North America Gunman Detective
Chapter 90: 088 Accidental Association
Jimmy did not directly get involved with the firefighters' rescue operations. Instead, he first assessed the situation of both vehicles, reconstructing the events based on information provided by witnesses and the tragic scene he observed.
Car A was driving in the proper lane, and Car B came from the opposite lane and suddenly cut into Car A's lane, causing a head-on collision.
The driver of Car B was confirmed dead, and the driver of Car A was the one firefighters had been rescuing, while the passenger of Car A had already been transferred to an ambulance.
From the scene, it was clear that Car B was fully at fault, but since the driver was already dead, the remaining information would likely have to be retrieved from the system.
Jimmy spoke to the emergency responders to inquire if the passenger of Car A could be interviewed, and he received a rather troublesome response. The passenger was a woman who was pregnant. The accident might trigger other serious issues, so Jimmy immediately decided to forgo the interview, not wanting to complicate matters further, and wait until they were stabilized at the hospital.
He returned to the accident scene, where the driver of Car A had already been taken out and given emergency treatment by the responders before being rushed to the hospital.
Jimmy had many tasks—taking photos, registering information, and arranging for the tow truck to remove the wrecked cars. With the death of the driver of Car B, Jimmy knew he wouldn't be finishing early tonight, as he needed to complete the accident report.
After managing the scene, Jimmy hurried to the hospital where the driver and passenger of Car A were taken.
On consulting the emergency doctor, the doctor declared the driver dead, while the pregnant passenger was placed in the emergency room for overnight observation. Fortunately, the pregnant woman was not injured, and so far, no harm to the child was found. The emergency doctor confirmed she could be interviewed, and she had already cried when she was informed of the driver's death.
Jimmy arrived outside the observation room, where the pregnant woman lay in bed; he decided there was no point waiting any longer.
Jimmy knocked on the door and entered the observation room.
Jimmy, "Hi, how are you? Your name?"
Pregnant woman: "Johanna."
Jimmy, "Johanna, regarding today's accident, I hope you can answer some questions for me. Do you need to sit up? Can you tell me what your relationship with the driver was? Do you know his name?"
Jimmy raised the headrest of the bed, allowing Johanna to sit up and lean back to talk to him.
Johanna: "Sven, he was my boyfriend and the father of my child."
Jimmy, "I'm sorry, the doctor has already announced Sven's death. Do you have someone else who can look after you?"
Johanna: "I already know; I called a friend. Today, we were on our way back from a scheduled prenatal checkup at the hospital when a car came head-on and hit us."
Jimmy, "OK, the other driver is dead, and we will investigate his information to issue the accident report. By the way, when is your friend arriving?"
Johanna: "He should arrive soon."
Jimmy, "OK, then I'll let you be. Goodbye."
Jimmy gave Johanna a business card and then left the observation room. As Jimmy was leaving the hospital, he encountered a very familiar person, Kael Bly, running towards him.
Jimmy suddenly realized that the driver who had died was named Swen, and here was Kael Bly rushing over, so that Swen must have been Pat's underling, Swen Horn.
In America, having the same name is really common, he had heard the name earlier and hadn't made the connection.
Jimmy turned and returned to the emergency room. He looked outside the observation room and saw Kael go straight into Johanna's observation room.
A few minutes later, Kael left the observation room and headed outside the hospital. After confirming their relationship, Jimmy directly left.
"Cage, can you contact DEA agent Torsten Marcus? I need to update some information. There has just been a car accident, and Swen Horn is dead,"
"OK, Jimmy, I'll notify them."
Jimmy had done his duty and it was over. As for what followed, it was DEA's affair, so even though Kael appeared before him, Jimmy took no action.
He returned to the police station, searched for information, and wrote a report. After dealing with all this, his patrol time was almost over.
Agent Torsten Marcus received a call from Sergeant Cage late at night, presenting an update. He was quite speechless. For them, minor figures like Kael Bly and Swen Horn were not main targets; at this stage of gathering clues, such minor figures usually wouldn't have anyone assigned to deal with them specifically when it came to implementing an arrest.
By now they had almost fully mapped out Frog's entire network, achieved their surveillance objectives for the intermediaries, Tim, and Thomas, identified the area where Tim and Thomas often frequented, and pinned down Vaughn Pawnshop, whose owner, Vince Vaughn, perfectly matched the description of Frog. Now the only issue was catching Frog in the act.
The DEA had already arranged for agents to monitor the situation, ready to swoop in once the evidence was solid.
Meanwhile, State Police Criminal Investigation Department's agent, Rob Hodg, had not stopped either. After Jimmy had reported seeing the blue sedan again, he had started organizing to investigate the three locations where the blue sedan had been spotted. However, due to the lack of suitable surveillance at those places, he had to contact various locations to conduct field investigations, and he had now pinpointed the blue sedan's location at Karmac.
Agent Rob Hodg had arranged for people to monitor Vaughn Pawnshop, recording everyone entering and leaving, to later match up with the people in the blue sedan. Due to the low resolution of the surveillance, although they recorded two people in the car, the images were too blurry for facial recognition.
The personnel Rob Hodg had arranged brought him a very interesting piece of news—others were also monitoring the pawnshop and appeared to be very professional.
Rob was inclined to have his surveillance crew check them out, but upon hearing how professional they were, he dismissed the idea. The presence of professional surveillance personnel usually indicated multiple organizations and police departments, which meant the pawnshop was likely implicated in other cases or gangs.
Rob felt that this pawnshop could indeed be a big fish. He put all his other cases on hold and rushed to the surveillance point.
Based on another set of surveillance photos taken by his crew, Rob figured he could identify their identity. Professional surveillance equipment and vehicles, another set of houses about dozens of meters away—although not ideally placed, could monitor several houses around the pawnshop to ensure nothing was missed. Clearly, this was the handiwork of federal agents.
Rob only had one surveillance point set up: a house diagonally opposite the pawnshop, with a camera setup in the attic and a person using a telephoto lens to photograph all who entered and left.
Since they had camouflaged the attic window with materials, it was invisible from the outside. Meanwhile, the DEA tended to favor multiple points of surveillance; besides using a house as a monitoring point, they also had two vans parked not far away, giving enough reason to suspect that the surveillance personnel had installed bugging devices inside the pawnshop.