Chapter 319: The Dense Shade of Green Trees Prolongs the Summer Day (17)

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Pamela carefully flipped through the ruins of the middle school section and the primary school section with the root system of the forest plants, just as Shiller had mentioned, and finally uncovered more things—the other body parts of that man.

Years had passed, so other tissues were definitely not retrievable, but Pamela found most of the bones and brought them back to her home.

It was Shiller's first visit to Pamela's house. Pamela should have hosted a housewarming party after she moved in, but coincidentally, the Great Depression hit, and her mortgage had already overwhelmed her to the point of distress, so naturally, she was not in the mood to throw any party, and others were considerate enough not to bring it up.

Luckily, an unexpected windfall allowed Pamela to pay off her mortgage, and she was now preparing for her own housewarming party.

The house Pamela bought was a standard house in the South District community, not a villa; it was a very ordinary American-style house, two-story, with a front yard and a backyard, decorated in a modern style. Pamela used many plants for decoration, which gave it a somewhat naturalistic charm.

Of course, even though it was an ordinary house, because it was in a safer, affluent area, it wasn't cheap. Including various renovations, it had cost Pamela over 200,000 US Dollars, which, around the turn of the millennium, was considered very expensive.

But this highlighted the value of the 5 million US Dollars she received from Greed; after paying off the mortgage, she still had a substantial amount left over.

In the backyard of the house, Pamela, while piecing together bones with Shiller, said, "I've already agreed with Roy that this money would be considered an investment I made with him. Together with the liquid assets he can now mobilize, we can start the preliminary greening transformation of Gotham."

"What are your plans?"

"Directly transforming the existing roads is impractical, but Wayne Enterprises has very advanced rooftop garden technology, which has been widely applied in the construction of the East District. We are planning to popularize this technology in the other four districts."

"Is there enough money?"

"Together, it's nearly ten million US Dollars, which is just about enough. But this means we can't afford the cooling project. Luckily, just like with the previous mosquito incident, as long as we get through these few months, it will naturally cool down, and next year will be much better."

Shiller nodded, then focused on the task at hand. The two skilled workers quickly completed the skeleton, which, as Shiller had expected, belonged to a man around 30 years old who had long been doing physical labor, nothing special.

Only the shattered skull remained. After the two pieced together the fragments of the skull, they realized that the impact site was not directly above the skull, but at the back of the head.

This confirmed Shiller's speculation that this man was not killed by something falling on top of his head.

An interesting fact is that many times, people killed by falling objects from high places do not have injuries on the very top of their head, nor at the back of their skulls, but rather on their foreheads.

Because when humans hear something above them, they instinctively look up. So unless the object teleported directly above their head and struck down, many are killed while still looking up.

Therefore, in many TV shows, those killed by falling flowerpots while lying face down on the ground are actually not very scientific; there are often more cases of bodies lying flat on the ground than face down after being struck.

Of course, there are also people who react slowly and don't look up even as the object is about to hit their head. These people may potentially be struck down, but it's more likely to hit the very top of their skull. To be hit on the back of the skull, one must ensure the person keeps their head down constantly, which is highly improbable.

Such injuries on the back of the skull are usually man-made, caused by being struck from behind.

Shiller and Pamela examined the fracture marks on the shattered skull and they agreed that the man was murdered. Besides the initial blow that struck him, the fracture marks indicated that the skull had been hit several times afterward—surely, the beam didn't grow legs and start dancing on the back of his head, right?

Actually, blunt force weapons are the main instruments in murder cases in daily life; the human occipital bone is very fragile and even a wine bottle could kill a person. So, there are often marks of being struck on the back of the skulls of murder victims in crimes of passion.

Some try to disguise a death by impact to the back of the skull as a suicide by dropping the body from a height, but modern forensic technology can completely determine the specific shape of the weapon that struck the back of the skull, whether it was a hit or a fall, at a glance.

Forensic scientists can even perfectly reconstruct the shape of the weapon, the angle of impact, and even the manner in which the assailant exerted force, and can determine the assailant's height and whether they are left or right-handed. Such methods are completely infeasible.

Pamela and Shiller did not have such professional technical means, and since the body was not fresh and only skeletal fragments remained, many of the detailed patterns and orientations were no longer clear.

Nevertheless, Shiller could tell that the person who killed the worker was very strong and had only struck once; after the man fell, there was no overkill.

This confirmed something most important, which was that the assailant was not panicking.

Many people, even those who commit premeditated crimes, worry immensely that the victim hasn't died completely. So, stabbing once is not enough—they feel compelled to turn the other party into a sieve. The same goes for hitting the head: afraid that one blow might not be fatal, they continue to strike several times even after the person has fallen.

If there are signs of overkill, it indicates that the person is not a professional; on one hand, they are panicking; on the other, they lack a clear judgment of their own strength and the victim's physique, not sure whether they can deliver a fatal blow in one strike. An experienced killer would not make such a mistake.

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Because, as the saying goes, the more traces left on a body, the easier it is to provide the police with clues. Medical examiners are not to be trifed with, given enough wounds, they can even deduce height and dominant hand using the Exhaustion Method.

Shiller shared his thoughts, and after pondering for a moment, Pamela spoke, "However, I believe he didn't continue to strike additional blows because he knew that even without inflicting further wounds, the person wouldn't survive."

Shiller thought about it and realized she was right. If this had happened on the street, it would definitely require a few more blows to prevent the victim from surviving and calling the police, but the man died deep in the Forest, where even one stab wound, should it incapacitate him, would mean certain death.

Moreover, the murderer eventually buried the man in the ruins of the school, so even if he hadn't died from the blows, he would have suffocated. Indeed, there was no need to inflict additional wounds at the time.

This also revealed an important clue, namely that the perpetrator was not at all concerned about the body being discovered.

But that wasn't quite normal. Even though the man died in a forested area, there was a high school not far away. What made him think that nobody would come near the spot?

Where did such confidence come from?

Shiller had already deduced some facts. He looked at Pamela and said, "Brand carried out a soul summoning ceremony. Before this man died, the ruins of two buildings still existed on the ground, but by the time we got there, the traces of the buildings were almost gone."

"You mean, after this man died, someone cleaned up the rubble from the construction site a second time."

"Yes, ten years ago, the two buildings were demolished, but a lot of construction debris and foundations were left behind. A few years later, a man died there, and someone took away this construction debris and foundations too, restoring it to look like the forest it once was."

"This man must have discovered something." Pamela looked at the bones on the ground and said, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have suddenly returned to the school ruins, nor would someone have killed him and then carried out a second cleanup of the ruins."

"But you didn't find anything there, did you?"

Pamela nodded and said, "The opponent was very cautious, otherwise, they wouldn't have killed him the moment he arrived... Professor, if you continue to investigate, they will definitely target you."

"Why are you suddenly so concerned about me?"

Shiller indeed felt it strange, couldn't Pamela know him better? What could they possibly do to him?

"Professor, you are no longer a superpower user now," Pamela reminded. "If indeed the other side is just a serial killer acting on interest, they might not be able to harm you. But if this matter involves interests, they would probably dare to use any dirty tricks."

Shiller stared at Pamela, who looked around and then walked to the corner of the backyard under a tree. She gestured to Shiller to come over, and after he approached, Pamela dug with a shovel and Shiller saw a complete scapula.

"Do you know who he is?" Pamela asked, her tone cold. Shiller could tell she didn't need an answer, and sure enough, she answered herself, "He was an environmentalist, adamantly opposed to someone like me who can breed and revive plants at will. With me around, they couldn't easily attack the methods others use to grow plants, which would impact their environmental business."

"When I went to the lab, he sneaked into my house and tried to set it on fire. Fortunately, the vines I placed in the backyard caught him, otherwise my house would have been gone."

"In the months after the economic crisis began, my house, car, even my job, were threatened by these people. Did I ever tell you that my black Ford car inexplicably caught fire, and I was helpless to prevent it?"

"Professor, they are from a different world than yours," Pamela indicated, clearly referring to the serial killer and those driven by interests. "Your set of rules only protects against gentlemen, not against their kind of scoundrels. Even if they can't kill you, they can find ways to cause you financial loss. A thief has a thousand days, but there is no one to guard against a thief for a thousand days."

After leaving Pamela's house, Shiller considered her words carefully and thought she made sense.

Gotham used to be quite pure. Everyone was just crazy; I kill you for personal pleasure, and if I can't enjoy it or if I'm outmatched, then I accept that.

But things are different now. Once Gotham started improving and the doors were left wide open, hadn't everyone strived to save Gotham to allow it to return to normal? People come here to do business; why shouldn't they be allowed to come in?

And it was considering this that Shiller had refrained from causing trouble for Williams. He was a legitimate businessman, acquiring land legally and within the bounds of the law, building a resort. He might be bad-tempered and rude, but ultimately, he wasn't breaking the law; why should he be stopped from building?

Or perhaps, hadn't the people of Gotham worked hard for so long precisely so that Gotham could attract the likes of businessman Williams?

However, the normal world of normal people didn't mean it was less dangerous, it could, in fact, be even more so. Compared to the insane, the battles for interests in the world of the sane were much more complex and dangerous, with interest groups clinging tightly together, extreme measures continuously emerging.

Besides interests, they had no other pursuits, which also meant they had no bottom line. Because of their single-minded focus, they were powerful.