Gordon's head was throbbing painfully, and Cobblepot had fallen into a state of total existential doubt.
His current doubts were no less than Gordon's, because he was actually the mastermind behind the whole affair.
From Cobblepot's perspective, his plan was to free himself from the Godfather, and to accumulate some capital, in other words to make some money, to pave the way for his future rise.
So he was playing both sides between Fish and Kevin, and in order to completely escape all those who wanted to control him, he firstly used Fish to kill Kevin, then used Maroni to kill Fish, finally intending to use an indictment against Maroni to exonerate the Godfather's son, and free himself smoothly.
Everything up to this point had gone smoothly, and he had reached the final step, but what Cobblepot could not have anticipated at all, was that Evans Falcone would actually confess to the crime???
What then happens to his final step?
Actually, by this point, Cobblepot himself knew that he did not necessarily have to carry out the final step of the plan.
Because he truly did have a mental disorder, it was not an act. Even if he did not carry out this final act for the Godfather, looking at his condition, the Godfather probably would not make things difficult for a minor suffering from schizophrenia.
Even if the Godfather knew of Cobblepot's illness, he might actually open his purse to help pay for his treatment.
The reason why the Godfather was the Godfather, was because he was not like those in most movies or TV shows, ruthlessly silencing people once they had served their purpose. On the contrary, many retired members of the Falcone Family, received a great retirement package: the sick ones were treated, the healthy ones given properties to relax in or had their hands washed clean for a peaceful retirement.
Cobblepot knew that under these circumstances, the Godfather would not cause further problems for him, he also no longer needed to exhaustingly fake his illness, or keep worrying about whether there were Godfather's informants everywhere since he was indeed suffering from a mental disorder, confirmed by the chief physician at Arkham Mental Hospital.
However, Cobblepot could not handle a flaw in his perfect plan--his mother's illness and his own--which had caused a loophole, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.
For a person with aspirations in a criminal career, this was akin to pooping in a pot of perfectly good soup.
However, Cobblepot could just about accept this, that in life, death and sickness were things that nobody could control. That he and his mother fell ill at this time, could only be chalked down to bad luck.
But with Evans Falcone confessing to the crime, there was clearly more to the story, it wasn't an accident. Cobblepot couldn't tolerate that his perfect plan had been foiled by another mastermind.
Cobblepot couldn't help but wonder, could it be that he picked the wrong guy all along? Was young Falcone actually the real puppeteer?
While Cobblepot was deep in doubt, Shiller's voice brought him back to attention. Shiller, looking at Cobblepot, stated, "You haven't answered my question, where did this umbrella come from?"
Gordon and Cobblepot turned to look at Shiller, and Cobblepot echoed the words in Gordon's heart: "Does this issue need to be discussed now? What importance does it have?"
Gordon also followed up, "My dear Professor! Don't get hung up on your broken umbrella!"
"The current situation is extremely critical! The heir of Falcone Family actually ran to the police station to confess to a murder..."
Gordon pointed a finger outside the door, "Just a moment ago, our newly appointed police chief had a blood pressure surge, he should already be on the ambulance."
"I have just received 15 consecutive phone calls, the only two magistrates in our city already planned to go on vacation two months ago, they rushed to buy night flight tickets to leave Gotham..."
"Nine civil officers from Gotham Court, have five cases of gastroenteritis, three have a fever, one suddenly lost his voice, rushed to hospital immediately. Even out of the five janitors, three have broken their legs and can't come to work tomorrow..."
"Within the span of the past hour, Gotham's justice system has seamlessly crippled itself."
After finishing, Gordon laughed ironically, "I don't even know how many times they rehearsed for this, in such an emergency situation, being able to collapse top to bottom within an hour, like a set of dominoes. Even more urgent than running from a courthouse on fire…"
"What's even more absurd is, we've already received notices of temporary closure from twelve law firms. Now, in Gotham, you can't even find a lawyer who'd pick up the phone..."
Shiller completely ignored his complaints, pick up the umbrella instead and jabbed at Cobblepot's injured arm, making Cobblepot shriek in pain and dodge away.
He glared at Shiller, then cast his gaze down onto his arm which was still bound to the armrest, resignedly saying, "Fine, but I want to find out first what's wrong with Evans. I can't stand..."
Just at this moment, noises came from the balcony of the mental hospital. Batman walked in, bringing in a wave of chilling air and the stench of blood. Shiller turned his head to look at him, and Batman, who also walked in, was taken aback, not expecting to find so many people here.
Shiller gave him a once over, then said, "Look, Gotham's great detective is here. Let's see what he has to say."
Gordon sniffed, turned to Batman and said, "Where have you been? Why are you covered in the smell of blood?"
"That's not important." Batman's voice remained cold.
"Maroni told me, it was Evans Falcone who ordered him to kill Fish."