After robbing the casino, Doctor Hugo Strange did something absurd.
He washed the blood off the money he had stolen, then took out a small portion of it and used it to repay the loan he had taken from Maroni at exorbitant interest.
It was an outright provocation.
Unfortunately, Maroni was too preoccupied with the casino massacre to pay any attention to Hugo Strange.
Having heard that the two missing subordinates had been found, Maroni tightened his tie, picked up his cane, and walked toward the study.
At the same time, Will finished reading the comic.
Batman had been invited by Gordon to investigate the crime scene, then followed the large hole in the bathroom down into the sewers.
There, he discovered a massive quantity of hair, along with damaged paper bags bearing biological hazard labels.
After returning to the Batcave, he successfully identified Doctor Hugo Strange through these clues.
But when Batman prepared to infiltrate the doctor’s laboratory, the comic once again became blank.
Will didn’t understand.
If the casino had previously been an unavoidable disaster that he had barely escaped, then was infiltrating Hugo’s laboratory also an unavoidable part of the plot?
He frowned in thought.
A series of footsteps sounded outside the room.
As the study door opened, Maroni walked in with a gloomy expression, his golden hair slicked straight back.
He removed his elegant gray checkered suit jacket and tossed his cane high into the air.
He caught the lower end of the cane and swung it like a golf club, smashing it into Oswald’s jaw.
Crack!
The crisp sound of breaking bone rang out.
Oswald screamed and collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from his mouth onto the dark-brown Persian carpet as he writhed in agony like a worm.
“So, what do you have to say?”
Maroni cast a cold glance at him before turning his gaze toward Will.
“The casino wasn’t our doing.”
Will argued his case.
“I know.
If you two were actually capable of doing something like this, I’d be the one lying on the floor screaming.”
Maroni gave a disdainful snort through his nose, raised his cane, and struck Oswald across the back again.
The tip of the cane was extremely sharp.
It tore through Oswald’s suit and lashed a huge wound across his thin back, exposing torn flesh.
“What exactly do you want to know?”
“If you know who the killer is, that’s even better.
If you don’t, that’s fine too.
All I want is an explanation.”
As he spoke, Maroni brought the cane down again.
This time, Oswald didn’t make a sound.
He had already passed out from the pain.
“You’d better hurry.
He probably can’t take many more.”
Will understood.
Maroni didn’t actually care who the true culprit behind the casino massacre was.
He only wanted to recover the stolen money.
Seeing that Maroni was about to swing again, Will hurriedly shouted for him to stop.
“Give me three days.
I’ll get the money back for you!”
Will’s guess had been correct. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Maroni actually stopped.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he wiped the blood from the tip of his cane with his thumb.
“How am I supposed to believe that you’ll really help me find my money instead of using this to buy yourself time and escape?”
“I know who the real culprit is.
It should…
it should be Doctor Hugo Strange!
He couldn’t repay his loan, so he raided the casino.
The biological monsters he recently created are very likely responsible for the massacre.”
The situation was critical.
Will no longer had time to worry about the consequences and poured out everything mentioned in the comic.
But what if Maroni questioned him?
What if he asked how Will knew so much?
His concern quickly became reality.
“That sounds plausible enough.
But how do you know about the biological monsters?”
Maroni’s hand tightened around the end of his cane.
He knew about the biological monsters himself, having learned about them through his police informants at the crime scene.
That was why he was extremely interested in the source of Will’s information.
If Will couldn’t give him a convincing explanation, Maroni wouldn’t mind driving the thing into his eye.
Will bit the corner of his mouth hard enough to draw blood.
Everything he knew had come from the comic.
What evidence could he possibly have?
“I don’t have any evidence.
But earlier, at the casino, Mr.
Pantone mentioned something to us.
He said there were monsters soaking in nutrient solution inside Hugo’s laboratory.
Oswald heard it too.
You can ask him.”
“You said Pantone and Carlo…”
Maroni began to believe him.
He had assigned those two men to collect Hugo’s debt just yesterday.
Furthermore, the casino’s silent black-and-white security cameras had captured footage of Oswald and Pantone “talking.”
It seemed to corroborate Will’s story.
But what truly dispelled Maroni’s doubts was something Hugo had said when he came to repay the money.
“Give my regards to Mr.
Pantone.
And tell him not to flick cigarette ash into my experimental compounds anymore…
Oh, almost forgot.
I suppose he won’t have the opportunity anymore.”
Could it really be that son of a bitch Hugo?
No wonder this penniless bastard suddenly managed to repay five million today.
So he was using my own money to pay me back!
Seeing Maroni wavering, Will pressed his advantage.
“There’s something wrong with the money he brought too.
If you don’t believe me, you can use…”
Before Will could finish, Maroni already knew what needed to be done.
His men brought over the money and the UV light.
The banknotes, which had been washed and dried, revealed their true state one after another beneath the light.
“Boss, there’s blood on this one!”
“This one has some too.”
“There’s a whole stack of them!”
Listening to his men’s reports, Maroni narrowed his eyes into slits.
The culprit had surfaced.
Now came the question of how to deal with him.
Never mind whether the Gotham Police Department could be trusted.
With so many eyes watching from outside, the Romans had to settle their own grudges themselves.
But Maroni had heard about the carnage inside the casino.
If he recklessly sent his men after Doctor Hugo Strange, and the man was driven into a corner and released those three monsters again, they would probably lose a considerable number of men.
His gaze eventually settled on Will.
Unlike most of his foolish subordinates, this man had remained calm even under Maroni’s deliberate pressure.
With nothing more than a few “clues,” he had managed to deduce the identity of the culprit.
He clearly had the ability to handle this task.
Will felt his skin crawl beneath Maroni’s stare.
Based on where the comic had gone blank, he more or less knew what Maroni was about to say.
“Give me three days.
I’ll do my best to recover the money.”
In reality, he had absolutely no intention of getting involved in such a dangerous mission.
He only wanted to rescue Oswald and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
Whether Maroni had guessed Will’s thoughts or not, it didn’t matter.
It didn’t prevent him from making the correct judgment.
The prerequisite for making someone willingly risk their life for you was to have leverage over them.
“Talking to smart people really is easy.”
Maroni extended the tip of his shoe and hooked it against the cheek of the barely conscious Oswald, turning his face toward Will.
“Whether he lives or dies is up to you.
And don’t even think about abandoning Little Penguin and running away.
I have sharp eyes, and my ears are exceptionally sensitive.
Don’t even think about leaving Gotham.
You won’t even make it out of the Financial District!”
But Will was far more interested in the explosive information contained in that threat.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear that clearly.
What did you just call him?”
“Penguin.
That’s the famous nickname of our dear Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot.
You didn’t know?”
Will slowly closed his eyes.
The scorching air, thick with the smell of tobacco, filled his lungs.
Somehow, his dizzying mind actually began to cool down.
He slowly began accepting reality.
Accepting the reality that Oswald was actually the Penguin.
Accepting the reality that one day, Oswald would surpass Maroni, step over Carmine Falcone’s corpse, and sit upon Gotham’s criminal throne.