1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 203 Sage Time

Terence Cowan confessed to burning Evelyn Shaw to death.

He first followed Evelyn Shaw to confirm her route home and daily routine.

Evelyn Shaw would often arrange for Frank Kowalski to stay in the hospital chapel, and then take him home after get off work.

On the evening of April 30, after get off work, Terence Cowan met Frank Kowalski in the hospital chapel.

He returned home and, as usual, fed and administered medication to Sean Cowan and cleaned the house.

Finally, Sean Cowan was given an injection of morphine to relieve his pain.

Under the influence of morphine, Sean Cowan quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Terence Cowan then loaded the prepared gasoline into his car and drove to the designated crime scene.

He waited less than five minutes before Evelyn Shaw and her son appeared.

Terence Cowan ran over Evelyn Shaw with his car, and as he got out to pour gasoline on her, he discovered Frank Kowalski.

According to him, he was stunned at the time, and by the time he came to his senses, Frank Kowalski had already been strangled to death and Evelyn Shaw had been set on fire.

He panicked, hurriedly stuffed Frank Kowalski's body into the car, and drove off.

He remembered hearing that several bodies were pulled from the Anacasta River every year, and worried that something might happen to Sean Cowan, who was home alone. So he drove to the Anacasta River, dumped the body into the river, and then rushed home.

After saying all this, Terence Cowan's body relaxed considerably, and he was no longer tense.

He specifically emphasized that he did not intend to kill Frank Kowalski.

Bernie asked him what exactly happened.

He thought for a while, then shook his head to indicate that he didn't remember.

Bernie didn't believe this explanation and turned to look at Theodore.

Theodore did not dwell on the matter.

He asked Terence Cowan about the location where the body was disposed of, as well as the specific time and process of the disposal.

Terence Cowan hesitated for a moment before answering each question.

There was a knock on the interrogation room door, and Detective O'Malley poked his head in and waved to the two men.

Theodore paused the interrogation and got up with Bernie to leave the interrogation room.

Outside the interrogation room, Billy Hawke, who had just returned from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, handed a document to Theodore.

The document records Terence Cowan's years of service, the companies he worked for, his skill certifications, and his jurisdiction.

This encompasses almost his entire career.

Theodore flipped through the documents and found that Terence Cowan's skill certification was IBEW Class A, which is the highest level in the guild.

He can handle almost all circuit problems on his own.

He is an employee of a circuit maintenance company in the Northeast region, and his main responsibility is the 4th circuit maintenance area in the Northeast region.

This is a large area that includes Brentwood Road and Thomas Street.

The document begins with Terence Cowan's personal information, followed by records of complaints and other related information.

Terence Cowan has few complaints against him, and most of them are from more than a decade ago.

The most recent one is from five years ago.

Complaint records show that on March 17, 1956, Terence Cowan caused a fire due to improper operation while repairing a power outage in the Howard Apartments.

Terence Cowan himself suffered severe punishment for this incident.

He was fined $200, his in-house skills certification level was downgraded from Class A to Class B, and he was required to complete a 40-hour safety procedure education course.

Most seriously, he was required not to perform main circuit repairs on his own for one year.

A downgrade in skill certification level will directly affect the scope of orders he can accept, the mandatory 40 hours of training wastes a lot of working time, and being prohibited from operating main circuit repairs independently for one year almost cuts off his possibility of participating in large projects.

This penalty could directly cut Terence Cowan's income in half.

Theodore is particularly focused on the date the complaint was filed.

He gave the date to the bald firefighter.

A few minutes later, the bald firefighter arrived in a hurry.

He found the fire accident investigation report corresponding to the date.

The report states that the fire was caused by improper electrical work, resulting in accidental contact with electrical wires.

Howard Apartments is a well-known budget apartment building in the Northeast. The building manager divided the apartment into individual small rooms, allowing the unremarkable four-story building to accommodate nearly a hundred people.

The living conditions here are poor, but the price is low, even cheaper than in the Southeast District, making it very popular with people who want to do serious work but are temporarily short of money.

This is also a notorious fire-prone apartment building, with a fire occurring almost every two months.

The nearly one hundred tenants had an exceptionally high demand for electricity, and the illegally connected wires were tangled together, like a spider web wrapped around the wooden beams, resembling a mess of hemp.

Almost no one can figure out what's going on with these lines.

Theodore took the report from his hand and looked through it.

He believes this fire was likely Terence Cowan's first act of arson.

The bald firefighter glanced into the interrogation room and shook his head.

“You can easily find several reports like this.”

"For Howard's apartment building, fires caused by those messy wires are just commonplace."

Theodore asked him, somewhat puzzled:

"How did this apartment pass your inspection?"

The bald firefighter looked somewhat embarrassed.

He pretended not to hear the question and forcefully steered the conversation back to the case:
"I've looked into it; this should be an accident."

After a pause, he added:
"Of course, it's easier to fake an accident in Howard's apartment than anywhere else."

"Just touching the wires there could cause a short circuit."

Theodore shook his head.

He did not deny that it was an accident, but this was the earliest connection they could find between Terence Cowan and fire and a short circuit.

He suspected this was Terence Cowan's first time.

The bald firefighter glanced into the interrogation room again, but did not refute it further.

He didn't really want to argue with Theodore about this, that's why he said that.

Theodore took the documents and returned to the interrogation room.

Detective O'Malley then went to report the progress of the interrogation to the deputy commissioner.

The deputy commissioner was somewhat surprised that Theodore and Bernie were able to obtain Terence Cowan's confession.

He inquired carefully about the interrogation process, and then fell into deep thought.

Detective O'Malley managed to call out with some difficulty:
"Boss."

The deputy police commissioner snapped out of his reverie and looked up at him.

Detective O'Malley inquired with the deputy commissioner about the officer who had been taken away by the FBI.

The police officer leaked information about the case that was under investigation.

This was originally nothing to worry about.

The arson case does not involve politics or national security or other secrets.

Compared to those cases, this is just an ordinary one.

Detectives would even tell their children bedtime stories about the cases they were investigating.

Even if he leaked the information to a third-rate tabloid he'd never heard of, it still wouldn't be a big deal.

When they encounter cases that could attract public attention, detectives often exchange information for pocket money with newspaper reporters, and at most they get a few words of criticism afterward.

The key question is: what was the purpose of this leak?

The detective could easily say that he leaked the information just to make some money and didn't think much of it.

That's exactly what he told others.

But the FBI clearly didn't believe it.

Otherwise, the others wouldn't have been arrested and haven't been released yet.

Shortly after the man was taken away, the deputy superintendent received the news.

The deputy commissioner shook his head and instructed Detective O'Malley:
“This has nothing to do with us.” He tapped the table.

"The arsonist committed the crime within our jurisdiction from beginning to end."

"According to the interrogation results, it can be traced back as far as five years ago."

"That's what we should be concerned about."

Detective O'Malley wanted to say something more, but the deputy commissioner was no longer interested in listening.

He's having a headache right now.

He waved his hand, shooing the man out of the office.

…………

In the interrogation room.

Terence Cowan's eloquent speech was not interrupted.

Bernie didn't even need to persuade him, nor did Theodore need to tell him which crime was more serious, murder or arson.

He seemed to have given up on himself, answering every question.

When Theodore placed the documents Billy Hawke had brought back, along with the fire investigation report, on the table, Terence Cowan hesitated only for a moment before readily admitting it.

According to him, it was indeed an accident.

火灾五天前，也就是1956年3月12日下午，3岁10个月大的肖恩·柯万首次因肺炎被送往医院，体温高达102℉（约39℃）。

Back then, he wasn't the skilled nurse he is now, adept at expectoration, medication administration, feeding, and hygiene, comparable to a seasoned professional.

At that time, Sean Cowan was still being cared for by his wife.

Upon learning of Sean Cowan's condition, the completely inexperienced Terence Cowan panicked.

The night before the fire, Terence Cowan only managed to get two hours of sleep before dawn.

He was in a daze while inspecting Howard's apartment.

He was eager to finish work as soon as possible so he could go back to the hospital to see Sean Cowan.

However, the terrible wiring problems in Howard's apartment building prevented him from finishing quickly.

The more anxious he became, the more tangled the wiring became, making it impossible to sort out.

This made him extremely irritable.

While cutting a discarded power line, Terence Cowan's hand trembled, accidentally touching an adjacent live wire and causing an electric arc.

The electric arc ignited the cotton-like dust on the beam, which in turn ignited the electrical wires mounted on the beam.

Terence Cowan picked up his glass, took a sip of water, and continued his narration:

"I quickly took off my coat and tried to put out the fire."

"But the fire not only didn't go out, it spread to several illegally connected tarpaulin wires nearby."

"The fire started burning along the power lines and spread rapidly."

Terence Cowan stared blankly at the raging flames and accidentally fell off the ladder.

He thought he would be afraid, but he wasn't.

He felt a twisted sense of relief.

The fire burned brighter and brighter, gradually engulfing the tangled wires that he hadn't had time to untangle.

This gave him a sense of destructive pleasure.

These things bothered him, preventing him from going back to see that Sean Cowan's wires had been burned to a crisp.

Nothing is stopping him now.

He even felt a special warmth towards those flames.

Theodore asked him:
Did you see Sean Cowan earlier than usual that day?

Terence Cowan thought for a moment, took a sip of water, and then shook his head:
"Can not remember."

Bernie poured him another glass of water.

Terence Cowan took over and brought up the second fire.

That was a few months later.

At the time, he was in the penalty period for his previous mistake, and his income had shrunk significantly. Sean Cowan had also just been discharged from the hospital, and his expenses were substantial.

Their savings were quickly depleted.

His wife began to urge him to abandon Sean Cowan.

Sean Cowan's situation has been fluctuating.

Everything made him extremely irritable.

During the daytime maintenance, looking at the messy wires, he suddenly thought of the fire a few months ago.

That night, he chose an empty room, climbed in through the window, and strung several electrical wires together.

Unfortunately, the wires only sparked and did not catch fire.

He tried for a long time, becoming more and more frustrated, and finally simply put some gasoline out of the car and poured it on the ground.

This time he succeeded.

The fire ignited instantly and spread rapidly at a speed that left him speechless.

He almost burned to death inside.

Terence Cowan scrambled out of the room, then hurriedly called the police.

He wanted to leave, but after hesitating for a moment, he chose to stay and witnessed the entire process of firefighters extinguishing the fire.

He felt very satisfied.

Since then, whenever he feels stressed, he releases that stress by setting fires.

Initially, Terence Cowan didn't know any of the fancy short-circuit tricks, nor could he control the size of the fire.

He simply found an empty room, fiddled with the electrical wires for a bit, then poured gasoline on them and set them on fire.

After doing this twice, he began to pay special attention to some tricks at work and tried to apply them to arson.

His first success was the fire on November 24, 1957.

That is, the time his wife abandoned them.

Terence Cowan seemed somewhat excited when the fire was mentioned.

He described the entire process of the crime to the two men in great detail, from choosing the target to how to set it up, how to operate it, and finally where he stood by and watched.

He talked on and on, never stopping.

Bernie was taking notes incredibly fast, and I tried several times to get him to slow down.

After recounting the fire, Terence Cowan finished his water, lowered his head slightly, and fell silent.

Bernie poured him another glass of water and tapped on the table.

Terence Cowan snapped out of his reverie and looked at Bernie with some displeasure.

Bernie asked him:

"You haven't used gasoline since then, is it because you've mastered the method of creating a fire using electrical wiring?"

Terence Kwan thought for a moment and nodded:

"That fire was huge."

"They almost found out about me."

He paused for a moment, then continued talking about the next fire.

But he spoke very briefly, very quickly, and his speech became increasingly brief and faster.

Sometimes he would stop to think for a moment if he couldn't remember the exact time or location of the fire.

Theodore knew it was because they had helped him relive the two most important fires of his life.

One of them was the one when his wife left.

One of them was burning Evelyn Shaw to death.

He had had his fill.

(End of this chapter)