Chapter 13 Chapter Twelve Dream Tracing

The Old Testament of the Bible says that those who work sleep soundly; in a strict sense, working with the mind may fit the definition of this statement better than working with the body.For Ellery, that's exactly what happened: his brain cells hadn't gotten enough sleep by the time he got out of bed after a night of mind-boggling engineering, and they punished Ellery with all sorts of discomfort— — sleepy, brittle, numb lips, and dismayed to realize that it was past his appointment with Major Kirby, fifteen minutes late. He swallowed two soft-boiled eggs, drank a few sips of bitter coffee, and listened to Dijuna babbling on about the exciting experience of the previous night.Soon he got up and rushed out of the house, heading for Times Square.

The documentary department occupies the entire twelfth floor of the studio's hornet's nest.Ellery emerged from the elevator, out of breath.When he entered the reception room, he found that he was already forty-five minutes late. Major Kobe quickly came to him: "Mr. Quinn, I thought something happened to you. We have been ready for a long time." Major Bryant was indeed an unusual man.After a night of continuous work, there was no sign of fatigue at all.He stood there refreshed and neatly dressed, even his cheeks were shaved and he had a healthy rosy face. "I overslept," Ellery said embarrassingly. "Why are you so alert? By the way, Major, you used so much extra film yesterday. The editor didn't bother you?"

The major chuckled. "Not at all. He's so happy, we've had a big upset in town. This way please, Mr. Quinn." He led Ellery into a large, bustling room where a number of people sat smoking cigarettes and bustling about.The smoke was choking, and the sound of typing on the keyboard of the typewriter was as crisp as Chinese firecrackers; there was also a group of people surrounding a huge and strange machine, as if they were staring at it and thinking about something; Enter. "It's kind of like a newspaper editorial room," Ellery commented as he walked. "It's worse than that," said the major flatly. "This is the news production office. These photographers are a thousand times more troublesome than the newspaper reporters. It's a tough department; Nice young men."

They went through a door into a low corridor, passing many small doors, some with the clatter of machinery.From time to time, lightly dressed staff hurried past. "Here we are," said the major. "One of our screening rooms. Used to check out dailies. Come in, Mr. Quinn. Don't mind the smell, eh? It's celluloid." There are only two rows of movable seats in the room.There are several small square holes on the back wall, and the projector lens installed inside can be seen faintly.The front wall is entirely covered with a snow-white curtain. "Sit down," the major greeted warmly. "When I get ready, you will probably still be..."

"You don't mind if we wait a little while? Sergeant Quinn went to headquarters early in the morning, and I was still awake. But he left and said that if he had time, he wanted to come here and take a look samples." "Listen to you," the major sat down on a small table by the wall, flipped a small switch, and lit a small and bright desk lamp, "Any new clues?" Ellery stretched his sore legs. "I'm afraid not," he said sadly. "You know, Major? We're dealing with a singular mystery, almost modern witchcraft! Question Yeah, what happened to the gun that shot Buck Horn? It couldn't have flown off the field and it couldn't be found anywhere. It's as simple as that. Can you imagine how it happened?"

"Sounds like a fantasy," said the major, laughing, "I admit it's inexplicable, but I agree with Mars--God, my sir, it's the only one that makes sense! —and by whatever means, the murderer took that gun off the field. Either himself, or through an accomplice." Ellery shook his head. "We think there's no doubt about it—after the murder, absolutely no one slipped out unsearched. Everyone was scrupulously checked, including yourself. No, Major, the facts." Actually, the answer is far more complicated." He frowned, "I wish it was as simple as you said. Because I have to admit that I don't know anything about the murder weapon... Ah, Dad! Morning it is good!"

Officer Quinn appeared in the screening room, looking thinner and grayer, followed by Officer Willie and Detective Hersey: "Good morning, Major. You're still up, huh?" He was weary. He sat down on a chair and motioned for the two attendants to sit down too, "I must have slept soundly after listening to your high-spirited talk. Alright, Major, we are ready and waiting for you." Major Bryant turned to the projection hole on the back wall and yelled, "Joey!" A bespectacled face looked out of the screen and replied, "Yes, Major!" "We're ready, Joey, show it."

The lights in the room were extinguished one by one, and everyone was plunged into darkness.The rattling sound of the projector came clearly from behind them.Suddenly, a headline appeared on the screen, followed by a burst of low-meld accompaniment music from weak to strong.The title is like this: After the headline disappeared, a long string of text followed - editor's note: Here will be a news documentary about the shooting death of Hollywood's most popular western film star Buck Horn.This one-of-a-kind footage captures the events that shocked the world from before the incident to Horne's death.This film was produced exclusively with the hard work of fellow news crews and the kind support of the NYPD.

Then the subtitles disappeared, and the oval of the previous night appeared on the screen, accompanied by the narration of the news commentator. "What you see here is the packed stadium oval," the camera panned to the rows of spectators as the commentary deepened, "before the fatal shooting, in the world's most famous stadium Crazy Bill Grant Rodeo's New York City premiere opening ceremony is taking place... 20,000 spectators are enjoying a variety of equestrian shows: galloping cavalcades, whistling cowboys..." The narration stops, The accompaniment was the roaring cheers of the crowd, and the cameras swept across the stands on all sides.The scenes and sounds presented on the screen are all what the Quinn father and son have seen and heard recently, including the shot of Curly Grant grinning and showing his teeth after shooting a glass dart.Suddenly the scene became silent, and there was no one in the arena; the camera moved to the gate on the west side of the venue and stayed there; Crazy Bill rushed out of the gate with his horse; The heroic posture tilted from time to time and the smoke and dust rising from the ground followed him to the center of the oval; waving a cowboy hat and smiling; accompanied by applause, whistle, and stomping; Grant fired a gun at the sky; chants for silence, followed by his romantic opening, "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to welcome you all to the opening of the Crazy Bill Grant Rodeo Show! We bring the world The biggest..." The prologue continued loudly.

Then, Buck Horn appeared dramatically, riding the extraordinary BMW "Ruohai"; the horse team of forty-one cowboys roared onto the field; fired guns into the sky; the horse team began to gallop around the track... Several people leaned forward, staring intently at the real scene reproduced on the screen... After the gunshots rang out, Buck Horn shook suddenly, and his body tilted down on his mount; several people staring at the screen gasped at the same time. in one breath.All that happened in a very short moment, mixed in the chaotic and noisy sounds-Horn fell from his horse; the horse team trampled past like a storm; screams from the audience...the crowd watched silently... ...The camera switches from the telephoto shot of thousands of heads to the close-up view of Maas's box, from the cowboys rolling off their saddles to the doctor accompanying the regiment running out in a hurry, and then pans to the corpse covered in blankets...

When the lights in the room were turned on again, several people were still sitting there, and there was no movement for a long time.The major said in a low voice: "Okay, Joey, let's go here." At this moment, everyone started to move like a dream. "Soon, eh?" the major went on, smiling. "Now the prints are showing at the State Theater." "Professional efficiency," Ellery added absently, "how long is this tape, by the way? I feel like it's longer than a typical documentary." "A bit longer indeed. Naturally, we made it into a special report," the major said, laughing at this point, "and let it have the same weight as other major reports, such as earthquakes or wars. A whole reel of film. About ten Thirty seconds." Sergeant Quinn said, "It's no different from what we saw with our own eyes yesterday. I don't see anything special, Ellery—" Ellery was lost in his own thoughts and said nothing. "Hey, what's the difference?" "Huh? Oh, no, no. Quite right," sighed Ellery, turning to Major Bryant. "You're a very nice fellow, Major. Would you mind spending a little more on your company? With a little more borrowing from your equipment, we can get some stills—partial close-ups—sequence shots of the moment the bullet enters Horne's body, okay?" Kobe frowned and said, "Oh, that's okay. It's just that the film will be blurry when it comes out, you know. The zoomed-in photos are like that. Also, those are mostly telephotos, and they can't get very close to the parts you want. ..." "Anyway, I want as many close-ups as possible. Good guys do it to the end." "Do as you say, old man." Major Kobe stood up and walked out of the screening room quickly. "These guys are really quick," grumbled Inspector Willie. "Ellery," Sergeant Quinn asked, "what do you want those close-ups of? I still have work to do. Why wait..." "It's important." So they sat and waited.From time to time someone poked his head in to see.One big, burly man even swaggered in, introduced himself as an editor, Yun Yun, and then kindly asked Officer Quinn if he liked to "speak a few words" about the shooting and dragged Officer Quinn Go to another room to record... Officer Quinn shook his head like a rattle. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you without the director's permission, and he's out of town. He doesn't like his officers talking nonsense." "Oh? He doesn't like it?" said the big fat man. "I'll bet he doesn't use that rule on himself, does he? I've seen them push their way! Excuse me, officer. Maybe another time , wait until that adult is in a better mood, excuse me, officer." After speaking, he jumped out like a big white rabbit. They continue to wait.Ellery was lost in thought.Hesse closed his eyes and folded his hands, leaning his head on the back of the chair to rest.After a while, melodious snoring came out of his nose.Officer Willie glanced quietly at his superior, to see if he could take a lazy break and take a nap. The whole building was busy and noisy, but the screening room was as quiet as still water. Major Kirby is back.He waved triumphantly a stack of photographs in his hand, all measuring eight inches by ten inches.Officer Willie opened his eyes at the sound.Jesse was still snoring. The Quinns leaned eagerly over the wet photographs; they were very, very eager. "We did our best," said the major apologetically. "As I said, the magnified picture is definitely blurry. But we have been trying our best to adjust the focus and strive for the best magnification effect." There are ten photos in each group, all of which are the continuous process of the same subject's movements, and the differences between them are extremely small.It was developed with a small film celluloid film enlarged and projected, so there are clear imprints of the film borders on both sides of the print.The image is indeed quite blurry, and the result of the zoom is a large gray area dragged around the image.But despite this, details are still recognizable. The photo shows Buck Horn riding on the "Ruohai" at the moment before his death: at that time, he happened to be riding towards the camera; therefore, his frontal movement was just captured - in the first frame, that The head and face of a fine horse are facing the camera, and the person on the horse is leaning forward slightly, and his face is almost facing the camera. All photos are taken at medium distances, so both the man and the horse are basically within the frame.From the photos, during the entire process of Buck Horn being shot and killed, "Ruohai"'s long body was running parallel to the runway. There are five photos showing Horn in between his deaths.Judging from several consecutive shots, the movement process of the characters is very clear: in the first frame, the victim is sitting almost completely vertically on the saddle; in the second frame, he starts to tilt to the left; In the third picture he is skewed a little more; in the following ones it is even worse; until the fifth picture, his waist and hips are already at an angle of thirty degrees off the central axis, and his face is still facing forward towards the camera.In contrast, the inclination of "Ruohai" in several photos is basically the same-only slightly to the left.Horne's death can be discerned in three of the photographs; the other two show him falling from his saddle to the ground.In all the photographs his hat is kept on top of his head, his left arm is stretched flat on the set rope, his right arm is held high above his head, and he holds a revolver in his hand. "Remember what happened?" Ellery whispered, pointing to the wet photo paper. "Ruo Hai just turned around the corner at the northeast corner of the field, and he started to fall from the saddle. This is what the photo shows. The reason for the tilt to the right - to the left for him. So, is it some sort of compensating function of the centripetal force, Major? Or is it my own ignorance of basic science yet again. Have you made an absurd reasoning?" They concentrated on the few photos showing the moment of Horn's death.Fortunately for them, the victim was wearing a spotless white shirt that night, so they could identify where the bullet had entered.In the first of the three photos, a small black spot can be seen on the white shirt under the flat left arm of the rider, positioned forward, at heart level; in the second photo, the black spot is enlarged The black spot on the third photo is the largest - although the difference between the three photos is not significant, the black spot is undoubtedly the image of the bullet hole. In the last five photos, the faces of the victims showed expressions of shock, rigidity, distortion and pain one by one.Since the face is facing the camera, those eyes also seem to cast the sight of death here.And he died under their watchful eyes. Ellery looked up, eyes full of confusion: "What a blind fool I am," he said thoughtfully, "it turns out it's so simple." Everyone was stunned and speechless.Kobe's chin protrudes a full inch. "Easy?" Officer Quinn called. Ellery shrugged his shoulders. "There are two things I don't know," he said with a wry smile. "Two very important things. They go hand in hand. You can't solve the case unless you figure it out. But there's one thing I do know. Yes, one thing I am quite sure of, it is absolutely true..." Officer Quinn tightly closed his lips, stared at him, and could not make a sound. Major Bryant couldn't help asking: "What? What do you know, Mr. Quinn?" Ellery pointed to the last photograph of Horn's fall and said, "I know who killed the poor old actor!"