Gordon picked up the materials they had compiled and found that, just as Natasha and Nimossini had said, everyone currently suspected of having died at the hands of the copycat was connected to the Nature Reserve development bill passed six months ago—either they had drafted it or pushed for its implementation.
Gordon skimmed the contents of the bill and immediately understood that it was just another scheme to encroach on a Nature Reserve. Gotham's land development was already highly saturated. Even in the suburbs, all the better commercial plots had been used up. To acquire more land, developers had no choice but to turn their hands toward the Nature Reserve.
This Nature Reserve was located on an island. Since it was outside the city proper, the climate was fairly pleasant, and it had an excellent herringbone-shaped beach that had been developed into a tourist attraction many years ago. This bill was intended to establish villa resorts and hotels along the coastline.
If they had merely built houses, they would not have caused too much damage to the natural environment. But in order to make the seawater meet the quality standards for a beach resort—and use that water quality to attract more wealthy investors and homebuyers—they had dumped a poison into the water, killing all aquatic life near the shore and poisoning nearly every plant along the coastline.
The results were quite good: with no aquatic life and no microorganisms, the seawater became exceptionally clean and looked perfect for swimming. The death of the plants also reduced the difficulty of construction and expanded the beach area. It could be said that everyone came out happy.
Most of the earlier victims had been investors in the project. The mayor had pushed enthusiastically for the bill's passage in exchange for more political donations;