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"We screwed up," Gordon, after a moment, shrugged and replied simply, unwrapping a piece of nicotine gum. "…not enough manpower for the job."

Batman remained silent, only staring at his old friend. Then, "You knew he was in Gotham, didn’t you? Castle; the Punisher."

At this, Gordon himself chose to remain silent. It was, after all, his right. He looked away, and simply chewed his gum. "We…suspected," he said--well, actually admitted--at last. He had no idea how Batman knew The Punisher was in Gotham; they had only found out the day before, and had kept it quiet. Of course, how did he ever know anything? He was the Batman.

Batman turned his back, and walked to the low parapet; he looked out over the edge of the roof, gazing pensively the glittering, negative-image skyline of the city at night. "You knew;" he stated, firmly, "…and you purposely left the guards undermanned, hoping he’d take the bait, didn’t you? You actually hoped for this result."

Finally, Gordon straightened his back, and declared, "We did. Yes; but so what? Henninger was a monster of the worst kind, a wolf in the fold, and he was about to be acquitted. Released. Released, to start killing again."

Batman turned to face Gordon once again, his tone one of suppressed outrage. "Mere rationalization," he said, harshly. "How can the police—supposedly concerned with seeing justice done—take part in such…such…common trickery?"

Gordon’s visage darkened.

"Don’t you judge me, vigilante;" he grumbled slowly, harshly. "We don’t often see our own hypocrisies, do we?" he said, his voice chilly.

Batman opened his mouth in some reply, but Gordon cut him off, and sharply.

"I’m a cop; my job is to keep the streets as safe as I can for people who, in truth, only barely appreciate it. I don’t worry about ‘justice’; that job belongs to judges and lawyers. Was I wrong, to let that happen, today?" he shrugged. "Am I happy about it? No. But was I ‘wrong’? Was I? Who can really say?"

"I can say!" Batman declared, poking his own chest. "Allowing a man—even a man you know to be guilty—to be murdered?! That’s not justice! If you do that, you’re no better, really, than the criminals you arrest!"

Gordon slowly shook his head. "Don’t you dare play the wounded party, with me," he said, his calm, reasonable façade clearly an imposed one, and barely-held, at that.

"So you’re disappointed in me? I don’t care. Understand, something: I don’t wear a mask, I carry a badge. I’ve paid my dues, and I’ve worked my way up through the system. I’ve seen many a good man die in the line of duty…in the name of ‘justice’." He cocked his head, and focused his gaze intently on Batman; his diction was angrily precise. "Brian Henninger wasn’t a pot dealer; he wasn’t a penny-ante mugger; he wasn’t a car thief, and he didn’t rob convenience stores…Brian Henninger was a brutal, deeply-sick killer."

He paused and chewed his gum, audibly, as he continued…

"Do you have any idea at all, my very good friend, how much I’ve covered for you, over the years? Gone to the wall, for you? Oh, yes…you talk big, you…profess...to be on the side of ‘law and order’…but let me tell you something: if my cops brought in perps as badly-beaten as regularly as you do, Gotham wouldn’t have a police department, because they’d all have been fired long ago, if not in prison." He turned his head and, as if to make a point, forcefully spit out his gum, and shoved his hands into his coat pockets. He continued.

"You’re the one that finally found his…’workshop’," he said, forming the word with mild disgust and bitter irony, "…you saved his last victim, what was left of her."

Ellen Tierney, wife and mother of three, had, days later, died anyway of her wounds. One doctor expressed the opinion that she had likely willed herself to die, after her experience in Henninger’s hands. 

The one witness to the serial killer’s crimes, and who could have put him in the gas chamber, was gone.

"You don’t need me to tell you that Henninger was one twisted, sick son of a bitch," Gordon went on, "But unfortunately, the evidence just wasn’t strong enough."

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