Party and Umbrella (VI)

Batman is currently investigating the identity of the mysterious third party in the murder case, and he is reviewing surveillance footage on his computer.

When transforming Living Hell, Batman would naturally include his own agenda, such as installing thousands more cameras.

If it were an ordinary residential area, Batman, with his wealth and technological capabilities, could easily use cameras to monitor all residents without any blind spots.

However, this is difficult to achieve in Living Hell, where the absurd building structures and overly dense population make equipment monitoring a challenge.

Elsewhere, cameras have an 80% field of view plus a 20% blind spot, but in the building structure of this Living Hell, cameras have an 80% blind spot plus a 20% field of view.

Moreover, the people living here have no concept of not occupying public space; they pile all sorts of clutter into any nook or cranny that could hide a camera.

The people here have absolutely no concept of not damaging public property. If they see something messy on the wall, their first reaction is to shoot it. As a result, within just a few weeks, Chengdu of the cameras Batman hid were broken, and another 30% were obscured or blurry.

The remaining 30% were distributed in locations that depended on luck. Coincidentally, there were no usable cameras in the two or three corridors around Fish's death scene, so Batman had to look for clues from further away.

The area is densely populated, with so many people coming and going every day. The cameras in the nearby streets alone record thousands of people. Finding someone among them who might know both Fish and Cobblepot is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Even so, Batman remained patient, watching the surveillance footage frame by frame.

Persistence pays off. Soon, Batman spotted a somewhat familiar face on the device's screen: Sal Maroney.

The surveillance equipment only captured a side profile of him, but his appearance was very distinctive, and his demeanor was different from others, so Batman spotted him at a glance.

After reviewing Maroney's information, Batman discovered that Maroney was not a resident of the Living Hell and had almost no connection with anyone there. Therefore, his presence there seemed highly suspicious.

Batman decides to talk to Maroney. Even if he isn't the killer, his presence in Living Hell at this time must mean he knows something.

"Batman? What happened to him?" Schiller asked Cobblepot in a ward at Arkham Asylum.

"I observed this strange man for a while and discovered something very strange about him—he doesn't kill people."

"And not only does he not kill people," Cobblepot said, somewhat incredulously, "He even saves people. I saw him save a child who was being beaten..."

"How could Gotham have someone like this?" Cobblepot said in an utterly absurd tone. "It's like you'd be missing out if you didn't take advantage of him..."

"So how did you take advantage of him?"

"Just as Maroney and I had planned, I lured Fish into a room, then provoked her, Maroney shot her from the side."

"But what Maroney didn't know was that I had made arrangements before we came. While we were making our move, I made some noise upstairs. I knew that strange man often patrolled this area, and this would definitely attract him."

"Maroney heard someone coming and was eager to run away, while I volunteered to stay behind and clean up the mess. And then, just like Batman told you..."

Cobblepot gave a chilling, sinister smile and said, "I lay there, pretending to have a seizure, covered in signs of abuse. Sure enough, that weirdo not only didn't kill me, he saved me, and so I ended up at the police station..."

"I understand the whole process now. So, let's talk about the cause. Now that things have come to this point, how do you plan to achieve your goal?"

"Maroney kidnapped my mother, forced a minor and a mentally ill person to participate in this murder, and I personally heard him tell me his plan to frame Little Falcone..."

"I will step forward as the One eyewitness, testify against Maroney, and prove that the Godfather's successor is innocent and that it was all Maroney's conspiracy..."

"You think you can use this to negotiate with the Godfather?"

"No, of course I know that's impossible."

Cobblepot stared at the ceiling and said, "From the time the Godfather ordered me to kill Old Edward, I learned a lesson, a lesson that makes the Godfather the Godfather, a lesson that Little Falcone hasn't yet grasped..."

"When a godfather does something, he is always justified, with sufficient reason and justification."

"He had no reason to persecute someone who worked diligently for him, was abused and coerced, suffered mental distress and was hospitalized, and had even helped him solve problems before being admitted to the hospital, an insignificant... nobody."

As Cobblepot finished speaking, Schiller looked at him. A Shade from the window beam fell on his face. Even though his face was still very youthful, the outline of the future Penguin was already visible.

Navigating between various factions and maintaining a delicate balance, with intricately linked plans and near-perfect execution, it's hard to believe that a teenager could accomplish all of this on his own.

"However, your perfect plan still encountered an unexpected problem."

When Cobblepot asked Schiller this question, he instinctively turned his head away, not wanting to look the Doctor in the eye. But Schiller said, "The accident happened because of this hereditary disease in your family. Your mother fell ill first, causing you to waste too much time trying to subdue and comfort her. Then, just when the plan was about to succeed, your feigned illness turned into a real illness. So, instead of exposing Maroney at the police station, you came here."

Cobblepot pursed his lips, as if unwilling to admit it, and then said, "You said this disease can be cured..."

"It's possible, but you have to cooperate."

Schiller stood up, nodded, and said seriously, "If that's the case, then I admit that you did not commit academic fraud in this crime. The entire plan, from its setup and preparation to its execution and conclusion, is consistent with the level of your murder of Old Edward."

"Although some processes are a bit tedious, they are still quite meticulous. If this unexpected event hadn't occurred, everything would have been completed smoothly according to your plan."

"Moreover, you have a very accurate grasp of the Godfather's psychology, so in this situation, he really won't hold it against you."

"So, let's analyze this accident."

Schiller walked to the other side of the room, then pushed a whiteboard over from the side, wrote a series of words on it, and pointed to the whiteboard, saying, "Cataclysmic schizophrenia. To understand this illness, we have to start with the broad category of schizophrenia..."

Immediately afterwards, Cobblepot, who was lying in bed, was forced to listen to Schiller give a popular science lecture on psychiatry.

Even with his genius brain, after more than an hour of Schiller's lecture, he was dizzy and confused. There were too many medical terms he had never heard of before, along with various case analyses.

While Schiller was drinking water, Cobblepot said, "I think I'm almost recovered. Let me go back to the police station; I have things to do..."

"Don't worry, there's one last thing left, the most crucial part, like why you fell ill at that time."

"First of all, dusk to night is the peak period for the onset of schizophrenia, and changes in light can stimulate mental patients."

"You probably started preparing at dusk and then did it at night. If I'm not mistaken, the window of the room where you did it had a view of the sunset and the light was very bright. This would be even more stimulating for someone with an unstable mind. Next time, remember to find a room without windows."

"Even earlier, you were abused by Fish, and you were seriously injured while subduing your mother."

"These are all very typical external stimuli."

Schiller twirled the pen in his hand and said, "You think you silently endured the beatings from Fish and felt helpless when your mother hurt you, but in reality, your subconscious remembers the pain more deeply than your reason."

"You think you haven't been left with any psychological trauma, but that's not actually the case."

"Teenagers' mental state is inherently unstable. If you don't develop symptoms this time, you will still have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder about a month later, such as persistent anxiety and nightmares, as well as difficulty falling asleep."

"People always imagine themselves to be too powerful, and the higher a person's IQ and the stronger their rationality, the more likely they are to think this way."

"But the human spirit is actually more fragile than we imagine. Just because psychological trauma is not manifested does not mean that it does not exist."

Cobblepot went to great lengths to stop thinking about these issues, saying, "I have to get on with my plans. It's a little late, but I should still have time."

"No rush..." Schiller walked to his desk, rummaged through some documents, and said as he flipped through them, "From your perspective, this matter has been explained very clearly."

"But would you like to hear this story from another perspective?"

Schiller opened the file and said in a completely flat tone, "Ten days ago, a murder occurred on Green Street next to the Living Hell area. The police officer in charge of the case was Harvey Brock, and his report stated..."

"Kevin Brown, a mob boss, was found dead in a back alley on Green Street, shot three times. The second shot hit his lung and was fatal. He died at the scene. After investigating the crime scene, the police determined it to be a gang shootout."

"You should be familiar with this case; it was mentioned in your earlier account."

"What I'm talking about isn't this case, but another case that's attached to it."

" At the Vickin Umbrella Shop at the end of Green Street, an umbrella maker was found dead at the shop's entrance. The cause of death was a gunshot wound; he died instantly. After investigation, the police determined it was part of a gang shootout..."

"Ultimately, the police investigation concluded that a gang fight had occurred at the end of Green Street, resulting in the deaths of two people."

Cobblepot saw Schiller leaning against the windowsill, backlit. As he put down the file, the light shone from behind onto his glasses, obscuring Cobblepot's eyes, but Cobblepot had a bad feeling.

"I know you're thinking that this kind of case is nothing special and has nothing to do with me."

"But this has caused me a lot of trouble."

Schiller said calmly, "It's been raining a lot lately, and I've been using my umbrella a lot. It's broken."

"When I found the umbrella maker to repair it, I discovered he was already dead."

"Fish Mooney killed the One handcrafted umbrella maker in all of Gotham City."

"After that, I went to talk to her. Because of the guilt she felt, she couldn't eat or sleep, and then she went crazy."

"So now, Mr. Cobblepot ..."

Cobblepot felt a chill run down his spine. He struggled to move to the other side of the bed, trying to escape Schiller's gaze, but One Hand was still tied to the armrest and he couldn't move at all.

Schiller took an umbrella from behind the table, slowly walked to the foot of the bed, then reached out and poked the tip of the umbrella between Cobblepot's eyes, saying to Cobblepot:

"Could you explain to me where this umbrella with the Wiggins umbrella maker's emblem came from?"

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