North American Gunslinger Detective

Chapter 761 Dave Summons
While Jimmy was racking his brains over the direction of the investigation, Mark and Wright were not idle either. Although they were not in charge of the case, they had handled many cases and had rich experience. They were trapped on the island and had nothing to do except making phone calls. They both worked overtime to review the surveillance videos they had previously viewed, and then Mark discovered a very inconspicuous problem in the surveillance.

"Knock, knock..." Mark stood up with his notebook and knocked on the door of Jimmy's room. Jimmy walked over to open the door and asked, "What's the matter?"

Mark said with surprise: "I found something wrong. A surveillance video was tampered with."

As he spoke, he walked into Jimmy's room. The two sat at the table and watched Mark replay a surveillance video. "Look here, the video time has jumped, and the picture is not the same as before. The light has changed a lot. If I'm not mistaken, this part in the middle of the video has been manually modified."

This is an outdoor surveillance camera, not the one at the dock. It happened to be the day of the banquet. Because it was all daytime, I might not have noticed when I was checking the video before that the shadow of the plants here was deflected. It is very likely that a part was cut out from a later period or other date and directly covered it. In other words, during this period of time, this surveillance camera may have recorded certain content.

Jimmy went out and called Wright over to take a look together. "Wright, the technical support staff are still here. Let them try to see if they can find the original video."

Wright nodded and walked out without caring about the time. The technical support staff lived in another building, so it would be more convenient to contact them directly rather than calling, as it would facilitate communication.

Jimmy watched Wright leave, and he patted Mark on the shoulder: "Mark, I have a task for you. Go investigate the situation of the Harriton family. Do they have any direct competitors? Are there any recent business or other behaviors that are excessive? If you have any difficulties, ask Wright to arrange someone for you."

Mark: "Do you still suspect that this bombing was a revenge killing?"

Jimmy: "This is the biggest possibility. You guys investigate his network and business disputes. I'm going to investigate whether there are other ships passing by this island and the explosion site. There are many things that can only be investigated separately like this."

Mark: "I see, are we leaving?"

Jimmy: "Give me a little more time. I will search the island again tomorrow. If there are no other clues, we will leave as soon as possible and start investigating other clues."

Mark nodded and said nothing more. There were too many things that needed to be investigated and they were indeed short of manpower, especially since the people who were originally supporting them had now become support personnel for the kidnapping case next door. That case was easier to close and the case was very serious, and the credit was great. They were really too realistic.

Wright came back soon, and the technicians also had the same copy of the video, enough for them to handle it themselves. However, according to them, because the video was saved in a loop on the hard drive, it was basically impossible to find the original video.

Taking advantage of the excitement of the new discovery, Jimmy directly arranged what they were going to do next. Mark and Wright confirmed with others again according to the images found by the dock surveillance. Jimmy would walk around the island again after dawn and try to find any clues outside. No matter what the result was, they were about to leave here.

Due to the suddenness of the investigation and the influence of the surrounding environment, the security guards, servants and cleaners on the island were not all taken away for questioning. Instead, the villas and other rooms here were borrowed for temporary detention and preliminary investigation. This also made it convenient for Mark and Wright to question other people, especially after the body of the security guard was found. They re-interrogated those security guards. They had to find out what the missing part in the surveillance was and whether the security guards nearby had found anything abnormal. In short, the two of them would have a heavy task.

Jimmy's reinvestigation of the island is of little significance to the suspect in the bombing. From what we can see so far, he should be very cautious and will basically not leave any useful clues. This is just part of the investigation and cannot be completely ruled out.

The island was not big. Jimmy searched along the small cliff he had discovered before to the location of the villa area, including the location of the body, trying to reproduce the suspect's actions, but indeed did not find any other clear clues.

Mark got some information from a cleaner. After the banquet, they found wet dirt on a shovel, but since it was a common tool, they thought it was used by someone else and not cleaned, so they just cleaned it and put it back in place without paying much attention to it.

A few days passed and the tools were used. The forensic department personnel extracted the fingerprints and went back to confirm. They found that in addition to the cleaner's fingerprints, there were also Jimmy and Wright's fingerprints. This was embarrassing, because one of the two shovels Jimmy picked up happened to be the one the cleaner had pointed out.

The next day, the three men came to the dock with their luggage. Two boats were already in place, so they left first. The other agents and the arrested people behind them would also leave today. Harriton's wife and other suspects had been arranged to go to the Miami office. Their kidnapping case was fully investigated and they needed to return for another part of the investigation.

According to Jimmy's arrangement, Mark flew directly to Los Angeles from Puerto Rico. Jimmy had already called the Los Angeles office and asked for their cooperation. Mark needed to investigate the Harriton Foundation and the Harriton family business, and it would not be possible without the support of the locals.

Wright and Jimmy went to the Puerto Rico Port Authority and asked them to provide AIS information before and after the incident, and then returned to Miami to retrieve the AIS information here.

The AIS positioning information can clearly detect the information of the ships around the explosion. After excluding all the cargo ships preparing to enter the port from other places, three ships were quickly identified, two of which were fishing boats and one was a cargo ship.

The fishing boat did not leave the port of Miami, but happened to pass near the exploded yacht, so it was included in the investigation list. As for the cargo ship, it continued its journey to Europe after the explosion, which basically ruled it out as a suspect.

The investigation of the fishing boat was very painful. For this kind of survival tool-level boat, they would not stop at a commercial dock with many ships, but at a small dock where there was no surveillance. The two contacted the boat owner and asked directly at the dock, but then gave up.

Fishing boats are cleaned every time they go back and forth. It has been more than a week since the incident. Not only did the boat owner deny that a stranger had boarded the boat, even if someone really did board the boat temporarily, they would not have left any useful information.

While Jimmy and the others were scratching their heads, Mark's investigation was not going well either.

The Los Angeles office, like the New York office, is one of the three largest offices of the FBI. With the cooperation of the commercial case investigation team, Mark successfully obtained company information related to the Harriton family, but this information did not contain too many business details, so Mark had to investigate it himself.

Although there was only one person, it was no problem for him to go to several companies of the Harriton family with FBI credentials to question their managers. After all, the murder of the owner of their company was a big deal. In response to Mark's inquiries, in addition to information involving business secrets, he did provide a lot of information about competitors.

Mark would call Jimmy every night to discuss the current progress of the investigation. Even though Jimmy knew that those companies were not the employers behind the suspects, he still asked Mark to continue investigating based on the information about these competitors.

There is no other way. According to the existing clues and investigation direction, Mark's investigation is necessary. Except Jimmy, no one thinks there is anything wrong with this investigation. This is why Mark, who is just a special agent, can get support from the Los Angeles office.

Only three or four days after the investigation, Jimmy received a call from Dave and came to a beachfront villa in Palm Beach. When Jimmy received the call from Dave, he thought something happened in New York. He never expected that Dave would come to Florida and just ask him to meet without mentioning any case on the phone.

Jimmy was no stranger to Palm Beach. Not to mention that he came here for tourism, he also came here directly to take care of Dave when he was shot. However, Dave was attending a banquet that time and stayed in a hotel after leaving the hospital. But this time he actually stayed directly in one of the villas. It is not known whether he bought it.

However, as the boss of the New York office, buying a villa doesn't seem to be a big deal. This kind of person definitely doesn't lack the money.

The villa was not big. Jimmy drove over and knocked on the door. Dave came over to open the door and let Jimmy in. There was no one else in the villa. I don't know if Dave was alone or if everyone else had left so that they wouldn't be disturbed when chatting with Jimmy.

Dave, wearing his home clothes, asked Jimmy to sit down and came over to pour Jimmy a cup of coffee. "Jimmy, how is the investigation of the bombing going?"

Jimmy stood beside the sofa without sitting down: "We already have some clues. We got a not-so-clear image of the suspect from a surveillance camera."

Dave came over with a coffee cup. "Sit down. Don't be so nervous. We're just chatting."

Jimmy took the coffee cup and sat down with Dave. Dave took a sip of his coffee cup and said, "It's been two weeks since the explosion. You've been here investigating for more than a week. How do you feel? Do you have confidence?"

Jimmy: "To be honest, I'm not particularly confident. The suspect is undoubtedly a professional, and is well versed in how to avoid leaving any usable clues, and has no qualms about killing people.

What we know now is that he boarded a yacht on Harriton's island, installed a bomb, and killed a security guard on the island. However, apart from the route he took to get to the island and a blurry image on the dock surveillance, we have no other clues. The person who could do this is definitely not a simple person.

Judging from the wounds he left when he killed the security guard, it would be more appropriate to call him a professional killer rather than an explosives expert. Not everyone can cut the neck from behind, and not do it so cleanly. I went around the island but couldn't find the scene where he killed the security guard. I could only find the body of the security guard. "

Dave nodded. "So you think this is a murder for hire?"

Jimmy: "It is basically certain that the person who did it had a clear goal and did not choose assassination. He used such a violent method to kill people. It is obviously related to the employer's request. Otherwise, for a killer who can get on the island, kill the security guard and leave quietly, it would be no problem to assassinate him directly on the island.

In fact, according to my observations on the island, the security forces there are completely unable to stop a professional killer. Even if he kills Hareton directly and exposes his whereabouts, he can kill the person who finds him and easily escape from the island, and even completely avoid appearing in the monitored area. "

Dave: "Any ideas on the identity of the suspect?"

Jimmy: “No, I have little contact with professional killers in the dark world, so I have no way to judge, but for someone who can install explosives and detonate them remotely, I suspect he may have a military background and should have enough experience in special forces or related industries.

In fact, I am not very interested in the suspect himself. I am more concerned about who hired him. The fact that he asked the killer to blow up Mr. Hareton and his group in public shows that his employer has a great hatred for him. Such a person may cause more trouble. "

Dave nodded again, with a smile on his face. "This is what I and others are worried about. No one can guarantee that they have not offended such a person. It must have cost a lot of money to hire a professional killer to kill Hareton. Have you ever thought about investigating from the perspective of money?"

Jimmy looked at Dave in surprise. Why did he suddenly mention this direction? After taking a sip of coffee, Jimmy asked softly, "Have you received any news?"

Dave: "No, I just listened to your statement and provided a new direction for investigation. The specific case will definitely be handled by you."

Jimmy: “My current arrangement is to have Mark go to Los Angeles to investigate the information of the Harriton Foundation and the Harriton family-related companies to find out if they have any clues that interested parties may take action. Meanwhile, I and the people in the Miami office are investigating the boat that the suspect may have taken and the video records that may have been left at the dock. Currently, there are no definite results on both fronts.

As for the funds, we didn’t keep an eye on them. After all, it was Halidon who died, and there was no point in keeping an eye on his fund flow.”

Dave: "Well, just continue your investigation. Also, don't be anxious, investigate slowly. You should also take care of your health when you come out to investigate. You haven't had a good rest these days, right?"

Jimmy was completely confused. Why did Dave's topic always drift away and change every now and then?
(End of this chapter)