The Last Killer

They chose to sneak into the church in the middle of the night.

The buildings in the night look more and more deserted and deep, as if they have sunk into another world after losing the sunlight.Leo and Li Biqing stood in the courtyard under the clock tower, trying to use the length of time in the tape and Renee's walking speed to figure out where the door to the secret realm that she opened inadvertently was.

They searched for about half an hour, and finally pointed their suspicions to a door in the depths of the corridor, a pattern very similar to the wall decoration.The door looked old and had no handle, but it was locked with an old-fashioned lightbulb-shaped keyhole.Leo pushed hard, but the lock didn't budge, like a stubborn old man.

"Did you bring a silencer?" Li Biqing asked in a low voice.

The federal agent nodded, "Yes, but the door panel is very strong, and it may take several shots, which may alarm other people. And if nothing is found inside, we will startle the snake."

"Then what should I do, find someone to give me a master key?"

"Don't bother." Leo said, "Let's go find the real product—I think we can find it in Father Boyis' room. After all, he is the person in charge of this church, and it's hard to hide any shady things from him." ,What do you think?"

Li Biqing smiled, "You just don't believe he is a saint, right?"

"There is no pure light in the world, including people's hearts." The black-haired detective said in a deep voice, and then walked in the direction of the priest's dormitory that had already been discovered.

...he's still blaming himself.The psychological shadow of many years cannot be disintegrated overnight.The Chinese boy sighed silently and followed him silently.

When they entered the room silently, Father Boyisi was sleeping on a hard wooden bed.And this bedroom, no more than 50 square meters, has nothing but necessary furniture such as a bed, wardrobe, desk, etc. It is unbelievably simple.

Li Biqing didn't know how soundly the other party was sleeping, so he didn't dare to move around without authorization. Leo took out a pack of plastic bags from his pocket, unpacked it, took out a white handkerchief, and covered the priest's mouth nose.

About 30 seconds later, he let go, carefully put the wet handkerchief back into the bag and sealed it, then turned to Li Biqing and said, "Isoflurane, preoperative anesthetic. He will be unconscious for several hours. Now we You can do whatever you want."

The entire room was almost turned upside down, and no key corresponding to the door lock was found.From under the "Bible" in the desk drawer, Li Biqing found a ledger, which was a record of the church's various revenues and expenditures.It contains a clear record of every public donation received, church appropriation, church and orphanage daily expenses, and even children's food expenses.He turned to the last page and found two donation items, which were sent by the church to Save the Children and the American Red Cross respectively. There is a sum every one or two months.

"Look at this—" Li Biqing pointed to the last column of the account book and said to Leo, "This item is the priest's own monthly expenses. Look at last month, it was only a mere $163, and it was written in black again changed to 142. Then the donation sent to Save the Children that month was also changed, adding 21 yuan. If this bill is true, a person can still pay from personal expenses that are so meager that they can’t even keep up with the consumption level in the slums. What do you think it means to be able to squeeze out a part of it for charity?"

The black-haired detective was unmoved: "It means that he is either a one-in-a-million saint, or a hypocrite with profound skills."

Li Biqing flipped through the ledger, thought for a while and said, "I don't think this is a disguise. Father Bai Yisi really loves children. Didn't you see the way he looked at the black child holding the drawing board, just like that child? There are a pair of fluffy little wings on the back."

Leo couldn't argue with that, but even so, he felt that the blameless priest was double-edged.Due to strict work requirements, he always speaks with evidence, but this time, he chose to follow his intuition, just like Li Biqing did when reasoning the case. "...I'll call the headquarters and ask them to check the charitable donations. If it's true, Save the Children and the American Red Cross will keep records." He said, calling the duty phone number of the Information Services Section .

Ten minutes later, the results of the investigation came, and these donations were all real.

"It seems that we have to take our suspicion away from Father Bai Yisi for a while, and look for another more suspicious object. There are quite a lot of priests in this church, aren't there?" Li Biqing said.

Leo had to acquiesce.

They tried to restore everything in the room to the original state, hoping that the priest would not find anything strange when he woke up.Before leaving, Li Biqing walked to the bedside and crossed himself comfortingly to the unconscious priest, "I'm sorry to disturb you, Father, I wish you a good dream—" He paused, and suddenly stretched out like something. He made a move and unbuttoned the collar of Father Boyisi's pajamas, and while Leo was frowning displeasedly, he pulled out a silver necklace from the inside of the shirt, with a dusty old-fashioned key hanging from the end of the necklace.

"...God, here is the key!" the Chinese boy lost his voice.

Leo immediately stepped forward to examine it carefully, "This is the key to open that door," he said affirmatively, "Let's go, let's see what's behind the door."

The key tied around the priest's neck allowed them to successfully open the secret door deep in the corridor. Behind the door was a narrow, closed staircase that extended downwards, seemingly leading to the underground of the church.

After walking up the echoing staircase, they were greeted by a very wide hall, the ceiling was made into a circular vault like a sermon hall, and it was filled with murals related to religion, such as heaven, the Garden of Eden, and so on.Neither of them has any in-depth study of religion, they can only recognize God and a bunch of saints who have forgotten their names, as well as bare-bottomed little angels flying all over the sky.

In the center of the hall, there are more than a dozen glass pillars. Through the transparent barrier, you can see the statues inside without hindrance. They all look like children under the age of twelve or thirteen, with white, black, or white skin. All of them spread their dove-like snow-white wings behind their backs, posing the graceful posture of the angels in the murals.

——These angel statues are so delicately made!It is more lifelike than those in Madame Tussauds. The color of each hair and the texture of every inch of skin are so realistic, it is as if a living person is frozen in a glass case by the sudden freezing of time.

"...Is Renee scared by these statues? It really looks like a real person who is still." Li Biqing visited them one by one, and said in amazement, "These are all the works of Father Bai Yisi? He is really a comparable statue." Michelangelo's artist... do you see how the wings are glued on, with swan feathers?"

Leo stared at one of them intently, almost pressing his face against the glass.After a while, his face was covered with haze, which became more terrifying than the impending hurricane and tsunami, "These—" His voice was extremely dry and piercing, like a hard drill cutting through glass, "Are these statues?! I think they're more like—"

He squeezed a creepy word through his teeth: "Corpse!"

Li Biqing asked in shock: "What?!"

The black-haired detective staggered back a few steps, "That's right! These are embalmed corpses! Very clever handling techniques! If it weren't for visiting an expert in corpse preservation technology in a previous case, listen to him After telling some relevant knowledge, I will also treat these corpses as wax figures!"

"God..." the Chinese boy murmured, "This is a corpse exhibition hall, just under the church!" He turned his head to the detective as if asking for help, "Is this normal, Leo? I have heard of it, some in Europe The Catholic Church or the monastic order used to set up catacombs to store embalmed mummies as a way of paying homage to the dead, but that custom seems to have been abolished a long time ago, right?"

Leo nodded and said, "It's been canceled for a century. I didn't expect to see it here. These corpses look intact, as if they haven't been made for a long time..." A terrifying thought suddenly entered his brain, which made him The handsome face was almost distorted, and he said with difficulty: "If the corpses of these children were not made into specimens after natural death..."

Li Biqing let out a stern light from his eyes.He looked like he was about to vomit, and then covered his mouth with his fist. "My God... my God..." he moaned incoherently.

"If this is the case," the federal agent was shocked and angry, "that so-called priest is simply a perverted serial murderer!"

The two of them took a deep breath, as if the underground hall suddenly became thinner of oxygen, and those glass covers seemed to cover them together.

"...He should have a production room or something." Li Biqing looked around and found another door.

The door was unlocked, and they turned the handle and walked in.The space inside is still huge, but it is full of various objects: neat medicine racks, spacious metal tables, operating tables with various test tubes, glass bottles, alcohol lamps... There is also a row of unidentified objects on the wall. Giant ceramic tube.

"Alcohol, salicylic acid, glycerin, zinc salt..." Li Biqing browsed the labels on the medicine bottles, "What are these used for? Formalin..." He suddenly said: "He used these medicines From preservatives!"

The federal agent struggled to open the shell of a ceramic tube, and after seeing the contents clearly, he took a deep breath!It was the corpse of a child about six or seven years old, clasped his hands in front of his chest in a praying posture, and his eyes looked as if he had fallen into a deep sleep. "The smell of alcohol... He used this pipe and alcohol to dry out, dehydrate and dry the body, and eventually mummify it!"

"But, those children don't look like mummy..."

"I remember the corpse preservation expert once introduced that glycerin can prevent the corpse from over-drying, salicylic acid inhibits fungal growth, and zinc salts, which harden the corpse, so those corpses can stand like statues in a vacuum glass cabinet ..."

"...I sincerely hope that the priest is just an expert in embalming corpses." Li Biqing couldn't bear to look away from the young corpse.There was a deep, suppressed anger burning in his eyes.

The black-haired detective re-covered the pipeline, and said in a deep voice, "We need to collect further evidence to investigate the identities of these children. If they were all adopted by the church welfare home during the past 20 years of Father Bai Yisi's tenure, the cause of death should not be Difficult to check..."

"What about the priest, are you going to arrest him?"

"No, now we have to get out of here first, return the key to its original place, and don't startle the snake. I need enough evidence to prove that those children are still alive before lying on this metal table, otherwise they can only desecrate the corpse Prosecute him." Leo said with restraint of anger.

The Chinese boy seemed a little unwilling, but he had to agree.

Just as they were about to leave the production room, the door was opened from the outside.

"Gentlemen, breaking into someone's room and stealing things without permission is not a reasonable and legal thing, is it?" The priest in black robe stood outside the door with a look on his face that he was insulted during the sermon. Displeased look like disturbing.

"The premise is that that person is not a murder suspect investigated by the police!" The federal agent pulled out a pistol from under his ribs and said coldly, "I'm very surprised why you are here, could it be that you were alert and didn't inhale isoflurane? "

"Isoflurane?" Father Bai Yisi was a little surprised, "You mean, you sneaked into my bedroom and drugged me before? No wonder I woke up and found that the key around my neck was gone... It’s a pity that you didn’t get what you wanted, I’m born with very low sensitivity to narcotics, if you want me to be in a coma for a longer period of time, I’m afraid you have to use several times the normal dose.”

This is another mentally numb, guilt-free pervert!Leo thought angrily, he was caught at the scene of a crime, and the room was full of victims' bodies, and he didn't move at all, as if it was just a small thing like a private collection being peeped by a stranger ! "Since you showed up on your own initiative, then things are much simpler," the detective motioned him with a gunpoint: "Raise your hands above your head, turn around slowly, and lean on the wall. You are under arrest, Father Bai Yisi, on charges of allegedly Willful murder and desecration of dead bodies."

The priest's gray-blue eyes were wide open, and his face was full of surprise and confusion when an innocent person was wronged, as well as the anxiety of self-justification: "Intentional murder? No, no, no, killing is a serious sin in the Ten Commandments, the Lord said' You shall not murder', 'Whoever murders has no eternal life in him', we must obey the commandments of the Lord!"

"Then how do you explain the corpses of these children? Are you going to tell us that these are little angel statues made of plaster?!"

"No, they are not statues, but sleeping angels." The priest quickly calmed down, "Their souls have temporarily left their mortal bodies and ascended to the heaven where the Father God is. I can only preserve these bodies as completely as possible. Until the day the soul returns."

"...Are you going to fool the court and the jury with this kind of magic stick tone? Great, I hope you can gain a few more religious brain fans then!"

"No, I'm not lying. 'A lying mouth is an abomination to the LORD, but a man who walks in truth is his delight.'" The priest said sincerely to the detective, who looked angry and disgusted, "Listen to me, child, I I know that in your opinion, doing this is a bit inhumane, and it is not in line with the current law, but I have to do it, this is my mission-since I got that 'revelation' 20 years ago."

"Revelation?" Li Biqing, who had been watching coldly, asked, "Can you explain in more detail, Father."

"Of course. 20 years ago, I was a superficial and ignorant young man who wanted to serve the Lord and listen to the will of the Lord, but I still couldn't get in. Until that day, I traveled to Sicily, Italy, in Bale In the catacombs of the monks of the Mocapuchin Order, I saw a sleeping angel..." The priest stared at the little corpse in the glass cabinet with warm and longing eyes, as if he had stepped into the sanctuary of memories, "Her soul She has been away from the mortal world for more than 70 years, but her body has always maintained the appearance before death. Her hair and eyelashes are curly and shiny, her skin is smooth, and her lips are fresh, like a fresh flower petal that has just been picked. After seeing her In an instant, a flash of lightning split my ignorant head, like a lost lamb suddenly found a way to turn around. At that moment, I was enlightened, and the long-awaited voice of the Lord finally came to my heart. Brain! The Lord said to me: 'Whoever guards an angel's body more than his own flesh and blood, comes out of good, and pleases God.'

This is a revelation!I couldn't have imagined that I would be so lucky to be the recipient, the chosen one!I suddenly realized the meaning of life: I live in this world to take on this responsibility and do my best to protect the bodies of these little angels..."

Looking at the eloquent priest immersed in the spiritual world, Leo and Li Biqing couldn't help exchanging a "what's the situation" look.

"So I started to follow the ruins to find the previous guardian, a doctor named 'Alfred? Under the backward technology, he created such a miracle! This must be the wisdom bestowed by the Lord! After spending a whole year, I finally found the notebook in the hands of his relatives, which recorded the perfect anti-corrosion technology..."

"Alfred? Salafia?" Li Biqing asked in a low voice, "Who is this doctor who is almost praised by the priest as a prophet?"

Leo asked back: "Have you heard of the 'Sleeping Beauty of Sicily'?"

"...Ah, is that the two-year-old girl from the Catacombs of Palermo? I saw pictures on the Internet, and it is indeed a miracle in the history of corpse preservation." Li Biqing suddenly said, "But what is even more strange to me is that every year There are tens of thousands of tourists who come to see it, so why is it that only this priest, Bai Yisi, got the 'revelation from God'?"

The black-haired detective thought for a while, and answered him concisely with a TV series line: "You talk to God, you're religious; God talks to you, you're psychotic." (You talk to God, you are a believer; God talks to you, you are Mental illness.)

Looking at the priest who was still talking like no one else, the Chinese boy almost laughed, "But it seems that he is a pious and harmless mental patient, isn't he? I still think that he will not kill people. Those children may be after death. It was embalmed."

Leo frowned, and retorted disapprovingly: "In a small orphanage, thirteen people died of natural or accidental deaths in 20 years? Is the child mortality rate so high today?"

"That's true, could it be that the murderer is someone else?"

"It is not ruled out that the priest himself is a psychopath with a disguised personality."

"Well, let's see if we can get something out of him."

When the two stopped whispering, the priest had bowed his head and folded his hands, standing in front of his little angels and muttering prayers. His spirit had already entered a sacred and ethereal realm that was beyond the reach of mortals.

Leo decided to go straight to drag him back. "How did these children die, Father? Did you mummify them alive in order to fill the heavenly choir?"

Father Bai Yisi stopped praying and turned to look at him.There is no anger in this look, only tolerance and pity for an ignorant world. "It's wrong to kill, kid, and it's dangerous to fill your head with thoughts related to killing." He stretched out his hands to the glass cabinet in praise: "Death always comes in ways you can't imagine, disease, All kinds of accidents, but you don't have to resist it, these are the arrangements of the Lord. The Lord recalled His servants, so they left the body and returned to the kingdom of heaven. That's it."

Li Biqing murmured to Leo: "To add, he is a devout, harmless, and naive psychopath. He would never suspect and investigate the cause of the children's deaths, because he believes that everything is arranged by God. "

The detective let out a sigh of relief, and after thinking for a moment, he asked the priest, "Who is taking care of the children's daily life?"

"Nuns, the sisters in the church take turns taking care of them."

"Whose turn is it today?"

"It's Emma. Oh, you saw her today, remember, when we first met."

When he said this, the two of them immediately remembered that the priest was discussing with a black boy about the skinny whale he had drawn, and he was coaxed away by a buxom nun who rushed over. "You want small fish, Matt? Okay, I'll make small fish fry tonight," she said.

As if the silk strings were gently plucked by the fingertips, the scene where the young nun glanced at them before leaving was extracted from the neglected memory-that look was not curiosity and exploration in the ordinary sense, it was in their eyes. It stayed on the body for more than two seconds, far longer than people's normal glance at strangers.Looking back now, after Leo showed his FBI ID, the emotion in those dark green eyes was suppressed as much as possible—it was clearly a kind of panic that had nowhere to hide!

"Where is that nun named Emma now?" Leo asked.

"At this time? I'm probably on a night watch to see if the children are wetting the bed, having nightmares, or feeling unwell." The priest replied.

Leo grabbed Father Boyis' wrist, pulled him roughly to the side of the stairs, quickly put a pair of steel cuffs through the railing, and clasped his two wrists together. "Sorry, Father, there is no direct evidence to prove that you did not kill these children. Please stay here for a while until the suspicion of murder is cleared, and the police will come to you."

The priest pulled the chain on his wrist, and there was a crisp sound of metal knocking. He said annoyedly: "You are like this, I can't pray."

"Oh, you can try lying on the banister of the stairs," the federal agent said disapprovingly. "Anyway, the form is not important, the important thing is the heart, isn't it?"

As if seeing the sun through the clouds, the priest showed a joyful smile, "You are right! Worship the Lord with spirit and truth, and the Lord will accept it. Prayer is not limited by time or space, as long as you speak to the Father with reverence and gratitude. He tried his best to hold on to the railing, clasped his hands together, and began to recite the prayers in a straight voice.

He didn't even ask the two uninvited guests why they were looking for Sister Emma—compared to praying, these things are not important at all, are they?