New Gods of North America

Maybe it's because even if the sky falls, someone will take the blame.

So apart from David Mills, no one else was particularly nervous.

David Mills is more "philanthropic" than a clergyman in this regard. He does not approve of using ordinary people like Mr. Schultz as "bait."

Inissa is relatively neutral. If the target is her, she will probably choose to be the bait. If the target is not her, she will probably explain the situation to the other party and let the other party make his own choice.

Lina is more difficult to guess, but if the target is not familiar with her, Wayne thinks Lina's approach may depend on which is higher, the bodyguard fee or the reward for the prisoner.

Wayne actually still hopes to minimize casualties.

So in the carriage escorting Mr. Schultz back to the manor, Wayne and Tom Hagen were asking Mr. Schultz about the reasons why he might have been targeted by the murderer.

Tom Hagen even pointed out something that Wayne was not comfortable saying:

"Mr. Schultz, I'm actually a little curious, have you ever made any deals with Pastor Bazzini before? I mean the kind of 'deals' that may not be appropriate to put on the table."

Mr. Schultz was reluctant to return to the manor at this time.

Hearing Tom Hagen's question, he became even more panicked. "You mean... Reverend Bazzini might be the murderer?"

Tom Hagen raised his eyebrows and then shook his head:

"You are making groundless accusations against clergy. I can pretend I didn't hear it this time, but I hope you won't say it again."

Wayne also felt that Pastor Bazzini was unlikely to be the murderer behind the case.

If he wanted to secretly get rid of a few people, there would be no need to use such a blatant method.

However, Pastor Bazzini apparently did not mind that Mr. Schultz might have an "accident".

Then Tom Hagen changed the subject and continued to discuss with Wayne how to strengthen the security of the manor.

Even notifying newspapers in advance and asking them to downplay the impact of the case and not report negative news was considered.

Finally, Mr. Schultz couldn't hold it in anymore and explained a few business matters.

It's not a big deal. Pastor Bazzini has just been helping a big family in the South to secretly sell Mr. Schultz's shares and plan to change the actual controller of a steam train line.

This involves an agreement called "acting in concert".

For example, if a group of small shareholders of a company hold more than half of the shares, and they sign an agreement to unify their decisions on company affairs, then the actual control of the company is actually in the hands of the decision maker among them.

On the other hand, if someone buys out the shares held by small shareholders, or contacts them to sign a joint action agreement, as long as the total shares exceed half, the actual control of the company will be directly transferred to the new decision-makers without the consent of the original decision-makers.

Although tearing up the agreement will damage your business reputation and you may have to pay corresponding liquidated damages,

But since it is something related to money, it can actually be solved with money.

Tom Hagen raised his eyebrows slightly after listening to this and comforted Mr. Schultz:

"Don't worry, our church will not get involved in these business matters, and Pastor Bazzini has not made any profit from them. The church's attitude towards believers will not be affected by such things. You see, he arranged for us to come here to protect you and your family."

As a member of Blackstone Town, Wayne is no stranger to the construction of steam train lines.

For example, if you want to build a steam train line today, you can obtain free land from the federal government and official loans according to the act.

Calculated according to the "per mile" unit of the Kingdom of Windsor, if it is a flat route, an official loan of about US$16,000 can be obtained, and for mountainous areas it is about US$32,000, and for high mountains it is said to be US$48,000.

If even the loan of "one mile" is like this, one can imagine the value of "a" steam train line.

Since obtaining land and loans from the federal government also requires paying corresponding shares and interest, some steam train line builders choose to buy land and raise funds on their own.

When a private company buys private land, the price may be very expensive or "very cheap", depending on the specific terms.

For example, if a contract is signed and the parties promise to transport the other party's agricultural products at the contract price for a certain number of years, then many landowners will be willing to sell part of their land at a low price.

The same is true for commercial loans, where interest rates vary from time to time.

Sometimes, due to lack of funds, the construction of steam locomotives would be temporarily halted. Either more funds had to be borrowed, or construction could be continued after a certain amount of operating income had been accumulated.

It's actually quite troublesome.

But if this were done, the shares in the steam train line would be owned entirely by the "stockholders", who would decide how the line was run - as long as the transportation prices did not exceed the federal government's limit.

Long before Wayne's parents died, his family used part of the land and money to exchange for some shares of the Kansas steam train line.

Otherwise, the steam train station planned in Blackstone Town would not inexplicably fall on the Wayne family’s land.

Unfortunately, the revenue from the operation of the steam trains had to be used to repay the loan first and to continue the construction of the line, so it was not time to distribute dividends yet.

Anyway, when Mr. Constantine was alive, he never saw any return of money.

Wayne hasn’t seen it yet - if he’s unlucky, Wayne’s son might not even see the money returned.

Unless the shares are sold.

However, the steam train line incident obviously has no necessary connection with this case.

If someone wanted to kill someone for commercial gain, they could just hire some criminals to do the illegal work. But if they deliberately involved the church, they would be asking for trouble.

As for other episodes, there must be other reasons.

So Tom Hagen didn't talk about it anymore, and Wayne knew better than to ask.

The group escorted the carriage to the Schultz family's manor, and then with the consent of the manor owner, began to allocate locations.

Lina also took the opportunity to take Inissa for a stroll in the main house of the manor, looking around everywhere.

Then the main members of the Schultz family were assigned to adjacent rooms in the corridor.

There are guards inside and outside the main house.

Just waiting to see if anyone will take the bait.

Considering that the “perpetrator” may not be the actual murderer, nor may he be someone outside the church,

So even the guards had to keep an eye on each other to make sure that no one had private contact with anyone from the Schultz family, especially Mr. Schultz.