Chapter 303: Three Detectives (7)_1

Under the darkness, a faint light seeped out from the office of the Gotham Police Department. Gordon stood by the window, lighting a cigarette.

Behind him was Batman, organizing his gear at the desk. Gordon exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "Honestly, being in Gotham for so long, I've seen all sorts of scum – robbery, murder, drug addiction, betrayal of friends, betrayal of family... but someone like Constantine, that's a first for me.

"I admit, trying to save him is a bit difficult, but we can't just let him continue like this, I can't stand by and watch someone torment themselves to death... "

"Even if you didn't tell me to, I would keep an eye on him."

Gordon turned, squinting at Batman, and asked, "Indeed, it seems like you're watching him closely. Why? Just because he's a criminal on probation?"

"Do you know why Shiller let him go?" Batman lowered his head as he cleaned the blade of a Batman dart.

"Actually, he's perfectly capable of trapping Constantine in a dream. Even if he didn't do that, he could have knocked Constantine out and handed him over to you to face the court."

"Court? Forgive me for being blunt, but even if he did receive a very fair trial, the result would still be sending him to a mental hospital. Look at him, can you really say he hasn't lost his mind?"

"But I also wonder, it doesn't feel like Shiller's the type to look for trouble. He let such a big troublemaker into Gotham City, didn't he ever consider the chaos it would cause?" Gordon said, somewhat puzzled.

"Apparently, he did consider it, and quite clearly. Do you think that Constantine was telling the truth?"

"Well... I guess he told most of it, at least the part about Lawrence is true, as for his part with the dream god... I just assumed he's crazy..."

Batman's voice was as deep as the night outside the window, his movements paused slightly as he spoke, "His reasoning has been mostly logical, Lady Sanchez was afraid she couldn't satisfy Cooper's requirements, so she let him take over, he sacrificed Cooper to the demon to create a replica, the replica went to the boarding school and staged another murder case, leading us astray..."

"But he definitely concealed some important truths. Maybe, Shiller is just waiting for him to expose his own flaws."

Gordon took a puff, slowly exhaling the smoke, staring into Gotham's dark night, he said, "Even magic and demons have shown up, what's next? Angels and God?"

"God!" Jason exclaimed, "What happened? Where's Dick?"

He quickly jumped down from the basement door, looking at the mess in his base, the experiment table directly opposite was overturned, with the desktop and miscellaneous objects scattered all over the ground. The new toolbox on the side table had also fallen to the ground, all tools inside had spilled out, and worse, in the center of the floor, there were two pools of fresh blood.

Jason turned to Little Sly, who'd just come down, and said, "Someone broke in here! Dick's been kidnapped, we need to save him!!!"

Jason, with his eyes turning red in panic, had become good friends with Dick and the other kids at the vocational school within these days. Now that his friend had been kidnapped at his own base, Jason was beside himself with anxiety.

By this point, the others still waiting outside had also jumped down, all startled at the dismal scene. Rocket spoke first, "It seems this is indeed a kidnapping case, and Dick was bleeding. We need to find him as soon as possible."

Tire glanced over the room and said, "No, we're no good at this, let's call Cobblepot. On matters like these, he alone could match up to all of us together!"

"I know his number, I'll call him!" said Rocket, crawling out of the cellar to find a phone while mounting his motorcycle.

As the night fell, Cobblepot Manor was unexpectedly peaceful. Since Mrs. Old Cobblepot was hospitalized, Cobblepot had been living alone in the old house. Although his new apartment was much nicer, the old house's location closer to Central City was more convenient for him to shuttle between various locations.

Cobblepot was sleeping soundly in his bed when the harsh ring of the telephone awakened him. He was a bit dazed because it had been such a long time since the phone rang here. After his father's death, no one called this house to contact them.

Still, Cobblepot wiped his face, got out of bed, and went downstairs to answer the phone. Jason's anxious voice came through, "Cobblepot! Hurry over! Dick's been kidnapped!"

"Dick? Wasn't he off to boarding school? How'd he get kidnapped?"

"Just come over for now, it's urgent!!"

When Cobblepot arrived at Jason's underground base and saw the messy scene, he frowned. Jason said to him, "Earlier, there was some trouble at Dick's boarding school. When we went to find him, we ran into danger. But luckily, reinforcements arrived in time and we came out unscathed."

"Batman originally sent us back to one of his hideouts, but we felt uncomfortable staying there, so we left. By then, we were pretty worn out and tired. Dick didn't return to his house in the southern wealthy district, but instead, he slept here with us."

"When we woke up, it was already late. We planned to eat something. He wasn't familiar with the area, so we asked him to stay here and keep watch as Little Sly and I went to buy food."

"At our regular shop, we ran into them coming for a late night meal. So, we bought the food and planned to return to eat together. But when we got back, we found that Dick had disappeared. The place was trashed, and there was blood on the ground..."

Cobblepot carefully examined the scene, then climbed out of the cellar. After checking the surroundings, he said, "Your footprints have messed up the place a bit, but it looks like there's a stranger's footprints here."

"Here, he should have gone that way, into that alley..."

The children rushed to the alley that Cobblepot was pointing at. It was a narrow passage extending from the tail alley that led directly to the street. Cobblepot followed them, and when he reached the middle of the alley, he said, "The footprints are gone..."

Cobblepot looked around; to the left was a building and to the right a high wall. Tire climbed up to the top of the wall with a rocket, looked over, and said, "There's no trace. He likely didn't escape by climbing the wall."

The footprints vanished into thin air in the center of the alley. Cobblepot returned to the entrance of the cellar and repeatedly inspected the area, checking all possible paths, but he still didn't find any clues. Sudden disappearance like this is a problem for any detective.

Cobblepot shook his head, "I'm powerless here. You'll have to find someone else."

But Jason was getting anxious. He said to Cobblepot, "You mean he just disappeared into thin air? How could that be??"

"At least for now, that seems to be the case. And, don't use that tone with me. I'm here helping you because there might be a time you can help me..."

Tire also chimed in, "Cobblepot did his best. After all, we saw it too, the footprints just vanished, and there's no trace on any of the surrounding roads..."

Jason agitatedly brushed back his hair, and suddenly, as if remembering something, turned to Little Sly and said, "That flashlight used for communication should still work, right? We need to find Batman!"

With that, he pulled Little Sly towards the underground base. As the others were about to follow them, Cobblepot stopped them and said, "Batman should be able to solve this. Isn't he Gotham's most powerful vigilante?"

"Besides, do you know the progress of the case they were investigating last time?"

"Which case?"

Cobblepot helplessly replied, "The case about investigating the child-controlling Big Boss."

Pickup scratched his head and said, "Jason told me when he went undercover on that street, he heard the boss's superior telling the boss to hurry up and raise funds..."

"Anything else?"

Everyone shook their heads, but Rocket added, "If there's anything, Dick went with Jason right? One night, he brought back some candies, said that the minor boss gave them."

"Candies?" Cobblepot frowned, "Those vampires would buy candies for their underlings?"

Cobblepot continued, "I was a child laborer in Living Hell before, and I know what those parents are like. If they could, they would rather have the children under their control work nonstop without eating or drinking. Even when the children did exceptionally well, they'd only say 'still not enough'..."

"That's not strange. It may not be popular in Living Hell, but from here to Missouri Street, parents do buy candies for their children. I heard a friend of mine saying he envies the children here."

Cobblepot sighed and asked, "Where are the candies that Dick brought back?"

"He must have taken them home."

Tire looked at Cobblepot's face and asked, "You seem to be very interested in these parents. They've been around for a while, why are you suddenly investigating them?"

"Never mind why. I have my reasons. If you guys have any new information, make sure to let me know immediately."

After saying this, Cobblepot left, leaving the remaining three staring at his retreating figure, confused. But Cobblepot had always been elusive. The others exchanged a glance, shrugged, and then also left.