Chapter 3910: Chapter 3027: Dense Green Trees Cast Long Shadows in Summer (25)

"I've had heatstroke,"

Dick, holding the phone, asked incredulously, "What? Professor, what happened to you?"

"I said I've had heatstroke, and now I'm resting in the hospital. You guys better behave yourselves lately, or no one will bail you out if you end up in the police station again."

Dick, with a stunned face, put down the phone and turned to Jason beside him, "Professor Shearer said he's had heatstroke and is now resting in Arkham Asylum. What do you think this is all about?"

"What do you mean, 'what's this all about?'" Jason said while flipping through documents, "Does heatstroke need a reason? Isn't the weather hot enough?"

"But that's Professor Shearer."

"He said he didn't have superpowers anymore."

"And you believed that?"

"It's not about whether we believe it or not. He used to say he didn't have the Mind Reading Technique, did that stop him from doing anything?" Jason hummed softly before saying, "Instead of that, you better come and look at these documents."

Dick reluctantly set aside his doubts and walked over, and Jason handed him another copy of documents. Dick saw that the paper read "Bolokin Community Children's Disappearance Case Report."

He weighed the stack of documents in his hand, about half the thickness of his palm, and Dick couldn't help but be a little taken aback. Although there are countless cases of children's disappearance in Gotham every year, the population of the community where that boarding high school is located is not large, so the number of children's disappearance cases was somewhat outrageous.

Dick flipped through the documents and then discovered that the situation was somewhat better than he had imagined because many of them were annotations by Aisha, such as noting a member of a certain child's family who was worth paying attention to, or noting something special about the timing of a child's disappearance.

Dick wasn't very good at reading; he briefly went through the documents and found the doubts in them, which was that almost all these missing children attended the school in the Bolokin community.

Then, with Jason's explanation, he understood that this was not strange—are only the children from well-off families that could go to school, and their parents would report them missing. Meanwhile, kids like Jason who mingled on the streets, if they disappeared one day, no one would look for the police, so there wouldn't be any investigative report.

And since the community was small, with only one elementary and one middle school, most children in the community attended these schools, meaning most of the children were classmates, and outsiders were rare.

"Is this data normal?" Dick asked.

Jason shook his head and said, "During Gotham's most chaotic era, it was rather the city itself that was dangerous. This community, being remote with fewer people, couldn't develop Mob industries so they naturally didn't bother with this place—it should be relatively peaceful."

"But compared to surrounding communities and certain districts in the city, the number of children's disappearance cases here is abnormally high, look at this," Dick urged.

Jason handed over another document. After Jason took it, he saw a line chart. The horizontal line represented the years, and the vertical line represented the number of children's disappearance cases. The curve, which was relatively flat, suddenly shot up at a point ten years ago, spiking to an abnormal level.

"Ten years ago..." Dick muttered while flipping back through previous documents, then realized that the community's elementary and middle schools were established ten years ago.

Dick immediately had some insights. He said, "There's something wrong with these two schools, so it's very likely that what led to the schools closing down back then wasn't due to unprofitability but because of the high number of children's disappearance cases."

But unexpectedly, Jason shook his head and said, "Take a closer look at those case reports."

Dick picked out one and scrutinized it, then swapped it for another, his brows gradually furrowing. He said, "These kids all disappeared off school grounds... But of course, if it was on school grounds, the parents would definitely trouble the school, and the school wouldn't be able to operate for a day."

"But if it's not on school grounds, then what caused the school to close down back then? Are these two things really completely unrelated?"

"That's exactly what we need to investigate next. Tim helped us rent a house in the Bolokin Community, in the southeast corner close to that forest. Next, we need to investigate the locations where each child disappeared based on these case reports."

"What are we waiting for?" Dick immediately put down the documents. Rather than analyzing and making assumptions here, he was more eager to take action.

"It's not that simple," Jason said. "Tim just called to say that the cameras he set up in the neighboring community have captured quite a few outsiders, all of whom have appeared within the last week."

"I'm afraid some people know we're looking into this," Dick sighed. "As expected, they're definitely guilty as hell."

"So it's not just the two of us going, but you're taking Raven with you," Jason said, sitting on the sofa and looking up at Dick. "You handle the investigation; Raven will ensure your safety."

Dick opened his mouth but eventually said, "Although I hope Rachel doesn't get involved, she would probably be very eager."

"We don't want to involve innocent people either, but the problem is these guys are ruthless enough to harm so many children to cover up past crimes. They might resort to anything. It's better if you aren't discovered, but just in case you are, there must be someone to ensure your safety,"

"If I'm discovered, what do you want Raven to do?" Dick touched on the critical part.

"Leave immediately with them and avoid direct conflict," he instructed sternly. "I know Raven is powerful, capable of wiping them out with just a flick of her fingers, but don't do it. It might startle the snake in the grass."

Jason stood up and continued his analysis, "They think we're ordinary people who can be harmed. That's why they strike. Once they realize we're actually monsters, they won't show their faces again."

"I understand. I'll contact Rachel right now."

It wasn't long before Raven arrived. She had clearly just come from class, looking every bit the typical high school girl with no hint of her magical abilities.

After hearing Dick and Jason's plan, Raven said, "Didn't I tell you? The clones who invaded Gotham were enchanted by my magic. I can now control them perfectly. Although there aren't many left, they are almost indistinguishable from humans and aren't afraid to die. Maybe I should bring them along?"

Jason and Dick exchanged glances. Jason said, "We forgot about that. If that's the case, perhaps we can devise a more efficient plan."

"What do you want to do?" Raven asked.

"Do these clones have social identities?"

"Most of them do, but some don't because their originals were killed; they are technically dead," she replied.

"How many of them are there approximately?"

"About a dozen or so."

Dick and Jason were on the same wavelength; Jason laughed and said, "When they start investigating the identities of the people they are after, and they find out they're already dead, their expressions will be priceless."

The New Warriors Team and a few members of the Guardians of the Galaxy had come to Wayne Manor with Helen the previous night. The manor's backyard had a swimming pool, and they had set up several umbrellas to play and cool off in the pool.

Rocket Raccoon had indeed bad luck. Throughout the night, Aisha had plucked who knows how much fur from him, and in the end, he just had to suck it up, allowing Aisha to carry him around the yard like a pet.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games; Helen was still investigating Williams's real estate firm, focusing on the plot of land adjacent to the Shearer's house to find anything improper.

However, the information available online was too scarce, even with the use of Wayne Enterprises' professional database. They could only roughly estimate the period when the contract was valid, but the specific details of the contract were unavailable.

In America, land isn't state-owned. Like any other commodity, it can be bought and sold privately, and if it's a corporate transaction, it is also considered a part of business secrecy that isn't easily disclosed. Being able to find out the rough transaction time was already a testament to the prowess of the Wayne Enterprises' database.

But there's always a way out. Helen, holding a photo of Williams, conducted a search and found a special group photo. The photo showed a beaming Williams with a man dressed in a white shirt and glasses, the epitome of a professional. Behind them was a banner vaguely stating, "East Coast Land Sales and Investment Intentions Exchange."

With this name, Helen immediately searched again in Wayne Enterprises' database and found out that this was an annual trade fair held jointly by several cities on the East Coast, mainly for land sales.

The date of this trade fair matched roughly with when the land transaction near the Shearer's house was completed, suggesting that Williams likely acquired the plot through this trade fair.

The man in the photo with him was probably key to making the transaction happen. From Williams's radiant smile, it was evident that securing this plot was a huge win for him. The fact that this man helped him, and not someone else, get that plot, indicated a deep connection between them.

Searching further with this man's photo, Helen found a news article that made her eyes widen in surprise—"Gotham's hot mayoral candidate, Hilos Nigma, expressed important views on urban economic development, claiming he will help rebuild the city's financial industry."

Helen's gaze fixed on the front-page photo of the report, where Mr. Nigma, dressed in a suit, was showing a proper smile...

What was once a rosy complexion gradually turned pale, the smile disappearing, and the gray-blue pupils became lifeless, reflecting only the ghastly light of the morgue and Gordon's face.

Gordon pulled the white sheet back over, sighed, and asked, "When was the body discovered?"

"This morning at 6 AM, boss," a female officer holding a report replied. "It was found in an alley on his regular route to the office building, completely naked. The coroner concluded that... he was frozen to death."

"Frozen to death?!" Gordon turned to his subordinate and said, "He obviously couldn't have been naturally frozen to death, right?"

"Of course, boss. There are no signs of struggle on his body, and no clues were left at the scene where the body was found. We have nothing but the cause of death so far."

Gordon's expression darkened as he said, "I just found out this guy was a popular mayoral candidate. With him dead now, we have to provide some answers to everyone."

"Should we check the cold storage?" his subordinate suggested. "There are a few cold storages nearby; we could check each one and might find some clues."

"Do you know the owners of those cold storages?" Gordon's expression did not improve. He remarked, "If you had come a few years earlier, just this suggestion being heard would have you not seeing tomorrow morning's sun."

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