Victor nodded, Gotham's culinary culture is considered very diverse along the East Coast. Many people come from fishing families, especially those from lower-class families. During fishing season, they stay on boats for months without coming ashore. Therefore, they have habits of drying cured meat, sausages, and salted fish. These preserved meats can be kept for longer periods, well adapted to the humid environment on board, facilitating cooking while at sea.
When they entered the villa, they saw all kinds of cured meats hanging by the window, and almost all the windows on the first floor were like this, stuffed with all kinds of meat and sundries, rendering the windows useless. There's no reason the second floor would be clean.
Yet, what they saw at the scene at that time and in the photos taken now showed nothing on the windows.
You must understand, in such shared places, windows can't be claimed by whoever's room they're in. Even if Chick's mother doesn't have the habit of drying cured meats, he can't stop others from doing so, otherwise, he'd be violating the collective survival rules and might be kicked out. So it's strange for nothing to be hung on the windows.
"Did Chick take them down? Because he wanted to perform?" Victor asked.
Shiller nodded and said, "But the issue is that he might have realized this only after putting the rope around his neck. Imagine, he prepared everything, but when he leaned out the window, he found the salted fish that almost covered an entire window pane would poke his leg directly, sausages would hit his head, and the sundries outside the window would be even worse. This would completely obscure the lower view, and those already approaching wouldn't be able to see him."
Victor couldn't help but hold his head. Shiller turned and looked at him, saying, "You can't have too high expectations of ordinary people, especially Chick. He's not skilled at perfection and long-term planning, most of the time he's impulsive, acting on a good idea, only to realize there was a problem with the first step when he reaches the last."
"So he might have slipped?"
"Yes. Untangling complicated lines and moving sundries is not as simple as he thought. He might have tried to remove the rope around his neck midway, but he can only tie a death knot. The knots on the curtain rod and his neck were identical, indicating this. Untying and tying knots were difficult for him, so he decided to leave it alone, thinking it was almost done."
"Then the sudden temperature drop and snowfall made the window frame very slippery," Gordon said, "He might have lost balance and fallen straight down while moving the sundries back inside."
"No one noticed?"
"Maybe there was just no one off work at that time. But more likely, the snowfall impaired vision, and with the weather being very cold, everyone was rushing home, not noticing any anomaly on the outer wall."
"And the people inside the window?... Oh, wait. The windows on the first floor were all blocked, probably hard to see."
"Exactly so," Shiller replied, "Once he fell, the first floor wouldn't see him. But the first floor could only see his calf and foot, which doesn't differ much from the hanging sausages. And since he hung himself out of the window, his struggling space was small, unable to make a sound. Also, compared to dying of asphyxiation, vertebral dislocation is a more likely cause, requiring only seconds for death."
"God," Victor drew a cross on his chest and said, "Perhaps I harmed him after all. Shiller, you were right, we should've been tougher, letting him know this trick wouldn't work. The kid wouldn't have taken this risk again."
"What about Fanny?" Shiller asked, looking at Gordon.
"You're right again, Detective. It was Pelota who killed her, intending to frame Milos. His first version of the statement matched your deduction of the story—Milos bypassed Brainiac's surveillance somehow, went out at midnight, and killed Chick just because he saw Jenna, fearing she'd seen him and wanted to keep her silent."
"Actually?"
"Milos didn't go out at midnight. Pelota used Jenna to provoke Fanny and tricked her to sleep in Jenna's bed, then stabbed her to death."
Gordon flipped through a stack of photos and pointed to one, saying, "Look here, the knife wound faces the victim's face. Pelota deliberately changed the knife's direction to pretend someone came in from outside to commit murder. Her motive, as you said, was to get into the Chemistry Department; Fanny was her obstacle, so she killed her."
"Even to the extent of taking Milos away from Chick, just to murder Fanny and blame him. It's all her orchestration."
"Remarkable among the new generation," Shiller commented.
Victor still seemed somewhat sorrowful. Even until going back to Shiller's office, Shiller shouted as soon as he walked in, "Brainiac, two cups of hot tea, no sugar, thank you."
The kitchen machine made a slight humming sound. Shiller took off his coat and suit jacket, sat down opposite Victor, and said in a lyrical tone, "I feel very sad, even recalling moments over the years when I was so sad, confirming this is unparalleled. My student is innocent; he shouldn't have died. But Milos and Pelota are immature; they're only 20 years old, too reckless and impulsive. I don't think they have full behavioral capacity, and in these cases, I am the only mature and prudent adult, yet failed to prevent the tragedy. This is surprisingly because I was too lenient, not tough enough. Victor · Fries, perhaps Rodriguez was right. A tender home, a hero's grave. Your life of peace has become so habitual that you've forgotten the old shadows still linger in this Dark City, forgot the essential survival rules in Gotham..."
"Enough," Victor turned his head away and said.
"How correct was it?"
"Except for the part where you're flattering yourself, you're all correct." Victor took a deep breath, walked over, and placed the hot tea in front of the two of them, then said, "Do you think I should write this part in?"
"Of course, as a contrast to my indifference."
"You're not indifferent, and on this point, I admit I was wrong. Many times, superficial warmth and tolerance cannot solve problems." Victor rubbed his face vigorously, "Young people precisely need to be warned with strictness. I somewhat understand why they fear you, but the psychology department has never had any incidents."
"That is actually just because they have the ability to prevent matters from escalating," Shiller said, "In the psychology department, especially the students under my psychoanalysis direction, are no ordinary people. They don't need to escalate matters to solve problems. But similarly, their ways of solving problems also..."
"Beep! Beep!"
"Brainiac, you're not a mobile phone." Shiller turned his head to look at his phone and said, "You can say things directly, instead of playing ringtones."
"I think it's more polite this way," Brainiac said, "After all, I want to have some presence in the upcoming publication of 'Rodriguez's Detective Chronicles', and I consider it important to behave with gentlemanly manners."
"Then what should we call you, Mrs. Brainiac?"
"I have no gender, so male and female titles are both acceptable, but I confirm I have no marital history. Perhaps an 'unmarried' title could work."
"Get to business," Shiller remained unmoved.
"Pelota is dead."
Victor jerked his head around. Brainiac paused for a moment and then continued: "After confirming the murderer, the police are transferring her into judicial procedures. Such serious crimes are not allowed bail. During the judicial process, she will be detained. The heating equipment in the GCPD detention room is being updated, so she will be moved to another detention place approximately 13 miles away. During the transfer, a car accident occurred, and the vehicle flipped. The driver and police fell into a coma. When they woke up, Pelota was already dead."
"Not died from the car accident?"
"No."
"Where's your camera?"
"Also damaged. Only kept the footage of the moment the car accident happened, but didn't capture how Pelota died."
"Has anyone ever told you?" Shiller stood up and asked, "As an electronic life, the quality and quantity of your cameras are even inferior to Batman's."
"Being compared to Batman is my honor, especially in this aspect."
"The emergence of another case ended my sadness. I must say, three murder cases in one night, with several interrelated people, is a 'prosperous scene' only seen in the previous era. As of now, I must admit, I'm the one more interested in murder cases, not Rodriguez. He's as usual seated in the car feigning sleep. Now I'm sure he wasn't weaving some case thread in his head, whereas my brain has already been filled with the approaching case. Why did Pelota die? Who killed her? Is this string of murders a coincidence? 'No.' Rodriguez's mind-reading technique has taken effect again. He answered the question in my heart. And when I pursued him with 'How do you know', he remained silent and just pointed toward the sky."
Victor looked out the car window but didn't see anything unusual in the sky. Shiller extended his hand and pointed at his watch. Victor glanced at it and then widened his eyes.
"It's already 7:30???" Victor said incredulously, "Is your watch broken?"
He pulled out his phone, took a glance at the time on it, and discovered it was still 7:30. This confirms Shiller's watch isn't broken because Brainiac's timing must be accurate.
In winter, indeed, the day breaks later. Considering Gotham's location, the latest sunrise time of the year is roughly now. However, it typically doesn't exceed 7:20. That means it should be bright by now.
But, it's already been 10 minutes past the sunrise time, and the sky remains as black as ink, showing no signs of getting brighter.
Years ago, when Gotham was constantly covered in Wuyun, this scene was quite common. Because the clouds were too dense, the sun couldn't be seen when it just emerged, making the sunrise time roughly an hour late. In winter, it was barely bright until eight or nine o'clock in the morning.
Victor looked up at the sky. Possibly due to the snow, the clouds were still thick. However, peeking through the cloud gaps, the sky showed no sign of brightening, still dark and gloomy, causing an inexplicable sense of unease.