The Blacklist

Chapter 367 Tom's Story and Solving the Case
Tom opened his mouth in astonishment. After a long while, he said, "Boss, you are amazing! I couldn't believe it at the time, but he is indeed Howard!"

"Go on, why did he look for you?" Carrie asked, "Well, he should know your identity!"

"Yes, he said that he had never given up looking for me in the past twenty years..." Tom said, "At that time, he seemed very nervous and said that he couldn't stay any longer because Susan had been tracking his whereabouts and wanted to kill him so as to completely control Halcyon Shield!"

At this point, Tom looked at Kerry and found that he still had no expression of surprise, so he subconsciously asked, "Boss, you already knew this, didn't you?"

Kerry did not answer his question, but asked in return: "So Howard came to you this time to ask you to help him regain the company?"

Tom had been surprised so many times that he had gotten used to it. He replied, "Yes. He left after making this request and said he would contact me... Boss, what should I do?"
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On the other hand, Elizabeth and Dumby found the lucky emergency doctor, Colin, but after asking, they found that he knew nothing and thought the previous fire was just an accident! At that time, her brother who had returned from overseas couldn't sleep because of jet lag, so the two went out for a run late at night and found the house on fire when they came back.

Elizabeth believed that the "chef" set the fire for murder, and if Colin was not dead, he might still be in danger. So she contacted the local police and asked them to send someone to protect Colin.

In SER, Nawabi and Alam did not find any clues that the "chef" was involved in a cult, but they made other useful discoveries - the locations of the five arsons occurred in different cities, which were quite far apart. They believed that the "chef" could not have brought his own transportation to every city, so he should have rented a car after arriving at the place.

Therefore, the two checked the investigation reports of these five cases and found that in the last case, a passerby had witnessed a red Honda car at the scene. Based on the surveillance video, they tracked down the car rental company and found the tenant information. The renter was William Sivers, whose registered address was in Baltimore!
Donald immediately led the team to catch...

However, the "chef" had arranged preventive measures in the house. If someone broke in by force, he would light the fuse, and burning cakes would fall from the ceiling, and a big fire would start in an instant.

The SER agents finally escaped from danger, but only saw a receding figure!

Seeing the burnt-out scene, Donald and others had no choice but to bring Earl over again and let him use his professional knowledge to conduct an investigation.

After inspecting the fire scene, Earl determined that this was the "chef's" method and found a fragment of thermal paper in the ashes.
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Following Carrie's instructions, Tom returned to Halcyon Shield calmly, and did not show any strange emotions when he saw his biological mother Susan who came to see him.

After a few words of concern from Susan, she told him that the company had accepted a new business from the CIA - to rescue agent Anna Copeland and her young son from the hands of traitor Leland Bray to prevent the leakage of national defense security information.

"Why do they want us to do it?" Tom was puzzled. "The CIA has enough power!" "The incident happened in Romania. Because Anna's identity is confidential, the CIA or other agencies can't come forward directly, so they asked us!" Susan thought highly of Tom and explained that other subordinates didn't have this treatment. "Our company is one of the most important partners of the Pentagon, and the CIA believes in our ability. But because of this, we must complete this operation successfully. On the one hand, we must make enough profit, and on the other hand, we must polish our golden signboard!"

Tom understood the meaning and asked, "Susan, I'll take someone over there!"

Susan nodded and said, "I don't want you to take risks either, but you have worked with the two clients, Anna and Bray, before, so you are the most suitable person to go. In addition, there can't be too many people going to Romania this time. I have assigned two people with special skills for you. Go meet them first."

A few minutes later, Tom met Ness, who was good at agent skills, and Dumont, who was proficient in computer technology. Together with his capable man Matt Buckley, they formed an action team and set off.
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On the SER side, after returning to the post office, Donald found Abby from SLR to help inspect the fragment.

Abby determined that this type of thermal paper was commonly used to print receipts at cash registers. She used ethanol to clean the blackened fragments, and the writing that appeared on it proved to be a receipt for purchasing materials at a hardware store.

After finding the hardware store, the detectives were surprised to discover on the store’s surveillance video that the person who bought those things was actually wearing priest attire—the “chef” was a priest?

From the chest ornament worn by the priest, Aram found that it was the symbol of the World Missionary Church, whose church was in Cromwell near Arlington.

Donald and others found the church and learned from the presiding priest that the real identity of the "chef" was Thomas Watters, a priest who was expelled a year ago for violating his vow of abstinence, but he was unwilling to say anything else.

It was not until Elizabeth produced the photos of the victims who were burned to the bone in the fire that the priest revealed Thomas' secret - Thomas had always claimed that he had hallucinations and used the flames of hell to purify the lustful women who seduced the saint.

Based on the investigation, everyone agreed that Thomas, nicknamed "Chef", is a super dangerous person, and any woman he has lustful thoughts about will be in danger!

Donald immediately ordered a full-scale tracking of him, and the agents activated all data terminals to inquire about Thomas's whereabouts...
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Carrie received detailed reports on the arson case that SER was investigating and the rescue case on Tom's side, but he was not going to intervene. The reason was: even if he didn't intervene, the case could be solved; if he intervened, it might be faster, but for him, it would not bring much benefit, which did not fit his current position as a master (lazy man)!

However, Tom's situation did catch his attention a little - the plot that appeared at this time was not from the original plot, but from the extra episode. This was very interesting! He planned to wait and see how it would develop.
In addition, he was also considering the matter of Wright and Cooper. If the suggestion he put forward before was to be successful, it would require some operations. This matter was related to the future of CTU, SLR and SER, so he could not be careless!
(End of this chapter)