1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 128: Step-by-step teaching, guaranteed to teach and you'll learn!

By the time Theodore and Bernie finished visiting the six people, it was completely dark.

The two did not go to the Department of Justice building again, but went straight back to Georgetown.

The conversation naturally drifted to the case on the way.

Discussing cases on the road had almost become a habit for the two of them.

Theodore analyzed the scammers' modus operandi: "The scammers obtained a list containing the names of the nine of you from the main branch on Wednesday."

"This could be a list of high-quality clients."

Bernie pointed to himself and joked, "Am I considered a premium customer?"

“I just got a loan from Riggs National Bank.”

Theodore glanced at him and shook his head seriously: "No."

"You shouldn't be on the list."

“Scammers treat you differently from everyone else.”

"Your ransom demand is higher."

"He may have seen your loan information."

Bernie thought about the situation at the main branch on Wednesday and his smile faded: "It was indeed very busy that day, there were a lot of people."

Theodore continued, "The fraudsters are unlikely to be bank employees; they are more likely customers who came to conduct business that day."

"I happened to see the list and your loan information, so I copied them down."

"AT&T technicians mentioned that on Wednesday night, DC-1708 received several J-7 malfunction reports before dialing the flight attendant's number."

Bernie asked uncertainly, "Is he hesitating?"

Theodore nodded: "The fraudster may have had this idea before, perhaps even rehearsing it countless times in his mind."

"That's why he was so adept at calling the flight attendant and extorting money from you."

"On Thursday at noon, the fraudsters opened the coin locker in advance and left the key to locker 103 at the Union Station, waiting for the train attendant to pick it up."

"On Friday at noon, the murderer used a DC-1708 phone to make nine extortion calls by magnetizing a coin, using a script he had memorized to carry out the extortion one by one."

"The flight attendants will help him take the stolen money to Pittsburgh and then back to DC."

Bernie nodded unconsciously in agreement, and after waiting a while and seeing that Theodore was not going to continue, he turned to look at him.

Theodore opened his notebook and turned to a new page: "Now we will use the method of criminal profiling to distinguish the methods and identifying features used by fraudsters in the course of their crimes."

Bernie's eyes widened slightly: "Huh?"

Theodore looked at him and said, "Hmm."

Bernie turned his head and stared intently ahead.

Theodore continued to watch him, waiting quietly.

Silence fell over the car.

After a long pause, Bernie glanced quickly at Theodore and asked uncertainly, "A magnetized coin?"

Theodore wrote it down in his notebook without offering a judgment.

After another moment of silence, he looked ahead and spoke again: "The package, the green package."

"He chose to have the ransom be placed in a green package on a train bound for Pittsburgh."

Theodore kept scribbling away, recording everything.

This made Bernie a little uneasy.

After another long silence, Bernie's voice sounded a little weak: "Call me?"

Theodore wrote this down as well, then looked up at him: "Anything else?"

Bernie thought about it carefully for a long time, then shook his head uncertainly: "That's it?"

Theodore put down his pen, organized his thoughts, and first repeated the meaning and differences between common methods and identification marks:

"Common methods are necessary means adopted by criminals to successfully commit crimes, while identification marks are unnecessary behaviors adopted by criminals to satisfy psychological needs."

After rambling on and on, Theodore suddenly stopped.

He felt as if he were giving a lesson to students.

Bernie acted like a student, nodding incessantly and even slowing down the car.

In Theodore's eyes, he was already driving slowly enough, and now that he was slowing down even further, it felt like he was crawling like a snail.

Theodore coughed and pointed to the first line of the notebook:

"Scammers choose to use public phone booths to carry out extortion. That's a good idea."

“It is difficult to trace the caller to a public phone booth. Especially DC-1708 at Union Station, which is in a high-traffic area.”

"Even if the fraudster leaves evidence such as fingerprints, it will be quickly contaminated or erased by other people who make the call."

“He could have followed the normal procedure, like everyone else, inserting coins and dialing.”

"This way, we won't be able to track the other eight numbers, or even know that they exist."

"Without knowing about the other eight numbers, none of the clues traced back from these nine numbers would have come to fruition."

Theodore circled the magnetized coin: "But the scammers didn't do that."

“He used a magnetized coin, a method that leaves obvious clues and is only known to a few people to make the call.”

He emphasized: "Twice!"

"This is what happened when I called the flight attendant on Wednesday night."

"The same thing happened when I made the extortion call on Friday at noon."

"This is a very typical identification mark."

"The killer was very proud of his skills."

He stopped here and looked at Bernie.

Bernie, who had been listening intently, suddenly realized something and recalled Theodore's previous analysis. He tentatively asked, "Is he an AT&T technician?"

Theodore shook his head: "AT&T's technicians said that only their technicians know this method."

He pointed to Bernie, then to himself: "But now we know."

Bernie looked at him blankly.

Theodore turned to the second point and began analyzing the green packages and the ways in which the stolen money flowed back into the country:

"This is a necessary measure to cover up criminal activity."

He first gave the answer, and then explained it:

“Government employees have high credit ratings, are afraid of scandals, have stable incomes, and can quickly get loans from banks.”

"Green packages are exempt from inspection, and using this exemption can effectively reduce the risk of packages being intercepted."

"Have the flight attendants take the luggage to Pittsburgh for a short trip before returning to DC—"

“Once it attracts the attention of law enforcement, the lead will end with the flight attendant, just like it is now.”

"Doing so can greatly reduce the risk of self-exposure."

He then pointed to the last one:
“The scammers know your identity; they know you are an FBI agent.”

"He could have bypassed you and chosen another target, thus reducing the risk of being tracked down."

"But he didn't."

“The scammers not only didn’t let you off the hook, but they also increased your ransom from 5000 to 2.”

"This is a very typical targeted behavior, and it is completely unnecessary."

Bernie suddenly realized: "So using magnetized coins, targeting me, and increasing the ransom amount are his identifying marks!"

Theodore paused for a moment, feeling that the statement was awkward, but considering that Bernie was a beginner, he did not correct him.

He then moved on to the second phase: "Magnetized coins are like the fingerprints of fraudsters."

"His use of magnetized coins was purely a display of his mastery of this technology, which is possessed by only a select few." "He was extremely conceited about his own technology."

"So why not choose to extort an FBI agent and deliberately increase the ransom amount?"

Bernie scratched his head.

Theodore thought for a moment and asked him, "Did you see Jacob when you went back to Felton for Christmas?"

Bernie nodded, a smile unconsciously spreading across his face, before suddenly realizing what was going on.

He slammed his hand on the steering wheel: "Provocation!"

"He's provoking us!"

Theodore nodded: "Good."

"He's deliberately provoking us."

"The same goes for using magnetized coins; it also involves a provocative mentality of proving to the law enforcement system that 'I am smarter than you.'"

Theodore said seriously, "If we let the fraudsters get away with it..."

Bernie, recalling what Theodore had once said—that murderers build confidence through repeated successful crimes—continued to say:
"He'll think he's defeated the FBI! He'll become even more arrogant and demanding!"

Theodore nodded: "Good."

"He chose to use kidnapping and extortion to disguise a fraud, and he may eventually actually plan a kidnapping and extortion case."

Bernie was somewhat excited.

This was his first attempt at analyzing a case like Theodore.

This is a completely different perspective.

Remembering how Theodore would usually offer his guesses about the killer after analyzing these cases, he asked, "What's next?"

Theodore had planned to guide Bernie to create a profile of the fraudster, just like before, but considering the results of the last advanced course, he had to give up.

He provided his own profile of the fraudster:

"I have the following guesses about the murderer."

"He is a man, between 45 and 55 years old."

“He probably lives near Union Station, or passes by Union Station on his way to and from get off work.”

"He works in the communications industry and is a skilled worker."

"His skills are outstanding, even among his peers."

"He is very proud of his skills."

"He was dissatisfied with government departments."

"He may work in the General Affairs Administration, where he is responsible for installing and maintaining communications equipment."

“He is a very gentle and honest person in his daily life. He rarely gets into conflicts with others and does not advocate violence.”

"He went to the main branch to conduct business on Wednesday but was refused."

Bernie's initial smugness vanished instantly as he listened to Theodore's analysis.

He thought to himself, "Sure enough, it's not a skill that can be mastered simply by studying."

He couldn't understand the analysis that followed.

Especially the last three.

After hesitating for a moment, Bernie chose a question that sounded relatively simple:

Why do you work in the General Affairs Administration Bureau?

Theodore organized his thoughts:

"The General Services Administration is responsible for the installation of communications equipment in federal agencies, and they are the first to receive the communications catalog after the equipment is installed in each government department."

"The scammers could have obtained the numbers of the other eight people from other places, but our office phone was newly installed, and apart from FBI personnel, the only other numbers listed in the General Services Administration's communications directory were ours."

"This is the only way to get the new office number."

This principle is very easy to understand.

Once you understand the working relationships between government departments, it's easy to comprehend.

Coincidentally, they had just completed training on relations among various government departments not long ago.

Theodore concluded:

"By obtaining the list of customers who were refused service at the main branch on Wednesday and cross-referencing it with the list of communications technicians from the General Affairs Bureau, we should be able to identify the fraudsters."

Bernie nodded, then thought about how the banks wouldn't be open tomorrow and wished tomorrow were Monday.

Theodore thought for a moment, then took out his notebook and began searching.

The two returned to Georgetown and chose a restaurant for dinner.

After ordering, Bernie sighed and patted his wallet with a pained expression.

A few months ago in Felton, he also said that Theodore was wasting money by eating out every day all by himself.

A few months later, he was living the same life as Theodore...

After finishing dinner and returning to his apartment, Theodore took out his notebook and dialed a number.

Bernie watched with curiosity as the call was answered.

Theodore paused for a moment: “I am Theodore Dixon Hoover, and I am looking for Mr. Francis V. Fleming.”

Francis V. Fleming is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Riggs National Bank.

In January, Theodore left Quantico to return to DC for Jack's inauguration. That night, he met Francis V. Fleming at the ball and, through Hoover's introduction, noted down the other man's number.

After a while, a hearty laugh came through the receiver, along with a greeting to Theodore's uncle.

You should ask him, not me. I haven't seen him for four days, how would I know if he's alright?

Theodore thought this to himself, but his response was very polite.

He thanked the other person for their concern and then inquired about their situation.

After exchanging pleasantries, Theodore got straight to the point.

After hearing Theodore's description, Mr. Fleming said he would send someone to the Department of Justice building the next morning to assist with their investigation.

Theodore expressed his gratitude to Mr. Fleming.

After ending the call, Theodore relayed to Bernie, "The Riggs National Bank will send someone to assist us with the investigation tomorrow morning."

Bernie, still reeling from Theodore's recent phone call with Francis V. Fleming, shook his head and sighed:
"I almost forgot who your uncle is."

Theodore wanted to object, but after thinking about it carefully, he nodded in agreement.

Without Hoover, he certainly wouldn't have met Mr. Fleming, let alone asked him for help.

Around 10 PM, the agents stationed at the Union Station completed their shift and called to report on the situation.

No one has been found to have attempted to open cabinet number 103.

Union Station's coin lockers come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Locker number 103 is a large locker, and the storage fee is close to $1 per day.

This is a very high price, and few travelers will use it.

They kept watch all afternoon but didn't see anyone coming towards the large lockers.

Bernie thanked the agents over the phone and, after hanging up, relayed the results of the surveillance to Theodore.

He really hoped that the surveillance work would yield results, ideally catching the perpetrator red-handed.

Theodore is unpacking a package.

He subscribed to a large number of psychology-related magazines and journals, which arrived gradually over the past two days.

Theodore was not surprised by the result.

He never underestimated fraudsters.

From the beginning, Theodore was convinced that the fraudster was a smart man.

(End of this chapter)