Chapters 1-2 Summary

Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former television personality, is killed in a car accident when he drives his car off an airport flyover. Vaughan is known by the police to have orchestrated many car crashes and at the time of his death was wanted for running down a pedestrian at the same airport. Vaughan intentionally caused the accident that took his life.

In chapter 1, James Ballard watches as the emergency personnel work at the site of an accident that took the life of his friend, Vaughan. Ballard notices Elizabeth Taylor among the spectators watching and realizes that Vaughan missed his target when his car landed on an airport bus rather than the limo carrying Ms. Taylor to her flight. Vaughan had been a man obsessed with car crashes, often orchestrated them in order to derive a sort of pleasure from them. Vaughan's...