1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 113 'BIG BALL'

The real estate agency's office is at the end of the street.

At the very end of the single-story wooden terraced house, in a room that looks like it could be blown away by a gust of wind, is his office.

There was a table on each side of the entrance to the office, two sofas and several filing cabinets in the center, and a tin stove against the wall at the far end.

There was no fire inside; it was as cold as a freezer.

The real estate agent's business didn't look as glamorous as he was dressed.

The group sat down on the sofa, and Bernie sneezed twice first.

The real estate agent told them somewhat apologetically that business hadn't been very good lately.

Bernie rubbed his nose, pulled out a few photos, and handed them over: "What do you know about the murder that happened six months ago at 3221 Anacostia Road?"

The real estate agent took the photos, looked at them, and returned them, saying, "I know about this."

"The price of that house dropped by 30% after that incident."

Bernie repeated, "30%?"

He stood up and rummaged through the cabinet as he spoke: “That’s right, the Freeman family asked for a 30% rent reduction when they rented that house because of the murder that happened there.”

Bernie asked her, "Did the Freemans know about the murder there?"

Real estate agent: "Of course!"

"I told them. I wouldn't hide this from my clients."

Bernie: "We asked Mrs. Freeman, and she said she didn't know."

The real estate agent paused in his rummaging, turned around and explained, "I told her not to say it."

“A 30% price reduction. Once word gets out, other tenants will soon come up with similar demands for price reductions under various pretexts.”

He pointed at Detective Ross: "This is the southeast district of DC. It would be really strange if no one had ever died in that house, wouldn't you say, Detective?"

His behavior was very bold.

In an era when segregation was still in effect, very few Black people dared to do this.

But real estate agents did it.

He not only did it, but he did it very naturally.

Theodore suddenly became interested in him: "What's your name?"

The real estate agent stopped again, turned around and introduced himself: "You can just call me Hayes."

He joked, "I thought you wouldn't ask me."

Theodore nodded honestly, drawing sidelong glances from Bernie and Detective Ross.

Bernie quickly steered the conversation back to the case: "Hays, right? How much do you know about that murder?"

Real estate agent Mr. Hayes pulled out several contracts and placed them on the coffee table: "The Earl family is the one who died."

"They are my clients, my valued clients."

“The Earl family always pays their rent on time, never delays, and doesn’t try to negotiate like other tenants do.”

"They are the kind of tenants who are the most worry-free."

Theodore took the contract and looked at it, finding it to be very formal.

The contract in front is with Clarence Earl, which was signed annually starting in 1955.

The sign above indicated that the monthly rent for 3221 Anacostia Road (the location of the incident) was $42, payable at the end of last month.

The last few contracts were signed with the Freeman family, starting in July of this year, with a new contract signed every month.

The rent listed above has changed to $29, payable at the end of this month.

The deaths of the Earl family cost Mr. Hayes $13 a month.

Bernie was asking him for details of the case, but Hayes also seemed to know very little:
"I had something to do that day, and I only heard about it when I came back two days later."

"Luckily, several of the houses around there are my tenants, otherwise the furniture in the room would have been taken away by thieves long ago."

"I rushed over as soon as I heard about it, but the body had already been taken away by the police."

Theodore asked him, "Is all the furniture still there? Has it been moved?"

Hayes recalled, then said uncertainly, "It should be, but I'm not sure."

Bernie handed over the photo, but Hayes stared at it for a while before he could make it out because the photographer's technique was so abstract.

He nodded: "That should be it."

Theodore picked up a photo of a sofa and asked what had happened to Hayes' sofa.

He noticed yesterday that the sofa the Freeman family is using now is not the same one shown in the photo.

Hayes told them that the sofa was stained with too much blood and couldn't be cleaned properly, so he sold it to the Italians at a low price.

He also described what he had seen to Theodore and the other two:
"It's a mess. All the drawers have been pulled out. Everything from the cabinets has been dumped on the floor."

"It looks like it's been robbed, all messed up."

"In the center of the living room, right in front of the sofa, a large area of ​​the floor was soaked with blood, as were the cabinets and walls."

"I had to spend a considerable amount of money to hire someone to renovate that house."

These are all information that cannot be obtained from photographs.

The photos don't show any bloodstains on the cabinet or the wall.

Theodore asked him if there were any signs of forced entry at the doors and windows.

“Of course, when I came back, the door was gone, and the windows had been removed.” Hayes shrugged. “This is the southeastern part of DC.”

"It's already a blessing from God that they didn't tear that house down."

Detective Ross nodded repeatedly, his face full of agreement.

Theodore and Bernie exchanged bewildered glances, finding it utterly absurd.

After leaving Hayes' office, Theodore and Bernie prepared to go to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to retrieve the incarceration records of the deceased, Clarence Earl.

Before parting, at Bernie's prompting, Theodore asked Detective Ross about who took the photos.

Detective Ross told them that the photos were taken by Detective Coleman.

According to the rules of the Fifth Precinct, whoever arrives at the scene first is responsible for the case, and whoever is in charge of the case takes the photos.

Theodore pulled out the photo and asked Detective Ross, "Are the photos like this in Detective Coleman's other cases too?"

Detective Ross paused for a moment: "No, not all of them."

Theodore was puzzled.

Bernie got out of the car, picked up the file folder, and shook it: "These are cases targeting Black people, and they're all documented like this, right?"

Detective Ross nodded and explained, "You have to understand, Coleman is almost sixty years old this year, he's an old man."

Bernie didn't know what to say, so he remained silent.

Detective Ross seemed a little embarrassed, took off his hat, scratched his head, and stood silently by the police car.

Theodore's focus was different from theirs: "Since Detective Coleman is Black, how come he was the first detective to arrive at the scene?"

“That whole street was inhabited by Black people.”

He asked Detective Ross, "Was he on duty that day?"

Detective Ross pulled on his hat and frowned. "What do you mean by this?"

Theodore could sense Detective Ross's displeasure, and feeling somewhat bewildered, he asked Detective Ross, puzzled:

"You think I suspect Detective Coleman is the killer, and you refuse to acknowledge that Detective Coleman might be the killer."

"Just because you're all police officers?"

Detective Ross's expression was grim: "Coleman died in the line of duty; this suspicion is a smear campaign against him."

Theodore stared at Detective Ross for a moment, then shook his head and gave up arguing.

He felt that he and Detective Ross were talking about two different things.

He was stating facts, while Detective Ross was stating a vision and treating the vision as facts, thus rejecting the facts.

Bernie changed the subject. He asked Detective Ross to return to the station to help examine the detectives on duty at the time of the incident.

The three parted on bad terms.

On the way to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Bernie asked Theodore what he thought of the killer.

Theodore put down his notebook, thought for a moment, and said:

"The killer strangled Hattie Earl and shot Mabel Earl and Clarence Earl."

“Mabel Earl was sitting on a sofa when she was shot, and either struggled to her death before collapsing to the ground or her body was moved to the ground after death.”

“The killer had to do all that in a few minutes or ten minutes; he was way too busy.” Bernie looked around and cautiously asked Theodore, “How do you know it was done in such a short time?”

As he asked, he pointed upwards.

Theodore looked up, then realized what he was saying and fell silent.

After a long pause, he explained, "The police report shows that the neighbor called the police after hearing the gunshot and then the noise subsided."

Bernie: "So you suspect there's more than one killer?"

Theodore nodded: "Clarence Earl is a construction worker, and Mabel Earl and Hattie Earl are not weak women."

“Even if the killer has a gun, he might be intimidated at first, but once he kills the first person, the other two will definitely fight back.”

"But there were no similar traces in the room."

When life and death were at stake, the three of them were wrestling, and the room was definitely not like the one in the photo.

Although the room in the photo is messy, it's only messy because it's been ransacked; compared to the chaos of a desperate search, it's still too tidy.

“The killer didn’t give the Earl family much of a chance to fight back. After the first victim was found, the other two were quickly killed as well.”

Bernie noticed the oddity in Theodore's analysis and asked him, "Do you think Hayes is lying?"

Having worked with Theodore for a long time, Bernie was very familiar with Theodore's analytical process.

If he believes a person's testimony is credible, he will incorporate that person's testimony into his analysis to make it plausible.

But Theodore's analysis was based entirely on photographs and on-site observations, without incorporating Hayes's testimony.

Theodore was surprised that Bernie had noticed this, and couldn't help but glance at him:
"He said there was blood on the walls and cabinets."

He quickly sketched a simple map of the crime scene in his notebook:
“Mabel Earl was shot while sitting on the sofa, and her blood would only splatter on the killer and the sofa.”

“Unless Clarence Earl was shot near a wall or cabinet and then his body was moved here.”

"Otherwise, it would be difficult for their blood to splatter onto the cabinets and walls."

After a pause, Theodore added, for the sake of accuracy, "Even if it splashes on, it will only be a few drops."

"The blood on the wall and the cabinet that Hayes mentioned is either irrelevant to this case."

Bernie added another possibility: "Either he's lying."

Theodore put his notebook away and brought up another line of thought: "The killer left a lot of clues at the scene."

"But none of these were recorded."

“He may not have intended to kill at first; the killing was just an accident, or the killer knew that Detective Coleman would help him ‘clean up’.”

Bernie suggested a new approach: "Perhaps the killer simply didn't care about leaving clues."

Theodore thought about it carefully and agreed.

The two arrived at the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Without Ronald's personal connections, they had no choice but to follow the proper procedures and submit a written application.

When told that it would take at least a week to get results, Bernie decided to try a private relationship.

He contacted an acquaintance of Ronald's and, using Ronald's connections, asked him to help find Clarence Earl's prison record.

Theodore didn't know what Bernie had said to that acquaintance, but half an hour later, the two walked out arm in arm, looking like they were having a very pleasant conversation.

After getting in the car, Bernie handed the notebook to Theodore and started the engine: "Looks like we'll have to go to Baltimore."

Maryland State Penitentiary is located in Baltimore.

Bernie, through Ronald's personal connections, discovered that Clarence Earl had served time in a Maryland state prison.

Maryland State Prisons are not federal prisons; they are independently operated by the Maryland Department of Corrections and belong to the state system.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons manages federal prisons and should not have records of prisoners in Maryland state prisons.

However, the criminals really like to move back and forth between DC and Maryland, and there are no long-term federal prisons in DC.

To avoid excessive red tape, law enforcement agencies in both states often have prisoners serve their federal sentences in state prisons.

Theodore reminded Bernie, "The FBI has a branch in Baltimore."

Bernie looked at him: "Back to headquarters now?"

The two returned to headquarters, where Bernie consulted with the agents about the process of applying for cooperation with local branches.

The agents were surprised, not understanding what mission they had that required cooperation from local branches.

However, considering Theodore's relationship with the chief, the agent wisely chose to remain silent, telling him that he needed to report to his supervisor and could only contact him after the supervisor's approval.

Bernie and Theodore went to see the manager again.

The supervisor shared the same doubts as the agent and asked him directly.

Upon learning of the case the two were investigating, the supervisor's lips twitched several times. He looked up and scrutinized Theodore, leaving Theodore completely bewildered.

The supervisor remained silent for a long time, then picked up the phone, dialed a number, and pointed at Theodore while waiting for the call to connect.
Who are the criminals you're looking for?

Bernie quickly pulled out his notebook and handed it over.

The supervisor tore out the page with the name on it, handed the notebook back to Bernie, and waved his hand.
“I am Alex Rosen…”

After leaving the supervisor's office, Theodore and Bernie went to the legal counsel's office to inquire about the formal visitation procedures for St. Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital.

The two were quickly informed that they did not have access.

As Theodore and Bernie emerged from the legal counsel's office, they exchanged bewildered glances.

Bernie's mind instantly conjured up a whole host of conspiracy theories.

He especially recalled Theodore's analysis on the road that if the murderer were alone, it would seem too rushed and insufficient to complete the crime.

Combined with the mysterious St. Elizabeth's Asylum, which sounds like a place for secret research or human experimentation.

Bernie felt a sense of sudden enlightenment.

He pulled Theodore into a conference room and whispered his guess.

He suspected that supernatural beings such as werewolves or aliens had killed Earl's family.

After being discovered by government agencies, the victim's body was removed for secret research.

This also explains why the case files were so rudimentary, the autopsy report was largely blank, and even the inexplicable appearance and death of Detective Coleman...

Theodore looked at Bernie, who was getting more and more excited, and was very puzzled: "That third-rate newspaper is even selling in DC?!"

Bernie stopped abruptly.

Bernie hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Bernie finally shook his head: "No, the Felton Star has only just been sold to the counties around Felton."

Theodore was shocked: "It's not bankrupt yet?!"

The two stared at each other, their eyes wide. The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly became somewhat awkward.

The agent who had always called Ronald over on the phone came and told them to go to the supervisor's office.

The supervisor returned the note to Bernie and handed them another note: "This is the address of Clarence Earl's cellmate in prison."

Bernie took the note and stuffed it into his pocket without opening it immediately.

The supervisor looked at Theodore with interest and asked, "How's the investigation going? What's the progress?"

He had heard Ronald give a presentation last time and became interested in Theodore's analysis.

Last weekend, he requested the chief to review the archives of Theodore's case in Felton.

He discovered that Theodore always seemed to be on the right track.

This shocked him, and he was eager to figure out how Theodore had done it.

Bernie briefed his supervisor on the progress of the investigation.

The supervisor listened attentively, and after listening, asked Theodore, "Do you have any targets you suspect?"

Theodore shook his head.

The supervisor thought for a moment and then asked him, "Which direction do you think the investigation should take?"

He pointed at Bernie: "The deceased's cellmate?"

Theodore was confused by his supervisor; he didn't quite understand what his supervisor wanted to ask.

The supervisor asked several questions in a row, but the two seemed to be talking at cross purposes, completely on different wavelengths.

Finally, the supervisor waved them away, looking confused.

Bernie took out a piece of paper and opened it as he left the manager's office.

The note contained a familiar place name and a familiar person's name: Hayes, nicknamed 'BIG BALL'.

Bernie: "Looks like we'll have to have a good talk with this—" He waved the note: "'BIG BALL'."

(End of this chapter)