New Gods of North America.

Chapter 422: Similar Situation
The investigation was carried out over two days, alternating between day and night.

Almost all the places related to Reverend Pycelle in Georgeburg were searched.
According to Wayne's standards, some places have been turned over by well-trained exorcists to the point where they can be renovated directly.

It's a pity that no more useful clues were found.

This result was still within Wayne's expectations. After all, according to previous situations, the medicine cabinet and other things were smashed to pieces the day after Wayne sneaked into the college church. Pastor Pycelle was still very decisive in this regard.

Questioning the priests also yielded no results. The high-ranking clergy were not presumed guilty.
They were able to cooperate by staying in George Berg's church, not moving around, not contacting the outside world, and answering questions as much as possible. This was already the limit of what Tom Hagen could do at his level, and he even had to meet some of their not-too-excessive living requirements.

Compared with the standard used by the exorcists to search Reverend Pycelle's residence, in the absence of any directional clues, the search of the residence of a high-ranking clergyman can only be considered a "casual look."

After a preliminary inspection, Mr. Weissman did not find any major problems.

He was able to pass the tests of holy water and some so-called "holy objects" without any resistance. Although he was not a devout believer in the Holy Spirit, he did not seem to have any fear for the evil god of the Church of Light.
On a secular level, if we use "white" and "black" to represent good and evil, then its background color is probably dark gray.
Although some things are visibly "dirty" when brought to light, it is still difficult to convict them through legal means.

The church actually has its own set of methods to deal with such people. It is not too difficult to "use" or "treat" them.

Unfortunately, in this case, Mr. Weissman seems a little "not good enough".
Tom Hagen did not object to Wayne continuing to investigate him, but for the time being he had no interest in actively investing his energy in him.

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

Fortunately, from the perspective of solving crimes, sometimes we are not worried about the criminals doing too much, but we are afraid that the criminals will "go with the flow" or even "do nothing".
Although the main house of the manor experienced the double destruction of "fire" and "fire extinguishing", and the arrival of the police and exorcists made the scene even more messy, some clues were still vaguely retained.

In the evening, we met in a meeting room at Georgeburg Church.
Wayne combined his own and Inessa's opinions and made a brief summary of the "secondary investigation" conducted by the detective agency in the manor:
"It is currently impossible to determine the number of people who participated in the burning of the manor. It is possible that some servants in the manor also participated. However, there was only one person who actually killed the servants. The murderer knew the manor well, and was someone the servants knew and trusted."

The conclusion sounds simple, but the actual inference process is relatively complicated.
Inissa took the "hunter" approach, working backwards based on the body's wounds, cause of death, and location where it was found.

It's a bit difficult to evaluate the extraordinary ability used by the murderer. The effect feels similar to that of firearms at this time. It causes small-area penetrating damage and can attack at a certain distance. The power is slightly greater than that of ordinary lever rifles. In most cases, it can penetrate the human body.
The reason why we ruled out the possibility that the murderer used a real "gun" was that we didn't find any bullets after searching for a long time.

One of the servants was killed in the courtyard. There were no additional footprints on the mud near the place of death. There was also a single wound on his body that was not completely penetrated. Again, only the wound was visible but nothing inside was visible. There were no additional traces.
Based on the possible "trajectory" of tracing back, it is speculated that the murderer encountered two servants at the same time at a distance, and the other servant delayed the time, but unfortunately this one was unable to escape either.

If the murderer had been born a few hundred years earlier, Wayne felt that this extraordinary ability would have the potential to become the "number one in the martial arts world". It would be very powerful for single combat or assassination.
If I was born a few hundred years later, I could avoid being traced by the police through the bullets and rifling to where I bought the weapons.

However, the murderer was unlucky. Living in the Commonwealth of America at that time, it seemed that he could only save some money on bullets.

But saving money on bullets obviously has its benefits. The murderer is very skilled in this aspect. He usually kills with one shot. His method of committing crimes is very straightforward. Wayne's thinking is more "detective", with more imagination.
Several servants were shot in the back or side, and were caught off guard. It is speculated that they were acquaintances. Others died in adjacent rooms of the residence, probably with the "silent pistol" that Wayne wanted. According to the speculated order and route of the crime, the murderer basically did not "go back" and seemed to know the total number of servants.

The reason why it was ruled out that Reverend Pycelle himself had done it was because a servant was drinking before his death. After seeing the murderer, he remained sitting in the same place, as if they had a brief conversation, and was about to give the murderer "a drink too".
Wayne had been to this manor and knew the servants' daily working conditions. Judging from the careless posture of the corpse, he felt that it was not the attitude a servant would have when seeing his master.

Compare this with the situation of the servants at Reverend Pycelle's residence in the city.

The person who is most likely to be suspected at the moment is a coachman named Anton Sieg who suddenly disappeared over there.

Coincidentally, according to the testimony of the servants there, the last time Reverend Pycelle appeared alive in front of them was when he left with the coachman, and it was said that he suddenly went to the college church in the middle of the night.

The investigation of Pastor Pycelle's will also yielded preliminary results.

The burned manor was not in the will before. Although part of the residence in the city was burned, it was still a good property after repairing it. The other things were basically still there, and no problems were found for the time being.
There is only one thing: the pendant that Reverend Pycelle claimed to wear daily in his will. Not only is it missing now, no one even knows what it is made of or what it looks like.

Considering that the Church of Light has a forbidden technique for "soul replacement", although the probability seems a bit low, Wayne quickly came up with a possibility.
Unfortunately, before Wayne could finish his sentence, Tom Hagen stopped him in time.

After a brief private chat, Wayne realized that this kind of thing was not even allowed to be mentioned. Only those who had investigated the relevant content from other directions would be quietly allowed to have a certain right to know.
Otherwise, anyone who mentions such things publicly will be openly labeled as "ignorant" and a "conspiracy theorist."

But if you don't allow me to say it, it's actually not a big problem.
Tom Hagen was preparing to secretly retrieve the local bank's recent large transaction records and the like, so Wayne planned to go over them again with the extraordinary people in the academy.

Since the pendant was originally intended for Luke Matthew, it was natural to select it according to similar conditions.
As for an old man, if he could change his body, I would definitely choose to become a young person first, and the students in the academy seem to be quite suitable.

You don't want to have blonde hair, long legs and big waves, do you?

hiss……

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

At least Miss Olivia seemed like a good target.

(End of this chapter)