Chapter 2610: Descending Gently (56)

The accusation consultation was scheduled to start at 9:00 am, and besides Shiller and Officer Clay, many others came as well.

The consultation was not open to the public and would not be publicly heard, so those who came were more or less related to the case, like Gordon, Brock, the police officers who found the crime scene with Gordon, and even the principal, Xi Wana.

Especially Xi Wana.

He had received a call from Shiller last night when he was still working overtime in his office. Hearing that Shiller had been accused made Xi Wana very curious.

The words Shiller had said to him in the hospital kept revolving in his mind. He had thought a lot, but still had not made up his mind to act.

It was not that he was worried he couldn't do it, but he didn't know if it would be useful; as someone who had never been at an advantage in this respect, he naturally wouldn't confidently believe it would benefit him.

After hanging up Shiller's call, Xi Wana knew that Shiller seemed to want to show him the benefits of having a voice and was helping him make a decision.

So Xi Wana came, but he still had a legitimate reason: to act as a witness to refute a particular accusation.

The accusation consultation soon began.

The prosecutor was Harvey's teacher, so Harvey could also observe as an assistant to the prosecutor. He only saw his teacher finish reading all the charges and announce that both parties would start negotiating.

Indeed, things turned out as they had anticipated in the office. Shiller denied all the charges and claimed he acted in self-defense, while Officer Clay stuck to his accusation of murder and intentional injury.

Both sides presented their evidence, or, to be precise, only Shiller presented effective evidence, such as the traces of his window being smashed, the chimney showing signs of break-in, and the basement door lock having been violently cut through. Another basement door was directly smashed open.

The condition inside the house was also dreadful; not only were the doors damaged, but many things were knocked to the ground, the carpets had all been moved, and Clay's footprints were on the floor.

Almost everyone was stunned upon seeing this evidence. They thought that even if Officer Clay lacked professional ethics, he should still have basic professional competence. Wasn't he an ace student in criminal investigation?

Even if he indeed went to look for evidence, rather than to settle a personal grudge, he should have known the consequences of his actions. Knowing that he might be accused, wouldn't he even wear shoe covers?

Xi Wana also lowered his voice and asked Shiller, "Are you sure he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeve? Why is he so arrogant?"

Shiller shook his head and replied in a hushed tone, "I understand them too well. Have you ever seen an FBI agent wearing shoe covers before breaking down a door?"

"Aren't they afraid?"

"What do they have to fear? The agents are the last resort. Once agents are used to infiltrate and search or secretly arrest, it means the situation is irreparable. What matters then is whether they can find evidence and catch the person. As for the traces left behind, naturally someone will take care of them."

"So this is agent thinking?"

"Would you create a gun from a special material that doesn't retain fingerprints just to avoid leaving prints on it?"

"Can't you just wipe the fingerprints off?"

"Exactly, that's agent thinking. First, catch the person. If evidence is left behind, just send another team to clean it up."

Xi Wana nodded and turned his attention back to the consultation.

Officer Clay couldn't produce any evidence that proved he didn't break into the house privately; he obviously wanted Gordon and Brock to vouch for him, but he used the typical agent approach.

That is, to apply pressure on the spot without prior discussion and convey a sort of "if I go down, you're going down with me" attitude.

Unfortunately for him, Gordon and Brock were not his colleagues; they were police officers, not agent leaders. They weren't worried about leaks, and the Gotham Police Department didn't have any secrets worth mentioning, hence Clay's threats were futile.

"Mr. Clay, anyone can see that your evidence is insufficient. If you insist on pressing charges, you're unlikely to obtain a grand jury indictment, and I will not file charges against Mr. Rodriguez on your behalf."

"Even if you manage to find a prosecutor willing to charge him, I can only regretfully inform you that the responsible jury and prosecutor will surely judge it as self-defense, and you will be equally charged with breaking and entering and dereliction of duty."

"But that piece of human skin! That's evidence that he killed someone!" Officer Clay exclaimed, "How could human skin just appear out of nowhere? If he didn't kill someone, how could he possibly sew the human skin onto me?"

"I'm sorry, Officer Clay, that's something I picked up on the street," Shiller replied with a slight nod of his head.

"This is ridiculous!" Officer Clay was almost shrieking.

He felt like he was in a surreal world where there were no laws or morals, and everyone acted like parrots, incessantly repeating, "You're wrong, he's right."

But it was an evident truth; when the human skin covered him, it was even warm, the blood had not yet dried, how could it have been picked up from the street? When Shiller stitched it onto him, he was still conscious; it was only after due to a lack of oxygen that he passed out. He even saw every move Shiller made, so why won't these people listen?

Clay felt his thoughts starting to diverge, and in a daze, he saw Shiller's face constantly moving in front of him.

Before Shiller covered his face with the human skin features, he saw Shiller's features blur, disappearing and dissolving amidst the flashing.

"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay? Did you hear what I said?"

The prosecutor's voice sounded from a distant place, and it took Clay a while to gather his senses back into his body; he looked at the prosecutor somewhat blankly and said, "What? What happened?"

"I'm asking you, sir, regarding the owner of this human skin, Brata, do you know anything about him? Do you recognize him?"

"No, I don't know him..." Clay felt an intense headache coming on.

"Did you witness the crime scene where he was victimized? Did you see Mr. Rodriguez there?"

"No, I didn't, but it's obvious, that skin couldn't have just been picked up off the street, it completely defies common sense."

The prosecutor looked towards Shiller.

Shiller nodded at him and said, "No, it's possible, it does not defy common sense at all, but rather corresponds very well with the situation at that time, we must ask my neighbor, Mr. Xi Wana, to speak."

Shiller looked at Xi Wana, who also nodded back and said, "In fact, just a few days ago, we both encountered a mysterious case of a discarded body."

Xi Wana took out some photos and handed them to the prosecutor, they were of the corpse that had been thrown into his yard before, as well as the scene of the police working around the body.

"The officers present can also testify for me, that suddenly there were several plastic bags containing a body in my yard, belonging to my neighbor, and Mr. Rodriguez also found severed limbs in his refrigerator."

The invited Jonathan and Valentine also spoke up, "In fact, we all found body parts in our homes, but besides these fragments, there's no evidence to prove our committing of any crime, our colleagues can attest for us."

The prosecutor then looked towards Gordon.

Gordon considered momentarily, then took out a report and said, "Recently we have indeed found a large number of unidentifiable body parts throughout Gotham."

The prosecutor took over the report, which detailed recent similar cases, including those of Xi Wana, Shiller, Jonathan, and Valentine. Obviously, many other people had also found parts of bodies in their homes, most frequently in refrigerators.

"This is obviously the work of Clay," Shiller responded to Xi Wana's look and whispered, "Tainted witness."

Xi Wana was a smart man, he immediately understood that this was a frame-up scheme taken by Clay, or rather the Special Agent Organization behind him, by simply throwing a body into someone's fridge and then bursting in to catch him, claiming he was a murderer.

This method was laughably simplistic; it was nothing more than a formality, but indeed one shouldn't expect these agents to have any more sophisticated tactics. If this trick worked on ordinary people, they would never change it until they took a big fall.

It seemed that time was now.

Watching the prosecutor read out one after another record of unidentified bodies being dumped, the people sitting behind Shiller could hardly keep their grins suppressed.

But Clay still didn't understand what this meant, he looked at Shiller and asked, "What kind of evidence is this?"

"Isn't this evidence?" Shiller's tone was upbeat, and he appeared very cheerful as he said, "Since arms and legs can appear in just anyone's refrigerator, why couldn't human skin appear on the street?"

Clay's face instantly turned ashen.

Because the arms and legs scattered in those refrigerators had been placed there by him.

Watching Clay's rapidly changing expressions, Jonathan couldn't hold back a laugh, and he whispered to Shiller sitting in front of him, "You should have let that lad Bruce come to see this, you'd definitely have made him laugh."

"Is that even necessary? Are you suggesting that our esteemed Officer Clay isn't hilarious enough?" Shiller also chuckled and said.

However, Valentine gave Shiller a glance, knowing that although this was amusing, it was at best just the opening act.

The prosecutor hesitated slightly and then looked at Gordon, saying, "Chief, although there have been frequent cases of bodies being dumped recently, the records of these cases show that most of the fragments found at unidentified locations are limbs, but the skin..."

Clay looked at the prosecutor thinking, finally, a sane person.

Now he felt like he was surrounded by lunatics, he was clearly the only sane person among all the lunatics, but these lunatics kept insisting that he was the one who was crazy. Suddenly seeing someone who could think normally, who could spot what was wrong, he was so moved that he could cry.

But Gordon interrupted him, saying, "There are still more cases of dumped bodies currently under investigation, we can't be sure which parts of the body are involved in these cases."

He frantically signaled the prosecutor with his eyes, gesturing for him to stop speaking, because Gordon was very aware that if the prosecutor dared to say that there was no skin among the discarded pieces, in a few days, the Gotham Police Department would become the largest human skin collection gallery.

The prosecutor actually understood what Gordon meant, but like Gordon, to have survived this far in Gotham and still be alive, the prosecutor was inevitably a warrior as adept in skill as in morality. He hesitated and then spoke.

"However, the autopsy reports you provided show that the skin was removed with extreme precision, from my forensic experience, the perpetrator must have a strong surgical ability, but these limb cross-sections are very rough, looking as if they were sawed off haphazardly. Neither the level of skill nor the aesthetic style can be described as anything but worlds apart..."

"Can't you open your eyes and see what those huskies across the room are laughing at?!!" Gordon roared internally, "You're praising them!! Still praising!!!"

Indeed, the bunch seated across from Gordon who seemed like they were on the verge of dying from laughter, appeared as if they would be sent into hysterics at any joke relating to limbs and skin.

"Further investigation is needed," said Gordon through gritted teeth. "Currently, we cannot rule out the possibility that they were from the same perpetrator."

If you keep praising them, you could end up as one of those parts tonight, Gordon thought savagely, don't take me down with you.

Suddenly, Shiller cleared his throat.

Gordon nearly jumped out of his chair in fright; his "Shiller Phobia" and the paranoid delusion that "It must be Shiller causing trouble" were incurable for life.