1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

What about Chapter 275, the confidentiality agreement?
The church is on the edge of the town center, and further out are scattered residential areas.

When Theodore and his group returned, the first building they passed in the town center was the church.

This is a white wooden building that looks quite old; the paint has peeled off, and the cross on the spire is crooked.

It was quiet inside, and smelled of beeswax.

When Theodore and his party entered the main hall, Pastor Sal was wiping the back of a chair with a rag.

He was a strong, middle-aged man wearing a black pastor's shirt with a white Roman collar.

Sheriff Hawkins greeted the cross first before introducing Theodore and his three companions to Pastor Sal:

"These four are agents from DC, here to investigate the Cartwright family case."

He then pointed to Pastor Sal:

"This is the town's pastor, who has officiated at almost every wedding and funeral in town."

Pastor Sal nodded to the group, quickly finished wiping the remaining small area, and then took the rag and walked to the back.

"Gentlemen, this is not the place to talk. Please come with me."

After passing through a side corridor, the group was led to a lounge.

The lounge was small, and with six burly men squeezing in, it felt quite crowded.

There were only two visitor chairs inside.

Pastor Sal wanted to go out and move a chair, but Theodore stopped him.

Theodore asked him about the events of the day the incident occurred.

Reverend Sal glanced at Sheriff Hawkins and organized his thoughts:

“I remember it very clearly, it was a Saturday.”

He gestured:
"Many people came early that morning to help prepare for the Sunday worship service the next day."

“It was around nine o’clock in the morning.” Reverend Sal pointed to Sheriff Hawkins: “Will parked the car in front of the church.”

Sheriff Hawkins nodded in agreement, confirming that Reverend Sal was right.

Pastor Sal continued:
“I was cleaning the altar when Martha told me that Will was calling me and seemed very anxious.”

“After I went out, he told me that the Cartwrights might have been killed and asked me to come with him.”

"When we arrived at the Cartwrights' house, Jack checked on the family of three and found that they had returned to the Father's embrace."

He paused, then pointed to the next room:
“Jack is the town’s doctor, and his clinic is not far away.”

“We moved them from the dining room to the living room, and I led their last prayers.”

Theodore asked him:
Did you go straight into the room?

Pastor Sal looked at Theodore, nodded, and asked, puzzled.

Theodore confirmed with him again:
"The door is open? And there's no lock?"

Pastor Sal recalled for a moment and nodded again.

Theodore then asked:
Are there any signs of damage to the doors and windows?

Pastor Sal thought for a moment:
"It wasn't locked. I remember Will pushed the door open, and it just opened. The windows and everything else were intact, but the living room was a mess. The cabinets and sofas were overturned, and everything inside had been rummaged through and scattered all over the floor."

Sheriff Hawkins nodded, confirming that Reverend Sal was right.

Theodore pressed further:
"What about the back door?"

Pastor Sal shook his head:

“I don’t know. We went in through the front door. After moving the Cartwrights to the living room, I led the last prayers and then took them to the church.”

Theodore looked at Sheriff Hawkins.

Sheriff Hawkins paused for a moment:
"I checked it later, and it was all intact."

Theodore then asked:
"What's the method of binding?"

How were the two adult victims bound?

Pastor Sal shook his head:
"I didn't notice those things."

Theodore was somewhat disappointed and asked him again:
"What were the deceased wearing on the day of the incident? Especially the second deceased."

Bernie explained:

John Cartwright.

Pastor Sal touched the Roman collar:

“I remember John was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that day, but the collar was pulled up really high, and it’s already this far.”

He held it up to his chest:
"The whole garment is loose and baggy."

"And his shoes."

"He was only wearing one shoe, so I found the other one in the living room and helped him put it on."

Theodore pressed further:
What about victim number 1 and victim number 3?

Bernie glanced at him and translated for Pastor Sal:
"Eleanor Cartwright and Billy Cartwright."

Pastor Sal thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Theodore asked him one last question:
"Besides the gunshot wound to the back of the head, were there any other injuries on the three victims?"

Pastor Sal still shook his head.

He doesn't remember; he didn't pay attention to any of that at the time.

Theodore also shook his head and stopped asking questions.

Bernie glanced at him, then picked up the conversation and asked a few more questions before ending the conversation.

Before parting, Pastor Sal offered his heartfelt blessings, hoping they would find the murderer.

After leaving the church, they went to find Dr. Jack.

Dr. Jack was very enthusiastic, almost excessively so.

Without Sheriff Hawkins even having to say a word, he walked past her with a broad smile and shook hands with each of Theodore's four men:

"You're FBI agents from DC, right? Here specifically to investigate the Cartwright family case?"

Did it arrive last night?

“I heard that some strangers came to Anne’s tavern last night.”

Theodore frowned:
How did you know what we were investigating?

Dr. Jack's eyes widened:

"It's all over town! Didn't you know?"

Theodore and his three companions looked at each other and asked him:

"Passing what?"

Dr. Jack stared at him:

"Ever since you showed up yesterday, people have been speculating about what you do."

"Before today, the most common guess was that you were from a mining company, that a gold mine had been discovered in the valley, and that you were coming to mine it."

"But this morning, everyone knows that you are FBI agents investigating the Cartwright family case."

"Although there are no newspapers here, news spreads just as fast as in big cities."

"You can't expect a small place with a population of less than three hundred people to have any secrets."

Theodore shook his head, steer the conversation back to the case itself, and asked the same question as Pastor Sal.

Dr. Jack's answer was basically the same as Pastor Sal's.

The only difference was that he was quite certain that the two adult victims, especially John Cartwright, had injuries.

He confidently told everyone that John Cartwright must have broken his ribs and that his arm appeared to be dislocated.

Before leaving, Bernie solemnly pulled out a confidentiality agreement.

After leaving the clinic, they returned to the church and had Pastor Sal sign a confidentiality agreement as well.

Then there were the Popes.

But no one was home at the Popes' house. Sheriff Hawkins knocked on the door for a long time, but no one answered.

Now Theodore and his team finally know who leaked it.

The journey back to the police station from Pope's house requires crossing the town center.

When the Chevrolet passed by, some people even ran out of their houses to watch the spectacle.

The townspeople watched the Chevrolet drive by as if they were watching a circus performance, then whispered among themselves about whether the detectives from the big city had found anything.

The grocery store owner believed that Theodore and his team must have some evidence, otherwise they wouldn't have reopened an old case from over ten years ago.

The townspeople who mailed the letter at the store agreed with this and suspected that the killer of the Cartwright family was a deranged serial killer who had committed many crimes outside, and might even have killed a big shot like a county councilor, which led to the FBI investigation.

…………

Back at the police station, Sheriff Hawkins poured himself a glass of cold coffee, drank it all in one gulp, and asked Theodore:
"What should we do next?"

Theodore pointed to the two chairs that had been brought in:
"I need to pack the wire."

Everyone looked at the wooden chair.

Bernie, thinking of the previous case, asked Theodore:
"You plan to identify the killer by the knots he tied?"

Theodore nodded.

Bernie reminded Theodore:
"But we have no idea how the murderer tied them up, or how he tied the knot."

"We have no clues left by the murderer."

Everyone looked at Sheriff Hawkins.

Sheriff Hawkins turned his head, got up, and walked upstairs:
"The wire is upstairs, I'll go get it."

Theodore touched the marks on the back of the chair:

“There were marks left on the chair.”

Sheriff Hawkins quickly came down carrying a bundle of packed wire, along with pliers and other tools.

Theodore found a full-body photo of the first victim, looked at it, pulled over a wooden chair with shallower ligature marks, and asked Sheriff Hawkins:
How tall was victim number 1?

Sheriff Hawkins was still a little unaccustomed to Theodore's method of referring to victims by numbers. He paused for a moment, then gestured to his chin, before moving the number down to his chest.

"It should be about this high."

Too much time has passed, and he's not entirely sure anymore.

Theodore glanced at the crowd, his gaze settling on Martin Joseph Cronin.

Sheriff Hawkins is both fat and tall, making him the least suitable candidate.

Billy Hawke and Bernie are both too tall and too strong.

Only Martin Joseph Cronin was similar in stature, but he was still considerably taller than the first victim.

Bernie moved two broken chairs from the doorway over.

This chair is much lighter than the Cartwright chair. It has a perforated back and a much thinner seat. However, perhaps after sitting for a long time, the chair tends to tilt to one side even when just standing there.

Billy Hawke chuckled at Martin Joseph Cronin and shoved him into a chair.

Theodore walked around the wooden chair twice and stood behind it:

“The murderer stood behind the first victim and wrapped his wrist around the back of the chair at waist height.”

He patted the back of the chair:

"The chair back in the deceased's home was made of a single piece of wood, and the wire could only be tied around the two edges, not through the middle."

Bernie took the packing wire, bent Martin Joseph Cronin's arms behind the chair, wrapped them around twice, and looked at Theodore.

Unlike rope, which is flexible and can be bent and wrapped at will, packing wire is a bit difficult to tie.

Sheriff Hawkins took the wire, untied Bernie's bindings, and wrapped it around twice more.

The packing wire in his hands was like a rope, extremely obedient.

Theodore touched the marks on the back of the chair and corrected Sheriff Hawkins:

"Wrap it a few more times, but don't wrap it too tightly."

Sheriff Hawkins unwrapped the wire and wrapped it around the wire a few more times.

Theodore then instructed Sheriff Hawkins to tie Martin Joseph Cronin's legs to the front leg of the chair, again requesting that it not be too tight.

Martin Joseph Cronin stretched his legs and rested them on the front legs of the chair.

Sheriff Hawkins glanced at Theodore, shook his head, and squatted down to begin tying him up.

Theodore reminded him:

"Don't tie it so neatly, and don't tie it so tightly."

Sheriff Hawkins adjusted it, and it was still neatly and securely tied.

Theodore had to untie the wire and tie it himself.

He wandered around aimlessly for a few moments, pulled over a wooden chair from the Cartwright's house to examine it, and then wandered around a few more times.

The wire was wrapped haphazardly and loosely, looking as if it might fall off at any moment.

Theodore nodded in satisfaction and cut the wire.

Sheriff Hawkins hesitated for a moment, then ultimately chose to remain silent.

He had never seen such poorly tied up clothes. Even a ten-year-old child in Gusong Town could tie them up better.

Theodore made another comparison, which made Martin Joseph Cronin start to struggle.

Martin Joseph Cronin writhed in and out of his chair, which creaked under his weight, looking as if it were about to collapse.

He suddenly exerted his strength and fell straight forward.

Billy Hawke reacted quickly, grabbing the back of the chair and saving Martin Joseph Cronin from falling.

Martin Joseph Cronin whispered his thanks and looked up at Theodore expectantly.

Theodore went around to the back to examine the marks.

The wood of Sheriff Hawkins' chair was clearly different from that of the Cartwrights'. Martin Joseph Cronin was much stronger than Eleanor Cartwright, but he had only left a slight mark, even shallower than the one left by Eleanor Cartwright.

Sheriff Hawkins untied Martin Joseph Cronin.

Theodore pulled over the wooden chair with the shallower marks to compare the marks on the two chairs.

The vertical marks left by Martin Joseph Cronin are lower than those left by Eleanor Cartwright, while the marks on the back of the chair are wider.

Given that Martin Joseph Cronin is taller and has wider shoulders than Eleanor Cartwright, it can be reasonably concluded that Theodore's method of binding was correct.

Theodore brought over a second chair and asked Sheriff Hawkins:
How tall was victim number 2?

Sheriff Hawkins gestured to the height of Theodore's nose:

"About this height."

He then pointed at Theodore:

"He's about the same as you."

Theodore paused for a few seconds:
“I weigh 183 pounds (83 kilograms).”

Sheriff Hawkins nodded:

"John is about the same as you."

Theodore met his gaze for a moment, then sat down in the chair.

Bernie picked up the packing wire with a strange expression and was about to tie it up when Theodore stopped him.
"No, Mr. Hawkins instead."

He looked at Sheriff Hawkins:

"Tie him up the way you just tied Martin Joseph Cronin, and tie him up tightly."

Sheriff Hawkins hesitated for a moment, then nodded and took the wire.

He hesitated before asking Theodore:

Are you sure? Using the previous binding method?

Theodore nodded and put his hands behind his back:
"The murderer first pulled the arms of victim number 2 behind his back and fixed them high on the top edge of the chair back."

(End of this chapter)