Chapter 4479: Blackest Night (14)

"I swear, I didn't mean to kill her," Jenna said. "If she died, I wouldn't be able to get any information out of her, but she attacked me. I... I was a little scared..."

"I warned you during the last class movie week gathering, Miss. Watch fewer horror movies. It often triggers rather unpleasant associations," Schiller said, sitting opposite her, still very calm.

"Wait," Victor interrupted the two of them. He pressed his hand to his forehead and then said, "So, you were the one who did it. And you, you knew it was her all along?"

Jenna and Shiler nodded together. Victor pursed his lips, looked at Shiler, and said, "And you still want to frame me for it?!"

"That wasn't framing; otherwise, why would I provide you with an alibi? I just hoped you wouldn't talk nonsense in front of Gordon," Schiller sighed and said.

"But you misled me!" Victor stood up, looking somewhat angry, and said, "You told me this was a traditional murder case, that the killer was trying to express some kind of meaning..."

"Of course it is," Schiller crossed one leg over the other and said, "Otherwise, why would our dear Miss run to a distant block to let out a howl after committing the crime?"

Victor looked at Jenna again.

"I knew the Professor would come," Jenna said, looking somewhat troubled. "This crime scene might be able to fool the police, but it couldn't fool him. I needed him to cover for me, but there had to be a pretext. I have to thank you for this, Professor Fries; you were the one who gave me the inspiration."

"Me?" Victor said, somewhat incredulously.

"'The Hound of the Baskervilles'," Jenna said. "The original *Sherlock Holmes* stories described the howl of that demonic hound; I specifically imitated that howl. Combined with the traces inside the carriage, it's very easy to make people think of that case."

"So you still wanted to frame me?!"

"No! The Professor would provide you with an alibi; there's no way you could be a suspect. I just hoped to make this case look like a traditional murder, so it wouldn't be easy to associate it with a super-powered individual, but rather like some brutal serial killer who got inspiration from *Sherlock Holmes* and deliberately made the scene look like this."

"Then why did you have to make it so gruesome?"

"I said I was a little scared, I was triggered. But mainly because... because my brother..."

"What?"

"Remember what I said before? The car rolled on the ground a few times, and when I made contact with Pelota, I found she wasn't breathing. I suspect her neck was broken when the car rolled. If things were exposed and Pelota's cause of death was revealed, my brother might go to jail because of it. I had to destroy the body so that even if the truth was discovered, it could only be found that she died at my hands. I would be the one going to jail, and my brother would be fine."

"My God, you're doing this right under Brainiac's nose, and you're still thinking about whether or not you'll go to jail?!" Victor really couldn't stand it anymore, and he said, "You are simply audacious, Miss!"

Jenna blinked, and then she started to shed tears. She said, somewhat aggrieved, "According to my plan, nothing would have happened. They would just have fainted temporarily, and then I would have asked Pelota what was going on. How was I to know she was so fragile? And her body started moving! I was the one who was scared!"

Then she covered her face and started to cry. Victor was somewhat flustered. Schiller walked over and patted Jenna on the back. Although this bout of crying did have some elements of performance, Jenna should have been truly frightened.

Jenna was actually not the type of person with much courage. Furthermore, because her capacity for empathy was so strong, she was easily frightened even by horror movies, let alone a living corpse.

Moreover, she wasn't the type of person who took pleasure in blood and violence. To destroy a body to that extent, her psychological pressure must have been immense. But even so, to be able to make almost perfect remedial measures afterward, she was truly a standout among the new generation.

Seeing Jenna like this, Victor really had no choice, so he had to say, "If you had kept the body, maybe we could have studied why it suddenly started moving. But now, I'm afraid it's very difficult."

"I think you've misunderstood one thing," Schiller said. Jenna looked up at him with teary eyes, and Schiller continued, "Pelota very likely did not die in the car accident."

"What do you mean?"

"If she could move freely after she died, then maybe she had already died long ago?"

Jenna was stunned; she blinked and then said, "You mean, the Pelota we interacted with had been a corpse all along? But this... how is this possible? She was no different from a living person."

"Whether that's the case or not, we'll know once we check. Brainiac," Schiller called out, "Has Pelota experienced any accidents recently?"

Brainiac was silent for a moment, then said, "Three days ago, she was involved in a traffic accident in the villa area next to Huilan Park in the South District. This is the accident footage."

The television screen in Schiller's office lit up and began to automatically play the footage of that accident. In fact, it was just Pelota riding a bicycle and being knocked down by a cargo tricycle.

Judging solely from the content of the footage, this didn't count as a very serious accident. Pelota was going straight, and the tricycle rushed out from an intersection, hitting her from right to left and knocking her to the ground. The tricycle driver rushed out, wanting to help her up, but Pelota lay there without moving. The tricycle driver then returned to the vehicle and drove away. After a while, Pelota stood up from the ground, pushed her bicycle, and left, limping.

"There's a problem here," Schiller said. "If the tricycle driver were someone who would commit a hit-and-run, he wouldn't have gotten out of the vehicle at all; he would have just driven away. Since he got out of the vehicle, it shows he wanted to take responsibility, but chose to leave after checking Pelota's condition. This proves that Pelota's condition was completely beyond his expectations."

"You mean..."

"Pelota might have already stopped breathing." Schiller zoomed in on the image and then said, "Look here. The front wheel of the tricycle was right against Pelota's neck; this might have broken her spine. She had already been killed by the impact at that time. It was precisely because Pelota was already dead that the tricycle driver chose to leave."

"Brainiac reorganized the insurance industry. If an accident victim is only injured, the compensation the perpetrator has to bear is relatively low, and most of it is covered by insurance. In this situation, the perpetrator would be willing to send the victim to the hospital. This is why the tricycle driver got out to check instead of fleeing directly."

"But likewise, Brainiac's penalties for accidents resulting in death are relatively strict. Besides compensation, the prison sentence is also longer. The tricycle driver discovered that Pelota was already dead; he knew he had killed someone, and didn't want to bear such serious consequences, so he chose to flee."

"The tricycle driver's seemingly contradictory behavior was actually because he discovered that Pelota had no vital signs and felt she was already dead."

"But she wasn't."

"Yes. That's why Brainiac didn't intervene in this matter," Schiller said. "Judging solely from the footage, there is no conclusive evidence to prove that Pelota died. So this whole thing looks like two vehicles colliding, a minor accident. The tricycle driver got out, confirmed Pelota was fine, and left. And Pelota wasn't injured, so naturally, she didn't call the police and went home by herself."

"But in reality, the tricycle driver got out to check the situation, discovered Pelota had already died, didn't want to bear the serious consequences, and chose to commit a hit-and-run. And the already-dead Pelota, for some unknown reason, resurrected, pushed her bike home by herself, and didn't choose to call the police, letting the tricycle driver escape and also deceiving Brainiac's eyes."

"Have you found the tricycle driver?" Schiller asked again.

"He has been found," Brainiac said, "The righteous are bringing him to the Cat Getan Police Department."

Schiller was still sitting there, but Victor had already stood up, wanting to leave. He picked up his coat and looked back at Schiller, who shook his head and said, "There's no need to go over. He will confess."

Before he had even finished speaking, Brainiac said, "The tricycle driver has already confessed that when he went to check Pelota's physical condition at the time, he discovered she was no longer breathing autonomously and there was a clear abnormality in her cervical spine; the probability of survival was basically zero."

Victor's movements paused for a moment, and then he said, "Are you sure? This guy isn't a professional doctor; can he really accurately judge whether a person is dead or not?"

"He isn't a professional doctor, but he is definitely a professional killer." Schiller picked up the remote control and adjusted the video, pausing on the screen where the tricycle driver got out to check Pelota's physical condition.

"This technique of lifting the head and checking the pulse is very professional, and he described an abnormality in the cervical spine. An ordinary person wouldn't check there unless they were a killer who had been doing this for years. After completing a mission, they would check the spine of the person whose neck they had snapped to confirm they were dead; this is the technique they use."

Brainiac "beeped" twice more and said, "That's correct. I have already found this person's resume. He used to operate near the Black Island and was a freelance killer who took orders. However, he later chose to change careers and opened a seafood dry goods store near the pier catering to tourists. He was driving the tricycle precisely to collect goods from near the shared villas."

"No wonder," Victor said. "The person fell, he immediately got out to check. Discovered the person was dead, turned around and left. This psychological quality is indeed extraordinary."

"The Dark Ages haven't passed for too long. That batch of Gothamites just got old, not dead." Schiller turned his head to look out the window, which was still pitch black, and said, "No matter who the mastermind directing all this is, wanting to drag Cat Getan back to the Dark Ages through the descent of the Eternal Night is a huge mistake."

"'If I had never seen the light, I could have endured the darkness.' I tasted this meaning in Rodriguez's words. I believe my feeling is correct. Cat Getan is an unfortunate city; those born here seem to be naturally cursed. They had already accepted all of this, accepted that they would be forever trapped in the abyss of darkness, never to see the light of day. But, one day, the dark clouds dispersed, and the light of day reappeared. Everyone has the most passionate melody in their life, and in the life of a Gothamite, the tune composed from that moment, sung by millions, will be the true 'My Sun'."

"Where are we going?" Victor asked.

"Arkham Asylum." ===== CHAPTER 4480 =====