1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

235. Three!
In late May, sunset in DC is around 8 p.m.

Today is a bright and sunny day. Even though it's after get off work hours, the sun is still shining brightly and the visibility is excellent.

A Coast Guard salvage vessel is slowly sailing on a small pier on the southwest side of the tidal lake.

This is a flat-bottomed workboat about 40-50 feet long with a shallow draft, which can effectively cope with complex terrain near the shore and is very suitable for near-shore operations.

A smaller rigid-hulled inflatable boat follows alongside the salvage vessel. This small boat will provide support to the diving team after the salvage vessel has located the vessel. It will also be used to transport equipment and salvage personnel to areas where the salvage vessel cannot easily access.

A little further away, another Coast Guard patrol boat was slowly cruising about 100 to 200 yards outside the salvage area, its blue warning lights silently rotating on its mast.

The sirens did not sound; only the same warning was repeatedly broadcast over and over again:
"The Coast Guard is on official duty. Please detour around the area and maintain a safe distance."

The patrol boat's mission is to warn and guide the way, preventing passing ships or individuals from intruding into the salvage area out of curiosity and affecting the salvage operation.

The patrol boats' warnings were effective; all the boatmen navigating this waterway knew exactly what the Coast Guard did.

Occasionally, a few boats would slow down and curiously observe from a distance on the river, but no one dared to approach.

The main salvage vessel slowly navigated in a 'Z' pattern within the salvage area.

A muscular old sailor stood at the stern, casting a heavy string of trawler hooks into the water as if fishing.

He gripped the nylon rope tightly with both hands, the veins on his arms bulging, his entire attention focused on the sensation in his fingertips.

This is an experienced sailor who can roughly judge what the tug has caught by the feel of the rope in his hand, and then decide whether to call in a diving team to retrieve it.

In an era when side-scan sonar had not yet fully left the laboratory, tow hooks were an important tool for the Coast Guard to conduct initial search and location operations.

When the salvage vessel reached the boundary of the salvage area and turned around, it was stopped by the sailors.

The captain stopped the salvage vessel, and the crew members who had been chatting on the boat all fell silent and looked at the old sailor.

The old sailor gently tugged at the rope in his hand, turned and nodded to the captain:

"It's got something! It's like it's hooked onto a rope, it's very cohesive!"

The crew members beside the old sailor quickly lowered the water weight:
"Deep three-foot search (approximately 5.5 meters)!"

A water weight is a plumb bob with a long rope attached to a scale. The crew would lower the plumb bob into the water and judge the water depth and riverbed conditions by feeling the texture of the plumb bob touching the riverbed.

An officer then raised a sextant and quickly measured the two angles between the ship's hull and the Washington Monument and the old airport tower on the shore, drawing an intersecting line on the nautical chart to mark the exact location of the point.

The captain gave the order:

"Hold your position! Divers, prepare to enter the water!"

The divers, who were lazily sunbathing on the deck, shoved each other for a while, and a young man was pushed so hard that he stumbled and stood out from the crowd.

The young man got up and pointed at his companions, cursing them twice.

His companions weren't angry at all. They jokingly rushed over, helped him put on the heavy bronze helmet, checked the snorkel and telephone line, and finally helped him to the side of the ship to wait for the order to go into the water.

The captain grabbed the walkie-talkie, reported the situation to the operations center, and then ordered the divers to go underwater.

Illuminated by searchlights, the divers descended the ship's ladder into the pitch-black water.

The murky waters of the Potomac River quickly submerged him, leaving only a string of bubbles on the surface.

The other divers, who had been laughing and joking, fell silent, crouching beside the gunwale and staring intently at the water.

The others on the ship also quieted down and went about their work in silence.

About three to five minutes later, a muffled voice report with static noise came from underwater:
"The target has been identified; it's an old cog in the machine."

“The gear was wrapped with hemp rope about the thickness of a thumb, weighed about 100 pounds (about 45 kilograms), and half of it was stuck in the mud.”

The captain waved to the others:

"Prepare for salvage!"

Two more divers, with the help of their companions, donned their diving gear and entered the water.

They met up with the younger men who had dived earlier and cleared away the debris and weeds around the gears.

A diver took a specialized lifting sling from his tool bag, carefully secured the gear, and then gave it a final tug to ensure it was secure before reporting to the salvage vessel.

"The slings are secured and the hoisting can begin."

The rope began to contract at an extremely slow speed.

A crew member stood beside the hoisting cable, observing its angle and issuing instructions to direct the operator to fine-tune the hoisting direction to ensure the cable remained vertical and upward, avoiding scraping against the riverbed or the ship's hull.

About twenty minutes later, a dark shadow approached the water's surface, growing larger and larger.

Five more minutes passed, and the shadow finally emerged from the water.

It was a worn-out gear, about the size of a tire.

The moment the gear broke through the water, the river water poured down, causing the salvage boat to rock noticeably.

A quick-thinking crew member used a long pole with a hook to grab the cable before the gears could shake, and pulled the heavy object onto the deck.

Waterproof tarpaulins had already been laid out there.

The gear landed on the waterproof canvas with a dull thud.

Immediately, crew members surrounded the gear, taking photos from different angles and snapping away.

The captain grabbed the walkie-talkie and reported to the operations center again. He quickly received instructions to have the speedboat transport the gears to the shore, while the salvage vessel and all crew members remained on standby.

The captain instructed the crew to wrap the gear in waterproof tarpaulin and called over the small boat that had been hovering nearby to transport the gear to the shore.

The captain then switched channels to communicate with the underwater divers:
"Okay, come up."

After a brief silence, the diver's voice came through:
"Wait, there seems to be something else underwater."

The captain inquired about the underwater situation.

But the diver said he was still a few yards away from where he was and needed to go over to check.

The captain grabbed the walkie-talkie and contacted the operations center to request permission to salvage the second suspicious object.

The application for the salvage vessel was quickly approved.

The captain put down the walkie-talkie and immediately issued a series of instructions to the crew and crew:

"Attention everyone! The salvage operation is suspended, but maintain the current anchorage! Lighting team, turn on all your lights and focus them on the divers' bubble area! Logistics team, prepare the second salvage harness and evidence packaging materials! Diving support team, check the spare gas cylinders and equipment, and prepare for rotation into the water!"

The deck instantly sprang into action. More searchlights illuminated the river as if it were daytime. The sailors quickly and methodically prepared the new equipment.

…………

eight pm.

The abandoned dock at the southwestern end of the tidal lake was brightly lit, with searchlights illuminating this usually deserted area as if it were daytime.

Led by a Coast Guard sergeant, Theodore, Bernie, and Billy Hawke met the major.

The major shook hands with the three men briefly and led them toward the park.

The park is right next to the tidal lake, where the Coast Guard has set up makeshift tents.

These tents weren't set up for this salvage operation; they were erected long ago as temporary rest and supply points during the operation.

The gears were placed inside a single tent. A pungent, fishy smell of riverbed silt wafted out.

The tent was empty, with a waterproof tarpaulin in the center and an old gear on it.

齿轮直径接近20英寸（约50厘米），厚约4英寸（约10厘米），中间有一个直径3英寸（约8厘米）的圆形轴孔。

The gears remained in their original state when they emerged from the water, covered with black silt and aquatic plant leaves, and their surface was covered with a layer of reddish-brown rust, making them look like pieces of peeling iron.

A hemp rope covered in silt passed through the central hole of the gear, tied a knot on the gear, and the other end dangled long over the waterproof canvas.

The major pointed to the gears:

"These are the ones we fished out this afternoon."

“We weighed it quickly, and including the waterproof canvas underneath, it weighed a total of 90 pounds (about 40 kilograms).

He paused, then asked the group:

Is this what you're looking for?

Bernie and Billy Hawke both looked at Theodore.

Theodore shook his head:

"This needs to be checked before we can determine."

He asked Billy Hawke to get a camera from the car and started snapping pictures of the gears.

After confirming every angle and every detail by taking photos, Theodore put on gloves, found scissors, and cut the hemp rope far enough away from the knot, then put it into a paper bag.

The major called over two Coast Guard members to help wrap the gear in a waterproof tarpaulin and carry it out.

They will later be sent to the FBI lab, where researchers will conduct a detailed examination of the ropes and gears.

Bernie asked the major:
"You said on the phone that there was something else besides gears, what was it?"

The major shook his head and led the group onto the dock.

He pointed to the bustling river surface:
"We don't know what it is either; we're still trying to salvage it."

"The diver said the thing was over 60 inches long (about 150 centimeters), long and narrow, wrapped in a waterproof tarpaulin, and tied with several ropes."

"The cloth bag was almost buried in silt, and only one corner was sticking out, which is how the divers discovered it."

"When divers were excavating and cleaning the object, they found a gear tied to the bottom of the rope."

"It's about the same size as the one we pulled up before."

Bernie and Billy Hawke both speculated that there might be a corpse inside.

The major shook his head, not entirely agreeing.
"We can only confirm this by retrieving it and opening the package."

He told the group that he had worked in the Coast Guard for many years and had retrieved all sorts of bizarre things.

The package might contain a corpse, but it could also be empty, or just some tattered clothes.

They've pulled up boxes that looked like they were meant to be used to dump corpses more than once, with stones tied to the bottom. But when they opened them, they found they were full of clothes or simply filled with stones.

Theodore disagreed with the major's statement:

"The deceased was probably not the murderer's first victim."

"The murderer chose to strangle the victim with his arm; this direct contact method of killing is something that most people would find difficult to do."

"Furthermore, no obvious defensive wounds were found on the deceased, which suggests that the murderer may have been very experienced."

He paused, then changed the subject, asking the major:
"Divers found several packages underwater?"

The major was still pondering Theodore's words, and his reaction was a bit slow. After a few seconds of silence, he held up three fingers:
"Three."

"But when they found it, the daylight was already quite dim, and no one knows exactly how much light there was."

"I've instructed the salvage team to retrieve the three we found first, and tomorrow we'll conduct a more thorough search of this area to see if there are any more."

Bernie changed the subject and asked Theodore:
"If there are still bodies down there, we should notify the Seventh Precinct to come to the scene."

Theodore didn't really want to deal with the officers from the Seventh Precinct, but he nodded nonetheless.

He found a public phone booth, called Inspector Frank Cassidy, and briefly explained the situation.

Inspector Frank Cassidy fell silent for several seconds.

This led Theodore to suspect that the phone was broken.

He held the receiver up to his eyes and tentatively asked if the other person was still there.

There was another few seconds of silence before Inspector Frank Cassidy's voice came through.

He agreed to help contact the Seventh Precinct and inquire about the salvage location.

After making the call, the group waited a few more minutes at the dock. Before the officers from the Seventh Precinct arrived, a waterproof tarpaulin package, dripping with water and covered in silt and seaweed, was pulled out of the water.

After a quick draining process, the package was placed directly onto a small boat and taken to the dock.

A faint, complex odor lingered in the air.

The package was covered with a layer of foul-smelling silt and rotting seaweed, and was bound with ropes that had been soaked in silt and turned black.

It should have originally been military green or black, but due to being submerged in water for a long time, its color has been covered by silt and algae, turning it into a dark green and mottled dirty brown.

The murky, viscous liquid flowed down the corners of the package onto the wooden planks of the dock, and then flowed back into the river through the gaps.

As more and more liquid seeped out of the package, the stench grew stronger.

The originally harmonious and balanced complex odor began to become unbalanced, with a familiar odor domineeringly suppressing the other smells.

Billy Hawke gagged, covered his nose, and mumbled:
"There are definitely corpses in here!"

The major glanced at him and asked Theodore:

"Should we open it now, or wait until everyone arrives?"

Theodore chose to open it now.

He stopped the major from asking someone to help cut open the package, took out gloves, put them on, and squatted down next to the body to start clearing away the mud and weeds.

The silt was slippery and sticky, and it didn't stick completely to the package. You could just push it off in one direction with force, and a large piece would come off.

The package was quickly cleaned up, revealing the ropes attached to it.

The ropes were not randomly twisted, but rather arranged in a "well" shape.

The group then turned the package over, revealing the side with the gears attached.

By this time, the entire dock was completely enveloped in a stench.

As soon as a small boat carrying divers to rest approached the dock, it immediately turned back and headed toward the salvage vessel.

You can faintly hear the divers on board urging the boat driver to go faster.

(End of this chapter)