"For years, this city has broken free from the shackles of darkness to see the light again. But when night falls, Gotham is once again submerged in that impenetrable night, as if overnight it reverted to a secretive and cruel previous era. When I heard the news of yet another murder case, I couldn't help but hurry out, the gust from donning my coat could blow all the way to the Atlantic. But Rodriguez was still the same, standing in the light at the entrance of the office on Green Street, the lines of his coat hanging straight down, reminding me of an old pen stored in a gun case. Surely, this news has exacerbated his fatigue, such a hard night, but dawn will always come. I thought this but didn't say it out loud, so as not to disturb his nap in the car, or the weaving of case clues in his mind."
Shiller leaned over to glance at the paper in Victor's hand, and Victor proudly raised an eyebrow at him. Shiller turned his head somewhat helplessly and then said, "Let's make a bet."
"Bet on what?"
"On who the dead person is."
"That's a bit disrespectful to the deceased."
"But it can add some intrigue to this story."
"Then I'll bet the dead person is Pelota." Victor thought for a moment and said, "The probability that Milos is the killer is high; Pelota might know something, so they were silenced."
"Then I'll bet it's not," Shiller said, "Of course, you'd better not secretly swap our answers after the truth comes out in your writing."
"Of course not," Victor said. "Detectives are the smart ones, while the assistants only need to ask silly questions."
"Perhaps you could turn it around," Shiller said. "Because I really can't come up with any decent reasoning; that part might be completed by you."
"Come on, that would be meaningless... Alright, I'll give it a try. But I haven't accomplished anything in Behavioral Analysis Method, so I'll have to deduce as best as I can. Maybe I should find someone skilled."
As they spoke, the car stopped at the gate of Gotham University. Standing at the entrance, one could vaguely see the spire of the bell tower piercing into the clouds, like a knife slicing through deep, obscure fog. The clouds were thick and dense like the sea, and the snow was like schools of fish in the cold sea. This city's night always hung upside down.
As they walked in, police cars were gathered there as usual. Brainiac had sealed off the door to the dormitory, and the students stayed quietly in their rooms. As a result, the building was relatively quiet.
Gordon stood at the end of the hallway, and when he saw them approaching, he turned and gently brushed the hem of his coat, saying, "The deceased is a girl in room 312. Does anyone know her?"
"God!" Jenna rushed forward. Gordon looked her up and down and then said, "Were you dragged here from a party?"
Jenna's sequined red dress stood out in the night. Deep as the night was and white as the snow was, neither black nor white could blur the vivid boundary with the red.
"This is not the time to talk about this!" Jenna pushed him aside and rushed into the room, soon letting out a cry, "Fanny!"
Barry also hurried up but didn't go in, only standing at the door. Jenna quickly ran out again, holding the door frame, and then said, "The deceased is Fanny, my other roommate."
Victor glanced back at Shiller but still stepped forward and asked, "Which department is she from?"
"Chemistry," Jenna said. "Her professor is Jonathan Crane."
"God," Victor couldn't help but sigh.
Barry had already reached the bed. It was clearly a crime scene, and the killer had no intention of covering it up. A girl lay on the bed near the door, a knife lodged in her chest, blood flowed all over the bed and floor. Her face was ashen, her limbs stiff, evidently dead for quite some time.
"Why is she on your bed?" Barry turned to look at Jenna and asked.
"How do you know that's her bed?" Victor instinctively asked back.
Shiller tugged on his arm, and Victor coughed. Jenna extended her hand, resting it on her other shoulder, and said somewhat helplessly, "He's my dance partner. After we finished practicing, he accompanied me back to get something, and I showed him my dormitory."
"Haven't you graduated?" Victor asked.
"In fact, no, it's still considered an internship," Barry was evidently absent-minded as he looked at Jenna's bed and then said, "Does she usually sleep here?"
"Uh..." Jenna pursed her lips and then said, "Fanny isn't someone who respects boundaries much. Since I don't often sleep in the dorm, and she preferred the bed near the door, so..."
"Your roommates really aren't pushovers," Victor said. Then he took out his phone, telling Brainiac, "Keep Jonathan Crane in his nature reserve, otherwise..."
"Sorry, he's already here."
A lean figure appeared at the staircase. Jonathan's face turned very unpleasant upon seeing the corpse on the bed. He turned around to survey the room, finally fixing his gaze on Shiller.
"'You always show up at murder scenes,' Professor Crane's accusation was somewhat sharp. 'No more than you do,' Rodriguez's response was full of his style, tinged with cold black humor. 'Especially when playing the murderer,' this one hit the mark. They were old rivals, something we talked about later during casual chats. The Morson district murder case—the big case of the Dark Age, James Gordon got involved too. The three of them converged here, the atmosphere in the corridor became grave, as if briefly returning to that era. I have no intention of watching the drama, but I know, like the Christmas tree at the Christmas party, everything that happens next will revolve around me, yet have nothing to do with me actually."
Shiller glanced at Victor, who was still writing vigorously, and sighed softly. He looked at Jonathan and said, "If you don't want to play a Moriarty-like role in a soon-to-be-published, globally sensational detective book, then don't spar with me here."
"Have you started babbling?" Jonathan squinted at him and said, "You think you appear as a detective, but to me, you look like the murderer who frequently returns to the crime scene."
"That theory has been debunked. At least, the killer returns not out of pride but out of fear," Shiller swept his gaze over the dormitory layout, then turned back to Jenna.
Jenna jolted, snippets like electric currents flashed through her mind, causing her entire body to start tingling.
"He intended to kill me," Jenna said, "The murderer didn't want to kill Fanny, but me."
The others turned to look at her. Jenna, supporting Barry's shoulder with one hand, lifted her skirt to look around, and then said, "Perhaps I shouldn't have worn this dress."
"You all really confuse me," Victor said, "Can we stop speaking in riddles? Could someone step up and explain what's going on?"
"I'll do it," Jenna said, "I had no classes this afternoon, so I was supposed to rehearse the dance. But Amanda called me away, delaying my afternoon. Of course, Barry was the same. So barely rehearsed, we two reached the activity room."
"You know, I'm not an Earthling, never participated in any decent social activities. I'm not very good at dancing, so I need a lot of practice to look decent. Not wanting to embarrass ourselves, we two continued practicing in the activity room until past one in the morning. And I had to go back to work overtime, I simply didn't have time to change clothes, and returned like this to Green Street."
"This dress is beautiful, right? I don't often wear such bright colors, and it has sequins and gemstones on it. Very noticeable walking down the street, easy to be seen."
"I was about to mention," Gordon said, hugging his arms, "In freezing weather, you're just in a slip dress. Miss, aren't you cold?"
Only then did Victor realize something seemed off. They were all wearing heavy-weight coats and scarves, bundled tightly. Jenna, however, simply wore a red slip dress, exposing her full arms and half her back. Despite it being below freezing, even if the dorms were warmer inside, she had just come out from the car, yet didn't seem cold.
Jenna said helplessly, "I told you, I'm an alien. Our race's habitable temperature is minus 30 degrees to positive 50 degrees, not as fragile as humans."
The crowd was speechless. Barry seemed to understand what was going on too, he said, "I should have reminded you to wear a coat then."
"Why didn't you two use your Divine Speed?" Gordon asked again.
"My Divine Speed is inconvenient for carrying others," Barry said, "It's not that I can't carry them at all, but better not do it unless it's urgent. Going back for overtime isn't that urgent, better to drive."
"Okay," Gordon lifted the hem of his coat, tucked his hands into his pockets and looked at Jenna, then said, "You're suggesting that because you were dressed so conspicuously, you were seen on your way home. How does that relate to this case?"
"He stole what I was going to say. Not good news. But a detective's assistant can still play a residual role in the telegram. I plan to jot down my thoughts, they were still a bit scattered back then, but I have a good idea when I started writing: the key isn't who saw Miss Jenna but who Miss Jenna saw. Or rather, the guilty murderer mistakenly thought Miss Jenna saw him. So, after he returned to school, he chose to go to Miss Jenna's dormitory and silence her. But this lucky girl didn't stay in the dormitory, she had to work overtime at some secret organization. So, another girl less fortunate took her place, leaving us forever."
"Milos, it must be him," Jenna stepped forward and then said, "He left the school intending to kill Chick. But just at that time, when I finished practicing and went outside. I was dressed visibly, he saw me and assumed I saw him. When he returned to school after killing Chick, he didn't feel secure and came to my dorm intending to kill me."
"Did you really see him then?"
"Of course not. Otherwise, I would have mentioned it right away."
"Then you must have been very far away," Jonathan continued, "How could he be sure it was you?"
"Because in such cold weather, the only one wearing such thin clothing is me," Jenna said, "I previously heard Pello talk bad about me, describing me as 'the freak who almost turned into an ice sculpture just to look pretty.' She said that countless times, and to more than one person. Milos became her boyfriend, she might have said the same to him."
"Why did he come to the dorm to find you?" Gordon asked again, "How could he be sure you would return to the dorm?"
"Because I did return to the dorm," Jenna said, "I already mentioned that I had to return to the dorm to get something. After leaving the activity room, our first stop was my dorm, we left after getting the item. He must have seen me going towards the dorm."
"If that's true, then it's clearly a tragic coincidence," Gordon looked at the body on the bed, sighed and said, "The murderer intended to kill you, but this girl took your bed, and thus died."