The World of American Drama: From the Los Angeles Patrol

Chapter 294 Investigating the Site
Jack stood up straight noncommittal, and waved to Corey Lambert, who walked over with a puzzled expression.

"As far as I know, hunters are all masters of trace tracking. Mr. Lambert might as well join us. If there is something wrong with what I said, please help point it out."

"Me? Is this appropriate?" Corey Lambert pointed to himself in surprise, and looked at the old sheriff on the other side.

The old sheriff seemed indifferent, "Don't ask me, you are not under my control, if the FBI thinks it's okay, it's fine."

"Well, for God's sake." Corey Lambert shrugged and walked over to the two.

Although he tried his best to pretend that it had nothing to do with him, just from his attitude of insisting on confirming the name of the deceased, Jack knew that his heart was not as peaceful as it appeared on the surface.

He came to a place more than ten meters away from the corpse, and a series of footprints of different shades extended from here to the distance.

"Because the girl is barefoot and there is snow here, we can clearly judge the girl's walking posture from the naked eye."

"The front part of the foot is very deep, and the heel position is very shallow. Although the stride distance is not large, but from here, most of the footprints are in this state, indicating that the girl has been running. She is exhausted, but she is still running. "

Jack stood up again and walked further away. Jane and Corey Lambert hurriedly followed, and even the old sheriff who had been chatting with his police officers just now followed breathlessly.

Jack didn't stop until he was more than [-] meters away from the corpse. The snow here was a bit uneven. He used his palm to gently remove a thin layer of snowflakes on the surface.

"She fell here once, and there is a large pool of blood here. This is not a traumatic injury. It is the same as the pool of blood next to her corpse. It came from her lungs."

"Mr. Lambert said that the temperature here at night can be as low as minus 4 degrees (minus 20 degrees Celsius). When people inhale low-temperature air for a long time, the blood in the lungs will be frozen, and the ice slag will pierce the alveoli, and the blood will start to flow. Fill your lungs little by little."

"So the girl started coughing up blood and ended up suffocating and collapsed on the edge of the woods."

After Jack finished speaking, he looked at Corey Lambert, "Does Mr. Lambert have anything to add?"

The hunter squinted his eyes slightly and looked into the distance. The traces farther away were completely covered by snowflakes. He remained silent, as if he was remembering something, before speaking slowly, his voice a little difficult.

"She's been running a lot in the snow and the closest house is 3.5 miles away."

Jane was also staring at the direction where the footprints extended, until a few snowflakes fell and got into her collar, which made her shrink her neck subconsciously and shiver.

"How far do you think such a girl can run barefoot in this environment?"

Jack didn't speak, he couldn't guess human potential, and forensic science couldn't tell him the answer.

In history, it was only during World War II that the inhuman Neon people conducted human experiments on the common people of Siris and captured Lucia soldiers under extremely cold conditions.

"All I know about this girl is that she's a tough fighter, so no matter how far you think she can go, I'm sure she can go farther than you think."

After Corey Lambert said this, he walked towards his snowmobile with a deep foot and a shallow foot.

Jane, who was inexplicably stunned again, looked at Jack for help.

"Leave it to me." Jack silently mouthed to her, indicating that this one should be left to him.

"Where is the nearest house he said?" Jane asked the old sheriff patiently as they walked back together.

"To the southeast, there is Sam's house." The old sheriff paused, and added, "A poisonous bug addicted to drugs, I don't think this matter has anything to do with him, Natalie is a good girl, she won't be with this kind of girl." people mixed together."

"So in your opinion, why does a girl appear here alone?" Jane asked.

"Uh" the old sheriff looked around, "Young people like to come out with their skis and have parties in the snow, maybe something happened at the party."

"That's impossible, Ben, you know, these children have lived together since childhood and are familiar with each other, even if something happens, it's impossible that there will be no news at all."

Corey Lambert, who was at the front, retorted.

Jack hurried to catch up, and asked a digression, "Is Mr. Lambert on good terms with the victim's family?"

"Why do you say that?" The hunter looked at him with a surprised expression.

"You are a USFWS (Fish and Wildlife Service) registered hunter and one of your responsibilities is to protect the people here and the animals on the farm from predators."

"Obviously the corpse is not within your protection range, and you are not a policeman, so you have no obligation to protect the scene, but you stayed here last night and killed a wild wolf."

Jack pointed to the fresh wolf pelt on the back seat of his snowmobile.

Corey Lambert opened his mouth, as if he wanted to defend something, but then gave up.

"Yes, I know Natalie's father very well, Natalie used to be my daughter's best friend."

"Ever?" Jack's heart moved.

"Yes, once." Corey Lambert's cheek twitched. "My daughter died three years ago."

"Sorry." Jack didn't continue to ask any further. The information is enough for the time being, and the conversation is not deep. Although he is very curious about "Hawkeye", it's not the time to talk about it yet.

"What should we do next?" Returning to the corpse, Jane asked Jack in a worried and timid voice.

Jack smiled and looked at the somewhat naive female detective, and replied in the same low voice, "You shouldn't ask me, I'm on vacation now, and you are the one who decides."

"Okay." Jane took a deep breath, as if to cheer herself up.

"Sheriff Xiao Yi, how is the level of forensic medicine here?"

The old sheriff sniffed and put his hands on his hips, as if he was thinking about how to speak.

"Well, let's just say he's been busy."

"After the on-site evidence collection is over, please ask him to transport the body back to Loveland for autopsy as soon as possible, and give priority to the surname inspection. Please be sure to bring her belongings with you. I need to look at them when the time comes."

Jane tried to slow down her speech as much as possible, carefully choosing her words, "I preliminarily judged that this was a murder, and will report to my superior as soon as possible."

The old sheriff seemed relieved, nodded, expressing his understanding. Obviously, he also hoped to hand over the jurisdiction to the FBI instead of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Although Jack doesn't know much about the Indians, a minority group that has been forgotten by mainstream North American society, he has also heard a little about this department abbreviated as BIA.

Established in 1824, this department was originally subordinate to the Department of War and was called the "Office of Indian Affairs". Its role can be imagined.

Six years after the department was established, in 6, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, the first official recognition of Indians as human beings in this country.

With the opening of the famous Westward Movement, in 1838, the Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes, known as the "Five Civilized Tribes", were relatively civilized in southern North America. Forced relocation to the west.

A large number of women, children and children died on the road, and the death rate of each ethnic group ranged from 3% to [-]%. This forced migration was called the "Road of Blood and Tears".

Among them, the Seminoles who refused to migrate were almost completely wiped out after three encirclement and suppression wars. Today, there is a small reservation of this tribe in the swamps of Florida.

In order to commemorate the Westward Movement, the descendants of the colonists built a large arch on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is the St. Louis Arch known as the "Gate to the West". It is taller than the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty. It is very beautiful and very beautiful. Spectacular.

Of course, with the "progress" of the times, this department that nominally protects the rights and interests of Indians has finally begun to hire a large number of employees with Indian "blood" since the 70s.

However, to this day, BIA, as the "boss of all Indian reservations", still favors the interests of non-Indian groups in disputes involving the development of reservation resources.

Not to mention that BIA used the guise of "Indian Health Services" to forcefully sterilize Indian women, and in the name of indoctrination, forced Indian children to study in boarding schools, and even forced "foster care" into white families.

Between 1819 and 1969, according to the federal government's own count, at least [-] children died in these boarding schools and were summarily buried.

So it's understandable that this old sheriff, who is at least half of Indian blood in appearance, would show such contradictory emotions.

From the anger and helplessness when he saw that the FBI only sent a rookie agent in a perfunctory manner, to the hope that was ignited when he knew Jack's identity.

Now when Jane finally heard that it was a murder case and the jurisdiction would belong to the FBI, Jack felt both sad and sympathetic.

In fact, when he hesitated to say that the forensic doctor had been very busy, Jack could probably guess how frequent local deaths were.

You must know that the total population of Wyoming is less than 60, which is nearly 20 less than the population of Alaska, which is part of the Arctic Circle.

And Wind River Valley, an Indian reservation, belongs to the wilderness in the wilderness.

And in such a deserted place, the local sheriff has been busy saying that medical doctors have been busy, so the incidence of death cases in this reserved area and surrounding areas can be imagined.

The chug-chug sound of the engine suddenly sounded, and the hunter Corey Lambert on the side pulled the starting rope vigorously to start his snowmobile.

"Where are you going?" Jane asked loudly.

"Go to my son, I only have one day a week to visit, and he usually lives with his mother." Hunter Corey answered loudly.

The old Indian couple on the farm just now are his former parents-in-law.

Jack got another piece of interesting information. Judging from the previous interaction between the two parties, it is obvious that he has maintained a good relationship with the two old people.

So what is the reason for his divorce?Jack remembered what he said to Jane before, and now that he thinks about it, he was not so much insulting people as he was venting his inner resentment.

Was it the girl's death that made him think of his own daughter?

Jack had more questions in his mind, and he planned to talk to Aaliyah after he went back.

"That is to say, after tonight, you will have time?" Jack smiled and stood in front of Hunter Corey's car, blocking the way.

"He's very busy." The old sheriff took the initiative to answer in a good mood, "He still has a lion to hunt, and that animal killed a steer on his father-in-law's farm two days ago."

"It's three. A lioness is practicing hunting skills with her two cubs. I've found the trail and it will be done soon."

Corey unzipped his jacket, opened a small bag hanging on his chest, and took out his phone from inside to check the time.

This should be his trick to deal with the severe cold in the wild, using body temperature to prevent electronic equipment from malfunctioning at low temperatures.

Jack didn't get out of the way, but asked sincerely, "If you're not in a hurry, would you be willing to help me hunt down one more beast, of course, it might be a group."

Corey couldn't help but startled slightly when he heard this, and then looked at the young man in front of him in disbelief, fixed his gaze on the other person's eyes, as if he wanted to use this method to confirm the truth of what he said.

"You know what you're talking about? You're an FBI."

Jack shrugged indifferently, "It's an FBI who is on vacation, you don't need to trust me, you just need to trust Aaliyah."

Maybe he was persuaded by his last words, Corey didn't continue to hesitate, just replied OK in a low voice, and turned around and left on the snowmobile.

Jack and Jane stayed where they were, watching the forensic assistant and the two reserve police officers use a chainsaw to separate the body from the frozen snow and ice, and finally put it into a body bag.

If this crude separation method is seen by those professional forensic experts, they may be heartbroken and even cursed, but neither of them said anything, because time is running out, dark clouds are in the distance, and another snowstorm is coming.

When Jack drove the SUV rented by Jane and found the small hotel where he and Aaliyah were staying according to the direction given by Braxton, the visibility outside the car almost dropped to less than 3 meters.

Entering the hotel, the two found that the environment here was unexpectedly good. The lobby was filled with a wide range of tobacco and alcohol products. These were tax-free products franchised by the Federation to help the reserve develop its economy as a "compensation".

Of course, the well-known Indian casinos are also franchised. In fact, because they are too remote, more than [-]% of the reservations do not have casinos, because no one comes.

There are also no casinos in the reserve like Wind River Valley, and there are several oil drilling leased by the Ministry of Energy nearby, which is the only place where local young people can find jobs.

　The average order is almost 3000. Today, two chapters and one chapter, sprint to see if I can get a badge. Although it is not very useful, but anyway, we are almost a newcomer to a book.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)