North American Gunslinger Detective

Chapter 777 Handover
There were eight bodies at the scene of Mrs. Harriton's death, and seven bodies in another abandoned building. This number of deaths was already terrifying, and there were more deaths one after another, and they were all people related to Mrs. Harriton. The LAPD had to block the news and strictly prevent the media from making any connection, otherwise their pressure would not only be the pressure of solving the case, but also the pressure of the public and public opinion.

But such news could not be concealed from the FBI. Dave had people keep an eye on it and informed other people as things in Los Angeles were getting harder to suppress.

In fact, the current situation has completely exceeded the level of their trouble. The FBI Los Angeles office is also paying close attention to this matter, including the small shareholder of the Harriton Foundation who died, whom Dave had mentioned to their boss before, and the old scum who was easily eliminated by Jimmy. People related to Harriton have died one after another in more than a month. In the past, they covered it up and pretended to be natural accidental deaths. Now it has directly developed to the level of a mercenary attack, and the force is getting stronger and stronger. No matter who it is, they will find this matter troublesome.

The only one who knows the inside story is Jimmy, but he is a little depressed now. Many of the people in the information given by Mrs. Hareton can no longer be contacted, and no one knows whether they are dead or in hiding. The lawyer who has seen Mrs. Hareton the most in recent days has also disappeared, and there are fewer and fewer places to get clues.

No one else knows the inside story here, so their investigation can only revolve around the murder of Mrs. Harriton and the shooting in the abandoned building. The focus is on the identities of the attackers and the so-called boss of the consulting company. It is obvious that there must be a mastermind behind this, and this is also the direction of their investigation.

The average number of murders in Los Angeles since 2000 has been close to 500 per year. For this city, the LAPD is under tremendous workload and it is difficult for them to concentrate their investigators on a single case, mainly because there are too many cases.

After investigating the information of Mrs. Hareton's lawyer Sebastian, Detective Cook immediately began to track his whereabouts. Due to the complexity of the case and the large number of deaths, he obtained authorization far beyond the detective's authority and quickly obtained Sebastian's phone records and location information from the FBI Los Angeles office.

On the night Mrs. Hareton was murdered, Sebastian's signal was still in Los Angeles. The next day, he had arrived in San Francisco, and then the signal was lost. This also exceeded the scope of the LAPD's case.

His last location information was in the suburbs of San Francisco, so it was obvious that the other party was very likely there now, or he should be able to find some clues by investigating there. However, if he needed to conduct a cross-region investigation, he would also need some authorization and arrange for personnel to go there, and he did not have enough manpower.

His phone records showed that in the last period of time, Sebastian had not contacted anyone else except Mrs. Hareton. Obviously he had a second or third mobile phone, otherwise it would be difficult to explain why such a senior lawyer had no record of contacting anyone else.

In addition to Sebastian, another important investigation direction is the management of the Harriton Foundation and the executives of multiple industries under Mrs. Harriton's name. Most of these people are in Los Angeles, so it is relatively easy to contact them. Even if they cannot be contacted by phone, they can be investigated in person. Their family and friends are all subject of the investigation.

However, after arranging a group of police officers and detectives to go, they soon received the first bad news: a senior executive under Mrs. Harriton was found dead at home. After the police arrived at the house, they found that no one answered the door. They saw someone lying on the floor from the window next to them. They smashed the glass and climbed in to open the door. They found that the person on the floor was dead. There was no obvious fatal injury at the scene, so they could only wait for the forensic examination.

It was evident that whatever his death might have been, it must have been connected with the murder of Mrs. Hareton.

These cases could no longer be handled independently, and more manpower had to be added to handle the cases together. However, just after Detective Cook had informed his superiors and called together several teams for support, they suddenly received a notice to pack up all case-related files and materials immediately, as people from the FBI Los Angeles office would come over to take over this series of cases.

Cook was completely dumbfounded. He had brought so many people together for several days, and suddenly he was asked to hand over the work. He had just recruited people to help. But there was nothing he could do. After the order was issued, he could only complain a little, and still had to continue to organize the materials for handover.

After Jimmy stayed in the hotel for two days, Dave called again, but this time he didn't want to provide him with information. Instead, he asked him to bring the information to the Los Angeles office the next day, and he would also come over to discuss the details in person.

When the appointed time came, Jimmy arrived at the Los Angeles office and Dave was already there. It was obvious that he had arrived a day earlier, otherwise he would not have been here so soon.

Dave: "Jimmy, did you bring the information?"

Jimmy: "It's all here. I have already compiled part of the report."

Dave nodded. "That's good. Don't keep any information. Let's hand it over today. The Los Angeles office will take over the case later."

Jimmy frowned and asked, "Why? I have been investigating for more than a month..."

Dave: "But the case has not been closed, and people involved are still dying. Give up. Although it will have some impact on you, it is better than being dragged to death on this case. The key is that you are only one person, and there are so many related cases now that you simply cannot follow up on all of them."

Jimmy: "Then loan me a few from the Los Angeles office. I'm sure I can do it."

Dave: "Okay, I know you're not willing to do this, but this is what the headquarters said. We have more manpower in Los Angeles, so it's better for everyone if they take charge. Don't forget that Harriton and the others were originally serving certain people here."

Jimmy: "But why are you in such a hurry to let me hand it over? I'm not prepared at all."

Dave glanced around and whispered, "Remember I told you that Hareton was just someone's white glove? That person was attacked last night. Fortunately, because of Mrs. Hareton's murder, he temporarily adjusted his security. He was just frightened and fell down with some minor injuries, but his life is not in danger."

Jimmy stared at Dave with wide eyes. "Why didn't anyone inform me of such a big thing? This is a major clue. It is very likely that we can find the mastermind behind this."

Dave shook his head. "This should be a matter for California. Let them handle it. The people in the Los Angeles office have already protested to the headquarters. They will take over all the cases. I know you are working hard, but... that's it. There will be a meeting soon. You need to introduce your current investigation progress and hand over all the information to them."

Dave patted Jimmy's arm and said, "Don't get too involved. Some things may not turn out as you wish, but just protect yourself."

Jimmy nodded. It seemed that his fun was about to end. That was good. He had time to meet Roland. "Okay. By the way, I need a vacation. I've been too busy lately. I think..."

Dave: "No problem, I'll give you one month, is that enough?"

Jimmy smiled and said, "That's enough, thank you. I'll get ready now."

Dave nodded and left the room, and Jimmy opened his bag, pulled out his laptop and notepad, and sorted out the contents again.

He had never thought that someone would take over the case in its entirety. Under normal circumstances, he should have submitted his own investigation report, and the case would have been sealed and shelved because the person behind the scenes could not be found. There were many such sealed cases in the FBI files, and there were even many that had not been closed for decades.

Now he had to hand over all his unfinished reports and materials. He had to check them very carefully to avoid exposing himself and to prevent others from suspecting that he was not doing his best.

There was a large conference room with more than a dozen people sitting inside. Dave and another white-haired old man were sitting at the front row. They should be the bosses of the Los Angeles office. There didn't seem to be any young people among the rest, so it seemed that they really took it very seriously.

A man sitting behind Dave and the others stood up and said, "I'm Assistant Detective Supervisor Wade Williams, in charge of the handover of this case."

Jimmy shook hands with him, and after Williams introduced everyone present, Jimmy took out his computer, connected it to the projector, and began to introduce the progress of the investigation of his case.

Because he had not prepared in advance, all the information he had was on his computer, including photos taken at the Miami Port and the private island, other evidence, interrogation reports on those people, etc. It took a long time to display and explain all these contents one by one. After several breaks, he finally finished explaining all the information in the afternoon. As for the handover, it was actually just to organize all the information in his computer and make a copy for them, along with the classification, testimony, and his own report.

Not all the people attending the meeting agreed with Jimmy's investigation, but as the introduction went into depth, they had to admit that the headquarters' decision to arrange for Jimmy to be the only one in charge of the yacht explosion was definitely not a spur of the moment arrangement. Jimmy's investigation of the private island was very detailed, especially his discovery of the person who installed the explosives. The only regret was that the quality of the surveillance video was too low to distinguish the person's appearance, so a targeted wanted warrant could not be issued.

However, it was definitely Jimmy's credit that the body of the missing security guard was found. It also indirectly confirmed the murderer's movement path on the island and outlined a very reasonable process of the crime.

As for his later investigation in Los Angeles, it can only be said that this was the only direction of investigation in the absence of other clues at the time.

Jimmy provided the personnel information and lists that Mrs. Hareton had provided many times. They were all original documents given to him by Mrs. Hareton and Sebastian. These things were enough to confirm Jimmy's efforts during this period. It was only because of Mrs. Hareton's murder that he was unable to continue to expand the scope of the investigation, but the direction of his investigation itself was not a problem.

Such detailed investigation reports, evidence and testimony, as well as the basis for judging the content of each stage of the investigation are all clearly laid out in the open. This is much better than just throwing the information and evidence over and waiting for them to collect and organize it themselves. In fact, if they handed the information over to someone else, they probably wouldn't be able to be so calm. It can only be said that although Jimmy, the Chinese-American agent, is young, he is really experienced and honest in doing things.

It was also the first time that Dave saw the entire content of Jimmy's investigation. Only then did he understand why Jimmy reacted so strongly when he asked him to hand over the case information. No matter who it was, after working hard for a month to investigate so much content, if suddenly someone took advantage of it and took away all the information, they would definitely get furious. The fact that Jimmy was able to be sensible and hand over the case showed that he respected his decision very much and did not make it more difficult for himself.

This is a good guy, capable and obedient. Having such a subordinate is really worry-free.

Jimmy spent the entire day handing over the information and answering other agents' questions about the information. Only after everyone had no questions about the current information did he say goodbye to everyone in the Los Angeles office and left the office with Dave.

After having dinner with Dave and talking about some behind-the-scenes stories that were not convenient to put on paper, Jimmy's case investigation finally came to a very imperfect end.

The next day, Jimmy and Dave flew back to New York together. After parting at JFK Airport, Jimmy finally returned to his long-lost home.

Jimmy had already called Nia last night, so there was no surprise attack this time. So when Jimmy got home, he saw Nia tidying up the room. The house, where she had lived alone for a month, was still a little messy.

Jimmy put down the box, kissed Nia and started to help pack it up. He also chatted with Nia about his work during that time. It was not until they went out to eat together in the evening that he mentioned Roland.

It has been three days. Jimmy tried to call Roland, but was unable to get through. If he didn't hear from him again, he would go to Maine to look for him. Although Roland said that Jimmy didn't need to look for him, it was rare to get news from him. Now he didn't have to go to work, so he wanted to see Roland earlier.

However, Nia's opinion must be considered in this matter. After all, he has been on a business trip for a month, and it is somewhat unreasonable for him to set off for Maine again when he comes back. So he will stay at home with Nia for two days first.

After dinner, the two went to the bar and sat for a while before returning home. After entering the house, they hugged and kissed each other. Jimmy hooked his leg to close the door, and moved towards the room while taking off his clothes. Although it was still a little early and the sound insulation of this apartment building was not very good, it was a reunion after all, so Jimmy certainly needed to work harder and try harder.

(End of this chapter)