Amanda handed a file without expression to Jenna and said, "Here's the background on the new victim. As expected, it's another nightshift worker."
"What does he do?" Jenna picked up the file and started reading. After a while, she said speechlessly, "Burglary is also considered nightshift work?"
"He can't break in during the day," Amanda said, "this guy specifically waits until night when no one's around to sneak into the surveillance blind spots and steal from shared villas..."
"Wait," Jenna said, "shared villas, are they those in the South District?"
"Of course, only there. Other places are all apartment residences. If you ask me, Brainiac should've razed it back then. Now it's causing all these troubles..."
Amanda was complaining, but Jenna had already fallen into deep thought. She said, "This serial killer is very skilled, he can effortlessly convey multi-layered information through the cases. This means that each victim he chooses must have significance."
"I get it." Tim suddenly realized, "He's trying to tell you there's an issue with the first victim."
"What do you mean?" Jenna looked at him.
"You suspect there's an issue in the South District, right?"
"Right. Because Pelota and Chick had incidents there. It's not hard to deduce."
"So he picked a victim with connections to the shared villas in the South District to remind you his victims aren't chosen randomly. He'll use their identities to convey some message. The message he sends matches what you know, leading us to think maybe there's something strange about the first victim as well."
"Exactly," Jenna nodded, "The second case chose the clue I had speculated to showcase, perhaps to make us go back and question the first case."
Jenna turned to Amanda and said, "Could you please look into Jerryta's information? It's probably very important."
Amanda rolled her eyes and said, "I asked you guys to go to the scene to find things not recorded in the background information. Now you're asking me for those things, where am I supposed to get them?"
Jenna wanted to say something else, but Tim tugged at her and then said, "Ms. Waller has a point. If the official information could reveal it, he wouldn't need to hint at us in this way, he'd just go to Brainiac directly. It all proves that Jerryta's hidden secrets might be deeper than we imagine, it'll take some effort to uncover them."
Jenna furrowed her brows. She started to recall what she had seen, but indeed there were no useful clues. Tim thought for a moment and said, "That guy is a corpse collector by the harbor. This means he should be working for several mobs near the harbor."
"Are there still gangs near the harbor?" Jenna was a bit surprised, "I go there for meals regularly, how come I've never heard?"
"Those were matters from years ago." Tim recalled with a smile and said, "Since Gotham started its big tourism development, gangs haven't been allowed near the harbor. After all, it's a favorite spot for tourists, many specialty shops have been built there too. If gang threats were common when strolling, who would come?"
"No gangs allowed? Who eradicated the gangs from there?"
"None were eradicated, most have cleaned up and gone legitimate. Some invested in specialty shops and the harbor markets, now living off self-run shops and rental incomes. Others turned to yacht and offshore tourism projects, earning revenue from tour groups."
"That must be hard to trace, right." Jenna said, "Even if we find them, they might not want to bring up the gang era. It might affect their business."
"No problem," Tim pulled out his phone and said, "Can't find the underlings, we go straight to the biggest one."
"The biggest one?"
"Falcone."
In the Gold Cup Bar in the North District, Tim and Jenna walked in under the watchful eyes of two strong bodyguards. There was no deafening music or gleaming disco balls as expected. The bar was very quiet, with only a few scattered patrons seated; not a single person at the bar.
"Business seems bad," Jenna commented.
"The North District has long declined," Tim shook his head, "After the gang era passed, they didn't want to congregate here to avoid bringing up the past. Black Island was also abolished by Brainiac, and gray industries can't develop, so naturally there's no one left. But there is a notable resident here."
"Falcone, who you mentioned?"
"No, it's James Gordon. Back in the day, a mob boss gifted him a large estate, and clearly his salary wasn't enough to change houses, so he's stuck living there."
Jenna laughed, the Gotham Police Department's commissioner, known as Gotham's conscience, had become the last guardian of the North District. It's like a hero living in the second ring of Demon King City.
The two sat at the bar where a cat jumped up from behind the counter. Jenna's superpower is transforming into animals, so small animals are always more fond of her. Jenna petted the little cat.
"Is this Fanna's child?" Tim also patted the little cat's head.
The bartender next to them shook his head and said, "This is Fanna's granddaughter, the daughter of her orange kitty."
"Who is Fanna? Another cat?" Jenna asked while playing with the cat.
"Yes, Fanna was very famous, almost became mayor."
"What?"
Tim laughed and said, "I heard it from others too. When they were electing the mayor, someone registered the bar's pet cat Fanna's name for the race. Since her opponents weren't suited for being mayor, she almost succeeded."
"Then I'm honored to meet this mayor candidate cat?"
"Fanna passed away five years ago." The bartender served their drinks and said, "Her daughter Papa ran off with a short-haired cat, leaving only three kittens behind. The one you see is her third daughter."
"Short-haired cat?"
"Yes. I believe it's the pet cat of the third Miss of the Spencer Family. When they moved away from the North District, the short-haired cat couldn't bear leaving his wife, so Miss Farlo took them both away."
Jenna listened intently to the story of the Cat Family. What spans decades for humans has already passed through three generations for cats. Through the stories of the three generations of the Cat Family, one can also glimpse the history of changes in the Northern district and the rise and fall of the gangster families.
Suddenly, a tall figure appeared at the doorway. He walked in. Tim stood up, went over, and shook hands with him: "Long time no see, Alberto. Please send my regards to Mrs. Falcone."
Alberto nodded at him and then asked, "This is...?"
"Just call me Jenna," Jenna shook hands with him too and said, "a student at Gotham University, currently interning at the Federation Shield."
Alberto frowned slightly, and Tim said, "She's a rare empathic ability user, which is why Amanda has taken notice of her."
Alberto sat down and then asked, "I heard you were looking for me?"
"Are you busy?" Tim was a bit impatient.
Alberto let out a long sigh, almost gritting his teeth as he said, "Don't let me find out who messed with the daylight. The routines of my two little devils at home are all messed up. One says according to the time they shouldn't be sleeping now. The other says they've already slept through the night and there's no need to sleep again..."
Tim laughed, then said, "It's hard to coax kids, right? Such a sweet headache."
"Alright, I won't waste your time." Tim took a sip of his drink and then said, "Have you heard of Jerryta?"
"Who?"
"It's not surprising you haven't heard of him. This guy used to be a corpse collector over by the docks."
"Which dock?"
"I don't know. He should have been active in that dock area."
"The Falcone Family has professional corpse collectors," Alberto said. "The kind of corpse collector that wanders around an area usually isn't professional."
"Jerryta is especially unprofessional," Jenna said. "Have you heard of a corpse collector causing a corpse insult scandal anywhere?"
Alberto was slightly taken aback, then seemed to remember something and said, "Now that you mention it, I think I have heard of this."
"Was it such a big deal?" Tim was a bit surprised.
"I don't know if it has anything to do with this Jerryta. Anyway, they say someone insulted a corpse. But hearing your tone, it's strange that this guy has lived to this day."
"What do you mean?"
"When something like this happens, someone is definitely going to silence him. If you can't show this kind of guy a tough lesson, who else will still be willing to die for the family?"
This time it was Tim's turn to be dumbfounded. After all, he's not from the mob, not even from the lower class, and doesn't know much about these things. Both he and Jenna thought that the mafia doesn't really care about what Jerryta did. After all, the dead are dead, what is there to care about?
Alberto shook his head and said, "The gangster families are maintained by a sense of loyalty and duty. Not to mention that the family's top brass are pretty much all blood relatives, even the henchmen below have to at least appear as close as brothers. Otherwise, there's no way to unite against outside threats. Would you allow someone to insult your relative's corpse?"
Tim shook his head, then Alberto said, "As long as the person who insulted the corpse is not dead, there's no way to comfort the souls of the deceased. The living will think the family is cold-blooded and even their dead are insulted, so no one would want to fight for them anymore. It's a fatal blow to the reputation of a gangster family. They would definitely kill him."
"But Jerryta didn't die, he even lived to now," Tim began to think and said, "there must be a reason."
"Then someone must have protected him," Alberto said. "If he was just an insignificant corpse collector, no gangster family would risk a great taboo to protect him. And at that time, the political scene was basically controlled by the gangster families, the military and police as well."
"So, there's no one else," Jenna said, "Only those with power and influence could have protected him, right?"
"Maybe in other cities, but in Gotham, not necessarily," Alberto said. "Though back then, the entire city was still under mob control, some criminals were already starting to show their prowess."
"You mean the person who protected him might be some madman?"
"Yes. These madmen are experts at deception and covering up. Taking someone from the mob isn't difficult for them. The question is, why would they do it."
"It couldn't just be out of shared misery," Jenna instinctively replied.
"Don't laugh," Tim held up a finger and said, "Madmen often resonate with each other. Even if it's not because of shared habits, it must be because Jerryta has this niche perversion. These madmen love studying these kinds of people."
Suddenly, an idea struck Jenna. She stood up abruptly, looking at the two beside her and said, "The director of Arkham Asylum!"
"What?"
"Hugo Strange. He used to be the director of Arkham Asylum, right?"
Tim also remembered and said, "Are you saying, it was Hugo who protected Jerryta?"
"It must be. Hugo Strange is a colleague of Professor Rodriguez, he's also a psychologist and was the director of the insane asylum. It's not surprising he would want to study someone with such a unique perversion. And he has the ability to do it. After all, people like him are very good at spirit manipulation."
"So it seems, the murderer used the first case to remind us all that this is somehow connected to Hugo," Tim mused, "but Hugo has been dead for so many years..."
"Is he really dead?" Jenna asked slowly.
Alberto and Tim both looked at her.
"Or rather, is he still dead?"