Page 51 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Thrown for a Loss

“Hmm.” Waylon nodded, as if he too knew all this by heart.
“Now in the case of this Imomushi 9900, it may be going slower,
at 90 fpm, but the rating is for a full stop within three inches. That
might prevent a person whose feet are within a tread or two of the
end from getting caught, but the oscillation occurring at the end of
the braking action is so violent that anyone left standing when the
unit reaches zero fpm the first time would probably be thrown off
balance by the rebounds. That is apparently what happened here
today. I did ride this escalator up to this floor earlier, and I’m sure it
was going at least 90 fpm. The braking will have to be tested. Please
do not restart the mechanism before that has been completed by the
forensics team. Do you have a key?”
“Sure do. Always keep all my keys on this chain.”
Labelle peered at the ring of keys Waylon pulled out of his
overalls’ hip pocket. He must have had a couple of dozen on there,
many more than I needed. Each escalator had a separate key, and
every maintenance room, utility box and rear corridor he accessed
were kept locked at all times.
“Nice new chain you have there,” she said, in a chattier tone than
I had yet heard.
“Oh, yeah. I got it last week downstairs at Horlogerie de
Yokohama. The old one broke, finally, after many years. Must have
snagged on a doorknob or something. Actually thought I’d lost my
keys for a while, but I found them a few hours later by the trash
compactor.”
“Interesting.” I didn’t know that word could be used so
unenthusiastically. Waylon might have taken anything less as
encouragement, however. As it was, he rubbed his stubbly chin and
took on the expression of a very wise man.
“Say, I heard that someone dropped a lot of coins by the escalator
just before it stopped. Seems to me one of them could have fallen
down into the works and triggered an obstruction sensor.”
She nodded, but not like a teacher whose student gives a bright
answer. “I have considered that, Mr. Sachs. Although the coins later
recovered all were on trajectories away from the landing, some might
nevertheless have found their way onto the escalators. I saw no
evidence of that, however. It will need to be established definitively
by the police. Thank you for your assistance.”

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