1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 49 Who Should We Trust? (Please Read On)
Another two days passed.

On television, Senator Santos adopted an ambiguous stance, expressing for the first time his intention to support the bill to cut the police department's budget.

This congressman, whom Keller described as having a straightforward and fiery personality, presented himself as a seasoned politician in public, showing no signs of having once beaten someone so badly that his face was covered in bruises.

However, if you look at his actions alongside other news, you'll find that Keller's assessment was accurate.

Representative Miller announced his candidacy for mayor next year, and his first campaign promise is to increase the police department's budget and improve city safety.

Representatives Howard, Carter, Grant, and Bennett publicly expressed their support for Representative Miller.

Among them, Representative Bennett also called on the public to pay attention to their children's education while offering his support...

The search for Helen Bennett yielded no results, and she has been classified as missing.

The case appears to have entered a cooling-off period.

The killer's identity has been confirmed, and all that's left is to arrest him and bring him to justice; the case seems poised to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

In the conference room, Keller was sharing political gossip with everyone.

This old Howard staffer seemed to have completely forgotten his position, appearing somewhat oblivious to his surroundings.

He told everyone that Senator Santos was 'selling off his assets' in preparation for a desperate gamble to fund a mayoral candidate.

He wanted to target Congressman Miller.

Old Howard and Senator Santos have opposing political views, but they are good friends. Last night, Howard went to mediate as a mediator, but was directly kicked out of Santos's house by Senator Santos with a gun.

Keller smiled especially brightly when she said this.

He commented that Howard Sr.'s move was a complete blunder, and made no attempt to hide his contempt for those who suggested that Howard Sr. make this terrible mistake.

Bernie and Ricky loved listening to his gossip, especially Bernie, because only political gossip could make Bernie temporarily forget his worries about Sullivan's education.

After laughing for a moment, the two of them patted Keller on the shoulder, one on each side. "Dude, we all know you're the best."

Perhaps because they had listened to too much political gossip together, Ricky and Bernie's relationship actually improved quite a bit.

The secret to their harmonious relationship was that they never mentioned Charlie Burton or the West End, pretending they didn't exist.

The morning was spent in laughter and joy.

In the afternoon, Keller left for two hours and returned with two young men. Ricky and Bernie teased him, asking if he had switched careers to become a nanny.

Keller's expression was somewhat gloomy and unnatural.

Bernie and Ricky patted him on the shoulder, one on each side, and said sincerely, "Dude, we all know you're the best."

Keller was both amused and exasperated, and quickly changed the subject, asking Ricky if he could help arrange it.

The two young men he brought were Dwight Howard Jr. and Paul Miller.

Howard Sr. hopes that Howard Jr. will behave himself during this period and not cause any trouble, leaving the players to Keller.

Paul Miller's gesture was simply a gesture of goodwill from Senator Miller to curry favor with old Howard.

Ricky brought two detectives to take the two young men away. He arranged for them to go on patrol.

This arrangement brought them unexpected benefits.

Ricky assigned him to patrol the area covering the university and its surroundings.

The four of them spotted a familiar face—Helen Bennett—at an upscale restaurant near the university.

Howard Jr. and Paul Miller were immediately locked in the car, and the two detectives called for backup while heading towards the restaurant...

An hour later, Helen Bennett was taken back to the police station, registered, and detained in the interrogation room.

There was less than half an hour left before the end of the workday.

Ricky desperately wanted Theodore to continue the interrogation tomorrow, but seeing Theodore's excitement, he could only smother his hopes. Bernie was to lead the interrogation, partnering with Theodore, while Ricky and Keller stayed outside to provide support.

Helen Bennett confessed quickly.

She said she kept bothering James Carter at her birthday party, and when he went into the bathroom, she waited outside.

During this time, she went to the restroom and came out to find that the person was gone. Then she heard a commotion upstairs, so she ran over to see what was going on.

She denied that she was running away during her disappearance, saying that she had argued with her parents and ran away from home.

She also wrote down her address for the past few days and the relevant witnesses, which Ricky handed over to the detectives to verify.

The interrogation lasted only one hour.

Because of the tradition of not working overtime in the East District, we can only stop here for today, and we agreed to continue tomorrow.

Ricky thought this was a good start, as any suspect would initially deny everything.

Theodore, however, had many concerns.

On the way back, Theodore asked Bernie, "If Helen Bennett really liked James Carter, shouldn't she have looked for him when she came out of the bathroom and found him missing? Why would she go and join in the fun?"

Bernie thought of the messy relationship that was causing him concern and said, "Maybe she's drunk and doesn't know what she's doing."

He looked Theodore up and down and laughed, "You should be asking that; you're not much older than them."

Theodore simply shook his head. "I'm going to go back to the site tomorrow."

…………

The next day, the four of them went to the villa.

Ricky had made a special arrangement, and Keller had mediated, so the villa remained closed, with two detectives guarding it every day.

The detectives had cleared away all the 'trash' inside the villa, making it appear somewhat empty now.

Perhaps because someone had died there, the villa, despite being spacious and bright, gave off a gloomy and desolate feeling.

Theodore first went to check the bathroom where James Carter was hiding.

The restroom is located opposite the stairs, and the back door is diagonally opposite.

Then he went upstairs.

This time, instead of heading straight to the attic, we observed each floor one by one.

It's clean here now, but according to the numbers on the 'trash' taken away by the detectives, it was packed with people when the incident happened.

Detectives found a large quantity of underwear, umbrellas, beer, leaves, and various contraband on the two floors.

Theodore walked through every corner of the villa, mentally analyzing the crime scene.

But no matter how you analyze it, the result is like a movie—full of coincidences and deliberate actions.

There were at least 170 guests at the party at the time of the incident.

These people filled the villa, both inside and out, either drinking heavily or engaging in other forms of sexual activity.

The killer needed to lure the victim to the attic and kill him, then quickly navigate through the drunks on the second and third floors to find Little Howard in the front hall and pass the note to him.

Then they precisely located James Carter, who had locked himself in the bathroom.

He also had to make sure no impatient young people broke into the attic during this time.

It really requires a lot of luck!

The murderer was too busy; he had too many things to do!
This is quite different from Theodore's profile!
Whether it was the audacity and meticulousness of choosing to act at a birthday party, the triple trap to frame Howard Jr., or even the opportunistic use of guests to clean up the crime scene, all of these seemed completely out of place relying on luck and coincidence.

If the profile contradicts the actual situation, who should you believe?
(End of this chapter)