"Alright, Constantine, the greatest detective ever to exist, I've completed the investigation you requested." Constantine, a cigarette dangling from his lips, stood in the middle of the reception room at Schiller Manor.
Shiller was lounging on the couch reading a newspaper. He lowered it slightly to reveal his eyes, looking at Constantine,"What have you found out?" he asked.
"The murderer behind the two cases, isn't that what you asked me to investigate?"
"So, what did you find?"
"The one who beheaded Hawk is called Evans Falcone. As for the one who sawed Richie in half, I don't know his name, but he was wearing black and yellow armor..."
Shiller folded up the newspaper in his hands, placed it to one side, and pointed to the sofa across from him. Constantine walked over and sat down. Shiller said, "I presume you took a trip to Hell, found these two unfortunate victims' souls, and asked them directly, didn't you?"
"That's the Hell Detective for you." Constantine shrugged, "Like I said, the hell part is the key."
"Being able to go directly to Hell to question the souls of the deceased, there isn't a mystery in this world I can't solve."
"...Have you ever attended school?" Shiller asked suddenly.
"Of course, I even attended university in London for a while."
"When you took tests, did you only jot down the answer and still get marks?"
"Uh..." Constantine rubbed the stubble on his chin, "Fine, I can deduce the process from the results."
"Although I've never met this Evans person, Falcone is the godfather's surname, so Evans is probably his son."
"The godfather's son killed one of the godfather's subordinates..." Constantine blew out a puff of smoke and squinted, speaking with a hint of emotion, "Perhaps because the former king is aging, a young lion is baring his fangs..."
"If the prince wants to seize the throne, he first has to clip the wings of the old king's supporters. From what I gather, the Twelve Families are the godfather's core power in Gotham. If the godfather's successor wants to take power, he has to knock down these mainstays first."
"When he went to see Hawk, Hawk wouldn't be suspicious because after all, he's the godfather's son. In this way, Evans invited Hawk to the reception room and then chopped off his head."
"Richie's death afterward fits the theory too. The person Richie saw in the black and yellow armor is probably a killer or mercenary, because only people in these professions would dress that way."
"It was Evans who hired this assassin to kill Richie, in a further attempt to weaken the godfather's power."
"After I started with Lawrence, the godfather's smart successor seized the opportunity. As long as he carried out murders in the same manner after me, he could pin everything on the serial killer..."
"In this way, everything was a conspiracy hatched by young Falcone. He wanted to usurp the godfather's position, so he took recourse to the serial killings to remove the opposition."
"...What do you think of this deduction?" Constantine looked at Shiller.
"Nearly all wrong."
Constantine raised an eyebrow, "Can't be entirely wrong, can it? Although the process may have some inaccuracies, at least the conclusion is correct, isn't it?"
Shiller shook his head, "I have to admit, even though this method of yours smacks of cheating, it works quite well in most cases. Direct identification of the murderer by those already dead couldn't be more accurate."
"But this is Gotham, Constantine..." Shiller looked at Constantine, "You've been here for several days, haven't you noticed yet that everything here is absurd?"
"The scenario you described might happen in other cities, other spheres of power, but here in Gotham, this considerably chaotic place, any incomprehensible things could happen."
"So where did I go wrong?"
Constantine frowned, rested his elbows on his knees, and leaned forward, "There is no mistake with the name Evans Falcone. Hawk told me himself that he was the murderer, I'm certain he didn't lie."
"No, even this name is wrong, because the man who killed Hawk isn't called Evans Falcone, but Alberto Falcone. Alberto is Evans's older brother."
"Twins?" Constantine's fingers twitched.
"But I heard Falcone only has one son."
"Physically speaking, he does indeed have only one son. Have you ever heard of multiple personality disorder?"
"Oh... that's a bit unfair." Constantine waved his hand, "Apart from a psychologist, who would know he has a second personality? Even the victims didn't know. It's not something you can deduce."
"Difficult, yes, but not entirely impossible. If you had investigated thoroughly, you would have known that most people describe Evans as 'averse to making decisions', it's unlikely he would be bold enough to kill his father's subordinates just because he wants to seize power."
"At the very least you could know that the godfather and his son have a decent relationship, the tension between them hasn't escalated to the point of a power struggle."
"Alright, it's my fault for not investigating thoroughly. So, let's just replace Evans with Alberto. The motive and method are correct, right?" Constantine's voice was hoarse.
"Even though the relation between Alberto and Godfather was indeed not good, and maybe Alberto indeed wanted to replace the godfather and take his position, it didn't make sense that he would hire an assassin to kill Richie. As you said, if he could kill Hawk, then he could also use the same method to kill Richie. He didn't need to use someone else's hands."
"Well, it seems I am really not cut out to be a detective..." Constantine spread his hands, saying: "The first detective case in my life as the Hell Detective ends here..."
He took a deep puff of his cigarette. Thick smoke was coming out from his mouth and nose, covering half of his face like a mask and concealing his clenched teeth and twitching mouth corners.
"Constantine, you wander between heaven and hell, dealing with cunning demons. Even the most terrifying demon king in hell couldn't do anything about you."
"Even if the focus of Hell Detective isn't on the detective part, you shouldn't ignore so many details and come up with such a sloppy process and outcome unless..."
Shiller stood up and walked to the bookshelf behind the desk. Constantine kept smoking, lighting one cigarette after another, and his hand holding the cigarette began to shake violently.
In the end, he couldn't hold it any longer and lethargically leaned on the sofa as if he'd lost his strength.
His face was pale, and blood flowed from corners of his mouth, severe pain made his whole body start to convulse.
Through his blurred vision, he saw Shiller standing in front of him, holding a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other, pouring the wine from the bottle into the glass.
When the wine was poured into Constantine's mouth, he sat up as if he had suddenly woken up, and then looked around in a daze. At last, he looked up, seeing Shiller's head turned into a slowly rotating globe.
Constantine exhaled, and even in the dream, his fingertips trembled a bit. It wasn't until he lit up another cigarette and put it in his mouth that he felt slightly better.
"A person can have a dream even a second before dying, or rather, this time would be the best chance for dreaming, and life flashes before your eyes like the best dream."
"... Really?" Constantine slowly turned his head, looking out the window, and said: "... I have never had a beautiful dream."
"But I know..." Along with his words came Constantine's long sigh, "...It's not the fault of the dream god."
With the smoke curling up, Constantine began his narration.
"Before I was born, I had a brother, a twin brother, and we shared our mother's womb and the nurtishment she provided us."
"One day, right inside our mother's womb, I strangled him to death with the umbilical cord, I killed my own elder brother before I was born, taking all the space and nourishment."
"This also resulted in my mother's heavy bleeding and difficult childbirth, and she died. When I was born, I had already killed my own mother."
"My mother died because of me, so my father really hated me. When he committed a crime and got into prison, I was fostered by other relatives."
"It was during this period of my life that I started getting involved with magic. After my father was released from prison, to retaliate against his indifference, I used the magic I just learned to put a curse on him. He didn't die, but he became extremely weak and suffered a lot."
"Then, I started performing all around the world as a band member, causing more trouble, and caused more people to die. In an incident which got me locked up in the mental hospital, I realized my destiny and then I saw all this..."
"More importantly, I saw a shadow which had always been following me. It was my brother, who was killed by me even before he was born, my real brother. He wasn't dead, but became a curse always tied to me...."
"We were twin brothers, I have unparalleled magic talent, and he also had. The curse he turned into was always around me, hiding under my bed every night, robbing my beautiful dreams, and I knew he wanted more."
"He is here to torment me, to make me suffer and break down, then to kill me."
"This curse was eroding my body bit by bit, from dreams to the soul, then to the physical body, bringing me severe pain every day for years. I tried all the devil banishing rituals, but they were all useless."
"Why?"
"When I killed him, he wasn't born yet. After his soul turned into a curse, it was born along with me. We are the same person, so any exorcism wouldn't work..."
"But I had to deal with this problem because it was about to kill me..." Constantine coughed twice, he relaxed himself, leaning back on the sofa, seeming somewhat complacent, he said, "The moment I entered your dream space, I was stunned. I haven't relaxed this much for many years."
The rhythm of Constantine's smoking finally slowed down, and the smoke also became thinner, Shiller asked, "So it's because of your brother, you want to find the dream god?"
"Yes, because I found out he seemed to be able to interfere with my dream, giving me all kinds of nightmares. I thought it might have something to do with the dream god, maybe Morpheus could solve it."
"But before coming here, I wasn't too hopeful because in my last meeting with the dream god, he told me that he couldn't give me beautiful dreams. I don't know why, but maybe he was expressing his refusal."
"Therefore, I prepared another plan."
"What is it?"
"Lorena Sanchez, a Ghost Mom who specially deals with children." Constantine squinted his eyes, saying, "The curse wrapped around me is a fetus, and everything about a fetus, infant, child is within the authority of Ghost Mom."
"Lorena has been in Gotham for a long time, not because she loves to be here, but because her grandmother once made a treaty with a mysterious power here..."
"And that mysterious power is called... the Owl Priest."