time!
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown

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Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara was ever the hermit in her own right. Be it directly being tied to her training under Batman, or the after effects of a decade post-injury that left her in a wheelchair. She'd become a bit of a reclusive figure, though perhaps not as severe as Batman ever had been. Still, though, even with all the friends and family she has, everyone knows she's a bit of a loner and always has some random project she's working on.

Tonight, it is just so. It is still fairly warm in Gotham, and there is a light rain falling. Windshield wipers are streaking across the front of vehicles down on the street, while Batgirl observes from high above. Her black and gold suit is dripping with the droplets of the rain, her hair plastered down behind her shoulders across her sleek cape that gently whips in the soft winds. She'd sent a message out to Steph to meet her at this building rooftop, and thus she's simply waiting, and watching the flow of traffic down below.

A quiet rumble of thunder rolls across the horizon, and echos through the canyons of the city's buildings.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The sound of the final bits of liquid being drawn from a beverage container through a straw come from further back on the roof. Stephanie's footfalls don't bother to try to be silent, though the boots themselves would almost accomplish that even without care, was it not for the puddles of the water she's walking through.

Her own cape hangs wet down her back as she moves to stop beside the OG Batgirl. The younger variety, wearing purple and black, offers over another cup that is a twin of the one she's just finished off. "Figured you might like something warm," she says. It's a coffee, Barbara's normal order that Stephanie would have heard her place any number of times by now.

She crouches down then, eyes drifting across the cityscape before them. "What are after tonight?" she asks quietly, before her eyes swing from the city up to her mentor.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Stephanie had the advantage of being one of the Bats that Babs had the most faith in. Call it bias considering their history together. Stephanie had experience now, a wealth of it, and she'd been at it arguably longer than Babs had considering the decade spent in a chair...

When she arrives with that coffee, Babs accepts it with a light smirk visible on her lower face. "Thanks." She softly says over the backdrop of horns honking in the evening traffic on this dreary dying day.

After she indulges in the sip from the white chocolate latte, Babs speaks. "I'm still investigating a series of murders that have all been linked together via some shady dealings, but I haven't yet been able to pin it on someone specific..." She states, before she uses her wrist computer on her left wrist to send a file drop to Stephanie. "I was hoping you'd help me with some of it. Specifically with some interviews. Most of them will be casual... many of them will likely be thrilled to speak with you, but some... might be a bit stand-offish. It is mostly with church folks... but still, some of them have criminal records, so..."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown crushes her beverage container but slips it into a utility belt pocket for later disposal rather than litter on the roof. The blond begins looking over the file once it arrives, her cowl's lenses dropping into place over her eyes providing a view nearly as good as sitting at a computer screen, when needed.

"Hrm," she murmurs aloud one or twice as she goes through it. "Batgirl, if this is the moment that Gotham's nun-themed villain finally makes her appearance felt," she says, before glancing over to Barbara with a grin. "Because I mean, we have condiment themed villains and moth themed villains and even a kite guy. Surely there's got to be like... Nun-Of-Your-Business. Or maybe The Prioress."

She pauses to reconsider. "Though I suppose we do already have a Penguin, but he doesn't count I don't think." Stephanie falls silent again, more seriously going back through the file. "Ok, did you want to approach them in costume, or more incognito with any of them?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The humor from Steph earns a noticeable smile upon Babs' pink-hued lips. She doesn't laugh with in costume, that anyone has ever seen before anyway, but she will smile a healthy amount at a good joke. "Sadly, nothing quite so theatrical .. this time. At least not yet." She says as Steph adjusts and puts away the cup she'd been using.

"Here." Babs notes, sending a bit more imagery to her to accompany the info. "Your uniform is fine for these, it might even help make the people know this is serious... these outfits have their advantages afterall, as I'm sure you know." And they certainly have some disadvantages reveal themselves now and then too.

The images that Babs sends over to Steph show the murder site within the Priests' office of St. Augustine's Cathedral which is coincidentally located just down below, and a few buildings out.

"Priest's name was Michael O'Sullivan. He'd been a serving member of Saint Augistine's for the past thirty years... I even remember some of his sermon's from my childhood. Bits and pieces of them anyway..." She mutters the last part.

"I found this, at the site of his murder..." She indicates, the image of a black hand with its fingers spread open printed upon what looks like the side of a desk. "It was right at the base of his desk, down by where his head was." She says softly, taking another sip of the coffee. "He was strangled... a bit of black paint left on his throat too."

"Anyway... this is what I need you to ask around about. See if some of the prominent church members may have seen anyone unusual hanging around. I know GCPD have already spoken to some of them, but not all of them. Them being the ones I have listed out for you, if you're up for it."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
When Barbara mentions having known Father O'Sullivan, having attended his sermons, Stephanie reaches over, a light touch to Barbara's shoulder. A comforting gesture, though brief enough that it needn't be responded to.

"Black paint? That's a bit of an unusual detail. Was it found at the other murders as well?" she asks, not having had a chance to go into the details of each of the murders yet.

Instead she spends a few moments going through the list that Batgirl wishes to have questioned. "Sure, I'm up for it. We'll see if we can get any additional leads," she says.

Focusing away from the list, the younger Batgirl surveys the area again. Looking across the streets from the church, seeing if there are any business that might have cameras that could have picked up something useful.

Barbara Gordon has posed:

The kind gesture from the other woman has Babs glancing over to her to offer a small smirk of 'thank you' in response, a signature expression from Babs when she was in-costume like she is here and now. When her green eyes go back to her glowing wrist display, she nods her head a single soft time. "Every one of them." She says softly with regard to the black paint. Another sip of the coffe is taken as another rumble of thunder rolls across the cityscape around them.

"Priest Michael was the last one to be killed. Latest, rather... I wish I'd been able to do something, but the connections are just so vague at best. Five fingers, five deaths. At least that probably means the murders are over now, right?" She states, knowing that is a weak assumption, but one worth hoping for.

"Huntress and I first looked in to this several months back. She found the first hand print, and I've known where to look for them since. They've all been within just a few feet of their respective victims, but..." She gently shakes her head inside of her cowl. "Seemingly random surfaces chosen for the print itself."

She draws in a breath then, her cape whipping around behind her legs as another wet breeze rolls across the two women. "It doesn't match any murders we've had before. Obviously we're used to weird iconography being left at crime scenes though, that's nothing new..."

Once more she sips from the gifted drink. "I'll send you the other five dossiers too, if you're interested in looking in to more of it. It certainly is keeping me up at night."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The younger Batgirl crouches on the roof's edge, fingers tapping on the coping as she appears in thought. "Anything overtly connecting them beyond the fact they are all priests?" she asks. "Serve in whatcha call it... seminary school? Together. Or, um. Do priests have like fraternities or something like that? You know what I mean. Factions within the church or whatever? Maybe served in the same location?" she suggests. Knowing Barbara would already be looking for things like that, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Even if only a few of them had a connection, it might be the sort of clue that could end up paying dividends in some other way.

She looks back down at the church, and then accesses the Batcomputer. "Looks like three of them live at the church," she says. And no doubt is pulling up where the others stay then. "What are you going to be doing in the meantime?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
There are a few horns being honked almost directly down below beneath where the two women are perched. A donut delivery truck is honky loudly at a Uber driver who is shouting at a pair of people on the crosswalk, that seem to have collided their messenger bikes together. A typical street situation in the city filled with bumper to bumper traffic like this.

Babs takes a single step back with her right foot, letting her left knee go up as she takes a bit of a 'Captain Morgan' stance on the edge of the building now. "The only time that the five deceased were in the same location together in the past three years was two years ago at a gala event marking the beginning of a homeless shelter project that Priest Michael was embarking on. The homeless in Gotham were always his biggest charitable concern, even when I was knee high to a dinner table, I remember him having meetings about how to help the homeless find relief." She states, glancing over to Steph. She shakes her head slightly. "But even still, only three of the five deceased actually were active participants in Priest Michael's endeavors. The other two..." Babs looks back to her display showing various files on all five of the victims. "Well... that's part of what i hope to find out. I'd like to ask about this Homeless shelter project, find out why the others may have not gotten involved when that was the point of the charity event two years ago."

Babs exhales softly, her cup coming up to her lips for another sip. When she drinks it down, she looks back to the blonde on her right. "I'm going to poke around in that regard, see if I can't find out more about the development project for the Homeless shelter. It is over on Burbank street, beside the old ice rink. I want to find out if other such people were invited to join this project... But, yes. I was hoping you could see about the interviews, maybe find a specific face that was standing out to people who knew Priest Michael recently. Maybe it was a face that was standing out for all the wrong reasons. Maybe they were seen carrying around cans of black paint too..." She says the last part with another faint smirk.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie rises from her crouch, the dreary rain beading on her suit until it runs down in little streams, past the bat logo done in gold upon her chest. "Alright, I'll see if anyone stands out, or anyone was hanging around that hadn't been. Plus of course the black paint," she says.

There's a wave of her hand across the street. "I'll check at that gas station as well, see if I can get a week or so worth of footage prior to it. Maybe they'll pick up someone in the area recurring, or just showing up that day," she says.

Batgirl takes one last look down then raises a gloved hand to give Barbara wave. "Catch back up later at the cave," she says. And then steps off the roof, plummeting as gravity takes over. Until her cape pops open, electric current causing hardened ribs to form and create a glider shape that carries her down to the church below.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Thanks, Steph." Babs says quietly, knowing that they're alone up here on this multi-story building's roof. She watches as the younger Batgirl makes her exit, admiring the skill on display as it is shown off... They all are extreme-sports adrenaline addicts, nobody can question that when they see it first hand!

With one more sip of the coffee, Barbara turns away from the ledge of the building and begins to walk toward its center. There she has a number of her Bat-drones all resting in a circular formation upon the ground, each one in idle-mode. Setting the drink aside on a small ledge, Babs begins to work at a portable station she has setup. Weather proof laptop, openly being rained upon, she sends a signal to the charging drones, and each one begins to lift off in to the sky. One by one they lift up in to the rainy night, and begin to head in a line toward the south east. Babs closes the laptop, and shoves it back in to the wall, before pulling down a faux-cover that blends it in with the rest of the building's exterior upon its roof.

She turns and reaches her hands up to her cowl to adjust it upon her head before she soon is mirroring what Stephanie had done just a few moments earlier, only she headed in the opposite direction.

More thunder rolls out across the city, as the rain begins to fall a little heavier. Up high above the GGE Blimp begins to settle back in through the dark clouds, its undercarriage lights making it shine in the sky as it descends down toward the city, having fully soaked up the sun rays above the clouds, it lowers itself toward the city to continue its power transfer routines... as well as move in to provide the active Bats tonight with added surveilence from high in the sky...