mtl008 Chapter 4475 The Darkest Night (3)
Chapter 4475 The Darkest Night (3)
Chapter 4475 The Darkest Night (Part 3)
“Professor Rodriguez? What brings you here?” Sivana stood on the bookshelf ladder and turned to look at the door.
“I’ve come to collect today’s blackboard notes, and I also have some things to discuss with you.” Schiller stood in the doorway, took off his coat and hung it on the rack next to him. He walked to his desk and sat down, and Sivana followed him over.
"You can ask Brainiac for the photo of the blackboard. What happened?"
"Have you been at the magic academy lately?"
"Yes, Christmas is coming soon, and the school is going to have a dance. We want to make it a big celebration, and we have a lot of things to take care of."
"A student at Gotham University attempted suicide." Schiller paused for a moment before briefly explaining the background.
“This isn’t a suicide attempt,” Sivana said. “A person who really wants to die wouldn’t make such a loud noise. He’s just trying to force you to compromise.”
"That's absolutely right. We can all see that he doesn't want to die, and he probably won't. But things still need to be resolved, don't they?"
"So it seems Professor Fries is unwilling to compromise?"
“Mr. Principal,” Schiller said, looking Sivana into the eyes, “Victor Frith may seem easygoing, but that doesn’t mean he’s easy to bully. He’s a scientist of principle, and you can’t expect him to compromise on professional matters. Besides, the cryogenic controller that Chick’s blunder burned out was worth seventy thousand dollars…”
“Very well, I’ll have someone sue him right now,” Sivana said through gritted teeth. Gotham University’s financial situation was already precarious, and he had secured almost all of the investments and experimental projects. He couldn’t allow anyone to squander his money in this way.
"I'm afraid you can't do it. It involves a love triangle between two men and one woman..."
"Damn it, when are these bastards finally going to take their eyes off their crotches?!"
“I’m afraid it will be difficult,” Schiller said. “If it gets out, it will definitely be a scandal and will affect admissions. Moreover, even if he doesn’t die, the attempt to commit suicide could attract widespread attention.”
“That’s really strange,” Sivana said. “Since when has a student’s suicide in Gotham made the news?”
"It's only because it's a suicide that it makes the news. If it were a bombing, probably no one would be willing to report it."
“They’ll say we drove him to his death, right?” Sivana opened his mouth and slammed his fist on the table. “They’ll describe Gotham University as a cannibalistic hellhole, and say how we tortured and abused him…”
"It also involves the persecution of homosexuals."
“God.” Sivana leaned back abruptly, scratched his head, and said, “Or we could just have someone murder him, that way the case would become commonplace and wouldn’t attract any attention. If we also arranged the body in a certain way, that would be even more of a cliché.”
"Brainiac is watching you."
"No, it's mainly because he was watching you. Otherwise, this matter would have been resolved long ago."
Schiller turned his head away helplessly and said, "Why would I murder a student?"
"Aren't you angry that he's being so unreasonable?"
“That wasn’t just being unreasonable; there was a reason for it. Although he was very agitated and completely irrational, I can understand why he was acting this way.”
Didn't you try to yell at him?
“I’ve already exposed him,” Schiller said. “This is already a huge blow to his mental health. If it continues, it will really become murder.”
After complaining, Sivana thought about it seriously for a moment, and then said, "You said he comes from a single-parent family and has a very controlling mother. I will try to communicate with his mother."
“That would be best,” Schiller said. “Let’s try to resolve this by tomorrow. If Victor loses his temper, we’ll all be spending Christmas in the fridge.”
After leaving Sivana, Schiller returned to Gotham University. It was lunchtime for the students, and the cafeteria was packed. Schiller ordered takeout and ate it in his office.
He glanced at the weather and opened the weather forecast app on his phone. "Continued snowfall..."
"Probably by tomorrow morning?" Schiller asked.
“It will stop for a while tonight, then it will continue until tomorrow morning,” Brainiac replied. “You’d better go home when the snow stops, or you might not be able to get back.”
“I really have to go back,” Schiller said. “If the snow keeps going like this, the temperature will get very low. I don’t have any warm clothes in the office, so I have to go back and get some.”
"Okay. The itinerary has been changed. Destination: Nature Reserve... I mean, your cozy home."
Schiller spent the entire afternoon preparing for his lesson. After finishing his last enrichment class in the evening, he got into his car. The snow had indeed stopped. He drove all the way home. It wasn't too late yet. Schiller packed his thicker clothes, including a heavy suit and a thicker overcoat, as well as some cashmere sweaters, to take to school the next day.
After lighting the fireplace, Schiller went upstairs to sleep. However, he was awakened by a phone call in the early hours of the morning. Outside the window, snow was falling heavily, and the streetlights flickered in the distance.
"Schiller." When Nora's voice came from the other end of the phone, Schiller had a bad feeling.
“Chik is dead. Victor has lost control of his emotions, and I’m worried he might freeze someone in ice.”
"Where are you now?"
"Hospital."
"...What happened to Victor?"
“It wasn’t Victor. Billy got caught in a snowstorm on his way home from school. He got soaked and then developed a fever. For the sake of his immune system, Brainiac doesn’t recommend that he use his superpowers to recover. I can’t leave right now.”
“Don’t worry, madam, I’ll go check right away.” Schiller sat up in bed and dressed as quickly as possible. He got into his car, intending to drive to Gotham University. But Brainiac reminded him that Chick had died in the South End.
"what?"
“Gotham University is full of surveillance cameras; he couldn’t have died there. He lived in some old shared houses in the South Side. That’s where he died.”
Schiller's heart sank. For the professor, not dying on campus was certainly good news. However, the situation at the villa in the South District was somewhat complicated. He had a feeling this would be a very tricky case.
As expected, when Schiller arrived, several police cars had already surrounded the villa. The flashing lights illuminated the night sky, the snow was bathed in vibrant red and blue, and the yellow of the police tape was even more glaring.
Schiller saw Gordon's patrol car but didn't go over. No police in Gotham would stop him. Schiller got out of the car, tightened his trench coat, and headed towards the cordon. The officer opened the cordon as soon as he saw him, and Schiller nodded to him.
Gordon had just walked out of the crime scene. Schiller had lost count of how many times he'd seen Gordon emerge from a crime scene. This scene played out repeatedly, without ceasing.
Gordon's hair was streaked with snow, and his overcoat over his uniform was soaked. His glasses were also covered in water droplets. Seeing Schiller, Gordon wasn't surprised. He said, "Brainiac told me you and Victor had been in contact with him during the day."
“More than that. We talked to him for quite a while,” Schiller sighed. “I’m sorry we couldn’t prevent the tragedy from happening. But whether things are as we imagine them, we’ll have to see for ourselves.”
“That’s not the point,” Gordon shook his head and said. “You need to talk to Victor first. He’s already frozen the body with dense ice.”
Schiller frowned slightly: "He wouldn't vent his anger in this way."
“He’s not venting his anger. He thinks the student’s death is suspicious and is worried that someone might tamper with the body. He might be waiting for you to come over.”
Schiller didn't ask any more questions and went into the villa. The reason why the situation here was rather complicated was because this place was a deserted wealthy area.
Most of the wealthy residents of the South District moved to the Underworld, leaving many villas vacant. However, due to past habits, many people prefer smaller apartments in the East District. These apartments have heating, lower rents, and comprehensive security surveillance; there haven't been any murders there for over a year.
However, the world is never short of gamblers who want to win big with a small investment. Some people believe that by taking this opportunity to seize the villa, they might be able to get Brainiac to recognize their ownership, or at least take a portion of it, and then get a share of the profits when it is developed in a few years.
So a group of people began to flock to the affluent southern district. Brainiac did try to regulate it, but he only concerned with the average living space—that is, not too many people crammed into one room, nor one person occupying one room—and didn't care much about anything else. And so these people settled down.
Chick and his mother were among them. They were originally poor people from the East Wharf, but fearing that the East Wharf would return to its previous chaotic state after Brainiac left, they decided to settle in the South Wharf.
The model here is that many people live together in a villa, but it's not one room per person. Some people occupy the living room, some occupy the bedrooms, and some even share the kitchen and bathroom.
They each started their own projects, some building staircases down from the second floor, others adding structures on the top floor. As long as it didn't compromise building safety, Brainiac didn't care. This resulted in some blind spots where security cameras hadn't been installed yet.
Chick died in such a blind spot. A rope hung from the railing below the second-floor balcony, and Chick hanged himself between the second and first floors. By this time, his body had been frozen by Victor, but it still retained the expression of death.
Victor stood against the wall, his face grim. The moment Schiller approached, Victor raised his gun. Schiller quickly extended his hands and said, "It's me."
Victor was momentarily stunned, but quickly regained his senses, put away his gun, and said, "God, you're finally here! I was going crazy!"
“Don’t worry, Victor. Now that a murder has occurred, Brainiac will definitely find a way to get to the bottom of it. He won’t implicate you based on his own account like before.”
Victor was not comforted at all. He said, "I shouldn't have let him go home. I should have watched him the whole time and not given him any chance to commit suicide."
Victor looked up at the sky, sighed, and said, "I had no idea his family lived around here. I knew his family wasn't well-off, and I thought they lived in the East End. I've been to the East End, and I know it's safe there. I didn't think Brainiac would let him commit suicide at home..."
Schiller could tell that Victor was mostly feeling guilty. Chick was very young, only a freshman this year. Under Brainiac's selection process, anyone who got into university was considered talented. While Chick was careless, it wasn't a major flaw, otherwise he would have been expelled long ago.
First, he made a mistake that caused expensive equipment to burn out, and he was reprimanded by his supervisor. Then he was dumped and betrayed by his sweetheart, and then the principal called his parents in. Under such multiple emotional shocks, it is indeed possible that he might have suicidal thoughts.
However, Schiller still didn't believe it was a suicide. Whenever he saw even the slightest possibility of suicide in Chick's demeanor, he would have Victor keep an eye on him.
The truth is, although Chick was extremely angry and resentful, and completely unable to control his emotions, he genuinely had no intention of committing suicide. His outburst in the lab was simply an attempt to vent his emotions and demand an explanation for the injustices he had suffered.
Schiller looked up at the crime scene.