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Chapter 569: A Typical Murder Case (2)

Schiller first fixed his gaze on Bruce, who turned his head away, looking at the bloodstains hidden in the darkness, his thoughts returning to the previous night.

In the Wayne Manor's library, Bruce was poring over materials. Despite his knowledge of his extraordinary butler since returning from Metropolis, he still needed to investigate matters related to agents, the Philby list, the Soviet Union, and other long-forgotten events.

However, at that moment, the sounds from upstairs grew increasingly loud. Bruce reluctantly closed his books, covered his forehead with his hand, and then stood up, making his way upstairs.

In the room upstairs, Aisha was learning to speak with Dick and Alfred. She had progressed from making "wawa" sounds to producing different tones, even uttering English words with fewer than two syllables.

However, as anyone would know, when children are learning a language, they become like loudspeakers, as if loud pronunciation enhances their confidence in language acquisition. Therefore, they often shout as loudly as they can.

Moreover, they enjoy repetition, as if they can replace the language's patterns through repetition. Currently, Aisha resembled a human alarm, and Bruce even thought that he could use Aisha's cries to design an alarm system for the Batcave.

Although the Batcave was far from Wayne Manor, Bruce could definitely hear it whenever it rang.

This was different from crying; when Aisha cried, both Bruce and Selena would do their best to comfort her until she cried herself to sleep. Learning language, however, was serious business, and looking at Alfred's approving expression, Bruce knew he had no say in this matter.

Moreover, language classes had specific requirements, and they couldn't be skipped. Alfred believed that Aisha learning to speak was more important than Bruce searching for materials in the library.

Originally, Alfred would never disturb Bruce when he was working. However, recently, Bruce had become obsessed with magic, engaging in questionable activities such as tailing Constantine and acquiring strange magic books. Alfred was worried that Bruce might stray down a wrong path, so he had been doing everything possible to divert his attention.

So now, the old butler didn't care when Bruce chose to stay in the library to search for materials. Consequently, Aisha's language lessons were not arranged to coincide with Bruce's schedule, which meant that Bruce was constantly disturbed.

Some might say that Bruce could work in the Batcave, but the problem was that the Batcave was far from Wayne Manor, and Alfred insisted that Bruce return home every day. Therefore, Gotham University's library became a better place to work.

Bruce had stayed up late searching for materials the previous night, so he decided to sleep in his dormitory. Although Gotham University's facilities were somewhat outdated, the layout was good. Each bedroom was a single room, and there was a common lounge on each floor.

However, because the dormitory building was old, the soundproofing was poor. In fact, when Lex was laboriously dragging his suitcase from the first floor, Bruce, who was on the second floor, had already been awakened by the noise.

Lex and Thomas happened to meet in the staircase on the second floor, and Bruce heard their conversation. So when he saw Lex later, he wasn't surprised, and he played along, pretending not to know him.

"You probably didn't even realize it, but the sound of you dragging that suitcase was incredibly loud. The vibrations from the suitcase hitting the staircase steps even reached my bed," Bruce said, turning his head to look at Lex.

"And because of this, I suspected Thomas. When you were dragging your suitcase from the first floor to the second, I was already on the second floor, and it was just enough time for an ordinary person to come down from the fourth floor using the other staircase, cross the entire corridor, go up to the second floor, and arrive at the staircase where you were."

Bruce glanced down the length of the corridor. "Based on Thomas's stride and walking speed, the margin of error wouldn't exceed three seconds. This kind of coincidence isn't just a coincidence in a murder case."

"I speculate that when your suitcase first made a noise on the staircase, I was awakened on the second floor, and Thomas, who had just finished the crime on the fourth floor, was also alerted."

"He realized that new students might have arrived and didn't know how many there were. So he hurriedly cleaned up the crime scene and then ran downstairs, following the same staircase you took."

"When he found out that you were alone, he realized that there was no need to panic. He could use you as a witness to discovering the crime scene. However, he did something foolish: he didn't set up a time-delay mechanism. When you arrived, Doris should have already been dead, so there was no way for you to be a witness to his absence."

"You've only explained Thomas's presence," Lex crossed his arms and said, "Estimating from the timing isn't definitive evidence. But, not long after I saw him, I knew he was the one who committed the murder."

"He did something very foolish, which was to put on a suit jacket to conceal the bloodstains on his shirt. It's true that you couldn't see anything suspicious from a straight-on angle. However, when he was walking in front of me with his suitcase up the staircase, I pretended to be out of breath and let him get ahead of me."

"In this way, there was a height difference between us, and I could examine the marks on his clothes more thoroughly. At that moment, I discovered that there were bloodstains visible through the gap between his suit jacket and his shirt."

"Of course, it's also possible that he injured himself. So, I continued to observe, and I noticed that he wasn't lifting the suitcase effortlessly, in fact, he seemed somewhat exhausted. If he had really injured himself, there was no need for him to show such enthusiasm to help me, especially since we were strangers."

"I speculate that he was concealing something. It wasn't until we reached the fourth floor and saw the crime scene that I became certain he was the murderer."

"Why?" Gordon asked.

Lex walked over to the crime scene and pointed at the corpse. "The victim was impaled in the chest with a javelin, and judging from the wound, the javelin was thrust from above, which means the killer must have committed the act in this manner."

Lex then demonstrated a motion of raising the javelin overhead and thrusting downward with both hands forming a straight line, left hand in front and right hand behind.

"Thomas is taller than I am," Lex continued, "so he wouldn't need to raise the javelin as high. However, Doris was certainly not so short that Thomas could have impaled her from above without raising the javelin."

"Therefore, he intended to commit the murder in this way, which required him to lift his arms. In other words, if he had been wearing only a shirt at the time, there would have been a place under his armpit that would have been splattered with blood."

"Previously, through the gap in his suit jacket, I saw bloodstains on the right side of his shirt right under his armpit."

"Wait a moment!" Gordon suddenly exclaimed. "You were in an almost pitch-black staircase, and you could see bloodstains on his shirt through the gap in his suit? I can't see anything in this darkness, and I'm standing quite close."

At this point, the entire dormitory building was without power, and while there was some faint light in the corridor due to the windows, the staircase section was almost completely dark.

However, standing at this angle, Gordon saw that Lex's eyes were emitting a faint gleam, which didn't look like something a normal human would do.

Schiller also noticed this. He remembered that Alberto, who had fallen into the wine vat, had eyes that emitted a similar gleam. This could be caused by the Dionysian factor.

Whether the Joker had night vision abilities, no one knew for sure, but one thing was certain: he could hold his own against Batman, who wore night vision goggles, in Gotham's pitch-black nights.

"Alright, now we're left with a motive," Gordon said, standing beside the corpse and thinking for a moment. Then he said, "Just now, my subordinates reported that they didn't replace anything suspicious on the victim's body, and her handbag contained only ordinary cosmetics, which seemed like items she would use for touch-ups before going on stage."

"According to Christine, Doris had a boyfriend, but he worked at the Central Research Institute in Metropolis. They were in a long-distance relationship, but because the distance wasn't too far, they would meet every week. She and Thomas should not have had any interactions."

At this point, Bruce spoke up. "Thomas also has a girlfriend, or rather, a fiancée arranged by his family. He's not interested in baseball or football, hasn't gotten close to the cheerleading team, and only knows the cheerleading team's leader, Christine. Christine didn't mention any romantic involvement between Doris and Thomas, so it's unlikely to be a crime of passion."

"He must have planned it in advance. Otherwise, he wouldn't have prepared a javelin, which I have to admit is a handy weapon. But to obtain one at Gotham University, you need to apply through the equipment room..."

"Why don't we check the application records to replace out?" Gordon immediately picked up his mobile phone and said into it, "It's me. Come over again with a search warrant. We need to access some evidence..."

Soon, they arrived at the office of the gym teacher at Gotham University. The gym teachers there were divided into regular gym teachers and fitness instructors for the cheerleading squad. At this moment, it was the fitness instructor in the office. She took out a form and said, "...Here it is. Three days ago, Thomas applied to borrow a javelin..."

"Can you confirm which javelin it was?"

"Yes, all our equipment has serial numbers."

"Was it javelin number 5012?" Gordon asked.

"Application records... equipment serial number... Correct, it's 5012."

Now, everything was in place: identity, motive, method, and the murder weapon. It could be said that the evidence was ironclad, and Thomas, who was taken away for questioning, had no opportunity to resist. With the sound of cameras clicking, the image of Thomas in prison attire, holding an information sign, would remain in the archives of the Gotham Police Department forever.

This was a murder case with a clear beginning and end, and the investigation process went very smoothly. Even if Bruce and Lex hadn't deduced anything, Gordon would eventually check the equipment room's application records. It would have taken at most an extra day for the case to be solved.

And just on the second day of the case being closed, Gotham Police Department received a phone call from Christine, the leader of the cheerleading squad, who was in tears.

"Gordon detective! Please hurry! Come to Gotham University's sports arena... another member of the cheerleading squad is dead!!!"

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