Chapter 3562: Edge of Tomorrow (Part 19)

Shiler, sitting in the interrogation room, was truly not in a hurry. Because he was really just passing by this time. He believed that the upright Chief Gordon would definitely clear his name—if he wasn't angered to death by his words.

It was very clear that Gordon was already steaming with anger. But precisely because he was a law-abiding good person, he really couldn't do anything to Shiler. Because he was currently just a suspect, not a criminal. Even if the degree of suspicion was unprecedented, without going through court trial, there was room for acquittal, so he couldn't treat him as a criminal.

Now, regarding various crimes in Cat Getan, Gordon already had very keen intuition. He felt that this case wasn't done by Shiler, but there was no reason to explain why he appeared at the crime scene.

He couldn't really be a cleaner in the past, right?

Here, a somewhat absurd question must be explored—if a person kills someone and doesn't clean up the crime scene, and a passing cleaner cleans up the scene, does the cleaner count as committing a crime?

In the common law system, this behavior is usually charged with two crimes: one is "harboring a criminal," and the other is "destroying a crime scene."

But in reality, both charges are difficult to establish. To charge harboring a criminal, there is a prerequisite, which is that the two colluded in advance. For example, the murderer hired the cleaner, or the two conspired to divide the work. If the accused can prove that there is no connection between the two, then such charges cannot be made.

And the prerequisite for another "destroying a crime scene" is that the other party knows subjectively that this is a crime scene. And the only ones who can identify a crime scene are the police. That is to say, only after the police come, he still cleans up the crime scene, can he be charged with "destroying a crime scene," otherwise it cannot be established.

That is to say, assuming Shiler isn't the murderer, then he and Victor brought a bunch of cleaning tools and cleaned up part of the crime scene, which is difficult to judge as guilty.

So how to prove Shiler isn't the murderer?

The common law system generally follows "presumption of innocence." That is to say, the police and the court assume the suspect is innocent, and the suspect must try every means to prove their innocence, which is what is often heard in comics and American dramas as "exoneration."

Actually, Shiler has no very powerful evidence to exonerate himself.

From the perspective of motivation, the other party's threatening email and the email telling the address are still lying in his email, which can fully explain the conflict between the two sides, which is very unfavorable evidence for him.

From the perspective of ability, as long as the body size isn't too disparate, it generally won't be determined as incapable of committing the crime.

From the perspective of the result, both he and Victor appeared at the primary crime scene and could not produce an alibi. Because the arrival time and the death time of the deceased were too close, it was also difficult to prove that it wasn't them through the time difference.

In summary, all kinds of evidence are very unfavorable to Shiler. If this matter really wasn't done by him, then he shouldn't have stayed at the crime scene. Because once caught by the police, there isn't much room for sophistry.

But Shiler's calm attitude made Gordon understand that he must have something to rely on. Just when Gordon was guessing whether Shiler had done anything else, another policeman walked in and whispered a few words in Gordon's ear.

Gordon first frowned, but soon pursed his lips tightly, quite helplessly looked at Shiler, and left the room.

Shiler knew what he was called away for. The policeman who interrogated him said that Lina had reported three people in total; the two professors had been brought to justice, and the remaining student was Harley. She should also have been brought to the police station by the police at this time.

Actually, from both psychology and criminal investigation, the best way to exonerate oneself is not self-certification, but attacking others.

It is difficult to self-certify the case that involved Shiler. But if the person who provided the testimony is also in trouble, causing their testimony to be invalid, then naturally it cannot constitute a powerful accusation, and exoneration would be simple.

The reason Shiler wasn't panicked at all and cooperated so much to come to the police station was because he knew that the best way to prove he wasn't the murderer was to catch the real murderer.

Lina, who provided the testimony, had an alibi in the murder case tonight, but she didn't have one in the bassist's disappearance case.

She claimed to have seen Harley and two professors kill someone, but that was just her subjective statement. The objective fact was that she also ran to the rehearsal room in the middle of the night and disappeared for a whole night, not knowing where she went.

If she said someone killed someone in the rehearsal room, then she herself wasn't without suspicion. In fact, her suspicion was the greatest.

Because, compared to Harley, she was closer to the bassist. Everyone in the band had seen them pulling and dragging each other, unclear. And they even participated in the Brainiac Support Society together.

And, she could testify against the three of them, and the three could naturally unite to testify against her. And the testimony of three people mutually verifying each other was much more powerful than one person's subjective narration.

In the case where neither side had other evidence to prove the other party killed someone, the suspicion of both sides was equal. Then Lina's so-called testimony of hearing Shiler and others conspiring to kill tonight was unreliable, because this might be her framing after killing someone.

Once the witness testimony became unreliable, and no direct evidence could be found at the crime scene, the probability of the accusation being established would become very low. Exoneration would be easy.

And Shiler also knew very clearly that he and Victor only needed to get rid of suspicion. Harley was different; she would definitely make Lina look good.

Shiler didn't believe that Harley didn't do anything on the night she took Lina away. She put Lina back into the Brainiac Support Society to catch a big fish. The fish in the water still wanted to jump up and slap him; how could she endure it?

Sure enough, less than 20 minutes after Gordon went out, the police in the police station were busy again. Even the police in the interrogation room were transferred away, seemingly because there was some big case to investigate.

After the police left, Shiler stood up from the chair and looked at the seat of the old policeman before. Sure enough, his phone was lying there quietly.

He took his phone, sat back in his seat, opened the Super Butler Brainiac software, and began to ask Brainiac:

"Do you know what Harley just said?"

"This involves other user privacy..."

"Don't act like a stupid artificial customer service." Shiler replied, "And don't make me think that a super artificial intelligence only has this much ability."

"She said she knew that someone from the Brainiac Support Society killed a policeman, and the corpse was placed in the water tower on the roof of the Bitong Trade Building on Diamond Street. This matched the case of a policeman who went missing while on patrol before."

"No wonder." Shiler said, "The only thing that can attract James Gordon's attention more than me is the safety of his colleagues."

Having worked with Gordon for so long, Shiler asked himself that he understood this righteous police chief quite well. Gordon wasn't the kind of very pedantic person. In his view, in Cat Getan, dying a few people wasn't a big deal. There were no completely innocent victims here; more were evil people grinding evil people.

Based on this principle, he couldn't tolerate two types of people being harmed: one type was children who were very young. Children were relatively the most innocent; on one hand, they were inexperienced and had no chance to accumulate sins; on the other hand, they didn't have much ability to resist and were mostly innocent victims.

And the other type was his colleagues. There were many weirdos among Cat Getan's police, each with their own shortcomings, and no completely righteous people. But as long as they were still willing to be police, they were much more noble than anyone else in this city. Compared to their righteous actions, that little sin didn't count for anything and could also be called innocent people.

If these two types of people were harmed, Gordon would definitely raise the priority of this case to the highest.

Gordon also knew in his heart that the few people who died in the teaching building on the old campus weren't good people. Even if they were students, even if they might have been bewitched, they were adults. Adults always have to pay for their own stupid and evil actions.

So these few people added together weren't as important as one of his colleagues who went missing while on patrol. Once there was a clue to the latter, the priority of the former had to be pushed back.

Harley's move was hitting the snake seven inches. Most of the time, Gordon turned a blind eye, but once he wanted to investigate seriously, someone would definitely be unlucky. The Brainiac Support Society wouldn't die but would have to peel off a layer of skin.

Shiler felt that what Victor said before was right. The Brainiac Support Society was mostly outsiders. If it wasn't for this, they wouldn't choose to take action against the police.

You know, at the end of the gang era, gang bosses were almost forced to a dead end, and no one dared to slaughter the police. This wasn't because they couldn't do it, but because smart people knew how to leave themselves a way out.

Although it looked like the police were just guns, the trial had courts and juries, and prison had jails; both were more important than the police.

But they all knew that if you cooperated, you would still be considered a rich person after two years in jail. But if you didn't cooperate, the day after you were imprisoned, Gordon would sweep away all your gangs and assets, turning you into a completely penniless person.

Not offending Gordon was leaving yourself a way out. Even if you were defeated in the end, you could at least leave yourself some foundation. If you offended him to death, you were really finished.

Shiler appreciated this spirit of the Brainiac Support Society of fighting with their backs to the river and not leaving a way out. Now it depends on whether this strong dragon from outside can suppress Gordon, this local snake.

Facts proved that the Brainiac Support Society wasn't considered a strong dragon, and Gordon wasn't just a local snake. During the time Shiler took a nap in the interrogation room, the sound of footsteps outside rang out pitter-patter, and soon the left and right compartments were full.

Shiler sat in the middle interrogation room, vaguely able to hear the conversations in the rooms next door. If nothing else, the rooms next to him were now all filled with the backbone of the Brainiac Support Society.

In the final analysis, it was just a group of university students. They didn't have money or power, and they didn't even check the Federal Association Law when forming the club.

What they relied on was nothing more than the fact that the forces with faces and faces didn't have time to care about them. If they really wanted to be serious, one step into the club door could lead to fifteen or sixteen charges.

The police station was busy and chaotic all night. Just before dawn, a slightly exhausted Gordon appeared at the door of Shiler's interrogation room.

"Open it for him." Gordon said somewhat impatiently, "Are you two sick? Running thousands of miles to the old campus to clean up crime scenes for others, just to add trouble to the police?!"

"How is that possible? We have always been very cooperative with police work."

"Then you'd better give me a better explanation."

"You saw that machine at the scene, right?" Shiler smiled and said, "That's the latest cleaning robot. We went there to test the machine. When you went, it should have already been cleaned up, right? How was the effect?"

"Humph." Gordon snorted coldly, "It was wiped quite clean. Didn't find a single footprint in the entire corridor."

"Then I can rest assured." Shiler said, "You know, I'm not very good at cleaning. With this thing, it can save me a lot of trouble."

After saying that, he prepared to walk out the door. Just as he brushed past Gordon, Gordon pressed his shoulder and said: "Don't go. Is this machine expensive? How many in-stock units are there? I'm planning to order a few for the police station, to facilitate us cleaning up the scene after the evidence collection is finished."

"You have to ask Victor about this." Shiler paused and said, "The cleaning machine developed by him and Pamela, as well as the cleaning agent and brush heads specifically for blood. A set shouldn't be cheap. But since it's public procurement, it must be fully equipped."

Thus, Victor was invited to the procurement office with a blank face. Before the door closed, he specifically looked back, and Shiler was leaning against the wall of the corridor smiling at him.

No wonder he didn't mention any cleaning machine when cleaning the rehearsal room before, but insisted

(End of chapter)