hotmtlnovel Chapter 3780 Rapid Pursuit (25)
Chapter 3780 Rapid Pursuit (25)
Chapter 3780 Rapid Pursuit (Twenty-Five)
The Wayne Tower where Batman resides was built when Mr. and Mrs. Wayne were still alive. Over the years, it has become somewhat dilapidated. So, several years ago, Elliott began planning the construction of a new Wayne Tower. The new building was recently completed, and he invited many partners to a celebration banquet. It was at this banquet that a corpse fell from the sky, disrupting all his arrangements.
This seemingly insignificant person was like the first grain of sand to fall during a mudslide. From then on, everything went off track, for everyone.
The death of the Assassin's Guild cast a shadow over Elliott and Talia's cooperation. Suspecting the Court of Owls was behind it, Elliott didn't secretly cooperate with them as he did in the original story. This even affected Jason's attitude towards him. Everything collapsed in a very short time, like a dream at dawn.
Elliott was foolish; he failed to grasp the true significance of the murder. But Batman wasn't foolish. Even with dominoes falling everywhere, he still had to see what had knocked down the first one.
The new Wayne Tower was completed, but the residents hadn't officially moved in yet. Elliott's death further delayed the relocation. Only the banquet hall, prepared for the event, showed signs of activity. But when Batman arrived, the once brightly lit building was gone, leaving only chaotic fragments submerged in darkness.
Batman turned on the lights, but the scene inside the banquet hall remained desolate. Because of the murder, the guests had left in a chaotic manner; overturned glasses and plates were left unattended, and the food and drinks were not properly cleared away, leaving a putrid smell in the banquet hall.
The yellow police tape left behind when they arrived lay scattered on the ground. Nearby, footprints were as abundant as new buds on branches in March: stumbling men, women in high heels, police officers pacing back and forth…
Batman spun around, the scene of the banquet vividly replaying in his mind. Then he stood directly below the atrium and looked up. The most striking thing in his field of vision was the enormous chandelier hanging from the upstairs ceiling. When lit, it shone like a flame from the sun.
Batman slowly walked up the spiral staircase beside him. There were two corridors on the upper floor, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south had lounges on both sides, while the one to the north had meeting rooms.
The upstairs floor was carpeted and appeared smooth, with no footprints or bloodstains. There are two possibilities: either the victim didn't die in the room in the corridor, but rather died directly next to the courtyard and fell down immediately after death; or the perpetrator didn't drag the body but instead picked it up and threw it down.
Batman was deep in thought when Talia called him. Batman answered the call with his headset, and Talia's voice came through: "We've got the autopsy report from the police station. The cause of death is ordinary: a frontal attack, a dagger piercing the heart, a single fatal blow."
Are there any signs of a struggle?
"……No."
Talia's tone changed as well. She realized this was abnormal, because if it were a direct stab wound, the victim would have definitely seen the assailant. Assassins of the Assassin's Guild were not ordinary people; they couldn't possibly be completely defenseless. Even after being stabbed, they should have struggled.
Batman had already inspected the rooms upstairs, but found nothing amiss. The furniture was neatly arranged, there were no messy footprints or bloodstains on the floor, as if nothing had happened. This proved that the assassin had died silently.
It's somewhat possible that he was attacked from behind. But since the wound appeared on the front, the situation becomes very strange.
"Do you have a bodily fluid analysis report?" Batman asked.
After a moment of silence, Talia said, "I didn't see it. Maybe they put it somewhere else. I'll go look for it."
“It might be difficult to find. After sampling, it will be sent to Wayne Enterprises’ lab,” Batman said.
Talia agreed. Batman was about to say something when he suddenly heard a noise downstairs. The other person's route was basically the same as his; after entering, they began searching downstairs. Judging from the footsteps, the other person wasn't particularly strong, but they were trained. Batman stood above the patio and glanced down, spotting a green-haired figure.
"Is it the Joker?" Batman began to ponder. "Is he also here to gather evidence? Who would he suspect?"
Then, another set of footsteps sounded. Batman didn't even need to listen closely to know it was Schiller. This relieved him. If Schiller was here now, it meant he hadn't killed Jason Todd and turned him into an art piece. Good news indeed.
But the situation downstairs also made Batman a little nervous, because he heard the Joker pull out a gun and cock it.
Batman's nervousness stemmed mainly from the fact that he didn't know who to side with during their fight. Helping Schiller fight the Joker would make him seem too evil, while helping the Joker fight Schiller would be too strange for Batman.
And what Batman fears most: that the two of them will team up to beat him up after they find him.
“…I think I can explain.” Schiller’s voice came intermittently, still soft and slow, making one feel very sleepy. He continued, “I am sorry for the attack in the police station that day, but you struck first. If you hadn’t tried to torture me, I wouldn’t have resorted to violence to escape.”
"Are you saying you didn't kill this person?"
"Of course it wasn't me. When you took everyone to the police station, you couldn't convict anyone. Even though I assaulted a police officer and escaped from prison, it doesn't prove I'm the murderer. And the fact is, in the subsequent autopsy and investigation, you still couldn't find the murderer."
"Are you here to show off to me? Like those idiots who commit crimes, are confident that the police won't find the culprit, but instead insist on getting close to the police to show off their intelligence."
“I had no such intention.” Schiller’s voice sounded sincere. “I’m not emphasizing that there is no evidence; I just want to convince you that I am not the murderer.”
"You'll probably have to go to the police station to tell them."
The Joker approached, then suddenly grabbed a chair and hurled it at Schiller. Schiller dodged, kicking the Joker's gun-wielding hand instead. Unfortunately, the policeman's gun was secured to his belt with a safety rope; although it fell, it didn't fly out of his hand. The Joker didn't choose to fire.
Batman watched their fight from upstairs. Their previous words and current actions suggested they had exchanged blows before.
During the confrontation at the police station, Joker knew this guy wasn't very afraid of handguns. Handgun bullets would have limited lethality against him, and might even drive him more insane.
The Joker loaded the pistol to mislead Schiller, making him think he would fire and thus focus his attention on the gun immediately. Schiller's kicking of his arm was also a way of deceiving the Joker, making him believe he was indeed afraid of guns.
Unfortunately, the Joker didn't fall for it and didn't try to pick up the gun again. Instead, he began to fight Schiller head-on. This Joker's fighting style was clearly much stronger than the other Jokers' wild, uncontrolled punches; he had received professional training and fought with great discipline.
Unfortunately, he still couldn't beat Schiller. The difference in strength was too great, and his reaction speed was also slower. Schiller easily dodged the chair the Joker threw; but when Schiller grabbed a chair and slammed it down, the Joker couldn't dodge it and was knocked to the ground, unable to get up for a long time.
Seeing the clown lying on the ground, Schiller picked up the chair, straightened it, and used the four legs of the chair to pin the clown's neck and shoulders, preventing him from standing up. He bent one knee and pressed it against the chair, looking down at the clown.
“You must be wondering why I didn’t kill you. In your eyes, a vicious serial killer like me wouldn’t let you go twice. But I won’t kill you, just as I wouldn’t kill an assassin.”
"Ahem...why?"
“This is difficult for me,” Schiller said abruptly, then stood up from his chair, sighed, and said, “There’s no point in you chasing me; it might just let the real culprit get away with it.”
The Joker remained silent. Batman sensed his resistance in that silence. To be honest, Batman didn't agree with Schiller's explanation either. In the banquet hall murder case, Schiller was indeed a prime suspect.
He shouldn't have been at the party, but he showed up anyway, and after being taken to the police station, he assaulted an officer and fled. If the Gotham Police Department weren't so complex and inefficient, they would have already issued an arrest warrant and launched a full-scale manhunt for him.
Batman suspects the police department might indeed want to do this, but are being prevented by someone. It's highly likely it's Cobblestone, Schiller's later collaborator. This wouldn't take much effort, given the lack of concrete evidence.
So the key really lies in the evidence. Batman surveyed the upstairs space. The lack of signs of a struggle was indeed strange, proving that the victim was completely powerless to resist when attacked.
The assassins of the Assassin's Guild are not ordinary people. They focus solely on their mission objectives, rarely engage in conversation with anyone, and avoid unnecessary activities such as eating or drinking. This makes them difficult to manipulate or hypnotize. Therefore, rendering them powerless is extremely challenging.
After investigating the crime scene, Schiller's suspicion was reduced further. Although he was very strong and could easily kill assassins from the League of Assassins, it would be difficult for him to do so without making a sound or leaving any trace.
The suspicion surrounding the maniac laughter increased because he arrived early enough, and the metal eye mask possessed the ability to forcibly modify brainwaves, rendering the assassins of the Assassin's Guild powerless without lifting a finger.
But Batman knows that this is indeed the case based solely on evidence. However, if we add psychology to the equation, then the suspicion of the Laughing is very low. Because he wouldn't kill so decisively; stabbing someone in the heart is too old-fashioned for him. If the Laughing really did it, he would have gone to great lengths to demonstrate how skillful his methods were, perhaps even carving flowers into every fold of the intestines, and the corpse would be covered with those deliberately mystifying signs of torture.
If it's neither Schiller nor The Laughing Man, it proves that there's someone else secretly watching Elliott, who has likely been plotting for a long time to use a corpse at the banquet to kill multiple birds with one stone.
Talia's voice came through the earpiece again:
“The analysis results of his bodily fluids are in,” Talia said. “They detected a large amount of drug residue. Someone injected him with some kind of poison, which rendered him completely incapacitated.”
"Can you identify what kind of poison it is?"
"The equipment readings are unfamiliar, and I can't make a judgment at the moment. I'll send them to you, and you can have a chemistry expert take a look."
Batman picked up his phone and saw the series of data Talia had sent him, his brow slowly furrowing. He was familiar with the data from the chemical analysis. In their universe, this poison was called—Fear Gas.