New Gods of North America

As Wayne had guessed, when problems arose, the people within the ecosystem were the most anxious.

He had just returned to the temporary base when investigators from City Hall were already waiting, asking about what Wayne had witnessed while reviewing the files that day.

If the conflicting testimonies of the assassin group members after the assassination case was discovered were the most troublesome for Wayne,

then now that the existence of the third-party force had been confirmed by the detective agency and their reach likely extended into City Hall, Wayne felt more at ease.

As an outsourced team, the detective agency's ability to uncover such dark secrets was enough to prove their "purity" and "objectivity" to the Church.

This was somewhat akin to a folk version of "Justice Bao's Cases": a Goryeo envoy was assassinated, and the politically-minded leaders wanted the culprit to be an "insider" from the envoy group. So, when the dark-faced investigator shifted his focus from "within the envoy" to "suspects with Song identities," the envoy group went from "suffering in silence" to "outraged." The leaders also hoped he would stop investigating, questioning his youth and background.

The detective agency, like the dark-faced investigator, had taken a step further, confirming that the assassin was actually a "Liao person" from a third party. This was acceptable to the "Goryeo envoy" and the leaders. As for the matters behind the case, it was no longer the "detective's" concern—it had gone beyond the scope of "law and order" and entered the realm of "the law of the jungle."

Thus, Wayne was in the mood to help the file administrator, Ms. Susan, exonerate herself, assisting in proving that her suspicion was minimal.

If blame had to be assigned, perhaps she had simply failed to notice the missing files in time. It was a bit of an undeserved misfortune, but it shouldn't cost her job. After all, even the most cautious good person can be exploited by malicious individuals.

Perhaps because they were considered "on the same side," or because of the recent flattering articles in the newspapers,

the investigators seemed quite respectful to Wayne, not questioning the truthfulness of his testimony and even valuing some of his speculations. The stenographer beside them never stopped writing.

After seeing off the investigators from City Hall, Wayne proceeded to routinely inquire about the progress of the detectives.

Currently, the most prized asset at the temporary base was the "window-breaking master" named Arthur Robin and related evidence. These were the things that could concretely prove the "third-party force"'s direct involvement in the assassination case, with security levels as high as the gold master, Mr. Mourier.

Secondly, there was the poison bottle from the assassin's home and clues related to the escaped ringleader. In fact, he was the "key" to the truth behind the case, but for the big shots, "proving the lock exists" was far more valuable than "finding the key"—especially when the lock was not just about "crime" but began to involve "disrupting the existing order."

Although the detective agency had already reached the passing grade, and the rest was just "bonus points," they still had to put on a good show.

Willie and several detectives were still working overtime to collect and compare fingerprints, trying to nail the third-party force member's coffin shut even tighter, while continuing to search for usable arrest leads.

Currently, two more fingerprints could prove that the captives had participated in the attack on Mr. Mourier. One of the captives, like the "window-breaking master," was locked up in a room under heavy guard, while the other involved person was also on the run. The fingerprints were found in their residence.

Inessa had been busy all day again, continuing to investigate places in Richmond where poison raw materials could be bought, and using the escaped ringleader's physical characteristics to filter. There were no gains yet.

After receiving the guy's possible name from Wayne, she didn't search her mind for too long while eating: "I saw this name today."

Lena's chest immediately puffed up, "Where did you see it? I'll take people there now..."

This girl has been stuck guarding the base lately and feels like she's about to suffocate... She really needs to be let out for a walk, or she'll start tearing down the house later.

Wayne gestured to "calm down, my dear," and continued to wait for Inessa to elaborate.

Inessa pulled over a Richmond map that was almost worn out from the dining table, pointed to it, and began to carefully recall:

"This is a pharmacy with a church background, but it's open to the public, relatively large, and has all kinds of materials. Because of the cathedral's instructions, they were very cooperative and allowed me to browse their internal sales records.

"The name you mentioned appeared in it, but he didn't seem to purchase the raw materials to make that kind of poison, so he wasn't within my previous scope of inquiry. He was noted down because he bought more hemostatic medicine than the regular dosage, which was secretly recorded by the staff as a routine."

Wayne breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Good, good, it didn't sound like "collusion."

The detective agency had just escaped the sea of suffering not long ago, and almost stepped back into the church's sphere... The third-party force already seemed fierce enough, and Wayne didn't want to receive any "investigate internal spies" missions in the cathedral again.

Knowing that it was a place related to the church, Lena didn't want to go. She stuffed half a piece of bread into her mouth in one go, and then planned to slip away, "Almost forgot the business, I'll go help Doug feed the crows."

Wait,

When did Doug dare to order you around? And can this be considered business? Who feeds birds at night?

Wayne didn't know where to start with the pile of complaints, and finally could only ask, "What's up with the crows again?"

"It's all because you haven't taken care of that peregrine falcon lately, so it's been taking the parrot to fight with the nearby crow flocks. The owls that were innocently affected were so angry that they climbed trees in the middle of the night to tear down the crow nests. Now there are half a dozen injured crows that can be picked up. I saw that Doug raised one himself before, knowing that this thing can also be trained, thinking that it could be called to peck people in the future."

First spiders, then crows, why do you always go for the villain style...

After Lena ran off, Wayne casually looked at Inessa, "Do you have any pets you want to raise?"

Let's get a feel for the situation first, maybe it can be used as a gift or something in the future.

Inessa thought for a while: "I like quieter animals, preferably ones that can help with hunting. American leopards seem good. I saw that leopard tooth in the captive's residence before, and it seems to be larger than the ones in the Old Continent, and not as weak as cheetahs."

Um...

Okay, it seems normal for beautiful girls to like raising cats.

It's just that this color pattern is not easy to get, and I don't know if they can eat cat food or go to the toilet at a fixed point...

After eating and chatting about digressions, things should be done sooner rather than later. Wayne and Inessa immediately set off to the pharmacy to confirm the situation.

When going to the back door to get on the carriage, they greeted the police officers on duty. Wayne then discovered that Liam was still on the carriage at this time—this guy was no longer in the "upside down" position, but lying on the roof of the carriage, with his extraordinary ability of "transparency" activated.

"You haven't come down since last night?" Wayne was speechless. "Look at how long Willie hasn't had a good rest. Isn't this a bit like absenteeism?"

Liam seemed very innocent: "I've been following Miss Inessa all day today... Miss Inessa asked me to secretly follow her when she went out, in order to guard against hidden trackers."

So that's how it is,

Wayne saw Inessa nodding in confirmation beside him, so he decisively admitted his mistake, "It was my misunderstanding, I'll have Doug give you extra chicken legs as an apology later."

"Can I exchange the chicken legs for extraordinary materials?"

"No. Or I'll apologize again, and I'll keep the chicken legs for myself."

"Then please prepare a large size for the chicken legs for me. It's best to brush them with honey, I can bake them myself..."

A little further away on a rooftop, a tabloid reporter put down his binoculars, turned a page in his notebook, and continued to write:

«Breaking news! The secret of Detective Wayne Constantine! He is actually a schizophrenic patient who talks to himself (this sentence was crossed out as soon as it was written). The reason why he can become a great detective is not because of scientific methods such as fingerprints. The real secret is that he can actually communicate with the dead!»

A big spider confirmed again that this guy wasn't a threat, leaned its head on his shoulder to record the picture, and then pulled the silk according to the route to the next location to continue strolling.

A few minutes later, a beautiful blonde girl came over with great interest, pulled the tabloid reporter and started talking about the setting:

"I think 'communicating with spirits' is a bit old-fashioned. Wayne himself has a fashionable saying called 'empathy.' He says that a great detective can empathize with the criminal based on the situation of the crime scene, so as to deduce how the criminal committed the crime..."