During a fight with Batman, the Joker raises the issue of the existence of an afterlife, which Batman puts down, along with his nemesis. Jim Gordon summons Batman with a case in the suburbs of Gotham County, where entire families have been killed in the same grisly and ritualistic way, shortly after being robbed by a junkie. Batman investigates one of the crime scenes before being called to another murder in progress where he pursues the killer but is ambushed and knocked out. He is rescued by detectives Keith and Radmuller of the Gotham County Sheriff's Department and questions the junkie thief at his residence. Before the thief can give any information, he is shot by the killer who eludes Batman again, but not before Batman procures a Sheriff's badge from his person, that of Detective Ra