New Gods of North America

The investigation into the diurnal and nocturnal shifts lasted for two days.

Nearly every location within Georgeburg associated with Pastor Pasiel was thoroughly searched.

Some places, according to Wayne's standards, were rummaged through by well-trained exorcists to the point where they could practically be renovated.

Unfortunately, no more useful clues were found.

This result was somewhat within Wayne's expectations, after all, given the previous situation, the medicine cabinet in the academy's church was smashed to smithereens the day after Wayne infiltrated it, Pastor Pasiel was quite decisive in this regard.

The questioning of the pastors also yielded no results. High-ranking clergy members are not subject to 'presumption of guilt'.

The fact that they could cooperate by staying in the Georgeburg church without wandering around, not contacting the outside world, and answering questions as much as possible, was the limit that someone of Tom Hagen's level could achieve, and even then, some of their not-too-excessive living requirements had to be met.

Compared to the standards used by exorcists to search Pastor Pasiel's residence, searching the residences of high-ranking clergy members without any specific leads could only be considered a 'casual look'.

Mr. Wiseman, after a preliminary review, surprisingly did not reveal any major problems.

He was able to pass the tests of holy water and some so-called 'holy objects' without showing any resistance. Although he couldn't be called a devout believer in the Holy Spirit, he didn't seem to have any reverence for the evil gods of the Church of Light.

In secular terms, if 'white' and 'black' were used to describe good and evil, then his background color would probably be dark gray.

Although some things, when brought out and examined, revealed visible 'dirtiness', it was still difficult to convict him through law.

The church actually has its own set of methods for dealing with such people. It's not too difficult to 'use' or 'cure' them.

Unfortunately, in this case, this Mr. Wiseman seemed a bit 'underqualified'.

Tom Hagen didn't object to Wayne continuing to investigate him, but he wasn't particularly interested in actively focusing his energy on him for the time being.

The only suspicious place seemed to be that manor, but it had already been burned down, and even the servants had been disposed of.

Fortunately, from a crime-solving perspective, sometimes it's not a problem if the criminal does a lot, but it's a problem if the criminal just 'goes with the flow' or even 'does nothing'.

Although the manor's main house had undergone a double destruction of 'fire' and 'fire extinguishing', and the police and exorcists who arrived one after another had made the scene even more chaotic, some clues were still faintly preserved.

In the evening, they gathered in a conference room in the Georgeburg church.

Wayne summarized the 'secondary investigation' conducted by the detective agency in the manor, combining his own and Inessa's views:

"The number of people involved in burning down the manor cannot be determined for the time being. It's possible that some of the servants in the manor also participated. However, the person who actually silenced those servants was only one person. The murderer was relatively familiar with the manor, and was someone the servants knew and trusted."

The conclusion sounded simple, but the actual deduction process was relatively complex.

Inessa followed the path of a 'hunter', reverse-engineering based on the wounds, death throes, and locations where the bodies were found.

The extraordinary ability used by the murderer was a bit difficult to assess. The effect felt similar to firearms at this time, causing small-area penetrating damage, able to attack from a certain distance. The power was slightly greater than a general lever-action rifle, and in most cases could penetrate the human body.

The reason for excluding the possibility that the murderer used real 'firearms' was because after searching for a long time, no bullets were found.

One of the servants was killed in the courtyard. There were no extra footprints on the mud near the death location, and there was only one wound on his body that was not completely penetrated. Again, only the wound was seen, not the object, and there were no additional traces.

Tracing back according to the possible 'ballistics', it was speculated that the murderer encountered two servants at the same time at a slightly farther distance. The other servant delayed the time, but unfortunately, he couldn't escape either.

If the murderer had been born a few hundred years earlier, Wayne felt that this extraordinary ability had a chance to win the title of 'Number One in the Martial Arts World'. It felt quite strong for duels or assassinations.

If he had been born a few hundred years later, he could have avoided being tracked by the police through the bullets and rifling to the purchase channel of the weapon or something.

However, the murderer was unlucky, living in the current American Federation, it seemed that he could only save some money on bullets.

But saving money on bullets obviously also had benefits. The murderer seemed very skilled in this aspect, basically killing with one blow, and the method of committing the crime was very straightforward.

Wayne's thinking was more 'detective'-like, with more brain supplementation.

Several servants were shot in the back or side, without any defense, it was guessed that they were acquaintances; there were also those who died in adjacent rooms in the residence, it was estimated that it was still the 'silent pistol' that Wayne wanted; according to the inferred order and route of the crime, the murderer basically didn't take any 'return routes', and seemed to know the total number of servants.

The reason for excluding that Pastor Pasiel did it himself was because one of the servants was drinking before he died. After seeing the murderer, he still sat in place, as if he had a brief conversation, and was preparing to give the murderer 'a drink too'.

Wayne had staked out this manor and knew the daily working status of the servants. Judging from the servants' casual posture of the corpse, he felt that it didn't look like the attitude of a servant seeing his master.

Comparing it with the situation of the servants in Pastor Pasiel's residence in the city,

The most suspicious at present is a coachman named Anton Zieg, who suddenly disappeared from there.

Coincidentally, according to the testimony of the servants there, the last time Pastor Pasiel appeared alive in front of them was when he left with this coachman, said to be going to the academy church suddenly in the middle of the night.

The investigation of Pastor Pasiel's will also had preliminary results.

The burned manor was not previously in the will. Although the residence in the city was partially burned, it was still a good property after being repaired. Most of the other things were still there, and no problems had been found for the time being.

The only thing missing was a pendant that Pastor Pasiel claimed to wear daily in his will. Not only could it not be found now, but no one even knew what material it was made of or what it looked like.

Considering that the Church of Light has forbidden techniques in 'soul replacement', although it felt like the probability was a bit low, Wayne quickly brainstormed a possibility.

Unfortunately, before Wayne could say it, Tom Hagen stopped him in time.

After a little private chat, Wayne realized that such things were not even allowed to be mentioned. Only those who had already investigated related content from other directions would be quietly granted a certain right to know.

Otherwise, anyone who publicly mentioned such things would be openly labeled as 'ignorant' and 'conspiracy theorist'.

But not being allowed to say it actually wasn't a big problem.

Tom Hagen was preparing to secretly retrieve things like large transaction records from local banks in the near future, and Wayne planned to go through the extraordinary people in the academy again.

Since that pendant was originally intended for Luke Matthew, naturally it had to be screened according to similar conditions.

Old man, if he could change bodies, he would blindly guess that he would definitely choose to become a young man first. The students in the academy seemed quite suitable.

It wouldn't be like he would want to become a blonde, long-legged, big-breasted wave, right?

Hiss…

Considering that this is America, it seems that this possibility cannot be ruled out…

At least Miss Olivia also seemed to be a good target.