mtl008 Chapter 4486 The Darkest Night (4)
Chapter 4486 The Darkest Night (4)
Chapter 4486 The Darkest Night (XIV)
“I swear, I didn’t mean to kill her,” Jenna said. “If she were dead, I wouldn’t be able to get any information out of her, but she attacked me. I… I’m scared…”
“I reminded you during the last class movie week gathering, miss. Watch fewer horror movies. They can trigger some unpleasant associations in many situations,” Schiller said calmly, sitting across from him.
“Wait,” Victor interrupted them both. He pressed his forehead and said, “So, you were the one who did it. And you knew it was her all along?”
Jenna and Schiller nodded in unison. Victor pursed his lips, looked at Schiller, and said, "So you're trying to frame me?!"
“That wasn’t a frame-up, otherwise why would I have given you an alibi? I just hope you won’t talk nonsense in front of Gordon,” Schiller said with a sigh.
“But you misled me!” Victor stood up and said angrily, “You told me this was a traditional murder case, and the killer was trying to convey some kind of message…”
“Of course.” Schiller lifted one leg and placed it on top of the other, then said, “Otherwise, why would our dear lady run to the distant block and howl again after committing the crime?”
Victor then looked at Jenna.
“I knew the professor would come,” Jenna said somewhat awkwardly. “This crime scene might fool the police, but it won’t fool him. I need him to cover for me, but I need a reason. I have to thank you, Professor Fries, for giving me this inspiration.”
“Me?” Victor said, somewhat incredulously.
“‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’,” Jenna said. “The original Sherlock Holmes stories describe the sound of that hound, and I deliberately imitated it. Combined with the marks in the carriage, it’s easy to connect it to that case.”
"So you're still trying to frame me?!"
"No! The professor will provide an alibi for you, and there's no way your suspicion can stand. I just want to make this case look like a traditional murder, so it's less likely to be associated with a superpowered person and more like a vicious serial killer who got inspiration from Sherlock Holmes and deliberately arranged the scene like this."
"Then why did you have to make it so tragic?"
"I told you I was a little scared, I was traumatized. But it's mainly because...because of my brother..."
"what?"
“Remember what I said before? The car rolled a few times on the ground, and when I touched Perrotta, I found she wasn’t breathing. I suspect her neck was broken when the car rolled over. If things go wrong and Perrotta’s cause of death is exposed, my brother might go to jail. I have to destroy the body so that even if the truth comes out, all they can do is find out that she died at my hands. I’ll be the one in jail, and my brother will be fine.”
"Good heavens, you did this right under Brainiac's nose and you're still thinking about going to jail?!" Victor couldn't take it anymore. He said, "You're incredibly audacious, miss!"
Jenna blinked, then started to cry. She said, somewhat aggrieved, "According to my plan, everything would be fine. They'd just be temporarily unconscious, and then I'd get the truth out of Perrotta. How was I supposed to know she was so fragile? And her body even moved! I'm the one who was really scared!"
Then she covered her face and started crying. Victor panicked a little. Schiller went over and patted Jenna on the back. Although there was definitely an element of acting to her crying, Jenna was probably genuinely frightened.
Jenna isn't actually a very brave person. And because she has a strong sense of empathy, she's easily frightened even when watching horror movies, let alone seeing a living, breathing zombie.
Moreover, she's not the kind of person who enjoys gore and violence. The psychological pressure she must have felt to disfigure a corpse like that must have been immense. But even so, the fact that she could come up with almost perfect remedial measures afterward makes her a true leader among the new generation.
Seeing Jenna's reaction, Victor had no choice but to say, "If you had kept the body, we might have been able to study why it suddenly started moving. But now it's probably too late."
“I think you’ve got one thing wrong,” Schiller said. Jenna looked up at him with teary eyes, and Schiller continued, “Perlotta may not have died in the car accident.”
"What do you mean?"
"If she could still move freely after her death, then perhaps she had already died long ago?"
Jenna was stunned. She blinked and then said, "You mean, the Pelota we've been in contact with has been a corpse all along? But... how is that possible? She looks just like a living person."
“Whether that’s true or not, we’ll find out by checking. Brainiac,” Schiller shouted, “Has Perrotta been in an accident recently?”
Brainiac paused for a moment, then said, "Three days ago, she was involved in a car accident in the villa area next to Oakland Park in the South District. Here is the accident video."
The television screen in Schiller's office lit up and began automatically playing the accident footage. It was about Perrotta being hit by a cargo tricycle while riding her bicycle.
Judging from the video footage alone, it didn't seem to be a very serious accident. Perrotta was walking straight when a tricycle came rushing out from the intersection and knocked her to the ground from right to left. The tricycle driver rushed out to help her up, but Perrotta lay there motionless. The driver then got back into his vehicle and drove away. After a while, Perrotta got up and limped away, pushing her bicycle.
“There’s something wrong with this,” Schiller said. “If the tricycle driver were someone who would hit and run, he wouldn’t have gotten out of the vehicle; he would have just driven away. The fact that he got out of the vehicle means he wanted to take responsibility, but he chose to leave after checking on Perlotta. This proves that Perlotta’s condition was completely unexpected for him.”
"what do you mean……"
“Perlotta may not be breathing anymore.” Schiller zoomed in on the image and said, “Look here. The front wheel of the tricycle was right on Perlotta’s neck, which may have broken her spine. She was already dead at that point. The tricycle driver left because Perlotta was already dead.”
“Brainiac is restructuring the insurance industry so that if an accident victim is only injured, the compensation the perpetrator has to pay is relatively low, with most of it covered by insurance. In such cases, the perpetrator is more likely to take the victim to the hospital. That’s why the tricycle driver gets out to check on the victim instead of fleeing the scene.”
"However, Brainiac also imposes relatively strict penalties for accidents that result in death. In addition to compensation, the prison sentences are also relatively long. When the tricycle driver found that Perlotta was dead, he knew that he had killed someone and did not want to bear such serious consequences, so he chose to run away."
"The tricycle driver's seemingly contradictory and erratic behavior was actually because he discovered that Perlotta had no vital signs and thought she was dead."
But she didn't.
“Yes. That’s why Brainiac didn’t get involved,” Schiller said. “Based solely on the video, there was no conclusive evidence that Perlotta was dead. So the whole thing looked like a minor accident where two vehicles collided. The tricycle driver got out, checked that Perlotta was alright, and left. And Perlotta wasn’t injured either, so naturally she didn’t call the police and went home on her own.”
"But in reality, the tricycle driver got out to check the situation, found that Perlotta was dead, and, not wanting to bear serious consequences, chose to flee the scene. Perlotta, who was already dead, came back to life for some unknown reason, pushed her cart home by herself, and did not choose to call the police, allowing the tricycle driver to escape a disaster and also deceiving Brainiac."
"Have you found the owner of the tricycle?" Schiller asked again.
“He’s been found,” Brainiac said. “We’re sending someone to take him to the Gotham Police Department.”
Schiller was still sitting there, while Victor had already stood up to leave. He picked up his coat and turned to look at Schiller, who shook his head and said, "There's no need to go over. He'll explain."
Before he could finish speaking, Brainiac said, "The tricycle driver has confessed that when he went to check on Perlotta, he found that she was no longer breathing on her own and had obvious abnormalities in her cervical spine, so the chances of her surviving were basically zero."
Victor paused for a moment, then said, "Are you sure? This person isn't a professional doctor; can he really accurately determine whether someone is dead or not?"
“He’s not a professional doctor, but he’s definitely a professional killer.” Schiller picked up the remote and adjusted the video, stopping at the scene where the tricycle driver got out to check on Perlotta’s condition.
"The technique of lifting the head and checking the pulse is very professional, and he described an abnormality in the cervical spine. Ordinary people would not check there, unless they are hitmen who clean houses year-round. After the mission is completed, they will check the spine of the person whose neck has been broken to confirm that they are dead, and this is the technique they use."
Brainiac beeped twice more and said, "That's right. I've found this guy's resume. He used to operate near Black Island as a freelance hitman. But he later changed careers and opened a seafood and dried goods shop near the docks, catering to tourists. He's driving his tricycle here to buy goods from the area around the shared villa."
“No wonder,” Victor said. “When the person collapsed, he immediately got out of the car to check. When he found the person was dead, he turned around and left. His mental fortitude is truly extraordinary.”
“The Dark Ages haven’t been over for very long. Those Gothamites have just grown old, not died.” Schiller turned to look out the still pitch-black window and said, “Whoever is behind all this, he’s making a huge mistake in trying to drag Gotham back to the Dark Ages by bringing eternal night.”
"'If I had never seen the light, I could have endured the darkness.' I sensed that meaning in Rodriguez's words. I believe my feeling was correct. Gotham is an unfortunate city, and those born here seem to be naturally cursed. They have already accepted it all, accepted that they will be forever trapped in the abyss of darkness, never seeing the light of day. But one day, the clouds disperse, and the light of day reappears. Everyone's life has its most stirring melody, and in the lives of the people of Gotham, the tune composed by that moment, sung by millions, will be the true 'O Sole Mio.'"
"Where to?" Victor asked.
Arkham Infirmary.