Chapter 70

Inside the Fortress of Solitude, Leonardo was currently looking at a bunch of information. He was busy studying the case Aurora gave him and using the Fortress. Since he could pull basically all the information from all the world as long as it was on a server. However, he was currently searching for similar cases or missing person reports.

It was basically impossible for someone who kills so brutally not to have a previous victim or a next one in the last twenty odd years. Hence, Leonardo was using the fortress to search the area and the ones around it. Only even cheating with technology far more advanced, it was time consuming due to most things back then being paper and not formatted on electronics.

"Bring up the information about this Shanna." Leonardo asked.

On the screen a woman who was neither fat nor thin appeared with blonde hair and a pair of glasses. She wasn't that tall either, but just looking at her face made Leonardo want to punch her. Since she looked very familiar to him, much like the man as Leonardo knew a look alike from his own world.

The woman in question was found decapitated and hung from a tree by her left foot a few months after the man. Upon looking at the file, Leonardo only really saw that she was missing some muscle but since it was so haphazardly done and most likely from being dragged down the road. The file listed it more like a deep road rash, but he felt more like it was taken by the killer.

Besides the possibility of the killer taking a piece of the body. There wasn't much connection to the man, but Leonardo knew it was connected. Since the fortress managed to dig up a piece of information and a transaction between the two for a hefty some for that time period. To back up his theory, neither held a job to have that much cash laying around nor any recent record around the period to explain where it came from.

After some more digging, Leonardo soon managed to dig up at least seven that looked familiar and eighteen that didn't. Each was killed brutally but in different styles. The only thing similar were the money transfers and some of the victim's body missing.

Just while studying these cases, Leonardo felt the killer was getting up there in age and his strength had deteriorated a great deal. In the beginning he would carry the body or put them in areas that would require a great deal of strength and stamina. However, in the latest case he could connect, they were left half hidden next to a staircase.

This body showed that the killer did try to carry it up the stairs but dropped it and then attempted to drag it. Only they seemed to give up and angrily toss it behind the stairs and leave. So Leonardo placed the killer age around their older years or have a medical condition.

Also from the bodies he could see that the killer rage seemed to decrease greatly after the two he first looked into. For the victims afterwards weren't as badly mutilated and were almost like were killed because the killer could.

"So the killer should have known the two and possibly a previous victim or two." Leonardo rubbed his chin.

Shifting his eyes, Leonardo began to study both Mike and Shanna's personal circles. Well the circle that was noted down by the detective and pulling up their files in the Fortress. While he didn't see many connections in their friends, a couple of their friends were connected. Not to mention not long after Mike was killed, his friend Sean divorce his wife due to her having an affair. Which probably wouldn't mean much, but his wife was connected to Mike and Shanna.

"Well, one friend is considered missing and presumed dead while the two were murdered. I think I may have found you." Leonardo sighed as he quickly organized everything.

After writing and laying out his finding, he quickly sent it off to Chloe, Aurora's mother. Since it involved cases around where they lived and truthfully, he couldn't get involved much. If anything he could be considered a consultant at the moment and now basically did his job and now needed to wait.

"What should I do now?" Leonardo scratched his head as it only took him half a day to solve and this was him just taking his time.

--

Later that night, Leonardo was humming softly to himself as he was using popsicle sticks to build a mini replica of Hashirama on top of Sage Art True Thousand Hand. If he will make the nine tails and Madara to go with it, he doesn't know it yet.

"On tonight's news, a suspected serial killer is in custody after over twenty years of police being on his trial." a news woman reported.

Following the woman was a picture of a sixty seven year old man who was half bald and mostly had white hair. From the photo the man looked fairly cranky, before the news story shifted to covering something else. Since the news didn't have all the facts yet or didn't know what to censor yet until it was confirmed. However, since they dare air and show the man's face, it a sure bet he is the man behind the killing.

Ring~, Ring~

Picking up his phone, Leonardo answered it to hear Aurora's voice on the other end. "So you already solved it. I just gave you the file not long ago."

"Yeah, it took a bit of effort, but it wasn't too bad. It was mostly tracking down the possible victims and backtracking." Leonardo answered.

"Mother wants to know how you assume the later ones were connected." Aurora asked.

"A theory that such a brutal killer won't be able to stop, large sum of money transfer and most of the victims were tossed aside and posed after a piece of their flesh was taken." Leonardo answered. "A lot of the time the sum transfer exceeds the victim's financial situation and most don't have a history of gambling. There is also the fact that the later victims didn't hold as much rage as the beginning two, hence I focused on those around them."

Explaining the reasoning and investigation to her, Leonardo continued to focus on his project in hand. In the end after explaining basically all he knew, Aurora on the other side of the phone stayed silent for a moment.

"Mother says it almost as if you're born to be a detective. You managed to crack this case that stumped everyone for a couple decades." Aurora said.

"So my guess about the evening news boldness of showing his picture was correct." Leonardo shrugged mostly to himself.

"Yeah, they are still collecting evidence, but they basically caught him red handed. He seemed to be admiring his past work or something when the officers busted in." Aurora said. "Of course you can't tell anyone for obvious reasons."

"Well, if you have any more, send them my way. I don't mind as it was a semi interesting puzzle." Leonardo said.

"They said they would think about it." Aurora answered.

"So how is business?" Leonardo changed topics.

For the next while, Leonardo just chatted with Aurora for a while before she hung up. Cross country calls were a bit expensive after all and while neither cared. They didn't want to spend money on something so ridiculous as this.

Lightly gluing and moving the popsicle sticks into position. He lightly sanded the parts with his fingers as in a few hours he built up most of the base and fair bit. While the hands were taking form, so was some of Hashirama.

"What are you doing?" Lois asked.

"Creating a masterpiece." Leonardo replied.

"More like a mess. What is it supposed to be anyways." Lois asked, looking at them.

"The God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju." Leonardo replied.

"Is that so? Is he powerful or something?" Lois asked with little interest.

"He defined an entire era. So you tell me if he is powerful or not." Leonardo replied.

"If you say so. While you play with your sticks, I am leaving for a while. So tell the Kent's I will be back later tonight and don't worry about dinner for me." Lois said leaving through the door.

Leonardo waved her goodbye showing he understood and continued to work on his current project.