Chapter 167: Chuck - That's Right, Investigating Cases is That Simple! Poor Amy!
"Besides you, who else?"
After listening to this, Chuck looked at Barney: "Amazing Amy is your goddess idol, so you should be the one who knows her situation best."
"I'm not the kind of creep who stalks celebrities."
Barney denied it flatly.
"I didn't ask if you followed her or had someone follow her."
Chuck said calmly: "You are the biggest suspect right now. The FBI can search your residence. Are you sure they won't find a ton of candid photos of Amazing Amy in your place?"
Barney was silent.
"Besides you, who else?"
Chuck asked again: "Trust your instincts."
"Andy Walton!"
Barney said a name.
"The billionaire?"
Director Kate said with a grimace.
In the United States, a billionaire actually refers to someone with billions. True billionaires are extremely rare, and their power in capitalist society is unimaginable. If this case were to implicate them, the repercussions would be devastating.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but glance at Chuck beside her.
As far as she knew, Chuck's first case with the BAU involved a true billionaire who turned out to be a psychopathic serial killer.
"Yes!"
Barney nodded. "I've seen him give Amy predatory looks, and I've heard Amy privately say he's tried to contact her secretly. Clearly, he has sick fantasies about her, making him the prime suspect."
"Do you have any evidence?"
Director Kate said helplessly.
"Photos!"
Chuck looked at Barney.
"Okay."
Barney was hesitant at first - after all, stalking and secretly photographing someone was suspicious behavior. But after Chuck's pointed observation, he pulled out his phone and opened Amazing Amy's photo album, searching for the photos he'd taken of the billionaire showing ill intentions toward her.
"How many folders do you have?"
Director Kate peeked in, seeing the densely packed folders. "I thought there were only seven?"
"Oh,"
Barney said with a smile. "Only seven right now. My energy is limited, so I only check in occasionally when I have some free time."
"What are you thinking?"
Director Kate couldn't understand Barney's logic. "With your circumstances, you could have a normal relationship. Even intimate contact with all of them is possible if you wanted. Why be, be..."
She froze, unsure how to describe it.
"A simp!"
Chuck took Barney's phone and began to quickly flip through Amazing Amy's photo album.
Director Kate's eyes lit up. The term was spot-on. While Americans often claimed to treat their pets like family, comparing people to simpering behavior was still highly insulting, so she kept it to herself.
"I wasn't born rich,"
said Barney, reaching for his phone. Chuck glanced at him, and he tactfully retracted his hand. He put away his confident smile and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Before my father acknowledged me and I inherited my fortune, I was just an ordinary kid from a poor family. Those goddesses were so high above me, I could only admire from afar, never even meeting their gazes. My greatest hope was to see them smile, even if it wasn't meant for me."
"..."
Director Kate understood what he was trying to explain, but she still couldn't comprehend it. In her mind, those who suddenly became rich from poverty were supposed to become players, not simps!
"That's it!"
Seeing Director Kate seemingly unable to connect with the topic, Barney shifted his gaze to Chuck. Seeing Chuck flipping through the pages, he immediately pointed it out.
Director Kate also looked over and saw a photo of a beautiful young woman in casual attire in the center. In the upper left corner, a bald man in his fifties gazed at the woman in the center with burning, predatory eyes.
"Your technique is excellent,"
Director Kate observed as Chuck flipped through the pages again. She immediately realized that of the successive photos, only that one captured that fleeting expression. In the rest, the bald man appeared refined, exuding the demeanor of a successful billionaire.
"Thank you, practice makes perfect."
Barney smiled and said, "I didn't have the resources before, but since I became rich, my favorite hobby is photography."
"That alone won't cut it."
Director Kate looked at Chuck who continued to look through the Amazing Amy photo series: "It's impossible to get a search warrant on a billionaire with just this."
"Send someone to stake out his mansion first."
Chuck said as he looked through the photos: "If someone breaks in, maybe we can go in and search the place."
Director Kate's mouth twitched and she subconsciously glanced at Barney who seemed to be contemplating something.
After returning the phone to Barney and the two of them left Columbia University, Director Kate couldn't help but say, "You did that on purpose, didn't you? You wanted him to break in, which would be a crime."
"I didn't ask anyone to do anything."
Chuck shook his head: "Everything is their own choice. She's his goddess. Whoever loves her will do anything for her. Besides, his preferred style is different from ordinary people. Maybe he won't take any action at all."
"..."
Director Kate was speechless.
In fact, they often engage in this kind of entrapment. Most of the time, there's no need for anyone to actually break in. All they need to do is say to their partner, "I think I saw someone break in." The partner will reply, "I think I saw it too." In order to protect the homeowner's safety and combat crime, they can directly enter the house and search without a warrant.
There are also more extreme sting operations, but those targets are generally criminals and ordinary people. To use this on a real billionaire now really requires tremendous nerve.
Chuck and the others returned to the FBI New York field office.
The BAU had arrived.
There was one more person this time.
"Chuck, let me introduce you. This is Garcia, our technical analyst."
Reid smiled and introduced the two parties: "Garcia, this is Dr. Chuck Wolfe, a consultant to the bureau."
"Hello, hello."
The bubbly Garcia nervously extended her hand to Chuck.
"Hello."
Chuck shook her hand.
"This is New York, the city with the most surveillance cameras in the country. And this time we're looking for someone, so we asked Garcia to come over and sort through the surveillance footage,"
explained the unit chief, Hotchner.
"Smart choice,"
Chuck nodded.
Garcia's eyes lit up, and she said to Chuck, "Dr. Wolfe, you can use hand sanitizer. I know you like to keep things clean, so don't worry about me."
"No need,"
Chuck said, looking at her. "I believe you're a clean person."
Garcia's smile brightened. She had looked up Chuck's information after the last time Chuck had called her 'baby girl,' the nickname Derek Morgan had given her. She knew he had germaphobia, and later gossiped about him with JJ, gaining a deeper understanding of his quirks.
So, she felt incredibly honored by Chuck's courtesy. Although she had already cleaned herself thoroughly beforehand, even using the same hand sanitizer Chuck used, she was still honored.
Derek Morgan, watching the entire exchange, his face darkening, couldn't help but say, "Time is crucial, Garcia. First, go to the NYPD's main surveillance room and investigate the footage for clues."
"Oh, yes, I'll go now,"
Garcia nodded quickly, picked up her laptop bag, smiled at Chuck, and then, led by an FBI agent, went to the NYPD's main surveillance room.
New York's main video surveillance room is located at the NYPD. Normally, one could obtain access remotely, but the various intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the United States are often territorial and uncooperative.
Need to check surveillance footage for an investigation?
Sure!
But you can only come here in person and review it in front of their people.
That's why Garcia came along on this field assignment.
"Dr. Wolfe, I heard you're tracking down a wealthy fan. Do you have any leads?"
Derek Morgan asked with a skeptical look.
"Yes,"
Chuck nodded, briefly explaining the situation.
Director Kate added details.
"..."
Everyone was speechless.
Not only because there was such a bizarre, ultimate simp like Barney, but also because Chuck, working alongside them, had targeted another billionaire.
They'd only worked four cases together, and twice law enforcement officers had knowingly bent the rules, and twice actual billionaires were involved.
At this rate, would Chuck soon work his way through the entire Forbes list and send everyone to prison?
"Check this Andy Walton,"
said Gideon, the veteran profiler of the BAU.
Compared to the others' slight concerns and complaints, he was more focused on solving the case itself. This wasn't an ordinary missing person case, otherwise they wouldn't have alerted the FBI and brought in their team so quickly.
After all, for ordinary missing persons, the FBI might not take over until 24 hours later - a very slim possibility, as local police departments usually handle it.
It was reasonable that a case like this, involving an extraordinary criminal, would involve someone other than ordinary people.
"On it!"
JJ agreed, and immediately went to investigate Andy Walton's whereabouts.
"What's wrong with her?"
Director Kate sensed something was off about JJ and looked at the unit chief, Hotchner.
"Amazing Amy reminds her of herself,"
explained Hotchner, watching JJ leave.
Director Kate, thinking of JJ's youthful and beautiful face, just like Amazing Amy's, nodded in understanding.
Empathy is a powerful thing.
"Spencer, I'll take half of these."
Chuck walked over to Reid, who was sitting in front of boxes of fan mail, and took half a box.
"Great!"
Reid was instantly energized, his already quick, speed-reading pace accelerating.
Chuck was no different.
"Can they really read that fast?"
The Elliotts watched the two flipping pages at lightning speed, puzzled, and looked at Gideon, who was chatting with them nearby.
"Remarkable, isn't it?"
Gideon's lips curved slightly.
"Amazing Amy's going to college soon. Maybe we should give her a friend like that. It would be entertaining."
"Yeah, she's brilliant and attractive too. We could introduce her as a key supporting character with a crush on Amazing Amy and see how the market responds."
The Elliotts looked at Chuck and Reid and dove right into discussing their next book.
Gideon and the others exchanged glances, and Hotchner mouthed, "Poor Amy."
They all knew that the Amazing Amy the Elliotts were so fondly discussing wasn't their daughter, Amy, but a projection of the perfect daughter they'd created from childhood, destined to bring them fame and fortune without rebelling against their expectations.
As members of the BAU, they instantly recognized the psychological toll that the real Amy might have suffered from living under that projection.
Moreover, at this moment, the Elliotts were still free to discuss the contents of their next book about Amazing Amy. It was clear that their real daughter, Amy, probably didn't hold much importance in their hearts compared to their literary creation.
Their vast experience made them accustomed to this pattern. Whether in society or on a personal level, the more successful people become, the more they focus on their own interests. The needs of others, even spouses, parents, and children, become secondary.
Gideon and the others could even imagine that if Amy had truly suffered something terrible, the Elliotts would soon be giving interviews about their heartbreak and despair, and then publishing books about it.
"I found out Andy Walton has been busy with a major corporate merger. He attended an important dinner in San Francisco last night and just boarded a plane to New York."
JJ came over to report her findings. "I checked with a journalist contact there. He was outside the hotel and took a photo of Andy Walton leaving early this morning."
"So it wasn't him!"
Derek Morgan couldn't help but look at Chuck.
"He didn't do it personally,"
Chuck corrected, quickly scanning letters for possible suspects.
"For someone like him, this kind of thing doesn't need to be done personally. Check the whereabouts of his trusted subordinates, especially security personnel, to see if they can be linked to Amy Elliott's movements."
This kind of thing is usually carried out by trusted security personnel, both because they have the skills and the trust required.
JJ immediately went to investigate again and returned quickly, saying, "His security chief was on personal leave recently and didn't travel with him. He's in New York now."
"Pass this to Garcia and have her prioritize matching the security chief's whereabouts with Amy Elliott's."
Chuck didn't even look up.
"Understood,"
JJ agreed and immediately called Garcia.
"It can't be this straightforward every time we investigate a case, right?"
Derek Morgan couldn't help but complain.
"It is that straightforward."
Chuck glanced at him. "As long as we have big data, we can eliminate cases systematically based on criminal profile rankings. The key is to break through the limitations of our thinking and not automatically eliminate the correct answer first. When we have no other choice, we choose to investigate the obvious suspect, but by then it's usually too late."
"..."
Derek Morgan was speechless.
Chuck made it sound easy, but as FBI agents, they had to follow legal procedures. If they didn't follow protocol and investigate criminals with records first, instead of investigating prominent figures, even if they finally caught the criminals and proved themselves right, they would probably face consequences later.
The higher-ups wouldn't be happy to see a group of law enforcement officers looking at them with such scrutiny.
"Found it!"
JJ came over with her cell phone on speaker. Garcia's voice came through: "Following Dr. Wolfe's guidance, I prioritized tracking the security chief's whereabouts and found that his car appeared near the time and location where Amazing Amy last disappeared."
"Excellent work, Garcia."
Unit Chief Hotchner praised: "Keep tracking. It would be best if there's more detailed video evidence."
"Yes, sir!"
Garcia agreed excitedly.
"Let's go talk to this security chief."
Chuck put down the letters and stood up.
"I'll come with you."
Gideon nodded.
Although there was no smoking gun yet, his years of experience handling cases and his instincts told him they were right. It was this security chief who did it.
(End of this chapter)
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