"It's a logical deduction, but it still leaves me somewhat in a daze. Like at dawn, when the sky just breaks, there are always some people who can't adapt to the light and find the deep darkness more comforting. Rodriguez doesn't seem to think this way; he adapts quickly, or perhaps during the dark ages, he was more profoundly engaged than I was. Those thrilling past events, enough to fill a memoir, are now just fleeting memories; when I talk about them with him, it's all just a joke, only by catching glimpses in his words can I see traces. Could this be why he treats the case with such calmness and indifference? No one knows. Even though our relationship can be considered as friends, I can't describe it accurately. This solitary gentleman is as elusive and unfathomable as Gotham's morning mist."
"I'll have someone interrogate Milo and Pelota." Gordon said, "With Brainiac on board, the two can't escape. But don't expect anything from their confessions. Brainiac strictly prohibits torture, not even mild coercion. We don't have much room to maneuver; it's best to have some solid evidence to pry their mouths open."
"What a hassle," Jonathan said, "Take down the surveillance camera in the Gotham Police Department's new ventilation system maintenance room, and we'll have the answer tonight."
"Don't even think about leaving your nature reserve," Shiller said coldly, "Brainiac."
Brainiac beeped twice, which was considered an agreement to his words. Jonathan rolled his eyes dramatically, looked Shiller up and down, and then said, "Alright, great detective Rodriguez, I'd like to see what you can deduce."
"I'm sorry, but you're not my assistant, Mr. Fries. Let's go back to the office; I need to think this over."
With that, he turned and left. Victor quickly followed. Soon they were back in Shiller's office. Victor looked around, and Shiller asked, "What are you looking for?"
"I think there's a missing felt board here." Victor pointed to the wall beside the desk and then said, "Detectives always have a board like this, pinning various photos on it, with lines drawn between them."
"What photos?"
"Um, various clues and evidence."
"You think I use these?" Shiller said as he took off his coat, glancing at Victor.
"I couldn't help but pat my own forehead. I guess a night of running around has made me a little dizzy. I know it's unbelievable; if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, no one would believe it. But our Mr. Rodriguez has a rather peculiar deductive ability. He calls it the 'Psychoanalysis Method,' which he says is a method he summarized and can only be comfortably used by himself. After witnessing the power of this method, I have to admit, this indifferent gentleman is not the eccentric genius recognized by the general public."
Victor read out the passage he wrote. Shiller sighed and said, "There's no need to compare it so closely to 'deduction,' is there? Who told you that psychoanalysis is something I summarized and only I can use?"
"I'm referring to your psychoanalysis," Victor said, "To be honest, I've met so many psychology students, including the genius Miss Jenna you often mention, but none of them come close to your spirit communication ability."
"I'll just take it as a compliment." Shiller sat by the desk and stared at the white wall without the felt board for a while.
He turned and met Victor's eager gaze. Shiller cleared his throat, and just as Victor thought he was going to start deducing... spirit communication, Shiller said, "Mr. Fries, what do you think about this case?"
Victor was taken aback, he said, "Me deduce?"
"How long has it been since you actually used your brain?" Shiller asked.
"I use my brain every day, okay? It's not only when you're involved in a murder case, become a detective, or a suspect that you're doing mental work. This is completely a stereotype about Gothamites!"
"The lure of softness, the hero's grave..."
"Alright, alright, I'll deduce, okay? Just don't let Nora hear this." Victor sat down opposite Shiller. He thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know any psychoanalysis; I can only start from the existing clues and evidence. I think the key issue lies in the time you mentioned earlier."
"It was probably around 2 a.m. when Gordon called and told me Chick was dead. I arrived at about ten past 2, and as soon as I arrived, I froze the body. Although I don't have much experience in this aspect, I could tell Chick hadn't been dead long; maybe he died a bit after 1 a.m."
"Gotham University is not far from that villa in the South District, and it's not crowded at night, so the round trip should be quick, and time can be temporarily disregarded. This means the murderer likely killed Chick sometime after 1 a.m."
"But a problem arises: Milo, the prime suspect, was in his school dormitory around 1 a.m., and Brainiac didn't record him leaving. This is the key piece of evidence in his favor—a near-alibi provided by Brainiac."
"Assuming Milo really is the culprit, then Chick must not have died a bit after 1 a.m. Moving forward isn't possible because we had already arrived, and when I froze him, I confirmed that he was dead. So, it should be earlier; his time of death should be earlier than a bit after 1 a.m."
"Because the Christmas ball is coming up, students practice dancing until very late. The activity room closes at midnight, and many people practice until just before closing and then head back to their dorms. At that time, there are the most people leaving the classroom and returning to the dorms. Milo should have been among them. It's only at that time he could leave to act without being caught by Brainiac's surveillance."
"So how did he manage to act before midnight but leave the body to be discovered after one? The key should be in what you said, Chick's peculiar way of dying."
"I suspect he used a rope to make something like a mechanism that hung Chick but didn't kill him immediately, instead slowly descending. He was already hanging outside before midnight and wasn't strangled until after one o'clock. This way, he could falsify the time of death."
"As for how he got to Chick's house, then back to the school without being caught by Brainiac, he either hitched a ride or used a snowplow. I don't have the map of the snowplow routes, but I've observed that the Gotham University snowplows are controlled and run automatically by Brainiac, working 24 hours a day, without surveillance cameras on them. Brainiac doesn't need such a simplistic method as visual images to detect obstacles. So if he hid on a snowplow, it may actually have been a case of hiding in plain sight."
"However, snowplows are very slow, which means the time taken for the journey can't be ignored, possibly causing discrepancies with the times we previously discussed." Victor sighed and said, "This part I don't quite understand either. No matter what, I'm still not very good at murder strategies. After all, when I kill, I don't need such complicated methods and wouldn't even think about these things."
"Yeah, as long as your gun skills are good," Shiller said, "Oh, no, you don't even need good gun skills. You have large-scale freezing devices."
"It's still better to have good gun skills, I'll practice tomorrow," Victor said, "After all, a detective should have a highly skilled assistant by his side. If your gun skills aren't up to par, then it's up to me."
Seeing Shiller's somewhat helpless expression, Victor laughed. He said, "Who knows, maybe I really can make a small fortune thanks to the collection of your detective stories."
"Alright, let's be serious," Shiller said, "The reasoning about the timing is quite logical. But the biggest problem is solving how to evade Brainiac's surveillance."
"Moreover, there are so many eyes in a shared villa. Although it's late at night, from the fact that they discovered the body so quickly instead of waiting till morning, we can see that some of them have reversed sleep schedules. But that's not surprising. Some manual workers have to work night shifts. In such a situation, sneaking in to commit a murder is very difficult."
"Also, the small area of Chick's home that's been sectioned off is divided into two rooms. He lives on the side near the window, his mother lives on the other side. Although they are called two rooms, they're not very soundproof. If someone really broke in to kill, Chick's mother should have been able to hear it."
"When I went there, Chick's mother had already been taken back to the police station. Because she was too emotionally out of control, even trying to attack the police. Gordon had no choice but to bring her back. This proves there must have been no prior signs, she heard nothing."
Victor nodded and then said, "So, to evade Brainiac's vision and rush into Chick's home to hang him, a normal person can't possibly do it. But Milo shouldn't be a superpower user. His behavior doesn't seem like it."
"How so?"
"He dumped Chick but shifted the blame onto you. That's not right. Typically, someone with enough confidence wouldn't need to find an excuse to break up. Plus, he didn't put the blame on Chick but on you, as if you're easier to bully than Chick."
"That's true," Shiller interrupted Victor's rebuttal and directly said, "He blamed you, and you couldn't do anything to him. But if he dared to blame Chick, Chick would have certainly caused a scene. He was clearly afraid of Chick's melodrama. That's not the behavior of a superpower user."
Victor nodded; it made some sense. The main reason is that Brainiac places a lot of emphasis on superpower users. Victor is an ordinary person, who has made significant achievements in low-temperature physics, has received unimaginable attention and preferential treatment. Whenever he encounters a problem in life, Brainiac would find a way to solve it. If Chick acted too extreme, Brainiac would definitely stop him. Now that there's a case of homicide, Brainiac values this, which is why Victor cannot easily get away. If it was just pretending to commit suicide, Chick would have suffered himself.
If Milo were really a superpower user, he'd have certain capital to do as he pleases. Although it's not right to hurt someone else's feelings, if Chick kept harassing him, Brainiac would also find a way to solve it for him. Milo has no need to shift the blame. His behavior of covering up is inherently a sign of lacking confidence.
"How did he do it then?" Victor asked.
"He didn't need to do it himself." Shiller seemed prepared to reveal the answer; he said, "Chick might not have shown suicidal tendencies in front of us, but facing someone he once liked, a former boyfriend, it's not certain. Just a little verbal inducement, along with some guidance on how to commit suicide, and he might really take his own life."
"You're saying Milo induced Chick to commit suicide?"
Shiller nodded and said, "Since he managed to bypass Brainiac's attention, it couldn't have been via online communication. The issue must lie in the time between when Chick left us and returned home. If we can prove they met during this period, the likelihood of induced suicide becomes very high."
Victor immediately got excited and said, "Right, if we can prove they met during that time, Milo becomes the prime suspect. We can use this to test him..."
Victor and Shiller stood up, grabbed their coats, and planned to head to the Gotham Police Department. Just as they were about to leave, Shiller glanced at his watch, then looked at the sky outside, and frowned slightly.