After the hypnosis session, Pari's mental state had improved significantly—she was no longer muttering to herself alone and seemed to recognize her husband, clinging to his arm incessantly.
"Did you get the clue you wanted?" the man asked.
"I have a rough idea of what's going on, but I need to investigate the deeper reasons. I promise you, as soon as I have something, I'll tell you immediately."
"You know who the killer is, right?"
Shiller didn't intend to hide it, so he nodded and said, "It's the principal of the community middle school, but it's been too long, and the school has also been destroyed. I'm afraid there's not enough evidence..."
"So the police can't arrest him, can they?"
"Yes." So the problem had come full circle, Shiller mentioned again, "You know, people like that have a certain social status; without sufficient evidence, it's impossible to get a search warrant, let alone start an investigation."
The man's face should have been very discouraged, but he was deeply influenced by Shiller's previous words. He took a deep breath and said, "The police won't be watching him all the time, that's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Sir, don't do anything foolish," Shiller shook his head and said, "I'm not suggesting you take matters into your own hands. From what I see, you and your wife don't have the capacity. You'll only end up in prison."
"But you have the ability, I know, I've seen many people like you before," the man fixed his gaze onto Shiller's eyes and said, "That's why you are here, aren't you?"
"I really enjoy dealing with smart people like you, sir. I have a favor to ask of you. If my plan goes well, the killer will definitely be brought before you."
"Just say it, I'll do my best to help you, even if it's not successful, at least we will know the truth of it all."
"You remember where the community middle school used to be, right?"
"Of course, I used to take Bu Fa to school with Pari quite often, and we've searched there countless times for him. I will never forget it."
"Drive there, on the hillside southeast of the elementary school building, you should see a person tied up. You need to help me watch him, make sure he doesn't escape, and don't let him die."
The man's fingertips trembled as he asked, "Is that the killer?"
"He's definitely involved, even if he didn't do it himself, he must have helped the principal hide the evidence. Don't forget—the principal had the authority to shut down the school, but who helped him demolish it? It must have been someone he trusted, right?"
"I understand, they're all in the same gang." The man's arms trembled more violently, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down as if he was at his breaking point.
Shiller stepped forward, placed his hand on the man's shoulder, and said, "Calm down, sir. You can't be impulsive when dealing with these monsters. You need to help me watch him and, if possible, ask him what he did on this land four years ago."
"They committed another crime here? But wasn't the school already..."
"Someone was silenced by them. Under the land where the school was, lies the body of a worker, and the unfinished foundation underwent a second demolition. I want to know what that worker had discovered..."
"I'll do my best," the man said.
Seeing that he had calmed down, Shiller didn't give any more instructions. He was a smart man and knew what to do.
Soon, the man had left with his wife. They drove off, their taillights disappearing into the darkness.
Shiller sat on the sofa in the house, starting to sort out the Nigma thread from the beginning.
Ten years ago, Mr. Nigma was the principal at the Bolokin Community Middle School. Pari, who was the physical education teacher at the time, inadvertently witnessed a conversation between him and a student. Fearing that his plots might be exposed, Nigma devised a plan to kill Pari's son and drove her insane.
At that point, Nigma had no reason to abandon the school he operated, since those in the know had already been silenced, and he still controlled the school. He could have continued as normal.
However, he almost fled in haste, not only giving up his position as principal but also managing to shut down and even demolish the school, which meant something beyond his control had happened.
Shiller suspected that it might have been Edward who discovered his secret.
At the time, Edward was still young, possibly still in middle school, and he didn't attend school in the Bolokin community, but the Nigma couple and Mr. Nigma were related; they couldn't avoid interacting.
Edward was extremely smart, with a strikingly keen observational skill, which was the main reason he, as the Riddler, had managed to escape Batman's pursuit numerous times. He was an undisputed genius.
Perhaps it didn't need many interactions—Edward might have seen through Mr. Nigma's true face and even followed some clues back to the Bu Fa case, stashing a small piece of bone in the high school at the Bolokin community.
But at that time, he was too young and not meticulous enough; Mr. Nigma discovered that he was investigating this matter and also found out he might have obtained some evidence, so he panicked.
His worry wasn't Edward, but the Nigma couple. Edward's well-off family background indicated that the Nigma couple had substantial social influence. If Edward had told his parents about it, it would have been all over for him.
Because of this, he quickly shut down the school and brought in the Wardley Engineering Team to completely demolish it.
Even so, he didn't feel reassured since the Edward family was like a ticking bomb to him, always possibly ready to explode, so he ultimately decided to ruthlessly kill the Nigma couple.
Indeed, Shiller suspected that the death of Edward's parents was connected to Mr. Nigma, most likely because Mr. Nigma feared his crimes would be exposed, and had no choice but to kill to silence them.
Logically speaking, he should have killed all three family members, but human beings are greedy.
The Nigma family had a modest fortune, not only in real estate but also in a business that continued to earn money; Mr. Nigma likely kept his eye on these inheritances, which is why he spared Little Edward.
This stemmed from a New Jersey State inheritance law, stating that if the deceased's will's designated heir dies, they cannot inherit without cost, meaning if Edward died, the only blood relative, Mr. Nigma, could not take over all the wealth without hurdles.
On the contrary, he would either not inherit or have to pay a huge inheritance tax to do so.
But if the designated heir was alive but unable to inherit due to lack of capacity, the assets could be held in trust by a designated relative.
This inability to inherit does not refer to being underage but to lacking full legal capacity, the most common of whom are those declared mentally incompetent.
Thus, Mr. Nigma might have killed the Nigma couple for their assets, spared Edward, and driven him insane, sending him to the insane asylum.
Without the social influence of the Nigma couple and Edward being a minor with no platform to speak out, plus diagnosed with a mental illness, no one would believe anything he said.
Mr. Nigma not only eliminated the threat but also gained a large inheritance from the Nigma couple, and even had the meddler, who jeopardized his scheme, tormented in the insane asylum.
Little did he expect that the once hellish Arkham Asylum, after renovations, had become a genuine psychiatric hospital with responsible doctors like Brand. Edward was not only spared abuse but also received good treatment and was now almost ready to be discharged.
Then Shiller thought, what was the relationship between Williams and Mr. Nigma?
When destroying the evidence, Mr. Nigma chose the Wardley Engineering Team to help him demolish the middle and elementary schools, which was not just a simple matter of demolition; there must have been incriminating evidence within these schools that needed destroying.
This proved that Mr. Nigma trusted the Wardley Engineering Team, meaning they were all tarred with the same brush.
At this very moment, Williams invested in the Wardley Engineering Team and even made Bob the manager; undoubtedly, both of them knew all about Mr. Nigma's deeds, and the three were in cahoots.
The organizational structure gradually cleared up in Shiller's mind.
Williams was a wealthy businessman, and Mr. Nigma had inherited the Nigma couple's social clout; the two could easily collude politically and commercially, with Williams clearing paths with money for Mr. Nigma, who in turn provided Williams with many conveniences.
As for Bob, he was their jointly supported hatchet man, managing the Wardley Engineering Team and taking care of destroying their evil evidence.
From this angle, many things now made sense, for instance, how Williams's real estate company managed to secure the land around Shiller's house, which could only be afforded by the wealthy; who would risk offending so many rich people just to grant the land to a real estate company to build a resort?
Or how the almost bankrupt Wardley Engineering Team suddenly started getting orders non-stop, prospering for many years without any issues?
And also, how did Mr. Nigma, initially just a middle school principal, suddenly transform into a financial magnate and even become a hot candidate for Gotham Mayor?
The three of them must have been colluding.
However, Shiller did not believe their cooperation was sincere, or even mutually beneficial; although they might share common perverse tendencies, they definitely conflicted and hindered each other in some ways.
This could explain the many inconsistencies in their crime and the destruction of evidence.
All of them wanted to use each other's crimes as leverage, hoping the other's crimes would be exposed, leading them to ruin so they could blame everything on the same unfortunate individual and save themselves.
Many of these lapses were left by them intentionally, so that if one day someone started investigating, they could target the other person, giving themselves enough time to react, be it destroying evidence or fleeing, there was always a chance.
Having understood this, Shiller knew he had to act fast; otherwise, if the other two couldn't contact Williams, they would realize something was wrong and take action.
From the moment they discovered they couldn't reach Williams, they would enter a psychological game.
The scale was tipped on one side by pinning everything on Williams, but with his sudden return, the cost they would have to pay, and on the other side, if they pinned it on Williams and he didn't return and the police were indeed investigating, the gains they could make.
The longer he was missing, the less likely his return, adding weight to the latter scenario — Shiller judged that the process of making this decision would not take more than three hours.
And now it was already 2:15 a.m.; come dawn, Mr. Nigma would definitely make a decision.