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Duke smiled over at Jason as he walked into the hotel room dressed as Red Hood to his own Signal, “Thanks for being willing to help out. I know you got other things to do.”
Jason shrugged looking around, “Calling for help doesn’t just have to be life or death, if you need help on a case, well I’m here. Now what’s going on?”
“This is Ellis Shortman's hotel room, he’s out and won’t be back for a few hours.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Not completely, but I got somebody watching him to see if he breaks away from his normal two-hour lunch that he spends talking up this one waitress that really isn’t interested.”
“Alright what’s this guy done?”
“Illegal game organizing, which yeah Gotham, it’s not a big thing but there seems to be something going on and this man is asking people to bet things they shouldn’t once they get desperate.”
“Shouldn’t?”
Duke grimaced, “I heard about this from a woman, he’s trying to get her to agree to a bet that will clear her dad’s debts if she wins or loses, but if she loses, she has to agree to do some adult filming. He’s got a contract written up and she’s worried she’s going to have to take it. Her dad owes a good amount of money and well she doesn’t want him dead so.” Duke shrugged looking around the room.
“So, she flagged down a bat for help,” Jason hummed, “Ballsy. Alright let’s get this guy. It’s been a bit since I’ve had to cold investigate a guy so I’ll follow your lead. Where do you want to start?”
Duke looked around the room, “The computer?”
“Sounds like a good start, if we're lucky he’s an idiot and left it unlocked.”
“No luck. Should we call in Oracle?”
“Let’s look around first, you would be surprised how many people leave their passwords sitting about. We don’t want to have to link O to the computer unless we have to, she knows how to hide her tracks, but she isn’t perfect and can miss something.”
Duke nodded, before pulling open the drawer of the desk, the stupidest place to keep a reminder but you couldn’t put it past criminals to be stupid. “Huh a screwdriver.”
“Let me have that and I’ll go after any air vents, light switches, anything I can find with a screw.”
Duke handed it off and walked around the table noting something odd, “He left cards on the floor, don’t appear to have a pattern, and there’s a locked closet. It’s locked with a padlock. I could probably break it, but that would leave evidence.”
“Score.” Jason held up the air vent door looking inside, “FUCK! BOMB!”
Duke ran over and allowed his powers to show him the past, “Flip second and third one.”
Jason shrugged and followed Duke’s instruction, “That sounds good, but it didn’t open. Must be locked here.”
“Well let’s see what we can find. In eighteen minutes, we bail.”
Duke nodded, “Right the locked door?”
Jason stood up, “Yeah, is it a code? Do you think you could pick it?”
“Maybe, but I’m worried about setting off the bomb, there’s a poster here with an Ace of each of the four suits.”
“The cards on the floor must have the clue, so there’s four shades?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Not all the cards are here, we are missing an ace, seven, six, and nine.”
Duke took a look at the lock, “Four numbers but what order?”
“Do the aces go in an order?”
“Yeah hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.”
“So seven six one nine.”
Duke grinned as the lock popped off. “Alright, we got one of those old phones that you have to spin to dial, an actual key and his wallet. Well, that’s not going to go well when he finishes eating. Is there a phone plug?”
Jason nodded, “Over here.”
Duke brought over the phone and plugged it in holding it to his ear, “Huh, I think that’s morse code.”
“What’s it say?”
“Open.”
“Well, that’s useless. Huh,” Jason flipped the wallet open, “Picture of his kid got the year on it. 2009.”
Duke typed it in, “Not it.”
“Hm, try 2002.”
“Why?”
“Says 7th birthday on the back.”
“2009 minus seven is 2002. Got it and got a document on the computer, great it's just a code for morse code.”
“Well, that doesn’t help us, just idiots that can’t remember simple codes they choose to use.”
Duke rolled his eyes before focusing on the screen. “Wait, on the screen there’s a giant 01100.”
“Probably to tell you that the second and third switches are the ones you flip. Shit, the key!” Jason turned to the closet and grabbed the key. Using it to open the bomb he frowned, “Well we got some papers, a flash drive and some wires.” He placed the papers and flash drive to the side. “Now we can disarm the bomb which reveals evidence that someone was here and got his hidden information and he’ll probably head for the hills.”
“Or?”
“We let the thing blow up and let him think that the machine glitched if we close up the door and set everything back to right. He might suspect someone snuck in but he’s more likely to blame the faulty wiring in this place and having to deal with the cops on why his hotel room exploded will also distract him. What do you want to do? This is your case?”
Duke pursed his lips, “Let’s blow everything up, I don’t want him running off. I’m not supposed to leave Gotham and if he runs, I will either have to give B a heart attack by chasing him or get someone else to track him down.”
Jason nodded locking the safe back up, “If he does run give me a call and I’ll track him down. You need to get your hero feet under you a bit more before you start tracking down people outside Gotham.”
Duke took the key and put it back in the closet with the picture and the telephone. Jason locking the computer back up and sweeping up the information. Once they had cleared the room, they kept an eye out that no hotel employees or guests got close to the room until it blew up.
With the explosion done Jason handed the information off to Duke, “Have fun and get your bastard.”
Duke grinned taking the information, “I will thanks for the help.”
“What are brothers for but helping you break into hotel rooms?” Jason grinned at Duke’s snort before they split, both going to do their own thing.