The Gotham Globe, July 15 2008: Roxxon Executive's Death Ruled Homicide

By Alexander Knox—The death of Roxxon board member Benedict Pierce has been ruled a homicide by the San Francisco Police Department after an autopsy took place, and a murder investigation is now underway.

Pierce, 56, was found unconscious and unresponsive in his office last Thursday by his personal assistant, who quickly called emergency services while attempts were made to resuscitate him by other staffers; however, he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics and his body was soon taken to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital for an autopsy.

Alan Merrick, the coroner who examined the body, stated that the cause of death for was poisoning by a large dose of aconitine (poison derived from plants of the Aconitum genus, commonly referred to as 'wolsbane' or 'aconite') ingested orally; a source close to the coroner's office has claimed that the imprint of a green lipstick was found on his mouth, suggesting a possible means of how the fatal toxin was administered. It was this discovery that led to the ruling of Pierce's death as a homicide, as no commercially available lipsticks use aconitine among their ingredients due to its poisonous nature, suggesting that not only was the lipstick used custom-made, but that it was used on Pierce deliberately with an intent to kill, implying that Pierce—who had often been criticized for his flippant attitude toward Roxxon's controversially poor environmental record and for even defending the company's more environmentally destructive policies—had been targeted purposely.

Witnesses claimed that an attractive red-headed woman of around 5 feet 6 inches tall, wearing a black overcoat, dark green dress, black mushroom hat and sunglasses was seen entering Pierce's office before leaving 5 minutes later, several minutes before Pierce's unresponsive body was discovered, which was confirmed by the security footage, which showed the woman exiting the building and taking a taxi to an unknown destination.

As of this writing, the woman is currently unidentified. Police are appealing for anyone with information that may identify the woman to come forward. All possible leads are being pursued.

Benedict Pierce is survived by his three children, sons Daniel and Jake and daughter Diane, and his wife Michelle. His funeral will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of San Francisco on July 17—family flowers only.

July 10 2012

"Okay, so last night was unexpected," remarked Steve as the two of them waited for the elevator to descend to the ground floor.

"Oh yeah," agreed Natasha. "I think it's safe to safe that his protege has only arrived on the scene recently, given the lack of information either of us had."

"You told Fury about him, right?" asked Steve.

"I told Maria, who told Fury," replied Natasha. "She's more than capable of handling us. And, let's face it, Fury has a lot of stuff on his plate. The two of us in Gotham looking for the Batman isn't exactly something that he needs to focus on if there's more urgent stuff on the horizon."

Steve gained a contemplative look on his face. "Yeah. I think I see the logic there."

"Good to know."

For a few moments, there was silence between the two of them.

"We're not giving up that easily, are we?" asked Steve as the elevator finally arrived and the doors opened.

"Oh no, we're not," agreed Natasha, stepping into the elevator. "We managed to get his attention on the first night. And since it's us, he'll probably be keeping a close eye on us."

"I suppose that could be a good point," said Steve, stepping into the elevator with her. Natasha pressed a button and the doors closed, the elevator beginning its descent to the bottom. "If I could the point, that is."

Natasha smirked. "The point I was trying to make is that we have his attention, and he knows why we're here. So long as we stay, we have another chance for our paths to cross, and for us to really explain everything to him."

"You sure it'll work?" Steve asks. "I mean, he doesn't seem like someone who'd be keen to do something like that once he makes up his mind."

"Well, some things are not what they seem," countered Natasha. "In addition, if we continue to stay in Gotham and wear him down, perhaps that'll force him to listen us. It's risky, and there's very little possibility it'll actually work considering who we're talking about, but that still means we have a shot. Right?"

"I guess so," agreed Steve.

The elevator stopped, having reached the bottom. The doors opened up, and Steve and Natasha stepped out.

"So what should we do now, now that we're not giving in?" asked Steve. "Wandering out looking for him mightn't work; he might be expecting us and then we'd get nowhere."

"Well, the obvious choice for now is to keep out of his way," Natasha replied. "We can't jump straight back in. We'll have to wait a while, and see if it'll lower his guard. That said, we can't just sit on our asses and do nothing. So I suppose the best thing to do is to go out and continue researching as much as we can about him, down to the smallest details. We already know some stuff about him—time to make sure we know more."

"You sure it'll work?" asked Steve. "Suppose he's keeping an eye on us to make sure we leave?"

Natasha shrugged. "He won't be happy, but at least we're not directly interfering with his activities, are we?"

"No, I guess not," replied Steve as they approached the entrance to the hotel dining area.

"You two here for breakfast?" asked the waiter, standing behind a wooden stand (Natasha recognised it as being made from polished oak).

"Yeah, we are," replied Natasha. "Are we too early, or can we go in now?"

"Well," replied the waiter politely from behind his stand, "you're not the first people down here this morning, so I think you can just have your pick of the tables behind me and I'll bring you right over."

"Oh, thank you," said Natasha, smiling. "In that case, I guess we'll take that table there, then, in the corner."

Steve knew right away why she had chosen it—because it was in the corner, it was up against the wall, and meant that Natasha could see anybody that tried to walk up towards them.

The waiter turned around, seeing exactly which table Natasha was referring to, before turning back around with a smile. "Certainly. Come right this way," he said, as began to brign them to the table in question.

Steve and Natasha sat down, Natasha with her back against the wall. Steve chose not to comment on it.

"This is a buffet, so you're free to take as much as you can eat," explained the waiter. "But don't get greedy."

Steve looked up at the waiter, and said with a smile, "I don't plan to, and I don't see the need to. You probably have a lot of guests coming down who are hungry too."

"That's very kind of you," said the waiter with a smile as he walked away back to his stand to greet other hotel guests. Steve saw Natasha's eyes watch him walk away before they looked at his face and she began to speak.

"Obviously we can't go back to the Stacked Deck and start asking questions like an idiot," she began. "I'm pretty sure after what happened, they've put my face up on a big board of people who are banned for life."

"You mean you can't go back there," corrected Steve. "Though, after how they reacted to you, I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go in there either and start asking questions about the guy who beats them up once a week."

"True, true. Anyway," continued Natasha, "there are a couple places where I think we can look. While you've mentioned that you're not the first person Knox has allowed to look at his papers, we probably have everything we could get from him, so there's no point in me going over to him."

Steve nodded in agreement. "That's a good point," he said. "The Public Library would be a good place to look too for any new information, or at least information we already know through a different perspective. Newspapers are always writing through their own view, so it might not be the worst idea to see how different journalists are covering the Batman."

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Because when I met Knox, it seemed like he might've been a supporter of what the Batman's been doing all these years," replied Steve. "And his articles don't say it outright, but it's there. I doubt every journalist in Gotham thinks the same way, so I think it'd be a good idea to seek out articles that don't look at the Batman the same way he does."

Natasha smiled. "That's really well-said, Steve," she said with respect.

"Uh, thanks," he said back. "Do you have anything to say?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah. It would be difficult to use the police archives without our cover getting blown—and even though the corruption's not as big a problem as it used to be, there's still enough of it there to be an issue. If we're going to consider using the police archives, we'll have to plan thoroughly and tread carefully. I mean, yeah, we could use our SHIELD connections, but depending on who we speak to, that could end up leaking out, and our covers would be blown."

"Depends on who we ask," pointed out Steve. "The Commissioner, for instance. I hear he's a good one. He might be okay with us looking in so long as we don't try and use them to blow up the city."

"I guess you're right," agreed Natasha. "Jim Gordon's someone we can approach without fear of having our cover blown. He'd probably understand why we're here, too—he might not think we'll succeed, but he'd probably understand it."

Natasha then leaned back against her seat, her finger lifted up against her lips in thought. Steve noticed she was still keeping an eye on the people in the room, her eyes darting left and right and back again.

"There is one place we could go to if we want to learn more about the Batman," mused Natasha after a couple seconds of silent contemplation. She looked right at Steve. "Though I'm not sure if we'd be allowed in there, or if anyone in there would want to talk to us about him."

"Where's that?" asked Steve supiciously.

"The one place with the people that make the Batman look cuddly," answered Natasha.

"Wait a minute," realized Steve, "are you suggesting...?"

"Yes, I am," replied Natasha.

"And this is all to find out more about the Batman and thus bringing us closer to properly negotiating about the Avengers, right?" asked Steve.

"Yes, it is," replied Natasha again. "We're going to have to need to gather as many viewpoints as possible on this."

Steve sighed. "You're sure that we'll be allowed in? Especially since our goal in going there is to find information on the Batman? Considering the people in there, and their relationship with him, I imagine the people running the place wouldn't be too happy about it. I doub the people we'd be asking about him would be too happy to be asked about him either."

"We wouldn't be the first journalists or writers or whatever to go in there for 'research' purposes, or to get close to them and see what they might know about the Batman," replied Natasha.

Steve sighed. "Good point. It's just...that place had a reputation as a house of horrors even back when I was a kid. The stories that came out were pretty damn creepy. Maybe I'm still thinking of it in that way, even though it's probably a lot better now."

"That's not saying much," remarked Natasha. "I'm not sure if you read up on it, but they nearly got shut down a couple years ago when it turned out two of their top psychiatrists were experimenting on the patients. They're better now, but I haven't been there, so I can't say i know how much better they are than they were back in the '30s and '40s."

Steve couldn't help but chuckle. "It's wrong for me to say this, but I'm not surprised that something like that happened there. It sounds just like the type of thing that would happen in a place like that."

"I guess it is," agreed Natasha. "Now, seeing as you have a much faster metabolic rate than I do, and seeing as everything's now opened up since we sat down, how about we go up and get something to eat, huh?"

Steve looked up and saw all the food that was on offer. He could smell a little bit of it, too. "Huh. They have white pudding up there. You want some?"

Natasha wrinkled her nose. "No thanks. Can't stand it."

AN: I own none of the characters.

For a quick way to make tasty home-made garlic bread, buy a fresh roll and some garlic butter. Slice up the roll and stick in the oven for a few minutes, then take it out and spread the garlic butter. It's just beautiful.