4066/Oracular investigations: Arkham interviews.

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Oracular investigations: Arkham interviews.
Date of Scene: 14 March 2018
Location: Arkham Asylum, non-violent offender wing
Synopsis: Oracle has a word with someone who might be able to shed more light on her current investigation...
Cast of Characters: Shadow, Oracle




Shadow has posed:
    Oracle's investigation into Natasha's post-college activities has stalled. There's something there, she can smell it, but the next lead eludes her. Maybe it's time to go back and look into the circumstances of her parents' deaths.

    The investigation was... suspiciously curt, and it seems as if the board of trustees moved with almost indecent haste to return to Business As Usual. More interesting, from Oracle's perspective, is what she finds when she looks at the subsequent fates of several board members...

    * Donald Matheson. Caught embezzling during a routine audit. A search of his office yielded drug paraphenalia; a subsequent search of his home by law enforcement yielded more cocaine than his lawyer could reasonably argue as personal use, adding trafficking to the list of charges. He's doing hard time upstate, and will be for several years more.
    * Mark ('Call me Marcus, please') LeBlanc ignored a red light in a busy intersection while driving in his convertible and was T-boned by a truck. He might have survived the crash had he worn his seatbelt; as it was the funeral was closed-casket.
    * Alexander Price was the unofficial head of the Board, but started suffering from increasing stress starting a month after LeBlanc's crash, turning to alcoholism over the next few months. He was pressed to 'take a sabbatical' after showing up drunk at a board meeting; two days later he was found on the pavement in front of his 50th-floor penthouse balcony with a near-lethal BAC. Neighbors reported loud arguing with no response, but no signs of a break-in or even anyone else present in his apartment were found by investigators.
    * ... And then there's Quentin Matthews. Alex' second in command, he stepped into position as head of the Board during his sabattical, only to start showing signs similar of stress and increasing irrationality and paranoia, firing ten personal secretaries over the next six months, accusing them of spying on him. This culminated in a full-on nervous breakdown during a board meeting, shouting accusations of conspiracy at the other members as they voted to remove him. Two days later, police responded to a domestic disturbance call that evening and apprehended him while he was in the process of strangling his wife, accusing her of being "one of THEM!". Subsequent statements were equally incoherent; he was ruled incompetent to stand trial and is currently still under observation in Arkham Asylum...

Oracle has posed:
It's not exactly //rare// that Barbara pulls on the mantle of Batgirl, although... honestly, these days, she seems to be more in the mindset of Oracle. Something Tim pointed out and she's going to have to seriously consider. Still, tonight... the cape is far, far more appropriate. In chasing down the leads she wants on one Natasha Cranston -- who she has still not determined a threat or an ally for Zinda Blake -- it's going to require a little stealth and a little visit to one of the few places in Gotham that Barbara actively hates. Arkham.

Could she ask the staff about visiting Quentin Matthews? Probably. Hell, she could probably go through her father and get full clearance. But she doesn't want her name attached to this, so it's the SNEAKY ENTRANCE!

Arkham's staff is ridiculously lax, considering what they do. Oh, they walk patrols and check on things. But it's child's play for someone trained under Batman himself to get past them. And she slips right into Matthews's cell. It's always good that it's shadowed in these places. "Quentin Matthews... we need to talk."

It's a lovely, albeit lighter, imitation of the Bat's deeper growl.

Shadow has posed:
    Quentin's cell is particularly well lit, and he seems to flinch a lot regardless. When he hears the voice and turns to see a dark, cowled figure looming in the shadows, his first reaction is a prolonged shriek of terror that Barbara is sure Bruce would consider extremely gratifying.

    The scream goes on for quite a bit - he's got good lungs, it seems - but eventually he runs out of steam, panting and cowering in a corner of his cell.

Oracle has posed:
"Now that we're past the opera portion of the hour," Batgirl says drily, "tell me what you know about the deaths of the Cranstons, Quentin." She has zero intention of simply leaving. The man knows //something//.

Shadow has posed:
    "... Cranston?" Quentin asks, clutching at the word as if it's a lifeline, almost visibly pulling himself together. "Cranston was an idiot. He was going to RUIN us. Yammering about making a better world, setting examples... You have a billion dollar company, your job is to make profits, not charity. But we couldn't tell him no, because he was a fucking Cranston and he had the stock, and if he wanted to ruin his company, we were all supposed to sit there and take it. He had to go. Him and his wife - snooping bitch. We agreed. It was for the good of the company. We owed it to the stockholders to do something!"

Oracle has posed:
Both eyebrows would shoot to her hairline were it not for the cowl. Crossing her arms, Batgirl watches the man. "So you had them murdered," she tells him. "And then you all became targets. But of whom?"

Shadow has posed:
    "... I was right? I was *right*!" Quentin stammers, gaining energy. "... We didn't suspect anything, at first. Sure, Donald got his stupid ass caught embezzling, but he was a nobody. Needed the drugs just to keep up with the big boys, needed the money to keep his drug habit, was always a matter of time. We'd made sure he'd never talk anyway. And Mark was an idiot. Loved to impress the ladies with expensive cars... But then Alex started cracking."

    He starts pacing, still flinching away every time his path is about to cross a shadow, then gives Oracle an attempt at a wry grin that looks almost normal if not for the unkempt hair. "... I should've figured it out then. Alex was as cool and as hard as they came. Job stress wouldn't do him in. But I figured this was my shot to take over. My turn in the big seat. So I led the vote for his sabbatical. Didn't figure he'd take a dive, but hey, I got his job, right?"

    He waits half a beat for his audience to agree with his eminently reasonable argument, his mind half back in the boardroom laying out a proposal, then he twitches and continues. "... But then things started going wrong. It didn't make sense - like people knew what I was going to do before I ever sat down at the negotiating table. And then he started whispering. He never showed himself. Never saw him. But every time I thought I was alone he'd be there, taunting me... Oh, he couldn't scare me that easily. No matter what he knew, he couldn't possibly prove it or he'd have had me arrested. He might've cracked Alex like that, but HE COULDN'T SCARE ME!" The last is shouted at Batgirl, a defiant denial that would've been more convincing if not for the full-body flinch when the lighting flickers briefly.

Oracle has posed:
Batgirl smirks faintly. "I think he scared you plenty, Matthews. And rightfully so." Tilting her head thoughtfully, she asks, "What's he whispering?"

Shadow has posed:
    "Everything..." He whispers. "I'd finish a call promising I'd be home later and he'd tell me where I was planning to go, laughing at me. I'd give a speech and he'd mock me with my own words. Things he couldn't have known..." He trails off, then raises his head and points triumphantly at Batgirl. "Things he couldn't have known unless someone was telling him! I knew it! He has agents everywhere, spying on me! But I couldn't fire them all. Every time I fired one, there'd be two more! Even in the boardroom. MY. BOARDROOM! I was in charge, how DARE they try to depose me! But they ALL KNEW! They were all laughing behind my back when they sent me off, I know it... And then when I got home my wife said she wanted a divorce and I realized. It had to have been her all along. Nobody else would've known half of that! The..."
    He trails off in another tirade...

Oracle has posed:
Batgirl lets him run off at the mouth not because she's necessarily thinking he's going to give her what she wants to know -- though his ramblings might contain nuggets -- but because her brain is putting together several pieces into a small part of the picture. The Shadow is not an entirely unknown entity in Gotham, although ... to be fair, he's also not a known one. However... if the Shadow is that old, //and// his form of justice was making people pay like this, wouldn't it have kept on with other people? That lends itself to the idea that the Shadow -- whether this guy is the original one who perhaps messed with Matthews and the rest of the board or not -- had a personal tie to the Cranston situation. Which opens possibilities that most people might dismiss.... but Batgirl knows what can happen when billionaire babies fall off the grid. Hmmmm.....

Shadow has posed:
    "... And then he was there. In my cell. I still couldn't see him but I could see his shadow. He couldn't hide his shadow. But nobody else could see him or hear him taunting me, and they all thought I was going crazy. But I WASN'T CRAZY! HE WAS THERE! But the jury wouldn't believe me, and the judge was working for HIM! HE had me sent here! THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT! HIM AND HIS SHADOW!"

    Quentin's fragile grasp on lucidity seems to have slipped entirely, and it's likely his ranting will draw attention from orderlies soon...

Oracle has posed:
Batgirl smiles faintly. And then she is gone, slipping out in the shadows themselves, leaving the ranting man to keep on ranting. Because she's met the current shadowy figure. And it might be time to find another meeting.

Shadow has posed:
    Quentin's shouting recedes behind her as Batgirl makes her quiet way back out of Arkham's hallways until she once again stands in the clear night air. That was... Unpleasant, to say the least. But at least she's gotten something potentially useful. But where will these leads take her?

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?