Hearten had an extremely high opinion of Jimmy's role in the case; initially just investigating another incident, Jimmy discovered a clue and immediately realized there was a problem, reported it to the FBI, and later his tracking of the robbers was very professional—they never noticed anything unusual about Jimmy's police car.
When the gunfight started, Jimmy intentionally left Hearten's side to restrain the robbers, creating a time difference to allow Hearten and the others to arm themselves, which played a key role in the entire battle. Moreover, after conducting preliminary autopsies on the four dead robbers, it was determined that two of them had been hit by pistol bullets, and looking back at the battle scene, there was no question that Jimmy had taken those two out.
As for the last two killed by rifle fire, it's highly likely that Jimmy did them in as well.
This might sound a bit idealistic, but Hearten was very certain that all four robbers had been taken out by Jimmy alone—he believed that if anyone else had made the kills, they definitely would have reported it at the end.
After hearing the whole process and asking some details, the boss had Hearten leave to write his report. The content about Jimmy was limited to the two people clearly killed by pistol fire; as for the other two, they were considered casualties of stray bullets, and it was uncertain who was responsible.
As for Jimmy's initial discovery of the clue and his tracking, according to the prior arrangement between Hearten and Jimmy, the FBI served as the initiating point, inviting Jimmy to investigate.
While Hearten was writing his report, the boss also took out Hearten's previous recommendation report, added some personal content to it, and faxed a new copy to the headquarters.
For the FBI, a personnel recommendation from an agent is different from one with a supervisor's rationale. After verifying that Jimmy was studying at a community college and considering his circumstances, the recommendation was ultimately approved.
The FBI doesn't require every agent to be a master at solving cases; they equally need agents with high combat skills as well as those proficient in accounting, finance, internet, and other areas to perform intelligence analysis.
Aside from his educational background, Jimmy didn't have any other issues, and with the new rationale, he was naturally approved.
Upon receiving the news, Hearten immediately called Jimmy, telling him to wait for the admission notification from the FBI National Academy.
After waiting so long, Jimmy finally had an answer and was very happy. The next day at the station, he shared the news with James. However, it seemed James had something on his mind; he didn't mention it to Jimmy but instead told him not to rush into resigning.
Since the FBI National Academy had not yet sent Jimmy the admission notice and it wasn't known when he could attend, Jimmy was not in a hurry anymore. He decided not to discuss resigning yet and continued to work as usual. Because of the cash transport robbery case, Hearten had temporarily suspended Jimmy's investigation of the Cult, since the robbery alone would keep them busy for a while.
Especially after 9/11, their original priority was terrorists, and in Arkansas, there were relatively few such cases to work on. This cash transport robbery was indeed a rare major case for them, with two living suspects; it was time to dig deeper. Thus, the Cult case was naturally deprioritized.
For Jimmy, without active case investigation, what remained was routine. Having provided support for a year, he was well-versed in his duties and resumed his schedule of slacking off and studying, hoping to quickly master all the material and complete his studies in this term to obtain his diploma.
James, on the other hand, started to stir things up. As the sheriff, he was well aware of Jimmy's involvement in various cases and his contributions. Now that Jimmy had chosen to go to the FBI, as his superior and elder—well, at least he considered himself an elder—it was necessary to prepare a reward ceremony for Jimmy's departure from the county police to join the FBI.
By the end of October, Jimmy finally received the email from the academy, informing him that the courses prepared for those internally recommended would start in January, after the previous session ended.
The FBI National Academy would start in January, which perfectly allowed Jimmy to complete his final exams in December—nothing could be more perfect. It was quite normal, considering the academy had limited space and capacity. The current session of students hadn't graduated yet; adding a new group would have significantly impacted them. January was just right, one session could end and another could begin, allowing them to complete this additional session and then take a short break of a couple of months before starting a new one in August.
Jimmy carried on with his slacking and studying schedule as planned, and continued his investigation. With only two months away from Christmas, he had taken the time to check the remaining German villas, finding nothing unusual. Although Hearten hadn't assigned him further tasks, Jimmy wanted to see it through to the end—there was no harm in it since he was free anyway.
Last time, the focus on German descent led nowhere; obviously, a mistake in his judgement—NC wasn't exclusive to Germans, and others could be fanatics too.
This time, Jimmy simply gave up on system searches and instead took to the streets with a warrant as a guise for personal reconnaissance. Using Heart Eye, which improved with use, the distance could now easily reach 20 meters, though he wondered about the limit.
For the roadside cottages, he could easily observe them from the roadside without having to stop his vehicle. For those a bit farther, he would directly approach and inspect, with the warrant as a cover, silencing any complaints. James also knew about Jimmy's plan and did not stop him, which amounted to acquiescence. Should anyone complain about Jimmy, it could easily be handled.
With numerous houses to check, Jimmy spent a lot of time on this task, strictly adhering to a two-hour daily limit. In November, he finally completed the survey of all the riverside villas, identifying four with anomalies. It must be said, owning several guns in a Southern state was quite ordinary; three of the abnormal villas had excessive weaponry, akin to small armories.
The last anomaly was a villa with a very large basement that contained nothing but a conspicuous circular platform. Jimmy marked this site as unusual precisely because of the platform. Normally, basements are for storage—if one was entirely empty, it could make sense, but this platform was too conspicuous and reminded Jimmy of ritual altars or bases for statues.
Jimmy marked all four anomalous locations. The rest was up to Hearten and his team to investigate; Jimmy couldn't entirely replace the FBI, as they were still the lead on the case, and Jimmy was merely there to assist.