Little by little the daylight was eliminating the shadows and thoughts of the policeman, on a very dark and gray day. He was inside his car while he watched the children running towards school weighed down by their backpacks and wearing light-colored clothes that contrasted greatly with the dark and wet asphalt: then a phone call caught him suddenly as he was waving to his son with the passenger door open of his flaming red Cadillac: it was the commissioner, sulking as always, announcing another murder: "right here in Central Park" "we have another person involved in Jason's murder" "it's Rowland, he was a taxi driver, a very greedy person; but he was found hanged from a tree in a semi-central area of the park" The scene was very special so much so that Geremia put a hand over his mouth then distorted all his thoughts for his daily life and prepared to return to the office in a flash.The road was so busy that at the intersection he had to endure four shifts at the main traffic lights to get to the station in 40 minutes. Geremia then managed to find a parking spot and reached the station in a quarter of an hour. His flexible hours on some days allowed him to manage his day more easily. His colleague Gaston, however, was furious and eager to get to the crime scene; the news had already spread throughout the police station, and the details of the discovery were already on the desks of some colleagues, while the details had already appeared in the most popular newspapers and news websites.
The road was so busy that at the intersection he had to endure four shifts at the main traffic lights to get to the station in the space of 40 minutes. At that point, Geremia managed to find parking at the port and in a quarter of an hour reached the station by metro. The flexible hours on some days allowed him to manage his day more easily. His colleague Gaston, however, was furious and eager to get to the scene of the crime; the news had already spread throughout the police station and the details of the discovery were already on the desks of some colleagues, while the details had already appeared in the most popular newspapers and news websites. The two set off at the wheel of a police car and reached the park. The journey was fraught with fraught questions from both of them. "Had he already been questioned?" according to Jeremiah. "Yes, but he hadn't revealed any details and he knew Jason from having driven him on some races." "Did he regularly go jogging in the park?" Gaston was sure that "Yes, he was a creature of habit, but no suspicious movement had made him suspect in Jason's murder or any money laundering connection to the Emperor Bar@.@
They had thus arrived in Central Park, the day was still cold but the atmosphere was not that of summer days: with the noose around his neck, the pale man remained hanged from the giant sequoia in a peripheral area, about a kilometer from the nearest road. He was hanging while the police, gathered in a circle around the area, were looking for clues and evidence to frame the authors of that macabre spectacle.the body was collected in a coffin and transported to the morgue probably for autopsy analysis.
The scene was macabre, and the body had been covered immediately to avoid gruesome photographs. The silence of the park was now broken by a crowd of onlookers rising behind the tape that cordoned off the crime scene. Some of the onlookers in the crowd wanted to speak to Inspector Bonnemare, others were interviewed by the officers. Meanwhile, the analysis of the body was progressing, finding several features that were highly inconsistent with the suicide hypothesis: the legs were bleeding as if he had been transported in an accident, scraping his body against the asphalt, and the chest showed signs of severe trauma. The forensic team concluded that the man had died in a car accident and the body had subsequently been transported to the park to stage a suicide. This hypothesis worked as long as one didn't consider that the park was almost a kilometer from the nearest adjacent road, that the park was very busy in the evening, and that the taxi driver was a meticulous man with an absolutely spotless criminal record. After an hour, Jeremiah noticed an elderly man, graying in a brown coat and with an absorbed look; it was Michael, the lawyer. Jeremiah called him, led him through the crowd and began to ask him about his presence. "Hello, Michael, have we met before?" The very sulky lawyer rebuked him: "Certainly, I can't find the words for this situation, it's disheartening." Jeremiah began to doubt that his presence in the place was accidental: "Are you usually frequenting the park in the morning? Do you live in the area?" He looked at him sullenly "No, inspector I live two blocks away but I'm still fond of this park, and the dog is waiting for me." The inspector caught sight of a Doberman tied to a tree about a hundred meters away, and continued the interrogation. "How long have you been in this park? Are you familiar with this area?" "Well, Inspector, certainly - I've been frequenting this area for at least 15 years - look, don't ask any more questions, I knew that man but I only arrived here thirty minutes ago... The scene was horrifying! I've never seen such ferocity! It's as if the murderer has to show everyone his prey! Do you understand?" "Jermiah was silent for a moment, crime and crime scenes were his ordinary work, but here the murderer's brutality was certainly out of the ordinary and the scene was certainly disgusting, the smell of acrid blood was in the air. He asked Michael other questions to see if he had any alibis for the first morning, without however getting much out of them. Michael was awake, he answered in kind, he gave the impression of perfectly understanding the context, but his answers were never exhaustive. In any case he had no alibi for that morning, he was a suspect in this case too but he didn't seem to have the fury nor the strength for a murder of this magnitude. Instead, he was calm, talkative, and quite serious. The policeman greeted him, agreeing to meet him in the police station for a more detailed statement. "How long have you been in this park? Are you familiar with this area?" "Well, Inspector, certainly - I've been frequenting this area for at least 15 years - look, don't ask any more questions, I knew that man but I only arrived here thirty minutes ago... The scene was horrifying! I've never seen such ferocity! It's as if the murderer has to show everyone his prey! Do you understand?" "Jermiah was silent for a moment, crime and crime scenes were his ordinary work, but here the murderer's brutality was certainly out of the ordinary and the scene was certainly disgusting, the smell of acrid blood was in the air. He asked Michael other questions to see if he had any alibis for the first morning, without however getting much out of them. Michael was awake, he answered in kind, he gave the impression of perfectly understanding the context, but his answers were never exhaustive. In any case he had no alibi for that morning, he was a suspect in this case too but he didn't seem to have the fury Nor the strength for a murder of this magnitude. Instead, he was calm, talkative, and quite serious. The officer greeted him, agreeing to meet him at the police station for a more detailed statement. It was now approaching noon, and the officers took stock with the forensic team before heading to a kiosk for a quick snack.
The forensic team confirmed their first impressions: "He had been taken to the park after being attacked, transported to a car, probably along a closed road or a parking lot, causing injuries to his legs and arms, and finally hung from a branch to simulate a suicide."
The officers took notes, nodded at these conclusions, and both were convinced that they had undoubtedly been transported there from a close distance. They split up and searched within a two-kilometer radius for parking lots or private asphalted properties with traces of blood. They found some a kilometer away and had them analyzed immediately. The traces were Rowland's blood, the poor taxi driver. The area was a parking lot behind a fast food restaurant, with little traffic after Two o'clock, but it was still an area that remained open to traffic 24 hours a day. The two officers approached residents in the area to ask if they had heard gunshots or screams during the night or early morning. No one had heard anything, but some admitted that it was an area where gangs hung out at night and was known as a trading post. At four o'clock they returned to the station for another briefing on the case, with many shocked faces at a case that seemed simple but instead continued to unravel amid deaths and twists.