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Chapter 429: Suspicion in Metropolis (13)

Benjamin stood silently in the center of the reception room, pondering for a long time before finally speaking: "I don't know if you understand the accident that happened during the mayoral election two years ago in Metropolis..."

"The position of mayor in Metropolis is very important, and the state council is often very cautious when selecting candidates. Generally speaking, there are no more than four candidates, and like all mayoral elections, one or two of them are just there to make up the numbers, while the rest are competitive."

"But the mayoral election in Metropolis that year was very intense, with a total of twelve candidates representing different parties and forces."

Schiller frowned and looked at Benjamin, asking, "How could there be so many people? How did the state council approve it?"

Benjamin also looked at Schiller, staring into his eyes and saying, "The reason for holding this election was because the previous mayor, White, was assassinated, and this was an emergency election."

"The state council was worried that there were not enough candidates, and that the election might be manipulated by people with ulterior motives, so they relaxed the screening standards."

"The state council thought that at least ten of the twelve candidates were just trying to add a little shine to their resumes and didn't really want to compete for this position. But who knew that they were all fighting hard for it."

Benjamin's tone became increasingly solemn as he said, "Perhaps there were already signs from this time."

"At the beginning, it was just normal election competition, including speeches, canvassing, attacking opponents..."

"But then the situation became increasingly worse, with bribery, rumors, harassment, exposure, and even two candidates inexplicably involved in car accidents and had to be hospitalized."

"Seeing that the situation was out of control, the governor wanted everyone to sit down and talk, not to make this matter too ugly."

"And the method was the same as the tradition of many years, holding a banquet, letting intermediaries find the right people to talk to at the right time, and resolving the storm invisibly."

Benjamin turned his head and looked up and down at the reception room, then said, "In order to make these people calm down and to win the support of the public, the state council also invited many famous figures, including Metropolis, the famous entrepreneur, renowned scholar professor, artists, and media people."

"The banquet venue they chose was here - the Metropolis Mayor's Mansion."

"What happened next?" Schiller asked.

"After that, everything went out of control."

Benjamin turned his head and looked at the increasingly heavy snow outside the window. The snowflakes were flying in the storm, like white birds flying against the tornado, turning into billowing white mist at the end of the skyline.

As Benjamin spoke, Schiller also turned his head to look outside the window. His gaze pierced through the heavy snow, as if he saw another identical mayor's mansion appearing on this day two years ago.

Dim warm lights swayed in the blizzard, and the manor of the mayor was bustling with people.

Light footsteps, clinking glasses, the candlelight on the silver candlestick flickered, the tassels of the gorgeous tablecloth fell down, people in formal wear held wine glasses and talked, their faces full of elegant smiles.

The host of the banquet smiled and nodded at a small group of people who were chatting. They made way for him, and the host stood in the center of the banquet hall. He cleared his throat lightly, and everyone stopped their actions and turned to look at him...

"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for gathering together on such a night! Although the wind and snow outside are heavy, they are connected to our hearts!"

"First of all, I would like to invite the organizer of this banquet, Nelson Perez, the deputy speaker of the Delaware State Council, a famous society activist, philanthropist, author, to come forward!"

With a loud bang, a corpse fell from the sky.

Precise, humorous, and full of drama.

Time passed through the flying snowflakes, stopped in the warm light coming through a window, and looked through the frosted glass, meeting Schiller's gaze.

Schiller paused and turned his head back. He heard Benjamin say, "...like a humorous joke, when the host announced the name of the deputy speaker, his corpse fell from the sky."

At that moment, Bruce turned his head and looked at Schiller. Schiller's eyes twitched slightly, and in that moment of eye contact with Bruce, he lowered his head and focused on the pattern on the handle of his umbrella.

"But this was just the beginning..." Benjamin's tone became as cold as the weather outside.

"After the deputy speaker's death, the police arrived and sealed off the scene. To prevent the killer from escaping, everyone was confined to their rooms. Soon, the second victim, the third victim..."

"One after another, each with a different cause of death..."

"In the end, out of the twelve candidates, only four remained. Eight of them fell victim to the killer's hands."

"This incident alarmed the entire East Coast, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent agents to investigate. But the conclusion they reached was that spies from various countries had infiltrated the attendees of the banquet. They killed in order to destabilize the political situation on the East Coast."

Benjamin looked up, but then lowered his gaze, his eyes shifting downward to Lionel's corpse. He said, "When it came to espionage, I was called to investigate this matter in Metropolis. And when this task fell on me, I realized that things were not so simple."

"The killers who took the lives of the eight candidates were not the same person. Their targets were different, but undoubtedly, they were all top-notch assassins, the kind of high-intelligence criminals that are most troublesome..."

Benjamin's voice trembled a bit, clearly indicating that his emotions were not calm. Even after two years, recalling the situation at that time still made him feel immense pressure.

"During the subsequent investigation, I discovered that the mayor's manor at that time seemed to have turned into a hunting ground for those deranged serial killers."

"They used their respective expertise to create a series of murders that intertwined and formed a puzzle that no investigation could unravel..."

Schiller paused for a moment, his fingertips gripping the handle of the umbrella. He looked at Benjamin and asked, "So, what did you find out?"

Benjamin remained silent for a moment, then shook his head and said, "We can only speculate that there were four perpetrators in total, with each of them killing two targets."

"Did you find out who they were?"

Benjamin shook his head. He lowered his head and looked at Lionel's corpse, saying, "Luthor was also present at the scene. I think he killed Mayor White and Old Parker to mimic the actions of the deputy speaker's killer..."

"He did a lousy job of it," Schiller interjected.

"Indeed," Benjamin affirmed, saying, "Even if he didn't acknowledge it in the bathroom, I had already identified him. His method was actually quite simple."

As he spoke, Benjamin looked up at the ceiling of the reception room and said, "The roof of this ancient manor is very high, and there is a space between the ceiling and the roof."

"He bought the building next to the mayor's mansion in advance, sneaked in, set up mechanisms in the attic, and then knocked out the targets in advance and brought them up."

"The noise of the people and the music in the banquet hall masked the sound of the silenced handgun firing. The mechanism had a delay, so when the shootings occurred, Lionel could appear in any place with onlookers, providing himself with an alibi."

"I would call this method classic, but it's actually more cliché," Schiller concluded. He looked at Benjamin and asked, "Have the agents found his weapon in the space above the ceiling?"

"In fact, earlier than you imagine."

At this point, Benjamin had no intention of pretending anymore. He said directly, "We are not a bunch of fools from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who would wait until everything is over to give a lengthy speech."

"Then why didn't you arrest him immediately?" Selena frowned. In her opinion, if Benjamin had acted earlier, perhaps they wouldn't have been trapped in this manor.

Benjamin let out a cold snort and said, "I told you all this to help you understand."

"I didn't arrest Lionel right away because I wanted to see what he was up to."

"I wasn't a firsthand witness to the events two years ago, but during the subsequent investigation, I discovered that the four killers who took action seemed to be searching for something."

"Luthor participated in the banquet two years ago and seemed to have obtained some clues from it. I don't know if he mentioned to anyone among you that he was looking for a treasure..."

"That's what he got from the clues during the gaps between the murders at that banquet."

"A treasure? What is it?" Schiller asked bluntly.

Benjamin gave him a meaningful look and said frankly, "There is no exact answer, but I suspect it's the Philby list."

"So, you wanted to let Luthor find the so-called treasure and then arrest him after he found it, so you could kill two birds with one stone," Schiller said, then looked at Lionel and continued, "But it seems like your plan failed."

Benjamin also looked at Lionel and said, "That's because he really is a fool."

"I saw him in the reception room, he was cursing everything like he had lost his mind. Later, he even tried to attack me, so I knocked him out."

"But..." Benjamin's tone changed, and he turned his head to stare at Schiller, then said, "During my conversation with Lionel, he told me a truth. Do you know what it is?"

"What?" Schiller also looked at him and asked.

"You are the killer who killed the deputy speaker, and you killed two people and dismembered one of them. He saw it with his own eyes."

In that moment, the atmosphere in the reception room froze, and everyone's expressions were different. A storm spread between Schiller and Benjamin's gaze, and their auras began to clash.

In an instant, the wind howled, and the cold snow fell like knives.

Time rewound again, back to when Selena knocked Lionel down.

After Selena finished, she left without looking back. When she returned to her room, she pretended to be intimate with Bruce and kicked Benjamin out.

Regardless of what Bruce and Selena did later to set up the surveillance plan, Benjamin, who left the room, immediately went to find Lionel.

He stopped an agent who was setting up defenses in the corridor. The agent told him that Lionel had gone to the reception room and had not come out yet. So, Benjamin went to the reception room to talk to Lionel.

When Benjamin arrived at the reception room, Lionel had barely managed to get up from the ground.

Selena hit him with a vase, and although it looked like a big commotion, it didn't actually do much damage. Apart from the broken glass cutting his skin and the heavy blow causing damage to his nasal cartilage, it didn't hurt his skull or brain. Lionel lay on the ground for a while, then got up and started looking for something to stop the bleeding.

When Benjamin walked in and saw this scene, he was stunned for a moment, then walked up to Lionel and asked, "What happened? Did someone attack you?"

Lionel, who was wiping the blood with a tissue, glanced at Benjamin and from his eye contact, Benjamin saw endless anger and malice.

"Get out of here, you annoying fly!" Lionel had completely lost his disguise of being kind and amiable. His inherent violence and greed were now on full display.

Before Benjamin could say anything else, Lionel started cursing loudly, "You agents and police are all the same! I pay so much tax every year, but all I get is a bunch of useless people who can't provide me with any help and just buzz around like flies!"

"And that piece of shit, White! He forgot who spent a fortune to prop him up after the scandal of the assassinated candidates during the election! I only asked him to help me kill a few people, but he dared to ask me to help him enter the state council?!"

"Does he think he's some kind of precious resource?! As long as I have money, I can prop up anyone! And he, not only his career, but also his life has come to an end!"

"Oh... Old Parker, that damn dealer! He undercuts me every year! He's targeting me in several farms in Kansas! I know he took money from my competitors, but we have no relationship. I can kill him!"

Lionel gritted his teeth fiercely, and all kinds of curses spilled out of his mouth. Blood and fragments of the vase that hadn't been wiped off yet stuck to his face, making him look like a trapped beast at the end of his rope, extremely embarrassed.

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