French magistrates Herve Stephan and Marie-Christine Devidal announced last week that the longest, most costly investigation into a car accident in French history will be completed by the end of October.
The conclusion of the inquiry into the crash which killed Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul is already obvious. The causes of the accident which plunged the world into mourning were banal, drunk driving at high speed on a dangerous stretch of road.
The revelation that Mr Paul, the deputy head of security at Mr Mohamed al-Fayed's Ritz Hotel, had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood when he took the wheel just after midnight on August 31st, 1997, and that the black Mercedes 280S was hurtling through the streets of Paris at close to 100 m.p.h. struck like a bolt of lightning on the afternoon of September 1st.
Mr Paul had also taken the antidepressant Prozac and Tiapridal, a drug used to treat alcohol addiction, and he lacked the special permit required to drive a hired limousine.
The news altered the initial assumption that photographers who followed the Mercedes caused the crash. The year-long investigation has proved that, although at least two of the photographers behaved badly at the scene of the accident, arguing with policemen and bystanders who told them not to take pictures, they were too far behind the Mercedes to have blinded Mr Paul with flash bulbs or forced the car off course.
Virtually all of what is known about the couple's last evening came out within days of the crash. A 2,500-page file, the testimony of 153 witnesses and the questioning of 3,000 Fiat Uno owners have not substantially changed our understanding of it.
On September 9th, it emerged that the Mercedes had been stolen, stripped for parts and repaired the previous April. Mr Olivier Lafaye, a former driver for the Etoile Limousine service which rented the Mercedes to the Ritz, claimed a dashboard warning light indicated a problem with the braking system. The owner, Mr Jean-Francois Musa, said the Mercedes dealership told him it was due to harmless air bubbles.
The last significant bit of news - that police were searching for a white Fiat Uno which had been clipped by the Mercedes - was announced on September 18th, 1997. Police had found chips from the car's tail-lights, a gash of white paint on the front, right-hand side of the Mercedes and skid marks where Mr Paul braked after hitting it. The day after the accident, a banker and his wife told police they had seen a white Fiat with a dog in the back seat dart out of the tunnel seconds after the crash.
Investigators suspect the Fiat owner long ago dumped his car in a lake out of fear and to avoid publicity. Conspiracy theorists speculate the Fiat was "planted" by intelligence services to cause the accident, discounted as pure fantasy by the judges.
Witnesses like Belkacem B, a north African immigrant who was walking through the neighbourhood at the time of the accident, have added graphic detail to initial descriptions of the crash.
In the book, Investigation into the Death of Diana, by French journalists Jean-Marie Pontaut and Jerome Dupuis, Belkacem B describes Mr Paul's hand sticking through the windshield, Mr Trevor Ree-Jones's jaw hanging from his face, Dodi Fayed lying in the back of the car with his eyes rolled upwards, the princess doubled over with a mark on her forehead and the bracelet of her watch undone.
Under French law, Belkacem B's testimony to the judges ought to be secret. Its publication in the Pontaut-Dupuis book shows how even the investigation into the deaths has become a business. Belkacem B belonged to a gang of burglars and on the night of the accident he and a colleague gave police false names and telephone numbers.
Months later, after he had been caught and imprisoned, Belkacem B realised that his presence at the scene of the crash was a valuable commodity, and decided to trade on his experience for better treatment. Last June he appeared at a "general confrontation" of all of the witnesses in handcuffs.
The 2,500-page investigation file can be consulted only by lawyers representing the nine photographers and a motorcyclist threatened with criminal charges in the case, or by lawyers for civil plaintiffs. Because the investigation has drawn such intense media attention, and because so little real news has come out of it, lawyers with access to the file were under pressure to leak information.
Pontaut's and Dupuis's book draws heavily on sworn depositions, and French journalists covering the case allege photocopies of large segments of the file may have been sold illegally.
The accident could still be lucrative for the civil plaintiffs. Mr Trevor Rees-Jones, the bodyguard who was badly injured in the crash, resigned from his job with Mr Mohamed al-Fayed last April. Mr Rees-Jones's French lawyer then requested that Judge Stephan question Ritz Hotel executives and the manager of Etoile Limousine.
Mr Rees-Jones is reportedly planning to sue his former employer on the grounds that the Ritz was negligent in allowing the drunk Mr Paul to drive. If it is established that the Mercedes had faulty brakes or airbags, Mr Rees-Jones may also sue the rental agency and the Mercedes company. The Spencer family could be expected to follow his example.
Like nightmares, new "revelations" - such as the August 28th allegation by the former MI6 agent, Mr Richard Tomlinson, that Mr Paul worked for British intelligence - could further delay the report.
Three matters are still being studied, they said: the Mercedes 280S, the slightly higher-than-normal rate of carbon monoxide in Mr Paul's blood, and the medical care given to Princess Diana. Judge Stephan is determined to check and recheck every element of the file so that no one can claim he was sloppy.
It is Mr Mohamed al-Fayed's lawyers who have insisted on the carbon monoxide inquiry, perhaps in an attempt to shore up conspiracy theories. Carbon monoxide can make a person sleepy or dizzy. None of the passengers in the Mercedes had higher-than-normal levels in their blood. The carbon monoxide level in Mr Paul's blood is mysterious but is unlikely to change the case.
This is the second time that Judge Stephan has investigated the care given to Princess Diana after the crash since US journalists suggested her life might have been saved had she been transported immediately to hospital, rather than cared for in the tunnel. cinema.
In two months, Judge Stephan must decide whether to formally charge the nine photographers and the motorcycle rider with manslaughter and/or failure to assist persons in danger, or clear them. He might recommend that they be tried for a lesser offence, such as recklessly endangering others.
Although the photographers were too far behind the Mercedes to have directly caused the accident, Mr Mohamed al-Fayed's lawyers argue their pursuit was an indirect cause.
But if the photographers are sent before a tribunal, what of the Ritz Hotel's responsibility for allowing a drunk man to drive Princess Diana? It is not impossible that the judge may charge Ritz executives and Mr al-Fayed himself with criminal negligence. The only thing certain is that the investigation into the tragic death of three people will continue to generate publicity - and money - for years to come.