Chapter 2590: Falling Gently (39)

"Oh, really? A second after he took away my letter and left, I should have picked up my phone to report him missing, and you would refrain from calling the psychiatric hospital after I did just as I promised?"

Xi Wana noticed the changes in Shiller's demeanor and hurriedly attempted to mediate by saying, "Officer, you can't be so aggressive; Professor Shiller has nothing to do with these cases. He's just been unlucky enough to encounter them..."

"I don't believe in so many 'coincidences'..."

Xi Wana tried to speak again, but was repelled by Shiller's Death Stare, and giving up his facade, Shiller sighed, crossed one leg over the other, and stared at Clay, saying:

"I must say, Agent, your disguise is terrible. Such leading questions are the kind of tactics only an agent would use; police wouldn't do this."

"Because the unprofessional spy training set up by your superiors would never tell you that agents are like celestial beings flying in the sky. You answer only to your superiors, you're only responsible for getting the results they want from whoever you're interrogating, and if anything goes wrong, it's your superiors who bear the burden."

"There's an unwritten rule in your system, that is, low-level agents don't exist, they're invisible, whoever makes the decision is the one responsible; the executors bear no responsibility."

"No superior would ever push you out to take the blame because others are dissatisfied with the confession results, because each and every one of you knows you're just a gun."

"But police work on the ground. The police system is much more complex than you imagine. The officers at the bottom not only have to unravel the truth but also need to appease the public, deal with reporters, and even please those who might threaten their bosses' jobs."

"Because if they don't do this, they might lose their job or go without a paycheck and starve, or they may offend their superior and get kicked out of the main team, losing any chance for promotion, or they could even become targets of public criticism and have to run away to another city in disgrace."

"So their inquiries are not so simple; they need to first calm the emotions of the person being questioned, make them settle down and then explain that it's their duty, asking them not to blame them. Then they proceed from physical evidence and clues, because that's easier to glean direction from and to report on."

"Instead of, like you, imposing a concrete fact formulated in your mind on me with leading questions, making me say the answers you've already decided on."

"The reason you do this is because that's always how you've worked within the agent system. Your boss tells you before the interrogation begins what answers he wants, then you treat those answers as the result, take the earlier clues as the process, and piece together the story you want in your mind."

"And facing the interrogated, the only thing you need to do is try every means possible to lead the other person to tell the story you've imagined."

Clay felt the shift in Shiller's gaze; he felt like a fish being skinned, his innards and skeleton utterly exposed under the eyes of the man across from him.

"Your boss has given you an answer about me, and you've found clues in these murder cases, so you've concocted a story about me."

"I am a serial killer lurking within the community who just so happened to encounter the postman when I moved in. Annoyed by his complaints about the volume of my mail, I developed a killing intent."

"When he came to collect the mail, I told him to come back later as I had more items to send and lured him to my house later with a hefty tip."

"I brutally murdered him in my house and then dismembered and hid the body. What I didn't expect was that Mr. Piero, who lives closer to the post office, witnessed the postman passing through his yard; he is the only one who knew the postman came to my house that evening."

"The next morning when he greeted me, he unfortunately leaked this information. I knew this would make the police lock on to me as the sole suspect, so I had to get rid of him."

"But there was already one body hidden in my house, and if there was another, the strong smell would quickly attract the police. I am an old hand; I wouldn't make such a rookie mistake, so I decided to frame someone else for Piero's death."

"However, having just moved in, I hardly knew the living habits of the other residents. The only acquaintance in the community was Principal Xi Wana. I knew he often worked late into the night, so he would get up late in the morning and wouldn't be moving around his room at that time."

"My relationship with this gentleman isn't good either, just as I had friction with the principal at Gotham University before, or rather, I wish there wouldn't be a principal at the school at all. If I could use the body to make him get lost, it couldn't be better."

"But I knew if I were to simply throw the body over, it would be easy to be discovered by him, and he could remember my physical characteristics. So I instigated my niece to put on loose clothing, use her agile skills to climb over the back wall, and toss the bag containing the body over."

"Meanwhile, I drove to the post office to hear what people thought about the postman's disappearance and, guessing they would report it, could think of ways to extend the time it took for a case to be filed. For instance, I could say things like 'The postman seemed tired yesterday, not in a good mood,' which could mislead his colleagues and the police into thinking the postman just took the day off to rest, thus extending the search time."

"After making sure everything was fine there, I then drove back, acting like a completely innocent victim, without any concerns, returning in front of you, as a psychopathic killer, delighting in how you've been played by me..."

Shiller, completely disregarding the silent atmosphere in the room and the shocked looks of the new officers gathered at the door, continued:

"You asked me if I have seen the postman, and if I say yes, then you'll ask me what our relationship was. If I tell you that he collected a lot of mail from me, then you can ask how he seemed at that time. Even if I say he was in good condition, you'd still say that with all the extra work I caused him, he couldn't possibly have no complaints..."

"Then you could smoothly transition the topic to whether I am a person who can tolerate others treating me poorly, which of course I cannot. Even if you asked all my colleagues and friends, you absolutely wouldn't conclude that I am a mild-mannered person. The only thing you'd find out is that I have a bad temper."

"So, you arrive at the perfect conclusion for my motive, because the postman was rude to me, I, this mentally deranged psychopath, had to kill him."

"The method is even easier to infer. I've woven the perfect human skin for myself, a successful university professor, wealthy enough to afford a luxury villa, acquainted with the likes of Bruce Wayne and other celebrities, with a respected reputation in the academic world."

"And I'm always dressed in a suit and leather shoes that make it evident at a glance that I am a person of high social status, so I would never be suspected when I go anywhere, especially not by the postman."

"Therefore, I had plenty of opportunities to lure him to my house, catch him completely off guard, and hit him with any blunt object, then casually slice up his body and dispose of it coolly at various locations."

"Or maybe that's not enough; you need me to be even more of a monster. I didn't throw away his body..."

As Shiller spoke, he stood up and walked over to the fridge, standing in front of it, and turned to the old officer at the door, saying, "Excuse me, could you help me prop this up? After all, you are standing there on the pretext that the moment he commands it, you'd come over and open the fridge to reveal the truth."

The old officer seemed unphased as he walked over to Shiller, gesturing to the other younger policemen, and Clay's eyes widened in disbelief as he said, "What are you doing?! You need to follow my orders!"

"See, it's always like this," Shiller said with a cold sneer. "It's never within your duties to take advice from suspects or spectators. But police must do so, or they'd face complaints and get their wages docked."

"This goes especially for Gordon's men. They have exerted an unimaginable amount of effort in establishing their credibility in this City of Sin. The policemen who have survived to this day never just follow orders. They are the guardians of this city and its citizens."

With a collective effort from several officers, the heavy, large fridge was lifted. And in the moment it was raised, the door of the freezer compartment fell off, and one of the drawers fell open halfway.

Inside lay half a human arm.

Just then, an officer from the evidence department walked in, and although he didn't understand the eerie, serious atmosphere in the room, he still reported diligently, "Boss, the body's been pieced together. Aside from missing the scalp, fingers, and genitals, two-thirds of the right forearm is also missing..."

Everyone's gaze again fell on the half arm in the freezer compartment, matching the description given by the police exactly.

Clay stood up and narrowed his eyes, saying, "Professor Shearer, no matter how eloquently you argue, physical evidence can't be refuted. I think you need—"

Xi Wana pushed him aside with such force that Clay fell to the ground. The bald man's right eye shone brightly as he nearly went mad, pushing through several policemen to get to the front of the fridge.

Because in his vision, the fridge's freezer compartment was filled with an incomparably huge evil force.

He reached out, pulling open the drawer holding the arm, to find countless deep red pieces of meat frozen below it, stacked layer upon layer, and at the very back of the drawer, Xi Wana saw a hoof.

The moment he opened the drawer, endless purple energy burst from this small freezer compartment, nearly engulfing the entire room and spreading outward.

His right eye grew brighter and brighter as the evil energy surged toward Xi Wana's right eye.

"Aaaahhhhhhh!!!"

Xi Wana let out a scream, clutching his eye as he knelt down, curling up in agony.

And through his blurred vision between his fingers, he could only see the smile on Shiller's face – cold, malicious, with the naive innocence of a child.