"I swear, I didn't mean to kill her," Jenna said, "If she died, I wouldn't be able to get any information out of her, but she attacked me. I...I was a little scared..."
"I warned you during the last class movie week, miss. Watch fewer horror movies. They often trigger unpleasant associations at many times," Shiller said calmly, sitting across from her.
"Wait," Victor interrupted them. He pressed his forehead with his hand, then said, "So you did it. And you knew it was her all along?"
Jenna and Shiller nodded together. Victor pursed his lips and looked at Shiller, saying, "And you still wanted to frame me?!"
"It wasn't a setup, or why else would I create an alibi for you? I just hoped you wouldn't blurt it out in front of Gordon," Shiller sighed and said.
"But you misled me!" Victor stood up, a bit angry, and said, "You told me this was a traditional murder case, that the killer wanted to express some symbolism..."
"Of course," Shiller crossed one leg over the other and said, "Otherwise, why would our dear miss scream from a distant neighborhood after committing the act?"
Victor looked at Jenna again.
"I knew the professor would come," Jenna said, somewhat troubled, "The crime scene might fool the police but not him. I needed him to cover for me, but I also needed a pretext. Thank you, Professor Fries, for giving me the inspiration."
"Me?" Victor said, somewhat incredulously.
"'The Hound of the Baskervilles,'" Jenna said, "The original 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes' described the howl of that demon dog, and I specifically mimicked it. Combined with the marks in the carriage, it easily reminds people of that case."
"So you still want to frame me?!"
"No! The professor will provide an alibi for you; your suspicion can't possibly hold. I just wanted this case to seem like a traditional murder, making it less likely to be linked to superpower users and more like some brutal serial killer drawing inspiration from 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes' and deliberately staging the scene this way."
"Then why did you have to make it so gruesome?"
"I told you I was a bit scared; I was triggered. But mainly because...because of my brother..."
"What?"
"Remember what I said earlier? The car rolled a few times on the ground, and when I touched Pelota, I found she wasn't breathing. I suspected she broke her neck during the rollover. If the truth were exposed, and Pelota's cause of death was revealed, my brother could be jailed. I had to destroy the body, so even if the truth came out, they could only discover she died at my hands. I'd be the one jailed, and my brother would be fine."
"My God, you're doing this right under Brainiac's nose, and you're still worried about jail?!" Victor could hardly bear it; he said, "You have some nerve, miss!"
Jenna blinked and started to cry. She said somewhat aggrievedly, "According to my plan, it would have been fine. They would just temporarily pass out, and then I would find out from Pelota what really happened. How could I know she was that fragile? And her body moved! I was the one who got scared!"
Then she covered her face and started crying. Victor was a little flustered. Shiller went over and patted Jenna on the back. Although this wave of crying had some elements of performance, Jenna was likely genuinely frightened.
Jenna really wasn't a very bold person. And due to her strong empathy, she could easily get scared even by watching horror movies, let alone witnessing a live corpse revival.
Moreover, she wasn't the type to take pleasure in blood and violence. To destroy a body like that, the psychological pressure on her must have been immense. But even so, to still perform almost perfect remedial measures afterward, she truly was a standout figure among the new generation.
Seeing Jenna like this, Victor had no choice; he had to say, "If you'd preserved the body, we might have been able to research why it suddenly moved. But now it seems difficult."
"I think you misunderstood something," Shiller said. Jenna looked at him through teary eyes, and Shiller continued, "Pelota might not have died in the car accident."
"What do you mean?"
"If she could still move freely after death, perhaps she had already died?"
Jenna was stunned. She blinked, then said, "Are you saying that the Pelota we interacted with was a corpse all along? But this...how is this possible? She was no different from a living person."
"We'll find out if that's really the case by checking it out. Brainiac," Shiller called out, "Has Pelota experienced any incidents recently?"
Brainiac hesitated for a moment and then said, "Three days ago, she was involved in a traffic accident in the villa area near South District Hulan Park. Here's the accident footage."
The television screen in Shiller's office lit up and started to automatically play the footage of the accident. In fact, it showed Pelota riding a bicycle and being knocked over by a cargo tricycle.
Just from the content of the footage, it didn't seem like a very serious accident. Pelota was going straight, and the tricycle shot out from the intersection, hitting her from right to left, knocking her to the ground. The tricycle driver got out, trying to help her up, but Pelota remained motionless on the ground. The driver then returned to his vehicle and drove off. After a while, Pelota finally got up from the ground, limped along, pushing her bicycle as she left.
"There's something wrong here," Shiller said, "If the tricycle driver were someone who would hit and run, he wouldn't have gotten out of the vehicle in the first place; he would have just driven off. The fact that he got out means he wanted to take responsibility, but after checking Pelota's condition, he chose to leave. This proves that Pelota's state completely surprised him."
"You mean..."
"Pelota might not have been breathing anymore." Shiller zoomed in on the footage and said, "Look here. The front wheel of the tricycle is right on Pelota's neck, which could have snapped her spine. At that moment, she was already dead. It was because Pelota was dead that the tricycle driver chose to leave."
"Brainiac restructured the insurance industry; if the accident victim is only injured, the compensation the perpetrator has to bear is relatively low, mostly covered by insurance. In such cases, the perpetrator would be willing to take the victim to the hospital. That's why the tricycle driver would get out and check instead of just fleeing."
"But similarly, Brainiac is relatively strict on fatal accidents. Besides compensation, the prison sentence would also be longer. The tricycle driver realized Pelota was dead, knew he had killed someone, and didn't want to face such severe consequences, so he chose to run."
"The apparently contradictory behavior of the tricycle driver is actually because he found that Pelota had no signs of life and thought she was already dead."
"But she wasn't."
"Exactly. That's why Brainiac didn't intervene," Shiller said. "Just from the footage, there's no conclusive evidence to prove Pelota was dead. So the whole thing looks like two vehicles collided, and it was a minor accident. The tricycle driver got out, confirmed Pelota was fine, and left. Pelota wasn't hurt, so she naturally didn't call the police and went home on her own."
"But in reality, the tricycle driver got out to check the situation, found Pelota already dead, didn't want to face severe consequences, and chose to hit and run. Meanwhile, the already dead Pelota, for some unknown reason, revived, pushed her bicycle home, and didn't choose to report it, letting the tricycle driver get away and fooling Brainiac's oversight."
"Have they found the tricycle driver?" Shiller asked again.
"Yes," Brainiac said, "they're sending someone to bring him to Gotham Police Department."
Shiller was still sitting there as Victor got up, intending to leave. He picked up his coat and looked back at Shiller, who shook his head and said, "There's no need to go over. He'll confess."
Before the conversation ended, Brainiac said, "The tricycle driver has confessed. When he checked Pelota's condition, he found she wasn't breathing and had a visible abnormality in her neck region, making survival almost impossible."
Victor paused for a moment, then said, "Are you sure? This person isn't a professional doctor; can he really judge accurately if someone is dead?"
"He's not a professional doctor, but he's definitely a professional killer." Shiller adjusted the video with the remote control, pausing on the scene of the tricycle driver checking Pelota's condition.
"The way he supports the head and checks the pulse is very professional, and he described the anomaly at the neck region. Normally, people wouldn't check there unless they were a killer experienced in cleaning up. After completing a task, they check the spine of people whose necks have been twisted to confirm death, using exactly this method."
Brainiac beeped twice again and said, "That's right. I've already found this person's record. He used to operate near Black Island, working as a freelance contract killer. Later on, he chose to change professions and opened a seafood dried goods shop near the docks catering to tourists. He drove the tricycle to collect goods near co-rented villas."
"No wonder," Victor said, "the person fell over, and he immediately got out to check. After realizing they were dead, he turned and left. That kind of mental fortitude is indeed unusual."
"The dark ages haven't been over for long. That generation of Gothamites has just aged, not passed away." Shiller turned to look at the still pitch-black window outside and said, "No matter who the puppet master behind the scenes is, trying to pull Gotham back into the dark ages with the advent of eternal night is a big mistake."
"If I had never seen the light, I could have borne the darkness.' I tasted such meaning in Rodriguez's words. I believe my sense is right. Gotham is an unfortunate city, and those born here seem inherently cursed. They had already accepted all of it, accepted being forever trapped in the dark abyss, never seeing the light of day. But, one day, the clouds disperse, and daylight returns. In every person's life, there is the most passionate melody, and in the lives of Gothamites, the tune composed from that moment, chanted by millions, will truly be 'My Sun.'"
"Where to?" Victor asked.
"Arkham Mental Hospital."