Chapter 3
ETR is Going to Ruin Us
The EMS was on the scene within minutes and quickly entered the area underneath the ride. The man-made pit itself was hard to navigate through due to the fake lake and all the shrubs around, strategically placed to give riders the sensation that they were going to crash into a wilderness. It took about 10 minutes for the firemen and paramedics to reach the location where the ride had landed. The cars themselves were strewn everywhere and the smell of burnt metal was in the air. If a person was to walk by, he or she wouldn't even have known that at one time the cars were even attached together. The one Scott was in was lying upside down and was heavily damaged. Its once proud metal body was dented, the color heavily scratched and it was missing all of its wheels. As the emergency personnel approached the car, everyone knew the outcome that they were about to encounter. The firefighters, slowly tried to move the car, being ever so careful in case Scott had survived the crash and sustained major injuries. As they turned the car back onto its feet, they heard no sound. Scott sat there motionless. His arms and legs were badly bloodied, and his head showed signs of obvious trauma. The medics checked for a pulse and found nothing. They then tried CPR, but to no avail. The coroner pronounced Scott Taylor dead at 11:17 am on July 1st, 2010.
With police arriving soon after the announcement of death, instructions were given to the paramedics to stand-by, but not to remove the body until the initial investigation was completed.
Responding to the emergency call was Police Constable Leroy Addison followed soon thereafter by Detective Charles Grey of the Toronto Police Department. Constable Addison was a typical young, tall, policeman who seemingly spent more time at the gym exercising than actually out on the beat. Don't let that fool you though, for inside that exterior Adonis type body, is a superior mind at work. On the other hand, Detective Grey was 50 years old and more of a short, husky man, with scruffy, grayish hair and a goatee. His idea of a good day on the job, was finding the perpetrator quickly, and then rushing to the nearest restaurant for a big dinner. Two exact opposites when it came to police work, were about to meet each other for the first time.
"Excuse me Detective," called Constable Addison from half way down the ravine.
"Yes, what do you want?" said Grey.
"It would seem to me that you are going to have some difficulty rappelling down this steep hill, would you like some assistance?"
"No, no I'll be fine, besides," said the Detective as he slipped and fell about 10 meters down the ravine before being able to stop.
"Oh my!" gasped Addison as he steadied himself and quickly climbed up to help.
"You could have killed yourself Detective. Here let me help you up," Addison said, as he carefully helped Grey to his feet.
"Can you walk?" asked Addison.
"Totally fine. Thanks for the help Constable...uh?"
"Addison, Leroy Addison. I am new with the Toronto Police Department, so I'm not surprised you don't recognize me."
"Well Constable, I guess we have a murder to solve, so if you can help me down this hill we can begin to figure out who committed this crime and lock them up."
"But Detective how have you determined that a crime has even been committed without an investigation? After all, this may just have been a simple accident."
"Name for me, Constable, the last time a new rollercoaster, with supposedly new track, new cars and new parts, ran off the track by accident on its first run will you please."
"Granted I cannot think of one off the top of my head, but that in and of itself doesn't prove your point," Addison responded, as he assisted the Detective to the bottom of the hill.
Meeting them there was one of the ride's mechanics, a man by the name Tim Parker. He was a short yet muscular man, with a dark complexion. He was dressed in a usual mechanics' uniform and carried with him his tool bag so he could examine the cars. After exchanging introductions, Parker took both Addison and Detective Grey over to the car that Scott had been riding in. The car was now sitting face up, with Scott still laying lifeless, fastened securely in his safety harness in the front right seat.
"Mr. Parker have you had a chance to examine the car yet?" asked Detective Grey.
"Not yet, because I got down here just before you did. From a preliminary scan though, it looks like the car lost all of its wheels, which, at any speed, caused it to de-rail and tumble into this gulley. If you give me a few minutes to examine it, I might be able to give you a few more answers."
"Go ahead then Mr. Parker" Grey said.
As Parker examined the car, Addison's attention was drawn to a wheel casing about 5 meters away. Before touching it, he called over Detective Grey to have a look.
"Detective, do you notice anything peculiar about this wheel casing?" asked Addison.
"Other than the fact that it looks different than a car wheel, no, why do you?"
"May I?" Addison asked. With an affirmative shake of the head by Grey, Addison proceeded to move the wheel casing.
"You see here Detective, not knowing much about rollercoaster wheels, I would presume, that the wheel is attached to this casing, which in turn, would be welded to the car and secured by bolts. I have looked all around the vicinity of this casing, where are the bolts? I can't find one of them. Moreover, even if the bolts were missing, the wheel casings should have temporarily been able to remain on the car because they were welded to the car. Had this been the case, the metal attaching the casing to the car would have been ragged after the casing was sheered off. But look here, the part where the metal was welded is almost completely smooth."
"Are you saying that something might have been used to partially cut the casings off of the car?" Grey asked.
"In part, yes, but not entirely. You see, the wheels had to remain on the car until the actual ride took place, because, at least one test run would have to be done before the ride could have opened for the day," Addison said.
"So the killer, if there is one, removed the bolts and cut the majority of the way through the casing, knowing full well that the casing would hold until Taylor was aboard the ride."
"Well maybe not Taylor, maybe someone else, we don't know yet, but other than that I think we're on the right track; no pun intended. This theory could take another step forward depending on what Mr. Parker tells us," Addison said motioning to the Detective that Parker was trying to get their attention.
"Look at this Detective," Parker said pointing to the bottom of the car.
"What?" asked Detective Grey.
"Ordinarily, if the wheels sheer off of something naturally, you wouldn't find consistent burn pattern on the bottom of the car, for the wheels wouldn't rub it uniformly," Parker said pointing to the undercarriage of the car.
"So what's your point?" Grey asked.
"My point is that someone had to use a torch to cut the welds of a large section of the wheel casing off of the car. That's the only explanation why there are these types of burns on the bottom. Moreover, they also would have had to remove or damage all of the bolts holding the casing to the car. That's the only way the wheels could have fallen off even with the damaged casing."
"So in your professional opinion, this was not an accident," Addison inquired.
"Impossible, not with the condition of the car we have here," Parker responded. Immediately after that answer, Addison noticed out of the corner of his eye that Grey was giving him an 'I told you so' look. This show of a lack of respect by Grey angered Addison, but he knew he could not say anything because Detective Grey out ranked him.
"Last question," Grey said. "Without the bolts and given the condition of the wheel casing itself, could the cars have possibly remained on the track in order to complete the entire loop?"
"With the extent of the torch marks, no. Whoever did this was intending it to crash during its first real circuit of the day," Parker said.
"Thank you Mr. Parker for all of your help. Don't leave th
e park yet in case we have more questions. But now for the time being you can leave the scene."
With the Detective getting the confirmation that the crash was not an accident, the focus of the investigation quickly turned to collecting all of the clues on the scene in the hopes that it would lead them to the murderer. Detective Grey and Constable Addison walked back to Taylor to look at the body itself.
"Well I don't think we'll find anything on the victim that would tell us who the killer is, but you can never leave any stone unturned," Grey told Addison.
As Grey examined the body, he found nothing of any value in Taylor's wallet, other than $50.00, some credit cards and a few gas receipts that he could have been saving for tax deductions. What interested Grey the most was the notepad found in Taylor's left hip pocket. In it was a list of appointments in which only the client's initials were used to identify who they were. Taylor had two meetings the day before: one with G.S. at 3:30 pm and the other with A.M. at 5:30 pm. The first meeting was marked "IMPORTANT". This intrigued Grey, but not as much as the last note which read:
Talk to A.
Tell A. that ETR is going to ruin us if we're not careful.
"I wonder who this A is?" said Detective Grey.
"More importantly who is this ETR and how was he or she going to ruin Mr. Taylor and this mysterious "A"?" questioned Addison.
"Sure is a puzzle," Grey responded.
"So Detective," Addison said, "What do you think we should do next?"
"Well, you for one can tell the paramedics that they are free to take Mr. Taylor to the morgue to conduct the autopsy. As for me, I'm famished. Meet me in a half an hour in the main offices at the park. It is my understanding that that is where the park staff is being kept."
So with that, Grey was off to get a hotdog and collect his thoughts, leaving Addison to witness the removal of the body. Both men were left to ponder why someone would go to all that trouble to kill someone, when a simple gun would have been much easier. Leaving that question aside, the fact of the matter is that someone did sabotage the roller coaster, and with so few clues to go on, finding out the identity of that person, was not going to be an easy task.
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