Where is Batman?

Gordon stroked his stubbly chin furiously. He hadn’t been able to shave that morning and the gray hairs were already coming in. He knew his wife would frown when he got home. Whenever that might be. He had been standing by his patrol car in the parking lot of the bank since nine in the morning, and it was almost five p.m.

“Gordon!”

Gordon rolled his eyes behind his glasses as Mayor White approached. He had little respect for the 46-year-old mayor, who had just barely come out on top of the elections with promises of change. White was almost a year into his position and Gordon hadn’t seen any changes whatsoever.

“Mayor White…”

“Why am I here, commissioner?”

“With all due respect, sir, how should I know?”

“Well, I don’t know, either, which is why I asked you.”

“I don’t understand…”

“All right, I’ll ask the same question in a way you’ll understand. Why are you here?”

Gordon hesitated. “Because there’s a bank robbery in progress.”

White nodded, smiling. “And why is there bank robbery in progress?”

Gordon’s face drooped. He should have known White would patronize him. Patronization was how he won the election.

“How should I know?”

“Right! How should you know, because you haven’t even established contact with the hostage-taker!”

Gordon sighed, suppressing the steam in his chest. “We’ve tried once every hour since this thing started, but the perp won’t even acknowledge us.”

White’s face scrunched up like a sponge. “So, for the past eight hours, you’ve done nothing but throw a phone at the door? Seems like a waste of time and tax dollars to me.”

“What should we have done, tear gas the place and rush in?”

“Don’t play dumb, commissioner! I know what you’ve really been doing all this time.”

Gordon looked away, feeling a prick of shame on his heart.

“You’ve been waiting for Batman to show up and do all the work for you,” White accused, drilling holes into Gordon with his eyes. “Don’t you think it’s about time we stopped relying on a guy who dresses up like a bat to solve our crimes? The rest of the country looks down on us because our police aren’t doing their jobs!”

“He’s here!” a nearby officer announced. Gordon and White turned and looked up, but saw nothing.

“Gentlemen,” a low, familiar voice said behind them.

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