#serial killer case

“Is that one a week?” Tim asks, taking a guess at the situation. This is the first he’s heard about these deaths, unfortunately it isn’t uncommon to hear about a death happening but for so many in little time it’s a wonder why he hasn’t heard about it yet.

Bruce hums in confirmation. Leaning back in his chair Tim lets out a breath and picks up another piece of paper, he analyses the details trying to wrap his head around the information he’s reading.

Bruce had not long come back from a meeting with Commissioner Gordon and as soon as he got into the cave he immediately went to work looking into the case and what the police have gathered on it, already being in the cave Tim got privy to the case and soon enough he and Bruce were engaged in a conversation about it. It surprised Tim that Bruce didn’t stop him from getting involved but it seemed like his adoptive father was open to the extra pair of eyes on the case.

“So five deaths and no links between the victims. Nothing at all?” It seems odd. Usually in these cases there’s a pattern after the third victim (if it gets that far) but for there to be nothing Tim isn’t buying it. There’s usually something.

Bruce shrugs in an almost helpless manner. “According to Gordon, all they’ve been able to work out is that the victims are children of the socialite however there are no targets to a certain gender or to a certain age. The families are from different ethnicities, they’re not all Gothamites, for example one victim was South African. The victims’ families aren’t part of any shady business, none have ever been involved in affairs, or owed money. The victims all tended different schools and ran in different social circles. The police can’t find a clear MO.”

“So the victims were random pickings?” God, Tim feels sick just saying the sentence and thinking about it, what the fuck is wrong with people nowadays.

“That’s a possibility,” Bruce ponders, “there’s a chance they could have all been selected. I haven’t had a chance to look through everything yet including the victims profiles and family interviews. What I just told you is what Gordon relayed to me.”

“Is there a chance they all knew the killer?”

“That's currently unclear.” Bruce answers grimly. “They seemed to have been taken at different locations, at different times of the day, different days of the week, in different scenarios. One was walking home from school, another was out meeting friends, one was out clubbing, another was at the park.”

“I’m guessing interviews with friends and families haven’t put a light on anything yet. Surely the police would have picked up on something by now.” Tim drops the piece of paper onto the table, already thinking about the ways to take this further and to gather his own information.

“That’s where we come in. We have connections the police don’t, Gordon’s hoping we can find something they didn’t.”

Tim huffs and rolls his eyes. “Doing the police’s job, surprise, surprise.” Bruce immediately scolds him for the comment and Tim puts his hands up in a placating gesture. Glancing at the time Tim realises how late it is. “I’m going to call it a night but tomorrow I’ll have a look into the interview notes and start trying to connect something.”

Bruce looks like he’s about to say something, that something probably being about Tim not getting involved but it seems like he changes his mind because he snaps his mouth shut and nods in answer. Tim bids him a goodnight before retreating from the cave with the case at the forefront of his mind.

Predictably sleep that night didn’t come easily, Tim probably caught an hour maybe two at the most. He was up early the next morning and after a two hour gym session he settles himself at his desk in his room pouring over case notes from the previous night.

It’s certainly a complicated case, Tim can now understand why the police were having trouble connecting the dots with it. Even after looking at the case for several hours Tim is struggling to find a link between the victims and what could be the killer’s MO.

Letting out a huff in frustration Tim decides it’s a good time for a break. He’s out of coffee and it would be good to give his legs a stretch. As he makes his way down to the kitchen from his bedroom he could hear the Manor’s occupants moving around, with it now being late morning it seems like the rest of the house are awake, unless they need to be none of them were actually morning people.

When he gets to the kitchen he greets Alfred and prepares himself a cup of coffee but also sorts himself out a bagel to munch on while he does so. Once he’s got a steaming cup of joe he starts making his way back to his room to carry on with the case and attempt to finally make the connection he's missing.

As he walks along the corridors to his room Tim happens to pass the library and coming from the room Tim could hear a melody being played, something calming, cantabile, and almost sensuous, it’s only when he peers into the room itself he finds Damian practising his music on the cello. Tim watches him for a moment, his movements making it look like playing the instrument is effortless. Damian’s always had a natural talent for music, Tim’s not sure if that’s because of his upbringing or just him as a person but either way Tim admits the kid is good at it.

Not wanting to get caught creeping on Damian, Tim leaves the room and as he walks the melody slowly fades away the further he gets. It’s only when he sits back down at his desk he realises he’s humming the tune Damian had been playing on the cello. Huffing he shakes his head and clears his mind of the music, this case needs his full attention and humming a noncommittal tune isn’t going to help anything.

An hour later Tim’s re-reading through the victim’s families and friends interviews, he’s already poured over it twice but he’s checking again because he’s positive there’s something hidden that he can use as a lead. He finds himself humming once more and rolls his eyes at his own actions, who knows how long he had been doing it for before he realised, however this time he doesn’t force himself to stop, he lets himself hum away as he continues to read the latest victim’s best friend’s interview with the police.

It's here when he finally picks up on something. It’s a small detail and now he’s looking at it he can see how it’s been overlooked but having Damian’s tune in his head it may have helped him notice it this time. The victim’s best friend has claimed that the victim had been complaining about hearing melodic tune days before they disappeared. Apparently it’s one of the only unusual behaviours the victim had shown before getting kidnapped, the police had written this off and nothing more came from it.

Believing this to be something more, Tim skims through the other interviews looking to see if any other claims of a similar fashion were made. It could be nothing or it could be everything. When he notes four out of the five victims had claimed about a melodic tune Tim knows this is something. He throws his hands up in the air and shouts in victory as he's finally found something in this case.

Gathering up his notes Tim hurries out of his room in the search for Bruce. As he runs around the manner shouting for his adoptive father he passes a confused looking Cass and a sweaty Jason who’s just finished a workout, Tim eventually finds Bruce in his study. Barging into the man’s office Bruce looks up and scowls at him, Tim really does know better than to just barge in like that but that isn’t important right now. He strides forward and slaps his papers down on the desk in front of Bruce not paying any attention to the paperwork the man is currently doing.

Tim explains, rather expeditiously, what he found and what he thinks it could mean. Bruce listens patiently, but whether that's because he’s genuinely interested or just humouring him Tim doesn’t know, but the man doesn’t argue against his findings so that has to mean something.

Almost half an hour later Bruce gives him permission to explore this discovery in more depth as long as he’s careful and doesn’t cross any boundaries. Tim lets out a snort at that, what boundaries, Tim is the golden child when it comes to following rules when chasing up a lead, there’s no need for Bruce to worry about it. He could tell Bruce didn’t believe him when he promised to be on his best behaviour but before the man could take back what he said, Tim thanks him and hurries out of the room.

It takes Tim several days to gather the information he needs and to create a plan of action. By the time he’s ready to go half of the week’s gone by, there hasn’t been a death this week but Tim knows (as bad as it is to even think about) it won’t be long until the killer strikes again with another unfortunate victim, that’s if the killer sticks to their pattern of one death a week. It still isn’t clear to what the killer’s MO is yet.

On Thursday night Tim suits up and heads out into the city. His plan is to visit some of the friendship groups the victims had been in; Tim had worked out they liked to hang out in the city late at night a few times a week and he's going to do his best to get around to as many of these groups as he could in one night.

His first stop is by a night club where the second victim liked to hang out. The friendship group were where he expected them to be, gathering on the other side of the street of the club clearly waiting for something and it’s when the group moves into the alleyway between two buildings that Tim makes a move to approach them.

Cutting across the rooftops Tim sneaks from up above and drops down stealthily behind the group. He waits a beat, purely for his own amusement to see how long it would take them to notice him, but when they don’t notice a masked figure lurking behind them Tim pointedly clears his throat and finally gains their attention.

The group has a mixture of reactions to his appearance. Some yelp and take a few steps backwards, one gets into a defensive stance and another even pulls out a pocketknife. Tim of course is unimpressed and rolls his eyes at the group.

“Look,” he starts, speaking to the rattled group of young adults, “I’m here to ask a couple questions about your friend who had passed a few weeks back.”

One of the girls in the group snorts. “You mean brutally murdered! She didn’t do anything! She didn’t deserve it.”

Before Tim could respond the guy with the pocketknife is speaking up, he steps in front of the group putting himself closet to Tim and holds the knife out in front of him. “No way man! We’ve already spoke to the police, we ain’t speaking to you either.”

Tim takes a breath to control himself because snapping at these people won’t get him anywhere. Once he’s composed he says, “I’m not the police, I’m just following up a lead on the case. Before your friend passed did she say anything about hearing a melodic tune?”

The group is silent and blinking at him as if he grew a second head. A beat goes by, and then another, and shakes his head before asking the question again, this time elaborating a bit more on what he meant.

This gets him a response, the girl who spoke earlier gives him an answer. “She complained about hearing a tune coming from her phone and how she couldn’t work out what it was. At first she had thought it was a notification but then it kept happening until she…. y’know.”

Tim hums in thought. That’s more detail than what the reports give. “What else do you know about the noise? What did it sound like? How often did it occur?”

The girl shrugs helplessly. Refraining from snapping at her Tim asks her some more elaborate questions trying to prompt her to answer but it seems hopeless, the girl – and the rest of the group – didn’t know anything more. Mentally filing those details for later, Tim dismisses them and gets ready to head off for the next group.

The second group, a trio of girls leaving the cinema, were just as helpful as the first. It had been pure coincidence Tim found them, he had been passing by and there they conveniently were, he managed to catch them at a corner of a quiet block and speak to them. They had no knowledge other than confirming their friend had complained about a noise coming form her phone which wasn’t a notification but they gave nothing more in depth than that. Tim thanked them and carried on with his night.

His third try of the night seemed to be the most informative of the bunch. He tracked down the best friend of the fourth victim leaving a restaurant after closing up for the night. Scaring the daylights out of the guy, Tim drops down in front of him in the alleyway where the back entrance of the restaurant is. The poor soul literally jumps in the air and drops his keys down onto the mangy floor, Tim watches from his spot as the guy picks them up with shaking hands.

“Sorry for scaring you like that.” Tim apologies, just because he's a vigilante it doesn’t mean he’s an asshole. “Sorry for your loss but if you have a moment I would like to ask a couple questions about your friend who passed recently.”

The guy swallows and nods his head, he’s shaking all over and Tim knows that it isn’t because he’s cold. Despite agreeing he still says, “I’ve already spoken to the police though.”

Tim nods, humming understandably. “I know but I’m following a lead they haven’t, also I’m not the police as you can see.” Tim pauses to give the guy a moment to compose himself before continuing. “Before he… disappeared, did your friend ever complain about hearing a melodic tune coming from his phone that wasn’t a notification?”

The guy’s eyes widen in what Tim would say is recognition. He nods but looks also looks unsure. “Yeah he did. He had complained about it for days before he… He couldn’t work out what was causing the sounds, at first he thought it was an app and then he thought he had been hacked but after getting his phone checked to find it virus free he had no idea.”

“Did he ever describe what the noise sounded like?”

“No, but I heard it a few times myself.” The guy tells him and Tim immediately straightens up, this is the first time anyone’s heard the noise. “It went from a high noise to a low noise, only a few notes and then it stopped. I remember him complaining about it happening four times a day, then the day after he told me it happened three times and the day after that twice. That was the last time I heard from him… It seemed like it was a count down or something.”

“Did you mention that to the police?”

“No, not in that much detail. I guess I didn’t think about it again until you asked. My best friend had just been found murdered, it’s kind of the last thing on my mind y’know.”

Tim hums thinking it all through. This is the most detail he’s gotten so far but it still doesn’t help him to solve the problem and how it can all be linked back to the killer. Humming he asks, “what was the noise like though? You say high to low, can you describe it in any more detail?”

The guy shrugs looking uncomfortable and unsure. “I don’t know! Um, like tings I guess?” He blinks and looks off into the distance and Tim could see he’s trying to come up with the right words to describe it. When he looks back at Tim his face has brightened, as if a light bulb has flicked on inside his head. “It sounded like one of those instruments you play when you whack the wood and it makes a sound. They go in size order and the smaller ones make the high pitched noises.”

It's Tim’s turn to blink at the guy. He raises an eyebrow underneath his mask. “Are you on about a xylophone? The noise coming from the phone is a xylophone tune.”

The guy shrugs, “if that’s what it’s called then yeah.”

Despite having some clearer descriptions it doesn’t do much to help Tim solve anything. Deciding that's as far as he’s going to get that night, he bids the guy a goodnight before heading back for the rooftops so he could start making his way back to the Manor. He’s got a lot to think about.

Over the next couple of days the case leaves Tim on edge. He’s obsessively thinking about it and continuously going over every detail he could to try and work out the mystery killer and how they’re linked to a xylophone. Tim had done everything he could to try and figure it out, he even went to Commissioner Gordon and asked for the victim’s phones but Gordon had denied him access stating they’ve all been disabled after they were ruled out from being a lead by the detectives.

His breakthrough on the case occurred on Saturday at lunchtime and it’s all because of Damian. Some of the family were gathered in the kitchen preparing lunch (or more accurately waiting for Alfred to prepare lunch) and that’s when Tim hears a musical tune going off, something that sounded very familiar to what he had heard be described. Tim’s head whips up from where he had been looking down at some papers on the kitchen island and he’s just in time to witness Damian looking at his phone with a huff.

A pit of dread occurs inside of Tim at the implications of what that could mean.

“What was that noise?” He questions Damian rather bluntly.

Damian gives him the stink eye but Tim isn’t deterred. “It’s none of your business Drake.”

From the other side of the island Jason snorts. “I wouldn’t have expected the demon brat to have a chirpy text tone like that. Hot chick messaging you Damian?”

Damian looks disgusted at Jason’s suggestion. “Don’t be absurd Todd.”

“Seriously Damian,” Tim stresses out now, “what was that tune and how long has it been going on for?”

It seems like Damian catches onto the fact Tim isn’t joking around. The kid narrows his eyes at him for a moment before he finally responds, his voice having less spite to it than it previously did and this time holds more caution.

“It occurs randomly on my phone and it isn’t any notifications. I’m not sure what it is and I’ve tried to work it out but so far I have been unsuccessful.” He tells Tim with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

“How long has it been going on for? How many times a day does is occur?”

“What’s with the questions Drake?” Damian snaps, annoyed at Tim’s persistence.

Tim slaps his hands down on the island and stares hard at Damian. “Just answer the questions brat. How long for and how often?”

Damian makes his infamous ‘tt’ sound before finally answering. “That’s the first time today. It happened twice yesterday, three times the day before and four times the day before that.”

Tim blinks at Damian as his mind goes into overdrive. If the pattern he thinks he’s made holds true, then Damian is the next target. A target that’ll disappear tomorrow.

Whatever his facial expression is showing it’s enough to alert the room. Jason is the one to ask the obvious question. “What does that mean Tim? What’s going on?”

Tim doesn’t respond, instead he stands up and gestures for Damian’s phone. “Give me your phone.” When the kid doesn’t move Tim snaps at him. “Now!”

For once Damian doesn’t argue with him and hands over his device Tim takes it and immediately heads for the exit. “One of you get Bruce and tell him to meet me in the cave.”

Behind him Damian lets out a protest and follows him out of the kitchen. He demands Tim to tell him what’s going on all the way to the cave. It’s only when he's at the computer Tim explains to him what’s going on and what that tune means. While he talks Damian goes very quiet and pale, now understanding how serious the situation is. To Tim’s surprise it must shake Damian quite a bit because the kid doesn’t argue, doesn’t even defend himself by saying ‘he can handle this so called killer because he’s a trained assassin.’

By the time Bruce arrives at the cave, looking somewhat frazzled and obviously disturbed by the news that his youngest son could be the next target of the serial killer going around, Tim is digging through Damian’s phone trying to track the signal of the tune. Bruce immediately demands an explanation to what’s going on and Tim doesn’t hesitate to explain what’s happened.

The rest of the afternoon is spent in a lot of frustration and stress as Tim, Bruce and Babs were doing everything they could think of trying to locate the source of the tune coming from Damian’s phone. They work well into the evening and night and not once have they been disturbed, not even Alfred has attempted to pull the three of them away from the computer. Damian occasionally comes by and while he does his best to hide it it’s clear the situation has shaken him up, but unable to help in the current search all he does is hover nearby restlessly until someone else (most likely Jason or Dick) pries him away to distract him.

It's nearing midnight when they finally get their breakthrough. Well Babs does, Tim and Bruce just happen to be there when she does.

Babs has managed to pinpoint an estimated location of the killer within a 3 mile radius in the southern part of Gotham. It’s a wide stretch but it’s more than what they’ve previously had. As soon as Tim gets the location he’s on call to those on patrol that night, himself and Bruce obviously excluded that night, and directs them all to the area.

Tim would have happily suited up and gone there himself, he’s sure Bruce feels the same, however with them being on the other side of the city it would’ve taken them too long to get there, it was much quicker and more efficient to send the others who are already out in the city there instead.

Once Tim sent the team there the three of them were then made to play the waiting game. Babs, already on it, hacked into nearby security cameras of the area and was flicking through the different options available. There were different angles from buildings, streetlamps and traffic lights, on occasional they would see one family member breeze by a particular camera before they were gone again.

After almost 45 minutes of anxious waiting it’s Dick who calls in after spotting their potential serial killer. Getting Dick’s exact location Bruce makes a call to Commissioner Gordon to update him on the situation and on the other line Dick announces he's going to scope the place out. It’s not even 5 minutes later when Dick calls back announcing he’s found the killer. Apparently different rooms of the tiny apartment space the killer is currently residing in is full of maps and images of the victims, Dick relays there’s a pin board with details of the victims and even potential future targets. Dick’s voice stutters when he tells them Damian’s picture is on the board.

Once it’s confirmed the police are on their way to that apartment Dick retreats from the space and hovers nearby, back in the cave the three of them watch the scene unfold through a nearby traffic light camera. They watch as the police raid the place and it’s another 20 minutes before they see them reappear again this time accompanied by a woman in handcuffs looking like she hates the world.

When Gordon calls Bruce sometime later, the Commissioner lets him know that she’s the killer. Everything in that apartment confirms it was her and then there’s the admission she said herself of killing the kids, the sick woman going as far as to say how much she enjoyed it and how much she had been looking forward to getting her hands on more innocents.

It’s only when Bruce finally hangs up the phone Tim knows it’s all over. The case is finally closed (at least on their end). Damian is safe, she won’t be hurting any more kids and by extension families.

Tim sighs in relief and slumps back in the chair he’s been sat on all day. Now that his mind isn’t distracted he could feel how tense his body has become and suddenly how hungry he is. Tim makes a plan in his mind to visit the kitchen before retreating to his room and not emerging for several days, after the week he’s had dealing with this case he deserves a couple days off, perhaps he could call Kon up and go visit him on the farm instead? It’d be nice to get away from the city for a little while and see his best friend at the same time too.

He’ll work that out later, for now though he forces his stiff body out of the chair and cracks his back as he stands. “God, I’m getting old.” He mutters to himself as several of his joints pop when he stretches, he then laughs when Bruce and Babs send him identical looks of exasperation at his comment.

“Now the killer has been caught and is police custody I’m calling it a night.” He announces. “After this case I seriously never want to hear a xylophone tune ever again, that drove me insane trying to work that out.”

“You and me both.” Babs commiserates with a smile.

As he’s leaving the cave, Bruce speaks up, “well done for this week Tim, that’s really good work and much dedication you put into the case.”

At his compliment Tim feels himself flush and stutters out a thank you. Even now, years later after working under Bruce for so long, Tim still isn’t entirely used to getting praise for his work from the man. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate it, it just sometimes still shocks him when it occurs.