Chapter 775: Suspect

Chapter 775: Chapter 775: Suspect

The Kryptonian, his clothes tattered from head to toe, obediently sat in the back of an ambulance while the female paramedic he’d met once before, Cathy Webb, examined him.

After looking him over from front to back, the meticulous paramedic gave Henry an irritated slap on the back.

"Okay, tiger boy, you’re completely fine. I really don’t know why the emergency dispatch center even called us out here."

The slap naturally didn’t hurt the Kryptonian in the slightest, but it left Henry feeling helpless.

"It’s not like I was the one who called for help. And when this happened, nobody could know how many people that lunatic was going to hurt.

"How about you check Kitty too? I think there’s a laceration on the back of her neck. Could you put a bandage on it?"

The tabby cat in question was chained beside the old woman by Catherine Hepburn. Upon hearing its name, the beast opened its jaws and gave a huge yawn, looking thoroughly obnoxious.

Cathy Webb gave Henry another exasperated smack.

"I’m not a veterinarian. Besides, your pet looks like she could bite my head off in one bite. Are you sure that little wound is affecting her?"

Another paramedic shouted from nearby.

"Cathy! Looks like someone got hurt falling while trying to escape. Grab your gear and go take a look."

"Okay, coming."

The female paramedic slung her medical bag over her shoulder and waved to Henry in farewell before going to examine the injured civilian.

The next person to take over the conversation with Henry was a young police officer who intended to take his statement. Police Commissioner George Stacy was standing beside him.

"Henry, let’s take a quick statement."

There were already countless eyewitnesses nearby all talking over one another about what had happened. The officer conducting the interviews was beginning to wonder whether these people were recounting the plot of some movie.

In any case, there were plenty of witnesses, and George Stacy had no intention of taking Henry back to the precinct for a detailed interrogation. He only wanted to clarify a few key points.

"Henry, before Spider-Man arrived, were you the one who fought the Green Goblin?" George Stacy asked.

The young officer he had brought along recorded the exchange.

"Yes. Strictly speaking, I was working together with Kitty to resist that... well, what do you call him? The Green Goblin? Was that another name the Daily Bugle came up with?"

"Whatever. It’s just a codename. As long as we know who we’re talking about."

George Stacy continued.

"Were Spider-Man and the Green Goblin working together? My officers said the two of them fled together."

"I don’t think so. What I saw was that the Green Goblin seemed to take advantage of their conversation to spray some strange colored gas at Spider-Man. Probably some kind of knockout gas. After he rendered Spider-Man unconscious, he carried him away on that flying thing of his."

"Why did he come after you? Any idea who you might have recently made enemies with?"

Henry didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he glanced at the young officer beside them.

George Stacy understood and sent his subordinate away first.

"You know who the Green Goblin is?"

Henry answered seriously.

"Someone capable of affording that kind of advanced equipment must have a fairly powerful organization supporting him. I’ve only had dealings with two organizations capable of that.

"One is Stark Industries. Tony Stark wouldn’t do something like this. If he wanted to give me trouble, he’d just call me up and chew me out.

"As for the other one, although I completed a transaction with him, judging from his behavior afterward, he seemed rather unhappy with me.

"And on the day of the carnival, several Osborn Industries directors were confirmed dead on surveillance footage. There were quite a few casualties that day, but the deaths of those Osborn Industries directors looked more like a precision assassination.

"I’ve heard through a certain circle that some surviving Osborn Industries directors told people that the bank-appointed directors were planning to seize control of Osborn Industries.

"Put those two things together, and the only likely suspect becomes pretty obvious."

Henry hadn’t said the name, but George Stacy understood exactly who he was hinting at.

"Do you have evidence?"

Henry spread his hands and shrugged.

"If I had evidence, I wouldn’t have had you send the other officer away first. If it really is that person, then with nothing but suspicion and no evidence, you wouldn’t even be able to get an arrest warrant, would you?"

George Stacy knew Henry was telling the truth.

In fact, the actual situation was even more troublesome.

Based on the evidence available, Norman Osborn certainly had the strongest motive.

But with his wealth, the billionaire could simply hire a killer and then use the convenient excuse of Osborn Industries having "lost" some advanced technology to eliminate a thorn in his side.

He didn’t need to get his own hands dirty.

Under standard police procedure, unless someone was caught in the act, there had to first be evidence identifying the perpetrator. Only after arresting the actual killer could the police try to obtain testimony about whoever had ordered the hit and use that to secure a court order for Norman Osborn’s arrest.

If any link in that chain was missing, they couldn’t touch the man with the strongest motive.

Motive alone wasn’t enough to obtain a court order.

That was why so many mob bosses and criminals operating in elite circles remained at large. Direct evidence capable of convicting them was simply too difficult to obtain.

"You think..." George Stacy hesitated.

Even with his super-brain, Henry couldn’t easily guess what someone meant from half a sentence.

"George, just say it."

"Do you think that Green Goblin might come after you again?"

So he wanted to use me as bait?

Henry spread his hands, displaying his battered appearance.

"I can’t say whether he’ll come after me again after going this far.

"Maybe he will, if he gets a new weapon he thinks can actually hurt me. Or maybe he’ll retaliate against people around me. I can’t guess what goes on in the mind of someone that powerful."

George Stacy understood Henry’s meaning.

In simple terms, Henry wasn’t necessarily an attractive enough bait to hook that particular big fish.

That was also the part Henry himself couldn’t predict.

But since the Green Goblin had explicitly threatened to target people around him, the possibility was real.

Henry wasn’t about to gamble on whether the deranged Green Goblin might suddenly decide to show mercy and leave everyone else alone.

That was a bet Henry couldn’t afford to lose.

Which meant the only possible response was obvious.

The two men remained in the back of the ambulance, both looking troubled.

Then another voice interrupted their thoughts.

"Gentlemen, is the world ending tomorrow? Is my ambulance the only thing that can protect you?"

"Ah, Paramedic Webb."

Henry hurriedly stood up, no longer sitting in the back of the ambulance.

Unfortunately, standing up inevitably exposed a little too much.

His clothes were so badly shredded that certain areas that ought to have been covered weren’t particularly well covered.

Fortunately, his pants were mostly intact, so there was no risk of flashing everyone.

"Just call me Cathy. But aren’t you going to change clothes? Are you planning to ask every girl who walks past for a tip?

"If I had a dollar bill on me, I’d definitely give it to you. Or maybe give me a minute and I’ll see what I can find."

"Is it really that bad?" Henry asked George Stacy beside him.

With the discerning eye of another man, the police commissioner looked him up and down.

"You look like shit."

Henry then looked toward the old woman and young girl walking over.

Catherine Hepburn covered her mouth, the amusement unmistakable in her eyes.

Skye had covered her entire face with her hands, occasionally peeking through her fingers. The contempt written all over the girl’s face was impossible to miss.

Henry decided not to think too hard about what he must look like in the eyes of outsiders.

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