New Gods of North America

After I finished my speculation,

Wayne thought for a moment and added, "When I say 'church', I'm referring mainly to the location. For example, believers gather in the church every week to attend 'worship', or believers go to the church spontaneously to pray on weekdays. The victims may have had contact with the murderer there before."

Objectively speaking,

In this era, from a secular perspective, the church itself still has certain progressive significance.

For example, in a country like the United States, where there is "freedom of movement" within the country,

Churches or churches in various places often serve as a "bridge" to help ordinary or poor believers integrate into the local community as quickly as possible.

The church also established some institutions such as church schools, church hospitals, and relief homes.

It cannot be said that the church has no selfish desire to take the opportunity to spread and consolidate its faith, but such an approach has indeed helped many people in need.

If we talk about it in a big way,

In this era, there is a place where people from different classes can gather together relatively equally.

In addition to voting stations, immigration offices, courts, and gunpoint,

I'm afraid that the "church" is the one that involves the widest range of people and has the largest number of participants.

David Mills thought for a moment.

Perhaps he felt that this was not slander, so he relaxed his clenched fists a little and even nodded:

"It is indeed possible that the victims were all believers of the Holy Spirit. I also saw emblems dedicated to the Holy Spirit in the home of the previous victim. If we ask the church, we may have a chance to investigate whether they have ever interacted with the same people in the church."

Bill Tench also thought it made sense. "Then I'll go to the church and ask Pastor Bazzini or other clergy if they have any impression of this. You can go with me, or you can go back to the police station and continue looking through the materials for clues. The police officers on duty should have seen you."

David Mills feels somewhat obliged to do so:

"I am also an internal member of the church. I will go with you."

…

Wayne and his men chose to go back to the police station and wait.

It was not only to continue searching for clues, but also to recharge one's batteries.

Judging from the murders committed in the past few days, the murderer seemed to be consciously controlling the "progress" of the victim being discovered.

At least in the case of the "landlord", if the murderer had not splashed blood on the window, he might not have been discovered until the house was full of stench.

So "today", in theory, is still relatively safe...

Because Lina had asked the "wise sage" before and got no results,

So everyone in the detective agency quietly upgraded their equipment and precautions. For example, Wayne had already replaced all his bullets and also took some holy water from the carriage with him.

While no one was in the case handling department's office area and David Mills was not there,

Even Peter was released by Lina. He was now running wild and lively, annoying Doug's owl so much that it flew from one place to another from time to time.

Wayne felt that this matter still needed to be confirmed. "Lina, have you ever encountered a situation like tonight where the 'wise sage' responded to you but did not give you any revelation? What does it usually mean?"

Lina seemed unfamiliar with this and shook her head:

"It's the first time for me to encounter this, too. And I may have to pray again next month to see if the Sage will not give me any revelations in the future. But even though the Sage did not give me any revelations, at least He responded to my prayers and did not give me any warnings. According to the Truth Church, this is already a relatively good result."

After hearing this, Inissa thought about it:

"The Hunter Association rarely attempts to communicate directly with higher-level beings like the 'Wise Sage'. However, according to my personal understanding, the murderer may have obtained the protection of a higher-level being of a high status, or possessed a similar extraordinary item. Therefore, an effect similar to 'anti-divination' or 'anti-prophecy' appeared.

"But if we speculate this way, then our previous view of the murderer may be quite biased. The murderer may really be trying to complete some unknown mysterious ritual, or he may have deliberately not used his extraordinary abilities when committing the crime."

Play the pig and eat the tiger?

Wayne tried to research a soul question, "Have you tried praying to the 'wise sages' to ask about the situation of the Holy Spirit believers? I mean, the more advanced ones."

"I haven't tried it. Although the Holy Spirit has almost never appeared in front of the world, His status should obviously be very high..."

Lina shrank her neck. "As for asking other gods directly about the Holy Spirit, this is considered a highly dangerous behavior in the Truth Church..."

Inissa was immersed in reading the information. "You can try it if you have a chance. I'm also curious. I want to see if it will trigger the legendary 'God's Descent'."

"Wow, even if you want to team up to seize my shares, you wouldn't do this." Lina put on gloves and looked through some evidence. "In the story, it seems that none of the 'unbelievers' who triggered the coming of the Holy Spirit survived. I don't want to try..."

Doug and Ryan came back with trays and brought everyone a large pot of coffee and some sandwiches.

Everyone divided the things one after another, and then continued to work on their own.

I don’t know which will come first, the new clues or the cases.

Wayne hoped it was the former, but reason told him it was probably the latter.

…

When the day breaks,

Bill Tench and David Mills finally returned to the police station.

The good news is that the four known victims all went to the church to "confess" to the priest within three months. Although it is not clear whether they are related to the case, a connection between them has finally been found.

The bad news is that according to church principles, the priest in charge of confession must keep the contents of the believers' confessions strictly confidential unless the confessor himself waives confidentiality.

So Pastor Bazzini just told them that the four victims had indeed confessed.

However, Pastor Bazzini remained silent on the specific content of their confessions and which other believers had confessed recently in accordance with church rules.

Wayne is relatively uninhibited in some ways:

"Is it possible that the priest leaked their confessions somewhere? Or was it overheard? Did Reverend Bazzini himself have time to commit the crime?"

David Mills' temples couldn't help but throb twice, but he still answered seriously:

"The confessional in Georgeburg Parish Church is located in an independent wing. The wing itself has only high colored glass windows that cannot be opened. A few clergymen are guarding the wing a little further away. The time of confession is decided by the confessor himself and cannot be predicted. There is basically no possibility of eavesdropping.

"There are more than one person who can testify that Pastor Bazzini had no time to commit the crime during his schedule in recent days. And when the victims confessed, the clergy who were guarding the side hall were not present on many occasions.

"As for the unauthorized disclosure of the confession of the penitent... this is a very serious accusation against the parish priest. Please do not mention it lightly without solid evidence."

All right……

"Leaking the contents of a confession without permission" is even more serious to church members than "killing someone because you can't stand listening to it anymore".

Wayne could only express understanding and respect for this.

At this time,

A police officer walked quickly into the area of ​​the case handling department, knocked on the open door, and stuck his head in from outside:

"Boss, a new case has appeared, this time it's 'jealousy'."