1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 155 So the robbery has already begun?

Saturday, October 4.

The shadow of the Soviet Union still loomed over Emilyka.

However, after the White House, NASA, and a bunch of experts who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere took turns speaking in front of the media, people's enthusiasm has decreased compared to the previous two days.

The panic is being dispelled.

Two o'clock in the morning.

A light rain began to fall from the sky.

Two furtive figures braved the rain and slipped into the parking lot of the Sunset Motel, hugging the wall.

They huddled together, crouching low, weaving between cars, finally stopping next to a Plymouth Fury.

The car has Maryland license plates and looks well-maintained.

Linda Susan Parker pulled a borrowed wire hanger from her pocket and gently nudged Gary William Mitchell in front of her:

"Hurry, Gary, I feel like someone is watching us."

Her body trembled slightly, whether from cold or nervousness, it was hard to tell.

She was wearing a red polka-dot dress and short leather boots, with cargo pants underneath, an outfit that looked rather chilly in this weather.

Gary took a deep breath, trying to appear calm:

"Nobody's watching, everyone's sleeping."

He took the coat hanger, straightened one end with feigned expertise, bent the other end into a hook, and carefully slipped it through the gap at the top of the old Plymouth car window.

In the darkness, his hands trembled slightly as he fumbled for the hook to attach to the lever connecting to the car door lock.

Linda nervously looked around. The monotonous sound of raindrops hitting the awning sounded to her like thunderclaps.

A soft "click" sounded.

Gary gave a sharp tug, and the car door opened.

The two quickly got into the car.

Linda huddled in the passenger seat, her heart pounding, constantly glancing towards the hotel.

Gary lifted the plastic cover under the steering wheel and, using the faint light of the distant neon lights, located the ignition wires.

He used his mouth to peel off the insulation and tried to connect the two copper wires together.

His hands were somewhat stiff, like the feet of an old chicken that had been frozen for twenty years.

He failed the first time; a spark flashed.

He took a deep breath and glanced quickly at Linda beside him.

Linda was still nervously looking around, as if a group of people would emerge from the darkness at any moment and catch them red-handed.

Gary wiped the water droplets from his forehead—he couldn't tell if they were rain or sweat—and calmed himself down to try again.

This time, the two copper wires were securely joined together.

The whole car seemed to light up for a moment, and then the engine emitted a deep roar.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Linda again with a smug expression.

The two looked at each other in the darkness, and after a moment of silence, they both let out a suppressed chuckle.

Gary shoved the wires back in, got into the driver's seat, shifted gears, and Plymouth sped off like lightning.

Linda gripped the seatbelt tightly, her gaze towards Gary filled with admiration.

The car drove onto the road and quickly disappeared into the night.

Half past two in the morning.

Because of the rain, the streets were deserted, with almost no vehicles in sight.

A black Plymouth Fury sped past.

A moment later, Plymouth turned back and stopped in front of the 7-Eleven convenience store not far from the intersection.

This is a franchise store.

7-Eleven's main selling point is "7 am to 11 pm," but some franchised stores along highways will remain open 24 hours a day.

This 7-Eleven franchise is located in a somewhat remote area, and at this moment it is the only one with its lights on, as if it is silently beckoning.

After a brief stop at Plymouth, the car drove off, turned a corner ahead, and entered a dark alleyway.

Gary and Linda got out of the car.

Linda pulled out a red polka-dot scarf and covered her face, while Gary took out a gray cotton triangular scarf and covered the lower half of his face.

After completing the final checks, the two rushed to the convenience store.

The shop assistant was dozing off on the counter when she heard footsteps and was about to raise her head when she bumped into the cold muzzle of a gun.

The shop assistant was tense all over, then relaxed.

He slowly raised his hands, his head almost drooping to his chest, then slowly stood up, backed away, and turned to face the wall.

…………

The rain intensified in the early morning.

The restlessness brought about by the Soviets' ascent seemed to have been largely extinguished by the rain.

Theodore, Bernie, and Billy Hawke met up with Detective O'Malley at the Fourth Precinct and then traveled together to Maryland.

As they approached the Maryland state border, Detective O'Malley contacted the Maryland State Police via walkie-talkie.

The state police informed them that a robbery occurred early this morning on Rodney Road.

The robbed store was a 7-Eleven convenience store.

According to the statement taken by the patrol officer in charge of the case, the robbers stole a total of $89 in cash, six bottles of Coca-Cola, and four cartons of Chesterfield cigarettes.

A bottle of Coca-Cola costs five cents, and a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes costs thirty cents.

In this robbery, the 7-Eleven convenience store lost a total of $101.30.

This figure is based on the assumption that the store clerk's testimony is completely truthful and without any exaggeration.

In these types of robbery cases, the shop assistants will usually exaggerate the amount by more or less.

For a robbery, $101.30 is a really low figure, even lower than the amount stolen in Theodore and Bernie's first post office robbery in DC.

A typical patrol officer in DC earns around $120 a week.

The robbery occurred around 2:00 or 3:00 AM. After the robbers left, the store clerk called the police.

Due to the rain, the road conditions were not good, and the patrol officers did not arrive at the scene until two hours later.

After giving a brief statement to the store clerk, I left quickly.

The entire process of handling the police incident took less than twenty minutes.

The patrol officers didn't take the robbery seriously.

The main point is that no one was injured in the robbery, and the amount stolen was not large.

Even the employees of 7-Eleven convenience stores themselves are not very enthusiastic about recovering the stolen money and catching the robbers.

The patrol officers treated this bizarre robbery as a topic of conversation, and even after their shift ended, they continued to discuss it with their colleagues in the chat room.

This was overheard by state troopers who were waiting to meet up with Theodore and his group.

The state troopers felt that the robbery fit the requirements Bernie had mentioned the day before, so they contacted Theodore to ask if he wanted to go to the robbed convenience store to take a look.

After asking for the address, Theodore changed his destination.

The robbed 7-Eleven convenience store is located less than 100 yards east of the intersection of Rodney Road and 37th Street, NE, Maryland.

The location was a bit remote, and Theodore and his team were able to get there smoothly thanks to the state troopers giving them directions over the radio.

When they arrived, the state troopers had already been inside the convenience store for quite some time. Seeing the Chevrolet and the police cars from the DC 4th Precinct parked outside, the state troopers came out to greet them, holding umbrellas.

Theodore inquired about the situation at the scene, but the state troopers simply shook their heads.

He arrived more than twenty minutes earlier than Theodore and his party, but by the time he arrived, the diligent staff had already mopped the floor clean and wiped the cash register until it shone.

The shelves have been restocked and are now fully stocked and neatly arranged.

There was absolutely no indication that it had been robbed.

As the group entered the convenience store, perhaps because they had already learned from the state police that the group consisted of either police officers or FBI agents, the store clerk appeared unusually nervous and awkwardly came around from behind the counter to stand beside them.

Theodore quickly glanced around the convenience store.

The convenience store is not very spacious, and with so many people standing inside, it even feels a bit crowded.

Just like the state troopers said, there was absolutely no indication that it had been robbed.

The convenience store's windows were not smashed, the shelves were not overturned, there were no goods scattered on the ground, and the store clerks didn't even scratch the surface of the store.

Bernie asked the store clerk about the details of the robbery.

According to the shop assistant, because of the rain, there were no customers at all, so he fell asleep next to the cashier.

Around 2 a.m., he heard footsteps, and before he could even look up, a gun was pressed against his head.
"It's a shotgun."

The shop assistant said with certainty, "The barrel was sawed shorter, and there are some burrs."

As he spoke, he took off his hat, parted his sparse hair, and revealed his scalp.

There are a few light red scratches there.

After showing the hat to Theodore and his team, the clerk put it back on.

"I tried to get the gun from under the cabinet, but it was too late."

"I had no choice but to stand up and face the wall as the robbers ordered me to."

Theodore asked the clerk, "Is there only one person here?"

The shop assistant shook his head and recalled, "Two, it should be a man and a woman."

"The one with the gun was the man, and there was another woman in charge of the robbery."

When the robbery was mentioned, the shop assistant seemed to recall the amount of money stolen, and his expression became somewhat strange.

Theodore glanced at him and asked, "How did you know it was a man and a woman?"

The shop assistant paused for a moment:
"I heard footsteps, it sounded like high heels."

"It can't be a man wearing high heels, can it?"

"And that woman actually spoke."

"The male robber urged her to hand over the money, and she responded with a woman's voice."

Bernie asked the clerk if his voice sounded very young.

The shop assistant nodded, then quickly clarified:

"I'm not really sure either, I was terrified at the time."

He emphasized, "They had guns pointed at me! They could kill me at any moment! I wasn't in the mood to listen to anything!"

"Even if Marilyn Monroe were behind me, I wouldn't be able to hear her."

He seemed to be still shaken, and even shuddered as he spoke.

Bernie then asked him about the content of the robbers' conversation and the specific details of the robbery.

The shop assistant simply shook his head, indicating that he was very nervous at the time and was completely focused on whether he could survive, so he didn't pay much attention to anything else.

Theodore asked him if he had seen what the robbers looked like or what they were wearing.

The shop assistant shook his head repeatedly, then pointed outside:
"How could I possibly dare to look at their faces? What if they kill me to silence me?"

"This place is so remote, by the time someone finds me, I'll probably be stinking."

"After the gun was pointed at my head, I kept my head down and didn't dare to look at them at all."

He touched the cash register again, hesitated for a long time, then took a radio, revealing several brand-new scratches underneath to everyone:

"This must have been carved by the robbers."

These scratches were not in the previous patrol records; they must have been newly discovered by the shop staff when they were cleaning after the patrol officers left.

The engravings are of varying depths and are crooked, showing that they were carved in a hurry.

The state trooper stared wide-eyed at the store clerk, then turned to look at Theodore and his group, finally letting out a cold "ha!"

He stayed in the store for more than twenty minutes, and the clerk didn't mention it to him at all.

After careful examination, the group could vaguely make out that the inscription read "B&C 61".
Billy Hawke read it aloud, looking at Theodore: "B&C 61? What does that mean? A code name?"

Both the state troopers and Detective O'Malley, who frequently operate near the state border, shook their heads after a moment's thought, indicating that they couldn't recall any organization or individual in the vicinity associated with that code name.

The specific details require a thorough review of the police records at the police station.

Detective O'Malley had been silent ever since he entered the convenience store, his eyes constantly glancing at Theodore.

This robbery case does indeed closely match Theodore's analysis.

However, he was skeptical about the connection between the case and the car thief.

Theodore didn't linger on the symbols for long; he walked slowly through the convenience store, carefully observing the environment.

The cashier is located to the right of the entrance to the convenience store. The cashier is a long wooden cabinet with very limited space behind it, just enough for one employee to fit inside.

Behind the shop assistant was a cigarette rack on the wall, displaying all kinds of popular brands of cigarettes.

Chesterfield cigarettes were prominently listed.

To the left of the entrance are shelves stocked with candies, milk, and other food items. Coca-Cola, as the king of beverages for everyone, is naturally placed in the most prominent position.

He tried to reconstruct the robbery in his mind, then shook his head.

Bernie had already finished talking to the clerk, while Billy Hawke was taking a bunch of pictures of the convenience store with his camera.

They tried to extract fingerprints, but when the fingerprint powder was sprinkled, it spread evenly and then flew away with a gentle blow, leaving no fingerprints at all.

The store had just been cleaned by the staff; he cleaned it very thoroughly.

As I left the convenience store, the rain was even heavier than it had been in the morning.

Theodore and Bernie got into the car one after the other. Just as Bernie was about to start the car, the back door opened and Billy Hawke also got in.

As he shook the rain off himself, he explained that he felt like he was in prison riding in the same car as Detective O'Malley.

He had barely finished speaking when the other car door opened, and Detective O'Malley got in.

Billy Hawke shook his head vigorously, splashing water from his hair onto Detective O'Malley's face.

Detective O'Malley rubbed his face hard, glared at him, and asked Theodore directly:

"You think this was also done by a car thief?"

He said seriously, "I haven't seen a single piece of evidence linking this to the car thief."

“You can’t force it together with a case of a stolen police car; that won’t work.”

He was a little worried that Theodore, being young and impetuous, might force the merger of the cases.

Theodore turned to look at him, puzzled, and asked, "When did I say I wanted to combine the cases for investigation?"

Detective O'Malley opened his mouth, then nodded: "That's good."

After saying that, he turned around and glared at Billy Hawke before getting out of the car and leaving.

Bernie started his car and followed Detective O'Malley's car toward the state trooper headquarters.

(End of this chapter)