Ill be okay, she said as they meandered out onto the airbridge. Im just really hoping this whole suicide-that-looks-like-a-murder thing doesnt become our normal gig.

Jack chuckled, but Rachel knew he likely wouldnt mind this. Hed been looking for some sort of specialty to sink his teeth into ever since theyd first worked together. He very much wanted to be the expert in a certain field who would be called out for cases all around the country. And it didnt seem like he was too picky about what that field might be.

They didnt bother looking through the reports until they were in the air and leveled out, not wanting to be interrupted by all of the announcements. When they finally pulled it all up on their phones, it was pretty much exactly what Anderson had told her.

Three people, all men, had died from apparent suicides by jumping off of bridges in the past three days. Based on everything Rachel read in the reports, the first two had very strong evidence to support straightforward suicides. But the third, which had occurred just the night before on the Williamsburg Bridge, wasnt quite as cut and dry. First of all, the trajectory and point of impact for the body was totally off. Second, there was an eyewitness who saw the fall and claimed there looked like a second person up on the bridge moments after the man had fallen.

So heres my first question, Jack said. I wonder how often people go out to those bridges to kill themselves. I know many go out to do it and then chicken out. But in a city the size of New York, is a bridge jumper really all that uncommon?

Its a good question, for sure, Rachel said. I think I even read a statistic somewhere along the way that something like three people a week at least attempt to throw themselves off of the George Washington Bridge.

That seems a bit high.

Well, there are a lot of people in New York City. Of course, that leads to another interesting thing. The George Washington Bridge wasnt the site for any of these. These are mostly smaller, lesser-known bridges. If you look at this second one, it took place just barely outside of the city, right between New York City and Cold Spring. The jumper jumped from a much smaller bridge and struck the rocks below. So could you even pinpoint that one to the city?

I would, Jack said. Id say its close enough. The incidents are all rather spread out, too…not just fixated on one single bridge.

Well, one thing is for sure: the autopsy reports all seem to agree that they were all suicides. Angles of the fall, the lack of any evidence of an altercation of any kind on the scene. It makes me wonder why local PD would think its urgent enough to warrant an FBI presence.