American comic book police officer survival manual

"I'm sorry, there's been an emergency."

"I know..."

Watching Lucius hurry away, the reluctant girl slowly walked to the door and watched the handsome policeman rush downstairs.

Only after the person's figure completely disappeared into the stairwell did the girl, belatedly realizing what had happened, look in surprise at her ankle:

"what?"

She just...

She can already walk normally??

......

Gotham City, Diamond District.

In one of Gotham's busiest neighborhoods, flashing police lights have replaced the once-bustling traffic, crowding around a restaurant on the street.

"What happened?"

Hurriedly stepping out of the police car and into the human wall formed by the police, Lucius immediately spotted Gordon in the crowd, as well as Officer Brock, who looked like a thug next to the sheriff.

"There have been more attacks...this time the case is very serious."

He beckoned to Lucius, and Sheriff Gordon led his trusted lieutenant inside the restaurant, pointing to the body lying on the ground.

He was a middle-aged man in a suit, who seemed quite ordinary in such an upscale restaurant.

But the name tag on the other person's chest was the real reason for Sheriff Gordon's serious expression...

Ted Hunter is the general manager of this restaurant.

His face was deathly pale, his lips were bloodless, and his eyes were glaring angrily at the ceiling, as if he were still enduring some kind of intense pain before he died.

This is the victim, yet no wounds have been found on his body, and no one even knows when he died.

"When we received the report, he was already collapsed in the manager's office. It was a waiter who found him." Pulling Lucius away from the other officers, Gordon lowered his voice and continued explaining:

"He is not an ordinary citizen. It is rumored that he is a confidant of the Penguins and manages a large number of the Penguins' catering businesses. Therefore, this incident is extremely serious. We judge that it may be related to gang fighting, which is why we urgently mobilized police forces to prevent riots."

"What was the cause of his death?"

Lucius seemed to detect a strange stench in the air. He touched his nose and looked at the corpse with slight disgust.

"At present, we can only determine that the cause of death was poisoning. The forensic doctor has not yet conducted an autopsy, but chemical tests are underway and should be able to detect the type of toxin."

Poisoning, shootings, car accidents... Sheriff Gordon was already used to these common gang warfare tactics, so he didn't focus on these causes of death.

What he cared more about was the motive for the crime.

Who exactly did it, or rather, which faction did it, to kill a high-ranking manager on Penguin territory...?

Such actions will undoubtedly plunge the entire Gotham underworld into tremendous turmoil!

Nodding to indicate that he understood the general situation, Lucius approached the corpse, put on gloves, and carefully sniffed the scent emanating from the victim's fingers and lips...

"Sheriff Gordon, it looks like some kind of purified mixed toxin."

"A mixture of toxins?"

Unable to understand why Lucius could draw such a conclusion simply by sniffing the body, Gordon took two steps forward but found absolutely no clues on the corpse.

"Yes, I smell a very strong castor bean odor. It's a type of seed that contains ricin, and just a few seeds can be fatal."

Of course, the smell of castor beans seemed to be mixed with the smell of other poisonous plants, but Lucius was not quite sure what they were.

"Was it made by that scarecrow from last time?"

Another poisoning incident. Gordon thought of the dangerous individual who had recently stolen contraband from the Penguins.

The guy had never committed any crimes under the codename "Scarecrow" before, and Sheriff Gordon had no idea who he was.

But one thing is certain: the Scarecrow stole the Penguin's goods, there is a grudge between them, and the Scarecrow also possesses all the ingredients to make poison.

If the Scarecrow's appearance was initially a conspiracy against the Penguin gang, then this series of poisoning cases would make sense.

"It shouldn't be... Scarecrow prefers to use neurotoxins, but this time the mixed toxins seem to be..."

Just as they were about to offer further explanation, a new figure appeared beside the two policemen, one old and one young.

"How can you be so sure that castor beans were the cause of death? Where's the evidence?"

"Harvey?"

Ok?

Hearing Gordon call out to the man, Lucius turned and looked at the man in the suit.

He was a handsome prosecutor, dressed in a formal suit and with his hair neatly styled, giving him an air of authority.

"Harvey Dent, our Gotham prosecutor, is also a very honest and reliable partner."

After introducing the newcomer to Lucius, Sheriff Gordon patted his old friend on the shoulder: "What brings you here?"

"I was just going to New York to give a brief report, and when I came back I heard that several major cases had occurred in Gotham. Of course, I have to do something for Gotham."

Crouching down beside the body like Lucius, Prosecutor Harvey gestured for Lucius to continue: "I've heard Gordon mention you before, Lucius. Tell me, what makes you think this person died from plant toxins?"

"There were no wounds on the body, but the deceased's face was so pale it looked like he had bled to death. Where do you think the blood went?"

Slowly rising, Lucius grabbed a girl who looked nervous.

"You were the first to discover the body, weren't you?"

"...Yes, officer, do you have any questions for me? When I saw the manager, he was already like this."

The girl Lucius had pulled was dressed simply as a waitress, with her blonde hair casually tied back, and she looked very nervous.

"No, I'm not asking about the manager himself. I'm asking if you cleaned the area before you met with the manager?"

Lucius could always smell a faint stench near the manager's office, and he was certain that the woman must have cleaned something.

"Yes... but I only cleaned up some vomit. It's something the manager asks us to do every day to keep the restaurant clean and to clean it up as quickly as possible after some intoxicated customers vomit..."

Vomit?

Harvey looked at Lucius in surprise, as if he had caught something.

"Yes, the characteristic of ricin is that it causes nausea and vomiting in the poisoned person, followed by abdominal pain, internal bleeding, and even organ failure."

"The toxicity of castor beans is extremely dangerous; just a few castor beans, containing about one to two milligrams of ricin, can be fatal to a person."

Although there seemed to be something else mixed in with the toxins, Lucius concluded that the primary cause of death for the victims was ricin.

but...

This potent mixture of plant toxins can cause death upon entering the body.

This doesn't seem like the Scarecrow's modus operandi, but rather more like...

"...Poison Ivy?"

......