New Gods of North America

Following the carriage driven by Willie, Wayne arrived at Mr. Morrie's residence and found it very clean.

The so-called "clean" at a crime scene generally has two meanings:

One refers to looking "tidy and spotless," and the other refers to looking "as if no crime had ever occurred."

This place falls into both categories; it embodies both meanings.

Mr. Morrie's residence is located in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Richmond's urban area, with distinctive features.

The neighborhood is filled with detached houses offering medium- to long-term rentals. The distance between houses provides relative comfort within a compact setting. It's not far from the core commercial district, but the security situation is significantly better.

The price range here is roughly at a level that local tycoons find "uneconomical" and ordinary middle-class families "cannot afford," mainly targeting local nouveau riches who need to show off their consumption, or wealthy out-of-towners who want convenience while showcasing their economic strength.

A tactful way of putting it is, it doesn't deceive poor fellows.

The detective agency doesn't have genuine law enforcement power. Arriving at the "first scene" of a crime at this hour, he was actually accompanied by two other groups of people.

One group was the police officers Wayne specifically requested from the police station to cooperate.

Wayne originally didn't have this authority, but Sheriff William, who had been assisting with the investigation for a day or two, became increasingly impatient as the detective agency's investigation went further and further, and the working hours were somewhat outrageous. So, he assigned police officers in the station to "cooperate when needed."

The other group was the security team patrol personnel hired by the neighborhood. They gathered on their own after noticing the commotion.

In theory, they bear greater responsibility and obligation for the security within the neighborhood, as their income comes from the residents, nominally as "community construction funds" or "voluntary donations," which is essentially property management fees without being called "property management fees."

After opening the door, these two groups conducted a preliminary inspection. The house was empty and tidy, and they quickly started to express their opinions.

The police officers said it didn't look like a scene that had been attacked, while the security team members said that although there had been gunshots in the neighborhood tonight, it was a misunderstanding, and patrol personnel had already dealt with it. They wouldn't allow anything that could endanger the safety of the residents to happen.

While they were seemingly complaining with explanations, Inisha secretly winked, indicating that she had confirmed the smell of blood here.

Lina even put on the airs of a "wealthy heiress," walked to a corner of the living room corridor, and said, "I saw a large pool of blood here before. If you don't believe me, look for yourselves. It hasn't even dried after being cleaned."

"There are indeed traces of cleaning."

The leading police officer and security personnel really held up lanterns and took a few glances. They nodded in unison at first, and then said, "But this doesn't prove that a crime occurred here."

It's easy for this kind of trouble to arise when a third party is needed as a witness, but their public credibility is insufficient.

To persuade them to shut up honestly, Wayne had no choice but to jump out and say "fair words":

"Our detective agency accepted Mr. Morrie's commission and came here specifically to investigate the attack. He himself, as the victim of the attack, is the most crucial witness to prove the attack actually happened."

"And it's easy to verify what this young lady said. I have an effective method that can detect whether there were traces of blood here before. It's just that it requires professional operation to be effective."

After speaking, he signaled Ryan to bring the toolbox over.

Since the detectives learned from Lina to create a "toolbox," Wayne, in his spare time, also stocked up on some odds and ends for himself, which came in handy at this moment:

"I am a student at William and Anna College, so I have some professional reagents. Among these two bottles of reagents, one is silver nitrate solution, which can react with blood, even if it's wiped blood residue."

"Since this young lady said she saw blood here, then when the reagent is dripped on it, if we see a change, it means she is telling the truth. Naturally, we will need to conduct a more serious investigation."

The police officers and neighborhood security were all intimidated by the college's name and Wayne's serious demeanor, especially when they saw Wayne carefully controlling the dosage, pressing one end of the feather tube and cautiously dipping out the reagent. For a moment, they were all holding their breaths.

Then, two drops of solution were dripped onto the floor and quickly turned blue-purple.

Wayne lowered his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Unfortunately, it seems that Mr. Morrie and this young lady are both telling the truth."

Facts speak louder than words, and both groups were temporarily silenced.

Wayne seized the opportunity, quickly had people put away the reagents, and promptly disposed of the remaining reagents on the floor to avoid contaminating the scene. Then, while no one had any objections for the time being, he began to have the detectives carefully search the area.

The luminol reagent commonly used in modern forensics is not easy to obtain this year. Silver nitrate solution can indeed react with blood and is also used in forensic medicine. It is said to produce black precipitates. It is theoretically feasible and can be reproduced, even if experts come, they would have to nod in agreement.

However, silver nitrate solution is also not easy to obtain, and buying a small amount and storing it for a long time is even more expensive. So, Wayne actually used low-concentration iodine and flour water as substitutes. Anyway, ordinary people just look at the color change as a gesture, which is enough to fool laymen.

After a thorough search, the attackers seemed professional.

No bodies or bloodstains were found in the house. In one place, even the bullet in the wooden wall had been dug out. Bullet trace detection doesn't exist in this era, so it can only be assumed that the other party was careful enough not to leave any related clues.

Lina walked through the house carefully, quietly tugged on Wayne's sleeve, avoided the police officers and neighborhood security, and spoke to him briefly and quickly in a convenient corner:

"The numbers don't seem to add up. There were probably only seven or eight attackers before, and they only chased for a short distance. It's not easy to clean up the scene so thoroughly in the remaining time."

"Either they are indeed very professional and considered the subsequent cleanup when they took action, or they have another team of reinforcements responsible for handling the aftermath and assisting in eliminating the impact."

Wayne actually had a similar view. The main reason is that the police officers and neighborhood security, after recovering from the torrent of the "technological crush" era, still didn't take the investigation of the attack seriously at all.

The leader of the neighborhood security called a guy over and said that a drunk had been shooting randomly into the sky nearby and had been driven away by patrol personnel.

As for the police officers who came, they tried to offer another possibility, saying that this might be a prank against Mr. Morrie, or that Mr. Morrie himself was lying. Otherwise, why is he still missing, and the police station hasn't even received a report.

Combining this with Lina's statement,

Whether they are skilled in handling traces or have dedicated cleanup personnel, both possibilities actually point to the same purpose—reducing the impact of the incident locally.

Out-of-towners committing crimes often don't need to care about the scene; burning it all down would be more convenient, and ordinary "dragons crossing the river" are unlikely to have a team of support personnel specially equipped.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like this was done by locals?