Gordon picked up the sorted materials and found, as Natasha and Nemocine said, that all the people suspected to have died at the hands of the copycat killer were related to the nature reserve developnt bill pushed half a year ago—either as the law’s drafters or implenters.
Gordon glanced through the bill’s contents briefly and imdiately understood that it was just another sche to invade the nature reserve. Gotham’s land developnt was already saturated; even in the suburbs, the better comrcial lands were used up. To get more land, the developers had no choice but to extend their hands to the nature reserve.
This nature reserve is located on an island. Since it’s not within the urban area, the climate is relatively good, and it even has a nice V-shaped beach that had been developed as a tourist spot many years ago. This bill aid to build a villa resort and hotel along the coastline.
In fact, if it were just about building houses, it probably wouldn’t destroy too much of the natural environnt, but to make the seawater et the quality standards of a beach resort and attract more wealthy investors or hobuyers, they dumped a poison into the water, killing all marine life near the shore and poisoning almost all the plants along the coastline.
This approach seed very effective: with no aquatic or microbial life, the seawater turned exceptionally clean and looked perfect for swimming; the death of the plants also lowered construction difficulty and expanded the beach area. It could be said that everyone was happy.
The first few victims were mostly investors in this project, and the mayor, eager for more political donations, actively promoted the bill’s passage; the judge also played a significant role; Antonio, feeling protesters were disrupting his daily life, mocked them wildly on his program.
For ordinary people, there’s nothing they can do against such collusion. However, Gotham has a real Plant Deity—Poison Ivy Pala.
In the past, many people in Gotham destroyed plants, but because of the high level of urbanization, most destroyed plants were actually cultivated horticultural species or green belts. With not many natural plants, there wasn’t much to destroy anyway.
But this ti is different. That natural reserve on the island is one of the few places around Gotham with a decent environnt, and if you go any closer, you’d have to head to Brude Haven. Gordon guessed that such a brutal thod of destroying plants probably led Poison Ivy to do these things. But the only mystery is: why would she mimic the Eden Killer?
"Thank heavens, Lady Aisley is one of the more communicative madn in Gotham." Gordon led Natasha to the interrogation room and said, "As long as you don’t pour water on a plant and kill it in front of her, she’s usually very quiet. But her good friend Harley Quinn is different. If you encounter that madwoman, it’s best to go the other way."
Natasha entered the interrogation room silently. Upon seeing the red-haired woman sitting inside, she felt sothing was wrong instinctively. Certain fragnts of inspiration flashed and vanished quickly in her mind, not to be captured.
"Hello, Lady Aisley." Natasha sat opposite her and said, "Don’t worry, we just need to conduct so routine questioning."
"I did it." Poison Ivy stated bluntly, "The people you think I killed are the ones I did. I strangled them with vines, then stabbed them to make it look like the Eden Killer did it, all to send them and their damn bill to Hell. Anything else you want to ask?"
Natasha was shocked at her bluntness and honesty, but she still said, "I believe you have room for explanation."
"No need." Poison Ivy replied, "I’m a ntally ill person; no one can sentence to detention, and I’ll only be sent to Arkham Asylum. But the doctors and nurses there can’t stop ."
Natasha slowly furrowed her brows. Just as she was about to say sothing, she saw a vine extending through the window of the interrogation room—which was on the eighth floor.
A policeman waiting nearby had bad luck. The seemingly soft vine lunged at him and wrapped around his neck, hoisting him into the air.
"Alright." Natasha said, "I see your capabilities, ma’am."
Then Poison Ivy let the officer down. The vine disappeared in a "whoosh." Natasha sighed and said, "How does Batman deal with you superpower criminals as an ordinary person?"
"He doesn’t have to deal with ." Poison Ivy stated, "As long as no one harms plants, I don’t want to bother with anyone. I have my experints to do, and I’d love to stay in the lab forever. If those pests hadn’t asked for it, I wouldn’t have bothered killing them."
"Alright, since you have no concerns, there’s no need for us to continue talking. I just have one last question: why did you mimic the Eden Killer?"
"Because I want to go to court—what I an is, I want more reporters and audiences to co. I want to expose those people’s shaless activities publicly. Mimicking a notorious killer is the best way."
"Do you think the Eden Killer is famous?"
"Not as famous as the Joker. It’s a pity Batman isn’t in Gotham, and the Joker is nowhere to be found, otherwise mimicking him would be the best choice. But this Eden Killer isn’t bad either; he’s quite popular lately. If you take as him and judge , that stupid bill they launched might be seen by half of Arica, and their end too—so everyone would weigh carefully before encroaching on nature reserves and harming plants."
Flawless reasoning. Natasha thought. If the opponent is truly such a fanatic plant protectionist, it wouldn’t be surprising to do this. But Natasha always felt sothing was off.
The details of the case hovered in Natasha’s mind, but she wasn’t really any high-level detective; these chaotic and trivial clues couldn’t form useful information. Natasha felt her brain was a bit overloaded.
"You..." Natasha uttered a syllable but after a while, fell silent. She stared into Poison Ivy’s eyes, hoping she had the Mind Reading Technique, or a skill like Shiller’s spiritual analysis. But obviously, she didn’t have such talents, as after staring for a long ti her mind was still blank.
Thinking of Mind Reading Technique reminded her of Shiller, thinking of Shiller reminded her of what Shiller said that day. Natasha felt more headache but those words, like magic sounds in her ears, kept echoing in her mind.
She had a great tombstone in her heart—not of any specific person, even not of any specific country. Originally not so clear, but after she got her first paynt from the Arican agent agency, she carved her na on the tombstone, then let 80% of her heart be buried together.
The remaining 20%, even if given to soone wholeheartedly, really couldn’t be called a remarkable gift. She could no longer fall in love with soone without reservation like when she was 20, and her suitors seed to be stepping into a trap built from the tragedy in her soul. The way to push these well-aning people out of the trap was to use beauty to deceive them, then keep everything at the level of physical desire.
For Natasha, this couldn’t be considered a very pleasant experience, because she always could read a deeper yearning from their eyes already burned out with lust. Sotis she really felt angry and despair—"Why can’t you be a little shallow?!"
Natasha slightly ca back to her senses and thought about the case and her current situation. Suddenly, she realized Pala Isley and herself were the sa type of person—they didn’t love themselves most, nor did they love others most, but loved sothing abstract and untouchable, perhaps it might be protecting plants?
Although she didn’t know how this notion was ford, Natasha respected people with beliefs. The difference between her and Poison Ivy was: her ideals had turned into a tombstone, while Poison Ivy was in a state of fervor.
In her own fervent years, she had killed soone not only for ideals. So Poison Ivy doing these things was entirely reasonable. Considering her beliefs were rather extre, wanting to proclaim through murder, and prevent potential plant harm cases was also quite normal. So, where exactly was the issue?
Natasha stared at Poison Ivy’s face. As her gaze shifted to Poison Ivy’s red hair tips, she suddenly widened her eyes.
"Red hair..." Natasha uttered a word, "Red hair!"
Why red hair? Natasha finally grasped that fleeting fragnt of inspiration. Why are all redheads?!
She herself was red-haired, Lena Luthor was red-haired, Barbara Gordon was red-haired, Nemocine was red-haired, Pala Isley was also red-haired.
Why are all the female characters involved in this case red-haired?
Mind you, Arica still mainly has brown and black hair, while blonde and red hair are similarly rare. Red hair roughly accounts for about 2% of the total population, mostly from first-generation European immigrant Celts or their mixed race. And mixed-race red hair isn’t so obvious, mostly red-brown.
Yet the red-haired won involved currently in the case all had rather pure red hair: her own hair was originally red, and slightly purple after genetic modification, many would think she dyed her hair, but actually not; Barbara Gordon and Lena Luthor had standard Celtic red hair; Nemocine had orange-red hair slightly lighter in color; Poison Ivy’s hair also seed dyed, because it was red beyond red, bright red.
Natasha felt she was close to grasping the key, yet there was a very important missing link, which is, what’s special about red hair?
Besides the red hair, they practically had no commonalities—regardless of age, background, personality, or current state, it could be said they’re entirely different. What on earth was going on?
Natasha looked at Shiller in the contact directory, she kind of wanted to tell Shiller about her finding, but felt a bit ridiculous. After all, the sa hair color really wasn’t anything noteworthy, perhaps her reasoning was entirely wrong.
Natasha canceled the edited ssage. She thought, Shiller must be busy now, surely having no ti to chat with her, it’s better not to disturb him at this ti.
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