New Gods of North America.

Chapter 309 Search
"Hello, I'm sorry to bother you so late. My name is Wayne Constantine, a student at George and Anna College, and a professional consultant at a professional detective agency. This officer can verify my identity.

"You should have heard about the recent case in the neighborhood, right? No, we are not here for the case. The victim, Mr. Rice, had a highly venomous cobra at home, and it has been confirmed that it had already escaped at the time of the crime.

"That kind of venomous snake is very dangerous. In addition to its fatal bite, the venom it sprays can also cause blindness. In order to prevent it from hurting people, the police invited us as a professional team to conduct necessary inspections of the surrounding residential homes. We do not charge any fees, but the inspection will disturb you for a while, and I hope you can understand.

"Oh, this is a bottle of targeted medicine we prepared. It has a repellent effect on certain snakes. Before the venomous snake is found, if you feel something strange at home, you can spray the medicine on the corresponding places and on your body to prevent being bitten. At the same time, please contact the police in time, and we will come to investigate as soon as possible."

When you go out, you give yourself an identity.
With the help of police officers to testify, what Wayne said could naturally be considered true.

Wayne also asked David Mills to put together some "equipment" temporarily.
I mixed and matched existing bird nets, rubber clothes, hats and gloves, and tied my cuffs and trouser legs with ropes to make a few sets of things that were a bit like bee-proof suits.
Although it is completely useless when you actually encounter a venomous snake, at least it will make outsiders look like a professional who "has something".

Looking like it, sometimes, is enough.

In many cases, people have the same ideas.

For example, if the police come to your home, many people may not mind a detailed inspection of their home, even if they really have no problems.
But if you say there are poisonous snakes in his house and that he would suffer if they were not found, people will usually be happy to let you search carefully.

The principle behind this is
Perhaps it is similar to when you encounter a criminal on the block late at night, you are more likely to be rescued if you shout “fire” than if you shout “help”.

After Wayne demonstrated it to the first family,

The detective agency members and David Mills' men were divided into several groups.
The division of labor for each group is roughly as follows:

Those who are good at dealing with people will be the team leader, responsible for communicating with the owner of the house or the servants and stewards;
Those with police credentials can serve as witnesses, which can both dispel the other party's concerns and make the search team appear to be a "third party";
There are also professionals wearing "protective clothing", other cooperative personnel, and the indispensable exorcist priests in each team. These people take the opportunity to check everywhere in other people's homes.

What is really indispensable here is actually an exorcist priest who specializes in dealing with evil spirits, or an extraordinary person like Wayne who can sense evil spirits, or an extraordinary person like Inissa and Lina who has a high enough "inspiration".
David Mills has quite a few clergy under his command, but just like being able to shoot wild animals does not mean one is able to hunt in the forest.
"Having ways to deal with evil spirits" and "being able to detect hidden evil spirits" are not exactly the same thing.

There don't seem to be many exorcist priests and extraordinary people with targeted abilities and high inspiration, even in the church. David Mills doesn't even have enough exorcist priests who can handle this.

——There are slightly more exorcist priests who can "prescribe medicine according to the disease", but there are far fewer exorcist priests who can "accurately find the lesion and diagnose the disease" according to the situation.

Wayne thought about it, and then gave David Mills some advice for personal gain:

"Time is running out. I know there should be someone in the academy church who can detect the identity of a Beyonder. Theoretically, if they can detect Beyonders, then perhaps they can also detect evil spirits.

"Since it is George Berg's exorcism department that is in need, there is no reason for the College Church to refuse to provide assistance at this time. Why don't you try to notify Reverend Pycelle and ask him to send someone over?"

David Mills was a simple man. He thought Wayne made sense, so he wrote a note and asked someone to contact him. Then the teams that could get the complete configuration set out one after another, and the teams that were still short of key personnel continued to wait for others.
Try to get the bottom of it as quickly as possible from near to far, and also set a trap for the neighbors around you. If you really find clues in someone's house later, it won't be too abrupt when the large force rushes over.

……

Compared to the manors of the rich, middle-class families usually do not employ too many servants, so they often need to face the owner of the house directly.

Wayne's group visited two houses in succession. The owner of one of the houses had been met by Wayne in George Berg's church, so the search went relatively smoothly.

The clergy who do not have targeted extraordinary abilities or whose inspiration is not high enough use a special oil lamp as the "church standard equipment".

It looks similar to ordinary kerosene lamps on the market, but the oil is actually specially processed. It is said that when it is close enough to most evil spirits, or when an evil spirit "appears", the flame in the lampshade will become unusual, which can be used to judge the surrounding situation.

But it is precisely because the flame of this thing is more "sensitive",
Therefore, when encountering evil spirits, it will be easier to extinguish than ordinary flames.

Wayne felt that only the clergy of the church would dare to use this kind of thing.

Encountering an evil spirit is dangerous enough, but this thing will suddenly "turn off the lights". If it were in a horror movie, it would probably be the same as the screen going black as soon as the ghost appears.
Under such circumstances, ordinary people would feel that there is no other ending except to die clearly...

After splitting up into small teams, the search took more time than expected.

During the internal training, the church set the effective judgment range for the "standard oil lamp" to be two yards, which is about 1.8 meters.

To confirm whether there is any problem in a larger room, the safe approach is to at least walk around the room along the wall with the oil lamp, stopping from time to time to eliminate the interference of the flame swaying caused by walking.

Wayne's "insight" ability of simple lines can sometimes see that there are problems in certain places,
But if it were the other way around, Wayne wouldn't be so sure. What if he felt there was nothing wrong, but there actually was a problem? That would be bad.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, after Wayne had a rough look, he still had to wait for the other inspection members of the team to go through it again with oil lamps.
From knocking on the door and introducing yourself to completing the final inspection, it takes at least thirty to forty minutes to thoroughly confirm that a house is "clean".

It was almost twelve o'clock when Wayne's team found the fourth one.
This time, before Wayne walked up to the house and started knocking on the door, he felt something was wrong in the small garden.

Taking a quick look under the light, I saw a painted doghouse made of wooden boards in the small garden. Judging from the size, it must be a medium-sized dog. There was still unfinished food in the food bowl next to it.
If it is a well-trained hunting dog, it may not bark randomly.
But now outsiders have entered the yard, and the dog still has no reaction?

(End of this chapter)