Harold walked home for the first time in a long time. Usually he became Time Man and flew above the neighborhood on patrol. Tonight, he walked because he had been spending too much time as Time Man. He also wanted to get home and see Ellie.
As Harold approached his building, a man came running out of it, barreling through the doors and running down the sidewalk toward Harold. Harold tried to get out of the way but the man ran into him, pushing him and knocking him down. Harold fell hard on the sidewalk and quickly turned to see the man still running. “Hey! Watch where you’re going! Slow down!” he shouted but knew the man wasn’t listening. Harold picked himself up and went into his apartment building, taking one last look toward the way the man was running.
Dwight Summers had been halfway across the country for the last two weeks doing work on Northern Continental Railroad and was anxious to get back home to his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Daisy. Carrying an arrangement of flowers for Sarah and a wooden cat collapsible toy for Daisy, Dwight walked up the stairs to his apartment. He went to unlock the door but found it already unlocked. He walked in and found the apartment quiet, the usual screams and laughs from Daisy were missing as were Sarah doing her hardest to keep the apartment a warm, loving home.
Dwight placed the flowers and cat on the bookshelf next to the door and began walking through the apartment. It looked like Sarah was just about to start cooking with ingredients sitting out on the counter. “Sarah?” he called. He went back to the bedroom and opened the door to his and Sarah’s bedroom. Partially hidden by the bed, were the bodies of Sarah and Daisy. Dwight, overcome, ran out of the apartment and fell against the wall of the hallway and began crying and shivering.
Soon, the apartment building was swarming with police officers, detectives and medical examiners. Everyone in the building was questioned and no one saw or heard anything, even the neighbors, Harold and Eleanor Banner.
“I can’t believe that happened,” Ellie said. “And right across the hall from us.”
“I can’t imagine what Dwight is going through. I don’t know what I would do if something like that happened to you and our child,” Harold kissed Ellie and rubbing her pregnant belly. “I wonder what he is going to do now.”
“They were such nice people,” Ellie moaned. “None of them deserved this. I wonder what happened and who it was.”
“Probably some psycho. I should probably put a new lock or two on the door, just in case,” Harold said. “Especially with the baby close to being here.”
Dwight’s gloved hand connected to the punching bag in Canacari’s Gym. A month had passed since Dwight’s life essentially came to a stop and in that time he barely spent any time at home, opting to stay late at work or train at Canacari’s. He would sleep at a motel, his apartment not lived in since the horrible find. He had an unknown number of days worth of stubble on his face and his hair was disheveled and hung in his eyes and over his ears.
Leon Canacari came up behind Dwight. “What are you doing here, Dwight?”
“Training.”
“I can see that but you’re here every night, for hours on end. You can’t hide out here from whatever you are running from.”
“I’m not running from anything. I’m running toward something,” Dwight hit the punching bag one more time then took the gloves off. “Thanks for letting me use your gym. I’ll see you around.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Dwight,” Canacari warned.
Dwight entered his family’s apartment for the first time since discovering his murdered wife and daughter. He was carrying a bag and slowly walked into his daughter’s room. “She loved cats,” he muttered to himself. “I’m going to find out who did this, sweetie. I’m going to avenge and honor you like a father should.” He pulled a strange costume out of the bag, in was a suit with a mask that looked like a cat’s head complete with whiskers. He took the suit into his bedroom which was completely empty. He undressed and slid on the cat suit. “I will find out who did this and they will answer to me: Catman,” he exclaimed and leapt out of the bedroom window and onto the fire escape. He climbed up to the roof and looked out over the city.
Harold couldn’t sleep so he put the sundial on and went out for a bit as Time Man. He had been torn wondering if he should do patrols more or stay home with Ellie after what happened to the Summers’. He opted to stay with Ellie which meant Time Man hadn’t been seen very often over the last month but it had been relatively quiet anyway.
As Time Man flew over his neighborhood, he spotted a figure dressed in black bounding from rooftop to rooftop. The figure paused on the top of a tenement building and looked out over the edge. Time Man gently landed several feet behind him. “You look like you’re on a mission,” he said.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on someone like that,” the man in black snarled. “I’m looking for someone—anyone—who can help me solve a murder.”
“A murder? I can help in any way I can. What can you give me?” Time Man offered.
“Sarah and Daisy Summers. You ever hear of them?”
“Yeah. Terrible shame. The Summers’ were a nice family. I can’t imagine what Dwight is going through,” Time Man sighed.
“You sound like you knew them.”
“Not really. They…” Time Man hesitated for a brief moment “…were my wife and I’s neighbors. They lived across the hall from us.”
“Harold?”
“Dwight,” Time Man extended his hand. Dwight took Time Man’s hand and they shook. “What are you doing?”
“The police aren’t going to find anything. No one they talked to saw anything. Even you,” Dwight sighed dejectedly. “What did you see? Go over your evening again.”
“Nothing unusual,” Harold began. “I was walking home from work, which is something I rarely do now,” he brought attention to his blue and gold outfit. “As I was approaching the apartment building, this man came running out and knocked me down. I didn’t get a good look at him but I’m sure he has something to do with what happened.”
“Do you remember anything about him?”
“Not really. Just your average-looking guy. He was wearing a denim jacket with some kind of logo on the back,” Harold tried to remember. “It was red…Vince Auto or something like that.”
“Might be Vance Auto in the North Bottoms. Rumor has it that they do very little auto work there. Could be worth checking out,” Dwight prepared to jump off of the building.
“Wait. I’ll come with you. By the way, what do you call yourself?”
“Catman,” Dwight briefly smiled. “Daisy loved cats.”
Vance Auto was a dilapidated building that looked like it had been abandoned for several years but everyone knew it was being used, but no one knew for what purpose. Time Man and Catman approached the building and slowly made their way from the street to the building, slowly opening the door. Inside, it looked like your typical auto maintenance shop but Catman was sure it was also something else.
“There’s nothing…and no one here,” Time Man said. “Maybe he was a former employee. Maybe there’s a file cabinet we can get names from.”
“I hear something,” Catman gruffly said. “Shush.” Both went silent and listened for a couple seconds.
“I don’t hear anything,” Time Man said.
“Shush,” Catman said again and turned his head toward the garage area. “Over here. Under this hydraulic lift. Can you lift it up?”
Time Man pulled the lift up, the steel hydraulic tube breaking and cracking as he pulled. Both dropping into the hole and into a tunnel that went far beyond the foundation of the building. “What is this?” Time Man whispered.
“I don’t know but I hear something down here. Let’s go,” Catman said and began running down the tunnel.
“Hear something? Are you kidding me?”
At the end of the tunnel was another large hole, almost a cave, with two tall torches on either side and in front of the torches, two large bodyguards. “I’ll take care of them. Be right back.”
“By yourself? I can help…” Time Man said as Catman ran to the two guards. They attempted to stop Catman but in three quick moves they were disarmed and disabled, knocked unconscious on the ground. “Well, I could’ve helped.”
They entered the cave which revealed a massive area with a large fire in the center. Milling around were a dozen or so people in red robes and pointed red hoods. “Hmm. They look like they are up to no good.”
“We can handle them. Keep at least one of them conscious so we can ask them questions,” Time Man and the two of them charged in taking down two easily. They split up and while Time Man was knocking the hooded men out, Catman was smashing their heads into the cave wall, bludgeoning them with his fists and even broke the neck of another. “What are you doing? Keep them alive! We keep them alive.”
“We only need one of them,” Catman said. “Maybe this will make it easier to extract the information.” Catman wrapped his arms around another man’s head. Time Man quickly clicked his sundial and time stopped.
Time Man walked over, pulled the man from Catman’s grasp, and sped time up again. Catman gestured with his arm but was surprised when he realized the man wasn’t there anymore. “We don’t kill,” Time Man said again.
Catman glared at Time Man. “Fine. But let’s get what we came for,” Catman walked over to the man Time Man was holding. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s the Order of St. Constantin,” the man replied. “I don’t know much about it.”
“You joined a cult without knowing anything about it?” Catman questioned.
“I don’t know much about it,” the man repeated. “I liked the idea of white supremacy and ethnic cleansing. The man you need to see about the Order is Priest Andreij. He controls this…section of the Order. I don’t know where he is or if that’s even his real name. He visits here about once a month to give some rousing speech and seed our sacrifices.”
“What?”
“Some of the guys offer their daughters to the Priest thinking it will help make them Chosen.”
“Do you have enough?” Time Man asked Catman.
“I think I can go on what he gave me,” Catman nodded.
“Good. Now you can kill him,” Time Man let go of the man and walked away, leaving him and Catman alone.