Chapter 391 - 391: Joint Action

"How could I possibly not know that he's treated me well...?"

A trace of pain flashed across Harvey Dent's face, but it was quickly replaced by an expression of righteous determination.

"But in plenty of areas, he's clearly skirting the edge of the law. Take Karl's money, for example. Where did it come from? He was a police officer earning only tens of thousands a year, yet he somehow bought an entire television station without breaking a sweat. Where did he get that kind of money? Do you really think that would be possible without some illicit source of income?"

The real point was that Harvey wanted to use Karl as a target to rebuild his own reputation.

He desperately needed something like that right now.

Otherwise, the more orders he gave, the fewer people would be willing to listen.

Coupled with Constantine constantly encouraging him day and night and telling him how much there was to gain from cleaning up Karl, Harvey Dent had gradually shifted all of his attention toward him.

"Hmm..."

Bruce Wayne thought for a while without answering.

As Batman, a man who walked through the darkness every night, Bruce had naturally investigated Karl thoroughly.

And from certain perspectives, Karl did indeed have a few questionable stains on his record.

There was the matter of liquor smuggling, for example.

However, that particular vulnerability had largely disappeared after Karl acquired a stake in a suburban brewery. By the time anyone thought to use the issue against him, the opportunity had already passed.

As part-owner of a brewery, Karl could reasonably claim that his alcohol came from a legitimate source.

At the same time, Karl did not take dirty money while working as a police officer.

That alone separated him from many of Gotham's other cops.

In fact, from a certain perspective, the person who had helped Karl make the most money was Harvey Dent himself.

Whether it was the new liquor restrictions or the crackdown on street solicitation, both policies had ended up making Karl a considerable amount of money.

So for Harvey to stand there now and question whether Karl's wealth came from legitimate sources was rather ironic.

Harvey himself had practically been Karl's greatest benefactor.

Seeing Bruce remain silent, Harvey hurriedly continued.

"Just like you said last night, a bad example can influence countless followers and encourage them to imitate it. That applies to Batman, and it applies to Karl too!"

Harvey leaned forward.

"If police officers in other precincts see what Karl has done, more of them will start following his example. They'll enter the business world, focus on making money, and forget that they're supposed to be police officers."

"If we deal with him now, we can make an example of him for every other precinct in Gotham."

Harvey stared at Bruce.

"And if I remember correctly, you said almost exactly the same thing last night!"

Seeing Harvey Dent this desperate made Bruce Wayne uncomfortable.

In Bruce's memory, Harvey had always been an exceptionally personable man, the kind of person who remembered anyone who had ever helped him.

But now, Harvey seemed like an entirely different man.

His thoughts appeared completely consumed by the desire to bring Karl down.

Bruce found the change deeply unsettling.

As for Harvey, he had his own difficulties that he could not easily explain.

Whatever anyone thought of Karl, he was currently extremely popular among Gotham's police officers.

After Karl burned all of the compromising files that had been used to control them, officers across Gotham were willing to acknowledge that they owed him a favor.

Many even regarded Karl as the man who had freed them from blackmail and given them back their independence.

That made Harvey's own position increasingly awkward.

He might officially hold the title of police commissioner, but without genuine authority behind the name, he was little more than an empty shell.

So portraying Karl as the Gotham City Police Department's greatest internal threat seemed like the perfect way to strengthen Harvey's credibility.

Put simply, Karl's popularity had become a threat to Harvey.

And with Constantine constantly provoking him, Harvey had convinced himself that striking back was something he had to do.

"I really don't like Karl," Bruce Wayne said casually. "Especially now that he's involved in Gotham's adult-entertainment business. It's disgusting, and that's one of the reasons I don't want someone like him producing a Batman series. Who would trust a man making money from the vice industry to do something decent?"

Then Bruce's tone changed.

"But under Gotham's current laws, those businesses are legal."

His expression became serious.

"No matter how distasteful I find them, that doesn't give us grounds to accuse him of a crime. Especially when we don't have any actual evidence."

Seeing that Bruce Wayne had no interest in helping him formulate a plan against Karl, Harvey Dent began to panic.

As far as Harvey was concerned, the only person in Gotham who could truly stand on the same side as him was the wealthy man sitting directly in front of him.

After all, Bruce Wayne's hostility toward Karl was practically public knowledge throughout Gotham.

Just last night, Bruce had gone on television and openly declared that he intended to oppose Karl.

So why was he suddenly unwilling to act?

Harvey also had another objective in arranging this meeting.

The mayor's position was no longer under any immediate threat, and the election had been postponed for another year.

That meant the old mayor no longer needed Harvey Dent to help secure votes.

Naturally, he had become far less interested in giving Harvey what he wanted.

The clearest example was municipal funding.

The police department's appropriations had been arriving later and later, and never in full.

Back when Commissioner Loeb was in charge, he could guarantee roughly eighty percent of the requested funding.

Now, under Harvey Dent, the department was lucky to receive around half.

That only made Harvey's situation worse.

After all, if a commissioner could not even secure enough funding to keep his officers paid and supplied, why would anyone follow him?

You could talk about loyalty all you wanted, but loyalty meant very little when people could not even make ends meet.

That was another reason Harvey had invited Bruce Wayne here.

He wanted Bruce's financial support.

Bruce had provided generous campaign funding before, never questioning too closely how every dollar was being spent.

If Harvey could secure the backing of Gotham City's richest man again, the rest of his time running the police department would become considerably easier.

But to Harvey's surprise, Bruce Wayne flatly rejected what seemed like a perfectly ordinary request.

"I'm willing to spend money supporting you personally," Bruce said politely. "But directly funding the Gotham City Police Department? Forget it. That would be going too far."

"But haven't you donated money to police organizations before?" Harvey asked in surprise.

The organization Harvey was referring to was essentially Gotham's police benevolent association, a volunteer-run organization that also provided medical assistance and social services to officers injured in the line of duty.

Bruce Wayne was its largest donor.

His name was even prominently recorded in the organization's history.

But there was one important problem.

Batman did not trust the Gotham City Police Department.

If Gotham's police had not been so ineffective in the first place, Bruce would never have felt compelled to travel the world, train himself relentlessly, and pursue his own path after the murder of his parents.

In other words, among the entire Gotham City Police Department, the one person Bruce truly trusted was James Gordon.

Unfortunately, Gordon had now been pushed aside and was stuck at home.

When it came to Bruce's trust, even Karl could not compare with Gordon.

And in Bruce Wayne's eyes, a police department without Gordon was little more than a collection of corrupt, compromised officers.

Even as one of the richest men in the world, Bruce saw no reason to throw money into an institution like that just so crooked cops could squander it.

That was why Bruce's financial support for Gotham law enforcement was limited to charitable assistance for injured and retired officers through the police benevolent association.

He was willing to help the people who had suffered while doing their jobs.

He was not willing to bankroll the department itself.

(End of Chapter)

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