Peter, "Yesterday morning, after the gallery staff discovered the theft and reported it, the NYPD conducted a preliminary crime scene investigation. Since it involves art crime, it was transferred to us. The site is now sealed off by the NYPD, and we need to leave immediately to conduct another crime scene investigation. Dismissed. Jimmy, stay for a moment."
Once the others had left, Peter said to Jimmy, "Did you check in your backup gun this morning?"
Jimmy, "Not yet, I'm going right now."
Peter, "Yes, go now and get it registered as soon as possible to avoid any trouble with the NYPD."
Carrying a folder, Jimmy walked out to register his backup gun. All he needed to do was to find Tim in the administration department who would handle everything after Jimmy's registration.
When Jimmy returned, Peter and a middle-aged, blonde woman were talking in the conference room. Seeing Jimmy, Peter gestured with his right hand, hooking his fingers, inviting Jimmy into the room.
Indeed, these FBI folks really liked to hook their fingers using the index and middle fingers together. Even back in the FBI academy, the instructors used to do the same, and Jimmy had gotten used to it too.
Peter, "This is Dr. Mary Walter from the bureau. You won't need to come with us today. Dr. Walter will have a talk with you shortly."
Jimmy frowned and tilted his head, signaling Peter to step outside. After a glance at Jimmy, Peter turned to Dr. Walter and said, "Please wait a moment," then followed Jimmy out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Jimmy, "Peter, is Dr. Walter a psychologist? Is this because I fired my gun yesterday and need psychological intervention?"
Peter, "Of course. Firing your gun on your first day as an agent, resulting in one fatality and one injury, definitely requires psychological intervention."
Jimmy, "It's really not necessary; trust me. I've been handling guns for a long time. Let's prioritize the case instead."
Peter, "What do you mean?"
Jimmy, "Peter, have you looked at my file? Not the FBI Academy file, my previous work as a police officer."
Peter frowned, nodded, then went into his office and began working on his computer.
Jimmy did not move; he stood at the conference room door. Peter's office was connected to the conference room with a glass wall that allowed Jimmy to see what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Diana and Jones stood by their desks, ready and waiting for Peter and Jimmy to head out.
After a while, Peter walked straight from the back door of his office into the conference room, spoke to Dr. Mary Walter for a few moments, and then shook hands with her as she left.
Without saying much, Peter, along with Jimmy, Diana, and Jones, headed downstairs. Jimmy rode with Peter, and Jones and Diana took another car.
On the way, Peter remained silent, his expression somewhat disturbed, occasionally furrowing his brow. Sitting in the passenger seat, Jimmy occasionally glanced at Peter sideways, completely unaware of what Peter was thinking.
Arriving at the Dengli Gallery, Jimmy was amazed, having spent the past few days wandering around the Lower District of Manhattan, which was all commercial districts. This place, only a few kilometers away, had a completely different vibe.
The Lower District of Manhattan was a bustling commercial area, but Chelsea was predominantly cultural and artistic. Jimmy could see numerous art exhibits nearby, or rather pseudo-art, displayed right on the street. Some were regular displays of paintings and sculptures, while others were piles of junk masquerading as exhibits, looking very bizarre. Jimmy couldn't comprehend what went through these artists' minds.
The structure of the Dengli Gallery was very simple, with two entrances: a front for the exhibition hall and a rear for the staff. Entering through the staff entrance led to a staff break room, simply partitioned into male and female areas.
The decor of the front exhibition hall was quite nice, with cream-colored walls and platforms against the walls to display art pieces. Paintings were usually hung directly on the walls, and the hall did not have partition walls like those in larger galleries.
The gallery's surveillance only consisted of two diagonal cameras in the exhibition hall and did not feature comprehensive, no-blind-spot monitoring like other large venues. As for silent alarms, unfortunately, due to cost considerations, they had none. It was just a small gallery without the security level needed for high-value art exhibitions.
The Rachel Homan painting exhibition consisted of ten paintings, four on each side and two on the inner wall. Since the gallery prohibited photography, other than a few photos taken by Rachel while setting up the exhibition, which only captured the positions of some paintings without details, Peter's team had no complete photos to refer to.
Peter, "Diana, go talk to Rachel and see if she has clear photos of the ten paintings, or any other surveillance footage would work too. Also, check her connections."
Jones, "Investigate the gallery's staff and management."
Since Peter did not assign Jimmy, Jimmy continued to check the finer details in the exhibition hall with Peter. Peter put on disposable gloves and began examining marks on the walls, then compared the movements of the two thieves caught on the surveillance to see if any clues were left on the floor or their direction of movement.
As the gallery floor was tiled, it was challenging to distinguish footprints, especially with the heavy foot traffic during exhibitions. Without specific remnants, there was virtually no chance.
Peter took Jimmy outside the gallery, looked around, and said, "Jimmy, check the left side for any surveillance." Then, Peter went right, and Jimmy left, each checking for cameras.
Jimmy started searching forward, with the gallery in the middle, quite a distance from the intersection. Traffic cameras were out of the question as they definitely couldn't capture the necessary details. The key would be if any of the nearby stores or apartment buildings had cameras facing that direction.
Jimmy inquired locally; all the nearby store surveillance was internal, not monitoring the outside. After twenty minutes, Jimmy gave up because, given the era, the cost of surveillance was still prohibitive, and everyone only cared about their own premises. External surveillance was non-existent; even if there were cameras facing outside, they only covered a small area right by the doors, not even capturing cars on the street.
As Jimmy crossed back towards the gallery, he suddenly spotted something that might have a recording: an ATM embedded in the wall.
Jimmy approached the ATM, then looked toward the gallery. It wasn't directly facing it, but if the camera's range was just a bit wider, it might have captured something."