Altman spent several hours at the scene of the accident, going over every stone and brick he could get his hands on, even climbing up to the almost-finished rooftop to see what the stones there might tell him. As close as he looked though, even with the greatest magnification his adjustable goggles afforded him, nothing shed any new light on the circumstances.
It was after his fruitless climb that he turned his attention to the wayward branch that had felled the latest victim. “Blast, if only I’d thought to look sooner!” The broken end of the branch was only half-broken. The other half was clearly rough-cut, probably by one of the hand saws that were in plentiful supply around the work sites.
He spent the next hour carefully inspecting the tree that the branch had been cut from even climbing that in order to inspect both sides carefully. It had been cut from the top down, and looked like it had been chosen for the unobstructed path it would have down to the roof below.