"It was you, wasn't it? You killed Rafanas." Clark walked over, crossed his arms, and squinted as he asked.
"My God, how could you think that." Shiller seemed very surprised and said, "I have no grudges with this gentleman..."
"But you look like the kind of person who would kill someone without any grudges."
"That's a terrible prejudice." Shiller disagreed. He shook his head and said, "What ability do I have to kill him? As you can see, I'm just an office worker, and this gentleman is heavy. How could I manage to move him?"
"Maybe you just happen to have superpowers," Clark said, "like suddenly becoming super strong."
"Even if so, there's no way I could leave no trace. Not even the most professional police and agents could find out..."
"Maybe you happen to be a very skilled serial killer, best at muddying the waters at crowded banquets."
Shiller opened his mouth, then looked Clark up and down. Clark really didn't think of himself as a particularly brilliant detective, but Shiller had clearly written the expression "How did you suddenly become smart?" all over his face.
"It really was you!" Clark said through clenched teeth.
Then he suddenly froze, then said, "You wouldn't really be a superpowered serial killer, would you?... You aren't, right?!"
Shiller shrugged, said nothing. Silence in this matter was not good news. Clark was inclined to press further, but he realized he must first solve the immediate trouble. He took a deep breath, looked at Shiller, and asked, "Why did you kill him?"
"I didn't kill him," Shiller said, "At most, I'm just an unfortunate person like you."
"Did you move the body too?"
At this point, Lex, standing beside them, looked at Clark in shock and said, "You moved the body??? Why did you move the body?!"
"Can't you see? This is a setup against me," Clark said somewhat impatiently, "If I hadn't thought of a way to dispose of the body, it should have already been taken to the interrogation room."
"So where did you hide the body?"
"I didn't hide it; I destroyed the body." Clark said, "So don't bother trying to trick me into revealing where the body is. I can clearly tell you, no one could find it because the body has disappeared."
Lex let out a long breath, and Clark couldn't help but look at him again. Lex said irritably, "What setup against you? This is clearly a setup against me! At this critical moment, the director of the Metropolitan Municipal Administration Bureau dies at my banquet..."
"You know it's a critical moment, yet you insist on throwing a banquet? Isn't this what you deserve?" Clark argued back with no reservation. Losing to anyone is unacceptable, especially with Luther, even if it's just a war of words.
Lex was so furious he leaned back, and Shiller said, "So it's a setup against you both. I thought it was against me."
"And you're..."
"Sorry, let me introduce myself again, head of A.R.G.U.S. from the National Security Agency of the United States." Shiller handed over his credentials and then said, "Someone has demanded I produce a detailed 'suspected Mars people' list within a week. If I encounter any trouble, the names on the list naturally have the possibility of being altered."
"And you moved the body?" Clark asked, eyes wide.
"There's nothing I can do; I can't clear the body." Shiller spread his hands and said, "I can only move or hide it but can't destroy it. We all know, only by making the body completely disappear can we shatter the behind-the-scenes manipulator's scheme."
"So you just threw the body at me?"
"I'm your fan." Shiller smiled and said, "You definitely could do it, I trust you."
Clark couldn't help but close his eyes. He wanted to say there's no need for such trust, but he also knew Shiller was impermeable, so he chose not to say anything more. He glanced back at the banquet hall, then said, "Someone targeted you two, I can make a guess at the reason, nothing more than the messy election, but why are they targeting me?"
"You think you can escape those election shenanigans?" Lex clearly seemed somewhat exasperated, saying, "Now those politicians are dragging everyone along to play their mad election games. They're targeting you, probably for this reason."
"Alright, let me think," Clark carefully thought for a moment and then said, "They think I can identify aliens, right? Maybe they want me to produce a list they would be satisfied with."
"It's not that simple," Shiller said. "Now they probably won't use any way to provoke you, after all, they're afraid you might move Capitol Hill to another place again. So it's unlikely they'll frame you to force you to do something; at most, they'll use some things to stall you or confuse your perception."
"So they don't want me to show up," Clark immediately realized, "because they think I can really tell who the Mars people are, and if there's private interests hidden in the list you gave them, I might expose them."
"That's very likely," Lex said. "But from what you're saying, you can't tell?"
Clark nodded and said, "There are two possibilities right now: either the person was killed by Mars people, and I really can't tell them apart; or humans killed the person, and there are no aliens present other than me."
Lex also thought about it and said, "They chose to act at my party, possibly to use me to stall you or test you. They want to know if you can actually tell."
Clark naturally thought of this too. His old feud with Luther was well-known. Now someone died on Luther's turf, and he suddenly infiltrated, so his suspicion is the greatest. Luther will definitely pursue him relentlessly because Luther is completely justified, and he might face a lot of pressure.
If he really finds something unusual in the crowd, like someone's body structure being off, he'd definitely speak out, rather than staying silent due to being uncertain or fearing to wrong an innocent person. The behind-the-scenes manipulator designed this trap to use the pressure Luther exerts on him to force him to prove himself.
So, the decision to destroy the corpse was correct. As long as the body can't be found, it has to be treated as a missing person case first. The judicial pressure on everyone drops dramatically, and it's hard to take anyone in for investigation based on such a short disappearance. Naturally, he doesn't have to prove himself. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and had prepared in advance, thus narrowly escaping this calamity.
Before Clark could take a breath, Shiller said, "Do you really think they would give up so easily?"
Clark looked at him, and Shiller looked at the banquet hall, then said, "If they can kill one, they can kill a second."
"Are you saying they will strike again?!" Clark was a bit shocked, he said, "But now the police are here, we're under surveillance, even if another dies, we don't have any suspicion. They shouldn't do this, right?"
"We're not suspected, but what about the Mars people?"
Clark didn't react for a moment; he looked at Shiller. Shiller continued, "If it's impossible to manipulate the names on the 'suspected Mars people' list, then stepping back, proving that Mars people do exist is also possible, right?"
This logic was a bit convoluted; Clark had to think for a moment to understand what's going on. Simply put, the behind-the-scenes manipulator wants to create a 'hit list,' aiming to label certain unfavorable people as Mars people for judgment.
His first step is finding Shiller, and having A.R.G.U.S., the superpower user organization, investigate who the Mars people are. But the investigation isn't actually important; what's important is finding a way to get Shiller into trouble, so they can negotiate terms to have Shiller change the names on the list, or simply fabricate a list to eliminate dissidents.
However, this plan has a flaw: humans have no technical means to distinguish who the Mars people are, but Superman, also an alien, might be able to tell.
Moreover, it's obvious Superman has no fondness for these politicians; even if not to save persecuted people, he might expose them just to give them trouble.
Previously, Superman's speech increased his influence significantly. If he stands up to say the list is incorrect, the public might lean towards him, and the jury might not dare to offend him, meaning the so-called Mars people on the list might never face judgment. To leave a snake alive may invite a dangerous bite back at the manipulator.
To solve the problem, they concocted a murder case, initially aiming to frame Shiller. This means Shiller possibly encountered the first crime scene, and the other party might have arranged someone to point it out. At this moment, Shiller bears the greatest suspicion.
But because this is Luther's turf, with Luther present, and Clark suddenly infiltrated, Clark's suspicion isn't small either. Luther will definitely exert intense pressure on Clark, insisting he's the culprit.
At this point, to prove himself, Clark would search for the real murderer. Of course, he might directly target Shiller, but if he indeed found suspicious body structures or actions at the party previously, he'd certainly speak out. Clark may not necessarily wish to wrongly accuse Shiller, but he definitely wouldn't want to let the murderer escape.
At this point, both Shiller and Clark would be taken away for investigation. Shiller would be detained, and someone would surely approach him to negotiate terms, while they wouldn't really dare to do anything to Clark, perhaps only stalling him so he's too overwhelmed before the trial to expose the list's reality.
Because theoretically, Shiller and Clark have no time to communicate, so Clark wouldn't know about the list's existence. Not knowing means he can't aim at anything, as long as they find something else to capture his attention, it wouldn't be exposed naturally.
However, the behind-the-scenes manipulator may have overlooked that these two aren't ordinary people, or perhaps he considered it but didn't think so extraordinarily. Shiller, in an extremely short time, moved the body out of the first crime scene and threw it in front of Clark, and Clark without thinking directly destroyed the corpse, completely and cleanly.
This leads to the current situation where it's impossible to confirm the death, and in such a short investigation time, it's impossible to rule out the possibility that the person just left on their own. Even if the surveillance cameras didn't catch them leaving, perhaps they took an unusual route, jumping out the second-floor window and leaving. Without a murder case to investigate, everyone's suspicion drops significantly, and the justification for detention investigation is insufficient, so the list manipulation certainly isn't feasible.
However, such people always have plans that obey course adjustments, and if the desired major isn't selected, it's okay to be assigned to another major. They already planned if something goes wrong, they have a minimum objective, and that reassigned major is confirming the existence of Mars people.
Suppose the police really find nothing, and the current evidence is insufficient to take anyone away, then they strike again, and do it while everyone is under surveillance. Everyone has an alibi, but the person still dies, leading easily to associating it with superpower acting.
Just like Clark's previous reasoning, to move a corpse from the first to the second floor in such a short time, the murderer must be extraordinary. Similarly, to commit the crime without leaving the police's sight, this person certainly isn't ordinary, must have superpowers.
Due to the previously stirred fear of 'Mars people's invasion,' the blame naturally falls on Mars people, and the objective is to create a sufficiently sensational case to thoroughly prove the existence of Mars people.