Chapter 619: Pathological Crisis (III)

After Bruce and Lex arrived in Metropolis, they still relied on the Luthor family's connections to get ahead, but Lionel hadn't left behind nothing but family business.

Money and power are inseparable; the Metropolis Police Chief had a very good relationship with the Luthor family, and upon hearing Lex was interested in this murder case, he handed over all case files to Lex.

But the officers had uncovered no particularly unusual leads, so Lex requested permission from the Police Chief to visit the crime scene—but the Metropolis Police Chief was deeply reluctant, saying over the phone:

"I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor, we must consider your safety for any on-site investigation; this matter is likely…"

"I suppose the police department could use a new batch of protective gear? Given the brutality of this murder, officers' equipment needs upgrading—the Luthor family has always been concerned with Metropolis's safety…"

Lex didn't finish his sentence, but who could fail to understand such an implication?

To Lex's surprise, the Police Chief still refused. After hanging up, Bruce stood behind him and said: "Something's wrong. Even with money, he wouldn't deny you even a glimpse of the corpse."

"It doesn't matter—we can go straight to the morgue. There's nothing the Luthor family can't accomplish here." Lex replied.

Both murder victims were stored in the morgue of a hospital near the police station; the coroner hadn't yet performed autopsies, so if they went now, they could see the complete bodies—and this hospital happened to be funded by the Luthor family.

But when the two arrived at the morgue, they discovered no murder victims were there. After reviewing the morgue's surveillance footage, they found no record of corpses being stored at all.

In other words, the officers never transported the bodies to the morgue after investigating the crime scenes—this was highly unusual.

After leaving the morgue, Bruce, thinking aloud, told Lex: "Typically, officers choose the most convenient method to store corpses. If there's no forensic institute nearby, bodies are kept in the closest hospital before autopsy."

"If they didn't leave them here, they might have sent them directly to the forensic institute. You retrieve the crime scene surveillance from Luthor Manor. Tonight, I'll go to the forensic institute."

Lex had no objection to this arrangement. He allowed Bruce to investigate only because he could leverage his strength.

Lex himself lacked physical power; if they encountered a dangerously violent killer, staying within Luthor Manor was safe—but venturing out to investigate carried unacceptable risks.

So using Batman for field investigations was a smart choice. After all, both of them aimed to eliminate the Owl—here, they shared a common enemy and could cooperate.

As Bruce planned, Lex began using technical means to obtain crime scene surveillance, while Bruce went to the forensic institute to search for the bodies.

Batman, moving through the night, once again donned his gear. He stood atop the tallest building in Metropolis—Luthor Tower—overlooking a city more prosperous than Gotham.

The night sky here was far from as dark as Gotham's; lights blazed everywhere, their glare blurring Batman's vision. He felt unfit for a city like this—bats belonged to darkness.

Yet the warmth of countless windows, carried by the wind into his eyes, turned his cape orange under the glow. Batman took a deep breath and glided downward, leaping between buildings until he reached his destination.

Metropolis's new forensic institute was located in a remote area, with only two guards on duty. Batman slipped inside without difficulty—but still, no bodies.

Batman sensed something deeply odd. He then visited every hospital in Gotham—but found no bodies. Finally, he arrived at the Police Chief's home.

The Police Chief awoke in terror, staring at the dark figure standing on his balcony. Batman stood in the window's shadow, his voice low: "Where are the murder victims?"

"I… I don't know… Who are you? Don't come closer! I'll shoot!" the Police Chief screamed.

Batman realized this chief was no stronger than Gordon; Metropolis's good order had nothing to do with him—he was just another petty man, cowardly and cruel, easily broken by violence or money.

In the end, Batman still extracted the answer he needed: according to the Police Chief, the bodies had vanished.

The crime scene investigation steps were simple. Since both corpses appeared at busy street intersections, officers had to quickly remove them to restore traffic.

When the first corpse was found, its condition was too horrific to expose to crowds. After preliminary examination, it was disassembled, covered with a white sheet, and loaded onto a hospital ambulance.

But the vehicle never headed to the hospital. According to the Chief, they later found the missing ambulance and a knocked-out officer in the suburbs—the driver and the corpse had disappeared.

Later, police found the real driver unconscious in the hospital's underground parking garage.

That meant the body thief first knocked out the real driver, impersonated him, hijacked the corpse transport vehicle, and stole the bodies.

After this incident, officers became more cautious with the second corpse. A detective drove it personally to the forensic institute—but just as Lex and Bruce arrived in Metropolis and reached the hospital, the corpse vanished again.

The forensic institute had fewer staff and inadequate security. Someone infiltrated and stole the corpse once more.

Batman returned to Luthor Manor empty-handed. Lex had no good news either. Standing in the underground lab, he tinkered with a computer and said:

"Metropolis has always been safe. People here lack crisis awareness, and surveillance cameras are scarce. Beyond a few major intersections, most buildings have too many blind spots—even entire floors have only one camera."

"I reviewed the crime scene footage. Clearly, these weren't the original crime scenes—the killer merely placed the bodies there, not killed them there."

"The question is, how did he place them there?" Bruce asked.

"From the footage, the bodies were lowered from the rooftop. A parachute was attached to the chair binding the corpse, which drifted down into the crowd from the bank's rooftop, causing panic."

"Unfortunately, the bank building was the tallest nearby. All other buildings' cameras couldn't capture the rooftop. Only one camera caught a silhouette."

Lex showed Bruce the footage: a man in blue janitorial uniform entering the rooftop door—but only a blurry shadow, barely enough to determine gender. Due to the angle, neither build nor height could be judged.

"What about the bank's internal surveillance?" Bruce asked.

"Metropolis Central Bank has the most glass façades in the area. Every month on the 3rd—today—they hire a cleaning company to wash the windows. Since every floor must be cleaned, cleaners appear throughout the entire building."

"Through internal surveillance, we identified 43 people—all Ma Lei, all in uniform, all wearing hats. No way to judge build or height. They're all suspects."

Bruce leaned one hand on the counter: "The killer must have planned this in advance. We need to review every action of these 43 men…"

"I already analyzed them all before you returned. No suspicious behavior found—at least, nothing visible in the recorded footage." Lex replied.

"If the killer dropped the corpse from the bank's rooftop, he had to bring it inside first. How did he get the corpse in?"

Lex selected a surveillance clip, played it briefly, paused, and pointed: "Look at this crate. Cleaning high-rise glass is difficult—it requires specialized equipment."

"The tools are bulky, with many ropes, so they're stored in large crates delivered the day before—on the 2nd of each month, these crates appear in the bank's underground warehouse."

"If the corpse was packed into one of these crates and delivered ahead of time to the underground warehouse, the killer could push it to any floor, use the cleaning excuse to find a camera blind spot, and drop the corpse down."

As Lex described it, Bruce and Lex jointly constructed the scene in their minds.

April 2nd, around 6 p. m., one after another, cleaning company trucks rolled into the Central Bank's underground garage.

Blue-uniformed cleaners lifted heavy crates from the trucks, loaded them onto carts, and wheeled them into the connected underground warehouse.

One cleaner carried an unusually heavy crate—blood seeped from its edges—but the other cleaner noticed nothing. They loaded it onto the cart and pushed it all the way into the warehouse.

April 3rd, around 7 a. m., Central Bank opened for business. Employees flooded through the main entrance, while cleaners had already arrived at the underground warehouse, methodically pushing out all prepared tools.

The killer, dressed as a cleaner, wheeled a tool crate to a specific floor, unloaded the corpse and equipment, opened a window, and dropped the corpse down.

The footage froze. Bruce and Lex exchanged glances. Bruce spoke first: "There's one problem."

"Exactly—the smell," Lex said immediately. "If you hide a corpse inside such a tool crate and move it with cleaners into the warehouse, someone would have smelled the stench."

Bruce immediately grabbed a nearby notepad, sketched the corpse's wounds, and pointed: "These wounds—these wounds—bled heavily. Even if the blood had dried during transport, there couldn't be zero odor."

"To eliminate odor, there are two methods," Lex replied smoothly. "First, treat the corpse with special chemicals. Second, mask the blood smell with another strong odor."

The Immortal Wood Miracle

"Now the bodies are gone—we can't verify the first possibility. But if we consider the second, what could mask the stench of blood?"

Both answered in unison:

"The glass-cleaning solvent."