Chapter 1790: Summer in Fools' Village (Part 3)_1

After parting ways with Cobblepot, Shiller began to ponder on his way back to the office.

Starting with motives, who would have an issue with the gangster families?

First off, the police could be ruled out. Ever since Gordon became the police commissioner, in a way, the mob has become an interest group. The mob making the transition to legitimate business was good for the security situation in Gotham.

Among other things, while it might be possible for other police commissioners to meet with accidents, Gordon, hailed as the last conscience of Gotham, would not use underhanded methods like poisoning.

In the past, the city government was an enemy of the mob, even though the mob often bribed officials to gain a protective umbrella. The power struggles in politics could indeed affect the mob.

But the current structure of Gotham's government is quite stable. Roy lacks competition, and the mob supports his transformative ideas. After a peaceful coexistence for so long, even if there were disputes, Roy would likely choose to communicate rather than resort to violence, so the city administration can also be ruled out.

Businessmen and entrepreneurs could have motive; the domineering style of the mob offended many. However, the most influential business people in Gotham City are the Wayne Family. Even if Bruce was to resort to murder, he wouldn't need to kill members of the mob.

We are in a time of development. The major forces in Gotham have finally reached a consensus. Even if Wayne Enterprises is lacking funds, they would not be so shortsighted as to let the situation get out of control again, as this would benefit no one.

Could it be Falcone who made the move? This is the most likely possibility but then, what happened with the Old Lady Spencer?

The old Spencer couple stepped back from their responsibilities years ago, allowing their son to take over their business. Moreover, Old Lady Spencer was a doomed person who wouldn't live long even if no one wanted to harm her. So, why add this accident?

After evaluating each motive, Shiller found no useful clues. He then turned his attention to the methods. Who had the ability to kill these two people?

The range of answers to this question is huge. Anyone who had contact with them is suspected.

Upon this thought, Shiller paused, took a detour, and instead of heading to his office, decided to swing by the library. He needed to look up some resources, especially medical information related to acute poisoning and the urinary system.

Not every psychiatrist needs to study internal and external medicine. If Shiller is lacking in any way in medical aspects, he admittedly has less knowledge of internal medicine compared to surgery and psychiatry.

In daily life, poisoning is not uncommon, with the most common instances caused by food poisoning. Despite this, poisoning remains a high-risk factor. And then there are snakes; specific venom requires corresponding serum to treat.

Symptoms of overall edema usually stem from problems with the urinary system, specifically the kidneys. Urinary exhibition is also common among poisoning patients. This is usually caused by toxins triggering kidney problems, which prevents the body from properly excreting fluids, leading to edema.

These symptoms all present a highly professional pathological analysis; just by quickly skimming a few articles, Shiller identified the source of the problem.

Simply put, if it was a case of poisoning, then the drugs that cause kidney problems aren't the best choice. First, insufficient poisoning levels aren't lethal; secondly, it takes a more extended period for poisovning to kick in, allowing ample time for rescue and treatment.

If the urinary system representation was just secondary, then there would be other more prominent symptoms appearing beforehand. However, Cobblepot emphasized that aside from the overall edema, the victim exhibited no other symptoms. So, the only option left is to wait for the pathologist's report.

However, some logical deduction can be made from this. The killer, despite having better options, shyed away from them and instead opted for a troublesome, high-risk, and foolish approach, revealing an underlying motive.

This provides an indirect explanation that it is improbable that the killer murdered for personal gain. A hired killer would only kill based on prior experience. Even if it involved poisoning, it would be poisoning of a lethal nature with a low possibility of recovery.

Hired killers don't need to create a unique method of murdering; only serial killers with special intentions are likely to do so.

Is the edema to the victims' bodies the key? Shiller thought, did the killer use this poison to make their bodies bloat in this way, or to let them feel a special kind of pain?

Shiller's mind was flooded with various possibilities. He believed that the correct answer was included within them, but now he had to make his way to the media classroom to receive Cobblepot's emailed autopsy report.

Sitting in front of the computer, Shiller opened the email and skimmed Little Farnas's autopsy report. What surprised him the most was the photo.

From the photographs, the corpse did not look like a young man at all. He was drastically bloated like a giant, his features hardly discernible. If you couldn't visualize, you could compare him to the Michelin Man - only way more disgusting and terrifying.

Shiller wasn't repulsed by the corpse; he found it odd. Some motive deductions in his mind were gradually eliminated, while others were highlighted.

Shiller first observed the condition of the corpse from a regular perspective. Besides being disgusting and frightening, he found no other sentiments. He then viewed it from his perspective and concluded the condition to be a ridiculous state.

People tend to ridicule things that are huge, bloated and clumsy; the corpse was in a similar state. Did the killer want the audience to laugh at the victims?

Serial killers generally have two types of approaches: letting victims experience what they had gone through, and letting victims experience what ordinary people cannot comprehend.

The former is revenge, the latter is like sublimation. The former is the killer showcasing their past to the world, and the latter is the killer showing the viewers the future he desires.

In many cases, the victims' posture hints at the killer's ridicule. The process in which the killer's humiliate their victims, and all the treatment they give to the victims' body post-murder, are all to belittle them. This case is no exception.

The killer is publicly humiliating the victims. He's making them present a bloated and ridiculous posture they would never have shown while alive.

This suggests that the killer was likely taunted in such a way, and it's very likely that these two victims were the ones who taunted him.

In an instant, the answer in Shiller's mind was highlighted.

He immediately turned around to the phone and dialed Cobblepot's phone number, and without waiting for Cobblepot to speak, he spoke quickly.

"I've read the autopsy report you gave me, I know who the killer is, go find the unwelcome fat man among the Twelve Families."

Shiller quickly hung up the phone without further explanation, and when he returned to his office, both Anna and Victor were still there.

Now that Shiller has time to ask Victor more details about his student, he walked over to Victor's desk and asked: "How is your student? Is he okay?"

"Just lucky to still be alive." Victor breathed a sigh of relief and said: "You can't imagine how dangerous it was, he fell in the lab, luckily two female students from the next lab found him and quickly called both me and the medical office."

"But his body had swollen like a tire in just ten or so minutes. We quickly sent him to Wayne Hospital. The doctor said that if we were a minute later, his kidney would have already failed."

The movement of Shiller's hand reaching for a pen suddenly froze, and he looked at Victor and asked: "What did you say? The student's body was swollen?"

"Yes, it was extremely frightening." Victor fumbled with the pen in his hand and said: "I've seen horrific crime scenes before, but according to those two girls, the whole incident was as if Oscar was a balloon being inflated, his body swelled up in just a few minutes..."

Shiller immediately turned and walked to the telephone table, Victor looked at him somewhat puzzled and asked: "What's the matter? Is there a problem?"

Shiller motioned him to be quiet, and after the call went through he said to the other side: "Wait a moment, Cobblepot, I might have made a mistake just now, have you already taken action?"

"What? You've caught the killer? But... tell me where you are right now, I'll come over. Yes, don't touch the killer for now, let me see him first."

Walking past Victor's seat, Shiller patted him on the shoulder and said: "Drive me over there, I need to think about some things."

Victor didn't say anything, took the car key and followed Shiller behind, they both got into Victor's car.

"What's going on?" Victor asked while starting the car.

Shiller simply explained the course of events and his thought process, then began: "The whole process of a murder case is like a complex and sophisticated machine, motive, method and result are inseparable, and there is a very subtle interaction between all elements."

"Change one thing, and all subsequent deductions could be wrong."

"The state of the victims' bodies after death proves that the killer wanted to humiliate them, and this humiliation is targeted."

"Making them swollen is representative of the killer wanting the world to see their bloated side, wanting them to be laughed at for their ugly potbellied figures. This means that the killer was likely ridiculed by them in the same way, he wanted them to experience the same taste."

"The previous two victims were members of the Twelve Families, and Old Lady Spencer is already bedridden, those who could have had contact with her were very limited, almost certainly all members of the Twelve Families."

"There aren't many members of the Twelve Families with abnormal body shapes, gather them up and question each one, the killer is not that kind of highly artistic serial killer, the motive for murder is more revenge, it is likely that he acted impulsively out of anger, after which he will surely feel regret and fear, a little questioning will reveal him, Cobblepot certainly knows this."

"But why did you change your mind?"

"Because your student also has the same problem, and he is still alive." Shiller's hand lightly tapping on the car door handle.

"And what does this prove? That he is clumsier than you thought, and there were some who slipped through his net?"

"The killer's motive isn't anything new, but the method is very clever. Even Spencer's lady who never left the Spencer family residence couldn't escape it. Little Farnas had plenty of protection around him and yet he got in trouble. Do you think your student would be so lucky?"

"Then why..."

"A serial killer with revenge as motivation will not kill randomly. He targeted your student, meaning your student very likely also ridiculed him. So why involve important figures in the gang but have an accident with a regular student? There must be more to this, that's why I want to see for myself."

The car stopped, Shiller pushed the car door open as he stepped out of it and said: "Moreover, being able to concoct a drug that inflates a human to the size of a tire shows he is quite a talent in chemical medicine creation, I need to find a student for Jonathan so he calms down."

The two of them entered Cobblepot's mansion. Cobblepot was sitting on the couch and in front of him two hulking gangsters were pressing down a fat man.

Shiller walked up, shook hands with Cobblepot, who then pointed at the fat man.

Shiller paused the moment his eyes fell on the fat man, then he asked.

"Are you sure it's him? He has never killed before."