While Jimmy was frantically dealing with the explosion case, another case related to him also reached a critical moment. The Squirrel who provided the second video had been put under surveillance by Ruiz, because it was not an actual case, they weren't able to arrest him directly, they could only monitor to see if he was in contact with anyone, investigate his relationships, and find out the reason he provided the video.

The situation with Ruiz was troublesome to handle, but it wasn't without gains. At least they were sure someone had contacted the Squirrel, using an unregistered phone call which made it impossible to confirm the identity of the caller.

Different cases necessitated different approaches and called for varying resources.

After several days of surveillance, the Squirrel brought a significant lead. Someone sneaked over to the Squirrel's place one night, and shortly after, they left together in a car. The surveillance team followed behind, arriving outside a house that seemed to have been abandoned for a while. The area was in poor condition, with graffiti all over the walls and trash littering the streets, not looking like a respectable place at all.

The surveillance team stealthily followed and captured images of the person the Squirrel was meeting. The next day, they handed the photos to Ruiz, who was surprised to recognize an acquaintance.

Reina Franjes, a member sent by the Dixie Family to expand their business in New York, a former sergeant from Plaskey County police. Six months ago, Ruiz had arranged for someone to follow him, but their surveillance team was caught, and at the time, Jimmy even took out several of his men.

He shouldn't be still in New York, should he? At the time, Ruiz had assigned people to track down the escaping Reina. Kidnapping an FBI surveillance officer, they would surely not let him off the hook, but after searching for a while with no results, they assumed he had fled the city, which is why the search was called off.

Ruiz didn't inform Jimmy, as he was busy handling the bombing case, and there were priorities in such matters. Ruiz, not being a young man, wasn't so rash. He arranged for a second surveillance team to directly track Reina while the first team continued following the Squirrel. Although Reina was currently suspected of providing the video, this couldn't be confirmed with certainty. After dealing with Reina, capturing the Squirrel for questioning would likely resolve the issue.

For now, Ruiz set aside other matters to focus entirely on tracking Reina. Since he was still in New York, it indicated that the Dixie Family might still be expanding their channels in the city. So who might their collaborators be?

Italians have changed nowadays. In the past, the family boss strictly forbade drug involvement, but now, quite a few people might still dabble in it. However, as former major families, their standards are much higher than many gangs, so theoretically, they should not deeply cooperate with the notoriously disreputable Dixie group.

Russians mainly engage in typical gang activities, extending to taxi services, cleaning companies, and food supply, and it seems they haven't been involved in those recently.

The Latin American groups have traditional Mexican channels at their disposal. Is there a channel expansion? If this were to be investigated, it might require contact with the DEA to see if they have any leads on this matter.

In the past few days, Ruiz had been following Reina's lead, while Jimmy was completely unaware. If he knew, he probably would have expedited the bombing case and then cooperated with Ruiz. Although most of the bombing case's leads were dealt with by Jimmy, he hadn't been working overtime. Since the interrogation was primarily handled by the professionals from the Anti-Terrorism Bureau, Jimmy wasn't too exhausted and definitely had some time to deal with Reina.

Currently, Jimmy was troubled by the investigation into the mastermind behind the bombing case, Nuer. Although he hadn't been to the scene in Brooklyn, based on the bomb squad's on-site investigation, the apartment had been blasted beyond recognition, with debris and dust filling the place, and they even determined that the building needed thorough inspection to decide if it required rebuilding.

The apartment management committee was nearly losing its mind, as they faced heavy losses from the explosion and had to deal with insurance issues as well. General damage might be compensated by insurance, but they were almost certain the company would not cover an explosion from a bomb the owner placed in their own home.

Fortunately, it was daytime and people in nearby rooms were not home; otherwise, many could have been injured or even killed. Of course, several residents were affected by the explosion and have been taken to the hospital for examination, but at least no one had died so far.

Jimmy was now heading with Riley to Newark, where the apartment had been evacuated in advance, and Newark's bomb squad had removed the bombs from the room. To ensure safety, they entered directly through the window, removing the entire window after ensuring it itself was safe.

This Nuer was indeed cautious. He had placed a fuse switch above the door, requiring the cutting of the switch through the gap above the door before opening it normally. This setup was likely the same as in Brooklyn, where the bomb detonated when the forensics team unlocked and opened the door.

From this detail, it was clear he was extremely careful, but he probably didn't anticipate someone would just remove the windowpane.

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