In addition, there are the night school courses for the first half of next year. Based on the previous courses, it was conservatively estimated that it wouldn't be a problem to obtain 1/3 of the credits. This could be discussed with the community college after the new year to see how to handle it.
While Jimmy was hopefully designing plans for next year, the detectives of the LRPD Detective Unit were desperately sorting through materials.
Although the anti-swastika symbol and the tripod leg pattern weren't very unique, the two shootings couldn't be overlooked because both incidents occurred at midnight, which absolutely indicated premeditated acts. Such insanely murderous criminals couldn't possibly stop at just these two cases; more plans must have been in preparation.
The detectives began to collect surveillance information around the scenes of the crimes and also arranged for patrol officers to inquire locally, hoping to find some leads.
As for the two victims, no further information was available. Their fingerprints hadn't matched any in the criminal database, and they had no identification on them. Their clothing was ordinary; the only certainty was that both had been bound, showing bruises on their bodies and arms from the ropes.
In the missing persons reports from 911 and various police stations, no suitable identity matched either. If it wasn't for a short disappearance, where family members hadn't yet reported it, it was very likely that they weren't local residents.
In order to quickly resolve the identity of the deceased, LRPD directly published relevant information to other police agencies in the Little Rock-North Little Rock metropolitan area, requesting checks against their missing person information. They also mobilized informants around the crime scenes in Little Rock to try and find other clues.
The patrol officers of LRPD were less fortunate. The body in the South District of the county police was found on a park basketball court with no nearby residents; only one custodian was there that day, and no vehicles or similar information had been noticed, so door-to-door inquiries were deemed unnecessary. On the other hand, the body found in the city had many nearby residents, so additional officers were called in to inquire locally.
Someone was also sent to dispatch to retrieve surveillance footage of nearby intersections around midnight, hoping to detect any anomalies.
While LRPD was busy, Jimmy began to enjoy his New Year's holiday. Officers had rotating days off; they wouldn't all be absent at the same time unless they voluntarily applied for overtime. Otherwise, they would rest during their scheduled time off.
Because it was only a three-day holiday, Jimmy didn't wander off but instead urgently contacted the part-time accountant he had hired previously to verify the sales data and royalties for Zhuoyue Lighting. Since it was part-time, the accountant would visit Zhuoyue Lighting just once to check the sales data rather than staying onsite to verify all sales and other data. This would certainly result in a loss of some royalties, but Jimmy had no choice; he was unable to hire a full-time accountant. Of course, since the accountant was working on a holiday, paying extra was a must.
For Jimmy, this was just a solution to his financial issues, not a path to wealth. Under current conditions, he would take whatever money he could get, hoping to license more clients in the future and eventually hire a full-time accountant to manage his earnings.
Additionally, there were the company's financial management and tax filings to handle—yes, corporate taxes, not Jimmy's personal ones.
Jimmy's personal tax matters couldn't be postponed much longer — tax season was in April, and he had joined the county police in January. Delaying further could lead to trouble.
Fortunately, the funds in the company account were sufficient. He was already following the accountant's suggestions, purchasing nearly all his daily and business essentials under the company's name to use up the company's cash. Once the funds increased, he planned to buy a house under the company's name to live in, getting rid of the rented life.
Once the funds were checked by the accountant, an appropriate portion would be allocated to the stock market. Jimmy didn't understand much about it, but the funds weren't substantial, so it was worth a try. Because the world was different now, he couldn't just pick a familiar company name and go all in on it.
Besides handling these personal matters, the only things left for Jimmy were exercising and leisure activities. The holiday wasn't long, so there wasn't much else he could do.
Back at the police station, Jimmy re-entered the arduous support work.
While Jimmy was resting, there was a new development in LRPD's case - the Criminal Investigation Department of the ASP had come to review their files, because a similar shooting had occurred in Fayetteville in the northwest corner of Arkansas. On Christmas Eve at midnight, a white male had been executed by gunfire and arranged in the anti-swastika symbol, with no clues to the shooter found either.
The commotion caused by Little Rock's LRPD had been quite significant. While they were consulting around, it piqued the interest of the ASP Criminal Investigation Department. After contacting various police stations, they confirmed that the case in Fayetteville was similar and decided to merge it with this investigation. Initially, the Fayetteville Police Department had intended to treat it as a vendetta killing.
Now in Arkansas, three simultaneous cases had been discovered. Based on the modus operandi, they were definitely linked and carried out by a gang. Dealing with it solely through LRPD wouldn't be possible, so the investigation was escalated to be handled centrally by the ASP Criminal Investigation Department.
Meanwhile, the detectives had an uneasy premonition that there were other cases out there, probably in remote locations that hadn't been discovered yet.
Another issue was with the body marked with a three-bent-leg symbol. If these three cases were the work of the same group, then the symbol should be a consistent anti-swastika. Why then was there a discrepancy in the three-bent-leg symbol?
Either there was a mistake in the arrangement, perhaps they were too hasty and did not open the arms or fold them to the correct angle, or this case was not carried out by the same team as the other two. Surely, it couldn't be that two gangs chose to commit their crimes together.
At the same time, the Criminal Investigation Department began checking missing person lists across regions and confirmed the information on three individuals, though this process was time-consuming and wasn't as simple as just pressing a button in a game.
The anti-swastika case had little to do with Jimmy. Aside from responding to a call to view a body one evening, he hadn't been involved in the investigation, so he was unaware of its current progress.
Jimmy was still tasked with supporting and assisting various departments with additional work, such as currently aiding the jail guards in transferring detainees to the prison.
After both Christmas and New Year's Day, the detention center was surprisingly full. Believe it or not, during the most important holidays of the year, instead of spending time with family, people were out causing trouble and getting caught. It's hard to fathom what goes through the minds of some Americans.
The county jail was also almost at full capacity. Some lawmakers had suggested decriminalizing minor misdemeanors and replacing detention with community service, but no such resolution had been passed by the state legislature yet.
Some cells in the county jail had now been converted to accommodate multiple inmates, handling the increasing number of criminals.
While there were private prisons in other places, Plaskey County didn't have any. So, if the number of inmates increased further, transferring them to other prisons would have to be considered, or perhaps they would indeed switch to community service as an alternative for detaining some petty criminals like those guilty of minor thefts.
The inmates were also a resource, the basis for the jails' revenue, so no prison would willingly send their inmates to another facility, unless they were high-risk felons.
Jimmy drove the police car following the transport vehicle toward the prison, located outside the suburban area, about a 40-minute drive.
After leaving the urban area, an accident occurred. At an intersection, a speeding pickup truck crossed and struck the rear half of the transport vehicle, causing it to tip over and its rear segment to rupture.
The speeding pickup also spun due to the impact and ended up hitting a tree on the other side of the road.
The pursuing LRPD police car also stopped at the intersection, plunging the scene into chaos.
Because Jimmy was following the transport vehicle, he managed to stop the police car with an emergency brake, preventing a pile-up accident.