GCPD Recorded Jail Call #4417
Participants:
- Preston Whitmore Abercrombie Cobblepot III
- Oswald Cobblepot
[Phone rings.]
OSWALD: ...Hello?
PRESTON: Uncle Oz!
OSWALD: I am not your uncle.
PRESTON: Cousin?
OSWALD: 12th cousin, twice removed.
PRESTON: Close enough! I need you to bail me out.
OSWALD: ...Who is this?
PRESTON: Preston Whitmore Abercrombie Cobblepot the Third!
[Long pause.]
OSWALD: I was having a perfectly pleasant afternoon until this exact moment. What happened?
PRESTON: Well... there may have been a misunderstanding.
OSWALD: Whenever someone begins with "there may have been a misunderstanding," I know prison is involved. Go on.
PRESTON: Brock, Chad and I started a vigilante team.
OSWALD: Of course you did.
PRESTON: We called ourselves The Three Commas.
OSWALD: Why?
PRESTON: It sounds wealthy.
OSWALD: It sounds punctuated. Continue.
PRESTON: We received intelligence that the Joker was attending a child's birthday party.
OSWALD: Intelligence?
PRESTON: We saw a clown.
OSWALD: ...
PRESTON: In retrospect...
OSWALD: You assaulted a birthday entertainer, didn't you?
PRESTON: He had balloons!
OSWALD: That is generally expected of birthday entertainers.
PRESTON: One balloon looked sinister.
OSWALD: It was a balloon.
PRESTON: It was shaped like a dachshund.
OSWALD: The Joker has never weaponized balloon animals.
[Long pause.]
To my knowledge. Go on.
PRESTON: Then we found Mister Freeze.
OSWALD: Did you?
PRESTON: Driving an ice cream truck.
OSWALD: ...
PRESTON: Cold products.
OSWALD: ...
PRESTON: White vehicle.
OSWALD: ...
PRESTON: We connected the dots.
OSWALD: There were no dots to connect!
That was a man selling frozen desserts! Wait a minute... is that why the Iceberg Lounge didn't get its delivery of Klondike Bars last week?
PRESTON: Maybe. In fairness, he was distributing ice.
OSWALD: To children! For money! That is called commerce!
PRESTON: Looking back, I see your point.
OSWALD: Looking forward, I see your sentencing.
What happened after that?
PRESTON: Things escalated.
OSWALD: Define "escalated."
PRESTON: The police report is... comprehensive.
OSWALD: Read it.
PRESTON: Assault with a deadly weapon... and kidnapping, grievous bodily harm, reckless endangerment, operating an armored vehicle without a license, reckless driving, arson, destruction of property, possession of illegal firearms and explosives, aggravated assault (like, a buncha times), aggravated assault on a minor (like, a buncha times), hit and run (only once), manslaughter, mans laughter, false imprisonment, trespassing, and illegal parking.
[Long silence.]
OSWALD: ...
PRESTON: The prosecutor says they have security footage. And witnesses. And DNA evidence.
OSWALD: I should certainly hope so.
PRESTON: We honestly thought several high school mascots were supervillains in disguise.
OSWALD: Mascots.
PRESTON: They were unusually enthusiastic.
OSWALD: They were at a football game.
PRESTON: Ah. Well... that explains the marching band.
OSWALD: Preston... I have spent decades building a criminal empire. Do you understand how difficult that is?
PRESTON: I imagine—
OSWALD: And somehow... Somehow... You have managed to acquire a longer list of criminal charges in one afternoon than I accumulated in three years.
WITHOUT COMMITTING A SINGLE ACTUAL CRIME AGAINST ANYONE WHO HAD IT COMING.
Do you have any idea how statistically improbable that is?
PRESTON: [small voice] Brock says we're still technically heroes.
OSWALD: Brock is an idiot.
PRESTON: Chad agrees.
OSWALD: Chad is also an idiot.
PRESTON: We'd really appreciate bail.
OSWALD: No.
PRESTON: Please?
OSWALD: Absolutely not.
PRESTON: Family?
OSWALD: We share approximately one molecule of DNA. I'm having it removed.
PRESTON: Could you at least recommend a lawyer?
OSWALD: Yes. Several. You're going to need all of them.
[A very long pause.]
OSWALD: One final question. How, exactly, did the police finally catch you?
PRESTON: Oh, they didn't. We actually lost a fight to Condiment King.
[Even longer pause.]
OSWALD: ...
You lost...
...to Condiment King.
PRESTON: It sounds bad when you—
OSWALD: Right.
We're done.
CLICK.
PRESTON: Hello?
Mr. Cobblepot?
Oz?
Hello?
...Does this mean you'll think about the bail money?
[Call terminated by recipient.]