Jimmy tossed everything into the trunk and continued driving. As they passed St. Patrick's Cathedral, Nia reminded Jimmy if he wanted to go inside. After thinking it over, Jimmy parked the car in the nearby parking lot and walked with Nia to the cathedral.
Jimmy asked Nia to wait for him for a moment, then sat down and took out the Cross Necklace to pray. Even though he was just pretending, his movements were now quite standard, at least not as clumsy as the first time he had prayed in the church. By just looking at him, no one would know whether he was actually praying or cursing inside.
The religious identity that James had arranged for him was indeed very useful, although the Priest Royte that James had found was a Catholic priest. In reality, in New York, Catholicism wasn't the largest denomination of Christianity; instead, there were slightly more Protestant followers, and various other religions had their places of worship which Jimmy often saw.
The Cross Necklace that Father Horton had given him was also very useful; when praying, he just needed to take it out and others would definitely think he was a very devout believer. Everything seemed so logical and natural. Nia, watching from the side, didn't realize he was just putting on a show.
After the prayer, they followed the tourists around inside the cathedral for a while before preparing to leave. Truly, the grand cathedral imparted an awe-inspiring feeling. It has to be said, purely from a psychological perspective, whether it was the decorations or the architecture itself, they made one feel small and oppressed while inside, creating a slight illusion of needing protection—yet this feeling wasn't so strong as to be repellent.
After walking outside for a while, Nia's cellphone rang. She answered the call, and whatever was said, her eyebrows were already furrowing.
Nia: "Jimmy, take me back, please."
Jimmy nodded, and after getting back into the car and starting it, Jimmy asked, "Who was on the phone just now? Is something wrong?"
Nia: "It's nothing, my mom called, said she needs me back home."
Jimmy: "Maybe it's some kind of emergency, it's nothing. We can go out again when you have time."
Jimmy drove Nia back home, got out of the car to give her the bags, kissed her, and then drove away.
As Jimmy drove back, he finally decided to use the FBI database to look into Nia's situation, particularly her family's circumstances. The man in the hall when he went to pick up Nia had already made him alert; he initially thought he was following Nia, only to find out it was her family member. That look and expression were indeed easy to misinterpret.
No father would be happy to see his daughter going out with a man, but that expression seemed a bit too much.
However, investigating would have to be done at the right time and opportunity, ideally mixed in with a case investigation to avoid drawing attention; any query in the personnel database would leave a record.
Back at the office, Jimmy continued to review the files. Walking around shopping with Nia for a couple of hours had lightened his mood, which was just right to continue looking at those distressing case files. The psychological problems depicted in movies and TV shows among veteran police officers and detectives aren't made up—exposure to such files had even made Jimmy, who was usually very stable mentally, feel uncomfortable.
At 7 PM, Jimmy received a call from the surveillance team, suspecting that the person in the photo had appeared, though the appearance didn't quite match and he wasn't wearing glasses, so it was still only a suspicion.
Jimmy didn't hesitate; regardless, this was the first possible suspect. He immediately went downstairs, drove out, and since his Mercury had been parked at the station these past few days, he had been using a pool car with his equipment bag in the trunk for convenience.
Arriving at the surveillance team's location, Jimmy got out of the car, entered the surveillance van and said, "Allison, show me the information on that person."
Within this surveillance team of three, the leader, Allison, was a Latin American woman of about 40 years old with a very ordinary appearance, the kind you couldn't pick out in a crowd. The other two appeared younger, and it looked like a 'veteran training rookies' scenario, but they handled the equipment with practiced ease, definitely shining during their training.
Allison opened her laptop, "I've checked already. Dave Frank, 45 years old, unmarried, graduated from a community college, works for a renovation company, no registered address in this vicinity. This is his ID photo, and this is him entering the apartment after six o'clock. His physical description matches your criteria, Caucasian, height between 170-175cm, of average build. Other than a few teenagers, none of the observed Caucasians matched the height criteria, but he doesn't wear glasses."
Since they only needed to monitor the people entering and exiting the six to seven buildings in the middle, and after excluding women, non-Caucasians, children, and the elderly, the list of targets wasn't very long. Limiting it further by height, it was quite normal to precisely identify one person.
Jimmy looked at the photos on the computer and the ones taken by the surveillance team, comparing them with the screenshots from the surveillance video. They looked very similar.
Jimmy, "Has the place where Dave lives been confirmed yet?"
Allison, "No, there are still quite a few people coming and going here, and we can't go in to investigate directly. We can only confirm that he went into that apartment on the left, hasn't come out since six o'clock, and it's been two hours now."
Jimmy thought for a moment, "We still need confirmation. There might be others similar here. Keep watching to see if there's anyone else resembling him. Let's prioritize him for now."
Jimmy returned to his car. Now with no other evidence but a photo, he needed to keep watching this person, gather some data on him, and look for related evidence. That would at least be considered a substantive progress.
a while later, as the number of people on the street dwindled, Jimmy got out of his car, lit a cigarette, and walked past the apartment to survey its layout. Fortunately, this apartment didn't house many residents. Since the files indicated Dave was unmarried, it was relatively easy to pinpoint him. Any household with children could be ignored. Theoretically, as he was unmarried, it was likely the house wouldn't have many people, especially children.
There were four targets, three of whom were individuals, and one was two people. Yet, they still hadn't confirmed the exact apartment.
After making a round, Jimmy returned to his car, moved it a bit forward, and parked next to the apartment. Then, with his "Heart Eye" fully activated, he kept a close watch on the few targets to see if they showed any unusual behavior.
At 11:30 PM, a person came out of the building, wearing a hoodie, and glasses, and walked towards the sidewalk heading one direction. Jimmy was greatly inspired; this person resembled the one he'd seen in the surveillance video on the dimly lit street.
Jimmy pulled out his phone and dialed Allison's number. It just so happened Allison was also about to call him to request continued surveillance in this area. He got out of his car and followed the person from a distant.
After walking two blocks, the person hailed a cab on the side of the road and left. Jimmy then realized the problem; his car was still parked near the apartment. He directly called Allison to have a surveillance vehicle follow the cab after thankfully noting the license plate number to avoid further trouble.
Two blocks' distance, in such a night with smooth traffic, could still be manageable to follow.
Jimmy ran back to his car, started it, and followed. However, he had already lost visual sight and could only drive aimlessly on the road, waiting for updates from Allison.
Luckily, after changing a few routes, Allison successfully tracked the cab, and Jimmy followed suit. The cab left Bronx, heading towards Queens.
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