Ramirez was waiting in a little side street. Maroni had told her to wait, or her mother wouldn’t be in the hospital for long. She knew that this could be dangerous, but she didn’t care, her mother came first.

“Well, well, well,” a voice said in the dark.

Ramirez spun around. A figure was coming out of the end of the alley; a man. But she could only make out his outline. She couldn’t see his face. But the voice made a chill go down her spine.

“Maroni told me, the contact would be a woman, but I didn’t realize you would be that beautiful.” The Joker stepped out of the shadows: “Hi.”

Ramirez recognized him from the cameras at the bank. He was in different clothes now though; a purple suit, and purple gloves.

The Joker came closer to Ramirez; he had a knife in his right hand.

Ramirez eyes darted from the Joker’s face to his hand.

He came closer, “You see, I need some information.”

“ What do you want?” she said recoiling slightly.

“What I wanna know...” he said, his tongue darting to the edge of his mouth, raising the knife to her face.

“Get that away from me,” she knocked the knife out of his hand, realizing a second after that it was a mistake.

The Joker looked slowly down at the knife on the ground, then up at Ramirez. “You know...” he said slowly. “ I’ve always liked women who have fight in them,” he said, then he whispered in her ear: “there’s just that little problem that it usually doesn’t turn out well for them”

Ramirez shivered.

“What I wanna know,” The Joker continued slowly as though nothing had happened, “how do the police get in contact with Batman?” The Joker dragged out the last word deliberately, licking his lips. “That little light, that shining symbol on the sky” the Joker said spread his hands and moving them away from each other. “It doesn’t, well it doesn’t seem to work,” the Joker said with a little laugh in his last sentence, gesticulating with his hands again.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ramirez said in a scared voice, “we are trying to catch Bat-”

The Joker slammed her up against the alley wall. “Don’t lie to me!” Holding her by throat with one hand so her feet were an inch off the ground, the Joker conjured a knife out of his sleeve and put it to Ramirez’s mouth. “Now,” he said, “I want to know how your little friend “Gordy” get’s a hold of him.”

Ramirez let out a whimper, struggling against The Joker’s grip. Her face cringed as the warmth of his foul breath played across her face.  

“Aww baby don’t, don’t be like that,” he said, laughing and licking his lips again. “Maybe the police don’t know. Hm? Then what about Harvey, Harvey Dent?”

Ramirez was grasping at the Jokers hand, trying to pull it off her throat.

“Tell me!” he shouted, tightening his grip.

Ramirez choked. “Dent doesn’t know,” she said in hoarse voice. He wasn’t exactly giving her a lot of air to speak, “but we don’t either, he... he only comes when he feels like it. But you won’t find him.”

“ Oh but I don’t have to,” he said, grinning as he saw the displeasure of his victim, his yellow teeth showing. “You see, he will find me.”

“He won’t go looking for a freak,” she said in a strained voice, still trying to get him off of her.

Oblivious to her escape attempts, his attention snapped toward her, when he heard the word “freak”. “Is that what you think of me??” he said “a.. a freak?” He laughed, as though her words had been the funniest thing he had ever heard. “By the way do you know how I got these scars?” he said, snapping out of his laughter, dead serious.  

Ramirez tried to kick him, but he didn’t show any signs of pain, in fact, he smiled again.

“Uh we can’t have that, you are a feisty little one aren’t you,” he laughed. “But we really can’t have that” he said shortly, cutting of his laugh. He took his knife cutting into her thigh, enjoying the way the flesh resisted for a second and then gave way. It wasn’t a big cut, maybe an inch long and not that deep.

She winced in pain, trying not to show it.

“Now if you would let me finish,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice, putting the knife to her mouth again. “I had... a brother, a younger brother. When our mother died, I had to take care of him.” he said, thoroughly enjoying himself.

She could not look, away from The Joker’s eyes, there was something about them.. and besides he was holding her throat turning her face towards his.

“Now my brother, he could take a lump of wood and turn it into a masterpiece,” he paused “with a knife. But he also had problems... big problems. One day, his girlfriend” he paused again, half closing his eyes as though remembering. “His girlfriend looked like you," he said half laughing. "But anyway.." he continued, "his girlfriend comes over to our house, to break up with him, and he goes crazy,” he said his voice raising a couple of octaves. “He puts the knife, in her throat, and turns to me. “ Why are you smiling?” he asks. “I’ll give you something to smile about!” he says, coming at me with the knife, and he does this,” he said pointing at his scars with the knife. He paused once again, “of course I could’ve have stopped him,” he said in his normal voice. “But... where’s the fun in that?” he said grinning. He let go of Ramirez, and went to go pick up his knife on the ground.

She fell to the ground, coughing and holding her throat. She didn't dare look up at The Joker.

He went over to where she lay, and crouched. His gloved hand lifted her chin gently so she was facing him; he put the knife in her mouth. “Now you’re gonna keep my little story a secret right?”

She looked at him with disgust, the taste of her own blood in her mouth.

“Right?” he continued, clenching her chin and cheeks with his hand, and pushing the back of her head into the wall.

She nodded.

“Good,” he said slowly, letting go and standing up. He walked away into the shadows; leaving nothing but a low laugh echoing after him, and a joker card at Ramirez's feet.