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In most states, what the Punisher is doing could be called stalking.

It wasn't that he was curious about "Gio" from their previous meeting, but he had to make sure she hadn't turned him in to the police. All right, maybe he was a little curious. It had taken the better part of a week, casing the area on foot to get another glimpse of her, but eventually he had. Twice, during his surveillance, she'd nearly caught him, but he'd managed to get out of sight at the last minute. He'd followed her all the way back home, noting the building she was staying in.

It took another day or so to go back and give it a better look. One day, he caught a cleaning lady coming out of the place and approached her, asking a few innocent questions about a girl matching Gio's description.

Bonita Botrell, the housekeeper, was quite informative.

"Oh, that's Miss Giovanna. She's stays up on the twelfth floor with a young boy, her brother, and another guy named...Alvin, I think. Now, they seem like a happy little family, but...well, some odd stuff goes on up there sometimes." Bonita says, looking around on the street to make sure no one is watching them.

"Can you tell me what you mean by odd?" Donovan asks, the former Marshal in him going to work.

"Well, Miss Giovanna is a sweet girl, very nice...but she's really, how do I say...tough. She doesn't take crap from anybody...except Alvin. One night a few months ago, I went up to the room to see if they needed anything and Alvin's....bodyguard, I guess, big muscle-bound guy, comes to the door and says they need a doctor. I tell him I know one on the first floor, but I ask why, since he doesn't look hurt at all.

He didn't wanna elaborate, and so I tried to look around him to see what was goin' on...and I saw Miss Giovanna layin' on the floor all beat up. She was bleeding and moaning. He said they'd been attacked, but he didn't look like /he'd/ been attacked." Bonita says.

"Is that so? Where was Gio's brother when this happened?" Burke asks.

"Oh, he wasn't there yet. He only moved in a few months ago. Alvin's bodyguard comes and goes. Alvin wasn't around, either." she says.

"Do you recall any other time you've seen this happen? Anyone who can verify what you're telling me?" he asks.

"Look, sir, I'm tellin' you too much as it is. Some powerful and important people in this town meet with Alvin and I could lose my job if they find out. I seen the two of them on the news in the company of that guy who runs that mutant show on TV. I think it's called the X-People or something. I don't like the look of /that/ guy, either.

But I ain't one to gossip, you didn't hear that from me." Bonita says.

"No, I sure didn't. Thank you, Bonita." he says, passing her a hundred-dollar bill. "Happy Holidays."

"Thank you...I'm sorry, I missed your name." she says.

"John. John Public." he says.

Fast-forward to now.

He's seen Giovanna go into the building and presumably make her way upstairs. He saw Bonita again last week, and she said that the couple looked very tense as if they'd just had a fight of some kind. She hadn't heard anything from their apartment, but that didn't mean it was fine. Some people suffered in silence, she said.

Burke couldn't reconcile the woman who'd jumped armed humans with a woman who'd let herself get beat on by her boyfriend's bodyguard. He had yet to see anyone matching the bodyguard's description, though he /had/ seen Alvin at least once. He didn't look like much, but he couldn't get why he'd let his bodyguard punch out his girlfriend...unless he didn't know.

Something about this smells wrong to the Punisher, but he's got to make sure he knows what's going on before he kicks this asshole's face in. He'd seen the bruises on Alfredo and heard Cesar's tone when talking to him. That was reason enough to act.

He headed into the building, went up to the twelfth floor and knocked on Giovanna's door.