Dial H for Heroics

Josie had Jane send more adventurers to grab the wounded Watchmen up. She could

have healed them with Doctor Occult, but decided they should remain wounded until

the Duke had his say.

What was the point of healing them for their hangings?

She made sure Markus got his eye looked at too despite him wanting to get out of the

hospital as soon as they handed everybody over. He grumbled about it, but she just

said she would be glad to give him a real reason to be in the place if he kept at it.

The way things were going, they were going to have to create some kind of

ambulance service to bring the wounded from their fights in to heal up and get sent

to the local jail.

A call center would be next the way they were going.

She checked in with Eileen to give her the names of the adventurers that had helped

her out, then she headed back to her commandeered office.

They had missed something, but she didn’t know what. Maybe the serial killer was

also using the board somehow. When they rounded him up, maybe that would be the

end of it.

The other possibility that came to mind was everyone on the Watch was using the

board for things that weren’t kosher, and that needed to be cleaned up with some kind

of internal policing.

She doubted the Watch had any kind of equivalent of Internal Affairs with the way

they had been operating.

And she knew even with departments with that division, that cops tended to do things

they weren’t supposed to do just because they thought they could.

She decided that the Duke and his Captain could handle that part of things. She only

had to close the board. If it needed some kind of longer term thing to be done, she

would make a plan and do what she could.

Or she would tell Jack to put the Enterprise on watch and let it shoot lightning at

anyone it caught breaking the legal code.

He would love something like that.

Lois, Gall, and Bob were going over paperwork in the office. They looked up when

she appeared in the office.

“The Watch are in the hospital, waiting on the Duke,” said Josie. “Do you guys have

anything useful?”

“We believe that we have to see the ground for ourselves,” said Bob. “Master Gall

and I are sure that your killer lives inside the ring he has built.”

“Sounds reasonable,” said Josie. “I have about three hours left. Let’s see what we can

do in that amount of time.”

“Do you think we can solve this?,” asked Lois.

“We’re looking for someone who can blend in to the neighborhood, lives there, has

some way to increase his strength, and is prone to fits of rage,” said Josie. “We can

at least mark out people who should be looked at in the neighborhood, and then I can

take a closer look tomorrow.”

“The increase in strength seems like some kind of alchemy at work,” said Gall.

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Josie. “So we might be looking at some kind of

addict who can’t stop using his drug of choice.”

“How many can that be?,” said Lois.

“Hundreds,” said Josie. “Let’s get started. The board is still active. If we take this

guy, and the reminder is still there, I will have to reassess what we have been doing.”

“The Duke was happy to have Litt, and unhappy the Watch was involved as the

instigators of this plan,” said Lois.

“They are supposed to be protecting the city instead of getting rich by murdering

people,” said Josie. “There are hundreds, thousands, working for the Watch. It is

inevitable that some would be corrupt, and try to draw in others to help them. We are

at a practical limitation on our abilities here. Yes, I could kill every Watchman in the

city, but what does that get us? Hiring adventurers could be a stopgap, but how long

would it take before the adventurers start doing the same thing the Watch did? There

are very few people cut out for that kind of work, and it doesn’t take long to burn

out.”

Gall shifted uneasily. He had been caught up in such an operation. He had worried

more about supporting his family than standing up for strangers.

“Let’s do what we can,” said Josie. “After that, we are going to have to go our

separate ways and take care of our other commitments. I will do what I can about the

rest of this when I can, or turn Jack loose on it.”

“I’m sure the Duke will love that,” said Lois.

Josie made a report of what they had done, and what had happened to the Watch

members she had taken in. She put that on the desk for the Duke. She whisked her

party across the city.

“I brought us to the scene of the first murder found,” said Josie. She looked at the

street around her. Winding streets like most of the city, blocky buildings with some

mixed housing and stores, kids in the streets, women and men talking about this and

that. Two Watchmen keeping an eye on things.

Some of the kids talked about Bob’s and Gall’s armor shining in the sun.

“There were two murders in this building,” said Bob. “They were committed

separately.”

“Let’s see what we can find,” said Josie. She tried the door. This one building seemed

to be nothing but apartments with a central foyer. She led the way inside.

“The murders took place in the same apartment,” said Gall. He pointed up a staircase

that ran around the inside the of the central square. “Morvi and Lana Kral. Mother

and daughter. The daughter was killed first, then the mother a few days later. The

apartment was wrecked the first time, and then the Watch found the second body after

reports were filed with the local sentry.”

“Which door, Master Gall?,” asked Josie. She started up the stairs.

“Twenty six,” said the Watchman.

Josie walked up the steps until she found the twenties floor. She stepped on the

landing and walked down until she found twenty six. She frowned at the broken door

barely hanging in place.

“Looks like it was hit with something blunt,” said Bob. He looked up and down the

landing. “Someone must have heard both murders.”

“They wouldn’t have come out unless they were armed,” said Gall. “No point in

defending someone else when you have nothing to fight with.”

“If they thought it was a monster, they might have thought they would have stood no

chance,” said Josie. “Why didn’t they hire adventurers?”

“Lack of funds?,” asked Lois.

“Or they knew the Watch would interfere,” said Josie. “Let’s knock and see if

someone is inside before we walk in and look around.”

Josie knocked and waited. Nothing stirred inside the apartment. She gently pushed

the door aside. She was glad Bob and Gall were ready with weapons in case they

needed them.

She took a moment to look around before she entered the place. No one had tried to

clean it up. Blood and decayed pieces of flesh had spattered everything. Whatever had

done this would have been covered in blood and organs when they fled.

It was the kind of scene she expected from an axe murderer.

“The reports said the Watch talked to the people here,” said Bob. “No one admitted

to seeing, or hearing, anything.”

“Why would they?,” said Josie. “The Watch are just another gang of criminals to the

people they deal with here. Even a monster attack wouldn’t cause the average local

to speak up about this and try to help out with what they saw. That goes double if they

saw someone in a Watch tunic.”

“It would have to be a strong man indeed to do this much damage,” said Bob. “It

would take me minutes to do something like this.”

“I’m still leaning toward someone boosting his strength with alchemy,” said Josie.

“All the scenes were like this in the reports?”

“More or less,” said Gall. “Some of the reports stated the damage to the scene varied,

but was still close enough to make them think it was the same man.”

“I can send a bird out and find the guy from here,” said Josie. “But it would be my

word against his that we found the right guy for all this.”

“Go ahead and do that,” said Bob. “We don’t need to prove anything yet. We just

need to know who it is. Then we can think about ways to tie him to the murders he

committed.”

“Maybe he will confess and spare us a lot of trouble,” said Gall.

Lois nodded her head in agreement.

“Anyone doing this to a portion of the community has to be stopped,” said the queen.

“And it falls on the Crown, and all of its servants to do that as part of its duties.”

“All right,” said Josie. “Let’s see what we can do.”

She changed into Zatanna and sent out a bird to locate their murderer. If he was still

in the district, in the city, they would know soon enough. She changed back to let the

watch charge as the spell flew out of the apartment in search of the person she

wanted.

She gingerly walked to the window and looked outside. The bird had descended on

the Watchman in the street. She frowned at that, and then thought obviously a

Watchman had to be involved in this.

“Gall,” Josie said. “Do you know that Watchman down there?”

“His name is Shek,” said Gall. “He sometimes helped us serve tax warrants. Aile only

used him if he expected trouble. He likes to hurt people.”

“Let’s go down and talk to him,” said Josie. “Maybe he can tell us what we need to

know about this.”

“You want him to confess to the murders, don’t you?,” said Gall.

“It would be nice,” said Josie. “But this might lead into vigilantism, Master Gall. You

might want to stand back and protect Lois in case of trouble. I think your help might

be enough to secure your release from your service.”

“Let’s see how this fight goes first,” said Bob. “I don’t have a problem if Infantryman

Gall stays on his path.”

Gall saluted at attention.

Josie led the way out of the wrecked apartment. She saw people peering at her, and

then her companions. They were afraid of the monster who had done this wreckage.

They weren’t going to help her without some cause.

That was fine. It was better if they stood out of the way and let her work.

Josie reached the street. She started walking after the patrolling Watchman. What

could she say to get him to confess? She wondered if she could make him angry

enough to drink one of his potions.

“Shek?,” she called. “Why did you kill the Krals?”

The Watchman paused at the accusation. He saw a slender woman in a shoulder cape

and blue pants coming at him. Two knights in armor followed her, one carrying a

pike. They looked like they were coming for him in a group. People watched the

altercation brewing in front of them.

“I’m the Watch,” said Shek. He tried to dismiss the assault.

“I’m your judgment,” said Josie, still striding forward. “You’re going to pay for what

you did.”

Shek reached into his wallet hanging on his belt. He pulled out a bottle of blue light.

He popped the top and drank it down. He swelled up in his tunic, growing more hair,

eyes turning yellow. He growled as he ran toward the woman. As soon as he was

done with her, he would kill the knights too.

Josie turned the dial on her watch until she had the name she wanted in the face of the

maniac running right at her. She pressed the button. Lightning wrapped around her,

clothing her in red and gold. She exploded forward ten times as fast as Shek was

running at her.

People watching heard a thunderous shout of SHAZAM! before the transformed

Watchman was slung across the city like a rock from a catapult. He flew away so fast

that he appeared to vanish.

“Good job, Ear Ripper,” said Bob. “I didn’t see where he flew.”

“Neither did I,” said Josie. She let the lightning go. “I need to find him to make sure

he can’t hurt anyone else. Hopefully that knocked the fight out of him so we don’t

have to worry about him ripping anyone trying to arrest him apart.”

“If he survived that, he is strong enough to do the damage we saw,” said Gall.

“Let’s see where he landed,” said Josie. She called on Zatanna and sent out a bird.

When it reached the impact point, it yanked the four of them across the city in a

blink of an eye.

Watchman Shek lay in a broken heap on the ground. People had gathered around

him. He tried to move his hand. His serum worked to fix the massive damage that had

been inflicted on him.

“Still alive?,” said Josie, pushing her way through the crowd. “Why kill all those

people, Shek? Because of the elixir?”

“Kill you,” said the werewolf.

“No,” said Josie. She looked at the gathered crowd around her party. “You people

might want to move back.”

She transformed into Doctor Occult as Bob and Gall directed people away from the

impact point. She shut the elixir off. That was enough to cause a catastrophic

organ failure inside the Watchman. He gasped as his lungs couldn’t draw in air

anymore like a fish out of water. Then he breathed his last.

She searched his body and found three more of the bottles miraculously intact after

the high speed impact with the ground. She placed them in her bag as she heard a

ding of completion go off. She stood.

“We have to talk to the Duke,” said Josie. “Then we’re done with this.”