Chapter 35 tenth scene

Hours of searching turned up nothing, and Sam looked dismayed. Sam's previous strong confidence in Ryan's logical reasoning and prophetic abilities seemed to have been shaken by the relentless hours of beating.This group of personnel with all kinds of equipment is like a reappearance of the heroic Spanish expedition that discovered the New World. They searched all the rivers and rivers of New Jersey along the West Coast Line train throughout the afternoon.Sam also volunteered to climb up and down with the search equipment, but his face became longer and longer; Ren remained calm, pointing the search direction from time to time, and seemed confident about his proposal to focus on the river along the route. .

At this time, the sky was completely dark, and some of the wet and anxious staff members had searched a river close to the urban area of ​​Bogota, and they were speeding up their search without waiting.Sam summoned more equipment like magic, and the high-power searchlights strafed both sides of the railway and the quietly flowing river. A big iron guy like a super spoon, after a whole afternoon of search operations, also found Move to this area for support.Ryan and the sullen Sam stood side by side, staring intently at the mechanical movements of the staff. "Finding a needle in a haystack," Sam said angrily. "There really seems to be no chance, is it Mr. Wren?"

As if Sam's mournful words had been well received by heaven, Wren's answer was interrupted by a sudden cry from a rowing crew twenty feet from the track.So, a searchlight quickly moved to the boat, and the "big spoon" also came over immediately, picking up a pile of mud, weeds, gravel and bitter medicine as usual, but under the scorching light, there was a gleaming Things are mixed in the meantime. A cheer of victory erupted in an instant. Sam threw himself into the mud pile with all his hands and feet in spite of everything, while Ren followed calmly. "What's that—what's that?" Sam yelled.

The boat came up to him, the shiny thing spread out in the muddy hands of the rower.Sam turned his head to look at Ren who had reached him, with a certain respect in his eyes, followed him and shook his head, and took it over for inspection. ".38 caliber, right?" Ryan asked gently. "That's the thing!" Sam yelled, "Dude, what a fucking lucky day! Look, one of the chambers is empty, I'll bet you cash on donuts, we'll take this Once the gun is fired, the bullet will match the bullet that killed DeWitt 100%!" Sam tenderly caressed the gun, wrapped it carefully in a handkerchief, and put it in his coat pocket.

"Come on, folks!" he called to the poor exhausted search party. "We've found it! You can call it a day and go home comfortable!" Sam himself and Lane walked along the track to the line of parked police cars, to the one that had been carrying them all afternoon. "Well, sir," said Sam, "I'll be blunt. We found DeWitt's murder weapon in the river that the train passed that night. Judging by where we found it, we can easily get It is concluded that after the murder, the gun was thrown from the car into the river, and of course it was the murderer who threw the gun."

"There's another possibility," Lane added, "that the murderer got out of the car at or before Bogota, walked around here, and threw this revolver into the river. I'm just—" Lane emphasized, "to point out that It’s just a possibility, and it’s much more likely to be thrown directly from the car.” "You never miss anything, don't you? Of course, I completely agree with what you said..." As they said that, the two of them arrived at the side of the car, leaning against the black door to catch their breath with contented exhaustion. Lane emphasized again: "In any case, from the location where this revolver was found, the possibility of Collins' involvement has been completely eliminated."

"You mean that Collins is innocent?" "That may be a wiser conclusion, Inspector. You see, this train pulled into Ridgefield Park Station at 12:30, and Collins took a taxi and left before the train started--this is important. It was proved at the scene and the testimony of the taxi driver proved that the taxi returned from the station to downtown New York in the exact opposite direction. The time when the left wheel was thrown out of the car could not have arrived at the river earlier than 12:35. Before, even if the murderer did not get from the car, but the murderer walked here and threw it here, the time would only be later than the time when the train arrived, there is no doubt about it. So, Collins had no chance, when the train stopped at Ridgefield Within a short time of the station, take a train or walk to the river, drop the weapon, and rush back to the station, while the train is still parked on the platform! The river is at least a mile from the station, and it is two miles to and fro. Of course, we can also imagine that, for example, the revolver was thrown into the river some time after the murder, that is to say, Collins returned after an hour or two and threw it away. From the perspective of the circumstances, it is not impossible, but this situation is too special. Moreover, after Collins took a taxi back to his apartment in New York, his whereabouts are completely in the hands of the police, in other words-Collins is not the murderer."

Sam raised doubts loudly: "I think you have overlooked something, Mr. Wren! It will be fatal in the debate court-of course, Collins himself seems to have no chance of throwing this guy into the river, but if Was there an accomplice? Let's say Collins shot DeWitt, handed the gun to his best friend, got out of the car nicely, and confessed that the gangster plopped him five minutes after he was gone. Going to the river, isn't that an interesting inference, Mr. Wren!" "Don't worry, inspector, don't get too excited," Ryan said with a calm smile. "We're just talking about the basic legal situation of Collins being detained and ready to be prosecuted. I haven't ignored the existence of accomplices." The possibility, I dare not ignore at all, but I have to ask you seriously-who is this accomplice? Can you dig this person up before the trial? Or are you going to convince the jury with nothing but empty words? No , I don’t think we can drag Collins into the DeWitt murder case with the evidence we have so far.”

"You're right," Sam admitted, and his face softened again. "Actually, Bruno and I have no idea who this so-called accomplice is." "Inspector, you should say, if there is such an accomplice." Ren added bluntly. The search team also brought all kinds of guys to the parking lot. Sam got into the police car, and Ryan followed.After everyone packed up, the mighty convoy headed back to Weehoken, with the heavy equipment on the trailer behind.The expression on Sam's face showed that he was immersed in the vortex of painful thinking; in contrast, Ryan was relaxed and casual, and he stretched his legs.

"You know, Inspector," he continued, "that the existence of an accomplice is hardly established, even from a psychological point of view." Sam grunted. "Let's go down the road that Collins killed DeWitt first. There must be an accomplice, and Collins handed him the gun to kill him exactly five minutes after Collins himself got off at Ridgefield Park Station. The car was thrown into the river, and everything makes sense here. But this arrangement can only be established under a single design, which is Collins' attempt to create an airtight alibi for himself; in other words , which means that the place where the murder weapon had to be found had to be near the line where the train arrived five minutes later in the opposite direction from which Collins was seen leaving.

"However, if the revolver is not found somewhere five minutes away from where he dropped off the car, the beautiful alibi that has been carefully crafted will not stand. Therefore, if Collins intends to do so, he must definitely make sure that the revolver will be found. But where do we find it? In the river, if it were not for the poor hand of heaven, this gun may lie at the bottom of the river until the last judgment comes, so we can still believe that Collins did take pains to arrange this Must the revolver be found to construct his ingenious alibi? You might say, I guess,"——Sam's expression moved, and he was about to speak—"the murder weapon fell into the river impartially, perhaps it was Accident or mistake, the original accomplice had thrown it through the car window, only hoping it fell to the side of the rails. But if he really wanted the murder weapon to be found, to establish Collins' alibi, could he have thrown it so hard twenty feet away? — Counting from the rails. "No, it won't, if all the accomplice wants to do is throw the gun out of the car window, then a heavy gun won't fly there, only on the side of the track, so that we will definitely be there later. turn up." "That is to say," Sam concluded in a low voice, "you also confirmed that the murderer's intention was to drown out the murder weapon, which completely proves that Collins is not the murderer." "It seems that's right, inspector." Ryan said softly. "Okay," Sam snorted dejectedly, and said, "I admit that I lost. Every time Bruno and I tried our best to catch someone, we thought this person was the mysterious murderer X you mentioned. You are responsible for letting him go. My God, it’s almost a routine, I think this case is getting more and more involved, getting farther and farther, and it’s extremely troublesome." "On the contrary," Wren said solemnly, "we're almost at the finish line."