1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 124 A Phone Call

Due to the international situation, Hoover has been quite busy lately, spending most of his time in the White House.

As Hoover's right-hand man, Thorson's time was even more limited than Hoover's.

Theodore met Thorson the afternoon after meeting Hoover.

Thorson planned to place Theodore and Bernie in the main office of the Investigation Department, sharing the same office as the other Investigation Department agents.

When an investigation is needed, a spare small meeting room can be temporarily used.

Theodore prefers that team members have their own private space to work together.

The only place that can meet this requirement is the basement.

Theodore had thought of this even before he met Thorsen.

Yesterday, he and Bernie practically walked through the entire Department of Justice building and found a storage room on the basement level that they liked.

It was a suite, large on the outside but small on the inside, with an area of ​​nearly 750 square feet (about 70 square meters), filled with old tables and chairs from some unknown department.

Theodore had even planned that the innermost small room would be used for storing documents, while the outer large room would be used for offices.

Basements often lack natural light and have poor ventilation, which can create a feeling of oppression if you stay there for too long.

He also wished for a more comfortable office environment, but the conditions did not allow it.

With the office space secured, Theodore and Bernie began decorating their future office.

We cleared away the clutter, cleaned the house, and then asked colleagues from the logistics department to help us modify the electrical circuits and install telephone lines.

The two were extremely busy.

After get off work, they went to Arlington to look at houses.

It was an old three-story house with a backyard, an attic, and a basement. The plumbing and electrical systems were a bit outdated, and there was some mold, but the price was relatively cheap.

With the property priced at $2.3, Bernie can obtain a federal employee loan of at least 4.5% from Riggs National Bank, requiring only a 5% down payment.

Most importantly, 60% of the residents in that community were FBI agents.

When they went to see the house, they ran into several of Bernie's colleagues who were greeting him.

Bernie is very happy with the house.

After returning to his Georgetown apartment that evening, he called his wife.

After some discussion, the two decided to buy the property.

In the days that followed, Bernie became quite busy.

To apply for a federal employee loan, he needed to contact the Felton Police Department to obtain his pay stubs and asset records, as well as his wife's proof of no income, FBI employment verification, and a whole host of other documents.

These proofs left Bernie completely bewildered.

Theodore compared it to the FBI's closing report and found that it was more complicated than the closing report.

During Bernie's loan application process, he met with Tolson twice more, on and off.

Theodore expressed his desire for an inside agent, hoping that one could be in place before the office was put into use.

However, things did not go as planned.

The last day of March.

The new office is now fully furnished.

Theodore and Bernie officially moved into their new office on the basement level.

The new office only had four desks and a few whiteboards standing in front and behind, making it seem rather empty.

The inner room, used for storing documents, has two rows of filing cabinets.

Two documents sat alone on the first row of the filing cabinet.

The two sat in the empty new office, listening to the continuous gunfire from the training ground across the street, speechless.

At noon, the gunfire from the other side finally stopped.

A few minutes later, voices came from the doorway.

The agents must have finished their shooting practice and were getting ready for lunch.

Bernie breathed a sigh of relief and asked Theodore, "Are you sure we'll be working here from now on?"

He pulled two crumpled pieces of paper from his ears and pointed to the office door: "We need a soundproof door."

Theodore put down his notebook, pulled two crumpled pieces of paper from his ear, and agreed with Bernie's statement. Just as they were about to go eat, the phone on the table rang.

Bernie strode over, picked up the phone: "Hello, this is..."

He introduced himself, but his expression changed slightly.

The telephone receiver had poor reception, and Theodore could easily hear the sound coming from it.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Bernie Sullivan?"

“Your wife and children are in our hands.”

"If you want them to be safe, put $20,000 in cash into the Western Union Telegraph Company's green package at 3 p.m. and put it on the train to Pittsburgh."

"Remember, it's carriage number 3."

"After we receive the money, we will release your wife and children."

“Mr. Sullivan, we don’t want anyone to get hurt, so please don’t try anything funny. Just do as we say and everyone will be safe.”

"Spending 20,000 yuan to save your wife and child's lives, I think it's a worthwhile deal, don't you think?"

After saying that, Bernie hung up the phone before he could reply.

Bernie was still a little dazed, clutching the receiver.

This is the first time this phone has been used since it was installed, and this is the kind of call it received!
After a few seconds of silence, Bernie's hand gripping the receiver began to tremble slightly.

He wanted to dial a number, but didn't know which number to dial, so he looked up at Theodore.

At that time, telephones had neither number lookup nor caller ID functions; the large telephones only had a dial pad.

It's not a button, and there's no display screen.

Theodore looked at the phone, then at Bernie, unsure whether it was a scam call or a real extortion call.

He reminded Bernie that he should at least call home to confirm.

Bernie finally knew which number to dial.

He dialed Felton's home number.

The call was quickly connected: "This is AT&T long-distance service. Where would you like to connect?"

Bernie swallowed hard and said in a deep voice, "I need to connect to Felton, Texas, number XX-xxxx."

The operator asked, "Would you prefer the other party to pay, or would you like to cover the cost yourself?"

"I am the caller who pays!"

The call was transferred, accompanied by a rhythmic mechanical ringing amidst the static white noise.

As time went by, Bernie's heart sank little by little.

No one answered the phone.

Ninety seconds later, a sound came from the receiver:
"This is AT&T long-distance service. There is no answer on the other end. Do you want to continue waiting or end the call?"

Another 90 seconds of white noise mixed with mechanical ringing, still no one answered.

The intermittent beeping from the receiver reminded Bernie to hang up.

Bernie hung up the phone and got up to walk outside.

Theodore gave chase.

The two arrived at the elevator and took it upstairs.

Bernie hadn't lost his temper; he was going to report to his superiors according to standard procedure.

In the elevator, Theodore pulled out his notebook and quickly jotted down the contents of the phone call:

"After the call was connected, there was no announcement or notification from the AT&T human transfer hub, and the caller was not from Felton."

"He's in DC."

In this era, long-distance calls could only be transferred manually, and the called party would hear a relay station announcement saying "This is XXX hub station".

For example, if the call comes from Pennsylvania, the relay station will announce, "This is the PHL hub."

Different relay stations have their own codes.

Only local calls can be connected automatically.

(End of this chapter)