Brand took the rag doll from Miss Richie's hand, he saw the umbrella firmly gripped in her hand and naturally knew it was Shiller's intention, so he sighed, waved to Miss Richie, and beckoned her to follow him.
They went to the previous summoning site, where there were still some materials left, just enough for one more soul summoning ceremony.
Just as they were about to begin, Shiller returned, and Brand seemed to wonder why he was there, but Shiller shook his head without saying much and signaled for him to start quickly.
After the soul summoning ceremony began, the runes started glowing gradually, and a transparent phantom appeared in the center of the Array.
Miss Richie immediately let out a piercing cry, she rushed over, trying to embrace her sister, but failed, because it was only a spirit's phantom with no tangible form.
The spirit's phantom was attracted to the rag doll and slowly bent down trying to pick it up, but her fingers passed through the fabric, and it was at that moment the spirit seemed to jolt awake, realizing she was dead.
She was about to emit a resentful cry, but then she saw Miss Richie, face down in front of her, and Brand sighed, "Hello, ma'am, we've summoned you to ask you some questions."
The phantom did not respond but reached out trying to help her younger sister up, and at that moment Miss Richie finally came to her senses, she stood up, wiped her tears clean, and looking at the sister who resembled her so much, said, "Long time no see, Mana, I'm very sorry, but you're dead, we performed a soul summoning ceremony, and we called you back because we want to know how you died, was it that damned bastard who killed you?!"
The phantom seemed to recall the pain of her death, her expression became hideous with resentment, and blood began to flow continuously from her nose and mouth, almost flooding the entire room.
Brand immediately started to soothe the resentful soul, and the phantom calmed down again, she suddenly touched Miss Richie's forehead with one hand, and Miss Richie let out a painful scream, rolling her eyes back and fainting.
The phantom quickly dissipated, and when Miss Richie stood up again, her face was tear-streaked, trembling, she'd never shown such weakness before, continuously rubbing her arms as if she were cold.
"Did you see how your sister died?"
"He gave her an anesthetic, then put her in the bathtub, she... she was drowned like that..."
Miss Richie wailed loudly, clutching the rag doll on the ground, it was only about ten minutes later that Brand helped the frail Miss Richie into the office.
After she had calmed down, she said, "My sister found out about their dealings, she couldn't accept that her husband was that kind of person, but she decided to expose them to avenge those children."
"But God wasn't on her side, something went wrong, and that damned scoundrel found out about her intentions, he just killed her like that, turned it into a cold case that never saw the light of day again."
"However, she did collect some evidence, to prevent the evidence from being destroyed, she hid it, she had a premonition that things were going badly, so she took precautions, and guided another person to discover the evidence before she died."
"Another person? Who?" Shiller asked.
"A worker from the Wardled Construction Team, in my sister's memory, he was a very righteous person, and more importantly, he had bravely saved a drowning child before, my sister trusted him a lot."
Shiller thought of the worker's body he and Pamela had uncovered under the land of the ruins of the elementary and middle school.
"That was ten years ago, right?"
"Yes, in my sister's memory, she succeeded, that worker should have seen the evidence by now, but then my sister died, so she didn't know if he kept the evidence properly."
"He might be dead now." Shiller said.
Until now, all the clues were connected.
Ten years ago, Nigma committed the Bu Fa case for revenge against Pari, Edward pursued the case, and Nigma, fearing exposure, hired the Wardle Engineering Team to demolish Bolokin Community's middle and elementary schools.
The manager of the Wardle Engineering Team, Bob's wife, discovered the he had once committed crimes of child abuse, quietly collected evidence, but made a mistake and was killed by Bob.
And to expose the crime and bring the murderer to justice, Bob's wife hid the evidence somewhere and led a worker to discover them.
The worker, after finding the evidence, was terrified, living in constant fear, possibly secretly investigating, and returned to the site of the middle and elementary schools one day four years ago, only to be murdered there.
And realizing that someone was still investigating this case, the criminals didn't think their demolition of the middle and elementary schools was thorough enough, so four years ago, they carried out a second demolition on the building site.
Perhaps that was also what provoked them, making them feel unsafe everywhere, as if whistleblowers were all around, so they started to murder frenziedly.
But by that time, things in Gotham had improved a lot compared to ten years ago, it wasn't so easy to kill at will and leave the body in the street, so they built a Crematorium in the Bolokin Community, specifically for destroying evidence.
Recently, Miss Richie, who had been investigating the truth behind her sister's death, entered their radar. They wanted to send Miss Richie to a mental hospital, just as they had done to Edward, so they sought out Shiller.
But Shiller felt that Williams's choice to locate his resort there wasn't just about him; he suspected that Williams was also disposing of bodies.
For now, all the informants were circling around Bob and Nigma, with Williams seemingly staying out of it.
However, it probably wasn't that simple in reality. Williams's crimes must have been discovered by someone; he might be the most formidable of the three, with all the informants silenced by him.
And perhaps out of caution toward the other two, Williams didn't follow their methods of disposing of corpses. Instead, he blazed a new trail. Shiller suspected that Williams had opened a resort by the lake specifically to throw bodies into it.
In fact, in such weather, disposing of bodies in water was indeed a good choice. On one hand, it was cooler by the water, making it less likely to suffer heatstroke while disposing of a body, and on the other, as long as it was done properly, a body sunken in the lake wouldn't smell and would be harder to discover.
However, he might not have anticipated that the lake was almost full.
Of course, in essence, it might be because he didn't expect the Guardians of the Galaxy, those aliens, to act completely unreasonably. When they caused trouble, they really caused trouble, which disrupted his subsequent plans and inadvertently exposed him.
After obtaining a clue from Miss Richie, Shiller thought that the worker who had been guided by Bob's wife to find the evidence years ago didn't actually lose it. It was very likely hidden somewhere else.
Because his behavior was very strange. It was completely understandable that he didn't contact the police ten years ago; at that time, the Gotham Police Department officers were overwhelmed. The best outcome after reporting could be no result, and the worst could drag him into it as well.
But four years ago, things had improved. The Gotham Police Department had established a strong reputation, and James Gordon's name was well-known throughout Gotham. Everyone knew he detested evil, and as long as the collected evidence was handed over to Gordon, the case would eventually be solved.
In that case, he should have gone to the police station, not to the site of the middle and elementary schools. What was he doing there?
Shiller felt this must be related to a deeper secret he had surmised. That mountain seemed not so simple after all.
At that moment, Miss Richie had picked up an umbrella. Shiller and Brand both looked at her as Miss Richie clenched her teeth and said, "I will make that bastard pay! I will let him feel my sister's pain!"
After finishing, she stormed out. Brand looked at Shiller, and Shiller shook his head, saying, "She knows her limits; she won't kill him."
Although he said that, Shiller still followed her. Miss Richie gradually calmed down, and she said, "Do you think I should hand him over to the police?"
"Do you think the police can actually punish him?"
"I have no evidence," Miss Richie said. "He didn't let me see any bodies, nor did he leave any evidence behind, and it's been ten years already, I'm afraid..."
"Actually, we have evidence. We're bound to find something in the former air-raid shelter where we were imprisoned. But we can't expose the evidence now because, if we do, some of them could pin the crime on one of their own."
"For instance, if we let those children's bones see daylight now, there would be public outrage. The Gotham Police Department would face tremendous pressure, and evidence would be handed over to them."
"If they don't disclose it, people will accuse them of covering it up. Once they make it public, everyone's attention will be drawn to that one person, allowing the others to perfectly conceal themselves and escape retribution."
"Yes, the scapegoat they push forward could be your enemy, your sister's husband, but the other accomplices would get off scot-free. Is that what you want to see?"
Miss Richie shook her head.
"And if the scapegoat they push forward is a dead man, then it's even simpler. A dead man can't argue back, and people will feel death is the greatest punishment. The importance given to the case will surely decline. Do you still want to kill Bob now?"
Miss Richie sighed heavily and said, "I understand what you're saying. Even if you've identified a target and have some evidence, you can't just arrest or kill one of them right away, because then the other murderers would take advantage of that to get off the hook."
"It's not just me; the police always do this too. In your view, the police might always seem slow and inactive, even though they have evidence, they don't arrest suspects, and they deal with those criminals indirectly. The reasons are mostly as I've described," Shiller replied.
"It's too complicated." Miss Richie tapped her head with her hand, then said, "I'm not that smart. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."
"Good, Miss. I'm becoming more and more grateful that I helped you. You can go find Bob, you can even tie him up, but don't do anything to him, make sure he stays alive, okay?"
Miss Richie gripped the umbrella tightly, nodded, and as Shiller turned to leave, she asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Investigate some other leads. I will contact you after dawn, and if everything goes well, we should have our answers by tomorrow."