Chapter 32: The Church Arrives
William didn't rush to the second floor but stayed by the body.
Using his [Night Vision] ability, he detected no spiritual fluctuation from the nanny, which meant she was already dead.
Therefore, he abandoned any rescue attempts.
But before examining the body, he took out a bottle of holy water.
After completing the necessary "disinfection," William turned around and picked up a piece of broken glass from the floor.
Confirming that Emma had no abnormal movements, William gently sliced open the corpse's skin.
"Oh my God, maybe she can still be saved."
Seeing the priest's action, Percy covered her mouth in disbelief.
She thought William was trying to save the person.
But the next scene was even more unexpected.
After the surface of the corpse was cut open, the muscle tissue underneath immediately spread outward.
Judging from the color, it was still very fresh, but just as Gordon described, not a drop of blood flowed out.
Emma's eyes widened, and she walked over to squat beside the corpse.
There was no fear on her face; instead, she seemed faintly curious.
William tried a few more times, even cutting near the arteries.
But the result was the same.
He thought for a moment, gently lifted the hem of the corpse's clothes, and then raised an eyebrow.
The abdomen was almost just a layer of skin, sunken unnaturally, seemingly without any support.
And the aura William had observed earlier was gathering here.
From the shape, it looked like a pair of small hands, palms pressed together like wings.
"What are you doing!"
William was looking intently when a question suddenly rang out.
He turned his head and saw three men walking from the direction of the garden.
The one who spoke was tall and held a device like a floodlight.
The person next to him seemed to be his companion, carrying a device with an antenna.
Besides that, he held some papers with electrocardiogram-like waves drawn on them.
The last person wore a long gray trench coat and a cowboy hat, looking quite western.
The tall man who spoke first strode to the corpse in two steps, pushing William aside.
"Pale face, sunken abdomen. Looks like another one."
Zion skillfully checked the condition of the corpse, then frowned.
"Multiple collision marks on the body... Why is the neck cut open!"
He turned his head and looked at William unkindly.
"Do you know you are destroying the crime scene? Who allowed you..."
Zion started rambling.
His meaning seemed to be—
Finally, another victim appeared, maybe clues about the cause of death could be found, but William touched it and ruined everything.
"Hey, even if a few more people died, you wouldn't find anything."
Before William could reply, the man dressed in western style retorted.
"Hello, Father. My name is John Stone. I wonder what you found."
John gave William a friendly smile.
Looking at this scene, William guessed roughly that it was nothing more than two parties competing for the commission.
"Same as the previous two cases, but..."
William was interrupted before he finished.
"I knew it. A priest trying to learn autopsy."
"Hey, you." John turned to look at Zion. "Your behavior now only makes you look incompetent."
"What did you say!"
Seeing a fight about to break out, Zion's companion hurriedly came up to separate them.
"Let's focus on finding clues. Mr. Niken is already very dissatisfied with this."
"Hey, that sounds right. Mr. Morrison, I say you should ditch him and work alone." John adjusted his hat and said.
Then he turned around again.
"Father, sorry for interrupting you. Please continue."
William shrugged and continued:
"This lady was attacked in the abdomen, and she wasn't possessed by an evil spirit when she fell from upstairs."
"Oh?"
John raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.
"Impossible! The previous victims had no external injuries. Besides, since she fell from upstairs, cuts are inevitable."
Zion immediately retorted.
"I say this person must have been killed by a cult member's mistake during a ritual."
At this time, Percy also stood up.
"What the Father said is true! I saw it too; this lady has a mass of something in her belly."
John looked surprised.
Then he noticed the case on Percy's back and immediately understood her identity.
"I didn't expect both newcomers to possess 'Spirit Vision'," he thought, surprised.
This ability could only be mastered by true demon hunters.
Yes, John was such a demon hunter.
He had just finished a commission in Philadelphia and happened to encounter the murder case at the Niken house.
So before going home, he planned to take one more order.
But when John arrived at the scene, the bodies had already been taken away.
And the only ones who had seen the primary scene were Zion and Morrison.
But the former kept claiming that the victims died due to some cult ritual.
This misled John, causing his investigation direction to be wrong from the start.
By the time he realized it, the residual evil aura had dissipated.
That was why he had a conflict with Zion.
After listening to William and Percy, John also came to the corpse.
Sure enough, he found an extremely vague aura in the abdomen.
And this aura faintly extended to the second floor.
So John immediately drew a silver dagger and walked upstairs.
William had already finished checking, so he followed behind.
Second Floor.
Dirk and Gordon had already finished checking this floor.
But just like before, no trace of intrusion was found.
Mrs. Dale was sitting by the bed accompanying a little girl.
Seeing William and the others come up, she looked up and asked: "Gentlemen, did you find anything?"
John repeated what William had said earlier.
Hearing that it was really done by an evil spirit, Dale looked worried.
"Mommy, what happened to Margaret?" Carol looked up at her mother.
The Margaret she mentioned was the deceased downstairs.
"She's a little unwell. Mommy let her go back first." Dale smiled and said.
At this time, two more people came up the stairs.
Everyone turned around and saw Jim, followed by a priest.
This priest wore an exquisite black silk robe with a silver cross pattern on the cuffs.
"Mr. Niken, I can solve this case right now. I hope you will seriously consider what we discussed earlier."
The priest smiled and said.
Jim narrowed his eyes upon hearing this.
Shortly after William and the others left, this priest, who called himself Ivan Bray, came to the door.
Jim had planned to kick him out directly.
But the other party claimed to be from the Church and held a recommendation letter from the Governor.
This forced him to take it seriously.
Ivan stated that the Church heard about the accident at Jim's place and knew about his upcoming important tour.
So they specially arranged for someone to help Jim.
The condition was simple: Jim just needed to agree to build three churches in the center of Philadelphia.
However, the locations chosen by the Church were very sought-after; ordinary construction companies couldn't buy them even with money.
More importantly, Jim had already secretly allocated those places, involving a lot of interests.
Therefore, Jim couldn't agree.
He was about to refuse, but Ivan showed him a miracle.
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