North America Gunman Detective

December arrived, and with winter, the temperatures dropped significantly. Jimmy could no longer endure living in a tent outside, so he rented an apartment near the restaurant and stopped his own "wilderness survival" journey.

For Jimmy, the busy restaurant life every day made him feel extraordinarily bored. The idea of becoming a police officer that Noah had mentioned was circling in his mind repeatedly; undeniably, it was a good starting career for someone at the bottom of society with nothing to his name.

Time flew by, and as 1999 was drawing to a close, Jimmy had been in the New World for more than three months. To society, this rookie was gradually integrating, becoming more like a native, with fluent Southern slang, and befriending restaurant customers, from strangers to familiar faces, becoming physically one with them. After more than two months of AP training and participating in patrols, he was familiar with the surrounding streets and shops like the back of his hand.

Since his first night patrol, in just one month, Jimmy had already taken part in 8 AP tasks, accumulating nearly 40 hours of time, far surpassing the average AP. In fact, other APs normally accumulate their hours on a quarterly basis, and it often takes more than half a year to reach 40 hours.

In places like New York and Los Angeles, for various reasons, they recruit more APs, and can always summon a group of APs to do the work. However, in a state like Arkansas, one of the poorest in the United States, it's not that easy.

Thanks to being in one of the poorest states in America, although Jimmy's salary wasn't high, his expenses were even lower. Coupled with his long-standing habit of saving money, he now had nearly $3,000 in savings. It wasn't a lot, but it was at least enough for him to return to his hometown for a holiday. Without any previous memories, he had no idea about the previous story of his body; an idea kept lingering in his mind, which was to go to San Francisco, take a look at the address on his driver's license, and see what had happened.

Christmas was just a few days away, and it was almost as important as Thanksgiving. The police department had previously reserved Jimmy to participate on Christmas Eve duty. The reasons were somewhat annoying to Jimmy—first, the restaurant closed early on Christmas Eve, and second, because he was Chinese-American, and it was well known that Chinese-Americans don't really celebrate Christmas...

Jimmy didn't refuse because he really had nothing else to do by himself; resting in bed or patrolling in a police car didn't make much of a difference anyway. The key point was that, given his high frequency of AP duty, the police department agreed to give him an AP stipend after New Year's Day.

Jon's restaurant was quite well-known in the surrounding community, with most of the regular customers being neighbors, making for a relatively stable clientele. After working there for three months, Jimmy had become very proficient and could now take over the task of taking orders. Karen and Annie were also happy because this meant they could take turns taking a vacation. Everyone knew Jimmy was single with no strings attached and was warm-hearted, so...

On December 24th, the day before Christmas, Jimmy tidied up and went straight from the restaurant to the police department. He still didn't have his own car, usually taking a taxi to the police station and then getting a ride back home or to the restaurant afterwards. Occasionally, if he was lucky, he might encounter a patrol car at the door and hitch a ride. The people at the police station were also very familiar with Jimmy; they enjoyed chatting on the way, and he was happy to get a lift.

"Jimmy, you're paired with Mason today," Amy assigned Jimmy his duty, and then packed up her things to head home. As a clerk, she didn't need to work overtime at night.

"Mason, I'm ready," Jimmy suited up in his AP gear, with an extra mask tucked into his pocket. Sometimes he needed to set up barriers, often standing in the cold wind; the winter police uniform was very warm, but his face would be freezing.

"Hi, Jimmy, get in," Mason drove the police car to the front of the building from the parking lot, and after Jimmy got in, he started his 9th patrol.

"Mason, I heard from Noah that you had Christmas vacation, how come you're working overtime?"

"Ah, I'd already planned to go to Clearwater, Florida with my wife, but unfortunately, she came down with a fever yesterday. The family doctor advised against long-distance travel, so we had to cancel the plan."

"Oh, I hope she gets well. Overtime's not bad, you can accumulate the hours and exchange them for paid leave next year. Traveling in the summer would be nice too."

"Adam36, detention, XX on West 11th Street, the caller claims her boyfriend's mother has locked her boyfriend in a room and won't let him out."

"Adam36 received."

Mason, with the police lights flashing, sped toward the destination where a girl wrapped in a headscarf stood by the side of the road. Mason parked the car in front of the girl and got out to ask,

"Did you call the police?"

"Yes, my boyfriend hasn't been out for four days, he said it was his mother preventing him from leaving."

"Step back. Jimmy, you come in with me."

"Okay." Jimmy, hearing Mason's arrangement, also got out from the passenger's side. Different officers have different requirements for AP, and since Mason asked him to go in, he'd go in with him.

"Plaskey County Police, please open the door." Mason knocked on the door but nobody responded, so he knocked a few more times.

"Jimmy, get ready to enter." Mason stepped back, ready to kick the door.

"Wait a second, officer, I have the key to the front door." The girl stopped Mason and took out the keys to unlock the door.

Mason led the way with Jimmy following. After entering the house, Mason first checked the living room and kitchen on the first floor, finding no one, then he went upstairs and found two people in a bedroom— a middle-aged woman with a Bible in her left hand and a cross in her right, mumbling words, and a young man tied to a bed with multiple lacerations on his bare upper body.

Just as Mason and Jimmy came up, they saw the woman hitting the boy with the cross. Mason charged forward, pulled the woman away, and threw her to the floor, then started to untie the boy.

"Jimmy, detain that woman."

Jimmy also rushed forward, pressing the fallen woman face-down and caught her arms to handcuff her.

At this point, they could clearly hear what the woman was saying—she was pleading with God for the exorcism of the boy. Jimmy felt goosebumps rise on his arms. As a non-believer who had lived in a secular society for nearly 30 years, he found such sanctimonious acts difficult to comprehend, especially coming from someone who appeared to be so fanatically religious.

After Mason freed the boy, he used the radio to call for an ambulance. The boy was almost unconscious and seemed to be severely dehydrated. Plus, with the wounds on his body, charges of abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and assault were inescapable.

"Jimmy, detain her and file a report for abuse and imprisonment."

"Okay." Jimmy led the woman downstairs, put her in the cage in the backseat, and began to use the car radio to respond to the dispatcher. After filing the report, he returned upstairs. The ambulance arrived in 5 minutes, and Jimmy assisted the paramedics in transferring the boy to the ambulance, concluding the mission.