New Gods of North America

Fortunately, the detective agency reacted relatively quickly. By the time Wayne and the fingerprint collection team led by Lina arrived at the newly unlocked "third-party henchman hideout" tonight, the fire had only just started.

A group of people helped put out the fire, then negotiated with the patrol officers and district officials who arrived after hearing the news, maintained order, and prevented evidence contamination before beginning a thorough search.

Compared to ordinary rental houses, the interior of this small building was actually even simpler. Besides the basic furniture, there were not many extra personal belongings. The placement of many items could be described as messy, and most of the luggage was in a "half-packed" state, which matched what the henchman said about "regularly changing residences."

It was a bit like a temporary group rental for modern college students looking for jobs, or a collective dormitory on a construction site. It felt like the people living here didn't treat it as a "home," filled with the feeling of "just making do for a while."

In a room on the second floor that was originally like a dining room or living room, but was actually used as a card room, the detectives quickly found the wine bottle and leopard tooth mentioned by the henchman—there were surprisingly many empty wine bottles on the scene, with a pile of them "stacked up."

Then, accompanied by various small complaints such as "the toilet here is too smelly" and "the unwashed tableware is moldy," the detective agency was now almost like a group of homeless people recycling waste, carefully treating all kinds of things that others saw as garbage as treasures, and earnestly classifying and collecting them with gloves before taking them home.

Wayne and the others didn't start their return trip with a large pile of things until the evening.

The covered carriage that the detective agency had temporarily obtained was packed full. Half of it was filled with the luggage abandoned here, used to find the guys' lifestyle information, and the other half was filled with various empty bottles and glasses, as well as some furniture that might have accumulated fingerprints—the most terrifying thing was a porcelain-like toilet lid, which they didn't even dare to clean to avoid removing the fingerprints, a prime example of something that everyone hated.

It could only make people sigh, "Life is not easy."

They bought a bunch of newly released local newspapers on the way. In this era, there was no shortage of people with remarkable vision. An article inside had already seen the prospects of fingerprint applications, and the flattery made Wayne a little embarrassed:

"Doomsday Judgment Issued to Criminals! The Discovery of Fingerprints May Completely Change the World."

"According to the description of Wayne Constantine, the discoverer of 'fingerprints,' no two people's fingerprints can be exactly the same, and fingerprints will accompany each person throughout their lives—to prove this, he himself even issued a reward of up to ten thousand US dollars. The servants in the author's family have gone crazy after seeing the reward, but those seemingly similar fingerprints actually have so many differences under careful observation.

"Many commentators believe that this can be used to assist in solving cases. In the future, the police can accurately find the murderer based on the evidence, which is a newer and more scientific—although this theory still needs to be tested and demonstrated—investigation method. But this view is still slightly shallow. The author believes that if the relevant research on fingerprints is confirmed, the impact it can have when discovered may be even more profound.

"Imagine this scene: After a criminal commits a crime, as long as the police archive the fingerprint records they left behind, then whether it is years later, decades later, or even decades later, even if the police officers who were originally responsible for the investigation are no longer there, subsequent police officers can still rely on the archives to lock down the criminal. The police in various places only need to conduct fingerprint verification on foreigners to confirm whether the stranger in front of them has a criminal record.

"This will be a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of every criminal. Criminals may be able to hide for a while, but it is almost impossible to hide their fingerprints for life. The era when criminals could successfully evade capture and then escape to other places to hide their names will come to an end! Justice may still be late, but the discovery of fingerprints will ensure that it is no longer absent! Wayne Constantine may become the greatest detective of this era because of this."

Um…

The imagined detective invents a revolutionary method, causing all criminals to be terrified,

While the actual detective is currently taking a carload of garbage home to study…

Lina finished reading the report across from Wayne. After the newspaper fell, her beautiful face had wide eyes:

"The fingerprint thing you came up with, is it such a terrifying thing?"

After Lina finished speaking, she threw away the newspaper and started rummaging through her small waist bag, looking like she was planning to put on gloves quickly.

Wayne scratched his cheeks next to her, "You're being too exaggerated… Fingerprints aren't as powerful as they're blowing it up to be. You're not going to wear gloves all the time, are you?"

Actually, although fingerprints in the history of modern society have indeed carried out a dimensionality-reducing crushing on criminals, and the crime-solving rates in various countries have rapidly increased for a while in the corresponding era, especially many old cases have been cleaned up in a sweeping manner,

But like DNA, once the principle is popularized, the anti-reconnaissance awareness of criminals will also quickly awaken. It is indeed useful, but it is a bit of an exaggeration to use it to end crime…

Moreover, the fingerprint database is also a problem. In the era of relying on paper media to spread messages, the resolution of fingerprints that can be reprinted is limited. To confirm them, you still have to look at the real thing. After the number of fingerprints collected goes up, comparison is also very troublesome.

According to the current situation in America, if it is finally printed into dozens of "dictionaries" piled up in the police station, unless it is a particularly major case, it would be strange if someone would seriously flip through them…

Lina was obviously still full of vigilance about this: "It's a good thing this matter has been made public, otherwise if the news was known by some secret agency, they might choose to kill you. Even if this method is useless to ordinary people, those secret agencies are willing to spend a lot of effort to use it to identify agents."

Ah, this…

As expected of a professional who doesn't know how many people she has offended and can still run alive to the New World, it's really not easy for ordinary people to think of this.

Wayne thought for a while and had to change his way to comfort Lina, "Anyway, those previous secret agencies don't necessarily still have your fingerprints. You don't have a criminal record in the New World, so you don't have to worry so much."

As a result, Lina became even more nervous after hearing this: "I have an exclusive cell in the Judgment Court… The Holy Church is okay, but people from the Light Church might want to find me and kill me. It is possible to provide those things to the Windsorians or the Franks."

"What are you afraid of? The New World is not their territory. Even if your identity is exposed, they have to be able to catch you."

"That's true… No, or should we go back to Black Stone Town quickly? Anyway, you haven't been to the academy for a while."

"I spent so much tuition! And Bishop Corleone's permit is only useful in Virginia. You forgot about the new bishop in Kanx City? I don't think he looks like someone who would give us a permit."

"Are you even a Westerner? You're already in the West, what do you care about permits for?"

"Kanx State is not a lawless place! The sheriff's job is difficult because there are always people who think like you. And it's about to become a state, and it will be standardized sooner or later."

"Um… What's the name of the state west of Kanx again? Colorado?"

"Then you might as well run to Arizona, it's even further west, and it's estimated to be a while before it becomes a state."

"Is that okay?"

"You're a partner in the detective agency, don't always think about running away. You don't know anyone there, and any gang can tear down your house in the middle of the night. You'll be exhausted just guarding your home."

"Oh…"