Jimmy woke up early in the morning, first sending a text message to Nia and then going through his morning routine of washing up and making breakfast. Of course, he made an American-style breakfast sandwich with fried eggs, bacon, and lettuce—it was so convenient and could be prepared quickly. Together with the coffee he bought on the road, he was guaranteed to be ready for a normal day at work in the morning.

Arriving at the station, Jimmy first stepped out of the parking lot to order a bouquet of flowers for Nia before heading upstairs to work. Now, Jimmy was responsible for his own schedule, and unless someone was checking up on him for some time-specific matter, basically no one would notice if he came in late or left early. However, he was still punctual with his work hours, even though there weren't any cases at hand, and he wasn't going to deliberately cause any trouble.

In the past month, because of the bomb case, while Chris was hospitalized, and Jimmy was working on it, Hughes had all the cases involving the Homicide Team redistributed. As a result, when Jimmy finished the bomb case, there was a considerable gap of idle time. Looking at the list of cases, each had the name of the assigned detective next to it, and Jimmy certainly wasn't going to steal cases out of boredom.

Having nothing better to do, Jimmy found Ruiz to check on his progress. Jimmy didn't have a deep impression of Reina Franjes, the former county police, as their only direct interaction was the hostage situation they were involved in together, and James had let them go. He was concerned about Reina primarily because of James, and the secondary reason was that this guy had once kidnapped the detectives surveilling him.

Ruiz was also very busy. Gangs were causing trouble all the time, and there was a pile of cases to handle, though most were police matters. He only needed to focus on the leaders and key members of various gang organizations, figuring out ways to take them down within the bounds of the law, of course.

Dealing with organized crime groups like gangs was actually difficult because, as leaders, they typically didn't get involved in cases directly, and it was hard to implicate them when problems arose among their subordinates. The surveillance team Ruiz had at his disposal, besides the counter-terrorism detectives, was one of the largest, monitoring all major gangs—which was semi-public knowledge. The gangs, of course, knew about the surveillance vehicles following them, but to avoid provoking the FBI, everyone turned a blind eye as long as no problems occurred outside the surveillance range.

Currently, Jimmy couldn't join Ruiz in pursuing cases because they weren't his to handle, which would be improper. However, he soon lost the inclination for such matters.

After a few days of leisure, the NYPD did send a case over—it was the taxi driver homicide that Jimmy had seen during his visit to the NYPD Detective Bureau. Moreover, outrageously, a fourth incident had occurred.

Chuck and Nia brought the files to the FBI, and since Chris wasn't around, Jimmy took over all the materials himself. Hughes had temporarily increased Jimmy's authority, and it could be said that he was now acting in place of the Homicide Team, although Jimmy wasn't sure what Hughes was thinking. But in principle, it would definitely require a Senior Agent or a supervisory detective to fill Chris's position.

Chuck handed over the materials to Jimmy and briefly explained their investigative findings. Some information wasn't suitable for written records, so they communicated verbally first. It would be up to the person taking over to decide the direction of the continued investigation and whether the findings should be filed.

After speaking, Chuck turned and left Jimmy's office. Jimmy smiled and embraced Nia.

Nia: "Thank you for the flowers."

Jimmy: "As long as you like them. The transfer of this case to us won't affect your evaluation results, will it?"

Nia shook her head: "The evaluation is already over; just waiting for the next steps. The current case won't affect Chuck's clearance rate; as for me, I'm just his assistant for now. It's not time yet for my performance to be evaluated."

Jimmy: "That's good, don't worry, I'll handle it."

Nia: "I need to go back now; there's still a lot to do there." Nia kissed Jimmy, and he let her go, escorting her to the elevator where Chuck was already waiting. That old man is really nice; I should buy him a drink sometime.

Jimmy watched them into the elevator, then turned back to his office.

He had made light of it earlier, but this case was actually very troublesome. Jimmy had a feeling when he saw the files of the first three incidents that this matter would eventually trip him up. From the previous three cases, it was clear that the deaths of these taxi drivers were connected, even though it was uncertain if they were committed by the same person. The serial nature was very apparent, and handing it over to the FBI was the most convenient course of action when the police couldn't handle it.

Jimmy picked up the case again. With the fourth incident occurring, things had become complicated because it was uncertain how many more people he intended to kill or what he was planning to do, making it likely there would be continued criminal activity. If more related cases happened while the FBI was investigating, it would be their responsibility, with no police department to share the blame.

The first case occurred in the Harlem district of Manhattan. The driver was an immigrant from India, and the taxi was a shared vehicle of a taxi company, not his personal licensed car. He was found dead on a secluded street late at night. Because of Harlem's poor public safety, even if gunshots were heard, nobody went to check, and naturally, no one called the police, so everyone just minded their own business.

It wasn't until the next morning that the body was discovered, by which time it was too late. The driver had died slumped in the seat, partly because of the seatbelt, and leaned over onto the seat. His body had been searched; the wallet was tossed on the passenger seat with only IDs and cards remaining, all the cash removed except for some coins.

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