Two of the three surveillance cameras were at the park entrance, while the other was a high-altitude camera positioned next to the park that could cover half a block, but the clarity was so poor, it only captured blurry human figures. It was said to be mounted so high to prevent vandalism, but with such filming quality, it might as well have not been installed at all.

When Jimmy saw the surveillance footage, he ranted about the people who installed the cameras, but it was the only camera that captured the outside of the park besides the park's own surveillance.

Carrying several tapes of surveillance footage, Jimmy returned to the office. There was no helping it, a significant portion of surveillance still used traditional tape recording, which often recorded for about a week before being reused—a love-hate aspect of these recordings.

Low pixels, poor clarity, risk of being overwritten – all these were disadvantages, but the advantage was that these recordings couldn't be edited. Once you got the original version, you could generally confirm the scene with no worries about it being cut by someone. Of course, it was feasible for someone to deliberately edit and re-record, but for most people, that wasn't within their capabilities.

In the office, Philicia hooked up the VCR to start playing the tapes. The ones reviewing the footage were Philicia and Jimmy, checking and verifying the people on screen to see if there were any suspects. Mahong picked up the case report and autopsy report again, investigating if anything had been overlooked.

"Philicia, any suspicious targets?" Mahong asked after reviewing the materials and walking over.

Without taking her eyes off the screen, Philicia said, "Nope, those entering and exiting the park all seem normal. The park's security and management staff have all been investigated by NYPD, and they haven't found anything unusual. We've also contacted the cleaning company."

Mahong said, "OK, you keep looking. Jimmy, you said you live in the Upper West Side, right? Are you familiar with the area? I was looking at two cases just now, both women between 160-165 cm tall, one with brown hair, the other with red, both curly, and of medium build leaning towards slim. If we search for someone based on these characteristics, where should we start looking?"

Jimmy turned his head to Mahong and thought, fuck, how would I know? I've never dealt with streetwalkers. Saying with exasperation, "Do I look like the kind of guy who would be familiar with those kinds of people and places?"

Mahong nodded at Jimmy, that made sense—an attractive Asian, an FBI agent no less, living in the Upper West Side so clearly not short on cash, plus such a beautiful detective girlfriend; it really didn't seem like he was the type to hang around street corners.

Mahong turned his head back to the TV, "We've got too little to work on right now, haven't found any common denominators yet. I think we might need to patrol the area for a while."

Jimmy flatly refused, "That's not too feasible. Hudson River Park is too long; if just the three of us, there's no way we could monitor such a large area. Plus, the previous two cases were three days apart; we don't know when he'll show up next. We can't just stay there waiting, can we?"

Mahong shook his head: "Effective or not, we need to do our best. We'll monitor in shifts tonight, starting from 22:00. I'll go first; Jimmy, you should head back early to rest, and come over after midnight."

Jimmy replied, "No problem. I'll rest after finishing this tape."

Mahong nodded and went back to his seat, while Jimmy rewound the tape a bit, connected it back to where he left off, and continued watching. His earlier feeling was correct; once Mahong got into the case-solving phase, he was obviously different from usual, looking extremely focused, even to the point of being tense. Was he taking this too seriously?

Could this really be what a top-notch detective was like? Had all his previous encounters just been slackers?

As Jimmy watched the footage and mulled over his thoughts, he realized that things weren't going to be easy for him from here on out. Slacking off was probably off the table.

After leaving the office, Jimmy called Nia to give her a heads up, then went home to rest. Setting his alarm for 1:00 in the morning, Jimmy got up and drove to Hudson River Park.

It wasn't actually far from where he lived, seriously not far, just a 20-minute walk, but he had to drive. If anything happened, he couldn't just chase on foot. So even though the distance wasn't enough to warm up the car, he still drove to the park to take over the watch from Mahong and Philicia.

Mahong and Philicia took over the shift, and then she drove back to rest, while Mahong and Jimmy parted ways to head for the opposite ends of the park. This time, they brought walkie-talkies, which were sufficient for the range of the park and much more convenient than phones. Previously, Jimmy rarely carried a walkie-talkie as there was no point when he had no backup.

When Chris was around, he was almost always with Jimmy, and they seldom had the opportunity to investigate separately, so there was little need for walkie-talkies. That's just how things were, and Jimmy couldn't do anything about it—a pity to have good equipment and no use for it.

The park was very quiet at night, with only the occasional chirp of birds or insects. This place forbade the homeless from sleeping rough, at least officially. In theory, apart from the security guards on duty, only Jimmy and Mahong remained in the park now.

Jimmy strolled around the park, in better shape than Mahong due to a few hours of sleep he'd had earlier, and with Heart Eye's support, darkness held no fear for him. As he ambled along the paths, he kept an eye out to ensure there were no human figures.

Surprisingly, the park had many stray cats, which wasn't noticed before. Now, in every corner, one could see small animals moving about; from their size, they were likely stray cats. If they were stray dogs, they'd be much larger, so there were no real safety concerns regarding the little felines.

Just as Jimmy had anticipated, they busied themselves all night for naught; there were indeed many boats on the Hudson River, but none were the targets of Mahong and Jimmy's investigation.

In the morning, Mahong let Jimmy know it was time to rest and to return to the office in the afternoon, then he took a taxi to the hotel. Jimmy felt helpless; pacing back and forth all night was exhausting, and he couldn't fathom how Mahong had persevered, especially since he had patrolled several hours more than Jimmy.

In the afternoon, Jimmy returned to the office where Mahong and Philicia were already present. It looked like Jimmy had been too relaxed; he suddenly felt that his style didn't quite mesh with theirs. No, was this really necessary? It was their first case since arrival, but did they have to go to such lengths?

Mahong: "Jimmy, here is a list of Yacht Club members that Philicia organized this morning. We need to communicate with them to check for any evening cruises."

Philicia added: "I got a copy of the surveillance video from the New York Port Authority, showing the yachts and fishing boats on the Hudson River that night. Of course, there were too many, so we excluded the larger ones, leaving only a dozen or so. We can pinpoint these clubs by their boat numbers."

Jimmy nodded: "Understood, we need to confirm if they observed anything unusual while on the river at night, correct?"

Mahong: "It might not be useful, but we still need to investigate."

Jimmy: "OK, are we investigating separately?"

Mahong shook his head: "Together, we are not familiar with New York, and we still need you to guide us."

Jimmy nodded: "No problem, I'll first look at the locations of these clubs." Jimmy opened his computer, looked up the corresponding clubs' locations, marked them on the map. It took some time, but a day was long enough for a round trip.

Jimmy was starting to discern one of Mahong's characteristics—if it involved a case, he would leave no stone unturned, trying his utmost to investigate all possible leads, striving to recreate the scene and the perpetrator's traces.

Jimmy had no interest in communicating with a place like the Yacht Club that required sifting through vast leads—such high-end places were too prone to trouble.

Jimmy was beginning to feel uneasy now, contemplating whether to liaise with Hughes at the FBI. While the Bureau was powerful, that was within certain levels; to the rich, to elite circles, the FBI meant nothing.

Mahong now intended to request boat information from the Yacht Club, which was almost certain to cause trouble, and it certainly wouldn't be a minor issue. As for what activities took place on those yachts at night, well, that went without saying.

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