Chapter 32: Suspicions

It was already past 11 o'clock, one could say almost 12. As I arrived home, I saw Samuel sitting at his desk, just like yesterday, going through the results provided by AI and talking with his team. When I took a few steps inside the house, Samuel noticed me and asked,

"When did you tell your wife?"

"And how do you know that?" I asked him.

"I see you as an honest and fair police officer who can't do without the truth even in his own life, which can harm him," said Samuel and continued, "Considering that you came home so late, it means you either told her at the end of dinner or just before the end, but still managed to remain in good terms with her."

"How did you figure that out?" I asked him.

"You would have come back looking grim or rather disappointed. But I see you in a good mood, which speaks to a good outcome of the evening," he replied.

"Ah, yes. That makes sense," I said, or rather mumbled.

"I have good news for you too," said Samuel, and I looked at him intently.

"My team has analyzed the recordings and updated the list of possible accomplices. More precisely, some people from the previous list were removed, but we added even more than we took out. Now the list of suspects consists of 17 people who somehow have the opportunity and connection with each other," he said, paused, and continued.

"Regarding the drone that I had noticed for myself, we received data that it was rented by an unemployed person, which is suspicious," he said.

"Therefore, we will have to check him?" I asked.

"Yes, tomorrow we need to find this homeless man and ask him why he rented the drone, as well as where he got the money to rent it and repair it. Most likely, he will quickly give up the real renter of the drone," he said.

"So, have you and the team finished studying the church cameras?" I clarified.

"The main work was done by the AI. We only sorted the data obtained from it and measured it against the lists sent by the churches," Samuel replied.

"Even so, that's great. Now we just have to check the people on the list," I said.

"In principle, yes. But we'll also need to find incontrovertible evidence or catch them in the act of attempted murder," Samuel said.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked him.

"We? I think you'd better go to bed. You'll need your strength. After all, tomorrow we'll have to find that homeless man and then coax his testimony out of him," he said.

"Are you sure you don't need my help?" I asked.

"Yes, go to bed. If I had the opportunity, I would go to sleep myself, considering the work done on the case," he said.

"Then good night, Samuel," I said and went to my room.

From Samuel's perspective:

Did I do the right thing by deciding not to mention that Julia is also on the list of possible accomplices? If that's confirmed, it'll definitely hit him hard. Unfortunately, the AI identified her connection to one of the suspects on the list, namely the exorcist Sheppard. She was transferred here when Sheppard caused harm to a woman, who died from an illness a month later. His guilt was not recognized due to a contract signed by the relatives.

I think that's why she was transferred, but the AI noticed a lot of interaction between them, even evening meetings. I can't consider her an accomplice yet, only because I don't have the right to rely solely on dry data. That's why I haven't said anything yet. I've decided to think about it that way.

As for the husband of the victim of the exorcism conducted by Sheppard, it turned out to be Riley from the occult club. His full name is Riley Davis. The full name of his wife is Lauren McKinley. The document waiving liability was signed by Lauren's parents without informing Riley. As a result, he completely withdrew from his wife's family, who tried to help him cope with the loss of their daughter.

Lauren and Riley's children are with his parents. He obtained a restraining order against Lauren's parents approaching the children. And now he lives alone in this city. As a coincidence, the first city he visited after his wife's death was the city where her parents live, where the chain of occultists' murders began.

More and more, in my eyes, he becomes a criminal. The profile I had constructed of him before was too superficial. I thought he was a fickle and tactless person - too sociable and extremely straightforward, which is not characteristic of an ordinary person.

Initially, I thought he was hiding something or trying to appear different. Perhaps he was just trying to appear the same in the eyes of the club. After all, his changes would have worried them. But I still have a question.

Why is he killing occultists? I thought about it for a long time and still couldn't understand it. If it was just because of his knowledge of their habits, then that would be too superficial. Clearly, someone is helping him, because if it were a killing out of anger, the blows would have been not only chaotic, but also particularly brutal.

I thought a lot about his reasons for choosing this particular segment of society, because he could have chosen even the homeless for this. But then I remembered what James had told me.

James learned from Riley that he was performing a ritual for each of his pearls. Referring to a long process. We discussed this and came to the conclusion that everything adds up. Given the 22 murders we know about, this is equivalent to 22 pearls. He still has to perform 8 more rituals, which is equivalent to 8 more murders. The sequence of which is 9,8,7 and 6.

Now we need to get a testimony from the homeless person, in which he will either give up Riley's accomplice or Riley himself. So I spent the whole night creating various connections between the suspects in my head. I couldn't fall asleep until dawn for a few minutes.