Chapter 174 The Clown Returns to Soul Night (Part 2)
"So, the priest saw my difference and recommended me to the godfather and asked him to hire me Evans as a tutor. In fact, he wanted me to solve Evans' problem?"
"Neither Carmine nor I am sure whether the Court of Owls is still watching Evans. But now it seems that our vigilance was correct. They have not given up yet. They still regard Evans as a key figure in the water source plan.
."
Father Daniel sighed and said: "This generation of Owl Court is far inferior to the previous generation. They acted too hastily and left too many flaws. I have lived in that church for decades and know every brick there.
"
"The ice in Gotham is not enough to crack such a big hole in the church floor. They are controlling Alberto and letting him test whether the wine is really mature."
"It seems that the slap that Batman and I gave to the owl didn't make them calm down."
"That trick was actually very effective." Father Daniel paused and said, "It should be said that it was the most effective in decades."
"But it's still not enough. Remember what I told you before, Falcone and I don't know the answer? That's not our perfunctory words."
"The Court of Owls may be an important piece, but it is not all of them, not even the king and queen."
"Throughout our lives, Falcone and I have been unable to discern the dark truth behind this."
Falcone also shook his head, the light of the cigar in his hand gradually extinguished, and the old theater seemed darker. He said: "I said I didn't find them and didn't wait for the chance. This is the truth. Court of Owls
There must be something else behind it."
"If the real mastermind exists all the time, it won't matter how many owls we kill."
"I saw in you and Batman the possibility of finding the real murderer." Falcone turned to look at Schiller, his eyes sinking in the shadows of his eye sockets, appearing dim, and he said: "So,
I just want to set up a secret society, but the fundamental purpose of the secret society is not to deal with the Court of Owls, but to deal with the darkness behind him or organizations similar to him."
Schiller leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He said with some emotion: "I know that everyone who has lived in Gotham for decades cannot have no guesses about this, but I didn't expect that you would be like this."
persist in."
"We don't care where you come from, or what secrets you carry." Father Daniel turned to look at Schiller. His eyes were not as sharp as Falcone's, but always had a calm and kind look.
, he said: "If you, or anyone else, can find the truth one day, please don't forget-"
"There are many people who have worked hard for this city, but the vast majority of them have not succeeded. People who do not belong to Gotham will eventually leave here."
"A lawyer friend of mine once told me that in this world, you don't have to reach the end to be considered a winner."
"Okay, we have finished telling our story. Now, it's your turn." Father Daniel looked at the stage with a smile and said, "Our play is called "Easter", and the play you gave us
The name is "Return of the Clown". Does this have any special meaning? Can you tell us about it?"
"The thing under the Gotham Cathedral is not called the wine pool. The thing inside is called the Dionysian factor. It can indeed make people immortal."
Schiller's words were shocking. Both Falcone and Daniel looked at him. Schiller paused and then said: "But that is not an antidote, but a poison, the most poisonous poison in the world."
"He can create the craziest madman in the world. I prefer to call him - the blood of madman."
"It sounds like you know a lot about it."
"Gotham is not the only place in the world that has this kind of thing."
"I almost forgot about your resume. Have you ever seen this kind of thing elsewhere? You told me before that you were completely sure to ensure Evans' safety. I hope you are not lying to me."
"Of course not, Lord Godfather, don't worry, it all started when Evans came to see me."
"When he came to me for help, he seemed to be very troubled by his relationship with his father. I thought that at that time, Alberto was about to be resurrected, so I gave him a suggestion and asked him to hide in a mental hospital through some methods.
Come."
"Although I told him that it was to let him express a concession attitude and ease the relationship between father and son, it was actually because I wanted to observe him for a long time and I needed some more concrete evidence."
"That's when you realized something was wrong?"
Schiller shook his head and said: "I have a hunch, but there is no evidence. There was nothing abnormal about Evans at that time, but my intuition told me that something was wrong."
"So, I sent him to Arkham Psychiatric Hospital, where I worked, and he was in the same ward with a smart guy."
"After those heavy rains, his performance should be obvious, right?"
"Yes..." Schiller's voice gradually fell into memories, and the three of them looked towards the stage.
In the dark ward, the moonlight from the window sprinkled on the floor, and the metal of the armrests of the hospital bed glowed faintly. Schiller stood in front of Evans' hospital bed and stared at him, as if feeling his emotions.
Falcone asked Schiller: "So what did you do after you established this?"
"Actually, I didn't do anything, because I knew that he would definitely reveal his flaws, and sure enough, he did."
The old curtain on the theater stage closed and opened again. A burst of dust rose up, and the scene on the stage changed to Seldon's office.
Schiller was squatting in front of Seldon's desk. He forcefully pried off the drawer on the last floor of Seldon's desk, which was full of tapes.
"What is that?" Father Daniel asked curiously.
"He was the one who tapped the phone recordings I left. Since he is dead, these recordings are useless. It would be better for me to take them back."
Sitting on the chair closest to the stage, the lights in Seldon's office once again reflected Schiller's glasses. After that, he stood up from Seldon's desk, took a tape recorder from the cabinet, and rummaged for a copy.
A blank tape with my own voice recorded on it.
"Their goods from Plantation No. 9 take the old Wilkin's route, which passes through the three streets in the East District. The volume of their goods is too large, so the delivery port is set up underground in a nightclub. If you need it, I can
Say hello to him..."
"Are you worried about this? No need to. As far as I know, the underground chemical plant in the West District is also Falcone..."
Then Schiller squatted down again and put the tape into the side of the upper drawer. Gu Xi
Hearing his name, Falcone smiled and said, "Don't tell me, are you trying to scare away the police with this trick?"
"On the contrary, the police may be intimidated by the name of the godfather, but there is one person who will not. I will work tirelessly to provide him with clues."
Then, Schiller stared at the scene on the stage and said: "I waited for a long time before Alberto finally showed his flaws. Maybe he was dissatisfied with Seldon's indecision, or he felt that he had a chance to win and wanted to silence him.
"
"Alberto probably made an excuse to talk to Seldon alone, and then pushed him downstairs during the conversation."
"But he still didn't do enough. If I hadn't stopped him, let alone Batman, the police would have found something."
On the stage, Victor opened the corridor window. He looked down and saw Seldon's body, so he hurriedly ran down.
But if he looked up, he could see Schiller's busy figure.
"Actually, one thing he did well was that he asked Seldon to call Victor in advance to ask him to come over, and then stuck at the right time, making Victor a witness and making him a suspect.
To confuse the police."
"I didn't know that Victor would come at that time. If I had known that Victor would call me again, I wouldn't have gone back to the mental hospital. I would have just waited next to the administration building."
"The psychiatric hospital is far away from Gotham University. How did you go there and back in a few minutes?"
"It does not matter."
Seeing Schiller's attitude of not wanting to answer, Falcone did not ask any more questions.
"Afterwards, when the police summoned me, I had to come up with another possibility to confuse the police and stop them from causing trouble. After all, Batman should be on stage next."
"When a patient went crazy, did you guess that it was the effect of the wine?"
"No." Schiller denied this, saying: "Actually, I didn't jump to any conclusions until I personally came into contact with this substance."
"But Alberto gave me an Easter egg and asked me to confirm that the substance in it was the same as that in the patient's blood, so I knew what it was."
"So what did you do?"
Schiller shrugged and said lightly: "I gave him an Easter gift."
The moonlight shining from the theater windows was projected on the old curtains. As the curtains slowly closed and opened again, the stage gradually enlarged, and a strong aroma of wine overflowed from Gotham Cathedral.
Batman looked around, and he heard crazy shouts coming from the dark alley nearby, as if they were singing carols for a new life ceremony.
After the burst of crazy laughter, Batman saw a figure crawling out of the green pool with a crazy smile, like an evil ghost just born from hell.
Batman's muscles tensed up. He knew that the explosion just now was powerful enough to kill Alberto. And now that he climbed out of the pool again, it meant that there must be something wrong with the green water. What was born in it
Maybe it's a monster.
Alberto crawled out, his blond hair was wet and stuck to his forehead. His face was pale, his mouth was grinning, and his green eyes were completely occupied by madness.
Batman took out the Batarang again, loaded his pistol, and was obviously ready for a fierce battle, but the development of things still exceeded his expectations.
After the strong aroma of wine spread, countless crazy laughter rang out in the streets around the church, and then, one crazy figure after another surrounded the place.
Batman looked around and saw that there were at least a hundred people there, and each one of them looked like Alberto, with a crazy smile on their face, approaching him like a zombie.
"I said it." Alberto's voice became extremely hoarse, as if he was sawing wood with a blade: "I am resurrected and will live forever..."
Just as Batman stared at him silently, another familiar voice sounded behind him.
"Are you feeling anything special, Batman?"
Batman looked back, and as he expected, standing behind him was Schiller Rodriguez, his psychology professor who insisted on calling himself an ordinary person.
Batman took a deep breath and said, "Don't tell me it's you again..."
"You have to answer my question first, what do you think of him?"
Batman turned back, he looked at Alberto, and said, "How about what?"
"Hmm...do you remember his laugh?"
"No, what does this mean?"
"It seems that he is not the candidate you want." Schiller said regretfully.
"What?" Batman turned to look at Schiller who came to him. Schiller said: "If you don't feel anything else when facing him, it means that he is not your destined opponent."
"Batman." Schiller's tone began to deepen: "If one day, crazy laughter sounds in your heart, it means that you have found the right person."
"And this..." Schiller looked at Alberto and said: