Chapter 6 005

When Officer Brisebois arrived at the scene of the accident, members of the reconstruction team had already completed their investigation.They put up triangle stands for GPS measurement tracking.Under the strong light of the searchlights, the clouds of white gas from their mouths formed halos. Brisebois first announced his arrival to them, "Kling, Greg, hello." The older officer Kling looked up and grinned, "Officer Brisebois, I'm glad you're here." They never called him "Matthew," one of the few concessions shown to his higher ranks. Brisebois used to be always on call. "The pager is in the pocket of my jacket, which is in the cloakroom," he explained.

"cloakroom?" "I was at a show and had to change my uniform in the car. Would you be satisfied with this explanation?" He wanted this to be over, but of course they weren't going to let it go. "Can't you sneak out of the movie theater? Can't show them your badge and make them refund your ticket?" "It's not that kind of show." Greg, the young cop, laughed, "Don't tell me you were partying in a strip club while we were freezing here!" "No, it's not that kind of show either." In fact, Brisebois went to see the annual performance of the city ballet company, which was "Swan Lake".His wife's ticket was on the seat next to him.Thinking of this, he sighed, and let's not mention this matter.

"I was at the ballet with my wife and we had season passes and she bought them. I didn't want to waste the tickets anyway." "Ballet? Like The Nutcracker or something?" "No, not The Nutcracker." "Nutcracker?" said the young cop. "I think I dated her." "Damn it," Kling said, "I thought I'd married her once." He stared at the puff of steam from the coffee mug in Brisebois' hand, "Look you still have time on the road Buy a cup of coffee. Don't forget, we're all detectives, and things like this can't be hidden from us."

"I suppose it's both of us," Greg asked. "I bought it for you two, but I accidentally knocked it over on the way." Brisebois took a sip of coffee, deliberately looking very satisfied, "so," he said, "what did we find?" ?” "An old Pontiac, coming up the hill, and off the road - there. It looks like it hit a piece of ice. The driver went off course, rolled over the edge of the embankment, and flipped over. Two or three somersaults." "A classic car?" Brisebois asked. "It's a heavy car. It's out of production now, not for at least ten years. So .

Kling nodded. "Dead on the spot. The body's still there. Don't know how they're going to get him up." "Is he wearing a seat belt?" "No." "Have you checked the traffic record of this car?" "I checked, this car has never violated traffic rules, not even a ticket." "Where is the driver, have you investigated him through PIMS?" PIMS is the central information system of the police department that is constantly updated.Once a person has had previous contact with the police, either as a criminal, as a witness, or by appearing in some form of complaint, from domestic disputes to noise disturbances, his name and background can be instantly identified.

"There wasn't much of value. He had called a few weeks ago to complain that someone was walking around his house at night and it turned out to be a bush." This is a typical elderly complaint.You children, don't trample my lawn. Snowflakes flew all over the sky, ghostly white flakes that melted as soon as they touched the ground.In the silently flickering beams of the police lights, Brisebois and Kling came to the position where the car deviated from the road and fell.Two tire tracks turned off the asphalt, pressed against a pile of snow, and disappeared into nothingness.

A fire department pickup truck was parked on the bridge.The upturned car under the embankment was under the spotlight, like a drunk man lying sideways by the poplar forest.Brisebois could see where the car had first hit, headed in, then spun and rolled somersaults.It's not like what you see in the movies.In the movies, in order to achieve a certain visual impact, the cars are all lifted into the air and launched from hidden mobile ladders, and the engines are often removed in advance.In the real world, cars are front-heavy, and when they leave the road, they fall like boulders.If it was a classic car, it would come off the road like a tank.

The car's landing spot was a soggy black bruise in the snow, and shards of glass fanned across the ground. "I ask you a question," said Brisebois, "from here, where the car left the embankment, to the place where it fell, and there, so to speak, from the point of launch to the point of landing, the distance is more than one hour. The length of the car body, isn't it?" "yes." They all knew what it meant: the car's four wheels had completely come off the road. Brisebois looked up at the road that was turning this way, "It's hard to reach a suitable speed when the vehicle is coming from that side, are there any brake marks?"

"There is nothing here, where the car leaves the road, but there is something a little farther from here that you should look at, a very strange phenomenon." A patrol car with flashing lights was parked in the middle of the road at the top of the hill, blocking traffic.They headed there. "We discovered this during our initial survey of the site," Kling said. On the asphalt road where a digital triangle stand was inserted, another set of tire tracks appeared. Brisebois squatted down and scanned it back and forth with a flashlight, "It's also a damn skid mark."

Kelin nodded, "We will collect skid marks on the snow, measure the friction force of the road surface, and then calculate the speed of the vehicle at that time, but from the surface, no matter who left the marks, he was driving at high speed, and Emergency braking applied." Brisebois looked back towards the direction of the bridge, "So... what do you think is going on? Are they the same person?" "Maybe, but the tread marks don't match." He was right.The tire tracks off the guardrail and down the embankment are at a different angle than the tire tracks here. "And if he brakes halfway, it's very difficult for the car to get to the speed where it's completely off the ground."

Brisebois shined the flashlight on the brake marks again, "Whoever it is, the car is completely stopped here." Near the brake marks, there is a piece of crushed and indistinct gravel, which is caused by the tires squeezing pebbles and dust when braking hard.This phenomenon occurs when the car is stopped suddenly, the wheels roll forward due to inertia, and gravel is crushed by the wheels. "Did you remove the blot sample?" "Removed, very good. Greg has entered them into the computer and took pictures. Although the traces are not very obvious, the picture effect is relatively clear. However, this problem cannot be explained. Need to look further?" Kelin lowered the flashlight and adjusted the angle of the light to shine on the asphalt road. "Did you see it? The tire track turned left suddenly." "The driver turned around." "Whoever it is, it's only going to happen if you slam the steering wheel," Kling said. "So it can be judged," Brisebois said, "that the second driver was coming down the hill, saw the vehicle in front of him go over the curb, applied emergency braking, and made a sharp U-turn. ...was the second car chasing the first car? Or did it see the accident and turn around to find help?" "may be." "Who called the police?" "The people in the warehouse are there." Kelin pointed to a row of port piers shrouded in lights and snowflakes on the far side of the mountain. "It was discovered by the truck driver, who were busy unloading the trailer that night." "Did they see it?" "No, it was overheard. A policeman has been dispatched to take notes. Don't be too optimistic, it won't help us much. It was too dark and too far away." Brisebois re-observed the stretch of road from the skid marks to the second set of tire tracks, and made the following inference: The first driver veered off the road and crashed through the guardrail due to sleepiness, drunkenness, or a sudden heart attack. , rushed down the slope protection.After seeing this scene, the second driver slammed on the brakes, stopped the car, then turned around and left the scene.Why?Is it because of panic?Maybe the driver was drunk too, or didn't want to alert the police because he was driving without a license?Or is there something else going on here? The flatbed truck was coming, and Brisebois heard the beep of the reverse warning.After firefighters retrieved the bodies of the victims, flatbed trucks would take the wreckage to an auto repair station, where they would examine the car's brake wiring and narrow down the possible theories. Brisebois finished his coffee, "You can do the rest, such as measuring traces, calculating vehicle speed and other interesting things, I will notify the family members, do you have an address?" Greg was still brooding over the coffee, and said with a smile, "I have it, but I accidentally threw it away." "Then I'll check it myself," Brisebois smiled wearily, and just as he was about to leave, another thing came to mind. "Have you checked for scratches? Beside the bridge, where the car left the road and broke the road." ?” "Checked." "The results of it?" "Things are getting more and more incredible."