Jimmy had again come to the county government office. This time, he brought afternoon tea—a gesture many appreciated, although accessing certain information was never really a problem.
On Jimmy's map, the riverside villas were already marked. With addresses, searching for people was relatively easier, though he couldn't take up too much of their time, so it took Jimmy two days to get everything sorted.
In total, he identified seven houses; the owners were of German descent. This was deduced not only from their surnames but mainly because the ethnicity was noted in a considerable portion of their personal records. Initially, these seven individuals would be the primary targets; if none were involved, he could check others as well. After all, he was just assisting with the case, and there was no deadline.
The reason he didn't use the police system for a direct search was because it was designed for searching individual backgrounds, not for querying property ownership. In the United States, governmental agency systems were not unified. Apart from the Federation agencies that could perform comprehensive searches, entities could generally only access information within their jurisdiction.
Of course, the dispatch center's system had access to a lot of information, but asking Jimmy to request hundreds of queries from the dispatch center might just have led its supervisor to aim a gun at his heart in frustration.
By the way, once the Department of Homeland Security in the United States was established later, it would become the repository of the most comprehensive information, integrating multiple Federation agency databases, including the infamously well-equipped National Security Bureau.
It wasn't too tough anyway—making a trip to the county government to pick out individuals of interest and then cross-referencing them later was feasible.
Jimmy, with the information of seven individuals, began focused inspections of their seven houses. Of course, he couldn't just barge in for a search without a warrant, but Jimmy had advantages others did not. Since these were suspected bases, they would undoubtedly have a variety of secret rooms and basements, or possibly large caches of weapons or statues, which were all considered suspicious.
The Arkansas River turned southeast at the eastern edge of Little Rock, and the closest of Jimmy's search results was at a bend in the river. Jimmy drove the police car across the road, approaching the riverside villa. This time, to avoid suspicion during his reconnaissance, he purposefully brought along two wanted posters from the police station, featuring uncaught criminals involved in heinous crimes.
Jimmy parked his car in front of the villa and initiated a Heart Eye scan of the house while walking up to the door and ringing the bell, "Plaskey County Police, please open the door."
This house seemed normal. There was one person on the second floor, but no one else was detected in other rooms. There was a basement which, judging by the spatial layout and items stored, appeared to be just a storage space filled with furniture.
The person from the second floor heard the doorbell and came downstairs, a middle-aged woman in home attire opened the door.
Jimmy said, "Hi, ma'am, sorry to disturb you. I am from the Plaskey County Police. Have you seen this person?" Jimmy held up a wanted poster for the woman to see.
The woman glanced at it and said, "No, I've never seen them. What did she do?"
Jimmy took back the wanted poster and replied, "Kidnapping a child. Ma'am, please keep an eye out, and if you have any information, contact the county police. By the way, how many people live here? Is there anyone else at home?"
The woman replied, "I live alone."
Jimmy said, "Okay, thank you. Please stay safe."
Jimmy turned and left, his legitimate pretext for the initial house scan complete. Based on the scan results and what he saw inside after the door was opened, this appeared to be a normal residence.
He investigated the second villa for the same reason, which from a Heart Eye Observation seemed to be a regular domestic environment as well. After surveying the two villas, Jimmy returned to the police station. James had only authorized two hours—modesty and rules are important; he had to go back, even if just to kill time at the station.
Jimmy was busy with Harten's case while Harten himself was also suffering. Jimmy's educational credentials indeed got stuck, so to add some weight to Jimmy's application, Harten not only reported the cases they worked on together but also sent over Jimmy's records from the police department.
With Jimmy's capabilities, at a time when the FBI urgently needed staff, they should have been willing to overlook certain less critical points, considering that the FBI's top priority now is counter-terrorism. Having a high-impact detective is definitely much more effective than temporarily assembling a support force to fight against terrorists.
For Harten, what started as a mere friendly recommendation suddenly turned into a troublesome issue for him. Now, stuck between a rock and a hard place, he had no choice but to continue supplementing materials. Whether Jimmy would need to attend an interview later was still an unknown.
However, Harten obviously didn't know that Jimmy was running back and forth for his case and had already made significant progress. If he knew, maybe it would have eased his mind a bit.
The next day, Jimmy returned to the highway by the Arkansas River, aiming to visit the remaining 5 households, though they were quite far apart. However, Jimmy was pressed for time, with only 2 hours at his disposal.
The first house was empty. Jimmy had scanned the entire house by the time he rang the doorbell. Clearly, it was a vacation home; completely unoccupied and the furniture was covered with a soft contour, no signs of a basement or hidden rooms, and no traces of weapons.
At the second house, Jimmy rang the doorbell. While waiting for someone to answer the door, his phone suddenly rang.
Jimmy took out his phone, apologized to the person who answered the door, asked him to wait for a moment at the door, and then walked to the roadside to answer the call—it was Harten.
Harten cut straight to the chase, "Jimmy, you've been attending community college, right? For how long? And when are you likely to graduate?"
Jimmy: "What's the problem? I should finish by December this year if things go well. The community college courses aren't that hard."
Harten: "OK, that's it for now. I'll talk to you later. Goodbye."
Jimmy moved the phone away from his ear and looked at it in slight confusion. Was Harten pushing for an internal recommendation and then hit a snag with his education?
Jimmy put the phone away and returned to the door.
Jimmy: "Sorry, I just got an important call. I'm an officer from Plaskey County. Are there other people in your house right now?"
Homeowner: "My wife is inside. What's the matter, officer?"
Jimmy: "Well, we received a tip that someone resembling a suspect from a wanted notice was reported in the area. We need your help to see if you've spotted her."
The homeowner glanced at the wanted notice, shook his head, and then called his wife to look as well. Both said they hadn't seen her.
Jimmy took back the wanted notice, expressed his gratitude to the couple, and then drove off. It was a single-story wooden house, very simple in structure. Jimmy had already seen everything when he rang the doorbell, but he went through the process to make his actions look normal.
Then, on his way to the third house, something unusual happened. When Jimmy arrived at the third house, he noticed two SUVs parked in front of the house. He got out of his car and approached the house, where he could see six people inside holding objects that, from their shape, could be shotguns or rifles, with various objects strewn unevenly on the table, difficult to identify from the lines.