Roy took a taxi for about half an hour and arrived at the location designated by Director Gordon.

The murder took place in a private villa. The building is very beautiful, and there is a private garden outside, where flowers and plants grow quite luxuriantly, and it seems that the deceased was quite fond of raising flowers and grass during his lifetime.

It had just rained during the day, and the soil was thick and moist with moisture, which often made it easier to leave traces and facilitate reconnaissance work.

And, when the deceased died, he happened to be in the garden.

Roy walked briskly towards the house where the blockade was pulled, and Director Gordon saw it from afar and came out to greet him.

"You're here." Gordon put his hand in his pocket and said, "I think this case would have been weird enough to go down in history anywhere else." But if you think about it, this is Gotham, so it's not surprising that there are any kind of murderers. ”

"I'm not from Gotham." Roy said as he walked briskly.

"Oh, then you might have to work a little harder to get used to it." Gordon complained, "You know, if you don't know a lot about handling cases in Gotham, you will feel like you have never heard of anything. ”

"Tell me about it."

"The deceased, Ram Craven, was sixty-three years old, a former sailor who is now retired at home. He was a widower, so he lived alone. A recent relative we are in contact with and seems to be in another city. The time of death was preliminarily determined to be around ten o'clock tonight, and the neighbor came out at eleven o'clock to take out the garbage and found him lying in his garden. ”

"So where is the 'weirdness' you call it?" Roy asked.

"Well," the two said as they arrived at the scene, and Director Gordon pulled up the cordon for him, "you can see for yourself." ”

Poor Mr. Craven was lying on his back in his field, covered in mud, his eyes bulging almost out of his eyes, and his lips were purple. The old man's figure seemed to be on the obese side, but even so, his round belly still looked a little exaggerated.

Roy frowned: "Drowning? ”

"That's where it gets weird." "It looks like you're drowned, but it doesn't look like you're not." ”

Roy knew what Gordon was referring to. On the side of Mr. Craven's corpse were clearly printed two large shoe prints, one on the left and one on the right, sinking deep into the ground, and it seemed that someone had slid slightly by about half a centimeter because someone was standing here with great force.

Then, a slight bruise was found on Mr. Craven's neck.

"You're trying to say that he could still be strangled to death?" Roy asked.

Gordon shrugged: "I may have to wait for the coroner to do the autopsy to see if there are any new findings." However, in terms of the characteristics of corpse death, it is more consistent with the symptoms of drowning; Judging from the shoe prints and the bruises on his neck, it was as if he had seen a strong man strangling the poor old gentleman to the ground. ”

"Yes, strong man." Roy had already studied the shoe prints, "About two meters tall, really strong." And if a hand pinching a person's neck can cause such a bruise, then the strength must be surprisingly great. ”

"A hand?" Gordon said in surprise.

"Yes, one hand. The traces are obvious, can't you see them? If you don't believe me, take a few random photos of people strangled to death from the archives and see if there are any scars left in them like here. ”

Only then did Gordon carefully examine the scar on the corpse's neck: "When you say that, it seems to be true"

And most of the people we call drowning are not actually drowned by water, as most people understand, but often die of choking. To put it bluntly, drowning people in the real sense often have their lungs filled with water, and although there will be water in their abdomen, it will not prop our old Mr. Craven into a ball. ”

Roy paused here and said, "If nothing else, we can find something else on his teeth." ”

"Teeth?" Director Gordon wondered.

"Yes, teeth." Roy opened his mouth, and sure enough, he found a small missing piece of his front teeth.

"It's getting weirder and weirder, and it's completely confusing." Gordon muttered.

"On the contrary, everything is becoming clearer and clearer." "A strong man stood at the place of these two footprints, pinning our victim to the ground, holding him by the neck with one hand and pouring water into his stomach with something like a water gun in the other. If you are not convinced, you can wait for the results of the autopsy. But I'm sure that this man was killed by the water. ”

Gordon was stunned for a moment: "That sounds like it might really be an explanation." But why is that? I mean, if that person is that strong, then why not just strangle him? Why bother to prop him up with a water gun? ”

"This, I'm afraid, has something to do with the motive for the killing. That's one of the questions we're going to figure out next. Roy said, "It doesn't seem like there will be any more discoveries for the time being." I'll take a look around the neighborhood and see if the neighbors can provide any useful information. ”

It was just after 1 a.m. that Roy finally returned to his apartment.

Surprisingly, the lights in the living room were still on. Roy had just finished changing his shoes when Barbara had already pushed her wheelchair out of the room.

"Haven't slept yet?" Roy asked, somewhat surprised.

Barbara nodded: "I took a look at the Gotham Police Department's case that just came online - of course, bypassing their firewall, I found the case quite interesting, do you mind telling me what you found?" ”

Barbara had done this before she lost her legs. She is very smart and sharp, and when she was a bat girl, she also solved many cases where the police were helpless. Now as Roy's logistics, watching him busy gives her a sense of excitement to return to the battlefield.

"Okay." Roy looked at the wall clock on the wall, but felt no sleep, so he said, "I don't think we'll sleep long tonight, do you have coffee?" ”

"Sounds good."

Roy went to the dining room and brought back two cups of coffee, sat back on the couch, and began to narrate.

"First of all, I'm sure you've seen some of the conclusions of my on-site investigation in the files, right?"

"Yes." After Barbara confirmed, she added, "It's amazing, by the way." ”

"Thank you." Roy accepted without modesty, and continued, "Then I paid a visit to Mr. Craven's neighbors. As you know, he is a widower, so he can't expect anything unusual from his family, so he has to resort to asking for help from his neighbors. A few friendly neighbors answered some of my questions, and although they didn't complain about my disturbing dreams in the middle of the night, I finally got some useful information. ”

"You should know that I have already estimated the height of this man by showing the size of his feet through the shoe prints, but unfortunately the pattern of his soles is similar to military boots but more unique, I believe that it should be custom-made, so I can't know its brand. I asked the neighbors if they had heard strange noises or seen anything that night, and unfortunately our murderer seemed to be quite nimble and grabbed the old man by the neck before he could call for help, so no one noticed anything at the time of the murder.

But a woman next door, who usually stays at home, provided information that two days before the deceased's death, a tall man wearing a hood and a large black cloak was wandering around the area, she could not remember his height, but he may have been more than two meters. This is very important, and it proves that my suspicion is correct. ”

"In addition, there is another old man who lives next door to Mr. Craven, and they have a good relationship. He gave me very important information that the deceased old man had been shipwrecked on his last voyage to sea. It was a cargo ship, with twenty-seven men on board, including Mr. Craven, and it was a very strong wind and unimaginably heavy rain. The cargo ship was completely overturned, and the rescue team that arrived later said that it was almost a miracle to survive in such an environment. ”

"But Craven lived first." Barbara said, "So this incident could be the motive for the killing?" ”

Roy smiled slightly: "That's right. So, I asked my helpful neighbor for the address of the cargo shipping company where Mr. Craven worked before his retirement, and I went to visit him as soon as it was dawn. That's all for now, if there's any work ahead, it's sitting on the couch and waiting for dawn. ”

"Or you can watch a movie and drink coffee and so on." Barbara smiled, "I know a good movie, want to join me?" ”

Roy smiled slightly: "Why not?" ”

Turning off the light in the living room, the logo of the film factory was lit up in the center of the black screen, and with the help of this faint light, Roy saw a trace of nostalgia and memories on Barbara's beautiful face, and a little regretful.

"I remember when I was a child, I often watched horror movies with James, and they were all three watches in the middle of the night, which is very similar to the current scene." Barbara said a few words as if to herself, and then suddenly remembered something, and explained to Roy, "Oh, James is my brother. ”

Without the help of complicated reasoning and analysis, Roy also saw that the matter about this brother might also be something she didn't want to mention often, so she didn't ask too much about it.

"That Dick Grayson seems to mean a lot to you." Roy said casually, changing the subject.

Barbara blushed: "What's there?" ”

"I just stumbled upon a beautifully wrapped gift box on your desk through the crack in your bedroom door, and it happened to be on the day you told me that Dick Grayson might be visiting. So I have to guess that it was for him. ”

Barbara was stunned for a moment, then "giggled" out laughing.

"What's wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Roy asked.

"No, no, no, no." Barbara waved her hand again and again, and then her attention was focused on the film, and there was no meaning to explain.