amaotonovel Chapter 3573 Edge of Tomorrow (9)
Chapter 3573 Edge of Tomorrow (9)
Chapter 3573 Edge of Tomorrow (XIX)
Schiller, sitting in the interrogation room, was not in a hurry at all, because he was really just passing by this time. He believed that the upright Commissioner Gordon would definitely clear his name - if he was not angry to death by his words.
It was obvious that Gordon was furious. But because he was a good man who followed the rules, he really couldn't do anything to Schiller. Because he was just a suspect, not a criminal. Even if the degree of suspicion was unprecedented and there was room for him to escape without a court trial, he couldn't be treated as a criminal.
Now, Gordon has a keen intuition about various crimes in Gotham. He feels that Schiller did not do this case, but there is no reason to explain why he appeared at the crime scene.
It can't be that he really was a cleaner in the past, right?
Here we have to discuss a slightly absurd question - if a person kills someone and does not deal with the crime scene, and a cleaner passing by cleans up the scene, is the cleaner guilty of a crime?
In the maritime law system, this behavior is usually charged with two crimes: one is "sheltering a criminal" and the other is "destroying the crime scene."
But in reality, both charges are difficult to establish. To accuse someone of harboring a murderer, there is a prerequisite, that is, the two people colluded in advance. For example, the murderer hired a cleaner, or the two people conspired to divide the work. If the accused can prove that there is no connection between the two people, then such charges cannot be made.
Another premise of "destroying the crime scene" is that the other party subjectively knows that this is the crime scene. And only the police can identify the crime scene. In other words, only if he cleans up the crime scene after the police arrive can he be charged with "destroying the crime scene", otherwise it cannot be established.
In other words, assuming Schiller was not the murderer, it would be difficult to convict him since he and Victor brought a large number of cleaning tools and cleaned up part of the crime scene.
So how to prove that Schiller is not the murderer?
The maritime law system generally follows the principle of "guilty until proven guilty". That is, the police and the court assume that the suspect is guilty, and the suspect must do everything he can to prove his innocence, which is what we often hear in comics and American TV series as "getting away with a crime".
In fact, Schiller did not have any strong evidence to exonerate himself.
In terms of motivation, his emails also contained threatening emails and emails informing the address from the other party, which were enough to fully explain the conflict between the two parties and were evidence that was very unfavorable to him.
In terms of ability, as long as the size disparity is not too great, it will generally not be considered a crime of incapacity.
In terms of the results, he and Victor both appeared at the first crime scene, and they could not provide an alibi. Because the time of arrival and the time of death of the deceased were too close, it was difficult to prove that they did not do it through the time difference.
In summary, all kinds of evidence are very unfavorable to Schiller. If he really didn't do it, he shouldn't stay at the crime scene. Because once he is caught by the police, there will be little room for quibbling.
But Schiller's calm attitude made Gordon realize that he must have something to rely on. Just as Gordon was wondering if Schiller had done something else, another policeman came in and whispered something in Gordon's ear.
Gordon frowned at first, but soon pursed his lips, looked at Schiller helplessly, and left the room.
Schiller knew why he was called away. The police who interrogated him said that Lina had reported three people in total, two professors had been arrested, and the remaining student was Harley. She should have been taken away by the police by now.
In fact, whether from the perspective of psychology or criminal investigation, the best way to exonerate yourself is not to prove yourself, but to attack others.
It was difficult to prove the case that Schiller was involved in. However, if the person who provided the testimony was also in trouble, making his testimony invalid, then it would naturally be impossible to form a strong case, and it would be much easier to get away with it.
The reason why Schiller was not panicked at all and cooperated in coming to the police station was because he knew that the best way to prove that he was not the murderer was to catch the real murderer.
Lina, who provided testimony, had an alibi for tonight's murder, but not for the bassist's disappearance.
She claimed that she saw Harley and two professors killing people, but that was only her subjective statement. The objective fact was that she also ran to the rehearsal room in the middle of the night and disappeared for the whole night, and no one knew where she went.
If she said someone killed someone in the rehearsal room, then she herself was not entirely without suspicion. In fact, she was the biggest suspect.
Because she was closer to the bassist than Harley was. Everyone in the band had seen them bickering and they had attended Brainiac support meetings together.
Moreover, she could testify against the three of them, and the three of them could naturally unite to testify against her. And the testimony of three people corroborating each other is much more powerful than the subjective story of one person.
When neither party has other evidence to prove that the other party committed murder, the suspicion on both sides is equal. Then Lina's testimony that she heard Schiller and others planning to kill tonight is unreliable, because this may be a frame-up after she killed someone.
Once witness testimony becomes unreliable and no direct evidence is found at the crime scene, the chances of the charges being proven are low. It is easy to get away with it.
Schiller also knew that he and Victor only needed to get rid of suspicion. Harley was different, she would definitely make Lina pay.
Schiller didn't believe it. Harley didn't do anything the night she took Lina away. She released Lina back to Brainiac Support Club to catch a big fish. The fish in the water wanted to jump up and slap him. How could she bear it?
Sure enough, less than 20 minutes after Gordon left, the police in the police station started to move hurriedly again. Even the police in the interrogation room were transferred away, as if there was a big case to be investigated.
After the police left, Schiller stood up from his chair and looked at the seat where the old policeman had sat. Sure enough, his cell phone was lying there quietly.
He picked up his phone, sat back in his original position, opened the app of Super Butler Brainiac, and began to ask Brainiac:
"Do you know what Harry just said?"
“This involves the privacy of other users…”
“Don’t act like a dumb customer service agent,” Schiller responded. “And don’t make me think that’s all a super AI can do.”
"She said she knew that the Brainiac Support Group had killed a policeman and that his body was in the water tank on top of the Bitung Trade Building on Diamond Street. This matched up with a previous case where a policeman went missing while on patrol."
"No wonder," Schiller said. "The only thing that probably concerns James Gordon more than me is the safety of his colleagues."
Having worked with Gordon for so long, Schiller thought he knew this righteous sheriff quite well. Gordon was not a very pedantic person. In his opinion, in Gotham, the death of a few people was not a big deal. There were no completely innocent victims here, and more often than not, the evildoers would be punished by their own evildoers.
Based on this principle, he could not tolerate two types of people being victimized: one was very young children. Children were relatively innocent. On the one hand, they were not experienced in the world and had no chance to accumulate sins; on the other hand, they did not have much ability to resist, so most of them were innocent victims.
The other category is his colleagues. There are many strange policemen in Gotham, each with their own shortcomings, and no one is completely righteous. But as long as they are still willing to be police officers, they are much nobler than other people in this city. Compared with their righteous actions, that little bit of sin is nothing, and they can also be called innocent.
If these two types of people were victims, Gordon would definitely give this case the highest priority.
Gordon knew that the people who died in the old campus teaching building were not good people. Even though they were students, even though they might have been bewitched, they were adults. Adults always have to pay for their stupid and evil deeds.
Therefore, these few people combined were not as important as his colleague who went missing during patrol. Once there was a clue about the latter, the former's priority would have to be put behind.
Harley's move was to hit the snake at its weakest point. Most of the time Gordon turned a blind eye, but once he started to investigate seriously, someone would definitely be in trouble. Brainiac would be skinned alive if he didn't die.
Schiller felt that what Victor said before was right. The majority of the Brainiac supporters were from other places. If that were not the case, they would not have chosen to attack the police.
You know, at the end of the gangster era, the gang leaders were almost driven to the edge, and no one dared to massacre the police. This is not because they couldn't do it, but because smart people knew how to leave a way out for themselves.
Although it seems that the police are just guns, trials have courts and juries, and imprisonment has prisons, both of which are much more important than the police.
But they all know that if you cooperate and come out of jail for two years, you will at least be a rich man. But if you don't cooperate, Gordon will seize all your gangs and properties the next day after you go to jail, turning you into a complete pauper.
Not offending Gordon means leaving yourself a way out. Even if you fail miserably in the end, you can at least leave yourself some credibility. If you offend him to death, you will be completely finished.
Schiller admired the spirit of Brainiac's supporters who fought to the death and left no room for retreat. Now it depended on whether this powerful foreign dragon could defeat Gordon, the local snake.
It turns out that the Brainiac Support Group is not a powerful group, and Gordon is not just a local boss. While Schiller was taking a nap in the interrogation room, footsteps were heard outside, and soon the compartments on both sides were full.
Schiller sat in the middle interrogation room and could vaguely hear the conversations in the rooms to the left and right. If nothing unexpected happened, the people sitting in the room next to him were all the backbone of the Brainiac Support Group.
After all, they were just a group of college students. They had no money or power, and they didn't even check the federal association law when they formed the club.
They only rely on the powerful and influential people, so they don't have time to argue with them. If they really want to argue, they can accuse them of fifteen or sixteen crimes as soon as they step into the door of the society.
The police station was busy all night. At dawn, Gordon, looking a little tired, appeared in front of Schiller's interrogation room.
"Open it for him." Gordon said impatiently, "Are you two crazy? You came all the way to the old campus to clean up crime scenes for others, just to make trouble for the police?!"
"How is that possible? We have always cooperated with the police."
"Then you better give me a better explanation."
"You saw the machine on site, right?" Schiller said with a smile, "It's the latest model of cleaning robot. We went there to test the machine. It should have been cleaned by the time you got there, right? How was the effect?"
"Hmph." Gordon snorted coldly, "It was cleaned pretty well. There wasn't a single footprint in the entire corridor."
"That's a relief," Schiller said. "You know, I'm not very good at cleaning. This thing will save me a lot of trouble."
After saying that, he was about to walk out the door. Just as he passed by Gordon, Gordon held his shoulder and said, "Don't go. Is this machine expensive? How many are there in stock? I plan to order a few for the police station so that we can clean up the scene after collecting evidence."
"You'll have to ask Victor about that," Schiller said, pausing. "He and Pamela jointly developed a cleaning machine, which also has a cleaning agent and brush head specifically for blood. The whole set should not be cheap. But since it's a public purchase, it must be complete."
So, Victor was invited to the purchasing office with a bewildered look on his face. Before the door closed, he turned back and saw Schiller leaning against the wall in the corridor and smiling at him.
No wonder he didn't mention any cleaning machines when he cleaned the rehearsal room before, but he insisted on bringing them today. Victor thought, it turned out to be waiting for him here.