Chapter 1755: Summer in Fool

Hearing this, Cobblepot was stunned. He looked back at the fat man and said, "But he confessed."

Shiler frowned. After walking over, he carefully looked at the fat man pressed to the ground. This fat man was no different from ordinary gang members, wearing a tight suit, sweating profusely from the heat, trembling all over, his facial fat quivering, almost as if oil were about to drip from it.

"He is Fanas's nephew." Cobblepot turned his head to look at the fat man and clicked his tongue, saying, "Fanas didn't have a good relationship with his sister, but after his sister left home to work on her own, she was murdered. Out of consideration for his reputation, Fanas adopted Frankfurt, who was young at the time, but he didn't value him."

Shiler sat on the sofa nearby, frowning as he looked at the man called Frankfurt. He looked to be nearly thirty years old, but he completely lacked the fierce look of other gang members. Even though he was wearing the black suit common to gang members, he looked like an insurance salesman.

"Fanas isn't a very autocratic person. He doesn't dislike this nephew not because of his sister, but because his nephew is too timid. Even if he hears a gunshot in the manor, he will cry. Fanas believes this is bringing shame to the Fanas family."

"No wonder." Shiler rubbed the handle of his umbrella with his finger, and then repeated his conclusion: "Although this can be considered a miracle in Cat Getan, he has indeed never killed anyone."

"How did you judge that?" Cobblepot asked with some curiosity.

Shiler didn't answer this question. He looked up at the standing Cobblepot and asked, "You said he confessed. What did he confess?"

"He had some grudges with Young Fanas and Old Mrs. Spencer, and he wanted to kill them." Cobblepot walked to Shiler's side, looking at Frankfurt with some disgust, and said, "The Fanas family all hate his body type. Young Fanas threatened him several times, telling him not to go out and bring shame to the Fanas family."

"Old Mrs. Spencer liked Fanas's sister, that is, Frankfurt's mother. And after she passed away, Old Mrs. Spencer also loved Frankfurt out of love for his mother. But she also didn't want Frankfurt to be too fat, and even found a very strict tutor for Frankfurt to supervise his exercise and dieting."

Shiler nodded, indicating he understood the situation. He sized up Frankfurt's body type again. This man was not tall, standing straight at about 1.7 meters, his bones were not thick, but his estimated weight was at least 220 pounds. He had no muscle, so he looked quite bloated.

Human fat is a natural shield, so many gang members deliberately train themselves to have "fat-wrapped muscles," but that is not pure fat, and it doesn't look that bloated.

Therefore, there were many tough guys in the gangs who were nearly two meters tall and like double-door refrigerators. A burly body type wasn't a big problem, and suits could be completely customized. Frankfurt's biggest problem was that his body fat percentage was too high and his muscle mass was insufficient; he had already become a tire man.

The Twelve Families of Cat Getan were all traditional Italian-style gangs, and because of the influence of the old Godfather, gang members paid great attention to their external image. Different families had different styles in clothing and dressing, but overall they were very unified.

The tragic contrast of a pure fat man appearing among a group of tall and strong tough guys didn't need to be stated. If it could barely be glossed over before, then the conflict between Frankfurt and other members of the family must have intensified this summer, because the summer for fat people is very hard to endure.

Too much self-weight leads to movement difficulties, and the amount of sweating is large, making it easy for strange odors to appear on the body. On top of that, gang members have to be dressed in suits and leather shoes wherever they go, making this problem even more serious. It was very likely that Frankfurt had been subjected to too many intense verbal attacks this summer, leading him to harbor the thought of murder even though he was timid.

Shiler still shook his head and said, "He shouldn't have actually taken action. Have you asked him?"

"He said he prepared poison."

"What type of poison?"

Cobblepot gave Frankfurt a look. Frankfurt said tremblingly, "I, I hired someone to buy some cyanide..."

"Wrong." Victor spoke up: "If it were potassium cyanide, the corpse's manifestation wouldn't be in this state of extreme swelling. I've seen corpses poisoned by cyanide; it's not like this."

"There were no similar highly toxic substances found in the autopsy report either." Cobblepot sighed and said, "But among the Twelve Families, he really is the only one who is this fat. Fanas was showing mercy for the sake of his sister. If other family descendants dared to become this body type, they would definitely be locked up by the patriarch until they slimmed down."

"This is no way." Shiler shook his head and said, "Let him go to Cat Getan Technical Academy. They are currently short of manpower to install air conditioning. Working for a summer will definitely make him slim down."

This farce ended here. On one hand, Shiler was too experienced in this; Frankfurt was completely the type who had the heart of a thief but not the guts. Taking a step back, Frankfurt's body type was too conspicuous; it was impossible for him to sneak into someone else's house to poison them. And with his status in the Fanas family, he couldn't order anyone around.

Frankfurt was taken away, but Shiler didn't leave Cobblepot's manor immediately. He began to ask Cobblepot about the recent situation of the Twelve Families. He insisted on his judgment: the murderer must have dealt with members of the Twelve Families.

Cobblepot recounted some major events that had happened among the Twelve Families recently, but most were trivial family matters, or related to the Cat Getan Music Festival. There was no one very worthy of attention.

After the sky turned slightly dark, Shiler gave a few instructions, letting Cobblepot keep an eye on the situation of the Twelve Families, while he returned to the Rodriguez Manor. Barry was sitting on the sofa by the window reading a book.

"Oh, Professor, you're back." Barry put down the book and went to greet him. Shiler said while handing his removed suit jacket to Merkel, "How do you feel? Is your head still dizzy?"

Barry shook his head and said, "No, I'm fine now. Um, Professor, my parents..."

"I called them. They might not be able to come and pick you up until next week. Do you miss them?"

"A little, I guess. Harley and little Bruce..."

"They have all gone home. Little Bruce has returned to his universe, and Harley is currently staying at Gordon Manor to sponge off their air conditioning. If you want, I can also send you to Wayne Manor. Alfred would be very happy."

Barry sighed lightly, shook his head, and said, "No, no need. I'll just stay here until my parents come to pick me up. What happened before was too shocking; I need some time to digest it."

"It's better if they come later. Otherwise, I'm really afraid I'll tell them all these things in one go and scare them."

"The reason I hope you stay here for a while longer is that the nature of your ability is special. Once it goes out of control and runs wild, it might cause big trouble. When the situation is not stable, it's best to stay in a safe environment."

"Of course, I understand, Professor." Barry looked up at Shiler and said, "The future me behaves very closely with you, which shows that we will definitely get along very well, right?"

Shiler smiled and nodded, turning to walk toward the bedroom. But Barry ran in front of him and blocked him, saying, "Um, Professor, is there anything I can help with? I really have nothing to do..."

Shiler turned his head to look at Merkel and asked, "Is the garden finished being taken care of? You can take Barry with you to trim the lawn."

Merkel wore a troubled expression. Shiler sighed and said, "Don't tell me my garden has been destroyed again."

"It hasn't been completely destroyed yet." Merkel explained with a bitter face, "Originally, the newly transplanted plants in the garden were the kind that were bought at a high price to adapt to Cat Getan's climate of continuous overcast rain and lack of sunshine. But recently, Cat Getan's sunshine has been too intense, and more than half of the flowers and plants have been scorched to death."

Shiler reached out and covered his forehead. He beckoned to Barry, and Barry immediately followed behind him. Shiler took Barry and Merkel to the garden.

The general structure of the garden hadn't changed much, and one could see how it had once been flourishing. But now, all the herbaceous plants in the flower beds had collapsed, looking like they were about to wither to death.

From the water marks next to the flower beds, one could see that Merkel must have watered them a lot. But Shiler had always believed that his butler was good at everything, except that he was incompatible with this manor that had a large garden. He didn't even have the most basic gardening common sense.

It wasn't that if plants appeared to be drying out, one should desperately water them. Massive watering combined with the scorching sun at noon was simply a disaster. Merkel had to take at least 30% of the responsibility for the garden becoming like this.

But Shiler didn't say much, because apart from managing the garden, Merkel did everything else well. And Shiler believed that there must be more than one butler in all of Cat Getan currently having a headache over the terrible condition of their gardens, so there was nothing to be critical about.

So he tapped the glass of the flower window with his hand and said, "Please ask Miss Pamela to come over tomorrow. Forget about the others; that tree used to hang Batman can't die."

After Shiler returned to his bedroom, he prepared to sleep, but at this moment, the door was knocked. After Shiler opened the door, he found Barry in pajamas appearing outside the door.

"What's wrong, Barry?"

"Um, nothing." Barry's face revealed a tangled expression. His lips moved, and then he said, "I know it's not good to disturb you so late, but I feel a bit uncomfortable staying in the room alone."

Barry looked like he still wanted to explain something, and his side-standing posture looked like he was ready to run away at any time. Shiler interrupted him, opened the door, stepped aside to give him space, and said, "Come in."

Unprecedentedly bright moonlight draped a thin, cold veil over the manor's garden. It wasn't until the round moon hung high in the sky that Shiler walked out of his bedroom.

Merkel, waiting outside the door, peeked through the crack in the door. Barry was sleeping soundly on the bed in the master bedroom. Shiler closed the door gently. Merkel pointed inside the room and made a mouth shape. Shiler nodded and took the herbal tea from his hand.

Shiler said while walking down the stairs, "Barry has some symptoms of panic attacks and separation anxiety. He feels uneasy about the powerful strength he has newly acquired, but I think there is no need for a prescription for the time being. He should improve very soon."

"Merkel, you call Commissioner Gordon tomorrow morning and invite him to attend the private banquet I have prepared for his promotion. Ask him if he can bring Miss Harley Quinn, and have her stay here as a guest for a period of time after the banquet."

The next morning, Harley rushed into Rodriguez Manor in a flurry and hugged Barry, who was drinking coffee, making him almost spray the coffee in his mouth out.

"Long time no see, Barry! I heard you run really fast now. How about you help me take back the money I forgot in the bank vault?" ===== CHAPTER 1756 =====