New Gods of North America

Without ruling out other possibilities,

Wayne chose to trust the town's sheriff and the manor's housekeeper for the time being.

After all, if you fall into doubt and start to use nesting dolls endlessly, then no one can be trusted.

Afterwards, they visited the remaining manors.

It is true that only the situation in the previous manor was consistent with the experience of the female victim.

But silver cutlery... unless it is an antique or a so-called "work of art", it is not worth much.

——These days, even the five-cent coin is a silver coin.

If I just lost a few pieces of silverware and went to Kanks to kill people...

It’s not that it’s not possible. After all, the motive for killing is like a personal hobby, it’s free.

But in that case,

The murderer seems to be too idle...

Fortunately, there is another victim related to Riverbend Town.

So after the sheriff said that all the estates in the town had been visited, Wayne began to inquire about another black market dealer.

"That annoying guy."

The sheriff showed a look of disgust on his face. "He is not from our town. He used to come to town once every one or two weeks.

"He doesn't even have a companion. Every time he gets drunk in the tavern, he likes to argue with others. Twice he almost got into a fight with the townspeople."

Then the sheriff thought for a moment, "But I haven't seen him in town for a while..."

I haven't seen it,

His grave is probably covered with grass now.

Wayne didn't care whether the sheriff really didn't know that the victim was dead, but just continued to ask:

"So what did he do when he came to this town before?"

The sheriff seemed to recall a moment:

"I think he said who he was delivering the goods to, right? But he was already drunk at that time, so I just asked casually and didn't ask too much."

Wayne continued to ask, "When he came to the town, did he ride a horse or a carriage? Or a boat?"

This time the sheriff answered quickly and clearly, "He has a carriage."

"What kind of carriage? How many horses pull it?" Wayne asked.

"Just an ordinary covered wagon, the kind with one horse."

Something that could be loaded into an ordinary covered wagon, pulled by a single horse, and regularly delivered to small towns by black marketeers...

It is unlikely that common crops such as wheat are produced in the town itself;

Small commodities that are too easy to buy are unlikely to have high profits, so black market dealers are unlikely to be so active;

Even the goods cannot be in short supply, otherwise if you take them directly to Kanks City to buy them, the price will definitely be higher than in a small town.

The unit volume or weight cannot be too large, the demand is relatively stable, and the buyers are relatively single...

Wayne filtered out several possibilities in his mind, and finally chose the one that he felt had the greatest probability:

"Mr. Sheriff, are there any factories or workshops in your town? Blacksmith shops, tannery shops, etc. would also count."

…

After leaving the manor, the few of them continued to visit and ask questions along the way.

In America, in general derivative towns, primary industries or handicraft industries are usually either quite large or almost non-existent.

The former is due to geographical advantages or industrial transfer from surrounding "cities", while the latter is because development is suppressed by cities.

Hewan Town is closer to the latter, but there are still some local small workshops that are tenaciously alive.

The sun gradually sets.

Wayne and his friends followed the sheriff back to the town, but politely declined the sheriff's invitation to visit.

Plan to have some free time.

Due to the relatively small number of outsiders, there are only two restaurants here, and it is quite deserted.

The taste is average, but the portion and price are reasonable.

In the evening, Wayne and Lina went to the tavern to snoop around for a while, and what they learned was basically consistent with what the sheriff said.

The carriage then moved a little further away from the residential area of ​​the town and found a place with a relatively good view to spend the night.

The next morning, we tidied up a bit by the river.

The few of them returned to the town, ate something, and found the sheriff, and continued their visit.

After walking around and asking around, Wayne found nothing for most of the day. It was not until the afternoon that he noticed an interesting place.

A dyeing workshop opened by a town councillor.

It is said that they will buy some fabrics at a low price from the textile factory in Kanks City, and then produce some curtains, bed sheets and so on.

There is no prohibition on outsiders approaching here. The people inside were chatting and laughing with the sheriff, and cooperated with Wayne and his team's inquiries and visits. They were even allowed to take a look at the production "workshop".

Only one of the large warehouses was approached by the workshop manager, who kindly stopped several people from approaching, saying that it involved commercial secrets.

Wayne and the others pretended not to care. They took a quick look at the finished product, chatted for a while, and then left. Then they followed the sheriff to continue their visit.

Until the evening, after eating a full meal and when it gets dark,

A few people came back quietly.

In order to facilitate sewage discharge,

Factories or workshops such as dyeing cloth and leather making are usually located not far from the river, and this one is no exception.

The reason why Wayne paid attention to this place was because he saw the drainage outlet here.

Why are there oily dyes remaining at the sewage outlet of a dyeing workshop?

And in terms of the residual amount, it seems a bit too much.

Wayne was a little confused at first, but after seeing that the people inside seemed to be having a good conversation with the sheriff, he didn't dare to ask.

The town councillor and the sheriff, it would be bad if they were in the same group.

Inissa and Lina also felt that this place was relatively secluded and would be a good base.

So a few of them thought about it privately and then started a secret investigation.

If it is a misunderstanding, just pretend nothing happened or come back and apologize.

The carriage was hidden in a small woods slightly off the road. Inissa stayed outside to guard and provide support, while Wayne and Lina found an empty spot and climbed over the wall to get in.

Because it is still just a "suspicion" at the moment, Wayne's infiltration this time is more cautious than before.

After all, if it is a hideout full of bad guys, as long as it is handled properly, even if it is discovered, it will not affect the stealth.

But if the other party is just "an ordinary person with secrets", then Wayne will admit that the other party is right.

There are shutters on the walls of the large warehouse for ventilation.

It's just that the position is a little higher, basically above the top of the head.

Seeing that there was no one around and it was pitch black inside, Lina let Peter go up and remove the window.

It caught the dismantled Venetian blinds and flew up with a small claw hook, climbing the wall and climbing over the window.

Wayne used the simple lines of vision to walk around and observe:

There are several machines of different sizes here, as well as a lot of ink barrels and other things piled up. It looks like another "production workshop".

After Lina came down, she took out a match-sized thing that looked like a glow stick, gathered the light in her hand, and walked to the other side.

"Wayne, come and see."

Lina's suppressed voice came over quickly.

Wayne looked over and saw

Lina was at a table, picking up a larger sheet of paper from a stack.

Under the fluorescent light, one side of the paper was neatly printed with several rows and columns of banknote-like patterns.

The other side is still blank.