mtl008 Chapter 3005: The Green Trees Are Thick and the Summer Is Long (39)
Chapter 3005: The Green Trees Are Thick and the Summer Is Long (39)
Chapter 3005: The Green Trees Are Thick and the Summer Is Long (Thirty-nine)
Schiller went to see Edward again, but before meeting Edward, he met Cobert first, who told him the news about the nurse.
The situation described by the nurse basically matched the timeline investigated by Schiller. The clues were discovered ten years ago, and the man went to the construction site four years ago and was unfortunately killed.
But the nurse provided an additional piece of information, which was that the worker learned about Edward through investigation and asked his wife to protect Edward.
How did he know that Edward might be a witness?
There should be no intersection in their life trajectories... No, Edward later went to high school in the Polokin community, and the worker should still be alive at that time, so did they intersect during this period?
Schiller thought that it was possible that Edward had taken the initiative to find the worker.
Back then, he was able to catch his uncle's flaws through observation, forcing him to destroy the body. It is not impossible that he could observe the abnormality of this worker and use him to do something.
Four years ago, the workers went to the ruins of the primary and middle schools. Could it be that they were instructed by Edward?
Now the problem has returned to the starting point. Edward may know more than anyone else, even more than Schiller who has conducted a full investigation.
Schiller even suspected that Edward was using him to do something. After hypnosis, Edward's behavior seemed to be hinting at this.
Schiller met Edward again. Edward still looked very happy. He sat on the bed by the window, staring out the window motionlessly. There was only a faint light on the sea outside the window, which seemed particularly quiet and mysterious.
Seeing Schiller coming over, he smiled and said, "You're here."
Schiller sat opposite him and looked into his eyes. Edward suddenly turned around, stared at Schiller with sparkling eyes and said, "You must have a lot to ask me, but I don't want to guess riddles now. I want to give you a riddle."
Schiller really annoyed the Riddler, but he felt that Edward was not like that. He was an overly smart boy and he should know what to do in his best interest.
He heard Edward say: "It makes mountains rise, it dries up rivers, it destroys civilization, it makes plants regenerate, it makes humans clear, it makes humans confused, it does not exist, it is everywhere, what is the answer?"
Schiller kept thinking about the riddle on his way out. He didn't think it was a word puzzle, but rather a description of something.
But the problem is that Edward's perspective is different from his own. Something he describes with such words may not be the case in his eyes. He must put himself in Edward's perspective to figure out the answer to this riddle.
The imagery of mountains and rivers is very interesting. Schiller thought that this might be the literal meaning, because the forest is on the mountain. The destruction of civilization may refer to the demolition of the middle school and elementary school buildings, and the regeneration of plants refers to the plants growing again on the ruins.
It makes humans clear and confuses humans. It may mean that some people know the truth, but some people become crazy. It does not exist, which may mean that the truth has not been revealed. It is everywhere, which means that the crime has indeed occurred.
It seems that the answer to this riddle should be these criminals, but Schiller thinks it is not that simple. Edward may be using this riddle to hint at the murderer behind these criminals.
Then the riddle must be understood from another level. It must be interpreted from a more philosophical perspective, regardless of the facts. Who can do all of the above?
While driving to the residence of the last suspect, Nygma, Schiller suddenly had the outline of the answer in his mind.
He turned the steering wheel and the car drove in the completely opposite direction. Half an hour later, Schiller reappeared at the foot of the mountain.
There were no lights in the crematorium anymore, and in the mountains there were only thick shadows cast by dense trees. The deep darkness before dawn almost swallowed everything.
Schiller walked along the path from the crematorium to the door of the air-raid shelter. After the door opened, the dark cave looked like a big mouth ready to devour people. Schiller slowly walked in.
"Here's what happened. We found a lot of bones in there. I was a little panicked, so I didn't bring all of them out, but I think these are enough. Sheriff, you must..."
"Don't worry, ma'am. These bones are enough for us to open an investigation. Do you have any clues to tell us? Be sure to be as detailed as possible and tell us everyone you suspect."
The Gotham Police Department was brightly lit. Wanda, Jarvis, Tim, Elsa, Helen, the New Warriors team, and the Guardians of the Galaxy were all standing in the lobby of the police station, with Gordon standing opposite them.
"We found out a lot of things," Jarvis said. "All the clues match up."
After that, he handed the thick file to Gordon and said, "Tim has done a genetic comparison on most of the bones and found the files of the missing children case. It's just that we can't access the data in the police system. It's up to you, Sheriff."
"No problem. Wait a moment. I'll tell you as soon as I get the result. And now I'm going to apply for a search warrant to solve Williams' problem first. Are you saying that you saw a body at his resort construction base?"
"That's right." Xingyun stood up and said, "I saw it clearly and took a few photos. The face of the body was not shown, but it can be seen that it was an adult and was dead."
"That's unfortunate, ma'am. Please submit the photos to us. Once the search warrant arrives, we will immediately go and make the arrest."
More than ten minutes later, police officers in blue uniforms swarmed out of the gate like a school of fish. Countless police cars sounded their sirens and surrounded and blocked all major intersections at the fastest speed.
The reporters who were watching the situation rushed to the crime scene as quickly as possible, but were stopped outside the cordon set up by the FBI.
The head of the FBI saw Gordon coming and nodded to him. Gordon showed his search warrant and said, "I know the case of the body in the lake is important to you, but now, a more serious case has occurred. We now suspect that the owner of the construction site is related to hundreds of missing children cases..."
The head of the FBI looked at the reporters outside the cordon with some caution. He did not want to be held responsible for being an accomplice in the missing children's case, so he had his men to step aside.
The police officers filed in, not missing any details, and soon someone came to report to Gordon.
"Boss, we found it. A male body was buried about three meters deep. It's badly decomposed now. Do you want to call the forensic doctor?"
"Call all the medical examiners here and look for anything else."
Just as Gordon was about to explain something else, the phone rang. After he picked up the phone, he frowned and said, "What? Who reported it? Nygma?!"
Half an hour later, Gordon returned to the Gotham Police Station facing the rising sun. Nygma, who had just been discharged from the hospital and was still pale, was sitting on a chair. When he saw Gordon coming, he forced himself to stand up.
Gordon quickly asked him to sit down, "Don't die here if you want to."
"I'm sorry, Sheriff, but I have to come here now. I have clues about child molestation and I have to tell you now..."
Gordon's expression turned serious. He said, "Let's go in and talk in detail."
Soon he brought Nygma to the reception room. Nygma said, "The story starts from when I was the principal of the Porokin community. Yes, you must be surprised, but I was indeed the principal of that district. At that time, I was responsible for the teaching management of the middle school and primary school departments."
"And the reason I was transferred was because I discovered a secret. It's not that I didn't want to call the police, but at that time Gotham was really..."
"Of course, I'm not saying there's something wrong with the police. You've done a good job. It's just that you were powerless in the face of the gangs back then, and I feel helpless and terrified when facing these vicious criminals."
"That's why I can only tell the truth now. About ten years ago, I found that students from my school often disappeared outside the school, and the number of missing cases was abnormally high."
"I have been organizing activities and courses to raise awareness in school, but for some reason the situation did not improve until one day a student told me that there was a group of people hanging around outside the school..."
From Nygma, Gordon heard another version of the story, which roughly meant that as the principal, he had noticed the disappearance of children very early on and was investigating the situation diligently.
Then he attracted the attention of criminal gangs, lost his job, and encountered several assassination attempts, which he luckily escaped. Fearing for his own safety, he dared not expose their crimes until now when things became a big deal, and he dared to stand up and make corrections.
Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with this logic. After all, Gotham was so bad in the past. If these people had some connection with the gangs, they would be killed without a burial place if they came forward to testify. It is normal that they dare not come forward.
It is not wrong to come forward now. After all, investigations also require clues and evidence. As long as you provide useful clues and are willing to testify in court, you will be considered a valuable witness and will be regarded as having contributed to solving the case.
When Gordon began to ask him about specific evidence, he mentioned the crematorium. He said that there were several jars of ashes in it, which were the evidence that the murderers had destroyed the bodies. As long as the identity of the owner of the ashes was matched and their movements were tracked, it would be possible to find the real murderer.
But Gordon had already obtained the ashes. Andre had already sent him a sample of the ashes and had started comparing them a few hours ago. The results are almost out now.
Then Nygma said that there should be a person buried at the site of the middle school and elementary school, an innocent person who was killed by the mastermind behind the incident, but the body there had been dug out long ago, and the police would find nothing if they went there again.
Nygma finally said that the resort built by Williams was also not right, and it might be used to destroy the bodies and dump them in the lake.
At this time, the male body dug out from the resort had just been sent to the police station. As for the bodies in the lake, they were under the jurisdiction of Amanda's federal shield. All the bodies fished out so far were not recent deaths.
After finding out that all the clues he provided were worthless, Nygma gritted his teeth and said, "I know another person. She is the sister of the wife of the manager of the Wardred engineering team. She may know the secret of her brother-in-law. Maybe you can go..."
He found that Gordon's serious and deep expression opposite him had disappeared, and his eyes only revealed contempt and mockery.
Nygma suddenly realized that he might have been fooled.
He had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "I also know that Williams wants to put Bob's wife's sister in a mental hospital to invalidate her testimony. He has his eyes on Schiller Rodriguez, the most famous psychologist in Gotham. Williams must have contacted him."
"If you could get in touch with this psychologist, you would know that what I said is true!"
Gordon thought about all the sad things in his life, and then he tried hard to control his expression and not laugh out loud.
We are professional——