Chad: "Supervisor Lambert, this is Tata Town Sheriff Chad."

Lambert: "I know you, what's up?"

Chad: "I just had an FBI agent arrive here, Jimmy Yang, and I wanted to confirm his identity with you. Asian, short hair, about 185 cm tall, in his twenties."

Lambert: "Yes, Agent Jimmy Yang, I had assigned him to handle the disappearance cases."

Chad: "Thanks, Supervisor Lambert. Also, I wanted to ask, are you starting to handle cases alone again?"

Lambert: "Don't worry, Jimmy is fine. I've got other matters, so that's all for now."

Before Chad could ask further, Lambert had hung up. Well, at least now he was sure that the young Asian outside was indeed sent by the FBI, although he didn't seem very reassuring, being so young.

Jimmy spent an hour going through all the case files of the four disappearances and realized that this was definitely going to be a big trouble.

Tata Town was a fairly well-known camping site nearby; camping beside a small lake and possibly fishing in the Red River with friends made it a popular site.

The earliest disappearance took place in April this year; a group of six college students came out to play, four males and two females, camping with three tents—two females shared one, and the four males paired up in the others. The next morning, they discovered one person missing, though his tent-mate had no idea when he had left the tent.

Their camp was by the lake, a good distance from the nearby woods, and there had been no records of wild animal attacks here.

After searching the area without finding him, they called the police. Chad, along with Hayden and Nora, searched for two days but found no trace of the missing person.

The second disappearance case occurred in June when someone found a small fishing boat stranded on the riverbank of Tata Town while camping. The boat was empty except for a backpack and a set of fishing gear. Since there was no clue to identify the boat's owner, and no one reported a disappearance because the backpack remained, no case was filed initially. Only after later incidents were reported did they link this case in.

The third incident was in July, with two people camping near the Red River. Similarly, the next morning, it was discovered that one person was missing. After the police were alerted, Sheriff Chad conducted a search around but, again, with no result. Since no person or body was found, a disappearance was reported.

The fourth case wasn't a tourist but a local resident of the town, Ekins, who disappeared over half a month ago while going to the woods to cut wood for building his vacation cabin. His family only found his toolbox, chainsaw, and axe in the woods, but not him. Compared to outsiders, a missing local was taken more seriously. Chad mobilized the town's residents to comb through the woods extensively, yet still, they found no trace of the missing Ekins.

With the search turning up nothing, Chad had no choice but to request support from the county police, but even with their support and the K9 unit called in for investigation, there were no results. Ekins had vanished without a trace ever since his disappearance.

Chad summarized the recent cases in the town and realized that within just a few months, four people had already disappeared. Reluctantly, Chad had to report higher up, leading these cases eventually to be consolidated and handled by the FBI, assigned to Jimmy alone by Lambert.

Jimmy's previous two cases had been handled well, especially the solo trip to Little Stone Town for the James shooting incident. Lambert also wanted to see what extent Jimmy's investigative abilities could reach. These kinds of multi-disappearance cases in the same region are often very complex to investigate and usually have local connections as the causal factor. For a newcomer like Jimmy, these cases are indeed a real test of personal capability and experience.

Yes, this was another case to test Jimmy's abilities, and Lambert didn't expect Jimmy to resolve it smoothly. He just wanted to see how far Jimmy could go in this case, what clues he could uncover, and how many conclusions he could draw. As for the missing people, they were not in Lambert's primary consideration.

Each year in the United States, the number of disappearing persons runs in the tens of thousands; even in 2019, the FBI reported over 80,000 disappearances despite widespread surveillance. Disappearances were even more numerous in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially in remote areas like mountains or deserts. Events involving the disappearance of three or four people were common, and very few were ever found; not many police resources were allocated to investigate them.

By the way, Jimmy had two extra backup identities, which he had pieced together from documents collected from missing persons while he was with the county police—two driver's licenses from individuals of similar age and appearance. The second warehouse he rented was under one of those licenses.

Checking the time, Jimmy asked Chad to join him for lunch and chat a bit. Unfortunately, Chad declined, choosing to eat at home, and Jimmy's attempt at bonding had no effect.

Jimmy didn't insist. He organized his documents, packed them into his briefcase, drove to the only motel in the area, and checked in. After getting the room, Jimmy didn't leave his equipment and documents in the motel but immediately drove to a nearby restaurant for a meal.

The motel really wasn't safe, and for Jimmy, the items he carried with him this time—whether it was the FBI's detection equipment, the case files or his personal firearm—none of it was something he could leave unattended in the motel room.

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