1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 41: The Personality Traits of the Series of Assassins

As evening approached, news came from the police station that Wenner had returned.

The two quickly returned to the police station.

Bernie rushed to Wenner's office to report the situation, while Theodore took the evidence to the forensic lab.

Samuel is not here.

It is said that he went north to attend the wedding of a friend's son.

Theodore was skeptical of Samuel's apprentices' abilities, but he simply didn't have the time to do it himself and could only give them repeated instructions.

He had just returned to Daoda's office when Bernie pulled him into Wenner's office.

Wenner's expression was serious, even grim. He didn't ask for evidence as usual, but instead asked directly...
"Based on your, well, reasoning, where did he hide Sam?"

Is there any chance that Sam will survive?

Theodore omitted the analysis of the identity replacement and gave the answer directly: "Yes. He should still be alive."

He said, "Carlos Mendoza fulfills his fantasy by playing the police through impersonating others."

"Before Sam, it might have been his grandfather."

"He might have worn his grandfather's uniform and impersonated a patrol officer on the streets. If the patrol officers in the area caught him..."

Wenner immediately picked up the phone and called Kahor.

With the appointment of the new deputy superintendent, Kahol further lost power and he returned to his human form.

As a deputy police commissioner, he could have bossed Wenner around and given him a good scolding; his position was quite superior.

But he insisted on realizing his reform dream and wanted to get involved himself. As a result, he lost everything.

Now, not only do they not dare to criticize Wenner, they also have to be extremely polite to him.

Wenner didn't have time to be polite with him and directly asked for the patrol officer's duty records.

By the time the patrol unit delivered boxes upon boxes of records, Wenner had already explained Sam's disappearance to the homicide squad, at which point all members of the homicide squad were on high alert.

The duty logs were immediately distributed, and soon the sound of pages turning filled the large office.

"The person we're looking for is Carlos Mendoza, but he may have used another alias."

“He was wearing old-fashioned police equipment and a 1910 police badge.”

"He was driving a modified police car equipped with a walkie-talkie that could switch to police channels."

"His activities mainly included the Mexican community, Rose Street, the area around Old Gun Bar, and the vicinity of Red Maple Street and Longhorn Beef Street."

Red Maple Street is where Grandpa Carlos used to be on duty.

Longhorn Beef Street, located between Red Maple Street and the Mexican Quarter, is where Carlos's parents were murdered and his grandfather was the victim of revenge.

Wenner read out the conclusions that Theodore had given in his office almost exactly, without changing a single one.

He paced back and forth in the main office, emphasizing the point repeatedly, before finally returning to his own office.

His office door was open, but he didn't care. While making a phone call to Director Widek, he peeled two chocolate balls and popped them into his mouth.

After speaking with Director Widek and receiving authorization, he reached into the drawer again, only to find it empty.

Wenner smacked his lips, feeling that ever since Theodore joined the murder squad, he could eat chocolate balls less and less.

The large office was quiet, with only the sound of turning pages.

There aren't actually many people impersonating police officers, but the patrol department's records are like a running account, with no categorization whatsoever.

Furthermore, the police officers' registration forms were mostly written in a messy, illegible handwriting, requiring considerable effort to decipher.

This resulted in the detectives' search speed being extremely slow.

Wenner had a duty log on his own desk, and he realized this after flipping through only two pages. He didn't put all his hopes on this, but instead contacted Kahor again, asking the patrol unit to cooperate in the search for Carlos.

Kahor readily agreed, hoping that Wenner would remember this favor.

The anxious wait continued until late at night.

After going through all the duty logs, they still couldn't find the person who matched the description.

The few records of impersonating police officers that were screened out were nothing more than pranks by a few teenagers.

The atmosphere in the large office was gloomy and oppressive, almost dripping with tension.

The detectives looked bewildered. They didn't know what else to do. Many of them were already picturing the scene of Sam's murder.

Theodore didn't want to give up so easily. He stared at the names of the streets—Mexican Neighborhood, Rose Street, Old Gun Bar, Red Maple Street, and Longhorn Street—for a while, then got up to talk to the police officers on those streets.

His movement immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Wenner, almost impatiently, pointed at him and asked, "What are your thoughts?"

Theodore showed them the names of several streets in the notebook and said earnestly...

"Some records will not be recorded in the duty log."

The homicide squad members, all with patrol officer experience, immediately understood Theodore's meaning.

Duty logs are records of valid summonses issued by patrol officers on duty that day, but only the patrol officers know exactly what happened in the patrol area.

Wenner immediately went to Kahle and asked him to help find all the patrol officers from the various districts.

The patrol unit operates on a three-shift system, consisting of a daytime group, an evening group, and a nighttime group. The shifts are adjusted weekly and rotate every three weeks.

Kahor cooperated readily and immediately called all three shifts of patrol officers back. The evening shift officers had just arrived home and hadn't even had time to change their clothes when their colleagues called them out and dragged them back to the police station.

Wenner, disregarding their feelings, simply repeated Theodore's conclusion to the patrol officers in the roll call room.

After he finished speaking, he asked the patrol officers if they had seen anyone who matched the description.

He had expected no one to respond, or even one or two would have been enough to make him happy. But after asking, he found out that most of them said they had seen it.

The three patrol officers, especially those from the Red Maple Street and Longhorn Beef Street, said they had seen it many times.

They also told Wenner that it was Sam Latimer from the homicide squad who asked them to help delete the man's criminal record.

Wenner then asked them about the last time Carlos appeared.

The patrol officers gave the answer: ten days ago.

Theodore believed this was a reasonable time.

He suggested to Wenner that the search should focus on the patrol areas where Sam had previously served, and that surveillance should also be set up at Sam's residence.

“Carlos took Sam’s clothes; that was the beginning of his impersonation of Sam.”

"He will follow the same pattern as his grandfather and patrol the area where Sam used to patrol."

Wenner had serious doubts about this, and not only him, but everyone in the homicide squad was highly skeptical of Theodore's theory.

They simply couldn't understand why Carlos would do that.

Shouldn't someone flee after committing murder? Shouldn't they try to avoid being caught?

Why follow such a nonsensical and absurd rule? Isn't that just walking into a trap?

Theodore couldn't explain to them that this was simply a characteristic of serial killers.

These personality traits are as distinct and unique as fingerprints, and profiling is the method to find these personality traits.

(End of this chapter)