“Hello, Mr. Wayne. I’m calling on behalf of the Amity Park police department. I… god, there’s no easy way to say this. We found a dead body, and genetic tests identified you as the next of kin.”
A mixture of icy fear and confusion pooled in Bruce’s chest, and he felt himself lean against a wall for support. “What? Who? But, Damian was just here!”
“Don’t worry, it’s not him.”
“He’s the only blood relative I have.”
The officer sighed. “I dunno what to tell you. We don’t know. Kid was dead for months before we dug ‘im up, so identifying any other details towards his previous identity has been… difficult. We don’t even have any missing persons reports it could match. Quite frankly, we were hoping you’d know something, ‘cause we’ve been coming up blank.”
“I will,” Bruce rushed out unthinkingly, his mind still caught up on the word ‘kid’.
“What?”
“I’ll help however I can. Amity Park, you said? Where is that? I’ll book a flight right away."
“No, really, sir. I appreciate it, but you don’t need to do that. No offense, Mr Wayne, but you’re not a forensic analyst.”
The words ‘yes I am’ balanced on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say them. Batman was the detective, not Brucie Wayne. But Batman didn’t have any reason to travel so far afield to investigate a single dead kid, so Bruce Wayne would have to do.
“I at least want to take a look.”
