American Detective: Starting as a Rookie Cop in an American TV Show

Chapter 1373 Unemployed Middle-Class Man

"Oh my God, what is this you drew? A puppy?" The man pretended to be surprised and moved closer to his little daughter.

"This is a horse, the white horse that Prince Charming rides." The little daughter, who was only five or six years old, shouted loudly.

The man quickly touched his little daughter's head and said, "Yes, it is a horse. Of course it is a horse. I just want to test you."

On the other side of the dining table, a little boy who looked only one or two years older than the little daughter was wolfing down cereal. The man's pretty wife was holding a glass of milk in her hand, smiling as she watched her husband play with the two children.

"Oh, dear, did you lose your watch?" The woman looked at her husband's empty wrist, and it took her a while to realize that something seemed to be missing there.

The man touched his wrist belatedly, "Ah, no? I guess I just put it somewhere casually."

After finishing the coffee on the table in one gulp, the man stood up and put on his coat, "Okay guys, it's time for Dad to go to work."

"Okay, bye." The wife took the initiative to kiss her husband, "Love you."

"I love you, too." The man touched his children's heads, then got up and went out.

In a nondescript gray Mercury sedan across the street from the house, Reese used the camera's focus function to observe the heartwarming interaction between the family of four while talking on the phone with Finch.

"Do you ever yearn for that traditional life, Finch?"

Finch couldn't see what Reese saw at this moment, but he still understood what he meant. "If by 'tradition' you mean a life without 'numbers', sometimes it does."

"Our 'number' this time seems to be living this kind of life, a typical good family man with a loving wife and a pair of cute children." Reese's tone was a little strange.

Finch was unaware of this. "Our own experience can fully illustrate one thing, Mr. Reese, that is, people are often not what they seem. What you see may be just an illusion, or only part of the truth."

"Why do the tone of your two voices make me feel sour?" Jack suddenly appeared beside the Mercury and joined the conversation. He tapped the window twice with his knuckles, and sat in the passenger seat after Reese unlocked the car.

"Jessica has been very dedicated in helping Detective Beckett prepare for the wedding recently. It seems like she is preparing it just as hard for herself."

Jack smiled and spoke in a very normal tone about something that made Reese shudder.

Reese stared at Jack, and spoke after a while, "Have all the wanted criminals in this country been caught? I remember that you have some assistance missions from the International Department. Maybe you can consider going to the South Pole or the North Pole."

"Collecting taxes from penguins and polar bears is a job assigned to the IRS by the President. It has nothing to do with the FBI." Jack patted the dashboard. "The person you are tracking is about to drive away at the intersection."

Reese released the handbrake angrily and followed in the old Mercury.

"This is the new number the machine gave me yesterday. Scott Powell, 38 years old, his wife is Leslie, his son is 7 years old, Owen, and his daughter is 5 years old, Mia.

My wife has an 'SBL' account, which is full of sweet family videos, and I don't see any problems."

Listening to Finch's introduction in the headphones, Jack pointed to the F-150 pickup truck parked at the corner in front and motioned for Reese to pull over. "This is not the direction to City Hall or other relevant departments. It looks like Powell skipped work today." As he spoke, Scott Powell had parked the car and walked into the park with a roll of newspaper.

"Having a tryst with your lover?" Finch asked doubtfully.

"It doesn't look like it. No one would come to the park to date someone so early in the morning." Reese motioned for Jack to stay in the car, and he picked up his phone, got out of the car and followed Jack into the park.

The mobile phone that Finch modified for Reese can easily invade and clone most mobile phones through Bluetooth or "WIFI", but it needs to be kept within a range of about ten meters.

Jack watched Powell sit down on a park bench through the car window and iron fence. Reese walked past him as if no one was around, and returned to the car a few minutes later.

The weather is not very good today. The drizzle in early spring is a bit annoying and a little chilly.

Powell sat on the bench and flipped through the newspaper for a while, then took out his cell phone and made a call. "Hi, I noticed that you are hiring for an installer position. Yes, the one you advertised in the newspaper."

"Sorry, sir, we have already hired someone." Jack heard the conversation clearly through the headset.

"So do you have any other vacancies? Or..." Before Powell could finish his words, the other party hung up the phone.

Jack and Reese looked at each other, and Reese touched his headphones. "Finch, it's obvious that Powell didn't skip work. He's unemployed."

"It seems so. I just discovered that I made a mistake. Apparently the list of employees registered by the City Hall is seriously out of date. There was a large-scale layoff of public employees half a year ago.

Mr. Powell was unfortunately one of them, and that was almost eight months ago.”

This world is not as chaotic as Jack's previous life. After all, a certain president was successfully re-elected because he was neither "betrayed" nor "liquidated."

During his second term, most policies were relatively "relaxed", and he did not set up a special "efficiency department" to carry out drastic layoffs.

However, layoffs are still necessary. Even without the "Saint Ma", there is still the President's Jewish son-in-law. Even in New York, the stronghold of the Donald Party, there are city councilors from the Elephant Party who are trying to promote some policies to cater to his ideas.

"From the way he interacted with his family, it was clear that his family was still in the dark," Reese said.

The sound of Finch typing on the keyboard came from the headset. He was obviously looking up something. Soon his voice sounded again, "If he has no regular income for such a long time, how did he survive?"

The answer was revealed at noon. Scott Powell flipped through the newspaper on a park bench for more than two hours, made several phone calls, and then gave up. He drove back on the road and finally stopped in front of a pawn shop.

Jack and Reese could see through the glass window that he was holding a silver wine glass and bargaining with the shop owner. "This is silver-plated, so it should be worth something, right?"

"But the problem is that it has names on it, and I can't expect another newlywed couple named 'Leslie and Scott' to come into the store and buy this kind of wedding ceremonial item.

I'm sorry, but I don't accept these things here. If you have watches like the one I had last time, I can take them." The store manager shrugged and turned to serve other customers.

(End of this chapter)