After taking down Jotun, Shiller didn't even glance at his body but went to his car to get the first aid kit and then led Aisha upstairs.
Seeing the dirty little girl lying on the bed, Aisha was startled but quickly realized what was going on.
"He didn't kill her?" Aisha said, somewhat surprised. "I thought he was that kind of psycho... why didn't he kill her?"
"That's the strange part, but now is not the time to investigate this." Shiller opened a suitcase beside him, picked out a set of Aisha's clothes, and then said to Aisha, "When she wakes up later, clean her first, then bandage her wounds, and change her clothes. Can you do that?"
"Don't worry." Aisha patted her chest and said.
"Alright, I'm going downstairs to fix some food, and there are two corpses to deal with." Shiller turned and walked toward the door.
Shiller went downstairs and rummaged through the kitchen. Thankfully, Jotun had previously taken a lot of fresh vegetables from the warehouse.
Arrogant actually couldn't cook, but luckily there were interchangeable skills now. After thinking for a bit, he decided to make some oatmeal and salted steamed vegetables, which should be relatively easy to digest.
Oatmeal is simple; just put the oat flakes in the pot to cook. Salted steamed vegetables just involve steaming the vegetables and sprinkling some salt on them. It all took only a dozen minutes.
When Shiller brought the food upstairs, the little girl had already woken up, and Aisha was chattering away to her.
Betty looked somewhat dazed, as if she was constantly spacing out. Shiller put down the food, and Aisha pulled Betty to the bathroom.
About ten minutes later, Betty, now cleaned and dressed in fresh clothes, emerged from the bathroom. Shiller checked her wounds again, and apart from some abrasions, there were no severe injuries, so he felt a bit relieved.
Aisha quickly applied medicine to Betty, then pulled her by the hand to sit together on the bed.
Shiller knelt beside the bed, looked into Betty's eyes, and said, "Do you remember what happened at that time?"
"That man named Jotun tricked us to his home, killed my mom, and locked me up there..."
"How did he trick you?"
"He said we could stay at his place."
"Stay where? At his home?"
Betty nodded.
"Did he cook for you? Did he provide food for you?"
Betty nodded again.
"Did he attack you after dinner?"
Betty continued to nod.
At this point, Shiller didn't continue asking further but returned to the original question. He asked again:
"He invited you and your mother to his house, and your mother agreed? What did she say at that time?"
"We were going to town," Betty said.
"Was it your mother who said that? When he invited you, did your mother say you were going to town, correct?"
Betty nodded again.
"Then why didn't you go to town?"
Betty fell into thought. She seemed somewhat distressed but eventually shook her head and said, "...I don't know."
"Did your mother refuse him? Did she say 'not going', or say 'no', or say 'we are going to town'? Did she say any of this?"
Betty nodded.
"Do you remember what Jotun said?"
"He said the town was far away and that he'd food at his house." Betty tried hard to recall and continued, "He said he had a sister my age."
"And what did your mother say next?"
"She still said we were going to town. We had a place to stay there," Betty said, "We stayed there and came here to play. We were going to leave tomorrow."
Shiller thought he had found a key point.
Aisha also realized it; she said, "So you had already gone to town to stay, but just came here to play. Jotun invited you to stay, but you definitely wouldn't because you had a place to live."
Shiller thought the same thing. In the wheat field, the police showed him that hairpin and said it was found at the missing mother-daughter's lodging place. He realized: if Jotun was behind the disappearance, he couldn't lure the mother and daughter the same way he lured himself and Aisha.
For one, the mother and daughter already had a place to stay in town, whether a hotel or an inn, and their luggage was already settled. They might have come to the wheat field just to visit, so why move into a stranger's house?
Moreover, although it's uncertain whether this mother was single, a woman with a child, especially a girl, would unlikely accept an invitation to share a house with a stranger male.
In other words, as long as this mother's mind was sound, she wouldn't accept Jotun's invitation.
Betty's memory also mentioned that her mother insisted they should return to town, rejecting Jotun's invitation. So how did they end up in Jotun's house?
It could almost be ruled out that Jotun used direct violence to knock them out and bring them back.
Because Betty said Jotun invited them for dinner and attacked after dinner, if he directly knocked them out, he could have just thrown them into the warehouse without needing a meal.
Also, Jotun wasn't very old and looked thin and frail. With his pale skin in Central United States, it indicated that he hadn't been outside much. It's not easy for him to knock out an adult woman.
In summary, Jotun committed the mother-daughter disappearance case, but there are strange aspects to it.
Shiller remembered that when they had just arrived at Jotun's house, a police officer came by. Judging by the marks on his shoes and pant legs, he was the officer who had previously stopped them.
This officer didn't follow dispatch protocols; he came alone, without a police car's lights and sirens, which was highly suspicious.
Another point of suspicion was when Shiller found the little girl in the cellar and asked her what had happened. Her answer was almost identical to what she just said.
Keep in mind this child had been alone with her mother's corpse for three days. It's already fortunate she's not mentally disturbed, let alone speaking so coherently, which is astonishing.
Besides, repeating the story twice with a 90% similarity in wording and narrative sequence is nearly impossible.
From these facts, Shiller could roughly infer a mind power user was involved.
It's also known that Malafax wanted to impersonate Ron's identity, and Ron in the comics was a police officer, so Malafax could have disguised himself as a police officer. This mystery could be easily solved.
Malafax and Jotun collaborated, using his psychic ability to trick the mother and daughter to Jotun's house, where Jotun killed the mother and confined the daughter.
Assuming this is the case, Shiller had to think about why Malafax did this.
Jotun's motive was simple – he was either controlled by Malafax or held malice towards girls of his sister's age. Either way, he was a typical antisocial personality, whose evil deeds needed no reason.
But Malafax's motive was worth pondering.
If Jotun acted alone, the little girl would be dead by now since Jotun's sister was also dead. Killing one means he could kill a second. If it weren't for violent or sexual desires, why would he target this mother and daughter?
But oddly, the girl remained unharmed, which wasn't Jotun's intention. It must have been Malafax's.
Why would Malafax need this little girl?
To Shiller, although Malafax had a high probability of having sexual psychological disorders, his behavioral patterns showed he leaned more towards "objectification and possession."
Simply put, he first objectified his desire's target, then seeks possession of what doesn't belong to him.
For example, he didn't see his brother and sister-in-law as equal partners but felt his brother owned his sister-in-law, treating her as his brother's appendage, then desiring the appendage.
Such desires ultimately targeted his brother, meaning possessing his brother's properties and goods made him happy, indicative of typical sexual psychological disorders.
Studies show such sexual psychological disorders mostly affect close relatives and acquaintances whose status is superior. It's a twisted attempt at expressing victory and defeat through sexual means.
And Betty didn't fit into this scenario. Malafax likely had no intersection with this mother and daughter, so no sense of possessive acquisition was involved.
But there's another possibility — Betty resembled Ron's deceased daughter a lot.
The police officer in the wheat field said words to this effect, and though unsure if he was Ron or Malafax, regardless, those words were true. Betty might indeed resemble Ron's deceased daughter.
Thus, Malafax having Jotun confine Betty was still targeting his brother. He saw Ron's daughter as another appendage and now wanted to possess this appendage.
Regarding his plan, Shiller could roughly guess; he intended to recreate the past tragedy to revel in watching Ron crumble.
Such psychopathic individuals excel at causing harm without benefiting themselves.
They cannot fully rationally judge situations based on interests, more easily making irrational choices driven by emotions rather than making the most prudent choices.
It's like doing a job well but intentionally causing disruption not beneficial to themselves; they just want to do it because driven by their psychopathic desires, losing rationality.
Malafax came intending to gain the KGB's trust and infiltrate the Justice League. Logically, if he played a police officer step by step, the plan might succeed.
But no, he couldn't resist when he saw his brother; he had to cause a disappearance case to satisfy his evil desires.
People often wonder why Joker, though intelligent and unscrupulous, always loses to the morally-bound Batman. One reason is he often does extra things to satisfy his evil desires. This is a notable weakness of antisocial madmen.
Are there antisocial individuals who can control their evil desires? Yes, but such individuals can't achieve grand feats. They're generally considered normal people, receiving little attention.
Malafax was the typical madman who loved doing extra things, ignoring the original plan to cause a disappearance case to torment his brother using Betty.
But unfortunately, this time he encountered Shiller, so it's uncertain who would torment whom.