1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 118 Theodore: We'll talk about it when we get home
Theodore prepares to interrogate Hayes.

The facts of the case are actually quite clear; what they lack now is direct, definitive evidence.

The case itself is not difficult; it is essentially a routine case of violent debt collection involving collusion between the police and criminals, which unexpectedly escalated into a murder to cover up the crime.

Theodore wasn't even interested in including it in his notes.

The only thing related to Theodore's collection of notes in this case is Hayes's sense of identity.

If Detective Coleman hadn't deliberately made things more difficult, the case wouldn't have even reached their hands.

While waiting for Hayes to be brought back, Theodore and Bernie briefly reviewed the case and formulated an interrogation strategy.

Theodore was going to put Bernie in charge of the trial.

He analyzed Hayes in detail for Bernie.

Hayes admired the elites in the Northwest District and fantasized about being one of them.

He resisted acknowledging his identity as 'BIG BALL' and resisted everything he had experienced in the past.

This resistance stems not only from envy of the elite, but also from fear of Detective Coleman and the fear that Detective Coleman could manipulate his life at will.

'BIG BALL' is completely under Detective Coleman's control; he can make him live or die at his command.

Therefore, he hates 'BIG BALL' and longs to become 'Hays'.

Because 'Hays' runs a legitimate business, has nothing to do with Detective Coleman, and is not subject to Detective Coleman's manipulation.

To get Hayes's confession, we must make good use of this.

Bernie hesitated after listening to Theodore's analysis.

It wasn't that he hesitated about Theodore's interrogation strategies, but rather that he found many of Theodore's strategies to have become quite radical since returning to DC.

In Theodore's initial analysis of the crime scene, the gunman was identified as Hayes. It was only after further investigation that the identity was changed to Coleman.

Such an error never occurred during Felton's time.

In addition, Theodore had never used such a method of directly attacking the criminal's weaknesses before at Felton.

Theodore was remarkably composed while in Felton, but became exceptionally aggressive upon returning to DC.

Bernie was worried about Theodore's various changes, combined with Paul Miller's words.

Bernie interrupted Theodore, who was still analyzing Hayes' weaknesses, and expressed his concerns.

Theodore looked at Bernie with surprise, staring at him for a while before realizing that he had never systematically explained criminal profiling and criminal psychology research to Bernie.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that he only explained it to Hoover, and that was in the form of a report.

But you can't blame him. It's Bernie who always makes wild guesses based on the third-rate tabloids, causing him to give up halfway through every time he tries to explain.

Thinking of this, Theodore patted Bernie on the shoulder apologetically: "I'll explain it to you when we get back tonight."

He organized his thoughts, trying to make Bernie understand in the simplest way possible: "It's abnormal for Felton to have 100% accuracy."

"It's normal for there to be some deviation in the current situation."

Bernie was completely confused by what he said, but the trust he had built up over the months led him to believe Theodore and stop asking questions.

Theodore returned to the case.

He anticipated several possible countermeasures that Hayes might use and deployed them accordingly.

One of the most important points is tracing the relationship between Sohasse and Coleman.

According to Crawford's testimony, this was not the first time Coleman and Hayes had done this; they had been working together for a long time, using Detective Coleman's duty hours to collect debts in order to cover up their violent acts.

Finding more examples would be a powerful blow to Hayes.

The more cases of violent debt collection like the Earl family there are, the more it proves that Hayes is not Hayes, but has always been 'BIG BALL'.

This requires examining cases previously handled by Detective Coleman.

This alarmed the deputy superintendent of the Fifth Precinct.

Bernie explained the situation to the deputy commissioner and received his support.

The deputy superintendent also prepared a small meeting room for them and thoughtfully found several internal affairs detectives to help them organize the case files.

Coleman is a veteran officer who has handled hundreds of cases.

Fortunately, Theodore and Bernie only needed cases from the time Hayes was released until now.

Furthermore, the victim was Black, the crime scene was located on Anacostia Road, the crime scene was poorly handled, evidence was lost or simply nonexistent, and the case file was as thin as a British cookbook.

With these conditions combined, the filtering process becomes much faster.

…………

Hayes was quickly brought back, still dressed respectably.

Despite being sandwiched between detectives, Hayes remained composed.

After being led into the interrogation room, Hayes paused at the door, his gaze quickly sweeping across the room.

Detective Ross gave him a push, and Hayes then walked into the interrogation room.

Two detectives forced him into a chair, and Detective Ross grabbed his arms and handcuffed him.

Hayes adjusted his posture to appear composed:

"I will not speak until my lawyer arrives."

Bernie closed the interrogation room door and calmly said to him:
"We introduced ourselves when we first met. We are FBI agents, not detectives from the Fifth Precinct."

He tapped the table: "The Constitution only grants you the right to hire a lawyer during the trial stage."

"As a key suspect in an FBI investigation, you do not have the constitutional right to have a lawyer present during the trial."

"So you don't need to wait for your lawyer."

These are the takeaways from Bernie's self-study training notes over the past few days.

The notes contained a wealth of very practical knowledge, which changed Bernie's attitude toward selection training.

He is currently trying to persuade Theodore to focus on the selection training.

Hayes pursed his lips: "Gentlemen, I swear, I have absolutely nothing to do with the killing of the Clarence family!"

“I didn’t kill them, and I don’t know who killed them. I told you everything I knew last week.”

He shook the handcuffs on his wrists: "It's no use arresting me now, I have no more information to provide you."

“I also wish I could have been there that night and prevented this tragedy. Clarence helped me…”

Bernie pushed the photo of the Earl family over.

Hayes paused, looking at the photo.

Bernie: "We know you didn't kill Clarence Earl and Mabel Earl."

Hayes breathed a sigh of relief.

"Coleman killed him, didn't he?"

Hayes paused for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know."

“I don’t know if Coleman killed them; I wasn’t there that night.”

He looked up from the photo, spread his hands, and looked sincerely at Bernie and Theodore:

"Gentlemen, I've said before that I'm running a legitimate business. I don't know what you're going to do with me here."

Bernie put away the photos, found Clarence Earl's loan agreement, opened it, and pushed it towards him: "Is this some kind of legitimate business?"

Hayes glanced at the contract and denied that it had anything to do with him.

Bernie shoved a stack of loan contracts at him: "Isn't any of this any of your business?"

Hayes shifted his position, looked away, and remained silent.

Bernie brought up the old issue again, asking Hayes about the origin of his nickname 'BIG BALL' and continuing to ask questions about his prison career.

Hayes was very resistant to 'BIG BALL' and loudly reminded Bernie:
"My name is Hayes! Not 'BIG BALL'!"

I haven't used that nickname for a long time!

Bernie ignored him and continued to call Hayes BIG BALL.

This made Hayes particularly uncomfortable, and he squirmed in his chair.

Theodore watched Hayes as he fed Bernie ammunition.

He handed over Crawford's statement.

They had previously reviewed Hayes' criminal record with the Fifth Precinct, which showed that Hayes only had minor offenses such as drinking.

Having experience with altering files at the Felton Police Department, both officers agreed that Hayes' criminal record might have been modified by Detective Coleman. Modifying the files of two officers might require the intervention of a senior superintendent or even the commissioner, but modifying the criminal record of a forgotten 'Big Ball' was incredibly easy in this era where all records are kept on paper.

All you need to do is choose a busy day for the internal police officers in the archives, and under the pretext of randomly checking someone's criminal record, kindly avoid troubling the officers, enter the archives yourself, pull out Hayes' criminal record, put it in your pocket, and throw it in the trash.

With no criminal record, the only available information regarding Hayes's past can be supplemented by Crawford's testimony.

Bernie connects 'BIG BALL' from his time in prison to his meeting with Coleman after his release, where Coleman takes a liking to him and transforms him into 'Hays,' helping Coleman manage his lending business.
“Every time it was Coleman’s turn to be on duty, you would go with him to collect the debt.”

“If anyone can’t pay, treat them the same way you treated the Earl family.”

"Anyway, Coleman will clean up the mess. Even if someone calls the police, it will be Coleman who responds, and the case will go back to him."

"You might even retaliate against them for calling the police. Is that right?"

Hayes shook his head repeatedly in denial.

Given the loan agreements in Bernie's possession, he no longer denied any involvement in the lending, but insisted on denying any connection to Detective Coleman or the debt collection aspect.

"I have never laid a hand on them."

“I’m not familiar with Detective Coleman either.”

"I was just lending money to the tenants out of kindness to help them get through this difficult time."

“Paying back debts is a matter of course. I was just reminding them to pay back their money. I never beat them, let alone killed them.”

The knocking interrupted the interrogation.

Detective Ross poked his head in and handed three case files to Theodore.

The internal detectives have only found three cases that meet the requirements so far, and they were sent over by Detective Ross as soon as they were discovered.

The main reason for the investigation was that the detectives were investigating a colleague, a veteran detective who had died in the line of duty, which made the detectives instinctively resistant.

Theodore flipped through the file and handed it to Bernie.

All three case files involved Black victims, were thin, and contained rough records, similar to the Earl family's case file.

The difference is that the victims in these three cases were only beaten, not killed.

Bernie spread them out and pushed them in front of Hayes.

Hayes glanced at the case file, shook his head, and continued to deny it.

Bernie pointed towards the conference room and told him that they were reviewing all the case files handled by Detective Coleman, and that more files like the three on the table could be found.

Hayes was silent for a moment: "I don't know what their relationship is with Detective Coleman, and they have nothing to do with me."

Theodore and Bernie exchanged a glance.

Bernie patted the thick stack of loan contracts next to him and asked, "Can I find their names here?"

As he spoke, he divided the loan agreement into two parts and began searching through them with Theodore in front of Hayes.

Based on the years marked on the case file, the two quickly found the loan contract corresponding to the victim.

Bernie placed the case file and loan agreement side by side in front of Hayes:

"We can find many more cases like this."

"Coleman is dead. He was a decorated detective who died in the line of duty. These cases couldn't have been committed by a decorated cop."

"These could only have been done by the notorious 'BIG BALL'."

"It also includes this."

Bernie took the photos of the scene from Theodore and placed them on top of the case file.

Hayes almost instinctively retorted, "My name is Hayes!"

After refuting his statement, he glanced at the corpse in the photo and turned his head away.

Bernie ignored his rebuttal and continued:
"Now that Coleman is dead, the Earl family's murders will also be attributed to you."

“BIG BALL, this is not the same as your previous petty theft. No one will sympathize with a guy who cruelly killed an entire family.”

"You will definitely be sentenced to death."

Bernie paused, then continued:

"Or tell us which one you killed and which one Coleman killed."

There was only silence in response to him.

Theodore handed the FBI lab report to Bernie.

Bernie spread out the report, then pulled out Clarence Earl's loan agreement, and finally took Crawford's statement, putting all three together and pushing them in front of Hayes:

“Clarence Earl owes you nearly sixty thousand.”

“Crawford has admitted that Coleman had a long-term working relationship with you, and that Coleman used his duty time to cover up crimes.”

"The laboratory estimated the height of the gunman, which closely matched Coleman's height, and his duty records also overlapped with the time of the incident."

"Hays, admit it."

“We know you didn’t kill Mabel Earl and Clarence Earl.”

Hayes's gaze darted back and forth between the three documents, and he remained silent for a long time.

Theodore immediately noticed his hesitation and repeated, "Coleman is dead."

Hayes looked up at him, then looked down at the photo, and slowly nodded.

He acknowledged Bernie's analysis of his working relationship with Detective Coleman and also admitted to past instances of violent debt collection.

But he insisted that Detective Coleman forced him to do those things.

He also insisted that he did not kill anyone:
“That money belongs to Coleman. If it were my money, he could pay me back whenever he wanted, considering how he took care of me.”

“Coleman is different. Everyone knows that anyone who dares to owe Coleman money and not pay it back will not have a good outcome.”

Hayes rattled off a whole bunch of preambles, and Theodore and Bernie listened patiently without interrupting.

Finally, he recounted the specific details of the incident:

“Clarence’s family couldn’t find a single penny. Coleman was furious and was prepared to make Clarence pay off his debts with his daughter.”

He pointed at Hattie Earl: "He ordered me to drag her into the bedroom."

“Mabel bit Coleman, which enraged Coleman, who then shot and killed Clarence and Mabel.”

"She tried to escape, but Coleman caught up with her and strangled her to death."

“I was terrified, and Coleman even threatened to kill me.”

Bernie, no longer wanting to listen to Hayes's rambling nonsense, interrupted him directly:

"Come on, BIG BALL."

"Coleman is a Black person, he could not have assaulted Hattie Earl."

"But you, BIG BALL."

"You were the one who tried to assault Hattie Earl. You strangled her, which led to Clarence Earl and Mabel Earl fighting back, and that's why Coleman shot them."

“It was right next door, and someone witnessed the whole thing.”

Hayes paused for a moment, then completely relaxed:
"He dares not testify."

Bernie countered, "He was indeed afraid to testify before. But now that Coleman is dead, if he comes forward to testify, you will also go to jail on multiple charges."

Why is he afraid to testify?

Hayes paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "You have no evidence."

Bernie pointed to the three case files, then to the Earl family's file:

“We all know that you killed Hattie Earl.”

“You can choose to admit to this crime, or take the blame for all of Coleman’s crimes.”

He paused, then, recalling Theodore's analysis of the relationship between Hayes and Coleman, added:

"As long as Coleman is alive, you can only be manipulated by him."

“As long as Coleman whistles, ‘BIG BALL’ has to be in position. He tells you who to target, and you have to target them.”

"Coleman is dead, and you're going to take the blame for him."

"Coleman was a decorated detective; he was buried with honor."

"You have three lives on your hands and dozens of charges against you. You're waiting to be put in the electric chair."

(End of this chapter)