Chapter 2564

The indictment negotiation meeting was held at 9:00 in the morning. In addition to the two parties, Schiller and Clay, many other people also came.

Indictment negotiation meetings are not allowed to be observed, nor are they open hearings, so these people who came were all more or less related to this case, such as Gordon, Bullock, the police officers who discovered the crime scene at the same time as Gordon, and even the principal, Sivana.

Especially Sivana.

Last night he received a call from Schiller. At that time, he was still working overtime in his office. Hearing that Schiller had actually been indicted, Sivana felt curious.

The words Schiller said to him in the hospital that day had been circling in his mind. He thought a lot, but still hadn't made up his mind to do it.

He wasn't worried that he couldn't do it, but rather didn't know if it would be useful. He was a person who had never occupied an advantage in this regard, so naturally, he wouldn't definitely feel that this would bring him benefits.

After finishing Schiller's call, Sivana knew that Schiller seemed to want to show him the benefits of having the right to speak, helping him make up his mind.

So Sivana came, but he still had a legitimate reason, which was to act as a witness to refute a certain charge.

The indictment negotiation meeting started quickly.

The prosecutor was Harvey's teacher, so Harvey could also act as a prosecutor's assistant to observe. He only saw his teacher finish reading all the indictment items and announce that both sides would begin negotiations.

Things were indeed as they had expected in the office: Schiller denied all charges and claimed self-defense, while Clay insisted on the charges of murder and intentional injury.

Both sides presented their evidence, or rather, only Schiller presented valid evidence, such as traces of his window being smashed, traces of the chimney being invaded, the basement door lock being directly cut open by force, and another basement door being directly kicked open.

The environment inside the house was also unbearable to look at. Not only were the doors damaged, but many things were knocked to the ground, the carpet was completely moved, and there were Clay's footprints on the ground.

Almost everyone was stunned when they saw this evidence. They thought that even if Clay didn't have professional ethics, he should at least have basic professional competence. Wasn't he a top student in criminal investigation?

Even if he really wanted to find evidence rather than seeking personal revenge, he should have known the consequences of doing so. Since he knew he might be indicted, didn't he even wear shoe covers?

Sivana also lowered his voice and asked Schiller, "Are you sure he doesn't have any backup plans? Why is he so arrogant?"

Schiller shook his head and also lowered his voice, saying, "I know them too well. Have you ever seen an FBI agent wear shoe covers before breaking in?"

"Are they not afraid?"

"What are they afraid of? Agents are the final weapon. Once agents are used for infiltration, search, or secret arrest, it means the matter has reached an irreversible stage. What's important is only whether evidence can be found and whether the person can be caught. As for the traces left behind, naturally, someone will solve them for them."

"So this is agent thinking?"

"Would you specifically research a high-grade material that doesn't stick to fingerprints to build a gun just so you don't leave fingerprints on it?"

"Wouldn't it be enough to just wipe it off?"

"Yes, this is agent thinking: catch the person first, and if evidence is left behind, at worst, send another batch of people to wipe it off."

Sivana nodded and refocused his attention on the negotiation meeting.

Clay couldn't produce any favorable evidence to prove he wasn't trespassing. He clearly wanted Gordon and Bullock to prove it for him, but the method he used was still that agent style.

That is, not discussing it in advance, applying pressure on the scene, and expressing an attitude similar to "If I die, none of you will have it easy."

But unfortunately, Gordon and Bullock weren't his peers; they were police officers, not agent heads. They weren't worried about leaks, and the Cat Getan Police Department didn't have any secrets that could be called important, so Clay's threat was ineffective.

"Mr. Clay, anyone can see that your evidence is insufficient. If you insist on the indictment, I'm afraid you won't be able to obtain a grand jury indictment, and I won't propose an indictment against Mr. Rodriguez for you."

"If you can find a prosecutor to propose an indictment for you, I can only regretfully tell you that this will definitely be determined as self-defense by the jury and prosecutor responsible for the trial, and you will also be subject to equal charges for trespassing and dereliction of duty."

"But that human skin! That's evidence that he killed someone!" Clay shouted, "How could human skin appear out of thin air? If he didn't kill someone, how could he stitch human skin onto me?"

"Sorry, Officer Clay, I picked that up on the road." Schiller nodded gently and said.

"This is simply absurd!" Clay's voice had already cracked.

He felt he was now existing in an illusory world where there was no law or morality, and everyone just acted like a repeater, constantly repeating, "You are wrong, he is right."

But this was clearly an obvious fact. When that human skin covered his body, it even carried temperature, and the blood hadn't dried yet. How could it have been picked up on the road?

When Schiller stitched him in, he was still conscious; he only fell into a coma later due to hypoxia. He even saw every movement of Schiller's. Why wouldn't these people listen?

Clay felt his thoughts begin to detach. In a trance, he saw Schiller's face constantly shaking in front of him.

Before Schiller covered his face with the features of that human skin, he saw Schiller's features become blurred, disappearing and dissolving amidst constant flashing lights.

"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay? Can you hear me?"

The prosecutor's voice sounded from a very distant place. Clay felt his consciousness run for a long time before returning to his body. He looked at the prosecutor somewhat blankly and said, "What? What's wrong?"

"I'm asking you, sir, do you have any understanding of Brata, the owner of this human skin? Do you know him?"

"No, I don't know..." Clay felt a severe headache.

"Did you witness the scene where he was victimized? Did you see Mr. Rodriguez there?"

"No, I didn't, but this is obvious. That skin couldn't have been picked up by him on the road. This completely violates common sense."

The prosecutor looked at Schiller.

Schiller nodded at him and said, "No, this is possible. Not only does it not violate common sense, but it is very consistent with the situation at the time. This must be explained by my neighbor, Mr. Sivana."

Schiller looked at Sivana, and Sivana also nodded at him and said, "Actually, just a few days ago, both of us encountered mysterious corpse-dumping incidents."

Sivana took out some photos and handed them to the prosecutor. On them was the corpse that had been thrown into his yard earlier, as well as the scene of the police working around the corpse.

"The police officers present can also testify for me. At that time, several plastic bags of corpses suddenly appeared in my yard. That was my neighbor, and Mr. Rodriguez also found severed limbs in his refrigerator."

Jonathan and Valentine, who had been invited over, also spoke up: "Actually, we all found corpse parts in our homes, but apart from these corpse fragments, there is no evidence to prove that we committed crimes. Our colleagues can all testify for us."

The prosecutor looked at Gordon again.

Gordon deliberated for a moment, took out a document, and said, "Recently, we have indeed discovered a large number of unidentified corpse parts all over Cat Getan."

The prosecutor took the report, which detailed the similar cases that had appeared recently. In addition to the cases of Sivana, Schiller, Jonathan, and Valentine, it was clear that many other people had also found parts of corpses in their homes, mostly in refrigerators.

"This is clearly also Clay's masterpiece." Schiller responded to Sivana's gaze with his eyes and whispered, "State's evidence."

Sivana was a smart man. He immediately understood that this was a framing plan adopted by Clay, or rather the agent organization behind him. The method was to directly throw the corpse into someone's refrigerator, then break in and catch them, saying they were a murderer.

This method was ridiculously shallow, or rather, it was just going through the motions, but one really couldn't expect these agents to have any more brilliant techniques. If this trick worked on ordinary people, they would never change until they hit a big snag.

Presumably, that was now.

Watching the prosecutor read one unidentified corpse-dumping record after another, the corners of the mouths of these people sitting behind Schiller couldn't be suppressed at all.

But Clay still didn't understand what this meant. He looked at Schiller and said, "What kind of evidence is this?"

"Isn't this evidence?" Schiller's tone rose, sounding very cheerful. He said, "Since arms and legs can appear in anyone's refrigerator, why can't human skin appear on the street?"

Clay's complexion instantly turned iron-blue.

Because these arms and legs scattered in various refrigerators were all placed there by him.

Watching Clay's unpredictable complexion, Jonathan still couldn't help laughing out loud. He whispered to Schiller in the front row, "You should have let that kid Bruce come over to see. You could definitely make him laugh."

"Do you need me? Don't you think our respected Officer Clay is already funny enough?" Schiller also smiled and said.

Valentine, however, glanced at Schiller. He knew that although this was very funny, it could at most be considered an opening act.

The prosecutor hesitated slightly, looked at Gordon again, and said, "Commissioner, although corpse-dumping cases have occurred frequently recently, judging from these case records, the corpse parts appearing in unidentified locations are mostly limbs, but the skin..."

Clay looked at the prosecutor, thinking, finally a normal person.

Now he felt surrounded by a bunch of lunatics. He was clearly the only normal person among all the lunatics, but this bunch of lunatics insisted on saying you were crazy. Suddenly seeing someone who could think normally and pick out errors and omissions, he was so moved he was about to cry.

But Gordon interrupted him and said, "There are still more corpse-dumping cases under investigation. We cannot determine which parts of the corpse fragments are in these cases."

He frantically winked at the prosecutor, signaling him not to speak anymore, because Gordon knew very well that if the prosecutor dared to say there was no skin among the dumped fragments, then in a few days, the Cat Getan Police Department would become the largest human skin collection museum.

The prosecutor actually understood Gordon's meaning, but like Gordon, a prosecutor who could persist in Cat Getan until today and still be alive must be a hexagonal warrior with full abilities and morality. He hesitated for a moment and still said.

"But the autopsy report you provided shows that the skin was peeled off extremely delicately. From my criminal investigation experience, the murderer should have quite strong surgical ability, but the cross-sections of these severed limbs are very rough, looking like they were sawed off at will. Whether it's technical level or aesthetic style, it can be called a world of difference..."

"Can you open your eyes and see how much those few huskies opposite are laughing?!!" Gordon roared in his heart, "You're still praising them!! Still praising!!!"

The lunatics sitting opposite Gordon were indeed about to laugh themselves to death. It looked like as long as they heard another joke about severed limbs and skin, they could pass out on the spot.

"We still need to investigate." Gordon gritted his teeth and said, "Currently, we cannot rule out the possibility that they are the same murderer."

If you praise them again, you might become part of them tonight, Gordon thought viciously in his heart. If you want to die, don't take me with you.

Suddenly, Schiller cleared his throat.

Gordon was so frightened he almost jumped out of his chair. His "Schiller phobia" and "it must be Schiller causing trouble" persecution delusion would never be cured in this life.