"...No, they only target certain kids, like those who've been returned by adoptive families or kids who aren't considered attractive. The headmistress knows about it, but she never intervenes. Sometimes... sometimes she even does it herself."
A headmistress who was complicit in such acts, of course, wouldn't stop anyone else.
Batman processed the information.
"They tell people it's because I got into fights, but the truth is, the person who adopted me was violent person. The injuries I had weren't from fighting, but it was a neighbor who called the police and got me out of there. But in the end, the police just sent me right back to this hellhole."
"My foster father denied everything, and he worked with the headmistress to create that story about me fighting."
"I think the headmistress just didn't want it known that the orphanage hadn't done a proper background check, leading to me being placed with an abusive family. That would've hurt the orphanage's reputation."
After finishing, Reggae forced a weak smile and pointed to the man lying unconscious on the floor. "If you really are some kind of bat spirit, I beg you, use your magic to erase his memory. Otherwise, when he wakes up, he'll come after me."
Batman fell silent. "...I can take you away."
He genuinely considered it. He couldn't stand the thought of leaving the boy to suffer here any longer. But taking Reggae away presented another dilemma: how would he manage it?
Could he fabricate a convincing enough identity to adopt Reggae? But that would take time—time that might be better spent ensuring Margaret, the headmistress, faced justice.
Perhaps he could take a more unconventional route. He could assume a wealthy persona, pay a large sum, and take Reggae out of the orphanage. The orphanage, he was sure, wouldn't turn down money.
Batman weighed his options.
As for the other children who needed rescuing, Batman knew he couldn't save them all at once. The fastest solution was to take down Margaret. He was only helping Reggae because the boy was right in front of him and needed immediate assistance.
Hearing Batman's offer, the boy's amber-colored eyes widened.
Slowly, under Batman's watchful gaze, those beautiful eyes grew wet with tears...
...
"Are you planning to adopt this child, or do you want to find him a suitable home once this whole ordeal is over?"
In the dimly lit Batcave, Avery approached Bruce while carrying a tray of refreshments, and asked the question as Bruce typed away furiously on the computer.
"No, I'll find him his real family."
This statement might sound a bit far-fetched. After all, orphans are called orphans because they have no family—so how could he possibly find any relatives for them?
But Avery didn't mock Bruce's words. He knew Bruce didn't make baseless claims, so he waited patiently for a reasonable explanation.
Sure enough, Bruce didn't disappoint. After another flurry of typing, he stopped and turned to face Avery.
"Do you remember Hans Cole?"
Suddenly, everything circled back to the beginning.
Avery raised an eyebrow. "Of course I remember. The only reason we discovered Williams Children's Home was because Mr. Cole provided the lead."
Bruce turned the computer screen toward Avery.
Avery, who stood at six feet tall, found it a bit uncomfortable to look down at the screen while standing, so he leaned in slightly.
This movement brought the two men closer, and while Avery remained composed, Bruce Wayne couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy.
Avery didn't notice, as his focus was on the screen. He watched as Bruce clicked through numerous records. On the screen were reports of various missing children: on such-and-such date, in such-and-such town, a child disappeared after their parents briefly stepped out, leaving them alone at home. Some of the missing children were infants.
There were also reports of kids who vanished on their way to school.
These children, even to this day, had never been found by their parents.
However, when compared to the files Batman had retrieved from the orphanage last night, many of these missing children had registration records at the Williams Children's Home.
This seemed to align with Hans Cole's activities.
Margaret, relying on her orphanage business, ran out of orphans. So, she started turning children from intact families into orphans.
It was a chilling yet plausible theory.
What was most disturbing, though, was the next set of data: two children, around ten years old, were officially declared orphans and brought to Margaret's orphanage by the police on a specific date.
Immediately after, two missing persons reports surfaced. The missing children's parents claimed they had told their children not to leave the house, but somehow the kids had vanished. The date of their disappearance matched the day the police had delivered them to the orphanage.
Following this data were two attached photographs that bore an almost 100% resemblance to the two children the police had delivered to the orphanage on the previous page.
Children of that age would certainly know where their home was. It was clear that Margaret had conspired with the police to abduct these kids.
Avery quickly scrolled to the bottom of the document. Bruce hadn't uncovered much more, but this was the result of his efforts after working for over ten hours. The difficulty lay in the fact that most of the abducted children had their names, birthdates, and records altered by Margaret to prevent their biological parents from finding them. Even with the modern power of the internet, it was difficult to trace these cases, especially those that happened years ago.
"So, how do you plan to handle this?" Avery asked.
Bruce Wayne massaged his temples to ease the exhaustion of being sleep-deprived and sighed, "I'll try to gather as much evidence as possible and hand it over to Gordon to open an official investigation."
Avery, half-joking, asked, "Aren't you worried that Margaret has someone inside the police department who could bury this?"
"Then I'll make sure they can't bury it." Bruce replied and then glancing at the tray Avery had brought, "Why did you make the same dessert as yesterday?" P