"Welcome to the Humble House, Lady Emma"

Bruce walked down the stairs, dressed in a well-fitting casual suit.

"Oh, Mr. Bruce, you don't have to greet it personally"

Mrs. Emma walked over and gave Bruce a hug.

"This way, Lady Emma, please"

Bruce ushered Mrs. Emma into a reception room.

"I heard you're frightened, you're recuperating at home, you look good."

"It's rude to meet customers in that decadent way"

"Oh . . . Hehe, you pay attention to etiquette as always."

"Because I have a strict housekeeper who pays a lot of attention to etiquette"

"Your compliment is my honor, Master Bruce"

................................................

“... Don't you wonder what they're talking about? ”

When Bruce ushered Mrs. Emma into the reception room, Alfred did not follow and turned and walked towards the kitchen, and soon walked into the reception room with hot black tea and refreshments.

Jason and Barbara popped up from the bend in the staircase and stared at the closed door of the reception room.

"Of course"

Barbara lets out a smile and drags Jason back to the Batcave.

“.... Don't tell me there's this stuff in the rooms of Wayne Manor."

Jason said unhappily after watching Barbara's skillful manipulation of the image of the reception room appear on the huge screen a few times.

"Uh-huh, it's good if you get used to it"

Barbara didn't refute Jason's words, and Jason would find out about them after staying for a long time anyway. Slightly adjusting the volume, an old voice came out of it:

"Mr. Bruce, you are a smart man, and I believe you know very well what I am here for"

Mrs. Emma didn't have any false opening statements, but went straight to the point and said her purpose.

“... I'm sorry ma'am, but everything I know has been told to the police."

"I know, but what the police told me must have been cut, I want to know the truth"

Mrs. Emma came for the children, and of the rescued children, only three of the missing children from her Angel Welfare Home were found, and two were missing.

Mrs. Emma used her connections to get some inside information from the police, but it was only a little more than what was made public, and in the end her connections within the police suggested that the case had been suppressed from above, so she couldn't reveal too much, and she came directly to Bruce. Wayne asked.

“... I'm sorry for this.."

"You shouldn't have been gag-thrust, right?"

The sharp gaze looked directly at Bruce through those cloudy eyes, generating a wordless pressure.

"Yes, Lady Emma, but... I really don't know much."

“... I understand, so let me ask, if you can answer, please answer honestly, okay? ”

“.... Okay"

Even after a long time from the barracks, Mrs. Emma's military temperament still weakened, making it difficult to disobey her orders.

“... This old woman thinks she's an officer?? ”

Jason asked with some discomfort as he looked at the woman who sat in the chair like a female general interrogating a criminal.

"Watch your words, boy, and Lady Emma is indeed an officer."

“.... Really a soldier? ”

"Of course, and if it weren't for the marriage, she could have sat in the position of admiral"

Barbara's words successfully stopped Jason's complaints, and Jason, who had nothing to say, had to continue to focus on the screen.

The silver-haired old lady on the screen has lost her kind side of the past, and at this moment she is like a falcon staring at its prey, and her sharp gaze can give people a strong sense of oppression even through the computer screen.

"That island must belong to the Lawrence family."

People on the outside may not know it, but for them in high society, this kind of thing is like three meals a day to be remembered clearly.

Bruce knew quite well that if he wasn't clear at this point, it was a very obvious lie.

“... yes, so I'm weird"

"You didn't know you were going to the Lawrence family's island until you arrived on the island?"

"Yes, I thought Himmler was planning to hold a charity auction on his private island."

"Didn't he tell you what the auction was?"

“.. It's a pity that he just said it was about the children."

"So you went?"

"Right"

Mrs. Emma looked at Bruce's smiling face for a long time, but she couldn't see any clues.

"Have you seen anyone from the Lawrence family?"

"No, the people who go there wear masks and a cloak to cover their entire body, I don't know if there is one"

Asking a guy who was there at the time would get an answer, and Bruce didn't feel the need to lie.

After listening to Bruce's words, Lady Emma pondered for a while, and then continued:

"James. Mr. Gordon is under house arrest as far as I know, you know? ”

"Huh? It's true? I heard that I am on leave because of an injury? ”

Bruce's perfect expression did not attract Mrs. Emma's attention.

"How much do you know about the list?"

“.... What list?"

"Mr. Bruce, you're a smart man, I'm sure you understand what I'm here for"

"Of course I understand, Lady Emma, that you are worried about the children who have not yet been found, so I will tell you as much as I can that I know."

Bruce politely and distantly answered Lady Emma's question.

"Why didn't he tell her?"

Jason asked, throwing a popcorn into his mouth.

"Bruce's role is limited to a rich man who has been forcibly involved in a very disgusting and perverted auction, that kind of thing is not something he should know, and...."

Barbara said as she grabbed a handful of popcorn from Jason's bucket and stuffed it into her mouth.

"And?"

"And it's hard to determine whether this Lady Emma is friend or foe."

“..... But she really looks like she's thinking about the children."

Having been at the bottom of society for a long time, it has become Jason's instinct to observe words and feelings, and he thinks that the old lady is not lying, she is really worried about those children.

“... What do you know about Lady Emma? ”

Barbara was amused by Jason's statement, and according to Bruce's summary, Jason should be the kind of person who is very vigilant, and he shouldn't be the kind of person who trusts people easily, just like Batman.

"Oh.... I've been to her welfare home before, and the people there ....."

"Wait a minute, Jason"

Barbara suddenly heard a few key words from the picture, and hurriedly stopped Jason from continuing, while also turning up the volume:

"I'll just tell you straight, Mr. Bruce, you should know about the fact that the bodies of several children were found before the police."

"Yes, I know, that's a shame"

Mrs. Emma paused to look at Bruce, then continued:

"The second body that was found was one of the missing children in the Angel Welfare Institute, a little boy with intellectual defects, but he drew very well, and we all thought he would be a very good painter...."

It was the result of Mrs. Emma's use of her personal connections to compare her DNA.

“.... I'm sorry, Lady Emma."

Bruce got up and walked over to Lady Emma and handed her a handkerchief.

After taking the handkerchief and wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes, Lady Emma said with a little apologies:

"I'm sorry, but when you're older, you're prone to sentimentality."

After gathering her emotions, Lady Emma continued.

"In fact, since the disappearance of the children, I have been using various connections, including private investigators I know, to track down their whereabouts, but almost nothing has been found. When the third child disappeared, the private investigator sent me a message saying that he had found some clues and needed to be further investigated, but the next day I received a large envelope, which contained clues that he had been pursuing for a long time, but those were only suspicious clues, and had no direct use, but at the mouth of the envelope, there was a name that was obviously written in a hurry - Joseph, and as for the surname, I can only guess Lawrence"

"Why the guess?"

"Because Lawrence only wrote half of it, one can only guess. The envelope was not stamped, it should have been hurriedly thrown into the mailbox.... Soon after, the Gotham Police Department reported that a drunk man had fallen into the water and died..."

At this point, Lady Emma paused, took a sip from the teacup at hand.

“..... It's him? ”

Even if he didn't answer, Bruce could guess who the "drunk" who had fallen overboard.

“... Yes, he was killed. My friend at the police station told me that most of the alcohol stayed in the esophagus and very little in the stomach, indicating that the alcohol was poured into it after death, but the autopsy report was tampered with...."

Lady Emma's hand clenching the cup trembled slightly.

"Lady Emma, do you need a cup of tea?"

Alfred appeared at the right time, carefully removed the beautiful teacup from the old woman's hand, and filled the cup with warm black tea.

"Thank you, you have a really good housekeeper"

"Thank you for the compliment"

"And after that?"

“... I couldn't call the police to say he was working for me, and soon after the police found the body of the first child, I had a hunch that the two had something to do with it, but I didn't know who to go to. At this time, my nephew who served in the Marine Corps came back from vacation, and after hearing about it, he took a few friends to follow those clues and continued to follow, but every time he was almost discovered, as a professional special forces, my nephews did not end up with the same fate as the detective, but every time they almost grabbed their pigtails, they would end up with the corpse interrupting all the clues, and not long ago the child finally got a message, Joseph planned to dispose of the last corpse, and asked the community to dispose of it, and after obtaining the route to dispose of the corpse, they lay in ambush in a nearby ruin for a long time until the broken car passed by. In order to avoid suspicion, they also deliberately found many friends to block the road disguised as a car accident.... However, the body was not thrown into the sea as intended, but in the ruins ... They were dismissed, so they had to leave........"

“... Oh my god, it turned out to be her.."

Behind the screen, Barbara finally understood the persecution that persecuted Joseph. Lawrence discarded the corpse of the third party.

“... This old woman is very powerful? ”

Jason was confused, but Jason knew that this old woman must be more powerful than the pervert named Joseph, otherwise the other party would not have hurriedly thrown the corpse.

"Of course"

"More powerful than the Lawrence family?"

“.... Mrs. Emma's name before she got married was Emma. Fox. It's not just Fox, it's the family that can make the entire political world tremble with a stamping of the foot, the Lawrence family is nothing compared to the Fox family, and at least half of the members of Congress are related to the Fox family.... In this way, it can be explained why Lawrence chose to throw the corpse instead of secretly doing those special forces, first, it is difficult to deal with, after all, it is a professional special forces. The second is.... It wasn't a wise decision to get the attention of the Fawkes..."

"Same as the Wayne family?"

“.. If the Wayne family were committed to politics, their sphere of influence would be similar to theirs by now, but unfortunately their family is still more interested in making money."

“... What a fool not only didn't get rid of it, but also attracted the old bat."

Jason said as he threw another popcorn into his mouth and chewed it.

"yes, what an idiot"

...............................................

"Mr. Bruce, I want to know now, the evidence that is enough to send that scum to jail is in the hands of the police."

“... This one... Mrs. Emma... I said"

"Mr. Bruce, all I want to know now is if the removal of the invisible hand that kept you and the officer under house arrest could send those scum to jail?"

Mrs. Emma didn't give Bruce any chance to refuse, and asked the question again.

For this reason, she deliberately asked her friends at the police station to replace all the people in charge of surveillance with her own people in order to hide the fact that she was visiting late at night.

“.... Yes, Mrs. Emma, the police did have enough evidence, including those guys who weren't arrested in this operation... But because it's too wide..."

“... yes, I see. Thank you for taking the time to chat with me tonight, an old woman, I have other things to do, so I'll take my leave! ”

"Then, Ah Fu, send Lady Emma out, please be careful on the way...."

After sending off Mrs. Emma, he saw Bruce on the phone, and hung up after a few words of advice.

"Master Bruce, do you think Lady Emma can do it alone?"

“... It's too wide-ranging, even the Fox family will probably have a hard time, but I've got her a foreign helper."

Bruce shook the phone in his hand, sometimes the media is more useful than anything.....................

“... That's good."