Hughes left the Homicide Team's office, but instead of going back to his own office, he headed to Ruiz's.

Ruiz: "Hughes, is there something you need?"

Hughes nodded. "Jimmy and his team have speculated a reason, saying that it might be the mastermind behind the explosion case from a year ago that Jimmy handled, who has come back for revenge. It's good to let them focus on that, and you handle things quickly on your end."

Ruiz nodded. "I'll start investigating today. Also, Hughes, I might need your authorization to access some information."

Hughes nodded. "Come find me when it's time."

After finishing, Hughes opened the door and left Ruiz's office.

It was really an accident. Hughes originally planned to see how Jimmy was doing and, if feasible, to have him stay in Dallas for a while. Now it seemed the plan could change.

Whether the mastermind behind the explosion case had returned to the United States, Hughes was not sure, and there were no clear clues indicating that he had returned. Although the Newark bombing had certain suspicions, it was not confirmed to be connected to them.

This was also good. If Jimmy and his team were to investigate the mastermind of the explosion case, they would not focus on other matters for at least a week or two, giving Ruiz enough time for his investigation.

Hughes returned to his office and started staring at the personnel list on his computer, pondering how to screen out trustworthy people to narrow the scope of the investigation. Although he had handed it over to Ruiz, as an assistant agent supervisor with years of field management experience, Hughes definitely had his trusted people who he could almost certainly vouch wouldn't be a problem, such as the nearly retired Chris.

Jimmy was in his office daydreaming. Now that people were assigned to all aspects of the investigation, he had surprisingly found some free time. It was already confirmed that there were no clues in Newark. Mahong went to interrogate El, who made the bombs, while Chuck and Nia helped investigate the surveillance videos and track the motorcycle's path. The only thing left was arranging for the testing center to examine the shell casings and ballistics.

Since an agent had been attacked, the testing center did not delay and had already submitted the report first thing in the morning, clearly the result of working overtime the night before.

There were no fingerprints on the shell casings, or rather, no complete fingerprints, just a small fragment. This partial fingerprint wasn't enough to identify the person in the system, so Jimmy's initial idea of immediately confirming the shooter's identity wasn't so straightforward.

But the good news was that a fragment of the bullet embedded in the wall had traces of rifling on it. This could be kept for later matching with the corresponding gun to identify the gun used in the attack on Jimmy, and thus implicate the gun's owner.

Close to noon, Chuck finally called. He and Nia had sorted out the surveillance footage and would bring it over soon. Jimmy directly contacted the administration department to have a TV and a video player sent to his office, planning to review the footage there.

Nia hadn't come to see him after receiving Jimmy's call yesterday. Instead, she chose to investigate with Chuck, which was very good. Jimmy was worried that if she came over and someone launched an attack, she might not be able to dodge as well as he had. Although Jimmy didn't say this out loud, Nia must have been aware of it, or at least, the old man Chuck would definitely have stopped Nia.

At noon, Chuck and Nia arrived at the FBI office and brought Jimmy some takeout fried noodles. Jimmy hugged Nia first, then took the videotape from Chuck and started playing it right away.

Chuck: "Eat something first, this can wait."

Jimmy glanced at Chuck, nodded, and said, "You guys have some tea, make it yourselves." The video was already in his hands, more than half a day had passed, and these few minutes wouldn't make much of a difference.

After Jimmy devoured two servings of fried noodles and started replaying the video, Chuck explained from behind him about the video's location, which intersection. After watching the video, Jimmy was covered in cold sweat.

The motorcycle had started following him after he had left work, and while he was shopping at Whole Foods, they hadn't stopped but had circled the block several times.

When Jimmy set off to return, they stopped not far outside the parking lot. As soon as he exited the parking lot, they began to accelerate. Because there was no surveillance in the middle part of the road, it was not possible to see how Jimmy dodged them at that moment. When they reached the next intersection, they reappeared, and the video was intermittent after that, and then they disappeared, with no further traces in the subsequent surveillance.

These two people had not been staking out near Jimmy's neighborhood parking lot waiting for him but started following him from near the Federal Square office as soon as he drove out of the parking lot.

This presented several issues. First, how did they know Jimmy's license plate number? He had just changed to this new CLS over the weekend, and it was only registered again when he parked at the office on Monday. If they knew his Mercury license plate number, that would make sense since he had been using it in New York for almost two years.

Second, how did they know when Jimmy got off work? They weren't positioned outside the parking lot but rather a block away, which meant they had at least one person who could clearly see the parking lot entrance. This is Manhattan, surrounded by office buildings; it was impossible to pinpoint exactly where their lookout was.

Third, Jimmy hadn't noticed the motorbikes tailing him on the road because in New York, riders were quite common and he had never encountered danger before, nor did he have the habit of observing every vehicle. Thus, along the way, Jimmy had many vulnerabilities, yet they never acted, even at Whole Foods. Why? Since they were gunmen, surely their aim was to kill him. They had so many opportunities yet didn't make their move. What were they thinking?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.