novelraw Chapter 1275 - 697: Speculation 2
Chapter 1275 - 697: Speculation 2
The interrogation of that small-time thug was relatively simple; he didn't know the names of those two individuals, they were just street brothers, and the matter wasn't complicated. He didn't think too much about it; stealing a car was such a trivial matter, not worth wasting brain cells on, because it was just too commonplace.
However, he could confirm that those two people were from the Jenkins team, which is an underworld term. In the FBI's files, they are known as the Abraham gang.
This is a crime syndicate headed by Abraham Jenkins. They operate gambling, smuggling, and illegal arms trading, and there are clear records that they had planned and executed organized robbery operations. The files record a cash transport robbery and a bank robbery highly suspected to be the handiwork of the Abraham gang.
Abraham Jenkins is an intellectual crime boss who was once imprisoned for a bank robbery. However, because no one was injured and he was holding a toy gun that shot BB pellets, which he had modified to look no different from a real gun, he successfully intimidated the security guards and staff on-site.
After being captured by the police, he spent some money to successfully reduce his sentence and was quickly paroled out of prison. After that, he began to form his own team to carry out planned robbery operations. This is why he's known as the Jenkins team in the underworld. However, as their personnel and territorial reach expanded, they formed a well-known criminal organization, which is referred to as the Abraham gang by the FBI.
After briefing everyone in the meeting room about the relevant information, Peter and Jimmy were now a bit puzzled. Something was off; the two missing agents were investigating the case of a girl being kidnapped, imprisoned, and abused. Why would they be connected to a gang like the Jenkins team? Their crimes have nothing to do with kidnapping girls.
Peter frowned, waved for unrelated people to leave, leaving only a few agents and Jimmy. After closing the meeting room door, Peter arranged for an agent to lead a search at the homes of the two missing agents, claiming it was to find clues about their disappearance, not overlooking any possibility. The focus was to check if they received any black money, as such money would likely not be in a bank but possibly at home.
After arranging the tasks, he voiced his suspicion direction. The Jenkins team has gambling and smuggling operations. Growing into such a large gang in Washington, D.C., they must have connections above. Could it be that the disappearance of the two agents is unrelated to the case they were investigating?
This possibility is still quite high; if the two agents truly were involved in some gang-related business, then this situation could be troublesome.
Benjamin Walker is a computer expert and has just transferred to fieldwork; he shouldn't have any problems.
Alex Becker is a senior agent in D.C., with many years of field experience. If there's really an issue, his problem is significant, and he's not a senior manager. To want to be a gang's behind-the-scenes boss, he's certainly not qualified, so there must be a bigger player in the D.C. office involved in this affair.
His fallout with the gang was likely due to certain matters or a dispute over profit distribution. He thought that with the FBI identity, the Jenkins team members would have some scruples, so they might not have been vigilant during the field meeting, being directly ambushed by the Jenkins team.
Based on this deduction, the two people the Jenkins team arranged to meet Alex Becker should have been prepared in advance, meaning they had already planned to eliminate Alex Becker, which is why such an arrangement was made.
However, they are a gang group; why would they involve the Tucker family in getting a pickup? This is another point that doesn't make sense.
Peter and Jimmy discussed various possibilities here, but they still couldn't fully connect the entire line, so they had to temporarily stop the discussion, and everyone took action separately. Part of the team followed Peter's arrangement to search the two agents' homes, while the other part began to trace their movement direction based on previous phone numbers.
Jimmy's group naturally handled the tracking. The phone movement directions and prolonged stop times in various locations were previously marked by the technical staff, which saved them much time.
Bob, who saw them off, had already given the pickup drop-off location and time. After comparing with this trajectory, Jimmy's team only needed to investigate the subsequent section of the road.
Hope was still driving, with Jimmy in the passenger seat, holding two maps for comparison: "They stayed for two hours each in Lanham and Laurel after leaving D.C. What do you think they were doing?"
Hope replied, "Eating? In such a short time, they shouldn't have had time to deal with Becker and Walker, especially since Walker was shot. If surgery was needed, it would take at least several hours."
Jimmy said, "Right, so we should first check the areas around their stops. If it's a hotel or restaurant, they were probably dining. If it's a hospital or clinic, or a pet clinic, they might have been receiving emergency surgery, not fully treating him."
Hope responded, "Got it, I'll first take a round following their departure route."
Bob didn't lead them in a straight line out of D.C., so Hope and Jimmy retraced Bob's route to ensure they wouldn't miss any road information. With the technical department's provided phone location track information, the route was also more precise.
In Lanham, the phone stayed at two locations, one for over ten minutes and another for two hours. Jimmy's group checked these two places; one was a gas station with a nearby second-hand store, but neither had surveillance. The heavy traffic at the gas station meant they couldn't remember the black pickup, leaving Jimmy and his team at a loss.
The second location was interesting; it was a café, but there was a small alley beside it leading to a parking lot's back door of an auto repair shop. Through the parking lot's back door, they noticed a pickup truck with a partially exposed license plate resembling the one they sought; at least the visible part matched the number. With the back door chained shut, they entered through the front door, demanding to check the cars in the back parking lot under the name of the FBI.
Although it wasn't Washington, D.C., suppressing a few auto shop workers was no problem for the FBI. They easily reached an agreement with the manager and found the pickup in the back. Although it had been simply washed, remnants of blood were still in some corners.
The vehicle was about to be dismantled, suddenly becoming a kidnapping case's transportation tool. The auto shop was unlucky; someone had bought a car and used it as a deduction. Usually, just dismantling it, turning the pickup into parts and scrap, would have been fine. But due to their delay in handling it, Jimmy discovered it.
The auto shop manager was now stunned, and under Hope's gun, he could only cooperate in finding the documents. Jimmy's team successfully retrieved the vehicle driven by two Jenkins team members upon departure. The license plate had been reclaimed; it carried only a temporary paper plate, making it harder to trace. However, they had at least confirmed the target abandoned the initial pickup. They clearly planned this, but the plan had many flaws.
Jimmy called Peter, reporting the current investigation findings to continue tracking.
Meanwhile, Peter began contacting the Baltimore, Maryland, FBI office, as relying solely on Jimmy's team was a bit troublesome, especially regarding surveillance information needed as they continued their tracking. The local office was more convenient than the headquarters.