Chapter 749: Theater Murder (Part 2)
Gordon stared at Bruce. After a while, he patted Bruce on the shoulder and said, "Okay, I admit that what I said to you before was a bit extreme. I know you are a good person and you are helping others as much as possible. You should not be wanted."
"Stop it, Bruce. This is a matter of life and death. The Angelica Troupe has only been in Gotham for a few days, and the most famous heroine of the troupe has been killed. She has many fans. We have to give an explanation to the public."
"Besides..." Gordon sighed and said, "Vicky's reputation in the industry is quite good. Everyone says that she is A beautiful and gentle talented actress. If she gave up her drama career and went to Hollywood, she would definitely achieve great success. "
"We can't sit back and watch such an innocent life being killed, Bruce, you should be able to analyze some clues, right?"
"I..." Bruce's arms trembled a little. He didn't feel the restraint brought by the solid arm armor, nor did he feel the resistance brought by the wind blowing through the cape. There was no mask on his face, no weapons on his waist, and more importantly, no one here was expecting Batman to appear.
He is no longer Batman now.
Many fragmentary clues circled in his mind, but they could not form a complete logic at all. Something was hindering his thinking. Bruce looked carefully and found that it was the memory of Bruce Wayne.
Lively, absurd and chaotic, and accomplished nothing. This is Bruce Wayne, an incurable fool and rotten man. Ten years ago, he couldn't save his parents, and today, he can't save anyone.
Seeing that Bruce didn't respond, Gordon stamped his feet and said, "Please, I don't know who else I can count on except you... Oh, God, I really don't want to go to him!"
Seeing Bruce in that dazed state, Gordon pursed his lips helplessly. After a while, he called a police officer and said to him, "Call and ask the professor to come over. You know who I'm talking about."
In Schiller's manor, Schiller was having dinner with Elsa.
He pointed at the remaining broccoli on the plate with a fork. Elsa shook her head vigorously. Schiller pointed again. Elsa made a sad expression, but still picked up the broccoli with a fork and put it into her mouth.
Just then, Merkel came over and said, "A call from the Gotham Police Department. A murder has occurred. Chief Gordon hopes you can come over."
Schiller got up and left. Elsa turned her eyes to his direction. After seeing him turn his back, she immediately spit out the broccoli in her mouth.
Schiller walked to the phone and asked Merkel: "What's going on? Where has another murder happened?"
"It's not clear yet, but I heard that the background sound of the phone is quite noisy. Maybe it's in a place with a lot of people?"
Schiller frowned and picked up the phone receiver that was placed aside. He said: "...What did you say? Gotham Grand Theater? The heroine of Angelica Theater?...Bruce is there too?...Who else? Okay, I know..."
After hanging up the phone, Schiller said to Merkel: "Take good care of Elsa and let her finish her vegetables. Maybe I won't come back all night."
After that, he took the umbrella and left the manor.
When we arrived at the Gotham Grand Theater, it was raining heavily. The old theater was washed by the rain, and it was even more mottled with years.
Schiller walked into the lobby of the theater. The receptionist at the front desk came over and helped him put away the umbrella. Seeing that Schiller insisted on taking the umbrella in, the receptionist had to help him clean the umbrella.
Arriving at the third floor, the cordon had been set up. Gordon walked up, hugged Schiller, and said, "I'm really sorry that I always invite you so late, but I don't know why, murders only happen after dinner."
"Reasoning always happens after dinner." Schiller shook his head and said, "But perhaps this will be the saddest murder case for me, because I was looking forward to their play."
At this time, the boss of the troupe came up and shook hands with Schiller. Hearing what Schiller said, he explained, "No, Macbeth will be performed as usual. Vicky will not participate in Macbeth's performance. There is no role suitable for him in this play. The heroine is older and will be played by another more mature actress. "
Schiller frowned, looked at him and asked: "Is this arranged long ago? Or is it a temporary change because of Miss Vicky's unfortunate death?"
"It was arranged long ago." The boss of the theater replied: "In the dozens of Macbeths we performed, Miss Vicky did not play the leading role."
Schiller nodded, looked at Gordon and asked: "Where is Bruce? Didn't you say that someone pointed out that he was the first person to discover the body?"
Gordon led Schiller forward and said: "I was just about to tell you this. His mental state is not right. You should go see him..."
Pushing open the door of a room, Bruce was sitting inside. His expression returned to normal and was no longer so dull, but Schiller could still see that his mental state was not good.
After Gordon helped Schiller open the door, he walked out. Before closing the door, he said, "My colleagues and I are going to interrogate the other people first. You have a lot of time and can do some psychological treatment."
After the door was closed, Schiller sat next to Bruce. Bruce looked at him and said, "Professor, do you want to treat me?"
"No, I just want to say that if you feel that you are not in a good state now, then go back and rest. I will handle this case."
Bruce was stunned for a moment. He turned his head and stared at Schiller. Seeing that Schiller was writing a medical record, he pursed his lips and said, "That night... I must have said something that night, whatever it was, it was just drunken talk..."
Schiller said as he lowered his head to write: "I don't remember what you said."
After that, he put down his pen and looked at Bruce and said: "You look very bad, you should go back and rest."
Schiller looked Bruce up and down and said: "I know that there must be some emotions that prompted you to do this, but if you really feel sad, you can take a few days off and everything will be fine."
After that, Schiller stood up and left the room. Bruce sat there, a little unbelievable.
Bruce knew very well that Schiller was a person who didn't like noise, and he was very strict with his students. If a student in the class got drunk and drove a car in the middle of the night and was caught by him, there would be terrible consequences.
But now, Schiller just advised him to go back and rest, and even suggested that he take a few days off, which was almost unimaginable.
Why is this happening? Bruce didn't understand.
Batman has been disgraced, and Bruce has not done better. He has not made any progress, he has not become more perfect, and he has even made a mess, but this professor, who is always known for his strictness, did not make things difficult for him.
Schiller did not, as before, bring up a lot of questions that Batman could not answer to disturb his thoughts, did not press him step by step, and asked him to show results, and did not even express dissatisfaction with him throwing Aisha over without an appointment.
Moreover, when knowing that he was the first witness of the case, Schiller even directly ruled out his suspicion, which made Bruce, who had already prepared his statement, punch the air.
Bruce sat in a chair thinking, but at this time, Gordon pushed the door open and said, "There's a call from Wayne Manor. Someone wants to see you. She said her name is Selina."
Bruce looked up at Gordon, and Gordon spread his hands and said, "I'm not worried about you escaping, so you can go back now, as long as you come back before you are interrogated."
"Didn't she... say what she was going to do?" Bruce asked.
Gordon shook his head, and Bruce still walked out of the room. Gordon sent a police officer to take him back to Wayne Manor.
As soon as he entered Wayne Manor, he saw Selina, and next to Selina, Dick was standing.
When Selina saw Bruce coming back, she walked up to him quickly and said, "Bruce, what are you thinking about? Why did you leave Dick alone at school? Don't you even remember to pick him up after school?"
Bruce didn't react, but Selina crossed her arms and continued to scold him, "Today at noon, around 3 pm, I suddenly received a call from Dick's school."
"His teacher said that he called home, but no one answered. Thank you for remembering to leave my contact information, otherwise Dick would have to wait at school all night today."
Bruce remembered that Alfred went to the hospital and sat in front of the hospital for an afternoon. It might be at this time that Dick called Wayne Manor, but no one answered.
At this time, Dick walked forward, looked up at Bruce and said, "Mr. Wayne, what's wrong with you? And where did Alfred go?"
Bruce looked down at him and said, "Why do you suddenly want to come back?"
"Because I can go home on Wednesday." Dick replied, he said, "Well... Isn't it the right time for me to come back?"
"You..." Bruce paused and asked him, "Are you not angry anymore?"
"Angry, what are you angry about?" Dick looked at Bruce a little confused, and suddenly, he seemed to remember something, he said, "Oh, this should be me asking you, Mr. Wayne, are you not angry anymore? I didn't ask that on purpose, I know you were angry when I was very upset, I shouldn't... um..."
Bruce bent down, held Dick's shoulder and asked him: "Then why did you hide in school and refused to come back?"
"I didn't hide in school because I was afraid of making you angry. I was only planning to stay in school for one night, but then the teacher said that if I didn't go back on Monday, I couldn't go back on Tuesday. I had to stay in school for at least two days."
Dick shrugged and said: "So I stayed for two days and then came back."
Selena walked up, patted Bruce's shoulder and said: "I know you are worried about the things in the newspaper and feel very stressed, but it's nothing. You don't have to care about what others think."
"What about Aisha? Aisha might still be..."
"Wow wow wow wow!!!"
A loud shout rang out from the door of Wayne Manor, and a small black shadow rushed in and ran headfirst into Bruce's arms.
Merkel followed in, panting and saying, "Oh, sorry! Mr. Wayne, I really can't catch Aisha, she ran here from Rodriguez Manor!!!"
"Wow wow wow wow wow!!" Aisha kept shouting, Bruce looked at Dick, Dick translated, "She said she missed you, and... broccoli is really bad?"
Bruce put his eyes back on Aisha, he asked, "...Are you not angry anymore?"
Aisha was stunned for a moment, then showed a puzzled expression, Dick spread his hands and said to Bruce, "Sir, no matter what you mean, I think Aisha may have forgotten it a long time ago, her memory is really bad."
Bruce slowly put Aisha down, standing in the center of the manor, he felt like he was caught in a whirlpool.
All this seemed like a dream, but the warning he had planted before did not sound, and he was sure that this was reality.
He messed up everything, but he was not blamed.
Gordon did not doubt him at all, and even asked him to go home first. Schiller changed his usual sternness and asked him to go to rest quickly. Selina was not angry, and helped him to pick up Dick. Dick did not seem to want to avoid him, and Aisha completely forgot about it.
It seemed like a big deal to Batman, but to them, it was just a small friction that happened every day. No one cared, no one remembered.
And when he became the useless Bruce Wayne again, he failed to prevent the murder, failed to provide any effective clues, failed to solve the case with sophisticated technical reasoning, failed to bring the murderer to justice, and failed to save anyone...
But everyone seemed to forgive him.
When Merkel lit the fireplace, standing in the firelight in the middle of the hall, Bruce realized for the first time.
Except for himself, no one cared whether he was perfect.
Rather than saying that people don't love God, it's better to say that ordinary people who live absurd and frivolous lives, as Batman believes, don't care about God at all.
Bruce realized that when he returned to the life of Bruce Wayne, whom he always hated, no one was disappointed.
No one was disappointed about losing the perfect Batman.
So, what was he disappointed about?
Bruce felt that when the lights in the hall came on again and the fire in the fireplace burned again, he was surrounded by warmth again.
A string that had been stretched tight and plucked like a death warrant suddenly became loose.
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