A group of people were staring blankly at each other, confused. They had entered the forest from the side of the house, followed the K9 around, and found no victim. Instead, they exited the forest from behind the house.
The K9 officer rechecked the blood with the K9 and then entered the forest again. Half an hour later, they came out of the woods again, still ending up behind the house. If the K9 wasn't mistaken, then it's very likely that the injured person had indeed returned here, but no victim was discovered at the scene.
The officers began searching around the area; however, no particular traces were found. Besides the tire tracks from a pickup at the entrance, no other tire marks were found, which meant that the victim probably didn't leave by vehicle.
Jimmy tagged along without much purpose; he had already scanned the house with Heart Eye and found no one hiding nearby. There were no hidden spaces like a basement either. So how did the injured person leave?
The officers contacted the dispatch center to check if any hospitals nearby had admitted knife-wound patients. After a long wait, the dispatch center replied that none of the registered clinics and hospitals had received such a patient.
After investigating for over two hours, they could only record it as an unsolved case. Aside from the officers from the North District precinct who still needed to visit the relatively distant neighbors for an investigation, other officers gradually returned to their posts, and Jimmy went back to the police headquarters.
Today's missing person case was a bit bizarre; they walked a circle in the forest and returned to the house. Excluding a fault with the K9, the victim definitely followed this route, but then he vanished. If he was murdered, where was the body? If he wasn't murdered, no hospitals or clinics nearby had taken in such a patient, and it was impossible not to seek treatment with such knife wounds.
Back at the station, Jimmy kept thinking about the case. He drew a map of the surrounding routes and their search paths in the woods on paper. Although the routes in his memory might not be very clear, it was still evident that after entering the woods, they traversed an irregular semicircle, with the key turning point being where they found the Dagger on the tree.
The K9 started turning after finding the Dagger's position, deviating from the straight line when they entered the forest, and began making turns. Could something have influenced the K9's judgment?
Jimmy was baffled. This was the first time he had truly encountered such a peculiar case; before, all were normal public security cases, either mediating neighborhood disputes or resolved by firing a shot.
There was only one case similar to this one, the disappearance at the beach where Cage had asked him to let go of the case, not pursuing it further. That time, too, a person had walked into the forest and then vanished.
Unable to make sense of it, Jimmy could only call Cage again to ask if he had encountered such situations elsewhere apart from the beach.
Although Cage had now essentially retired, living day by day, he had, after all, been at the police station for over 20 years; asking him directly was definitely better than Jimmy guessing around here.
Cage recalled briefly and mentioned no such peculiar cases. Generally, if a victim wasn't found, they were usually moved using a vehicle. But indeed, Jimmy and his team had found no traces of any vehicle at the scene except for the pickup.
Jimmy could only set aside the case for now. Currently, the case was on the North District precinct's hands; he was just supporting, and the follow-up issues had basically nothing to do with him and wouldn't affect his evaluation.
After a while, Jimmy clocked out, changed clothes, and drove out of the police station. He had made plans with Joe earlier to go to his Wolf House restaurant—a spot he hadn't visited in a long while for a get-together.
When Jimmy arrived at the Wolf House, he found two unexpected familiar faces; Jerry, with Mary, had also come to Little Rock. However, they didn't contact Jimmy directly but made a reservation with Joe, who then contacted Jimmy to give him a surprise.
The old friends happily spent dinner time together, celebrating Jerry's new start in life. With the inheritance from Kevin, Mary, still a young girl, was now quite well-off. Although Jerry still had a bankruptcy record, living with Mary was not a problem at all, and it was like a new life for him.
Jerry now looked much more spirited than before; his previously thin face had even begun to show signs of gaining weight. Seeing the smile on Jerry's face, he must be very happy living with his daughter.
Jimmy was also happy seeing Jerry and them, but Jerry did not tell Joe and the others about the past incidents, so everyone treated it as a celebration of Jerry's rebirth rather than Jerry specifically coming to thank Jimmy.
As dinner ended, Jimmy's phone rang. He looked, it was a call from Chief James.
Jimmy said goodbye to the others and stepped out of the restaurant to answer James's call.
James: "Jimmy, do you have a moment?"
Jimmy: "Yes, what's up, James?"
James: "Then come to my house now, right away."
Jimmy: "Okay, James, I'll leave immediately."
Jimmy had never been to James's house, and although he knew the address, there generally wasn't any need to go there as they saw each other daily at the station, and there wasn't anything that specifically required discussing at James's home.
This time was a bit unusual, and as Jimmy drove to James's home, he wondered what the matter could be.
James's home was in a community by the Arkansas River, a high-end area. When Jimmy once considered buying a house, he didn't even think about this place because it was just too expensive. Even if he took up a side job, buying a house here was far out of his reach.
Showing his county police badge to the community security, Jimmy smoothly entered the neighborhood, which was very secure with strong security measures that typically checked unfamiliar vehicles.
Jimmy parked his car along the road and walked up to James's front door to knock. An elderly white lady opened the door and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Jimmy: "Good evening, you must be Mrs. Baldwin, I'm County Police Jimmy Yang, here to see Chief James Baldwin."
Mrs. Baldwin: "Oh, I know you. Come in, James is waiting for you."
Jimmy followed Mrs. Baldwin inside and reached James's study.
Mrs. Baldwin: "James, Jimmy is here. You guys can talk." Then she left the study.
James put down the newspaper he was holding, took off his glasses, and said to Jimmy, "Have a seat, Jimmy." James got up, pulled out a black, hard-shell briefcase from the cabinet under the bookshelf beside him, turned around, and placed it on the desk.
James: "Jimmy, here's a briefcase that Tom specifically left for you. It was delivered by his estate lawyer this afternoon."