Jimmy looked at the route, marked an intersection on the map, and as it stood, the FBI's investigation seed more effective than Cage's. Once they received information about the gunman's vehicle, so locations along this route also needed to be investigated. If not the gunman himself, at least soone nearby was monitoring Jas's route and tis off work.
After thinking a bit, Jimmy decided not to disrupt the FBI's information search and dialed Cage's number, "Cage, first find out when and where the gunman's car was following Jas, and I'll look for nearby shops with surveillance caras for comparison. Also, send a photo of that car and its license plate."
Cage replied, "Yeah, I've found what you ntioned, but I haven't yet located where the car disappeared. I'll fax it to you later, you can pick it up at headquarters."
Jimmy responded, "I'm at headquarters right now, send it over."
Jimmy left the break room and went to stand by the fax machine. After a while, Cage's docunts ca through. Besides the vehicle photo Jimmy wanted, there was also a map, the snapshots taken by intersection traffic caras, which did not precisely pinpoint the location where the gunman had caught up with Jas, so Cage had simply marked a stretch of road on the map with a bold line.
Taking the docunts, Jimmy walked out of county police headquarters and started driving along the marked route to find where the gunman's car had first caught up to Jas.
The investigation could not directly start from next to county police headquarters. The fact that the gunman had caught up with Jas ant the information was already at hand beforehand, so tracing back from this point made it easier to find out where and when the gunman appeared.
Following the map to the marked road, he parked his car on the roadside, got out, and walked to observe the stores on both sides, primarily checking for external surveillance caras. For stores without surveillance, there was no need to inquire.
After checking a few stores with surveillance, and citing an FBI investigation for permission to view the footage, Jimmy was glad to et his expectations and found the gunman's car in the surveillance video of a store's entrance. This segnt on the video showed the gunman had already followed him, but it was unclear the timing and route differences; the next step would be to deduce it moving forward.
Returning and checking two more streets, Jimmy suddenly noticed sothing unusual in a surveillance video—a white van that looked very familiar, as if he had seen this van in a few other store's surveillance videos.
The reason this struck him as unusual was because Jimmy was particularly sensitive to this type of van. In Manhattan, the surveillance van that Jones drove was this kind of white van, and Jimmy had spent considerable ti inside that surveillance van during initial monitoring phases, usually with Jones.
Although this type of van was common in the United States, the presence of this particular van trailing behind Jas's car at the ti of the incident was highly suspicious to Jimmy.
Jimmy noted the ti and called Cage, asking him to review the traffic footage from that period again to confirm whether the route of this white van coincided with Jas's car.
Cage didn't refuse Jimmy's request and imdiately paused his own investigation to go back and review the traffic footage before and after Jas's incident.
Jimmy stepped onto the road, took out a cigarette pack and lighter, lit a cigarette, and watched the road traffic while waiting for Cage's investigation.
It had been a long ti since he had wandered the streets of Little Rock. Although Little Rock had fewer people and high-rise buildings, it felt much better here than in Manhattan. To put it bluntly, the old white n in the South were much easier to get along with than the cunning ones in the North. Even though the cri rate was not low, it was mostly minor offenses, unlike New York where serious cris piled up, just reading those records was distressing.
About ten minutes later, Cage called back.
Cage said, "Jimmy, you were right. That car had followed Jas not far from headquarters and continued until the gunman's car caught up with Jas. It only turned away at an intersection. If it's not by chance exactly his delivery route, then it might have been the person tracking Jas. Additionally, the license plate shows it's from Tennessee, but the system indicates the plate is fake."
Jimmy, "Very good, track the route of the van and send the photos first. I can't see the license plate in the roadside surveillance. Also, track Jas's location when he was first followed. I'm heading back to headquarters now."
Tis were different, and in that era, there wasn't the capability to receive images on cellphones, making file transfers extrely challenging; the fax machine was undoubtedly the best way to transmit images.
Jimmy ran back to his car and drove back to headquarters where Cage had already sent the fax. Ard with the docunt, Jimmy went directly to the location where the van first followed Jas and started the investigation from there toward headquarters.
After searching around, Jimmy was forced to give up. The shop surveillance systems were oriented towards the interiors and doorways, not capturing the streets, which was normal since surveillance was expensive. Unless necessary, no one was willing to spend extra on a cara specifically for the street view.
Having no choice, Jimmy could only drive to the FBI office in Little Rock.
Jimmy approached Harten, "Harten, help look up a white van. This vehicle was tracking Jas before the incident until the gunman's car caught up, at which point it turned away and left by another route. It's very suspicious, and moreover, it's using a fake license plate."
Harten took the faxed photo from Jimmy and gasped, "This van looks familiar. Our surveillance vans here are of this style."
Jimmy, "Yeah, it's the sa in Manhattan, so I figured it might have been tracking Jas."
Harten, "Wait here for a mont. I'll head over to the vehicle managent office to check whether our surveillance vans have any anomalies."
Harten left without waiting for Jimmy's response, taking the faxed photo with him. Jimmy made himself comfortable, finding the tea room and pouring himself a cup of coffee. He had spent the entire afternoon tracking surveillance footage back and forth; finding a new lead had not been easy. Now he could relax a bit. Investigative matters were best left to specialists, and finding a new clue was already an accomplishnt for Jimmy.
Harten returned quickly, "Jimmy, this isn't one of our vans. I just asked vehicle managent, and all our surveillance vans' movents are recorded. There were no surveillance operations here in Little Rock yesterday."
Jimmy, "Then which departnt could it belong to? Just because it's a surveillance van doesn't an it has to be the FBI; maybe it's another federal agency?"
Harten, "That's possible, but we can't just investigate other agencies directly. We can only follow the leads we have."
Jimmy, "Can your surveillance team spare anyone to investigate this? Sergeant Cage from the county police is also reviewing the footage; maybe we could collaborate?"
Harten, "It's better not to. Separate investigations might uncover different leads. Our people are quite capable; I'll notify them to include this van in their investigation list."
Jimmy nodded, "It's getting late, and you're off work now. Go ahead, I'll handle things with the county police and then find a hotel to rest."
Harten, "Yeah, you should rest early too, as you might be busy without ample ti later."
Jimmy nodded, turned, and left the office. He drove to a hotel near the county police headquarters, a place with which Jimmy was very familiar and felt safe.
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