Federal Bureau of Investigation

## History

### The Fire

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was a special law enforcement unit working on an international base all around the United States. Therefore, they often assisted the local police departments in the investigation of cases which the police forces couldn't solve alone or which were of great public interest. On one of these occasions, the special agents Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez investigated a severe case of arson. After having been hired by a drug dealer, an addict named Mallick Scott had burned down an apartment building and thereby killed eight people. While investigating the case, Strahm and Perez didn't only suspect Mallick, but four other people who were in some way involved in the fire: Brit Stevenson, vice president of the Marshford Group, a real estate company, who had hired the drug dealer who in return hired Mallick, Luba Gibbs, a city planner who approved Brit's application for planning consent on the property of the burned house, Ashley Kazon, a fire inspector who faked a report and made the fire seem like an accident and finally Charles Salomon, an investigative journalist who had gained knowledge of the arson but refused to publish the truth as he was bribed. Strahm and Perez planned to bring a charge against all five of them. However, when the only witness, who was in fact the drug dealer, suddenly vanished, the investigation was ceased.

### The Jigsaw Case

Sometime later, the agents got involved in the serial killer case of John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer. While not directly investigating the case in attendance, they were regularly supplied with information by Detective Allison Kerry, their informant in the Metropolitan Police Department, which investigated the murders. At one point, Strahm and Perez received a key and a message, which they believed to be from Kerry. The message said "Open the door and you will find me." Additionally, they were warned that two officers might be in danger. This was their last message from her as Kerry was abducted and killed shortly afterwards by one of Jigsaw's traps. When she was found by her colleagues four days later, Strahm and Perez went to the crime scene in a basement area, where they were greeted by Detective Mark Hoffman, the leading investigator. They told him that Kerry was their informant and asked him if he knew something about the meaning of the words "Open the door and you will find me." However, Hoffman denied this. After that, he led the agents to the corpse of Detective Kerry. Upon doing so, Detective Fisk, who had arrived at the crime scene as well, informed him about a bullet shell clamped between the device and the body which Hoffman ordered to be examined for fingerprints. When Agent Perez found the open lock of the trap she quickly came to the conclusion that this wasn't a Jigsaw trap. However when Hoffman said it was probably a trap by Amanda Young, John Kramer's apprentice, Agent Strahm negated this as Kerry weighed approximately 130 pounds while Amanda Young weighed only 107 pounds according to her arrest report and therefore couldn't have placed Kerry in the trap on her own, leading to the conclusion that a third yet unknown person assisted her and John Kramer.

After the discovery of the crime scene, the agents went to the police station along with Hoffman, where they interrupted Officer Daniel Rigg, the leader of the SWAT team which had found Kerry. He was watching the old recordings of the interrogation of Jill Tuck, John Kramer's ex-wife, by Detective Hoffman, as he was sure that she knew something about John and therefore maybe also about the whereabouts of Detective Eric Matthews, who had been abducted six months earlier. Rigg tried to convince Hoffman to let him continue his work, but Hoffman ordered him to go home once more and take some time off, stating that it was unlikely to find Eric alive after he had been missing for six months. Albeit Rigg initially refused to do so, he ultimately gave in and left the office. When the agents asked him what his problem was, Hoffman replied that everyone connected to Rigg seemed to die, which was the reason for his obsession with finding Eric.

When they were alone, Strahm and Perez discussed the current situation and debated on whether they should tell Hoffman about Detective Kerry's last message, according to which two officers might be in danger. At this moment, Hoffman interrupted them and asked for their progress. On this occasion, Fisk came to him and informed him about the disappearance of a doctor, Lynn Denlon, from the Angel of Mercy Hospital. Upon hearing this, Hoffman told Fisk that he would take care of it. When Perez saw a cuddly toy in his arm, she asked him if it was for a girl or a boy. Hoffman said it was for a girl, leading Perez to the assumption he was married. However, he denied this and left the station.

### Daniel Rigg's Trial

Later that day, a fingerprint from Officer Rigg was found on the bullet shell from Kerry's crime scene. When Detective Fisk informed the agents about this, a young cop told him about a reported shooting at 23 Park Place, the location of Rigg's apartment. Shortly afterwards, the agents entered the apartment with the assistance of a SWAT team led by Officer Lamanna. Upon doing so, they found the humiliated corpse of Brenda, a pimp, in the living room, and thereby found out that another game had begun, which focused on Officer Rigg and his obsession with saving everyone around him. Numerous photos on the walls revealed to them, that Eric Matthews, who was still alive, and Mark Hoffman, who was seemingly abducted as well, were part of the game, leading the agents to the conclusion that they were the two officers who were in danger according to Kerry. While Perez suspected that everything in the apartment had been arranged to throw suspicion on Rigg, Strahm stated that Rigg himself could've set up the game to give himself an alibi. He took a black light from one of the CSI forensics and thereby revealed a message written on the wall with fluorescent color. This message said: "Four walls build a home." Assuming that this was a reference to the photos on the walls, which showed the victims of Rigg's game, Strahm found one that didn't fit the others as it showed Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill Tuck. Therefore, they decided to talk to her immediately.

Minutes later, they went to the Homeward Bound Clinic, a recovery clinic ran by Jill, and took her to one of the interrogation rooms at the police station. Back at the station, Strahm ordered Perez to turn off the room's fresh air supply before they began their interrogation. When Perez told her that they wanted to talk about her rather than John, she became irritated and told her to come to the point instead of wasting their time. Perez then left the room and Strahm took over the interrogation. He asked her if she knew about the meaning behind the words "Four walls build a home." When Jill asked him for the reason of his questions, he showed her the photos of her found in Rigg's apartment. However she still refused to answer. Therefore, Strahm asked her about the words "Cherish your life". When she answered that this was John's motto, Strahm showed her a flyer of her clinic with the same motto. To provoke her, he mockingly asked her how she felt when John used the motto of her clinic, where she wanted to help the drug addicts, to justify his crimes. However, she merely responded that she had nothing to do with the dark side of her ex-husband. In an attempt to put her under pressure and make her talk, Strahm told her that they suspected her as the accomplice of her ex-husband and intended to charge her if she didn't help them. Therefore, she became nervous and eventually agreed to tell them about John's workshop. As she told Strahm about her marriage with John and her devotion to him, he asked her why she had separated, to which she responded that it was actually him who ended their marriage. Thereby, the conversation fell upon Gideon, her unborn son. Jill revealed that she had been pregnant and that John had meticulously planned their son's birth. However, she lost the child when one of her patients, Cecil Adams, robbed the clinic and thereby accidentally slammed a doorknob in her stomach. Strahm initially didn't believe her story, but before he could go on and on, he was suddenly interrupted by Detective Fisk, who informed him that another crime scene had been found at the Alexander Motel. Therefore, Strahm went to the scene and ordered Fisk not to let Jill leave the police station.

Shortly afterwards he and Perez were called to the Alexander Motel. When they arrived there, they went to room 261 on the first floor where they found the dismembered corpse of a man who had already been identified as Ivan Landsness, someone who had been acquitted of rape three times. Besides his corpse and the trap, which he could've only escaped by gouging out his own eyes, there were numerous photos of the battered victims of his sexual assaults. While investigating the scene, Officer Lamanna came in and informed them that the room had been rented by a lawyer named Art Blank, who had been who had been reported missing two weeks earlier. Therefore, Strahm ordered him to find out his address. While discussing the new situation with Perez, he stated that two of the victims from the photos in Rigg's apartment as well as every partner he ever worked with were dead. Furthermore, he pointed to a message written on the door which said "Feel as I feel" and reminded Perez of a similar message written on the wall of Rigg's apartment which said "See as I see". Thereby, he concluded that John Kramer tried to teach his lessons to Rigg and suspected that Rigg had been recruited by him.

### Final Warning

Moments later, Lamanna reentered the room and told them that Art Blank owned several properties, the last known address being only to blocks away. Therefore, they went to the address and entered the basement. After securing the area, they found two labelled files left for them on a table. Written on the first one was the message "Open the door and you will find me", while the second message warned them: "You are in danger of getting to close... step back." Additionally, a security camera was mounted to the wall and filmed them. Strahm removed it, realizing that he and Perez were in fact Jigsaw's targets.

### Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez' Trial

Later that night, they accompanied the SWAT team once more when they were called to an elementary school after someone had activated the fire alarm. When they entered the school, they soon found Morgan and Rex, who had been trapped there and whose bodies had been impaled by numerous metal spikes. While Rex had died from bloodloss after Morgan had removed the spikes, his wife was still alive. Upon taking a look at his corpse and a chart saying "Your life is in her hands", Strahm concluded that Rex had no chance to begin with as all of his major arteries had been impaled. Even though Perez stated that Morgan had identified Rigg as her savior, Strahm still didn't believe that he was innocent. Perez then received a call and informed her partner that all victim's of Rigg's game had been represented by the same lawyer, Art Blank, who caused all of them to be acquitted despite the fact that they were guilty of their respective crimes. Furthermore, Art was the lawyer of Jill Tuck as well. Seconds later, one of the forensic investigators accidentally activated a device which shot a spike in Perez' direction. Strahm managed to pull her away but instead the spike pierced the head of a police photographer, while Lamanna and the other officers watched in horror.

Following this incident, they left the room and discussed where they could possibly find the location where Rigg's game would end. Perez then informed Strahm that Jill Tuck was a co-proprietor of the school they were in, leading to the conclusion that there were still hints left for them to find. The agents separated to search the building and reunited shortly afterwards when they reached the principal's office. Upon entering the room, they discovered Jigsaw's mechanical ventriloquist puppet, sitting on a chair in a circle of candles with a tape recorder hanging from its neck. When Perez started the tape, it told her that her partner would soon take the life of an innocent man and warned her that her next move would be critical. However, instead of listening to the warning, Perez leaned forward to the puppet as it started whispering incomprehensibly. A few seconds later the puppet's face suddenly exploded, severely injuring her face and neck with shrapnel. As Strahm was taking her to safety, the puppet mockingly laughed at her before it gave up the ghost. Strahm yelled for help, causing the police forces to call an ambulance, which arrived shortly afterwards. While lying on gurney, Perez handed him the key, which had been sent to them by Detective Kerry, before she was finally taken to the Saint Eustace Hospital. Following this incident, Strahm left the school as well and returned to the police station.

Upon his return, he called Perez' mother to tell her what happened to her daughter. His anger caused him to riot in the office but calmed down when he found a newspaper article about the Urban Renewal Group, a group founded by John Kramer and Art Blank. Meanwhile Jill waited in the room alone and her nervousness increased greatly. When Agent Strahm eventually returned, he was furious because of what had happened to Perez. Therefore, he showed Jill an official bill of indictment with her name on it to further put her under pressure. He angrily yelled at her and asked her about the puppet, the tricycle and about John's partner before his transformation to Jigsaw. He had also found out that her lawyer, Art Blank, had been John's partner despite Jill's claim that he never had one. When she refused to answer, he drove her into a corner and showed her Perez' blood on his shirt, stating that more people could die within the next 15 minutes. Frightened by him, Jill eventually gave in and told him about a dispute between Art and John, John's emotional detachment from her after Gideon's death, his cancer diagnosis and his attempted suicide. Upon Strahm's question whether she had tried to contact John afterwards, she affirmed this and eventually told him about a conversation between her and John during which he had revealed to her that Cecil Adams had become his first victim. However, as he was still unsatisfied with these information, Strahm eventually left the room angrily. Thereby he took another look at the headline of the newspaper article about John and Art, "Four walls build a home", and saw the abandoned Gideon Meatpacking Plant, John's very first building, thereby realizing the connection between the building and John's son. Therefore, he returned to Jill once more. When he urged her to tell him where the building was, she finally gave him the address at 11235 Blake Drive.

Shortly afterwards, he arrived at the building and called the police for reinforcements. However, as they needed some more time to get to the building, he decided to go in alone and entered the plant through the delivery entrance. There he found a small empty box, which was in fact a part of Rigg's game. As he went on and progressed through a storage area, he found a key with a photo attached to it. Unknown to him, this photo showed the Denlon family, the family of Dr. Lynn Denlon who had been reported missing earlier that day. When he went on, loud noises suddenly attracted his attention. Upon following them, he reached a large hall which contained the new makeshift workshop of John Kramer. Thereby, he heard voices coming from the next room, followed by gunshots and eventually the sound of a buzzsaw. When he approached the door to the room, it suddenly slammed shut. He carefully examined it and looked for any hidden traps connected to the door. As he didn't find anything dangerous, he attempted to open the door, albeit unsuccessfully. However, he still had the key in his pocket which had been sent to him by Detective Kerry. Thereby, he realized the true meaning of the words "Open the door and you will find me." With the key, he was finally able to open the door and therefore entered the room. Upon doing so, he found Jeff Denlon, who had been forced to play one of Jigsaw's games on his own, and told him to show him his hands. Jeff however aimed the gun at him and demanded to tell him where his daughter was, as she had been abducted as well, which caused Strahm to shoot him in self-defense. After Jeff's death, he went further into the room and was horrified when he found the corpses of John Kramer, Amanda Young and Lynn Denlon.

As he was too distracted, he didn't notice how Detective Hoffman, who was in fact the real, yet unknown accomplice of Jigsaw, entered the workshop only moments later and locked him up inside the room along with the corpses. Seconds later, the lights in the room were turned off. Strahm attempted to open the door. However this attempt remained a failure. Therefore he tried to call the police, but this attempt failed as well as he had no signal. While looking for another way out, he eventually noticed the outlines of a hidden door as they glowed green due to a special fluorescent color. Upon opening it, he discovered a hallway and a tape recorder hanging from the ceiling. The tape, recorded by John Kramer, told him to stay where he was until the police arrived. However, Strahm refused to do so, and entered the secret hallway behind the door, leaving the dead bodies behind him. Eventually, he reached a room at the end of the hallway. However, only moments after he went in, he was attacked by a disguised Hoffman, who had been waiting for him and injected him with an anesthetic. Moments later, Strahm passed out. Afterwards, Hoffman put him in another trap in the same room, which was designed to kill him by drowning him without giving him any chance to survive. Hoffman then took everything that Strahm had in his pockets and placed it on a barrel before him. However, upon doing so, he forgot to remove a single pen from his pockets. Not noticing his mistake, Hoffman left the room, expecting Strahm to die shortly afterwards.

When Strahm woke up again, he immediately panicked when he realized that his head was trapped in a glass cube. Frightened by the situation, he screamed for help and tried to free himself. While looking around, he noticed two tubes inserted through the top of the cube, which were connected to two water tanks. Moments later, after searching his pockets for anything useful, he saw all of his possessions on a barrel before him. Therefore, he tried to escape the cube by brute force, when suddenly, the cube began to fill with water. Realizing the dangerousness of the situation, Strahm further panicked as the water level increased quickly. After a matter of seconds, the cube was filled entirely. However, at this moment, Strahm finally found his pen in his pocket. In a last desperate attempt to survive, he rammed the pen in his throat, removed the ball pen refill and thereby successfully performed a tracheotomy on himself which enabled him to breath. Minutes later, he was found by the police and a team of paramedics, who saved him from the trap and took him to the same hospital as Lindsey Perez.

### Lindsey Perez' Death

While Jigsaw and Amanda were dead, Perez and Strahm's supervisor, Special Agent Dan Erickson, was still worried as the second accomplice of Jigsaw was still unknown. Therefore, he visited Perez at the hospital. Together, they decided to fake Perez' death for the sake of her safety until they knew who the remaining accomplice was. After receiving her instructions from Erickson, Perez went into hiding and the hospital reported her death to Strahm and Detective Hoffman. After receiving the news, Strahm went to her room. Mourning her death, he sat down at her bed. Eventually, Hoffman arrived after he had been informed about Perez' death. He condoled with Strahm on the death of his partner. Strahm however reacted angrily and told him that her last words had been "Detective Hoffman", which further fueled his suspicion towards him. Therefore he confronted him with the events at the Gideon Plant, stating that he didn't believe Hoffman's story according to which he had escaped when his arm straps broke. Irritated by Strahm's accusations, Hoffman angrily left the hospital.

Later, after he had returned to his own room, Strahm was visited by Dan Erickson. Erickson criticized him for going to the Gideon Plant without waiting for the reinforcements. Nonetheless, Strahm told him that he wanted to interrogate Jill Tuck one more time. Erickson however dismissed his request and informed him that over a dozen dead victims had been found at the plant, including Detective Eric Matthews and Officer Rigg. Strahm tried to defend himself by claiming that many lives had been saved by him as Jigsaw was dead. Erickson however told him that he was off the case on his orders and eventually left the hospital.

### False Trail

Following his discharge, Strahm decided to continue his investigation on his own and released himself from the hospital. After that, he went to the local FBI headquarters. Unnoticed by Erickson, he entered the research lab to look for information about Hoffman in the international criminal database. When he left again, he crossed Erickson's path when the latter left his office. When the latter asked him what he was doing here, Strahm claimed that he followed Erickson's orders to take some time off and only wanted to get some things from his office. Despite his suspicious behavior, Erickson let him go.

Later that night, Strahm returned to the research lab once more. Unknown to him, Erickson noticed his presence when he left again. However, he was able to leave the building before his supervisor caught up with him. Eventually, Erickson called Detective Hoffman, who had tried to call him earlier that evening. During their conversation, Hoffman told Erickson about Strahm's theory about a second accomplice of Jigsaw besides Amanda Young and asked him if Strahm had told him about it, which Erickson denied. When he asked who Strahm suspected in his theory, Hoffman said that Strahm suspected an insider with access to information about the investigation, but kept back the fact that he himself was the suspect. Erickson then ended the call and offered Hoffman to further discuss the situation the next day, which Hoffman accepted. As his suspicion of Strahm increased, Erickson went to the research lab and thereby discovered that the files of potential Jigsaw victims were missing.

Shortly afterwards, Erickson returned to his own office where he was visited by Jill Tuck who wanted to talk to him. Once they were alone, Jill told Erickson that she believed to be observed by someone from the FBI. When Erickson wanted to know who she suspected, she told him that it was the agent who interrogated her earlier. Realizing that she was talking about Strahm, he asked her if she had told anyone else about this, which Jill denied. After their conversation, Jill left the headquarters.

Only minutes later, Erickson finally finished work and went to his car. Unknown to him, he was observed by Hoffman who still sat in his own car on the other side of the parking lot. He used Strahm's mobile from the evidence room to call Erickson, but immediately hung up when Erickson answered it. Confused by this, Erickson immediately tried to call him back. Hoffman then rejected the call and turned off the phone. Therefore, Erickson became even more suspicious and ordered Special Agent Cowan to put a trace on Strahm's phone. Eventually, the phone was turned on again, enabling Cowan to find its location in an underground catacomb area at 1293 Sandburst Drive. Therefore, she informed Erickson about the address.

Erickson immediately drove to the location and entered the building. Thereby, he found a stairway. Armed with his weapon, he carefully went downstairs and discovered an underground surveillance room. Upon taking a look at a set of monitors, he realized that they showed live footage of another Jigsaw game. Besides this, he found a miniature model used to visualize the game, as well as several photos of the five victims hanging on a wall before him. Additionally, he noticed a steaming cup of coffee which was still hot, telling him that whoever occupied this room had been here not long ago. Suddenly, he heard a tortured groaning which attracted his attention. When he went into the direction from where the noise came, he was scared witless when he saw a woman, Brit, who was armed with a hook, and aimed his gun at her, yelling at her to drop the hook, which she subsequently did. However, seconds later Erickson realized that Brit didn't want to attack him but was in fact one of the severely injured victims.

When he asked her who did this to her, she was too dazed to respond and just muttered that they had one before she passed out. Erickson immediately called for an ambulance before he went to the next room where he saw another victim, Mallick, on the floor. Shortly afterwards, the paramedics arrived and were able to stabilize them to take them to the hospital. Afterwards, Erickson examined the surveillance room again and thereby found several files with more photos of the victims. Alerted by this, he tried to call Strahm and was shocked when he realized that Strahm's mobile phone lay on the desk right before him. Seconds later, he eventually discovered a FBI file with the photos of himself. Believing that Strahm was actually the one behind the new Jigsaw game, Erickson called Agent Cowan and ordered her to put out an APB on him.

Strahm however was killed in one of Hoffman's traps at the same time. Within the next days, Erickson found out that the five latest victims, Brit, Mallick, Ashley, Charles and Luba Gibbs, were in fact the suspects in the arson case previously investigated by Strahm and Perez. However, as the investigation was ceased when the only witness suddenly disappeared, Erickson came to the conclusion that Strahm had chosen them for his game to take revenge on them for escaping justice.

### Cooperation

Shortly afterwards, Eddie, the victim of another game, was found. Upon the investigation of the crime scene, fingerprints were found which were soon identified as those of Agent Strahm. Therefore, Erickson and Perez decided to let Hoffman in on Perez' staged death. When Hoffman arrived at the crime scene, Erickson informed him about the fingerprints, voicing his surprise and dismay of Strahm being the key suspect. However, he also stated that they had prepared a surprise for Strahm on their own and led Hoffman to the next room. Hoffman was shocked, when he saw Lindsey Perez standing before him. Erickson revealed that they had staged her death in order to guarantee her safety until they knew more about Jigsaw's unknown apprentice. During their conversation, Perez informed Hoffman that she and Strahm had worked on the arson case connected the five victims of the traps found by Erickson in the catacombs. However, the charges were dropped when the only witness unexpectedly disappeared. This led them to the conclusion that Strahm had chosen them in order to take revenge. As they now believed to know that Strahm was the secret accomplice of Jigsaw, they asked Hoffman to work together. Hoffman initially hesitated as the agents hadn't informed him about Perez' faked death earlier, but ultimately accepted the offer when Erickson promised him to inform him about all future information and FBI activities regarding the Jigsaw Case.

### Reopening the Seth Baxter Case

Soon afterwards, Dr. Adam Heffner, the police department's pathologist, called the agents and Hoffman to the morgue. Upon the obduction of Eddie, Heffner had discovered that a knife with a tined blade had been used to cut the jigsaw piece from Eddie's skin, while the pieces of most previous victims had been cut off with a plain scalpel. Upon comparing this case with other previous cases, the agents had found out that the tined blade had only been used once before, to cut the jigsaw piece from the body of Seth Baxter, the murderer of Hoffman's sister, Angelina Acomb. As a different knife had been used, Perez and Erickson had ordered to further analyze the video tape found at Seth's crime scene, thinking that it might have been recorded by someone else as well.

Later that day, Perez and Erickson received a laboratory report. According to this report, traces of Freon, more explicitly Dichlorodifluoromethane R-12, a chemical substance which wasn't produced anymore since 1994, had been found in Strahm's fingerprints. Furthermore, the uric acid levels and the eccrine gland residue of the fingerprints were inconsistent for an individual with an active epidural metabolism, leading to the conclusion that Strahm must've been dead already by the time his fingerprints were left at the crime scene. Therefore, Erickson called Hoffman to come to the FBI headquarters as soon as possible and thereby also informed him that the Seth Baxter tape had been found. Shortly after receiving the call, Hoffman arrived at the FBI headquarters, where he was greeted by Erickson and Perez, who informed him about the traces of Freon in Strahm's fingerprints.

In order to find out if the crime scene of the latest game was polluted or if Strahm's fingerprints were already contaminated with the substance before, Perez and Erickson planned to find out what was formerly produced in the building where Simone and Eddie's game had taken place. Erickson was then interrupted by a phone call from the FBI's technical lab. Hoffman asked Perez if there were any news about the Seth Baxter tape, which she confirmed. Despite the fact that the tape was in a bad state, they were able to authenticate that the voice on the tape wasn't John Kramer's voice. Therefore, they had sent the tape to the technical lab to rectify it so they could hear the original voice. When she told Hoffman about it, she realized that his stopwatch was running and asked if he was timing something, to which he responded that he did before receiving the call from Erickson. Moments later, Erickson told them that the original voice on the Seth Baxter tape was soon going to be decrypted and told Hoffman and Perez to accompany them to the external lab.