Jimmy returned to the entrance of the gallery and waited for Peter.
Peter's investigation was clearly more thorough than Jimmy's, taking nearly 40 minutes to return, during which time Diana and Jones had already arrived at the entrance to join Jimmy in waiting for Peter.
Peter, "Any findings?"
Diana, "Rachel is not from New York. She only has a few acquaintances here. We need to go back and check on these people."
Jones, "The last gallery staff member left at 9 last night. She locked the front door first, then changed clothes in the back lounge and left through the back door, which matches the surveillance footage. The two thieves entered the gallery through the front door at 1 AM when there were no staff on duty. The lock on the front door wasn't damaged; it must have been picked."
Peter, "Jimmy, is there any surveillance that can view the gallery from the left?"
Jimmy, "No, the surveillance cameras in these stores are internal only; they don't monitor the outside. But I noticed an ATM across the street." Jimmy pointed at the ATM he'd found last, "Not sure if the ATM camera caught a glimpse, we will have to check with the bank."
Peter, "Let's go have a look."
Jimmy led Peter across the street to the ATM. Peter examined the position of the ATM's camera and shook his head, "We can't see the entrance from here."
Jimmy, "At least it might be possible to see the thieves' vehicle, then we can check the intersection's traffic cameras for comparison. That's still a clue."
Peter, "You're right. Jones, take note of the ATM number and we'll check the surveillance footage later. Let's head back now." Jones nodded, took out a notebook and pen from his pocket, and began to write down the ATM number and note its location.
Peter and the others drove back to Federal Square, and Jimmy, Jones, and Diana returned to their desks to start checking records. Meanwhile, Jimmy, well, started daydreaming, as his involvement in the morning's investigation had not been particularly significant.
Peter went upstairs and returned to his office, worked on his computer for a while, then took some printed documents from the printer to Assistant Agent Supervisor Rees Hughes's office.
Peter, "Hughes, take a look at this." Peter placed the documents in front of Hughes.
Hughes picked them up. These were Jimmy's files from the police in Plaskey County. Naturally, the FBI had access to all his information as Harten had provided the files to FBI initially, and of course, Harten had obtained them directly from the county police.
In this era, not all records were yet digitized in the computer systems; many times, they took the form of handwritten reports stored in archives, which were entered into systems as needed. If someone was lazy, none would be entered, which was normal depending on one's diligence.
When Jimmy reported to the FBI's Manhattan office, he had brought only the academy's report with him, and previously, Peter had seen only those records provided by the academy.
The disparity between the two sets of documents was vast. From just the academy's documents, Jimmy seemed only strong in actual case scenarios and somewhat weaker in other areas. However, with the county police's files added, Jimmy was pure material for an action officer and, moreover, at an elite level.
Hughes, "Impressive track record. Is there an issue with this officer? Do we need to investigate him? This seems like a case that the Arkansas office should handle."
Peter was speechless. "This is our department's new trainee detective Jimmy Yang. Quantico urgently added a batch of trainees this year, and he just reported to us yesterday."
Hughes, "Is there a problem?"
Peter, "There seems to have been an issue with the academy's personnel arrangements. Someone like him should be assigned to organized crime investigation, not our group."
Hughes, "I can inquire with the academy. Anything else?"
Peter, "No, that's all."
Hughes waved his hand, and Peter left his office. Hughes picked up the phone on his desk and called Quantico, then came directly to Peter's office.
Hughes, "Peter, keep him on for now, see how things go."
Peter, "OK, got it."
As Hughes left Peter's office and headed back to his own, he looked back at Jimmy, who was seated downstairs. The team, comprising two black men and a Chinese, indeed stood out. It looked like it was time to stir things up.
Jimmy was unaware of the conversation between Peter and Hughes and did not realize he had almost been ousted from the elite group. He continued to review the gallery's surveillance footage on his computer.
Maybe because of his frequent use of the "Heart Eye" function, Jimmy now had a strong spatial composition ability. Today, having confirmed the exhibition hall's surveillance locations, he could mentally construct the entire gallery structure from the front to the back door while watching the video.
The two thieves had entered from the front door and in the sequence from right to left, they took the paintings off the walls, all complete with frames, not disassembled but piled in the middle of the exhibition hall, and finally carried them out the door in one trip.
With 10 framed paintings not being thick, they stacked them together, and two people could carry them out, giving them multiple options for their vehicle. Depending on the size of the paintings, if not too fussy, even a sedan could suffice to fit them in the rear seat space.
Diana had already found and printed the information on Rachel's few friends and integrated it with the information on gallery staff that Jones had printed out. She walked to Peter's office and handed them to him. However, Peter did not call everyone for a discussion, probably still waiting for the ATM footage.
They went out for fast food at noon, and Jimmy and his team returned to the office early since they had already contacted the bank in the morning to access the surveillance. They should be able to get it in the afternoon.
Jones checked the computer, and the video was already in his email.
Jones, "The bank's surveillance is in, let's go to the conference room." Jones took his computer upstairs, "Peter, we've got the ATM surveillance."
In the conference room, the projector started playing the surveillance footage. Given that the primary target of the ATM cameras was the people in front of the ATM, the clarity and coverage were not as good as other surveillance systems.
Jones advanced the footage to around 12:30 AM. Since it was midnight, there weren't many cars on the road. From then until 1 AM, they saw several dozen vehicles.
Peter, "Jones, contact the 911 dispatch center and get the surveillance from both crossroads. Do a comparison of vehicle types and times, eliminate all cars that left quickly, and focus on the remaining ones."
Jones, "I've already contacted the dispatch center. They haven't sent the footage yet."
Peter, "OK, let's focus on these people. Over 90% of art theft cases involve insiders, employees, acquaintances of the artists, etc. So, we start with these people. Diana."