Chapter 17: Exorcist or Preacher

I was engrossed in my laptop's monitor, carefully working with the AI. For several hours, the AI had identified people who had interacted or could have interacted with Riley or someone from the occult club.

Thanks to the cameras located outside the occult club, I was able to gather information on all the club members. With this information, the AI then studied video recordings from the past three months, which took several more hours, along with additional research on those I had found.

But even with all this, I couldn't find convincing evidence of their involvement in these crimes. It all seemed to be circumstantial, so I had to keep looking.

Thanks to the AI's recordings, we now have a list of possible accomplices. Now we need to examine lists of drone owners in our city, as well as study lists of believers and possible religious extremists.

As I finished my main work of studying and identifying individuals from video recordings interacting with AI, it was already past 3 a.m. I looked over at Samuel, who was also diligently searching for leads. As if noticing my gaze, he looked at me and asked, "Have you finished, James?"

"Yes, but all I've gathered so far can only be used as circumstantial evidence. We need more clues," I replied.

"Of course, it would be too easy to wrap things up with just theories and a few clues to confirm them," he said.

"Have you found any leads?" I asked him.

"Only lists and a more extensive list of believers already sorted by the AI," Samuel replied.

"I've also prepared a list of people who meet our requirements. They're either acquainted with Riley and other members of the club or could have been associated with them. Especially her," I said, pointing to the name of the girl.

"Daphne Moore. Not only does she attend churches, but she's also been in contact with Riley for over a year, whom I suspect," I said.

"She's on my list," Samuel said, showing his list with annotations.

"Daphne Moore. She's been detained multiple times for violating public order. Her file mentions over 40 cases in which she openly threatened representatives of various sects, representatives of the LGBT community, Satanists, and many others. There were more than 40 such cases, even more than 100, but she wasn't arrested when the victim withdrew the charges against her. Like three others on this list, she's a possible killer of occultists," Samuel said.

"Thus, we should keep an eye on her or perhaps try to establish contact," I said.

"I have already set up surveillance through AI, and I'll also ask to assign at least one employee for this. But I'll also keep an eye on those three individuals, as they are even worse than her in this regard. Especially the one who tops my list," he said, pointing to the name Ruthven Shepperd.

"Several people were harmed by his exorcism, and one of them almost died after his ritual. He has never been arrested for this, and there were no investigations into these cases due to the relatives' signature in the waiver of prosecution. They literally let this psycho go free, even though they are not sane themselves," Samuel said.

"So, we have a demon exorcist who is possessed and a jealous preacher who threatens anyone who disagrees. It's a shame that it's not that simple, as they may be crazy, but not necessarily killers," I said.

"You're right about that, but it's better than nothing. In the morning, we had no leads, and now we already have lists of possible accomplices of the killer," Samuel said.

"So, we'll have to visit the local churches. Maybe we can find more leads or new suspects there because someone has to be killing these poor people, even if they are under threat. I think the occultist will be looking for someone from the church," I said.

"Yes, we'll have to drive around the churches, but we still have no accurate information about the suspect or any leads except for the drone, which we haven't even confirmed yet. We must continue to search, and perhaps the accomplice, if there is one, is doing completely different things," Samuel said.

"Since we only have this for now, I'll take a nap," I said.

"Yes, good night. I can wake you up in the morning," Samuel said.

"Are you not going to sleep?" I asked him.

"As I said, I hardly sleep. I plan to take a nap for a few minutes before waking you up in the morning," he replied.

"Why can't you sleep?" I inquired.

"It's a long story, but to put it briefly, it's been a problem since childhood and still is. However, it helps me in my work. While you sleep, I'll be searching for other leads that we're missing. Plus, my team has yet to respond to my inquiries. Although they assisted you with the video footage from the city cameras, I have other matters besides your case," he explained calmly.

"Then good night," I said, heading to the adjacent room.

I saw no point in arguing with him about his sleep, especially since I had just met him today. I hope we can resolve this matter within a week, taking into account the capabilities of AI and the FBI. Furthermore, in my opinion, we've learned the most important piece of information, that a drone may have been used. Thus, we need to determine the list of certificates issued to drone owners in our city and throughout the state.

Considering the size of the cavity, which is most likely from a cargo drone, there shouldn't be more than 100 of them in the entire state, as each one costs over $100,000. With that number, we can compare the lists and monitor those who own drones and have connections to the suspects.

With these thoughts, I went to sleep, feeling a sense of satisfaction that I was one step closer to solving this case that had been troubling me for over a month.