mtl008 Chapter 4482 The Darkest Night ( )
Chapter 4482 The Darkest Night ( )
Chapter 4482 The Darkest Night (Part 10)
"What's wrong?" Victor turned to look at Schiller, who had stopped in his tracks.
Schiller seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It's nothing, let's go."
They drove to the Gotham Police Department. The department building was the same as always; its gunmetal gray exterior appeared a ghastly white under the streetlights. The ground in front of the entrance was muddy from the constant flow of people. As they entered, they stomped their feet forcefully on the doormat.
“You’re here,” Gordon said, stepping out. “Any new leads, great detective?”
“You know I don’t need clues.” Schiller walked past him toward the interrogation room. Gordon turned to watch him go, shook his head, and said, “Isn’t it a little strange that you seem to know this place better than I do? Oh, it’s Rodriguez. Never mind then.”
“It seems you think highly of him,” Victor said.
“It reached its peak, but it has declined somewhat now,” Gordon sighed. “I’ll be thankful as long as the investigation doesn’t turn out to reveal that the killer’s profile might be that of a psychic.”
Schiller entered the interrogation room. This was his first time seeing Milos: a large man with very short hair, a face with some Latin features, but blond hair and eyebrows. He had large tattoos on his arms, a nose ring, and a lip piercing, and looked intimidating.
"What did you say to him?" Schiller asked, looking at him.
Milos looked up at him, sizing Schiller up with some suspicion, and then said, "Are you a professor in the psychology department?"
"Yes. I'm asking you what you said to Chik."
Milos laughed dismissively: "The police can't do anything to me, so do you think you can guess something using psychology? Brainiac won't admit to such evidence."
“Yes, he won’t.” Schiller didn’t refute this. He said, “So I’m not actually asking you, but just letting you know that I know what you and Chick talked about. It led to his suicide, but that doesn’t matter.”
Milos stared at him, and Schiller lowered his eyes and said, "Do you know Fanny is dead?"
"Who is Fanny?" Milos asked, somewhat puzzled.
“Perlotta’s roommate,” Schiller continued, “She died in Jenna’s bed. You’ve heard of Jenna, haven’t you?”
“Of course, she’s the prettiest girl in their dorm.” Milos smiled and said, “I was thinking of having Perrotta call her out for some fun, but something’s off about that girl, and I haven’t managed to get her yet.”
“Perlotta killed her,” Schiller said. “But she’s trying to frame you. As expected, she’s already in the interrogation room next door, recounting how you mistook Fanny for Jenna and stabbed her to death.”
Milos's expression changed. He said, "Don't try to fool me. Perrotta wouldn't do that."
"Because Chick's death is also related to her, right? You think neither of you can escape responsibility, so you'll definitely keep quiet. But she was prepared all along. She committed the Fanny case and planned to frame you. Only she can get out of here smoothly."
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Milos turned his head away.
“Then I’ll tell you about this case in detail,” Schiller said. “In our previous reasoning, Jenna, because she went out in the middle of the night, around the time of Chick’s death, could have been mistaken for a strong culprit who could undermine someone’s alibi. The killer wanted to kill her to silence her, but Fanny was lying in her bed, so she unfortunately took the fall for her.”
"So what? It's not like I killed her, you have no evidence."
"If you didn't kill her, then who did?"
Milos frowned. Schiller continued, "You should have heard about Perrotta wanting to switch departments. Fanny is her rival. Killing her and framing you is the best option."
"Impossible, I'm her boyfriend. Why would she frame me?"
"If she truly cared for you, she wouldn't have encouraged you to lead Chick to suicide. Aren't you in the middle of this now?"
"What are you talking about?!" Milos slammed his fist on the table. "Whether it's Chick's death or Fanny's, you have no evidence to prove I did it. What's the point of inferring one crime I didn't commit from another?"
Schiller walked up to him, lowered his head, and said, “I’m not a policeman, and I’m not responsible for finding evidence. I’m not making inferences either; I just want you to think about the facts you know and whether your girlfriend really wouldn’t betray you.”
He straightened up again and said, "This is a crucial decision about your life. Brainiac did not abolish the death penalty."
After saying that, he turned and left. Gordon looked at him, and Schiller nodded slightly. Gordon let out a sigh of relief and said to his subordinate, "Keep a close eye on him for the next few hours. If he calls for help, go immediately."
Victor, who was outside the door, also heard what Schiller said. As Schiller walked out, Victor followed behind him and asked, "Was it really not Milos who killed Fanny? Was it Perrotta?"
Schiller shook his head and said, "Like I said, I'm not a detective. I don't solve cases through deduction. It's certainly impressive to deduce the truth, but if you can induce suspects to kill each other and make them confess, wouldn't that achieve the same goal?"
“…That’s so typical of you.” Victor couldn’t help but nod. “So, do you think they’ll say anything?”
“Yes, it will,” Schiller said with certainty. “Perlotta has too many flaws. She thinks she’s very clever and can manipulate everyone, but she’s not that clever at all. She often messes things up, but for various reasons, the people around her don’t expose her directly, which makes her think that everything is going smoothly for her, and she becomes more and more complacent.”
"So many people are popping into my head."
Schiller said as he walked up the stairs, “Most people don’t bother with her because they know she’s difficult. Even if you expose her, she won’t admit her mistakes; she’ll just throw a tantrum. So few people are willing to waste time with her. But when it comes to life-or-death decisions, no one will tolerate her.”
"Especially since Milos isn't exactly a respectable man either. The fact that he dumped Chick at that point and then blamed you proves that he's also a treacherous and selfish scoundrel. He wasn't unaware of Perlotta's true nature while he was with her; he was simply enjoying her beauty and passion. When it comes down to it, he won't make the wrong choice."
“But I still want to know who killed Fanny,” Victor said with a sigh.
Why not try reasoning it out yourself?
"But all my reasoning about Chick was wrong."
“It’s not your fault,” Schiller said. “If this were the last era, the case might have really unfolded the way you described. But now, apart from a few remaining graduate students, you won’t find a single person at Gotham University who can tie a standard hanging knot. You can’t expect someone like that to create a sophisticated time-delay device that can strangle someone while simultaneously fabricating their own alibi. They’re not that clever.”
"Moreover, there wouldn't have been people like Chick in the last era. Just because he was dumped and his parents were called in, he had a mental breakdown. Back then, an ordinary person who was upset might attack anything except himself. He certainly wouldn't have tried to commit suicide again and actually hanged himself because of a few suggestive words from a jerk."
"Wait, you said you'd try?"
“Yes, Chick didn’t intend to commit suicide,” Schiller said. “I couldn’t be sure of that before I met Milos. But after meeting him, I knew he didn’t have the ability to demoralize someone to the point of suicide with just a few words.”
“Nachik…”
“The same old trick,” Schiller said, standing at the door of the director’s office. “That also explains why he chose such a bizarre way to hang himself. After all, I told him beforehand how to properly hang himself.”
Victor looked bewildered. Schiller continued, “If he had done as I said, found a rope that wouldn’t roll over, wrapped it around the beam and around his neck several times, and tied a tight knot, he could have hanged himself silently. But as I said, he didn’t want to die. So, he came up with that position.”
"The shared villa only has three floors. Even if he could break through the neighbors' blockade to get to the rooftop, the height wouldn't be enough to kill him. His apartment on the second floor is even less likely to be affected. So, jumping off a building to commit suicide, which would create a huge commotion, is not feasible."
"Then why didn't he choose to hang himself inside the house?" Victor asked.
"So why do you think he didn't choose to hang himself in his dorm room, but instead went to the lab?"
"Because there are a lot of people there?"
"To be precise, it's because there are many people who can influence you. His goal is to shift the blame onto you in this way, so he has to make a scene in front of those who can influence you. His roommates are scattered across different departments and don't have much influence. On the other hand, the students and teachers in the lab are very close to you, so that he can put enough external moral pressure on you and force you to compromise."
“I understand,” Victor said. “If he hangs himself inside the house, his mother might just save him. But that way, the whole thing won’t get out. If he hangs himself outside, and someone sees him and saves him, then people will blame his mother. That’s the effect he wants.”
“That’s right. Chick knew very well that there were many people and eyes in the shared villa, and many people would be getting off their night shifts at that time. He would sit on the windowsill with the rope, and he would be discovered very quickly. People would rescue him and then blame his mother. He would have achieved his goal.”
"If that's the case, why would he hang himself?"
Schiller shook his head and said, "Like I said, I'm not a detective. I can only try to reconstruct the events as much as possible based on psychology and motivation, but I can't know every detail. That requires behavioral science reasoning..."
They went into the sheriff's office, and then Gordon came in. He placed a photograph on the table and said, "Milos and Perrotta have both confessed. The Chick case has essentially ruled out direct murder; the suspicion is induced suicide, but an accident occurred in between."
Schiller went over to examine the photograph, and after a moment's look, his expression became somewhat knowing. Victor looked at the photograph Schiller was holding. It was a picture of a window, the very window from which Chick had hanged himself.
“Where did the problem lie?” Victor asked.
Schiller tapped lightly on the lower part of the curtain rod. Victor looked over but didn't see anything unusual. Schiller said, "Remember the window we saw on the first floor?"
The window immediately came to Victor's mind. He said, "To be honest, I don't think that window can still function as a window. All that clutter blocks it up."
“Exactly. That’s the problem,” Schiller said. “What Chick needs is for someone outside the window to be able to see him. If there’s too much clutter hanging on the window, then if he’s sitting on it, he’ll just look like a salted fish that hasn’t dried properly. How can he stage a suicide?”