In the Serial Killer Club, nobody even dared to directly confront the national apparatus, despite the fact that the American machine wasn't operating smoothly, particularly the law enforcement unit, which wasn't fully secure, leaving many loopholes to exploit. However, most people chose to avoid discussing this issue; it was an unspoken acknowledgment that they were no match, so why talk about such disheartening matters.
Although it was traditional for both locals and foreigners to mock the Federal Bureau of Investigation, this, similar to mocking France, where other countries often treated France as a joke, didn't mean other smaller countries could do the same. Anyone foolish enough to think otherwise would soon understand the lingering influence of France.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation might be incompetent, but it was not something a lone Serial Killer could handle; their main reason for remaining uncaught was merely because the American law enforcement only responded when societal stability was threatened, and if the situation didn't blow up, they wouldn't take serious action.
But once things did blow up, not to mention on American soil, even if you fled abroad, it was easy to end up committing suicide with eight bullets.
At least most of the Serial Killers Shiller knew were as discreet as possible, working mundane jobs, possibly as plumbers, garbage truck drivers, supermarket cashiers, or even students. Rich people and homeless were considered highly atypical professions because such groups dealt with law enforcement too often.
For this reason, after the economic downturn, contacts within the group gradually weakened as everyone became busy making money. Just like Joker had to go home to buy groceries and cook after battling Batman, Serial Killers needed to fend for themselves, buy tools for the crime, and dispose of excess body parts—there was cost involved everywhere.
For the actions of Williams and his group, Shiller could only describe it as "fools rush in where angels fear to tread." They were essentially just richer than the Serial Killers but acted as if they could rule the entire world.
Moreover, considering all the clues that had been uncovered, Shiller felt that these people were absolutely counterproductive.
Some might say that Serial Killers are high-profile, often displaying bodies in various places, isn't that quite arrogant?
As is well-known, besides methods, motives also play a crucial role in murder cases. Many random killings were hard to solve precisely because the murderer had no motive whatsoever; they just appeared out of nowhere, killed someone, and left the body elsewhere.
This meant that the police couldn't identify the murderer through the victim's social connections since there were no ties whatsoever between the killer and the victim, not even an interaction before the murder, so merely knowing the method of killing was useless.
The Human race is truly fragile; there are only so many ways to die, no matter how beautifully a body is manipulated, with no specific motive, it would be challenging to track down the murderer.
So, Serial Killers choose to showcase their methods while hiding their motives as much as possible, spending a great deal of time selecting targets and avoiding any possible contact with them during selection, which is why these cases takes so long to accomplish.
But Williams was not like that.
Ten years ago, the elementary and middle schools in the Bolokin Community were suddenly closed on the grounds of unprofitability, but this reason was extremely dubious; considering there were few people in the community, it should have been considered before building the schools, that there wouldn't be many students.
Not conducting research before opening, but only thinking about not making money after several years and deciding to close, is this something a normal businessman would do?
Moreover, you just shut down the school, at most laying off teachers and students; why would you bother the building itself, couldn't you just convert it into a high school activity building? Was the money invested in the infrastructure just wasted like that?
The most outrageous part was, having decided on demolition, why not do a clean job of it? Later, they even had to redo it. Since reworking was necessary, why not keep it hidden better and just casually renting an excavator from a rental company?
The aforementioned actions were full of loopholes, leading to some people becoming aware. Since they had decided to eliminate them silently, they still built a crematorium to burn the bodies ostentatiously.
Already having a crematorium to erase traces, they still had to create a bunker to secretly stash those pieces of evidence.
Having decided to keep the evidence for their own viewing, they still kidnapped Shiller and two other living people into it.
Having decided to keep these people in the mountains forever, the first thing they did was to transfer Shiller back to the Crematorium, while bringing outsiders there, they still didn't dispose of the ashes of those they eliminated.
How to put it, if all these decisions were made by Williams, Shiller would really suggest he check himself into psychiatry.
The actions were incredibly disjointed, as if the left and right brains had punched each other, turning the inside of the skull into mush.
You'd think he wanted to satisfy himself by showing off his work like a normal Serial Killer does, yet he stuffed those bones here and there, not daring to expose even half to the public.
But if you say he wanted to be cautious and keep hidden, everything he did was larger than the next; not all the Serial Killers Shiller knew combined could have caused such an upheaval as demolishing a school, building a crematorium, and remodeling a bunker.
You say he's reckless, but it appears he really tried hard to hide himself; you say he's a coward, yet he seems to desperately want to plaster the contradictions of his actions on others' faces.
Shiller speculated that this string of foolish acts couldn't all be Williams' ideas alone; although not very shrewd in crime, the guy was quite successful in his business dealings.
Demolishing schools, building a crematorium, remodeling bunkers, yet the funds somehow never ran out, and he could still afford to hire security even during these tight times, and it seemed not just one group of guards, but changing them every few months, suggesting he couldn't be a fool.
Shiller speculated that the contradictory situation likely arose because the team itself was not unified in thought.
It was apparent that some people just wanted to secretly satisfy their own quirks, continually preserving collectibles, while others might have wanted to build an industrial chain, hence constructing a crematorium to handle waste on a massive scale. Some were probably too scared of being discovered and wished to destroy all evidence, which is why they vehemently demolished the elementary and middle schools.
After obtaining the urns, Shiller used sealable bags to take samples. It was easier to deal with people from this era; their identities could be quickly confirmed through genetic comparison.
What made Shiller hesitate now was how to deal with Williams, so he decided to make a call to Gordon.
After the phone connected, Gordon's end was noisy, clearly at the police station, and his voice sounded as if he had struggled to extricate it from the loud background chaos.
"What's up? Shiller, I was just about to call you, and then you called me."
"Why were you going to call me?"
"There's a lot going on, but the most important thing is, that pea bone you gave me, we found its owner. It belonged to a little boy named Bu Fa, who suddenly disappeared one rainy night about ten years ago."
"His mother is a PE teacher; she broke her leg trying to find him and was mentally disturbed by the ordeal. His father was an engineer with a decent income, but he quit his job and worked part-time while searching for his son."
"They searched the entire community, all of Gotham, even half the East Coast, but they never found their son. Little Bu Fa just vanished into thin air, until... until we found his bones."
Gordon had just said this when a loud noise drowned out his voice; Shiller heard a woman's voice continually saying, "He was very clever; at four years old, he could build a huge castle with blocks and created a series of stories. His kindergarten teachers all said he'd definitely become a writer someday…"
"He loved it when I told him stories. His eyes shone under the lamp light, and he would hold open his new picture books with his little hands because he thought it would ease my burden…"
The woman spoke very quickly, and Shiller only caught the gist of it. It seemed many people on Gordon's end were constantly comforting her, but the eventual overwhelming crying let Shiller realize that the woman had accepted the fact that her son was dead.
Shiller, with Andre, hurried back to the room where Williams was detained. Williams had not yet woken up. He said to Andre, "Since you are from the Lawrence family, you must know Gordon. Take these samples to Gotham Police Department and tell them I sent you. He won't give you a hard time."
Andre did not say much, he just nodded and left. Shiller then turned to a Black man behind him and said, "Go straight to the crematorium's finance office; take as much cash as there is, don't leave a dime for them, and you guys split it."
The Black man said nothing and turned to leave. Shiller then told one of the remaining two men, "Go to the storeroom and find some rope or something that could be used to tie someone up."
Finally, he said to the last man, "You go drive the car."
No one asked why or how to do it, these people were veterans of the underworld, how to get into the finance office wasn't important, any piece of wire would do the job, and neither was having a car important, a rock would suffice.
Soon, Shiller had acquired the rope; he directly took off Williams' shirt and stuffed it into his mouth as a gag, then tied him up securely before carrying him out the back door to the car's trunk.
Shiller did not go himself but gave the driver an address, instructing them to transport Williams. The money they retrieved from the finance office was not much, but it was enough for this trip.
Due to the presence of the Forest, the Bolokin Community was not very warm, and now being late at night, the cool breeze made walking on the road quite pleasurable.
Shiller walked to the center of the community, which was all residential. As the population was sparse, each house was quite large and well spaced. At this time, only one house had its lights on.
Shiller entered the house.
Only the parents of Bu Fa, the original owner of the pea bone, would leave the lights on in the middle of the night after receiving a notification from Gordon. Perhaps because they were too anxious, they didn't have time to turn off the lights; this must be their home.
Shiller's guess was right. As soon as he entered, he saw a family photo of three; it appeared to have been taken in their backyard, where they were smiling brightly on a deep green lawn.
The mother had red hair tied in a ponytail falling over her front, the father had olive skin, and the boy with brown hair held a box of new blocks, his grinning mouth missing a front tooth.
Everyone has an unforgettable summer, and that must have been a long summer day, with bright sunshine and dense greenery.
Shiller remembered, in such a summer, seeing a nurse who had recovered from an injury for half a year. She came back with a wrinkled plastic bag filled with a lunchbox, standing under the shade of the largest tree in the yard, waving to him.