Jimmy was bored on the return journey, but someone was very concerned about this car.

The State Police Criminal Investigation Division, with six sub-divisions, one of which was located in Little Rock.

Detective Rob Hodg from the A Division had taken on the previous murder case, involving the use of a silenced pistol to kill a woman, which was still taken seriously within the division, as such cases usually indicated professional assassins or career criminals with military experience.

Last time they gathered information, they investigated the surveillance in Perry County and did not spot the blue sedan; the case was temporarily put on hold, but now the same blue sedan had appeared again in Plaskey County, so it was basically determined that the car had not left Plaskey County but was hidden somewhere without surveillance.

Strictly speaking, since the car had not left Plaskey County, he could have handed the case back over to the county police, but he really couldn't afford to lose face like that.

This time, after the dispatch center informed the Criminal Investigation Division, Rob Hodg immediately contacted the division's intelligence center to retrieve surveillance footage from around the area Jimmy reported, wanting to check it himself.

After investigating the footage, Rob Hodg mapped out the blue sedan's route and finally identified three areas; the first was where the sedan disappeared, their last known location where they might still be, or perhaps they had escaped via roads without cameras.

The second area was Karmac, where they had stayed for a significant amount of time. This place might be one of their hideouts.

The third area was near Pinnacle Mountain State Park; their first appearance on camera was on Highway 300, so their movements were probably in the northwest corner of Plaskey County, near the border with Perry County.

Rob Hodg contacted the Karmac town police station, asking them to help collect any local surveillance footage that might have captured the blue sedan. This area was most suspicious, as for such assassins, if they purposefully stayed away from their lair, it was very likely that the place had some connection to their network or had a rendezvous point. Another possibility was that they were on a mission in the area, thus the town police could also detect early if any local incidents occurred.

Real detectives are not like those in movies or TV shows who go around looking for clues everywhere; they spend more time in the office collecting, filtering, analyzing, and organizing information provided by patrol officers or other departments, and arranging the clues. Field investigations, unless necessary, are usually conducted by contacting local patrol officers.

It can be said that in the time spent handling a case, at least 70% of the time, detectives do not leave the police station's doors. This is quite different from what we see in dramas. Of course, stakeouts are not included in this.

In novels, detectives tend to follow the drama model: find clues, set off to search, surveil, track, and apprehend. Let me clarify this in advance to avoid any misunderstanding.

After Rob Hodg arranged the investigation, he continued to work on other cases. Every detective is a valuable resource; it is not possible to have just one case at a time. Saying they are piled up like a mountain might be an exaggeration, but if willing to work overtime, one could virtually live at the station 24 hours a day, as there are always cases to be handled.

Jimmy was still unaware that his report had triggered so much activity. Cursed by bad luck, the Karmac police were directed to investigate the videos and conduct interviews, a task they usually didn't need to do as their workload was even less than Jimmy's county police, considering they only had such a small area to cover, and typically there wasn't much happening.

Jimmy continued his tedious patrol life, having passed on the information about Colin's men going to the Gardening Center to collect money to Cage. Jimmy doubted his own judgment capability in the case; after all, he was inexperienced and prone to overlook things. Now that he had passed the information to Cage, he felt a bit more at ease.

Cage was also not having an easy time. Not only did he have to work, but he had to visit the rehab center to see his son every one or two days. Every time Jimmy saw Cage, he looked even more haggard. Cage would probably lose weight successfully if this kept up longer.

In the police station's office, there was a whiteboard covered with some photos and several block diagrams, the data collected by Jimmy and Cage. The Frog, at the top, still had no photos, and a layer below, actually representing Tim and Thomas's positions, was also empty, only marked with a T.

The layer below that was more populated, aside from Colin's original henchmen, there were several others who looked like street thugs. As they continued to collect information, the scope broadened, and Cage's expression grew increasingly grim.

It was clear that this new boss, Frog, was more ambitious than the previous leader, Nut. He had just seized power over three months ago, and recent information from a low-level snitch indicated that their dealing range had grown significantly.

If the number of people stayed the same while individual territories expanded, one could deduce that the overall influence of the group had become much stronger.

If the number of members had increased along with an expanded territory, it was very possible that Frog could surpass the level of regional leaders like Nut, entering the ranks of a criminal family.

This was no longer just within the confines of Plaskey County; informants had provided information about related dealing activities in several surrounding counties.

Jimmy was indifferent; he wasn't after the merits of cracking the case but was genuinely motivated to eliminate drug dealers, so he actively gathered information.

Cage, drawing on his more than twenty years of experience and connections, worked to flesh out the profile of this new group with information from various channels. Seeing such a broad scope involved gave Cage a headache. He sent Jimmy out on patrol and headed to the sheriff's office.

As Jimmy went on patrol, Cage took Sheriff James to the whiteboard, providing him a detailed introduction to the team's relevant information. After the sheriff asked some details, he decided to hand it over to the DEA to handle, as the case was too big for the police station, and slick operators like him didn't want such trouble, especially at his age, being close to retirement.

Shortly after, Jimmy was notified to head back to the station, where DEA agents were already gathering the information they had prepared.

An agent approached Jimmy, "Are you Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Yang?"

Jimmy, "Yes."

Torsten Marcus, "DEA agent, Torsten Marcus. Is all the information gathered here?"

Jimmy, "Yes, all the information is compiled here by Detective Cage. There's no new situation as of now."

Torsten Marcus, "OK, we will station a team here in Little Rock soon, and we might need further assistance from you later."

Jimmy, "No problem, that's part of my duty."