Chapter 300: Preaching and Teaching

Cat Getan's afternoon always appears a bit dim. The originally not-so-bright sunlight becomes even weaker through the thin gauze curtains, falling on the floor like floating light and leaping gold sea waves.

Schiller is standing behind the table, fiddling with a telescope from the Age of Discovery. This is the treasure of the original owner of this manor, which once accompanied his ancestors across the ocean, coming here from ten thousand miles away in Europe.

More than half of the decorations on Schiller's table were left by the original owner of this manor, so they all carry some British classical charm, such as that already somewhat old and yellowed globe, the phonograph on the corner of the table, and the walking stick hanging on the side of the bookshelf.

Schiller is holding the telescope to look forward. Suddenly, a black shadow flies across the field of vision of the telescope. Schiller puts down the telescope and turns to look at Batman who came uninvited.

Batman's movements are very natural, picking up the globe on the corner of the table. In his field of vision, the globe blocks Schiller's head, as if everything has returned to the dream.

Batman uses his hand to flick the globe, but soon, it stops. Batman says to Schiller: "You know, I came here to do what..."

Schiller is turning around to get things from the bookshelf. He says while searching: "It couldn't be to arrest me, right? Great detective Batman?"

"Gordon told me that whenever any strange and weird things that cannot be understood happen in Cat Getan, it's always right to come to you."

"Oh, how come I don't know what strange things happened in Cat Getan recently? Are you referring to those mediocre murder cases?"

Batman tastes the words "mediocre" in his mouth, and suddenly feels that the large string of introductions and explanations he is about to say is a bit difficult to open his mouth.

Schiller turns around. His hands are holding a bottle of wine and two glasses. Then he lets Batman sit opposite the table. He says: "Language description is always a bit boring and tasteless, far less interesting than being on the scene, don't you think?"

Perhaps because he didn't want the topic he was about to talk about to also get a "mediocre, boring and tasteless" evaluation, Batman drank the glass of wine in front of him like taking medicine. Schiller also took a sip of wine, then relaxed his body and leaned on the chair, drunk and dizzy.

Accompanied by the afternoon sunlight floating in the air, Batman suddenly woke up. He saw the globe on the table start to rotate slowly. The head of Schiller opposite was very normal. After he opened his eyes, he paused, and then said: "Oh, I forgot."

And then he leaned his body forward, reached out to take the globe on the table, and blocked it in front of his face. In Batman's field of vision, the globe and Schiller's head overlapped, and then Schiller's head became a globe.

Now Batman knew how the globe-headed Schiller in the dream came from.

After Schiller stood up, Batman also stood up. The two walked to the center of the room. Schiller made a gesture of invitation to Batman. Batman began to concentrate his attention, recalling the details of Ricci's room in his memory.

This was the first time he had constructed such a large-scale scene in a dream. Even with the memory of the real object as support, Batman exhausted most of his energy in an instant.

As he slowly raised his arm, the scene in the room began to change. One book after another melted backward into the wall, the partition boards were pulled out layer by layer and melted into the side walls, the desk retreated backward, sinking into the floor, and the floor flipped over piece by piece, changing from dark brown to light brown.

Ricci's corpse appeared on the floor, and the blood spread out on the light-colored floor, then gradually seeped into the cracks.

Schiller clicked his tongue and said: "It's really tragic enough, right?"

"Three days ago, the leader of the Lawrence family among the Twelve Families in Cat Getan was found dead in his bedroom, with seven wounds on his body, among which a penetrating wound in the heart was the fatal wound, and anesthetic drugs were detected in his body..."

"Two days ago, a member of the Hawk brothers in the Hawk family, also among the Twelve Families, was found dead on a chair in his room, dead of beheading, killed with one knife."

"One day ago, the leader of the Ricci family among the Twelve Families was found dead in the living room. He was sawed from the middle of his body, dead of excessive blood loss."

"The common point of these three cases is that their ways of death are all the martyrdom ways of the apostles among Jesus's Twelve Disciples. Gordon and I both believe that this is a serial murder case, but until Ricci died today, I discovered that the murderer's method of committing the crime has discrepancies with the first two cases."

Schiller's hand grabbed into the air. A walking stick appeared in his hand. He used the walking stick to lightly tap the ground and said: "Why do you judge that this is a serial murder case? Just because their ways of death coincide with a certain religious story?"

"Doesn't this fit the characteristics of a serial murder case?" Batman asked: "I remember that what I heard in class is exactly like this. Most serial murder case murderers like to find a background story with numbers and apply it to their own crime process, such as the most common Seven Deadly Sins, Friday the 13th, Sabbath, etc..."

"Then did I say in class why this is?"

"Because of 'sense of ritual.' The murderers of serial murder cases, especially those serial killers who choose crime targets randomly, don't kill for revenge, but purely enjoy the pleasure of killing their own kind. Therefore, for them, what is important is the sense of ritual."

"Even if killing seven people in seven days might greatly increase the probability of them being caught by the police, and the various clues left behind might increase the possibility of them being caught, they will still do so. If they can't experience the happiness brought by this sense of ritual, killing becomes meaningless to them."

"That's right. This is why for a brilliant detective, the murderers of serial murder cases are sometimes easier to deal with than ordinary murder case murderers, because they will always actively leave behind various clues."

"So, this should be a very typical serial murder..."

Schiller, however, shook his head and said: "Perhaps it looks like this on the surface, but in reality, I can only say that this is a clumsy imitator."

"Imitator? What do you mean?"

"It means that the person who took action is not the kind of mental perverted serial killer I once told you about, which is to say, he is not a true serial killer, but that kind of somewhat clumsy imitator."

Batman looked into Schiller's eyes and asked: "Why?"

"First of all, I don't bear any legal responsibility for what I say next, because this is just a dream, and precisely because this is just a dream, I will only tell you these in the dream. You also don't need to think about starting some recording or video devices in reality to take some of my dream talk as evidence..."

Schiller took the walking stick and began to pace around Ricci's corpse lying in the center of the room. He said: "You know, if I were to do this case, what would I do?"

Batman didn't expect him to start this topic, but he indeed couldn't think of an answer. Finally, he could only answer: "I don't think you would do this kind of case, because there is no need."

"I am very happy that you still know me a little bit, but we are assuming now, assuming, I suddenly changed my mind and began to plan a serial murder case..."

"First of all, start from the topic. Since you said the murderer's topic is Jesus and his Twelve Disciples, then I also use this topic."

"I think you should have carefully read the story of Jesus and his twelve disciples, right?"

Batman nodded. Schiller raised his head, revealing an expression of recollection. He asked: "Do you remember who was the first person to die among the Twelve Disciples?"

"... Is it Saint James?"

"That's right. In the record of the Bible, he was the first disciple to be martyred for Jesus. Do you know what kind of person he was?"

"James and John are both sons of Zebedee. Their mother is also Jesus's disciple. James was beheaded by King Herod, and both he and John were people of fierce temperament..."

"This is why I said the person who took action is just a clumsy imitator. Who is Lawrence? What common points does he have with James? Why did he become the first person to be martyred?"

"Love Reading Book Fragrance"

Batman didn't quite understand Schiller's meaning. Schiller continued: "If it were me, my first target must have brothers, just like James, and old Lawrence should be an only child."

"Secondly, Lawrence's temperament is also not fierce enough. His appearance and inner self are too different from James's."

"And you also said, the first person to be martyred was beheaded, and not nailed to a cross."

"So, if I were to do this, my first target would be a male with an extremely fierce temperament, possessing brothers and a mother still alive. His way of death would be beheading."

"What if Lawrence corresponds to Saint Peter?"

"Oh, right, Saint Peter is called the person closest to Jesus, and was also sealed as the first Pope. If the first one to die is him, then it makes sense. But what common points do old Lawrence and Saint Peter have?"

Batman was silent. Schiller tilted his head and looked at the corpse on the ground and said: "Not to mention, the process of the murderer nailing old Lawrence upside down to a cross is simply telling you very straightforwardly that he is a fake."

"If you have read history, you know that in the punishment of nailing to a cross, the person being punished on the cross shouldn't die because important organs are penetrated, but should be exposed outdoors after being nailed through the limbs, dying of bleeding or heart failure under extreme exhaustion."

"Nailing through the heart is part of the vampire legend, not a story recorded in the Bible, and has no relationship with the Twelve Disciples at all. The person being punished by being nailed upside down to a cross should also die of brain congestion, not heart penetration."

"Clearly, the person who took action either didn't read the story carefully, or didn't have the patience to wait for the other party to die slowly."

"If it were me, I have plenty of patience. I can use a year to arrange a scene, let him be nailed in the bedroom for ten days without being discovered. This is the way of death that conforms to this background story."

"Not to mention, the murderer also nailed his head through with a long nail. My God, I think of him holding a long nail and hammering it into a person's head, and I feel creepy..."

"Your choice of words always makes me feel... quite unexpected." Batman evaluated.

"And, the biggest failure is, he actually used anesthetic? God, if he really is a serial murder case murderer, then he should be nailed to death on the cross. This damn pagan doesn't have any sense of ritual at all..."

Batman looked at Schiller's quite dissatisfied expression, and for a moment, didn't know what to say. ===== CHAPTER 301 =====