Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Three

Inspector Bill went to check the bollards on the bollard, and the sheriff accompanied Jackson to her BMW.The BMW is parked on a double yellow line not far from the Crown Bar.The passenger door was open, and Akram sat motionless inside, his hands in his lap, his head thrown back.Jones wasn't interested in the fact that he was wearing a coat because he had no idea he had taken it off before, but Jackson noticed it. She said in a deliberately raised voice, "The best place to change a tire is in front of the parking lot, Sheriff Jones, there's no other place." Jones saw the lieutenant's head jerk from the back of the chair to look in their direction, but the sudden movement sent him slamming into the cleaning bag he was holding.There was no doubt that he was sick, and the undisfigured parts of his face were pale as death, making the grafted skin on his conical scar stand out more than usual, when another bout of vomiting was over and he lowered the cleaning bag , his hands could be seen shaking.

Jones squatted in the door of the open car to examine it carefully.He thought he could see a bruise in the young man's jaw area—a faint bruise beneath the skin—though Ackland's unshaven stubble made it look vague.The diagonal depression of the seat belt on the left side of the neck is clearly visible, and there is a freshly torn wound on the lower lip. "You seem to be in much worse shape than the doctor, Charles. There's not a trace of her." "He didn't know this was going to happen," Jackson said, ahead of Acland. Holding the car with one hand, she crouched next to the sheriff. "He couldn't see the bollards from where he was sitting."

"Did you call an ambulance?" "not yet." Akram opened his mouth cautiously. "I don't want an ambulance," he mumbled. "It's a migraine." "You seem to need a trip to the hospital. What do you say, doctor?" Jackson said directly to Acland: "I'd be happier if you took a picture, you hit it hard! I don't want to see any more fractures on that side of your cheek." There was a fleeting smile on the corner of his mouth, "I hardly feel it." She shook her head, "I won't take you away." As if to prevent him from making such a request, she said firmly, "You have only two choices, either the trolley in the emergency room or the trolley here. A bed...assuming Derek agrees to take you in. I can give you an antiemetic before I go, and you can go back to Bell's by yourself tomorrow morning. But I have to tell Derek to keep an eye on you. Do you understand? "

Aklan nodded, "Nothing will happen," he crossed himself, "I promise." Jackson stood up suddenly and took a few steps back. Jones thought he could see the irritation on her face—don't understand? —“People can die from inhaling vomit,” she said without referring to either of them in particular. “It’s important to keep an eye on them.” "You're an expert." Jones straightened up holding the door handle, "Shall we see the fender?" Things weren't as bad as he expected.The impact was absorbed by the BMW's front right-side impact device, although it was clear that the side of the car scraped several feet along the bollard of the island before Jackson managed to take control of the steering wheel.There are dents and scratches on the bodywork from the front wheel arches to the rear doors, but Jones sees these issues as superficial.The puncture is a fact, but Jones is highly suspicious of Jackson's inability to change tires due to the messy chassis.

"You hit the curb right on top of it," he said, pointing to a four-inch twist on the alloy rim. "When the rubber separates from the metal, the air in the tire explodes." Jackson took a breath, "I know that." She tried to suppress her anger. Jones laughed. "Interesting accident, doc. The lieutenant got a weird injury in a right side collision. If it was on the left side or straight ahead, I'd probably take it," he touched the left side of his neck, "but Right side? If the impact is strong enough, he should fall to the right side." She shrugged. "I expected him to do that in the first place. I wasn't looking. I was trying to control the car."

"attempt?" "I was controlling the car," she corrected herself, "trying to avoid hitting the bollards." "Of course, but why did you drive that way in the first place?" She didn't answer. "doctor?" "Temporary loss of concentration," she said, "for which I admit my fault. I was looking at Charles when I should have been looking at the road. I will notify the insurance company and the Automobile Club, and I will be responsible for the loss of public property. You want me Do a breathalyzer test to see if I was allowed to drive?"

"This one's out of my jurisdiction, but if Inspector Bill calls the traffic police, you probably won't get away." He bent down to inspect the wheel arches, "You're lucky that the safety island bollards aren't concrete, or you wouldn't be able to Get out of the way. Which piece needs to be pried off?" "Not as bad as I thought." "Yes. It's just a scratch, not a collision, what do you say? The only real damage is the rim... and Charles's face, of course." He straightened up again, "I think we can do The best thing is to take him off your hands. If we send him back to the Bell, will Ms. Wheeler object to looking after him?"

"I'm afraid she can't. She has to run the bar." "Mr. Hardy, too." He paused, waiting for an answer. "That's a sincere offer. The inspector and I can take the lieutenant over on our way back to the police station." "He needs help going upstairs." "I'm sure we can help with that." "He needs to lie down as soon as possible. If you really want to help, then do me a favor and let him stay in the Crown first. I don't have time to debate the other options." Jones smiled slightly. "Why is my feeling that you don't want to leave Charles alone with your partner, Dr. Jackson? What are you afraid he might do?"

"I'm more worried about how Daisy will react," she said succinctly. "If we fight again because of the stress Charles is putting on our relationship, I'll probably end up homeless," she reveals. Smirking sarcasticly, "It's a lesbian thing, Sheriff." Bill felt as much about the damaged bollard as Jones did about Jackson's car, not as bad as he'd expected.The bollard stands on a raised pedestrian safety island in the middle of the road, and forms a pair with another bollard to instruct pedestrians to pass between two points.The white plastic shell had split lengthwise, and the steel structure beneath was tilted to one side like a drunk.But this basically does not constitute any harm to vehicles passing by irregularly.

He reported the incident in a low-key manner, and then, like a boss, he analyzed the accident based on what he saw.Visible tire tracks in front of the still intact bollards suggest that Jackson braked hard as he sprinted toward the first bollard of the safety island, and fresh scuffs on the concrete edge show contact with one or both right-hand wheels, the second The situation with the bollards at the island meant that although she braked hard, the car was still veering to the right. Out of curiosity, he walked to a young couple waiting at the bus stop on the other side of the road, "How long have you been here?"

"For a long time." "Have you ever seen a car hit an island?" They all nodded. "Two people are fighting," the girl said. "What kind of play?" "The guy who was driving hit another guy in the face." The girl trembled. "If she hadn't done that we would have died, and that car was coming straight at us." Bill called Kahn as he made his way to the Crown Bar, "Ahmed? Yeah, that's right... still with the Sheriff. I need a few things from you, man. Can you call Detective Ferguson See if he knows if there's a crack cocaine den on Kitchener Road, near a bar called the Crown. Yeah... the sooner the better. Not much hope, but worth a try. You saw the movie " Gattaca? No? Googling it for me. Gacha. Type Uma Thurman to find the movies she’s been in." He paused and waited, "Yeah, that's it. You should see a cast list, the first two being Jude Law and Ethan Hawke. Great. What's the name of the character that Uma Thurman is playing ?Irene Cassini? How does Cassini write?..Yeah..I've been thinking about it.The sheriff and I saw her an hour ago and she was wearing the same outfit as Uma in the movie Thurman was dressed exactly the same. Yeah...try the call girl sites first." He was about to hang up when Kahn spoke again. Bill sighed, "No, of course I haven't read the Evening Standard. I've been working non-stop since I left the house twelve hours ago and haven't caught my breath yet...Jock? Just heard Dr. Jackson tell us Described. Black hair...bearded...over 50 years old. I don't remember anything else, but it's on the computer. I sent a notice to the nearby police force." Kahn continued talking on the other end of the phone, and Bill's face darkened as he listened. "Are you telling me seriously that you only knew about the body from reading the papers?" When Bill returned to the Crown Bar, the Sheriff was sitting alone, Pat had left and the only waiter still on duty was serving a customer at the other end of the bar, no Jackson, Hardy or Ake in sight. Lan's figure.Bill sat down beside the sheriff.Jones pushed Bill's untouched mug of beer toward him. "Drink it," he said. "We might have something to celebrate." The doctor told the lieutenant to sit in the Pat recognized the uninjured half of his face from a chair over there. He said he had seen Harry Peel here several times last year, when he was alive." His assistant estimated that the beer had no foam, so he tried to take a sip, but it didn't. "With his girlfriend?" Jones shook his head. "Always alone, but Pat is pretty sure he spoke to Harry. Apparently Harry used to send people his business card for his taxi service...he claimed face-to-face contact was the best kind of advertising." "What are we going to do? Take him back to the police station?" "He's not fit to go anywhere at the moment, and it's not just because of a migraine. His lip is cut and his neck is bruised by the seat belt." Jones raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "How did the bollard on the safety island get hit?" "Just got knocked sideways. They must've been driving not fast. The doctor must have slammed on the brakes, and there are scuff marks on the road." Bill repeated what the young couple told him, "Rough estimate, Lieutenant caught The only way for the doctor to regain control was to punch him. They dodged one bollard, but hit another." Jones nodded. "I've come to the same conclusion. Any idea why he's taking the wheel?" "The migraines are killing him? He seems to get angry every time the pain starts. He got angry at the Pakistani guy in the bar, and he got angry at you. He only goes nauseous when he starts retching. behavioral capacity." Jones shakes his head. "He got mad at me because I touched him...same with the Pakistani guy. He's less likely to control his anger during a migraine attack, but I don't think that's what happened .The one time outside the bank, he didn't have a migraine when Walter poked him, but he still reacted angrily." "But then he walked away and didn't do anything stupid, Brian," Bill pointed out. "Maybe the migraine wasn't the trigger, but it definitely fueled his violent reaction. He needs to wear a warning sign." ...'Get out of the way when I have a headache'." "He's in very bad shape," said the sheriff thoughtfully. "The doctor gave him a big dose of anti-emetics, and he's off to change a tire. I think the lieutenant expects the doctor to leave him alone." "is it possible?" "It depends on whether the doctor thinks the lieutenant is trying to kill her. She's covering for the lieutenant at the moment, claiming it's her own fault—probably because she knows she provoked the lieutenant—but she may change her mind tomorrow morning. She was probably furious - very reluctant to leave the Lieutenant alone with her partner." Bill stirred the beer in his glass with his fingers, hoping to start a froth. "I had a buddy who tried to kill himself in a BMW," he said lazily. "He crashed into a brick wall at 40mph and nothing happened. Afterwards he claimed he forgot the car had an airbag." , and didn't know BMW was built as tough as a tank." "You think Acklan is trying to kill himself?" "He's in a mess right now...a bit like my friend...can't handle what's happening to him. According to Dr. Campbell, he's been trying to end it all by slowly starving to death for months, which he jokes is A way of life he chose. Perhaps he chose a more direct approach tonight and decided to bring Dr. Jackson." Jones didn't speak. "You don't think so?" "Part of it," said the sheriff, "he was in a mess, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up somewhere, but I don't think it would be suicide. One day he'll meet someone who's angrier and crazier than he is." people." He paused, "I guess you could say it's a death wish." "So he's using the doctor? He wants to be punched by her?" "Not quite. I think he wanted to test her...to see how she would react if someone took her control away. I wonder now if this was also his one-armed stranglehold on me for the six hours of freedom he was deprived of.” Nick Beal is deeply skeptical, "What does the doctor plan to do if he loses control?" Jones shrugged. "Putting the handbrake...holding the steering wheel... proved he had more guts than the doctor. Judging by the damage from the accident, the car was going less than 20 mph and he was trained to drive a scimitar tank over rough terrain. " "Then logically we should have informed the traffic police that there had just been a criminal incident, whatever Akland's reasoning was, he interfered with the safe driving of a moving vehicle. Doctors took decisive action before approaching the crowd at the bus stop." "Wait a minute, there's still time," said Brian Jones, pressing his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. "He's in my jurisdiction at the moment, and I want things to stay that way." For Derek Hardy, the sheriff's "jurisdiction" made him increasingly uncomfortable.He ran country pubs for 20 years before he and his wife took over the Crown, and he was more used to seeing plainclothes village police in his pubs playing darts than a detective superintendent. His own bar has become a base for solving crimes.Two other police officers had arrived, and Derek and Jackson watched as the four exchanged messages through closed-circuit monitors in the kitchen. "What's going on here?" Jackson asked curiously, turning on the faucet while wrapping it in a large tissue. "You probably know better than I do," Derek said angrily, "everything was fine until you showed up with that baby. What did he do?" "There's nothing to worry those guys about." "Why don't you want Mel near him?" Jackson was washing his oily hands in the sink, "He doesn't know how to deal with a woman who is too nice to him." She grimaced at his worried expression, "You don't need to go into that room, Derry K. Just check from the door to see if he's still breathing. Once or twice. Once the retching stops, he'll fall asleep." "You make me nervous." "There's no reason for this. He promised me that he would stay in the room and not provoke anyone." She turned off the faucet with a paper towel again, and used the paper to clean the oil in the sink by the way, "I'm more worried about him Will do something to himself, especially if he knows those guys are still here." She nodded and pointed at the monitor. "Is he the reason they're here?" "I don't understand. They didn't know we were coming," she reminded him. "What were you talking about when I walked in?" "The old man who got a good beating that day. He's one of our regulars." "Walter Tardin? They've asked Charles about the attack, and he can prove he was three miles away when it happened." Jackson noticed Ahmed Kahn handing Brian a piece of paper. Jones, she said to Derek, wiping her finger on a clean tissue, "Must have something to do with something you told them." "Pat was talking to them most of the time. He and Walter knew the taxi driver who was killed." "Harry Peel?" Derek nodded. "He used to come here a lot before Mel and I took over. Do you know him?" "No." She folded the tissue and threw it in the trash. "What did you tell them about Walter Tardin?" "Me? I'm just describing a lad I've seen who showed up with him. They're more interested in whether Pat thinks the old man is a toilet fag." He paused, "Pat recognized your friends. Maybe that's what gets them excited." "Charles?" Derek nodded. "He told the sheriff he'd seen him here before." Jackson frowned, "When?" "Last year ... said he sat alone in the bar a few times, certainly before we took over here, I don't remember seeing him anywhere." She pulled down the sleeves and buttoned the cuffs, "Have you ever seen a girl who looks like Uma Thurman here?" Derek shook his head, "Who is she?" "Good question." Jackson sighed resignedly. "Charles swears to me he's never been to any bar in this area. If he lied about it, he must have lied about his girlfriend." Hardy folded his arms across his chest and studied her, "How on earth did you end up with this guy?" "Because I'm such a fool," she said angrily, "I'm so sorry for letting him trouble you and Mel. He deserves a night's sleep and I'll get him out of here as soon as possible... assuming he's still here .” "Why isn't he here?" She glanced at the monitor. "He has a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said mysteriously. "It's all looking less and less like a coincidence." She walked to the door. K. If they moved him to the hospital because they were going to interrogate him, then that's something Charles would have to deal with himself. He wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for his top-notch idiocy." Kahn had just arrived at the bar with several other police officers to join Jones and Bill.He put the two printouts in front of the sheriff. "Here," he touched one of them, "is Dr. Jackson's description of Jock, and the other is the details of the man's body found by the police in the Thames this morning. I spoke with a man named Steve Barra. Had a chat with the lad in Tet, who blamed the inefficient paperwork and said no one had ever established a connection between the two. He said they had checked for missing persons, but none of them fit the description." Jones leaned forward to browse through the materials, "So, what else slipped through the net? Calls that weren't followed up...notes that weren't read," he patted Jackson's description with the back of his hand, "And now this .What are we doing running around? A chimpanzee tea party?" "We posted Jock's details online, sir." "But it didn't occur to you to put him on the missing persons list?" "No," Kahn admitted, "just wanted for interrogation." Jones looked annoyed. "What else did that Bharat tell you? Did they do an autopsy?" Kahn shook his head, "There is no complete report. The pathologist took blood samples, took the temperature, and looked at the external features, but there was no sign of violent murder. The blood alcohol level was high. He concluded that, The man was a homeless man who drowned about 12 hours before the body was found...they handled the case low key. According to Bharat, homeless beggars are the hardest to identify. It usually takes months , and no one really cared even if their names were eventually found out.” Jones wasn't interested in other people's questions, "What about fingerprints?" "They're going to check again tomorrow, but I've asked Bharat to move forward with the process as soon as possible and call me when he gets the results." "You're building on assumptions and it's not certain that the deceased had a criminal record." "There's a good chance, sir." "Even so ... a name doesn't help us. It still doesn't tell us if this man is Jock. We need someone to identify the body." Inspector Bill glanced toward the window. "Should I speak to Dr. Jackson before she leaves?" he asked. "I think she's still here. She's obviously the right person." "Why not?" Jones agreed slowly. "I want to know her reaction. The Lieutenant seems to bring misfortune to everyone he meets." Bill came out from the gate and saw Jackson was about to get in the car, so he stopped Jackson.She glanced at him angrily, pretending not to hear what he was saying, "What do you want? I'm really leaving." "I know." He handed her Kahn's printout. "This man was fished out of the river this morning. We think he might be Jock, but we need someone to identify the body. Would you like to help us?" Can we wait until you complete your duty." She leaned over to look in the light of the car, "Any doubts about the time of his death? It said his temperature indicated that he died late last night." "We have no reason to doubt that." He studied her expression, "Why do you ask this question?" Her inner struggle was shown on her face, but she avoided answering directly and handed him the information, "The final conclusion is that the man fell into the river and drowned after being seriously drunk, and there was no sign of violence. Regarding this Any doubts?" Of course Bill was skeptical.She doubts, too, otherwise she wouldn't be asking these questions. "We won't know until tomorrow. The pathologist hasn't done a full post-mortem report yet." He folded the paper and stuffed it in his pocket, "Is there anything you haven't told me, doctor?" "I'm probably not as good a judge of character as I thought I was," Jackson said vaguely.She looked over his shoulder towards the Crown Bar and sighed suddenly, "I don't know where Lieutenant Ackland has been between noon yesterday and evening this evening, Inspector. The last time I saw him yesterday he was in the bakery. Outside an empty house on the street...near the docks below...I think he's looking for Jock."