The Long Easter (10)

Batman is currently on the rooftop of a building in the West End, having come here in search of clues about Easter eggs.

The Easter eggs the Holiday Killer delivered to the mob boss left no concrete clues, but he shouldn't have delivered them to Bruce Wayne.

The Wayne Manor is surrounded by cameras placed by Batman, and two of the cameras at the main entrance captured a figure.

He was a newsboy who delivered newspapers between the South Side and East districts. These newsboys often traveled between the Affluent Area and the printing plant, and almost no one noticed their existence.

The camera didn't capture the newsboy's face, but it did capture his clothing. Eventually, Batman found him at a newspaper printing plant in the East End.

The newsboy didn't know much; he only told Batman that someone had paid them to deliver Easter eggs.

This kind of work was common among newsboys. They often had a fixed gathering point, and people who needed errands would go to their gathering point to find them and pay them to deliver things to others.

These newsboys were very familiar with Gotham's terrain and routes, and Gotham, for convenience, had an unwritten rule not to make things difficult for these errand boys, so many people liked to hire them to deliver food, keys, or beer.

Batman arrives at the newsboys' gathering point, where the kids chatter on and on about the appearance of the Holiday Killer, but it's no use. They don't care who the customer is when they take orders; as long as they're sure it's not some dangerous item that could be robbed, they'll take any order. There are so many people coming every day that no one can remember their exact appearance.

However, one of the more astute newsboys provided an important clue: he said he smelled a chemical agent on the man who hired them, somewhat like gunpowder.

Following this lead, Batman investigated all the chemical plants in Gotham City.

There are actually many chemical plants in Gotham City, but they vary in size. After the flooding and freezing disaster, most of the small chemical plants stopped production, and only a very few production lines were able to continue operating.

There were only four or five chemical plants that were functioning properly, and the investigation didn't take Batman too long. In the end, he focused his attention on a chemical plant in the West End.

This chemical plant is located underground in the West End. It is not large in scale and has very few production lines. Their production lines are not advanced, and the products they produce are not anything important. Logically speaking, it should have closed down along with other small chemical plants.

Moreover, after the disaster, almost all of Gotham's underground buildings were destroyed, and this underground chemical plant was almost buried. The building was severely damaged, with more than half of it collapsing and most of the production lines paralyzed. Even so, there were still traces of human activity in the vicinity.

What kind of goods absolutely need to be produced at this time?

Batman pried open the lock on the back door and slipped inside through the crack. He put on his Night Vision Goggles and saw chaos inside the chemical plant.

Part of the southeast corner had collapsed, leaving behind ruins and many boxes crushed under the walls. Some Slime was leaking out, but the Night Vision Goggles Slime n't make out what it was, so he moved closer.

Soon, Batman smelled a foul odor. He went closer and saw that the boxes were full of smashed goose eggs, with yolks and egg whites spilled all over the floor. No one had cleaned them up, and they were about to ferment, emitting a stench.

Further away, some boxes remained unaffected. Batman walked over and saw that they were goose eggshells that had already been processed.

Easter eggs are not painted directly on raw goose eggs. The goose eggs selected for Easter egg materials must be treated. If they are not hollowed out, they need to be soaked in chemical agents to make the surface suitable for painting. If they are hollowed out, other methods are needed to maintain the hardness of the eggshell.

It appears that the egg-making materials stored here include both types, but some of the eggs that weren't hollowed out were crushed by the collapsed wall.

Batman stepped forward, picked up an eggshell and examined it. The eggshell had already been processed, but no pattern had been painted on it yet. Batman took several such eggshells back to the Wayne Manor for comparison.

Several different Easter eggs were placed on the experimental table. The first one was the Easter egg that Bruce received from the Holiday Killer. Batman hadn't touched it, so it didn't explode and remained in its complete shape.

Another one was given to him by Schiller, an Easter egg with a smiley face that Schiller drew by hand. There was also an unpainted Easter egg shell that Batman brought back from that warehouse.

It is very obvious that the first and third Easter eggs are almost identical, whether in terms of the size and shape of the goose eggs or the way they are handled.

In contrast, Schiller clearly just picked up a random goose egg, which didn't even look like a goose egg from a farm; it looked more like a swan egg taken from a nest.

It was the wrong size, obviously too small, and hadn't been treated at all before being used for painting. The eggshell surface was too smooth to hold the paint, so the smiley face was painted somewhat distorted.

In other words, these Easter eggs that were given to gang leaders and high-ranking officials came from that chemical plant in the West End.

"West End Chemical Plant..." Batman muttered to himself. He suddenly paused, then quickly left Wayne Manor and drove the Batmobile to the Gotham Police Department.

Gordon was finishing a busy day and was about to go home when he heard a noise from the corner behind him. Without even looking, he said, "What is it now, Batman?"

"The tape from last time..."

"A tape? Oh, you mean the tape with Schiller's phone recordings? It's in the evidence room, but the staff there have already gone home..."

As soon as Gordon finished speaking, Batman had already disappeared. Gordon shook his head. He thought it was good to leave that dangerous item to this weirdo, so that someone wouldn't be unable to contain their curiosity and insist on hearing about it someday.

Batman entered the pitch-black evidence room, found the cassette tape, and put it into the tape recorder. After a hissing sound, Schiller's voice rang out again. "Their Plantation Number Nine shipments are going through Old Wilkin's route, the route that goes through three streets in the East Side..."

Batman twisted a button on the tape recorder, fast-forwarding a segment. "You're worried about this? There's no need. As far as I know, that underground chemical plant in the West End is also Falcone..."

"... The family business, after the Godfather handed it over to Evans, started selling goods on Elizabeth Street. However, it was shut down for a long time due to poor management. You don't need to worry that the Godfather would care about such a small profit..."

"Chemical plant? Evans? Evans Falcone ..." Batman's voice echoed in the dark room.

Just then, Batman's phone rang sharply. He answered, and Cobblepot's voice came through. "... Evans!! It's Evans!!!! He has a knife... He tried to kill me... No, he didn't... Cough... Go, go to Gotham Cathedral, stop him..."

Batman looked up at the window, where a bright moon hung high in the sky.

When Batman arrived at Gotham Cathedral, Evans seemed to be already waiting for him.

Evans stood at the crack in the center of the cathedral, watching the shimmering light inside. Batman smelled a dizzying odor, like evaporated high-proof liquor.

He climbed down from the window and stood in front of Evans ignored him and knelt on the ground, staring intently at the crack.

"Who are you?" Batman asked.

"Who am I? Don't you recognize me? I'm your classmate..."

"You are not Evans."

The man opposite him let out a cold laugh and said, "Don't mention that name to me, that's just an imposter. I am the real Falcone."

"Are you his second personality?"

"No, he is my second personality."

The man opposite him stood up. His blond hair, illuminated by the moonlight, took on an eerie color. He revealed a cold expression that Evans never showed. He said, "I told you, I am Falcone, Alberto Falcone."

"Then you are his second personality."

Alberto was somewhat provoked. He frowned, narrowed his eyes, and his green eyes were filled with anger. His voice was very deep and sounded completely different from Evans'.

"I have always been Alberto!"

"Isn't Alberto already dead?"

"Ha... that farce back then really fooled quite a few people." Alberto said with a sneer, "I'm dead? No, of course not, just a fool took my place."

"It looks like this is going to be a long story, but that's okay..." Batman pulled out his Batarang from his waist and said, "Tonight is Easter night, it's going to be a long night, you can take your time to think about it."

"You must be the Holiday Killer, right?"

"That's right, I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Batman threw something at Alberto. Alberto dodged to the side warily, then turned around and saw that it was a broken Easter egg.

"Damn it, are you kidding me?"

"No. This was an Easter gift someone gave you, but it's broken now. That's because you didn't catch it, it has nothing to do with me."

"Don't try to distract me with such petty tricks. I've already achieved my goal, and no one can stop me."

"Really? You call yourself Holiday Killer, but you didn't kill anyone on Easter. The One person you killed, Headmaster Sheldon, was a clumsy killer with many flaws."

When Batman says such things in that flat, monotone tone, it's always incredibly irritating.

"Do you think you're so clever? Wearing a tight-fitting suit and pretending to be some kind of superhero?"

"But at least I found you, oh no... it wasn't me who found you, it was that insignificant Cobblepot."

Alberto seemed genuinely angry when Cobblepot was mentioned, saying, "That damn kid, he almost ruined my plans..."

"So, you failed? Facing a short, skinny, poor kid, the first person you wanted to kill on Easter, even with all the preparations, you still couldn't kill him."

"I never intended to kill him. If he hadn't given Evans those stupid ideas, I wouldn't have laid a hand on him. He's completely unimportant!"

"That's why I said your technique was crude and full of flaws. Anyone can see that Cobblepot is a dangerous person."

"Yes..." Alberto let out a cold laugh, "A poor little thing who has lost his father, he doesn't even know that his father's death was no coincidence."

Then, as if venting something, he said, "Funeral? Yes, I died, and many people attended my funeral."

He looked up at the window above the cathedral, where moonlight, like a curtain, gently enveloped the Jesus statue. This suffering saint had shed his blood for the betrayers, and in this cold night filled with suffering, only the moonlight was willing to add clothing to him.

"But tonight, I will be resurrected, and I will live forever."