Greed God chapter 59

January 17th 2016 Arkham Asylum 10:00 AM EDT

The  next day found me at Arkham Asylum. I was at ten thousand points after  Whisper's top up, and now up to twenty since I actually bothered to  collect Devastation's living corpse from where Waylon had stashed it.  I  wasn't sure exactly how long it would BE living, given the complete  lack of a person inside to feed or water it, but for now it was, and  just like I didn't collect points on the things Whisper stole for me  until she handed them over. The point was, I was topped up and ready for  anything, and that made escorting Barbie down here much less daunting.

Even  more comforting was the Greek bombshell who was accompanying us,  apparently still wary about leaving her friend alone with big bad me.  The Amazon was about six feet, and closer to me than she was to Barbie  in height so the two of us both towered over her, and it made my redhead  less than pleased. Still she ignored us as she stalked towards the  entryway to the most infamous madhouse in the country.

As  much as her suspicion grated I was happy to have another heavy around  here. Since impregnating my second girl I was in a hurry to put  Knightfall down for good and get Cherry Hill under control. Once I did  that I could confront Dinah about my identity once she knew about the  baby, being unable to harm me via Eros and Psyche combined with our  child should give me enough wiggle room to convince her to hear me out  about my...criminal activities, at least as much of them as I'd be  forced to share.

We got let past the guards easily enough,  since they recognized Barbie. Being the daughter of the police  commissioner definitely helped with getting into tough to reach places. I  would keep that in mind. We made our way into the asylum, and I tensed  looking at the sweeping gothic arches and vaulted ceilings. This place  seemed like it was designed to be creepy. Whoever thought that  "scooby-doo haunted house" was a good vibe for their mental health  facility needed their license revoked. Or someone overseeing their  architecture choices.

Barbie walked us down the hall past  the front desk, she'd clearly been here before. When we looked at her  questioningly she gave a small sight. "My older brother is an inmate. He  got put in here a few years ago. My dad visits him sometimes. I stop in  to check on him but I don't actually see him. He...we don't have a good  relationship. He lived with my mom for a few years after she left, but  he came back on his own." She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Point is I  know this place and I know who we need to talk to about our problem.

She  walked us down the hallways and through a few circular corridors before  we came to an office. Unlike the rest of this funhouse shithole even  just the outside the office was beautiful. Flowers and an open window  sat outside the door, along with bright cheerful colors and a happy  atmosphere. It was like an oasis of nice in a sea of suck and it made  the discordant appearance of the place even more staggering. Barbie  knocked on the white painted door that was bathed in cheerful golden  sunlight and a light, happy voice came from the other side. "Come in."

She  pushed the door open and let us into a tiny, cozy room decorated in  pale yellows and light blues. The woman sitting behind the desk looked  up at us with a welcoming smile as we came in. "Barabara! It's so  wonderful to see you back again! And you've brought friends, that's  lovely. " She waved us in to sit down, standing up to lean over and  shake hands with each of us in turn. "Hello, I'm Ingrid, it's wonderful  to meet you. Can I get you all anything? Tea? Juice? Cookies maybe?"

I  was...poleaxed. This woman was so...nice. It wasn't bullshit either, I  could always tell now when people were lying. Ingrid was just genuinely a  cheerful bubbly person. She had an adorable button nose, a smattering  of cute freckles, and her wavy strawberry blonde hair was held back by a  headband that kept it out of her bright blue eyes. She looked like  conceptual avatar of Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm. I cleared my throat.  "I...um, sure. Tea and cookies would be nice, thanks."

I  was uncomfortable. Excessively perky happy people either annoyed me or  made me feel weird, and Ingrid was so cute she fell into the latter  category. I'd dipped into her desires a bit with Eros and Psyche and...I  was confused. Ingrid's only desire in life was to help people. She had  no kinks, no sexual preferences, she just...wanted to make the world a  better place. It was such a strong desire I could pick it up despite it  not being sexual, even though my ability usually didn't work like that.

She  got up, bustling around to make us tea and then setting down the  saucers in front of us, complete with sugar cookies. She smiled brightly  at us as she did so. "There! Now isn't that much more comfortable? So  tell me Barbara, what brings you by with you friends? You usually don't  check in on James more than once a month and you were here just two  weeks ago. Is there something I can help you with?" She cocked her head  in puzzlement, clearly eager to be of assistance with whatever we  needed.

This person made me feel deeply unsettled. She was  cute. Like, really cute. But she was also so genuinely nice and open  than I felt weird about wanting to fuck her. I DID want to fuck her, but  even thinking that made me feel like kind of an asshole. I didn't like  the feeling, but I liked being around her. I sipped the tea. She used  lots of sugar. It was delicious. The cookies were amazing. I'd had  enough of this shit. This wasn't a natural feeling, something was going  on. I used appraisal.

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Ingrid Karlsson- H rank. A kind and  compassionate woman with a heart of gold Ingrid's genuine good cheer and  compassion touches everyone she meets. The sole member of the Arkham  staff beloved by everyone in the Asylum, inmates and doctors alike,  Ingrid's kindness touches the hearts of everyone she meets. Ingrid is  unknowingly a distant descendant of the Norse god Baldur, from whom she  inherits her kind disposition and magnetic nature.]

Well...that  explained the weird feeling. Also beloved by EVERYONE in Arkham? That  was mind boggling. It made sense considering Baldur's legend, but just  in general the thought of someone like the Joker genuinely liking  someone was...shocking. Barbie, oblivious to the effect the literal  godspawn was having on all of us, just smiled softly back. "Of course  Dr. Karlsson, we actually came for help with a case. I've been  freelancing as a PI and we've run across some disturbing scenes that  might be linked to Arkham. We had some questions about a recent patient,  but we aren't sure which one to honest."

Ingrid frowned  (which she did cutely godsdamn it). "Well Barbara you of all people know  that we can't give away patient information without a court order. I'm  afraid I can't share any details of anyone's treatment with you. As much  as I'd like to help my patients put their trust in me, and it wouldn't  be right or ethical to betray that trust." She sounded genuinely sad to  say it, which somehow made the normal doctor patient stonewalling seem  sympathetic when I was pretty sure it would normally just be annoying.

Barbie  put her hands up. "Whoa there doc. We understand. We aren't here to get  details, in fact, we don't need anything that wouldn't be publicly  available. All we need is a name. We can give you the details of the  case as we know it and if you have a name to give us you can tell us  without it violating any oaths. We don't want treatment information or  secrets, just a name, and if you feel like giving it compromises and  specific information you don't have to tell us anything. Is that ok?"  She smiled placatingly at the woman.

Ingrid chewed her  bottom lip. "I...I'm not sure. That seems to be a bit underhanded, but  if it doesn't violate confidentiality and it helps prevent people from  getting hurt I suppose you can ask. This IS to prevent people from  getting hurt?" Barbie nodded and Ingrid exhaled softly. "Very well. You  can tell me the details and if I can give you any information I will.  But I won't reveal anything more than a name, and only that if I feel it  doesn't compromise confidentiality."

The relieved smile  on Barbie's face seemed to put the doctor at ease. "Thanks doc. So we're  looking for a female inmate that was probably released or escaped in  the last couple of months. Someone young, like around out age. That's  basically all we've got, but the list can't be too long." Again, I  wasn't sure of that, but to my surprise, Ingrid's cheerful face wilted  slightly. Barbie noticed or course. "Doc? You thought of someone right?  Can you tell me her name?"

She  swallowed hard. "Th-that's general enough information that I can respond  with a guess, though I can't tell you WHY I'm making it. But since  you're the person asking I'm pretty sure I know who you're looking for.  Have you heard of Charise Carnes?" Barbie looked a bit thrown and shook  her head, which was fair, the Carnes murders were years ago and so much  shit happened in Gotham it all bled together. I remembered though.

I  spoke up. "William Carnes was a wealthy real estate mogul. He was this  hot shit kingmaker type with tons of strings to pull and a ton of  sources inside the Gotham political and underworld scene. The kind of  guy who could pretty much do whatever her wanted. His daughter Charise  was his princess, real snob, refused to acknowledge any boy who was  interested because they weren't as good as her daddy. I met her once  when I was a kid but she had a few years on me so we didn't really  interact. Anyway Charise went psycho and killed and tortured her  parents, though obviously not in that order. They called her the butcher  brat. She turned eighteen right after so I heard she got sent here."

Ingrid  nodded, frowning. "Her release was a matter of public record, so I can  share that she fits the profile you gave. I have other reasons to  suspect her but I can't share those, because they violate  confidentiality. What I can say, because it was also public record,  since she announced it during her trial, is that Charise didn't kill her  parents. She swears it was her boyfriend that did it. The police never  found any trace of the boy, but I believe her. She was heartbroken over  the loss of her father. When she got out, I believe she would have gone  looking for the boy. I hope that helps."

It  did. Barbie was one of the Bat family, and she could do a lot with just  that bit of info. We thanked Ingrid and left. I wanted to hit on her,  but I had zero openings especially in front of Barbie and Donna. I would  look into her though, and try and run into her outside her work. Her  ability would be insanely useful. As would Cherry Carnes, who given she  got sprung after a few years on a gruesome murder charge clearly had  some serious pull courtesy of her daddy;s old connections. I said  goodbyw to Donna and Barbie and headed for the Iceberg Lounge. I needed  to talk to the calculator. I wanted to add Cherry Carnes to my  collection, which meant I needed to find her before Barbie and her nosy  friend.