WARNING: It’s kinda long but not difficult to read. In any case, read only if you feel up to it.

Situation (NOTE: Kinda like a transcript of a police interrogation from now on):

SUSPECT: My partner and I were tracking Dwayne Austin out of Chicago. He’s jumped bail and was heading south for Missouri. We wanted to grab him before he made it across the state line and pick up the bounty. So far, so normal. Nicola cut off the bus he was travelling in here at Kankakee, I was already aboard. Austin must have smelled a rat and made a dash for it, got off the bus and ran for the bridge. I pursued, armed with nothing more than pepper spray. Austin stops, gives up, but then he hurls himself off the bridge, just like that.

After Austin jumped off the bridge, I dialled nine–one–one to call an ambulance but you (NOTE: the police) showed up before the line even connected. I don’t know why he ran and jumped, it wasn’t like he was on the hook for homicide, just aggravated assault and burglary. Three to five and he’d have been out again.

POLICE: We have witness reports that you were carring a weapon at the time.

SUSPECT: Can of pepper spray, and that was Nicola’s. She tossed it to me when I went after Austin. He’d managed to get past her and winded her with a punch, so I took over. Pepper spray is legal in Illinois for self–defense. Both Nicola and I are licensed to carry weapons but we stopped last year. Too risky.

POLICE: Dwayne Austin’s body was found a half hour ago in reeds downstream of the I–57 bridge. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head, fired at close range. We have multiple witnesses who are right now recording sworn testimony that they heard Dwayne Austin begging not to be shot right before he went over the edge of the bridge. We have Dwayne’s body with a nine–millimetre slug buried in his skull. We have passing motorists saying they saw a man fitting your description pointing a
weapon at Dwayne Austin right before he disappeared.

SUSPECT: It was dark on the bridge so he couldn’t easily see what I was carrying. Someone must have called you guys in, right? Stands to reason, you couldn’t have been there otherwise. You all got out of your vehicles with weapons already out, so the caller must have warned of possible armed perpetrators of some kind or other.

POLICE: The call was made from the bus. Suspicious member of the public. They recognized Dwayne Austin and called the police, said he might be armed as he was a known felon with a history of violence. A second call came in from a passing vehicle reporting that a man with a gun was threatening another man on the bridge.

The original call came in eight minutes before the second. We were already in transit and only a half mile away. Dispatch called the Greyhound office and they identified the passengers on the bus from the driving licenses and other paperwork. You showed up, so we knew who you were when we saw you and you were standing right where the witnesses said they’d seen the altercation taking place. Two more calls came in moments later from drivers of passing vehicles, reporting a possible shooting of a man near the side of the bridge who was seen to fall into the water right before we arrived.

(NOTE: Obviously, there’s not a motive, but there’s enough evidence to charge him.)

NICOLA: Obviously it’s a set up. If the real perps are that professional they likely won’t have missed the mooring security cameras either. Austin took a dive with the intention of being picked up. He wouldn’t have lasted long enough in the water to make it further downstream.

The caller is the key to this. If they were only there to help set this up, then they’ll have got off the bus at the first opportunity afterward. Police would have taken all names of the manifest too so they might be easy to track down, although paid cash, false name or ID, standard stuff.

Solution: SUSPECT: Dwayne was dead long before I boarded the bus at Kankakee. Switch and bait. You shot Dwayne and had your goons put his body downstream of the bridge You probably had a trusted member with you on the bus as back–up to call the police and grab a waiting car, and then he picked you up somewhere and you both high–tailed it into the night. Police arrest me, find the body, assume I’ve tossed the gun.’ You only forgot one thing: gunshot residue. There wasn’t any on my clothes.

CULPRIT: The police would have assumed you tossed the clothes.

SUSPECT: The bus footage would show me in the same clothes I was arrested in.

Topics: police, cameras, interrogation, conspiracy, murder, set up