Chapter 2953

"A feast? What kind of feast?"

A series of images flashed through Tim's mind: the rainy night in Gotham, the reflection on leather shoes, a pitch-black umbrella, a red vortex crashing into the rainwater...

Tim had never actually seen Professor Shiler kill anyone; he only understood the magnificent waves of the previous era from the mouths of people like Cobblepot. However, his imagination had always been rich, and his clever brain allowed him to perfectly fill in the details of certain stories.

Only one phrase spun around in Tim's mind—a feast with no good intentions.

At this moment, he heard movement outside the room. Peter seemed to have said something, but the footsteps soon departed.

This meant that someone might have arrived, but Peter could not stand at the door waiting for him for too long and had to leave.

That was just as well, Tim thought; having someone following him was quite troublesome, and there were too many things he couldn't do.

Soon, there was no more movement on the balcony; it seemed Shiler had finished his call. Tim did not linger in place for long either. He climbed over the windowsill back into the room, speculating on Shiler's possible whereabouts.

While passing the second-floor corridor window, he saw that as the time grew later, more and more people were arriving. Car after car stopped at the farm entrance, and guests poured in from the doorway one after another.

Can't delay any longer, Tim thought. The cleaner identity was a good disguise, but it wouldn't last long. Once the banquet officially began, all irrelevant staff would not be allowed to stay here; they would be driven out.

Tim carried the mop and walked quickly, but he saw a fleeting glimpse of Harley in the crowd. He didn't have time to greet her before she quickly passed through the hall, disappearing somewhere.

Just as he walked out of the main entrance, intending to circle to the back of the building, he vaguely heard the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground above his head.

Tim looked up and saw a room on the second floor with the curtains half-drawn. A figure flashed by inside, but it made no other sound.

Even so, Tim sensed something was wrong. At this moment, he was already very close to the back door. Carrying his cleaning tools, he ran quickly toward the upper floor, using that same excuse about needing to clean to fool the second-floor security, and reached the door of that room at top speed.

The door was actually unlocked, revealing a small crack. Tim tilted his head slightly to look inside and saw a figure leaning against the side of the bed, one hand clutching their own stomach.

Tim gasped, gathered everything into one hand, gently pushed the door open, slipped inside, and tiptoed to the man's side.

This was the big shot they had seen in the room earlier. After carefully examining the face, Tim confirmed that this was indeed that councilman.

At this moment, he was unconscious, but it shouldn't be from excessive blood loss; it was more like he had been anesthetized. Tim checked the wound on his abdomen; he must have been stabbed, but it didn't hit any vital organs. The injury wasn't heavy, but if it continued like this, it would definitely be fatal.

Tim, possessing rich experience with murder cases, immediately realized that the person who anesthetized the councilman and the person who stabbed him might not be the same person. If they just wanted to stab him, there was no need to anesthetize him; if they could manage to anesthetize him, there was no need to stab him.

This was getting interesting, but Tim didn't have much time. He immediately took off the councilman's coat, tied it around his abdomen to stop the bleeding, grabbed his cleaning tools, and rushed out the door, shouting.

"Help! Someone help! Someone has been attacked!!!"

Security moved at the sound, rushing directly into the room where Tim was. The councilman was soon helped out. Unsurprisingly, FBI agents followed closely behind; Tim saw Steve and Jason.

This place was quite far from the town, and before the ambulance arrived, someone was using a first-aid kit to provide emergency treatment to the councilman.

Tim recalled the figure he had seen earlier in his mind; it didn't look much like Shiler, it should be sturdier than Shiler. He searched his mind for everyone he had seen in the house so far, and finally, to his surprise, he discovered that the perpetrator might also be an acquaintance he had seen.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly retreated, blending into the crowd, because Ma Te had brought his students over.

Tim kept his head down, but his eyes swept over the two men's trouser legs. Everyone here was in suits and leather shoes; it was impossible to distinguish anything from their attire.

Tim paused slightly, circled around from the back of the crowd, and came to the restroom near the back door on the first floor.

In an occasion like this, no one could possibly carry a long spear to stab someone; the murder weapon must be relatively small, so it would be easy to hide. Tim had also checked the wound; it should have been caused by a short knife.

A relatively short weapon would inevitably cause a problem: the hand would get blood on it. Even if the suit was thick and there was technique involved, the part close to the abdomen couldn't possibly be clean.

If there was blood, one had to wash their hands. The crowd came up from the stairs at the main entrance, so it was impossible to take that staircase, otherwise, they would run into someone head-on. There were two routes one could take: either jump directly from the balcony or take the back stairs.

But no matter which path was taken, there was only one restroom to choose from, and that was this restroom near the back door.

Tim walked in, picked up the "cleaning in progress" sign from the door, and placed it at the entrance to prevent anyone from disturbing him. He looked down at the floor; there were very obvious footprints with water marks.

This was not strange. The West Coast had been rainy recently, and the air humidity was also very high. The floor of the modern stone cottage was marble, and now it was approaching dusk, right at the time when the temperature was dropping; a layer of water mist would condense on such a floor.

It was very fine and thin, almost not affecting walking, but it would leave footprints.

Tim discovered two footprints under the sink.

If nothing unexpected happened, these were left by that student of Ma Te's named Hali Lake; the height, weight, walking posture, and the stance of leaning over to wash hands were exactly the same.

Hali Lake stabbed the councilman, then hurriedly ran away, came down the stairs on the other side of the corridor, entered the nearest restroom, washed the blood off his hands, and then passed through the corridor back to the main entrance, going up to the second floor with Ma Te from the main staircase. The movement trajectory and timeline were completely plausible.

The motive for the crime was temporarily unknown, but this injury couldn't possibly kill the councilman. If it was Hali Lake who did it, he couldn't have failed to notice that the councilman had been anesthetized. If he wanted to kill, he could just stab him in the neck.

This indicated that Hali Lake didn't intend to kill him; stabbing him could only be to vent his anger.

That's right, Tim thought, it was because Hali Lake discovered the councilman had been anesthetized and understood that no matter what he did, the councilman couldn't possibly discover it, that he stabbed him.

Did the two of them have a grudge? Tim thought of Ma Te's evaluation of Hali Lake earlier; this was clearly a person with narcissistic tendencies, acting self-centeredly, and with a somewhat irritable temper.

If the two of them didn't know each other before, then it was possible that they only developed a conflict after arriving here.

Combining the information Tim had learned earlier, the councilman wanted to win over this internet-famous lawyer to build momentum for them. The process of winning him over might not have been so pleasant; perhaps it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a threat. Hali Lake stabbed the councilman in a fit of anger.

But there was still one point that didn't make sense, and that was how did Hali Lake know the councilman had been anesthetized? How did it happen that just when he went over, the anesthetic took effect, causing the councilman to fall into a complete coma?

Being a little early or a little late would be very dangerous. If he went too early, the councilman wouldn't be anesthetized, and if his face was seen, he would definitely be the primary suspect. If he went late, the councilman would have woken up, and it would be impossible to act.

And how could Hali Lake trust the effect of the anesthetic so much? What if the person who administered the drug used too little, and he stabbed him, causing the other party to wake up in pain?

Although he was an internet celebrity, the other party wasn't a pushover to be able to become a congressman. If it was just a crime of passion, there were too many variables. For the sake of his professional future, he couldn't be stupid to this extent.

Then it must be premeditated, which meant that the person who drugged the councilman and the person who stabbed him were in the same group.

As for why it had to be divided into two people, it was probably to clear themselves of suspicion. This way, they could provide separate alibis. When the drugging happened, the stabber had an alibi; when the stabbing happened, the drugger had an alibi.

Although this little trick wouldn't fool detectives like Batman, if done cleverly, it was still no problem to fool the FBI.

Who would be cooperating with Hali Lake?

Tim felt the answer was about to come out; besides this internet-famous lawyer's teacher, who else could it be?

But Ma Te should be a superhero; he wouldn't commit a murder, unless his and Hali Lake's purpose in doing this wasn't just to injure the councilman, but that there was some benefit to the councilman.

Judging by the councilman's current situation, he couldn't possibly be in any life-threatening danger; this injury would be fine after resting for a month or so. So, were Ma Te and his apprentice just wanting the councilman not to appear recently?

No, no, no, if that were the case, there was no need to act at a banquet with people coming and going. Finding a place with no one around tomorrow would also work, and it would be safer and less likely to be discovered.

Then it was to make the councilman leave here early.

But why?

Tim didn't have time to think too much; he was called over by the FBI agent for questioning. After all, he was the first to discover the crime scene.

Since he dared to shout, Tim naturally was prepared. He told the agent without any panic that he was just a cleaner who came to the second floor to clean, discovered that a door wasn't closed, wanted to remind the other party, took a look through the crack in the door, discovered someone lying by the bed, and then shouted.

The agent didn't raise any objections either, because after all, the person didn't die and it was only a minor injury; there was no situation where the person who discovered the crime scene was the murderer, because the earlier the crime scene was discovered, the higher the chance of the other party surviving, and the murderer would definitely hope it was discovered as late as possible.

But the agent still dutifully asked for some details. Tim answered fluently, performing without any flaws, and indeed was not suspected.

Not long after, the ambulance arrived. Tim watched a bunch of people send the councilman into the ambulance, and then looked at Ma Te and his apprentice who were socializing with people nearby, narrowing his eyes.

Just at this moment, he heard a "thud" sound from behind the wall again. He turned his head abruptly and looked out the window.

A scream broke the tranquility of the farm.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

"Someone jumped off the building, someone jumped off the building! Help! Mr. Lant fell from the third floor!"