Chapter 4883

What really irked Tim was that Brainiac knew Ethan was here, knew Ethan wasn't exactly AI-friendly, yet sent him over without even giving him the big guns. That damn electronic lifeform can take the weapons and gear from his armories to the grave.

Back when he first ran into Bruce Wayne, he could still get his hands on a shotgun; now he's stuck with a beat-up service pistol — talk about going backwards in life.

Ethan turned to Cobblepot and asked, "Where were you last night?"

The question focused everyone's attention again; sure enough, it was time to check alibis. Although Ethan didn't believe Tim's claim that "someone here went to Arkham Asylum last night" was true, if they were taking turns playing detective, it was still best to rule out suspicion.

"Last night I was invited to visit the Professor," Cobblepot said. "We chatted about my mother's condition and a new drug, had a few drinks. I arrived around 8-something and didn't leave until nearly 10."

It's quite a distance from Arkham Asylum to Shiler's place, and it kept raining the whole time, road conditions were terrible — no matter what, it would take over an hour. So if Cobblepot was going to make a move, it could only have been before 7; back then the storm surge hadn't arrived yet, and the asylum was still operating normally. Not that making a move was impossible, just that hiding a body would be more troublesome.

Cobblepot then looked at Tim, but he didn't ask for an alibi; he still wanted more clues from Tim. He asked, "What time was the police call placed?"

"9:01 PM," Tim said. "Apparently a panicked evacuating patient discovered the body in a room not yet fully submerged. But he couldn't explain the specifics."

At the same time, Tim offered his own alibi: "Last night I was drinking with Barry and the others the whole time. We drank from after 4 PM until midnight — seven people total, mostly FBI agents, right in their office. No one left their seat for more than five minutes. They can all vouch for me."

This alibi was rock-solid — a classic public setting, and a long enough window. And Arkham's first floor had constant foot traffic; if the murder happened before 4, the body would be hard to hide and wouldn't wait until 9 to be discovered. Plus there were cameras, and before the flooding, trying anything under Brainiac's nose was near impossible.

Tim looked at Shiler and asked, "Where would the primary crime scene be, Professor?"

"The ground level," Shiler said. "The ground level would be submerged first, cameras would basically stop working. Even if they didn't, the murky water wouldn't capture anything clear. Just kill the person in the water, transport them upstairs, and wait for the water to rise."

"And the evacuation would've been chaotic. Doctors and nurses would want to evacuate all patients, they'd have to do a headcount — most likely done on the ground level. Lots of people, lots of confusion — easiest time to strike. And once the count was done, the water rose fast; everyone would flee ASAP, unlikely to notice someone going against the flow. Perfect window to fish in troubled waters."

"As for that police call, I'm leaning toward it being the killer's own staging. Two holes: one, flooding takes time — when the ground level was half-submerged you'd run, no one stays until the whole floor is underwater, by then it's too late to escape, unless you're the killer using it to murder."

"Two, if it's a patient who can't even speak clearly, he'd hardly have the agency to, after witnessing a body, escape from a first floor already half-flooded. The storm brings surges; swimming is hard, a boat might not outrun it. Anyone left in the asylum would likely end up as two bodies, not one."

The key clue had finally surfaced; everyone understood — this was most likely the killer's MO: exploiting the chaotic evacuation during the seawater backflow to kill in the confusion.

Shiler finally asked a case-relevant question: "Why didn't the killer leave the body on the ground level?"

This was indeed a question worth pondering. Because even with water, dragging a body is difficult — might even have to wait for the water to rise bit by bit before moving the body to a first-floor room. What would be the point?

Alberto thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "I genuinely don't know. I don't often fiddle with corpses."

He took a sip of wine, pursed his lips, and frowned slightly. Because it had sat a while, the wine had breathed a bit too much, tasted overly sour and astringent — really felt like some kind of punishment.

Alberto repeated Shiler's question, seemingly wanting Victor to deduce. Victor actually gave it a try: "The only thing I can think of is framing someone. He might want people to think the primary crime scene was the first floor, so someone might think the killer was a colleague of the victim's on the first floor."

This deduction was a bit far-fetched, because it didn't establish necessity well. There are many ways to frame someone; compared to moving the body upstairs, just taking it out the front door, letting it float on the water, and doing something to the body would frame better and be simpler.

Victor also felt his own deduction didn't quite hold water, so he took a sip of wine and looked at Ethan. Ethan said, "I don't know, shame I can't get drunk anymore."

"That's a good thing," Alberto said. "Next time remember not to drink red wine at this kind of occasion — it breathes too much."

Ethan tossed the question to Cobblepot too. Cobblepot thought carefully, then said: "Arkham Asylum's lobby is roughly a square. The main entrance is straight ahead, windows on both sides, but the back is the nurses' station wall, with stairwells on either side of the nurses' station."

"From the lobby to the main entrance, the distance is far shorter than to the stairwells. If you wanted the body found ASAP, you'd indeed go out the main entrance. So the killer most likely didn't want the body fished up that quickly."

Cobblepot paused briefly: "I think I get it."

Everyone looked at him. Cobblepot said: "This most likely has to do with the time of death. A corpse's decomposition process is heavily influenced by the surrounding environment. Lower temperature, slower decomposition; higher temperature, rapid rotting."

"Being submerged in water creates another state: bloating. Even a living person soaks long enough and bloats, and Gotham's water is extra potent. A corpse fully submerged, unrecoverable for a while, would bloat more than in a normal dry state — could mislead the estimated time of death."

Those present were all professionals. It's common knowledge that corpse decomposition follows a set pattern — roughly what state appears when — with few exceptions. It fluctuates with temperature and environment, but the broad strokes are consistent.

For instance, the Giant's View state mostly begins at a specific time point — may float a bit earlier or later, but not by much. And when peak bloat is reached is also traceable.

And if, at a specific time, a corpse at peak bloat is observed, you can reverse-calculate the time of death from that. But if that peak bloat was fabricated, the reverse-calculated time of death would be wrong too. That's why novice killers fake alibis, while veterans start faking corpses.

"No," Tim said. "Seawater backflow soaking the corpse isn't some secret — anyone can see it. Brainiac isn't an idiot; he'd obviously factor 'soaked in water' into the corpse attributes, run data correction, then reverse-calculate — no way to get a wrong time."

Everyone caught on too. If the corpse appeared in a dry environment, and without a forensic exam — simply put, in the late 18th/early 19th century when science wasn't advanced — it might pass. But now the corpse was found in water; everyone knows it was soaked, bloat is unreliable, so no one would mis-calculate. And it'll be fished up eventually, then a forensic exam will make soaked vs. not soaked obvious. So this hardly holds.

"What time did Brainiac send the drone over and discover the body?" Cobblepot looked at Tim and asked.

"Half an hour after the call," Tim said. "Around 9:31, the drone reached the scene, found the body submerged in a first-floor room above the waterline. But the drone lacks underwater capability, and other gear was dispatched elsewhere for disaster relief, so no immediate recovery. And now the current's too strong to recover it anyway."

Tim actually wanted to share his own deduction, but felt it still had holes, so he looked at Shiler and said: "What do you think, Professor?"

"The key lies in 'seeing'." Shiler said something seemingly nonsensical. Everyone perked up — they knew he was about to channel spirits again.

But actually, no. Shiler had deduced from existing clues. He said: "The main reason for not leaving it on the ground level is that once the water rose, drones couldn't see through that deep, murky water to spot a body in the ground-level lobby. But on the first floor, it'd be easier to discover."

"There's a key piece of evidence," Shiler raised his hand slightly. "Victor said earlier that to maintain neutral buoyancy in water, the corpse's weight might need to be heavier. But why maintain neutral buoyancy — why keep the body at that specific position — that's the key."

"If the body floated to the ceiling, a drone above water would almost never see it — the wall above the windows would block any angle."

"But just let the body sink a little, and you give the drone a viewing angle, letting it confirm a body in the room from a higher position."

Shiler paused, then continued: "This proves the killer had to know roughly how high the water would rise — that's why he knew the ground level wouldn't work. And he knew the body had to sink a bit for a surface observer to see it."

"He judged the flood height would swallow the first floor but not exceed it by too much — only then would his arrangement expose the body. If it didn't rise that high, no need to move it upstairs; if it rose to the third or fourth floor, leaving it on the first wouldn't get it found."

Shiler finished his deduction and looked at Alberto: "Why did the killer want the body found?"

Alberto sighed. He took another sip of wine, set the cup gently on the table, and said: "Sorry, I really don't want to drink this awful wine anymore. I concede."

No one mocked him. Because they realized the previous rounds were just warm-up. As more deductions surfaced, this was becoming a real detective game. Non-detectives would be eliminated; next up was the professionals' show.

No one laughed at him. Because they realized the previous few rounds had merely been a warm-up. As more and more things were deduced, this would become more and more like a genuine detective game. Those who weren't detectives would certainly be eliminated; what followed would be the professionals' performance.