Tom: "Very good. You're cautious, and that's a good thing. That phone was left for you to prove my identity, in case I had an accident, and could potentially save your life under special circumstances. But at the time, I didn't know someone was targeting me. If you really had made contact, you would have been dragged into it too."

Jimmy: "Tom, tell me about it. I'm still confused."

Tom shook his head again: "This isn't something a police officer can meddle in. It involves many big players. I'll handle it."

Jimmy also shook his head: "I'm no longer with the police department. I went to the FBI Academy at the beginning of the year. Now I'm an agent in the FBI's Manhattan office, just temporarily reassigned to Dallas. Trust me, I've changed from before."

Tom looked at Jimmy without saying anything, perhaps thinking about something. After a moment, Tom shook his head: "It's not the time yet. You don't understand Langley at all. Getting involved might lead them to set their sights on you."

Jimmy: "I hadn't thought about this, but since you showed up, I suspect that James getting shot might really be related to you."

Tom: "What makes you suspicious? I haven't grasped the specifics yet."

Jimmy: "James was shot on the road after work and then taken to the hospital. When I investigated later, I found that the gunman's target was indeed James, not a random shooting.

When James left the police station, there was a surveillance van tracking him. After the gunman caught up with James, the van left."

The gunman's car has been found in the Arkansas River. The gunman's modus operandi is entirely different from the usual gang shooters. Additionally, we tracked down that surveillance van to an auto repair shop in the east side of the city. The people inside were injured in a shootout with us, and now the FBI's Little Rock office is interrogating them, hoping to get some clues."

Tom: "An auto repair shop on the east side of town? Is there a middle-aged man, Caucasian, who doesn't like to grow a beard?"

Jimmy was shocked: "How do you know? The owner of the repair shop is called William. He fits the description you gave."

Tom: "Damn, that's one of the CIA's domestic contact points. I've had quite a few dealings with him before.

William was a CIA intelligence operative before. A few years ago, he left the CIA, but he didn't completely sever ties. He opened an auto repair shop in his hometown. We go to him for weapons and supplies.

Outwardly, William is the owner of the repair shop; in reality, he's a contractor. Some of the things we can't do ourselves, we leave to people like him to handle."

Jimmy: "He's been shot, a total of 5 people were captured, 4 of them injured. By the way, has he received counter-interrogation training? If he's interrogated by the FBI like an ordinary person, we might not get anything out of him."

Tom: "Of course, he has. So it's not a possibility, it's a certainty we won't get anything. Since they've acted out, there must be some slip-up somewhere. Why would they target James?"

Jimmy: "Silencing witnesses? Guilt by association? What exactly did you do? And, it's been over a year, if it was really about silencing someone, it should have started earlier, why now? Did they discover that you're not dead?"

Tom: "Let's not talk about it today. I need to investigate a bit. I'll contact you." After speaking, Tom turned and walked towards the trees, then he pushed out a motorcycle, started it, and left.

Watching Tom leave, Jimmy didn't hurry away. Instead, he sat down on a bench by the lake, needing to further sort through the events of the past few days.

Tom's appearance had led to a huge deviation from Jimmy's original plan. He had thought it was just a case of revenge, with someone after James for his past as a long-time police officer, who was now a police chief. It wasn't unusual for James to have unresolved enmities. Therefore, Jimmy had been focused on finding the gunman, to then trace back to the mastermind behind it all, eliminating the problem once and for all.

Now, with Tom showing up, a man who was presumed dead for over a year, and a member of a special agency at that, the variables were too great. The person surveilling James turned out to be a former CIA, which meant James might have been dragged into something serious by Tom, leading to someone wanting to silence him permanently by killing off all related parties.

William, the former CIA intelligence officer, must be the key then, but Harten had made it clear not to involve Jimmy, and besides, William was directly knocked out by Jimmy. How could he gain William's trust and make him spill the truth?

Tom sure had a knack for digging holes for himself. If he hadn't known anything, it wouldn't have mattered, but knowing and not being able to plot against William was itching in his mind.

Right, there was also that matter he forgot to ask about—the signatures on his file; those might come in handy later. He'd have to have a good chat with Tom when he got back.

Glancing around and seeing no one, Jimmy stood up, drove away from the lakeside, and returned to his hotel to rest some more.

Waking up in the morning, Jimmy felt vaguely as if he had dreamed something, but the thought of Tom made him check his phone immediately. The call in the wee hours was indeed in his call history. Jimmy saved the number, then got up to wash and dress.

Leaving to grab breakfast, Jimmy arrived at the county police headquarters. Cage should have finished checking that car by now, since almost a day had passed. Jimmy found Cage in the office; due to James' case, Cage didn't go on his usual patrol in the district but stayed at headquarters instead.

Jimmy, "Cage, is the check from yesterday finished?"

Cage looked up at Jimmy, "No leads. The car was soaked in the river for a day. All prints were washed off, and there was no personal belongings inside. It's spotless."

Jimmy frowned. If there were no leads here, he'd have to rely on the folks at the garage, which would be quite troublesome. "Not a single clue?"

Cage, "Yeah, I asked around. After soaking in the Arkansas River for a day, especially with the car doors open, any small items would have been carried away by the water. It's impossible to search downstream, so we had to give that up."

Cage pushed aside what he was working on and stood up, "Any news from the FBI?"

Jimmy nodded, "Yesterday we raided a repair shop. The car spying on James had been repainted, but we apprehended a few people. FBI is interrogating them. I can't get involved; just waiting for their news, which I haven't received yet."

Cage turned to Jimmy, "Who's in charge? Should I contact them in the name of the police department?"

Jimmy, "Agent Harten is responsible, but I doubt that using the police department's name will help. I am an FBI agent myself and still got shut out since, after all, I'm not from the Little Rock office."

Cage sighed, "Of course, they won't let others get involved in such a major case. When you think about it, pride aside, it's not about the credit. If they had to ask other offices for help, it might not sit well with them. Nothing to do but wait. We don't even know if the gunman is tall, short, fat, or thin, just a video capture with big sunglasses covering most of it. These people are too cautious. Sigh."

Jimmy, "Yeah, if there's no lead here, I'm going to check with the FBI. I'll sync up with you if I get any news. I'm heading out now."

After speaking, Jimmy left the office and drove off to the FBI. Back and forth, he had been shuttling between headquarters and the FBI office these past few days, with scant results. If it weren't for the fact that he had just met Tom in the early morning, he would be left waiting for news from Harten. Now, there might be a chance to extract some information.

While driving, Jimmy thought about his conversation with Justin from the day before. It seemed that Justin had some insider knowledge, but now even if he went to ask, it might not yield any answers anymore.

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