That night Cleo and Jefferson slowly sneaked into the Wayne manor, Cleo easily located which book to pull at the bookcase which made it slide with a creak. Jumping down she crouched when she hit the floor but Jefferson didnt jump just incase he hurt his paws so he grew his claws and hooked onto the wall and slowly made his way down, when they reached the bottom the lights flickered to life. Cleo and Jefferson looked around the bat cave fascinated and searched everywhere for the note that "Mr Cryptic" left which Cleo managed to find in a bunch of paper work.
Now you may think it's my first victim, but it's not the body was just never recovered! I have a pattern, can you find it before I strike again?
"This note literally tells us nothing about him or his next victim Jefferson." Jefferson yapped a suggestion "I know what you're thinking and don't even say it, It can't be true." This time he howled. "No I refuse to believe it!"
She stepped back and accidentally tripped over her own feet she fell on the bat computer and the screen flicked to life, there were a few notes left on the screen about "Mr Cryptic" Batman was trying to connect past unsolved murders to this one. It looks like he had a few matches but Cleo refused to look through it in case she found something she didn't want to see, she took the USB from her pocket plugged it into the bat computer and waited for the file to download.
"Let's get out of here before we get caught buddy." as soon as the file downloaded she took the USB and her and Jefferson sneaked back out of the Wayne manor.
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When she got back to Ivy's house she slowly tried to sneak into her room but Ivy had taken it upon herself to sit and wait up for her, like an overprotective parent.
"And where have you been?" Ivy asked as Cleo walked in, Cleo screamed bloody murder and Jefferson howled as they both jumped back in surprise.
"Yanno, our? Clubbing! Popping pills!" was her instant reply.
"With a wolf? Highly, spit it out." Ivy put on a threatening tone but Cleo still refused to give in.
"I just took Jefferson for a walk he couldn't sleep, isn't that right buddy?" Jefferson yapped and nodded.
Ivy stared at her for a second, obviously not giving into her lies, she could hear Violet crying from her crib and sent Cleo a death glare before walking out. "I'm watching you." Ivy whispered in a deadly tone as soon as Ivy was out if earshot Cleo breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was a close one," she opened the door to her room while Jefferson howled in agreement.
"We can go through the file tomorrow night okay? I know we're both too tired to do anything else tonight." Cleo yawned and got into bed and Jefferson curled up beside her.
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Cleo awoke to the sound of moaning.
"Oh fuck me not again!" she groaned and covered her head with a pillow "And with violet in the room as well?" she got up and went to the duos room, she put her hand over he eyes and slowly opened the door, knowing where the crib was off by heart she reached out towards Violet and picked her up and took her back to her room. Violet gurgled and opened her eyes at the feel of Cleo's touch.
"Cleo Cleo Cleo!" she clapped happily.
"Hey there little monster! You wanna sleep with auntie Cleo tonight?" Cleo smiled tickling her, Violet started to giggle and nod her head she tried to make Cleo stop but she wasn't strong enough. Jefferson hearing all this commotion then awoke he yapped at Cleo.
"The time? It's 6 in the morning" she answered. He howled a 'shut up' and Cleo laughed at him whilst picking up the small bundle of joy and carrying her into the living room.
"We are going to watch a movie okay?" Cleo put a Scooby Doo movie on placed Violet on the floor and smiled as she started to laugh.
"Hey Jefferson could you come watch Violet for a sec?" Cleo asked and she heard a yap coming from another room, she got up as Jefferson pranced in and curled up next to her.
Cleo did the combination on her lock and entered her study, she took out the USB and plugged it into her computer. She found millions of files, most on past mysteries some solved and some not. Opening the one about "Mr Cryptic" she found more files inside of it there wasn't a lot about him, but there was one thing that interested her.
A photo of Ella after Cryptic had finished with her; for some reason it did something to her, it made her feel happy ? In a sick sense, yes happy. Her tongue had not only been cut off but her lips also stitched together, the blade was still embodied within the girls skull and it gave Cleo a sick sense of achievement.
Cleo located the file that was entirely devoted to Ella, her 18th birthday would've been on the 1st April which was ironically also the 18th anniversary of Isabelle's disappearance.
"She had been dead for a month before finding her? Which means she would've been killed in September" Cleo spoke to herself, trying to piece the pattern together.
Batman has been linking the murder with past murders and the suspect at the top was Isabelle, Cleo gulped and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Okay, both Ella and Isabelle went missing 5 months after their 18th birthday so obviously he takes one every 18 years but why these particular people?"
The 1st of April started to sound all too familiar to Cleo, when was Ella born? 1st of April 2010. Why was that date familiar?
She sat, frustrated and took a sigh. There was a small skittle in the corner of the room, going over to investigate, she found her pet spider, Archer.
"Hey there buddy? What are you doing out here?" She asked and the spider crawled into her hand, he was a wolf spider around 5 cm big which was weird because wolf spider usually only grow 1-3.5 cm in body size. Archer was a black/deep red and that's when it hit her.
"Red! The first night I turned up at Ivy's!" Placing her pet spider down to fulfil his adventure she went and stared at her billboard.
Closing her eyes she went back to that night; there was a storm, one of the worse Gotham had experienced, the moon had gone a blood red and the lighting had hit her that night and that's how she had ended up at Ivy's. Ella was born on a night of complete superstition.
"Ella would've gone missing in September. September 11th 1992 was Isabelle's birthday, if this was a link then Ella would've also gone missing on September 11th. 5 months and 10 days after her 18th birthday."
Cleo was transfixed, her hands were working faster than her brain and there were points on the billboard the moment they entered her head.
"When did Isabelle go missing? The last time I saw her was February 21st, 5 months and 10 days after her 18th birthday. But what links these too? Was there a blood moon when Isabelle was born?"
Cleo furiously opened her cabinets, dust flying to every inch of the room. Flicking quickly through all her files, scanning drastically for September 1992.
She found it, hidden away, a file that had been passed down to her from when she was the assistant detective. She run a finger over the front, tracing the words 'September 1992'; taking a page at a time until she came to the 11th. That night was the very first night a blood moon came appeared at Gotham.
"So who's next? If it happens every 18 years then that means cryptic has already got another victim. Someone who had already been born. There must've been a blood moon recently but when?"
Cleo closed her eyes and thought back over the months.
"Oh, fuck."
*a couple of months ago*
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM" Harley screamed at Cleo and threw whatever she could grab at her. Cleo's eyes widened before running out of the room. Jefferson tilted his head amused once he saw Cleo bolting from the room.
"Harley is violent when she's pregnant, did you notice?"
Cleo filled up a glass of water and sat in the waiting room, she watched the small ripples move amongst the glass and smiled at the flash of lightening that reminded her of her first night meeting Ivy. Cleo had noticed that her glass had turned a tinted red and watched fascinated as the blood red moon appeared in her waters reflection.
Harley had stopped yelling and Cleo took it as her cue to go back in with a smile.
"Violet."