Chapter 170 The Long Easter (IX)

On a windless night in Gotham, the air around the cathedral seemed to have condensed into a piece of transparent ice. The cold moonlight projected from the top window onto the statue of Jesus, dragging a long cross shape on the cold floor tiles.

In the middle of the cross, there was a huge crack in the floor of the old church. The crack was like an abyss, splitting the shadow of the suffering Jesus.

A faint light shone through the crack, as if something was floating faintly underneath, and there were two different figures in the two directions pointed by the cross on the ground.

Batman on the left had a serious face and tense muscles. Although he was still standing straight, he could be seen ready to go.

Standing opposite him was Evans, who was half-kneeling on the ground with his head down. His expression could not be seen clearly under the dim moonlight.

In the air, gauze-like clouds floated over the moon, and the moonlight projected from the window became bright and dark like a plucked string.

A shadow covered Batman's body. In the eyes exposed between his mask, the pattern of blue pupils turned into pointers of different lengths. As the moonlight dimmed again, the hour hand went back half a circle, and everything went back to ten hours ago.

Cobblepot stood in front of the cabinet in the old house, watching his mother rummaging out a pile of dusty old things. Cobblepot walked to his mother's side, trying to grab her arm and help her stand up.

Mrs. Cobblepot waved her arm and pushed her son away. Cobblepot was a little helpless. He asked: "Mom, what are you looking for? We have already searched all the cabinets in the house."

Behind Cobblepot was a floor full of debris, not only in the middle of the living room, but also at the door of the bedroom.

"I want to find an umbrella, an umbrella! It's raining, I need an umbrella..."

Cobblepot took the umbrella from the chair beside him and handed it to her mother, but Mrs. Cobblepot seemed to have seen nothing and continued to look for things in the cabinet at the bottom.

From dusk to dawn, and from dawn to dusk, Mrs. Cobble was exhausted and went back to rest. Only then did Cobble have time to put away these old things.

In recent days, Mrs. Cobble's condition has improved and she is no longer so aggressive, but on the contrary, she has become more and more weird. She would turn out the sundries in the house every day. Cobble could not stop her and could only follow her to clean up.

He half-knelt on the ground, supported his body with one knee, and then picked up the sundries around him and put them back in the cabinet.

This cabinet under the bookshelf is mostly filled with old Cobble's collection, such as picture frames and candlesticks. These things are not valuable, but when Mrs. Cobble is awake, she will take these things out and wipe them to commemorate Cobble's father.

Cobble wanted to put the last picture frame back to the upper layer of the cabinet, but when he put it in, he found that there was something blocking it, so that the picture frame could not be completely put in, and the cabinet door could not be closed.

Copperpot thought that the things he put in before were not aligned, so he reached in and tried to put the things in order, but he found something like an envelope deep in the cabinet.

Copperpot took out the envelope and found that there was a lot of dust on the back of it. With the weak light in the living room, he wiped the dust with his fingers and found a line of beautiful cursive words: "Copperpot personally..."

Copperpot frowned. He was sure that he had never received such a letter, and no one would send such a solemn letter to a poor boy.

This envelope was made of very delicate dolly paper, and the English handwriting on it was clear, without any trace of ink smudges.

Copperpot turned the letter to the front and found that the wax seal on it had been opened. The seal on the wax seal made Copperpot look familiar.

When he opened the envelope and took out the letter inside, he saw a familiar signature: "Carmine Falcone."

This is an invitation letter from the old godfather.

The text on it was very brief, inviting Cobblepot to attend a funeral. The writer was Carmine Falcone, and the funeral was held at Gotham Cathedral.

Cobblepot glanced up and down at the invitation letter, and he found that it was indeed the handwriting of the old godfather, but there was something special, under the text of the funeral invitation letter, there was a line of small words: "Please be present, otherwise I will greet you in person."

Cobblepot narrowed his eyes, he did not forget that his father died in the rain to attend the funeral of the godfather's eldest son.

But this invitation letter made him feel very strange.

Generally, few people would write such a formal invitation letter for a funeral, let alone the person who wrote the letter was the biological father of the deceased.

Cobblepot had seen the old godfather's handwriting, and he could see that on this invitation, Falcone's handwriting was very steady and smooth, and he did not look like an old man who had just lost his eldest son.

And that line of small words made people even more confused. This was a complete threat. Who would force others to attend a funeral?

Cobert vaguely remembered that his father had a high fever the day after he came back from the funeral. He was burning hot, groggy, lying on the bed, and couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

The doctor said it was pneumonia, but he died before he could be sent to the hospital. Cobert didn't get any last words from his father, so he naturally didn't know the funeral he attended.

But this invitation letter made Cobert full of doubts.

He recalled his communication with Evans. Cobert was a person who was very good at using words to move people's hearts and then get information. During his communication with Evans, he also asked about the mysterious eldest son of the godfather in a roundabout way, but didn't get any useful information from Evans.

Cobert squatted in front of the cabinet and began to calculate. According to the existing information, Evans should have been born before Albertos died. Although the age difference between the two of them was not clear, Alberto and Evans should have lived together for a period of time.

But what puzzled Cobblepot was that Evans' description of his brother was always very abstract, and there were contradictions in many places. For example, he mentioned that Alberto was a very hard-working and motivated person, and a genius with outstanding personality, who was simply a natural heir, but he always said that Alberto was frustrated because he could not complete the Godfather's task. In Evans' description, the most mentioned thing was the quarrel between Alberto and the Godfather.

The invitation letter found accidentally at home made Cobblepot doubt his father's death again. With this doubt, when he returned to the ward of Arkham Psychiatric Hospital again, he began to guide Evans to recall more information in daily chats.

"Last time you said you wanted to join the college basketball team. You must have been able to play basketball since you were a child, right? To be honest..."

Cobert was lying on the hospital bed, changing his posture, and said with a longing tone: "I envy your family with many children. Brothers are natural playmates. The pair of brothers who live on the corner of my street are like that. I often see them playing football in the alley. Your brother should have played basketball with you, right?"

"He..." Evans wanted to answer subconsciously, but it seemed that he stopped talking. Evans sat on the bed and froze there. Cobert asked him: "What's wrong with you?"

"No, nothing..." Evans shook his head and said: "It's just that I can't remember it clearly. I clearly remember that my brother and I have a good relationship. We should have played together, but when I think about it carefully, I can't remember what "I'm sorry, I'm a bit presumptuous. Yesterday I found an invitation letter at home. It was from the godfather inviting my father to attend your brother's funeral. You should have attended your brother's funeral, right?" "Funeral?" Evans muttered the word, then sat on the bed in a daze, without answering. After a long while, he said, "I seem to... Sorry, but my childhood memories are not clear. I don't remember what happened at all." Evans sighed and said, "I've been in a bad mood recently and often have dreams. Maybe this has affected my memory." "The church in Gotham is temporarily inaccessible. I can't go to pray, which makes me feel irritable. I haven't seen the old priest for a long time. I used to like to talk to him." Evans looked very sad, Copper Special said to him: "Do you want to try to write him a letter?"

Evans shook his head and said: "Gotham Cathedral is in serious damage. There is a big hole in the ground. It will take a long time to repair it, and it is a bit dangerous. The old priest moved away from there, and I don't know where he lives now."

"But you are the godfather's son. If you ask someone to find out, you should be able to find out, right?"

Evans thought for a while and said: "Actually, I don't really want to disturb the priest. After all, he rarely has a holiday."

"But Easter is such an important holiday. He can't preach to the believers in the church. He must feel lonely, right? If you two had a good relationship before, you might as well go and accompany him."

Evans thought for a while and said: "What you said makes sense. I'll ask someone to look for it. If I can find it, If he comes, I can also invite him to spend Easter at the Falconet Manor. "

"Your relationship with the Godfather..."

"It's not as bad as you think." Evans sighed again and said, "The Godfather is not worried about my ambition, he is more worried that I have no ambition."

"But I don't know why, when I face him, especially when I talk to him seriously about problems, I always feel impatient. I seem to want to say something to him urgently, but I can't say it. "

"When I face him, I always behave very extreme. Obviously, I am not like this when I get along with my classmates and teachers."

"Before I was admitted to the hospital, this situation became more and more serious. There were several times when we almost quarreled. I suspected that I might have a psychological problem, so I went to find Professor Schiller. "

"So, you came here?"

Evans nodded, and then said, "Now it seems that I may not be sick, but I think too much and have poor emotional control. "

"If medical means can't relieve your emotions, you can also try to seek help from faith. "I don't believe in God, but if you are a devout believer, maybe everything will be fine on Easter?" Copperbot said to Evans. "I hope so."

As the moonlight outside the window grew darker, Cobert heard Evans praying in a low voice. The sound echoed in the empty ward, making people drowsy.