1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 220 The Characteristics of the Seventh Precinct

Theodore, not wanting to listen to Deputy Inspector Doherty's nonsense, interrupted him directly:
Where is the body now?

Deputy Superintendent Doherty showed no displeasure at being interrupted; he pointed to the floor:

"In the refrigerated cabinet of the forensic room."

He reiterated:
"The transfer and transport of the body was carried out in the presence of all three parties, with state troopers from Maryland and Virginia present at the scene."

"The body was put into a body bag and transported to the police station. After that, law enforcement officers from the three parties carried it into the forensic room, registered and recorded it, and then put it into the refrigerated body cabinet."

"To ensure minimal damage to the body, we did not wash it. We only opened the body bag during registration. After registration, we immediately put the body bag and body into the refrigerated cabinet for preservation."

"These were all completed under the witness of all three parties and under my supervision."

Deputy Superintendent Doherty explained in detail, then stood up with a smile, ready to personally lead them to the forensic room to retrieve the body.

Bernie and Billy Hawke looked at each other in bewilderment.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty's considerations were very comprehensive; one could say he took everything into account.

His actions were completely in accordance with regulations and requirements, without the slightest deviation.

Even considering the complexity of case attribution, Deputy Superintendent Doherty's actions were exemplary in avoiding difficulties for the final case attribution agency.

But neither of them liked Deputy Inspector Doherty at all.

He gives the impression of trying hard to avoid taking on responsibility.

Since we met, what he's talked about most is that he can find evidence and justification for everything he does, as if he's afraid they'll cause him trouble.

Unlike the other two, Theodore's impression of Deputy Inspector Doherty wasn't bad.

He just felt that Deputy Superintendent Doherty sometimes seemed to be long-winded.

Theodore followed Deputy Inspector Doherty outside and continued to ask him:
"Is the record of the emergency call from the morning of May 19th still available?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty nodded:
"The call didn't go directly to our branch office."

Theodore stopped in his tracks.

Bernie and Billy Hawke also stopped, and the three of them looked at Deputy Superintendent Dougherty.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty also stopped:

"Around 8:50 a.m. on May 19, no later than 9:00 a.m., we received a notification from the radio dispatcher that a body had been found on the river."

"Upon receiving the notification, we immediately dispatched nearby police cars to the scene and confirmed the situation."

"But the location of the body is not within our jurisdiction."

"Just as our officers were preparing to notify the Virginia State Troopers, they arrived at the scene and accused our officers of deliberately pushing the body across the state line."

Bernie asked him:

"The emergency calls weren't made directly to your branch office?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty nodded affirmatively:

"No."

Bernie glanced at him, then looked at Theodore:

"It seems the emergency call was made to the central emergency call center."

Currently, the emergency number in Emily City is not standardized to 911. Police stations in different cities have different phone numbers, and even different branches within the same city may have different numbers.

The DC Police Department has seven precincts and one headquarters.

The emergency contact numbers for the eight departments are all different.

According to the regulations of the DC Police Department, the precinct should transfer the call to the central emergency call center at headquarters after receiving an emergency call, so that headquarters can handle the call centrally.

The operator at the central alarm center will make a simple record of the location of the incident, the name and contact number of the person reporting the incident, the nature of the incident and related details, and then forward the alarm to the branch office responsible for the area according to the principle of territorial jurisdiction.

The branch office's radio dispatcher will contact nearby police cars to check the situation.

However, in practice, many residents habitually call the branch office in the jurisdiction where they live directly.

If it's just a minor matter like community affairs, the branch office won't transfer the call to the central emergency call center; instead, they'll handle the situation directly.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty remained silent, simply gesturing for them to continue forward.

Theodore agreed with Bernie's guess:
“The person who called the police may not be familiar with the surrounding environment. He may have used a public phone to make the call, and the number may have been found in a phone book.”

The numbers for DC headquarters and branch offices are in the phone book, but the number for the central emergency call center is listed first and will be looked up first.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty glanced back at Theodore, then remained silent.

He had no opinion on Theodore's speculation, since it was none of his business.

Theodore then asked Deputy Inspector Doherty:
Who were the first detectives to arrive at the scene?

Deputy Superintendent Doherty replied:

"Murphy and Riley."

"They happened to be patrolling in that area at the time."

"When they arrived at the scene, they confirmed that there was a body, but the body was in the water and not stranded."

"Murphy and Riley are preparing to retrieve the body."

"Railley contacted the boat, while Murphy sought help from Daniel, Byrne, and Vincent, who lived nearby."

“Daniel, Byrne, and Vincent are all detectives in our police department.”

“Railley can drive a boat; he drove a boat with four other people to retrieve the bodies.”

"As soon as the boat reached the middle of the river, we encountered Virginia State Troopers, who thought my officers were pushing bodies out of state."

Theodore was skeptical of the latter part of his statement.

He asked Deputy Superintendent Doherty:

"The body was found in the middle of the river?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty shook his head:

"I am not sure."

Theodore then asked him:

"If the body wasn't in the middle of the river, why did your officers steer the boat there?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty remained silent for a few seconds, then shook his head to indicate that he didn't know either.

Bernie stopped Theodore from pressing him with questions.

He asked Deputy Superintendent Doherty:

"Could you get Detective Murphy and his team here? We need to ask them about what happened."

Deputy Superintendent Doherty looked troubled:
"Murphy and Riley are on vacation."

"Daniel, Byrne, and Vincent are on duty."

Before Bernie could speak, he continued:
"However, in order to solve the case and catch the murderer as soon as possible, I can contact them. I think they would be happy to cooperate with your work."

Bernie fell silent.

Billy Hawke coughed to cover up his embarrassment at laughing out loud.

Theodore stared at Deputy Inspector Doherty with surprise and asked earnestly:

"You mean they're planning to use being on leave as an excuse to disobey orders and refuse to cooperate with the investigation?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty hurriedly shook his head in denial.

Theodore asked him curiously:

"Are the detectives of the DC 7th Precinct not following the regulations of the DC Police Department?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty hastily denied it again.

Theodore stopped asking questions and just stared at him.

The group fell silent again. The atmosphere was somewhat awkward.

Bernie broke the awkward silence by changing the subject:

"Can the autopsy be performed at your precinct?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty shook his head:
“Our forensic lab director lacks the necessary skills and may miss some things.”

“I can provide you with a vehicle to transport the body to a better forensic lab for autopsy.”

Bernie glanced at Deputy Superintendent Dougherty and decided to keep quiet.

Billy Hawke coughed again, never before feeling the distance from his office to the medical examiner's office so great.

The layout of the Seventh Precinct is similar to that of the other precincts, with the forensic lab also located in the basement.

This appears to be a "trend-driven strategy" for law enforcement agencies.

After descending the stairs and passing through a narrow corridor, you will arrive at the forensic room of the Seventh Precinct.

Bernie and Billy Hawke quickly scanned their surroundings, then glanced at Deputy Superintendent Dougherty.

Deputy Inspector Doherty was right; the place was indeed very basic.

It couldn't compare to the well-equipped and luxuriously decorated forensic lab of the Third Precinct, and it was even less impressive than the simple and compact layout of the Fourth Precinct.

This place looks like a morgue.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty called out a name and a few words, and a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairstyle hurriedly walked over.

The Mediterranean forensic pathologist was short, only reaching Theodore's shoulder. He wore a wrinkled, dirty cleanroom suit, had a stubble beard, and was unkempt.

A brief introduction to Deputy Superintendent Doherty:
"These three are FBI agents who came to receive the female corpse that was delivered on the afternoon of May 19."

The Mediterranean forensic doctor pushed up his thick glasses, looked the three of them over, and turned to walk inside.

The four followed behind, walking along the corridor all the way to the innermost part.

It was a large room, with refrigerated cabinets for corpses placed against the wall.

The Mediterranean forensic pathologist picked up the registration form hanging on the wall, flipped through it, then opened the morgue freezer, pulled out a body bag, and opened it.

The body bag was wet, with frost and water droplets condensed inside. When the zipper was unzipped, a cold, strong, and cloyingly sweet stench would instantly rush out and assault everyone's nostrils.

This is a unique smell, a mixture of putrid odors and refrigerated smells, and it's extremely penetrating.

Bernie and Theodore frowned slightly, showing little reaction, while Billy Hawke turned his head away from the stench.

He glanced at Deputy Superintendent Doherty and found that he also looked perfectly normal.

Billy Hawke's face turned slightly red.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty glanced at him, picked up the registration form, flipped through it, and then pointed to the body bag:
"The body has been stored in the cabinet since it was brought back, and no one has touched it."

"Please check it. If there are no problems, we'll go back to the office to sign the papers, and then tell the driver where we want to take it."

Bernie peered into the body bag.

The body looked like a huge piece of thawing meat.

Because it had been frozen quickly, the body was covered with a sticky, snot-like liquid.

The protruding parts of the corpse, such as the mouth and chin, appeared stiff and pale because they were in direct contact with the cold air walls of the refrigerator.

The deceased was a Black woman whose skin was covered in frost, giving it an unnatural, mottled appearance.

Its originally black skin had turned a dirty green and dark purple from decay, and was covered with a layer of deathly gray from prolonged freezing.

Bernie asked the Mediterranean forensic pathologist:

"Is that all? What about her personal belongings?"

Deputy Superintendent Doherty answered on behalf of the Mediterranean forensic pathologist:

"Only the clothes and jewelry worn on the body were still on it, not taken off."

The Mediterranean forensic pathologist fully opened the body bag, pointed to several tears on the surface of the body, and reminded them:

“These locations were damaged during the transport of the body, and I have already registered them on the registration form.”

Deputy Superintendent Doherty immediately chimed in:

"There was nothing we could do about it. The body was already rotten and swollen when it was found, like a lump of rotten flesh that would crumble at the slightest touch."

"After being stranded and left to dry in the sun for several hours, the rotting became even more severe."

"The officers have been handling it as gently as possible in order to get it to the medical examiner's office."

He reiterated:
"These were all done in the presence of the Virginia State Police and the Maryland State Police."

Billy Hawke glanced at him and couldn't help but speak:
"We didn't say there was anything wrong with it."

Deputy Superintendent Doherty smiled broadly, seemingly unconcerned.

He asked Theodore:
Where do you plan to ship it?

Theodore thought for a moment and replied:
"Third Precinct".

The forensic lab at the Third Precinct was the strongest he had ever seen among law enforcement agencies, second only to the FBI.

Forensic doctors are one too.

Bernie borrowed the phone from Deputy Commissioner Doherty to contact Detective Thomas of the Third Precinct.

Detective Thomas's voice remained languid, and he readily agreed after learning that Bernie intended to borrow their forensic lab to perform an autopsy.

He instructed Bernie to take the body directly to the Third Precinct.

Bernie suggested he should say hello to the deputy commissioner.

Detective Thomas smiled and said it wasn't necessary.

Bernie had mixed feelings and thanked Detective Thomas.

On the other side, Theodore had already signed the body receipt document, and the Mediterranean forensic pathologist had somehow found two more forensic pathologists who were directing them to load body bags into the vehicle.

At Deputy Superintendent Doherty's insistence, Billy Hawke became the overseer, supervising the entire process of moving the body.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty had his assistant contact the first five officers to arrive at the scene.

Twenty minutes later, Officers Murphy and Riley returned to the police station one after the other.

The other three were dealing with a police incident and would be back later.

Theodore first questioned Murphy and Riley.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty prepared an interrogation room for them, which made Bernie keep glancing at him.

Throughout Bernie's career, questioning of his own people usually took place in a meeting room, or sometimes just anywhere.

In the car, at the workstation, in the coffee shop… he had never questioned his own people in the interrogation room.

Riley and Murphy's expressions turned grim when they saw the interrogation room.

They stood at the door of the interrogation room, looked at each other, and then looked at Bernie with long faces.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty offered an explanation to the two men.

He claimed that he had prepared the interrogation room and that, given the complexity of the case's ownership, all procedural matters should be handled in accordance with regulations.

Riley and Murphy remained silent.

After a brief silence, the older Riley prepared to be questioned first.

Deputy Superintendent Doherty requested to observe the questioning.

He assured Theodore and his two companions that he would not interfere in the questioning in any way, but would only listen in.

Theodore thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Bernie stopped Detective Riley, who was about to enter the interrogation room, and asked Deputy Commissioner Doherty:
Do you have a meeting room?

He looked at Detective Riley:
"This is just questioning; we don't need an interrogation room for our own people."

(End of this chapter)