trajectory & paper-strewn

[beeja]

Hi again,

Several declarations attested to the trajectory of the body's paper-strewn final tour, with receipts signed by the responding officers.

Is trajectory here the bullet test? but while the bullet test of the body's paper-strewn final tour? because from the context the body (dead man) is found dead at the back seat (with no "paper-strewn" around the body). But yes, that man was shot dead.

Or does it mean that in the reports (declarations), there were many paper strewn all over the file such as receipts? but what does the trajectory here mean? Pls help, tks.

Oh, do anyone know what the bill of 198 pesos is? it is accepted by the United States Consulate for cremation.

Thank you.

 

[stuartnz]

I'm not a teacher, but after reading this several times, I took it it to be using "trajectory" to mean simply, "path" or "course". So the body, once dead, followed a trajectory of its own, being passed around various people (the "responding officers"?), each of whom, added their own paperwork to the collection of documentation accompanying the body. At the end of the "trajectory", the body was "paper-strewn".

 

[David L.]

I think there's a big typo here. The only way I can comprehend this sentence, knowing that the man was shot whilst sitting in a chair, is 'body' has been substituted for 'bullet'; or 'body' is being used as in 'a foreign body lodged in his back', and is referring to the bullet...but this is comfusing when there's also a dead body being talked about!

 

[David L.]

That's what I was trying to grasp - this body flying around the room and ending up in a chair...and people making declarations that they saw it!
Surely not.

 

[stuartnz]

Can you post more of the context? I'm having trouble seeing where the "receipts signed by the responding officers" fit in.

 

[Anglika]

Oh, do anyone know what the bill of 198 pesos is? it is accepted by the United States Consulate for cremation.

Thank you.

It is the cost of the cremation - a bil [invoice] asking for 198 pesos in payment.

More context about the rest would help a lot.

 

[beeja]

Thank you for all answers, very impressed!

Well, the dead man was shot by many bullets: on his hand through the palm, his left thorax, right thigh, in the testicles and rectum and the final shot is his head. The context is about the investigation of this crime and there are huge pile of paperwork in this case file. So I quite agree with stuartnz.

Anyway, I typed the whole paragraph for you guys.

She had seen plenty of pompous Latin American documents before, but the expediente had the surreal feel of a story by the evidence found there, but after that the paperwork began to multiply in number and complexity. Declarations were made by ambulance attendants and tow-truck drivers. Forensics tests were ordered and carried out. The police dragged the hapless owner of the stolen car in for questioning and, as a final irony, processed him for an unpaid traffic ticket. Several declarations attested to the trajectory of the body's paper-strewn final tour, with receipts signed by the responding police officers, the ambulance driver, the clerk at the morgue, the forensic surgeon, the mortuary, and a bill of 198 pesos accepted by the United States Consulate for cremation.

 

[stuartnz]

Thanks for the vindication, beeja. I'm quite chuffed that I parsed that correctly! :-D

 

[David L.]

For God's sake! Never again! There's quite a bit of difference from a (seat)chair in an office, and the seat of a (moving) car wheere a dead body could have a trajectory, when you're trying to comprehend meaning.
For me in future, no context - no response.