"I just think the smell is appalling," Shiller said, shaking his head as he looked at the bag. "I'm not afraid of corpses—in Gotham, no one is afraid of corpses."
Officer Clay stared at him for a while before seeming to accept this explanation, then turned to Principal Shivana and said, "Professor, these generations of bodies were found in your house, but we did not find any footprints around your house..."
"That's your problem!" Shivana appeared somewhat angry as he said, "Are you suggesting that I killed this person, stuffed them into a bag, and threw it in my backyard? Why would I do that? I'm here to work, not to kill!"
Clay wanted to ask more, but at that moment, the older policeman grabbed him and said, "Chief, although normally piecing together body parts would be done in the forensics department, if most of the personnel can't make it back now, we can do it here too. Could you provide us with a plastic sheet?"
"There are tarps in the storage," Shivana replied, standing even further away. "You can use one of those, but please dispose of it afterward—it's disgusting."
They quickly fetched a plastic sheet and began to lay the stones on it evenly. Some members of the evidence team started looking for fingerprints and other clues, while others were taking photographs of the bodies. Everyone was busy around the corpse on the plastic sheet.
The older policeman had been watching Shiller all along. Shiller approached, took one look at the corpse, and then understood why the policeman had been staring at him.
The corpse's head, fingers, hair, and genitals were all missing.
Great, whoever was involved was as professional as he was, Shiller realized when he saw a policeman turn over the torso. His pupils contracted sharply when he saw the half tattoo on the back.
The Penitent Cartel.
The name surfaced in his mind. Looking at the skin color of the corpse, he understood this might have been another undercover agent, now killed. But who did it?
"Bang!!"
"Ahh!!"
A series of loud noises erupted from the front of the house. Shiller turned around, and by this time, Clay had already charged out like a swift lion.
He saw the mailbox knocked over on the ground, a young police officer standing at the door opposite the mailbox, looking terrified. After Clay dashed over, he saw a human head in the mailbox.
The evidence team members also ran over, stood the mailbox back up, and the last to return, Shiller, heard Clay curse.
After walking over, he found that a human head had been stuck straight in the mailbox; it took the forensics team a lot of effort to remove it.
Clay called over the community police, and after identification, they confirmed that he was also a resident of the community, living at the other end of this street, named Piero Flores, 32 years old, married two years ago, his wife transferred to Metropolis for work.
The officers immediately started arranging calls to his family, while others went to stop the reporters who were gradually arriving at the scene.
"Lord, don't let them in!" Shivana was very anxious as he stated, "We must protect Gotham University's reputation; I can't let anyone know that they found bodies in the house of the President of Gotham University, I still have several project collaborations to discuss!"
"Officer Clay, you must clear me of suspicion immediately, or I will have to seek help from the city government and the State Council!"
Shivana's tone grew more forceful, Officer Clay obviously felt the pressure too, and Shiller added, "I need to find my niece immediately. This kidnapping case needs to be filed separately; I am entitled to supervise the progress of the case..."
At this moment, Shivana glanced at Shiller. Shiller pretended not to notice his gaze, but in fact, he did.
Shiller suspected that Raven was the one Shivana had taken away in the chaos. All these cases were Shivana's way of mixing things up.
Shiller had previously discovered that Shivana's target was likely Raven. He needed the power within Raven, but with Shiller in the way—someone who Shivana knew was no simple man—there was no opportunity to strike.
Shiller believed that the postman who had suddenly shown up with a knife might have been controlled or instigated by Shivana.
As a resident of the community, Shivana had too many reasons and opportunities to interact with the postman. It was possible that he just said a few words to him on the way home from work, making him fret about losing his job, or he might have simply hypnotized and controlled him to cause trouble for Shiller.
Shivana knew Shiller was no ordinary man and that the postman would not leave alive, but he also knew that Shiller was planning a housewarming party. After killing someone, besides having to deal with the body, preparations for various party items were needed, and there would be times when he was not home.
To distract him, aside from giving him murders and dismemberment to deal with, a chaos had to be created to draw everyone's attention elsewhere, allowing sufficient time to act.
What followed was easy to explain; Shivana killed an unfortunate soul, threw it in the backyard of his house, and called the police, claiming a terrifying killer was on the loose, dumping bodies, to lure the police there.
And while the police focused all their attention on the dismembered person, he took the opportunity to kidnap Raven.
Now, the only problem was the Penitent Cartel tattoo mark appearing on both victims.
Could this organization be related to Shivana? Shiller looked at Shivana unemotionally, silently recalling his background story.
But after much thought, he found no connection between Shivana and the American-Mexican drug trafficking organizations. His family company wasn't large, and the business was entirely unrelated to drugs. What reason could there be for a connection between the two?
If there was no connection, could it be merely a coincidence that the two dead individuals just happened to be nails planted by the Penitent Cartel within the community?
Shiller was familiar with the methods of these intelligence organizations; they usually don't plant just one nail in an area.
On one hand, if there was only one, the entire area would be out of control if the connection was lost, and on the other hand, they were worried about defectors and needed two or more operatives to monitor each other.
The identities of two or more nails must differ, and ideally so should their social status, but they must be able to communicate in some way. A postman and a resident were a good choice.
The residents here are either rich or noble, and being able to afford a house here is a statement of your class. It's very likely that this resident named Piero has disguised himself as a wealthy businessman or a stable working elite.
And the postman, who roams the streets and lanes, is best suited for gathering information. He can also make contact with residents under the pretext of delivering mail, which is why the person who died at the hands of Shiller was the postman.
The Penitent Cartel's logic for action was clear, but Shiller couldn't figure out how he, Raven, and Shivana, came to be connected with the two drug dealers from the Penitent Cartel.
Shiller did indeed provoke the Penitent Cartel, or it might be more accurate to say that during his time on the Dakotazo, he killed many people from the Penitent Cartel, but at that time, he wore a mask, and aside from the superpower users, there were no survivors on the ship, so no one should have known it was him who made the move.
Shiller's contacts with Oliver were mostly underground; they might know no one was regularly communicating with Oliver, so the idea that they came for Shiller on Oliver's behalf was implausible.
It's possible that this community was essentially the only one with vacancies that was built last; thus, the Penitent Cartel wanting to plant a foothold here and Shiller's desire to move in just happened to coincide.
But Shiller didn't believe in such coincidences; there had to be a problem somewhere in the chain. But which part could it be?
Countless pieces of information flowed through Shiller's mind,
Suddenly, he found the only intersection.
Shiller's lips thinned as he said, "I must go find my niece; I cannot allow her to be in danger."
Having said that, he headed towards the area outside the police line, and was immediately stopped by several officers. He turned back to look at Clay, and Shivana came over and said, "Don't do this, Shiller. I know you're worried about your niece, but without any clues, you might not find her, and you could even put yourself in danger."
"Sorry, Professor Shiller, but for the sake of apprehending the suspect and for the safety of the community residents, the police line is for entry only, not exit. I believe the officers outside have already made that clear to you."
"You suspect me," Shiller said with certainty.
Clay looked down slightly and replied, "Neither social status nor profession are necessary factors for me to eliminate a murder suspect, but you must answer a few questions for me."
Seeing their reaction, Shiller knew that his inner suspicions were almost certainly correct, so he said, "Then let's go to my house, ask me anything you want."
After saying this, Shiller turned and left, and Shivana turned to Clay to persuade him, "We really should sit down and talk, but my place smells too strong, and we both find it hard to bear. I don't suppose you would want us to be disturbed by other factors, would you?"
Clay could only nod and followed behind the two of them to Shiller's house.
The first floor was a bit messy, and Shiller wanted to take them to the living room on the second floor, but he knew it would be difficult to invite them to a place far from the exit, when both parties considered him a threat.
So he had to tolerate the living room's mess, sitting down on the couch with Clay sitting opposite him, while Shivana took a seat in a single chair nearby, looking up and surveying the room's arrangement.
"What were you doing last night?" Clay asked directly, as if he was convinced Shiller had certainly gone out the evening before.
"I heard a noise in the backyard, so I went to check it out and found that someone had marked my fence. In Gotham, this usually means your house is going to be robbed, so I removed the marks."
Clay asked him to point out where the marks were, and Shiller led them to see. There were indeed traces where graffiti had been, the cleaning solvent that Shiller used slightly discolored the wall tiles.
Then they returned to the house, where Clay asked, "What about your niece? Was she sleeping in her room last night? Did she know you went out?"
"She didn't know, but she wasn't sleeping in her room either. I don't know what she was doing in the living room; perhaps she got hungry and wanted to eat something in the middle of the night."
That's when Shivana raised her hand and said, "Oh, I saw her. Last night when I got off work and came home, I saw her standing alone in the kitchen. I was afraid she might take something dangerous, so I went to ask her. She's a very polite little girl."
"You two know each other?" Clay asked Shivana, frowning.
"We met once at the night market," Shiller said. "I was looking for a school for Rachel, and Principal Shivana said he could help. However, Rachel had already made a few friends, foster children of the Wayne Family, and she wanted to attend the same school as them, so I contacted the high school on Lilac Street."
Upon hearing "foster children of the Wayne Family," Clay's expression shifted slightly, then listened as Shiller added, "They've arranged to have dinner together tonight. If Rachel doesn't show up, those kids will definitely come looking for her here."
"I will send someone to look for her as soon as possible," Clay said.
He looked down at the notes in his hand and asked, "My subordinates told me that you just drove back. May I ask where you went?"
"Post office," Shiller replied briefly. "I went to collect RSVPs for invitations, and simply explained the process of his moving party."
"So, you've had dealings with the postman?"
Shiller took a deep breath, really at his limit, but the recent common life had soldered that human skin tightly onto himself.
After repeating "ordinary people don't use Psychoanalysis Method" and "ordinary people should speak amicably" a million times in his mind, he gritted his teeth and nodded, saying:
"Yes, Officer Sir, I told you, I had allergy inquiry letters and invitations to send, how could I have not dealt with the postman?"
"Then why didn't you report his disappearance?"
That question stabbed Shiller's human skin like a sharp arrow—he couldn't pretend to be an ordinary person for even a second longer.