Party and Umbrella (8)

Gordon's head was throbbing with pain, and Cobblepot was in a state of existential crisis.

His doubts at this moment were no less Gordon's, because he was the Black Hand behind the whole thing.

Looking at his plan from Cobblepot's perspective, he wanted to break away from the Godfather and accumulate some capital for himself, which, to put it bluntly, was to make some money to pave the way for his future comeback.

So he kept switching between Fish and Kevin, and in order to get rid of all those who wanted to control him, he first used Fish to kill Kevin, then used Maroney to kill Fish, and finally wanted to use the accusation of Maroney to exonerate the Godfather's son and get away with it.

Everything had gone smoothly up to the last step, but Cobblepot never expected that Evans would confess?!

How can he carry out his final step of the plan?

In fact, at this point, Cobblepot himself knew that he could actually skip the final step of the plan.

Because he genuinely had a mental illness, and wasn't faking it, even if he didn't do one last thing for the Godfather, judging from his condition, the Godfather probably wouldn't make things difficult for a minor with schizophrenia.

If the godfather knew that Cobblepot was sick, he might even give him some money for medical treatment.

The reason the Godfather is the Godfather is precisely this: he doesn't exhibit the ruthless behavior of killing people to cover up their crimes after using them, as portrayed in many movies and TV shows. On the contrary, many gang members who retired from the Falcone family received excellent retirement benefits. Those who were sick received medical treatment, while those who were healthy bought houses for vacations, retired from crime, and enjoyed their later years in peace.

Cobblepot knew that under these circumstances, the Godfather would no longer make things difficult for him, and he would no longer need to go to great lengths to feign illness or worry all day about whether there were any of the Godfather's spies around, because he did indeed have a mental illness, as confirmed by the attending Doctor at Arkham Asylum.

However, Cobblepot could not accept that his perfect plan had fallen apart. The fact that his mother and he had both fallen ill had already caused problems with his plan, making Cobblepot feel like he had a fishbone stuck in his throat and felt uncomfortable all over.

For someone with a passion for crime, this was like throwing a rat dropping into a pot of perfect soup.

However, Cobblepot could barely accept it; after all, birth, aging, illness, and death are things no one can control. The fact that both he and his mother fell ill at this time could only be attributed to bad luck.

However, Evans' confession was clearly not an accident, but something else entirely. Cobblepot could not tolerate the fact that another Black Hand had appeared in his perfect plan.

Cobblepot couldn't help but wonder if he had really misjudged the person? Was Little Falcone actually the real Black Hand behind it all?

Just as Cobblepot was wondering, Schiller's voice pulled him back to reality. Schiller stared at Cobblepot and said, "You still haven't answered my question. Where did this umbrella come from?"

Gordon and Cobblepot looked at Schiller together, Cobblepot voiced Gordon's thoughts. "Is this the time to talk about this? What's so important about it anyway?"

Gordon added, "My dear professor! Stop worrying about your broken umbrella!"

"This is very serious! The heir of the Falcone family has actually come to the Police Department and confessed to murder..."

Gordon pointed to the door and said, "Just now, our new Police Department had a stroke and should be in an ambulance by now."

"I just received 15 consecutive phone calls. Our city's only two District Attorney said they made vacation plans two months ago and bought plane tickets overnight to leave Gotham..."

"Of the nine civil servants at Gotham Court, five have gastroenteritis, three have high fevers, and one suddenly lost his voice and went to the hospital to recuperate overnight. Even the five janitors have three broken their legs and won't be able to come to work tomorrow..."

"In just the past hour, Gotham's justice system has been successfully paralyzed."

After saying that, Gordon himself laughed in anger. He said, "I don't know how many times they rehearsed it. In this kind of emergency, to be able to fall down in such Domino- like order from top to bottom in just one hour, is faster than running away from a fucking courthouse on fire..."

"What's even more outrageous is that we've received notices of temporary closure from 12 law firms. Right now, you can't find a single lawyer in Gotham whose phone number you can get through to..."

Schiller completely ignored his complaints, instead picking up his umbrella and poking Cobblepot's injured arm, causing Cobblepot to cry out in pain and pull away.

He looked up at Schiller, then glanced down at his arm still strapped to the armrest, and said resignedly, "Fine, but I need to figure out what's going on with Evans first. I can't allow this..."

Just then, a noise came from the balcony of the mental hospital. Batman walked in, exuding cold air and the smell of blood. Schiller turned to look at him, and Batman, who had just entered, was also stunned. He hadn't expected there to be so many people here.

Schiller looked him up and down and said, "Gotham's Great Detective has arrived. Let's hear what he has to say."

Gordon sniffed and said to Batman, "What have you been doing? Why do you smell like blood?"

"That's not important." Batman's voice remained indifferent.

"Maroney told me that it was Evans Falcone who ordered him to kill Fish."

"You're too late," Gordon said, hands on his hips. "Evans has already confessed."

Before Batman could ask Gordon for more details, Schiller tapped the metal railing at the foot of the hospital bed with his umbrella, making a loud noise. He raised his voice and said, "I hope you understand, this is my office. Let me speak first."

Schiller held the umbrella up and said, "Answer my question, then leave here and find another place for your detective conference."

"God! It rains every day in Gotham, my umbrella is broken, the umbrella maker who could fix it is dead, how can you be so indifferent and have no compassion at all?"

The others stared at him in silence. Schiller paused, then said helplessly, "Fine, if you have to solve your problems before you can answer mine, then you don't really need to ask Evans..."

He put down the umbrella, tapped the floor tiles with the tip, and said, "I was the one who suggested he do it."

Gordon and Cobblepot stared wide-eyed at the same time. Schiller put down his umbrella, sat behind his desk, and said, "Looks like you're going to have to hear my version of the story all over again."

Batman stood with his arms crossed in a corner of the room, his expression saying, "I expected this."

Schiller took a sip of water and then began his narration.

About a month ago, Evans came to the Gotham University counseling center to talk to his professor about his troubles.

"He had some conflicts with his father. The first half of the story sounds like teenage troubles, but the second half is not so pleasant because his father is also the godfather of Gotham."

"We all know that the Old Godfather originally planned to retire. He handed over a large area of his business in the West End to his son and let him do as he pleases. Although Evans hasn't been doing very well, the Old Godfather isn't in a hurry, after all, he's still young."

"But then, Gotham's reforms began."

"Obviously, the Old Godfather originally wanted to retire not because he was really old, but because he had already reached the top and no matter how hard he tried, nothing would change."

"However, the reforms in Gotham have given him new hope and shown him the possibility of reaching a higher level. Do you think he would still be thinking about retiring as soon as possible at this point?"

Gordon shook his head and said, "I recently saw the Old Godfather. Although he was always as energetic as ever, I could sense that he was in a different state."

"Indeed, Falcone has ruled Gotham for forty years. He wants to end his rule and hand over the position to the next generation, not because he is no longer capable, but because he is too lonely at the top and has nothing else to do but nurture the next generation."

"But after the reforms began, everything changed. The Falcone family had too many new possibilities. The logistics industry needed to be managed, urban construction needed to be overseen, there were too many subtle power struggles in the cooperation with Chicago, and the same was true for the connection with Imperial City, not to mention the East Coast linkage plan that was still on the agenda..."

Schiller tapped the table and said, "If the Old Godfather originally treated Gotham as a testing ground for his son, he wouldn't be so hasty now."

Batman's voice came from the corner of the room. "An emperor who is not yet old has rekindled his ambitions, so what about the prince's position..."

"That's right. Evans is in an awkward position. His father had already handed over a lot of businesses to him, giving him the power to shake the Old Godfather's rule."

"But then, his father suddenly decided not to abdicate and seemed to intend to rule Gotham for another forty years."

"Then the heir who has already received some power is no longer in an awkward position, but rather in a dangerous one."

"Evans told me all this and came to me for advice."

Schiller glanced at Gordon and Cobblepot and said, "You two should know the Old Godfather better than I do."

Cobblepot paused for a moment and said, "He loves his son very much, but that doesn't mean he will allow his Inheritors to have too much ambition, or sit idly by while anyone else gains power that could threaten his position."

Cobblepot suddenly realized something, and he looked at Schiller and asked, "What advice did you give to Little Falcone.?"

"Of course I would advise him to retire while he's still at the peak of his career."

Schiller stood up and slowly paced around the table, saying, "You should know better than I do that Falcone some ways, but he ruled Gotham for forty years, and that wasn't just because of his tolerance and kindness."

"If Evans dares to show any ambition to undermine his father's rule at this time, although Falcone will not kill him, it would be quite normal to put Evans under house arrest until he is willing to retire."

Gordon immediately realized what was happening, and he glared at Schiller, saying, "So you just..."

"The Godfather once made Evans kill Maroney with his own hands. Evans did capture him and could have killed him, but I suggested he make use of him."

"Of course, what happened after that was Evans's own genius, and had nothing to do with me."

"Evans initially acted impulsively, clashing with various gang leaders while dealing with interpersonal relationships within Living Hell. Then, he instructed Maroney to enter Living Hell and kill those gang leaders, damaging his own reputation..."

Then he looked at Cobblepot, Cobblepot said to himself, "So Maroney and I hit it off..."

"Just like you said before." Schiller looked at Gordon: "An Inheritors is reckless and impulsive at the beginning, indecisive when doing things, and then resorts to assassination when cornered, seems really stupid and not a threat."

"Not to mention, he even called the police," Gordon added helplessly.

"More importantly..." Schiller pulled a medical record from under the table and said, "As expected, as soon as Gotham's justice system heard that Little Falcone Gotham. was going through the proper trial process, it crashed. That means he can skip the bail, court hearing, trial, and imprisonment process and fast-forward directly to medical parole..."

Gordon looked like he'd just eaten shit. He said, "... And then we can meet up here, right? You even prepared the medical records beforehand..."

Schiller pointed to the bed next to Cobblepot and said, "That's his bed."

"He's out on medical parole due to mental illness, so he can stay away from his father for a long time." Batman concluded, "It's good for both of them."

"Alright, that's the end of the story." Schiller turned his gaze to Cobblepot and said, "Now you should answer my question, right?"

All eyes, following Schiller's movement, fell on the umbrella he raised.