Chapter 297: Three Detectives (1)


    On a stormy night with lightning and thunder, rain fell on the roof of the Manor, creating a rustling sound that blended with the crackling of the partially extinguished firece.


    It was a highly hypnotic sound, and as a result, Schiller, lying in bed, slept deeply. However, at that moment, an urgent phone call rang, causing Schiller to open his eyes.


    He nced outside the window, where a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, imprinting the window''s grid onto the floor and bed. One shadow passed directly over Schiller''s eyes.


    He took a deep breath and got out of bed, moving through the dark halls of Manor in his slippers. Reaching the ground floor, he picked up the receiver to answer the phone. As expected, it was Gordon''s anxious voice on the other end, saying, "Harry Cooper is dead, Professor Schiller. You need toe."


    "Is it rted to a serial killer? If so, go find Batman."


    "Batman is already here, Professor Schiller. I know it''ste, and I shouldn''t be disturbing you, but the situation this time is quite dire. It''s best if youe over."


    Schiller nced at the grandfather clock in the room, its hands pointing precisely at 2 a.m. He remembered thest time Gordon called him on a rainy night, it was when Fish Mooney died.


    He went upstairs, dressed himself, and grabbed an umbre. As he stepped out of the Manor''s gates, the night in Gotham remained eerily dark. The damp air filled his lungs, dispelling any drowsiness.


    A ck car entered through the Manor gates. Dressed in a ck suit and carrying a ck umbre and ck sunsses, the person who opened the car door didn''t utter a word, and Schiller didn''t ask anything either.Cooper''s Manor was located on the west side of the North District, quite far from Falcone Manor. When the car carrying Schiller stopped at the entrance of Cooper Manor, Gordon hurriedly approached. Schiller got out of the car, and together with Gordon, they made their way inside.


    "What''s going on? It''s unusual to see you in such a panic. Even if it''s a serial killer, it shouldn''t make you this anxious, right?"


    Gordon''s expression appeared grim. He didn''t provide much exnation, simply saying, "You''ll know when you see the crime scene."


    They climbed up to the third floor. Several police officers were present at the staircase entrance. After Gordon approached, he nodded to one of them, a person dressed in a distinctive uniform. It was a dignified old police officer. He examined Schiller for a moment, then walked up to shake hands, saying, "Hello, I''m Commissioner Smith from Gotham Police Station. I''ve heard about you for a long time."


    Schiller shook hands with him and briefly introduced himself. Themissioner didn''t seem to appreciate pleasantries. He gestured to Gordon, saying, "Take this professor in, but be cautious."


    Gordon nodded, leading Schiller through the crowd and reaching the door of a room at the end of the third-floor corridor. He took out a key, opened the door, and revealed an incredibly gruesome scene before Schiller''s eyes.


    Surprisingly, there were no intact corpses present—only scattered remains.


    The room had a crimson hue, although the floor, ceiling, and furniture should not have been that color. All the red came from blood and fragments of internal organs.


    The reason there were no bodies visible was because they had been uniformly spread throughout the room.


    Batman stood in a corner, his gaze fixed on the center of the room. There, an attention-grabbing objecty—an intricate pattern resembling a ck ink drawing of a mystical sigil, surrounded by a pile of ck ash.


    Schiller entered the room but stopped at the doorway. Gordon squeezed past him and closed the door. Schiller tapped the ground with the tip of his umbre, then raised it to examine the bloodstains above.


    Here is the proofread text:


    Then he looked up and surveyed the entire room. This room is not big, about twenty-something square meters. It appears to be a reception room with floor-to-ceiling windows. Three sofas are ced on the wall to the right of the door and the wall on the side of the door. In the middle, there is a round table, and on the other side, there is a desk and a bookshelf. This is amonyout for a reception room in English Manor, and it''s the same in Schiller''s Manor.


    The ck magic circle is located in the center of the room, while the red spreads from the magic circle to the lower half of the entire room, including the entire floor, most of the walls, and the ceiling in the center of the room.


    "The reason why I didn''t exin it in detail over the phone is that I don''t know if this situation can be called dismemberment. It''s a bit...too fragmented," Gordon said, covering his mouth.


    Schiller turned to Gordon and asked, "Are there shoe covers?"


    Gordon took out shoe covers and gloves, essential auxiliary items for the investigation, from his pocket. He then took out a mask and a face shield for himself. He wanted to hand them to Schiller, but Schiller shook his head and refused.


    After putting on the shoe covers, Schiller walked into the room. He circled around the entire room. During his observation, Batman said, "Cooper''s body has been pulverized and evenly spread throughout the room. This method ispletely different from the previous three cases..."


    Schiller squatted not far from the magic circle and examined the ground. He said, "The body hasn''t been pulverized? No, that statement isn''t quite urate."


    "Doesn''t this count as pulverization?" Gordon asked. "We can hardly find aplete body fragment. Blood, skin, and bones, everything has been crushed and spread throughout the room."


    "Indeed, but not everything."


    Schiller stood up, looked up at the ceiling, and said, "The body mass here is insufficient."


    "What do you mean?"


    "What you see now, the red part in the room, which includes fragments with blood, internal organs, skin, and bone tissue, after being collected and pieced together, ounts for only about two-thirds of a person''s mass."


    "One-third of the body mass has disappeared."


    Gordon opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to ask Schiller how he knew, but the question lingered and eventually didn''te out. After all, this realistic scene was already terrifying enough, and there was no need to add a few more horror stories to set the mood.


    Batman walked over, stood next to the magic circle, and said, "This pattern is not any recorded magic circle, but I can confirm that the six-pointed star in the center of the pattern should be rted to demons."


    "It''s bing more and more mysterious, isn''t it?" Gordon also managed to suppress his disgust and walked over, saying, "At first, there were the serial killings of the twelve disciples, then there was a man sawed in half. Today, they''ve started pulverizing the corpses and smearing them on the walls. What will they do next? Evaporate people?"


    "Obviously, this is not something an ordinary person can do." Schiller spoke slowly and in a steady tone, but it always gave people a chilling feeling. He said, "In this case, the killer''s power level has been raised to another level."


    "Weren''t you patrolling around heretely? Have you found anything?" Schiller asked Batman.


    "I was the first to discover that Cooper was dead, and the reason I came here was because I heard an explosion. But when I arrived, I didn''t find any suspicious figures."


    Schiller walked over to the nearby sofa and lightly rubbed the tip of his umbre, which had no bloodstains, against the sofa. He said, "Although what I''m about to say may make you question my professionalism, I still have to say... this case may be rted to supernatural powers."


    "What do you mean by supernatural powers?"


    "Isn''t it already obvious from this magic circle? Someone summoned a demon here, and that demon killed Cooper."


    Gordon pursed his lips and tilted his head. He said, "I expected you to present an exceptionally intricate process of reasoning and reveal an astonishing conclusion. I also considered the possibility that you might present various evidence to support your reasoning, but I never expected..."


    "Gordon detective, don''t view the events happening in this city with the perspective of an ordinary person."


    Batman, however, asked, "Why did youe to this conclusion?"


    Schiller walked over once again, looked down at the ground, and said, "Pay attention to the direction of the blood and muscle tissue stters. They radiate outward from the center, which means that Cooper wasn''t killed by an external bomb. His explosion originated from within."


    "Could it be that someone forced him to swallow a bomb?"


    "Good deduction, Gordon detective. Indeed, that''s something a criminal in Gotham would do. However, we should ask our weapons expert, Batman..."


    "Is there a type of bomb in the world that, upon detonation, could evenly pulverize a person from their skin to their muscles and internal organs and spread them across the room?"


    "While it''s possible for the person to be blown apart, it''s challenging to achieve such uniform distribution of the sted tissues on the floor and walls of the room."


    "Could it be that someone blew up Cooper into pieces, then manually spread these things around?" Gordon raised another question.


    Schiller made an approving gesture and said, "Gordon detective, your thinking is well-suited for being a detective. Honestly, you are very talented."


    "If the perpetrator is indeed a deranged killer, then it''s possible for them to do this. They havemitted even more heinous acts. However, based on the details, it''s unlikely that it was manually spread out."


    "Take a look here..." Schiller walked over, his shoes making a sticky, dull sensation on the floor. Nevertheless, it still captured the attention of the two of them.


    Schiller pointed at one of the sofa legs, where some tissue had umted. "Here, when the explosion urred, human tissue sttered and poured onto the floor, but it was stopped," he exined.


    "You can see that the part closest to this sofa leg is skin tissue. Even the epidermis and dermis are visible. On top of them, there areyers of fat, and above that are fragments of internal organs."


    "This indicates that it''s unlikely for the murderer to have blown up and dismembered the victim, intentionally spreading them evenly. If that were the case, the order in which the umted tissues are presented here would not be so regr; instead, it would be jumbled together."


    "Imagine Cooper, who was blown apart by some unknown force, firstpletely melted, then turned into a ttened mass on the floor, and subsequently crushed even further, resembling the pouring of waves spreading towards the floor."


    "The sofa leg is like a pier standing on the surface of the sea. However, in this case, the crushed human tissue is denser. Consequently, this pier intercepted a portion of it and preserved its initial state."


    "I also think this is something that an ordinary person cannot aplish. It''s difficult for a bomb to achieve this level of effect, and if someone were to crush a human body like this, they would need the assistance of some mechanical tools."


    "From the moment I heard the explosion to the time I entered this room, there wasn''t enough time for a person to move suchrge machinery."


    Gordon surveyed the room up and down and asked, "Could there be any mechanisms or traps?"


    "Before I called you here, I thoroughly searched every corner of this room. There are no traps, secret doors, hiddenpartments, or secret passages. It''s just a very ordinary reception room in the manor."


    "So both of you believe that this could be the work of some supernatural force?"


    "That''s right, and it shouldn''t be rted to the murdersmitted by the Twelve Apostles. I''ve never heard of anyone in the Bible exploding and being crushed."


    "With all due respect..." Gordon hesitated, then said, "If it involves this kind of situation, the Gotham Police Station might not be able to help. We don''t have anyone skilled in this area."


    "Furthermore, if I were to announce the results of your investigation right now, they would definitely consider us crazy and kick us out."


    Schiller shook his head and remarked, "That''s not necessarily true. They might be even more superstitious than you are..."


    Just then, there was a knock on the door, and a police officer rushed in and said to Gordon, "Boss! Something terrible has happened. Mrs. Sanchez, the principal of the boarding school near the Gotham River, has been found dead!"


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