"For years, this city has broken free from the shackles of darkness to see the light again. But when night falls, Gotham is once again subrged in that impenetrable night, as if overnight it reverted to a secretive and cruel previous era. When I heard the news of yet another murder case, I couldn’t help but hurry out, the gust from donning my coat could blow all the way to the Atlantic. But Rodriguez was still the sa, standing in the light at the entrance of the office on Green Street, the lines of his coat hanging straight down, reminding of an old pen stored in a gun case. Surely, this news has exacerbated his fatigue, such a hard night, but dawn will always co. I thought this but didn’t say it out loud, so as not to disturb his nap in the car, or the weaving of case clues in his mind."
Shiller leaned over to glance at the paper in Victor’s hand, and Victor proudly raised an eyebrow at him. Shiller turned his head sowhat helplessly and then said, "Let’s make a bet."
"Bet on what?"
"On who the dead person is."
"That’s a bit disrespectful to the deceased."
"But it can add so intrigue to this story."
"Then I’ll bet the dead person is Pelota." Victor thought for a mont and said, "The probability that Milos is the killer is high; Pelota might know sothing, so they were silenced."
"Then I’ll bet it’s not," Shiller said, "Of course, you’d better not secretly swap our answers after the truth cos out in your writing."
"Of course not," Victor said. "Detectives are the smart ones, while the assistants only need to ask silly questions."
"Perhaps you could turn it around," Shiller said. "Because I really can’t co up with any decent reasoning; that part might be completed by you."
"Co on, that would be aningless... Alright, I’ll give it a try. But I haven’t accomplished anything in Behavioral Analysis thod, so I’ll have to deduce as best as I can. Maybe I should find soone skilled."
As they spoke, the car stopped at the gate of Gotham University. Standing at the entrance, one could vaguely see the spire of the bell tower piercing into the clouds, like a knife slicing through deep, obscure fog. The clouds were thick and dense like the sea, and the snow was like schools of fish in the cold sea. This city’s night always hung upside down.
As they walked in, police cars were gathered there as usual. Brainiac had sealed off the door to the dormitory, and the students stayed quietly in their rooms. As a result, the building was relatively quiet.
Gordon stood at the end of the hallway, and when he saw them approaching, he turned and gently brushed the hem of his coat, saying, "The deceased is a girl in room 312. Does anyone know her?"
"God!" Jenna rushed forward. Gordon looked her up and down and then said, "Were you dragged here from a party?"
Jenna’s sequined red dress stood out in the night. Deep as the night was and white as the snow was, neither black nor white could blur the vivid boundary with the red.
"This is not the ti to talk about this!" Jenna pushed him aside and rushed into the room, soon letting out a cry, "Fanny!"
Barry also hurried up but didn’t go in, only standing at the door. Jenna quickly ran out again, holding the door fra, and then said, "The deceased is Fanny, my other roommate."
Victor glanced back at Shiller but still stepped forward and asked, "Which departnt is she from?"
"Chemistry," Jenna said. "Her professor is Jonathan Crane."
"God," Victor couldn’t help but sigh.
Barry had already reached the bed. It was clearly a cri scene, and the killer had no intention of covering it up. A girl lay on the bed near the door, a knife lodged in her chest, blood flowed all over the bed and floor. Her face was ashen, her limbs stiff, evidently dead for quite so ti.
"Why is she on your bed?" Barry turned to look at Jenna and asked.
"How do you know that’s her bed?" Victor instinctively asked back.
Shiller tugged on his arm, and Victor coughed. Jenna extended her hand, resting it on her other shoulder, and said sowhat helplessly, "He’s my dance partner. After we finished practicing, he accompanied back to get sothing, and I showed him my dormitory."
"Haven’t you graduated?" Victor asked.
"In fact, no, it’s still considered an internship," Barry was evidently absent-minded as he looked at Jenna’s bed and then said, "Does she usually sleep here?"
"Uh..." Jenna pursed her lips and then said, "Fanny isn’t soone who respects boundaries much. Since I don’t often sleep in the dorm, and she preferred the bed near the door, so..."
"Your roommates really aren’t pushovers," Victor said. Then he took out his phone, telling Brainiac, "Keep Jonathan Crane in his nature reserve, otherwise..."
"Sorry, he’s already here."
A lean figure appeared at the staircase. Jonathan’s face turned very unpleasant upon seeing the corpse on the bed. He turned around to survey the room, finally fixing his gaze on Shiller.
"’You always show up at murder scenes,’ Professor Crane’s accusation was sowhat sharp. ’No more than you do,’ Rodriguez’s response was full of his style, tinged with cold black humor. ’Especially when playing the murderer,’ this one hit the mark. They were old rivals, sothing we talked about later during casual chats. The Morson district murder case—the big case of the Dark Age, Jas Gordon got involved too. The three of them converged here, the atmosphere in the corridor beca grave, as if briefly returning to that era. I have no intention of watching the drama, but I know, like the Christmas tree at the Christmas party, everything that happens next will revolve around , yet have nothing to do with actually."
Shiller glanced at Victor, who was still writing vigorously, and sighed softly. He looked at Jonathan and said, "If you don’t want to play a Moriarty-like role in a soon-to-be-published, globally sensational detective book, then don’t spar with here."
"Have you started babbling?" Jonathan squinted at him and said, "You think you appear as a detective, but to , you look like the murderer who frequently returns to the cri scene."
"That theory has been debunked. At least, the killer returns not out of pride but out of fear," Shiller swept his gaze over the dormitory layout, then turned back to Jenna.
Jenna jolted, snippets like electric currents flashed through her mind, causing her entire body to start tingling.
"He intended to kill ," Jenna said, "The murderer didn’t want to kill Fanny, but ."
The others turned to look at her. Jenna, supporting Barry’s shoulder with one hand, lifted her skirt to look around, and then said, "Perhaps I shouldn’t have worn this dress."
"You all really confuse ," Victor said, "Can we stop speaking in riddles? Could soone step up and explain what’s going on?"
"I’ll do it," Jenna said, "I had no classes this afternoon, so I was supposed to rehearse the dance. But Amanda called away, delaying my afternoon. Of course, Barry was the sa. So barely rehearsed, we two reached the activity room."
"You know, I’m not an Earthling, never participated in any decent social activities. I’m not very good at dancing, so I need a lot of practice to look decent. Not wanting to embarrass ourselves, we two continued practicing in the activity room until past one in the morning. And I had to go back to work overti, I simply didn’t have ti to change clothes, and returned like this to Green Street."
"This dress is beautiful, right? I don’t often wear such bright colors, and it has sequins and gemstones on it. Very noticeable walking down the street, easy to be seen."
"I was about to ntion," Gordon said, hugging his arms, "In freezing weather, you’re just in a slip dress. Miss, aren’t you cold?"
Only then did Victor realize sothing seed off. They were all wearing heavy-weight coats and scarves, bundled tightly. Jenna, however, simply wore a red slip dress, exposing her full arms and half her back. Despite it being below freezing, even if the dorms were warr inside, she had just co out from the car, yet didn’t seem cold.
Jenna said helplessly, "I told you, I’m an alien. Our race’s habitable temperature is minus 30 degrees to positive 50 degrees, not as fragile as humans."
The crowd was speechless. Barry seed to understand what was going on too, he said, "I should have reminded you to wear a coat then."
"Why didn’t you two use your Divine Speed?" Gordon asked again.
"My Divine Speed is inconvenient for carrying others," Barry said, "It’s not that I can’t carry them at all, but better not do it unless it’s urgent. Going back for overti isn’t that urgent, better to drive."
"Okay," Gordon lifted the hem of his coat, tucked his hands into his pockets and looked at Jenna, then said, "You’re suggesting that because you were dressed so conspicuously, you were seen on your way ho. How does that relate to this case?"
"He stole what I was going to say. Not good news. But a detective’s assistant can still play a residual role in the telegram. I plan to jot down my thoughts, they were still a bit scattered back then, but I have a good idea when I started writing: the key isn’t who saw Miss Jenna but who Miss Jenna saw. Or rather, the guilty murderer mistakenly thought Miss Jenna saw him. So, after he returned to school, he chose to go to Miss Jenna’s dormitory and silence her. But this lucky girl didn’t stay in the dormitory, she had to work overti at so secret organization. So, another girl less fortunate took her place, leaving us forever."
"Milos, it must be him," Jenna stepped forward and then said, "He left the school intending to kill Chick. But just at that ti, when I finished practicing and went outside. I was dressed visibly, he saw and assud I saw him. When he returned to school after killing Chick, he didn’t feel secure and ca to my dorm intending to kill ."
"Did you really see him then?"
"Of course not. Otherwise, I would have ntioned it right away."
"Then you must have been very far away," Jonathan continued, "How could he be sure it was you?"
"Because in such cold weather, the only one wearing such thin clothing is ," Jenna said, "I previously heard Pello talk bad about , describing as ’the freak who almost turned into an ice sculpture just to look pretty.’ She said that countless tis, and to more than one person. Milos beca her boyfriend, she might have said the sa to him."
"Why did he co to the dorm to find you?" Gordon asked again, "How could he be sure you would return to the dorm?"
"Because I did return to the dorm," Jenna said, "I already ntioned that I had to return to the dorm to get sothing. After leaving the activity room, our first stop was my dorm, we left after getting the item. He must have seen going towards the dorm."
"If that’s true, then it’s clearly a tragic coincidence," Gordon looked at the body on the bed, sighed and said, "The murderer intended to kill you, but this girl took your bed, and thus died."
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