Trinidad is different; their past actions might not have crossed the line, but their cooperation with Azte is another story. Since Azte is active along the U.S.-Mexico border, they're undoubtedly involved in drugs. That means Trinidad's group will soon cross the line as well. Jimmy has never had a good impression of such people, and he was involved when the plump Cage did certain things for his son, contributing his effort too.

A few days passed without news, so Jimmy thought about it and decided to visit Ruiz's office to get some updates.

Jimmy, "Ruiz, how are things going with Razor? How about Serra from Trinidad?"

Ruiz looked at Jimmy, "Didn't I say you should stay out of this? I'll handle it. Don't worry."

Jimmy smiled and said, "I just arrested a suspect these past two days and I'm free now, just looking to get a sense of the situation. Don't worry, I won't interfere, I just want to know the progress of your investigation."

Ruiz, "Things aren't looking great with Razor. Some are wavering, and their actions have been more frequent lately. I suspect they might have gotten hold of a batch of weapons, but we're still not sure."

"It's more or less the same with Trinidad, only their strength has increased. Recently we've spotted several new faces. These people aren't from Trinidad, but now they're moving with them, possibly from Azte."

"The battle hasn't started yet, don't rush. This isn't something that can be sorted out in a day or two."

Jimmy, "OK, if you need me to take action, just give me a heads-up."

It's not something within his jurisdiction; he can't just meddle in it. Organized crime is still within Ruiz's territory. Interfering would mean stepping on his toes, and though they have a good relationship, it's still a bit taboo.

After work, Jimmy called Nia, but unfortunately, she couldn't come out to meet with him, she was too busy. Suddenly, Jimmy had an ominous premonition that something was wrong with Nia, which wasn't a good sign.

Feeling down, Jimmy went to the bar. The bartender Woody was truly a top employee; every time he was there, he would see him busy behind the counter.

Jimmy ordered a drink, drowning his sorrows alone, not in the mood to chat up women. After much thought, he finally made up his mind. After interrogating Dave at the detention center tomorrow, he would look into Nia's situation. Her current state probably had a lot to do with her family.

Woody noticed Jimmy's mood wasn't great and took the opportunity to chat with him briefly. Unfortunately, as a rough guy, Woody couldn't understand Jimmy's troubles. After Jimmy made up his mind, though, he paid for his drink happily, bought two more, and then went home to rest.

Early next day, Jimmy arranged to meet Chuck at the detention center for a formal joint interrogation of Dave.

Dave's lawyer had arrived, and they sat on one side of the long table in the interrogation room while Jimmy and Chuck were on the other. Nia didn't accompany Chuck today; Chuck's reason was that Nia was trying to handle a case independently for now, so let's take that as the truth.

Jimmy, "OK, Dave, your lawyer is here now, so speak up. Why did you shoot that homeless man?"

Dave glanced at his lawyer. He couldn't avoid the fact that he shot the homeless man. Jimmy had caught him at the scene, and his gun was still in his hand; it was unavoidable. But still, he had to try, "I didn't shoot the homeless man; I picked up the gun at the scene."

Jimmy waved him off, "Let's not talk about that. Your fingerprints are all over the gun, including the bullets in the magazine. Let's not bother with that lie."

Jimmy's blunt words caught Dave off guard. He and his lawyer had already discussed this issue since the evidence was so conclusive, so the lawyer advised not to push back too hard on this point; a small effort would suffice.

To put it bluntly, when the evidence is overwhelming, there's little room for verbal maneuvering. Not all criminals are like Simpson, who could use errors in the police's evidence-collection process to invalidate the evidence. Dave was caught at the crime scene of the homeless man's shooting, and he had fired at Jimmy; that shot was actually more serious. It would have been normal for Jimmy to have shot him dead on the spot.

Dave nodded to his lawyer, and the lawyer nodded back. "Agent, can we talk outside?"

Jimmy looked at the lawyer. Are they so cooperative? He didn't need to think twice; he already guessed what the lawyer would say — Dave probably wanted to make a deal.

Jimmy looked at Chuck, "Let's go together, Chuck."

Chuck shook his head, and Jimmy stood up and left the interrogation room, with the lawyer following him out.

As Jimmy had thought, the lawyer indeed wanted to strike a deal, only he hoped Jimmy would make contact with the Federation Prosecutor beforehand. He wanted to make a deal with the Prosecutor first, then Dave would plead guilty to his crimes.

The usual procedure should be that the FBI investigates first, forwards their conclusions to the Prosecutor, who then proceeds with litigation and deals with the lawyer.

Clearly, Dave didn't even want to plead guilty at this point; he'd wait until after striking a deal to decide which charges to admit based on the deal's terms.

Jimmy, "That's not going to work. The evidence for Dave's shooting of the homeless man is complete, and I personally caught him at the scene; it's definitely a first-degree murder charge. Don't think about getting out of that charge. Whether he has committed other crimes, we are still investigating."

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