Murder at Midnight

by Kathi Daley

  “Your father filled me in. How’s his father doing?”

  “Better, but he still has a way to go. Luke’s committed to staying until his dad can go back to work, which seems unlikely to be for quite some time.” I let out a long breath. “I’m not sure if Luke even plans to come back. I can imagine a scenario where he decides to stay in Texas.”

  Mom put her arm around me. “I know how hard this must be for you, but I’m certain things will work out the way God intends.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” I wanted out of this conversation very badly. “I need to make a phone call. If Dad comes out tell him I ran to my car but will be right back.”

  When I got there I dialed Luke’s number and prayed he’d pick up. I’d been desperately trying not to let the idea of a woman answering his phone while he was in the shower ruin my whole day, but despite my best efforts, the jealousy kept sneaking through.

  When I got Luke’s voice mail I almost broke down in tears, but instead I took a deep breath and left a message. “Hey, Luke, it’s me. I just wanted to let you know that Jason is doing better. He should be able to go home later in the week. I hope your dad is continuing to improve as well. Dad and I are going to follow up on a lead when he gets off the phone, so I’ll probably have my ringer off. We’re meeting with the guys at four my time, so maybe you can call me at three my time? If that doesn’t work just text me a time that does and we’ll find a way to make it work out.” I paused as a tear escaped from the corner of my eye. I wasn’t sure what else to say, so I simply hung up.

  I returned to the patio, where Dad and Mom were talking. “Do you have news?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I’ll fill you in on the way.” Dad kissed Mom on the cheek, then placed a hand on my back and led me toward the garage.

  As soon as we were on the road he began to fill me in. “I was able to confirm that the man in the drawing Kekoa made from Ms. Porter’s description is the one who goes by the name Akiyama. That’s his surname, which he got from his stepfather. His first name is Bryan. Apparently, he hates it and never uses it.”

  “So, if it was Akiyama who came to the house on the day Mrs. Cramer went missing, then our theory works, at least so far.”

  “Yes, at this point,” Dad confirmed. “My friend was able to provide the information I requested. Akiyama owned three properties five years ago, all of which have recently changed hands. I have the addresses, so we can check them out. If we can find the freezer we may have something.”

  “Don’t you think Akiyama would get rid of the freezer as well as the bodies?” I asked.

  “It depends. If both bodies were placed in one freezer it would need to be fairly large. If he believed the bodies wouldn’t be recovered, he’d have no reason to suspect we’d be taking a second look at the case and there wouldn’t feel any pressure to get rid of the freezer.”

  “Yeah, but once we found Cramer’s body and his wife’s arm don’t you think he would?”

  “Perhaps. But it won’t hurt to take a look. The first property is a single-family home. In my mind, it’s the least likely to have housed the freezer, but it’s on the way to the two more likely ones.”

  “How long has it been vacant?”

  “My source didn’t know. He just knew Akiyama owned it back then and sold it a month ago. Like I said, it’s the least likely to provide what we’re looking for, but it makes sense to follow all leads. If there’s one thing I learned after more than thirty years as a cop it’s that oftentimes the answers you seek are found in the most unlikely places.”

  Chapter 11

  The first property was a single-family house in a quiet neighborhood. All the homes were older ones on large lots that backed the forest. Each had a detached garage that most residents used for storage rather than an automobile. The yard here had been unattended for quite some time, which made it appear the house had been vacant prior to being sold.

  Dad and I tried both the front and back doors, which were locked. We looked through the windows, which didn’t reveal much other than outdated carpet and dingy walls in need of paint. We headed to the garage, which opened onto a dirt drive. Fresh tire tracks were clearly visible on the hard-packed dirt, which seemed to indicate that while the house may have been unoccupied someone had visited the garage fairly recently.

  “Can I help you?” a man who looked to be around seventy asked us.

  Dad held out a hand in greeting. “Keanu Pope. I’m interested in buying this house and hoped to take a look around. I wasn’t aware it was vacant.”

  “Been empty for a lot of years,” the man said. “At least the house has been empty. The previous owner used the garage as a storage room. If you’re looking to buy the place I’m sorry to say you’re too late. A van showed up last week and took everything that had been stored in the garage. One of the moving men told me the house had been sold.”

  Dad appeared to be disappointed. “That’s too bad. The place needs work, but it seemed perfect for my daughter.”

  “Guess you can check with the new owner. They might be willing to sell it for a profit.”

  “I might just do that,” Dad said. “Do you mind if we take a look in the garage? My daughter is an artist and was interested in turning it into a studio.”

  “Sure. I hope things work out of you. It’d be nice to have some younger people living in the area.”

  The man returned to his home and Dad and I headed to the garage. Fortunately, the door was unlocked. We entered the large space to find it empty. There were multiple footprints and the dirt pattern on the floor indicated there had been items arranged in rows with walkways between them.

  “What do you think was in here?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Dad knelt and looked at the cement. ‘If Akiyama used this space for storage it could just have been things relating to his business.”

  “He’s supposed to be a hard money lender; it doesn’t seem lending people money would require storage.”

  “He owns businesses and properties in addition to lending money. I’m sure owning property for income could lead to a certain amount of repair work, which would require tools and replacement parts. What I don’t understand is why he left this house sitting empty. He could have rented it for a lot more money than it would cost him to rent a room in a storage facility.”

  “Maybe whatever he had stored here was illegal and he wanted to stay under the radar,” I suggested.

  “I guess that would make sense.” Dad stood up and walked across the room. “There’s an overhead light, but I don’t see any wall plugs, so unless he ran an extension cord to the freezer, it most likely wasn’t stored here. Let’s head on down the road to the second property, which I think has a lot more potential to be what we’re looking for.”

  We got back into the car and drove toward the highway heading west.

  “My phone is about dead. Do you have a charger?” I asked.

  “In the glove box.”

  I plugged in my phone, then settled in for the ride. It was a gorgeous day and I may as well sit back and enjoy it. Fretting over Luke being away wasn’t going to bring him home any sooner and I was enjoying the time I was spending with my dad.

  The second property was a warehouse, which seemed to me a good place to keep a freezer full of bodies. It was close to the marina. If Akiyama had transported the bodies to a boat that would have made for a relatively short trip between it and the freezer.

  The building wasn’t much more than a large metal shed standing on a large, fairly isolated piece of property at the end of a narrow dirt road. Dad’s car was new, so he took it slow once we hit the unpaved portion. The metal building was tall and windowless, and except for the absence of bay doors, it reminded me of an airplane hangar. I didn’t know if this had been the location used to store the Cramers’ remains, but it seemed like as good a place as any.

  There was a small door at the side of the building that, thankfully, was unlocked. We entered it to find it completely empty except fo
r a large garage-style freezer with a top-opening lid sitting against one wall. Industrial size and grade, it seemed obvious it would take a crane to move it, which was probably why Akiyama had left it behind when he sold the property. The freezer was unplugged and empty, but there was a slight trace of blood in the seam at the bottom.

  “Bingo,” Dad said. “Let’s call Justin and tell him what we found.”

  “Not so fast,” I heard a man say from behind us.

  I turned around to see a large man with dark hair pointing a gun at us.

  “We were just leaving,” I said, taking a small step forward. The man shot at my feet, causing me to jump back. I watched in horror as Dad reached behind him for the gun he kept in his belt, only to have the man shoot him in the leg before he could bring his arm back around. I screamed as Dad fell to the floor.

  “You shot him,” I accused him.

  “He was going for a gun. He left me little choice.” The man grabbed a couple of short ropes that had been on the floor near the freezer. “You.” He pointed the gun at me. “Tie up the old man.”

  I hesitated, and the man pointed the gun to my head.

  “Just do it,” Dad said.

  I did as the man asked.

  “Now the gun,” he instructed. “Take it carefully from his waist and set it on the floor.”

  Again, I did as he said.

  “Now kick it toward me.” He had the gun pointed at Dad’s head now. “No funny stuff or the old man dies.”

  I did as he demanded.

  “Now empty his pockets.”

  I took Dad’s wallet, car keys, and cell phone out of his pants pocket and set them on the floor. The man took a step forward and picked up everything, including the gun. “Now you: empty your pockets.”

  “I don’t have anything.” I held up my hands in a show of surrender. All I wore was a tight tank top and a pair of short denims; it was easy to see I wasn’t lying.

  “Okay, then, sit down with your back against the wall.”

  I did as he said.

  “I’d shoot you right now, but the boss might want to have a word with you first, so I’ll just lock you in. Don’t worry; you won’t have long to wait. As soon as Truman called, the boss sent me over here because I was closer, but he’s finishing his meeting before he’ll be on his way.”

  With that, the man left the building, closing the door behind him. I heard him lock the door from the outside and then drive away.

  I knelt next to my dad and untied his hands. When he was free I tore his pant leg. “We need to stop the bleeding.” There was a small hole where the bullet had entered that hadn’t appeared to damage any bone, but the wound was bleeding quite a lot. I pulled off my top and applied pressure to the wound. “I need you to apply as much pressure as you can to your leg while I try to figure out a way out of here.”

  Dad put his hand over my now-bloody top. “Unless you can find a way to get the door open there doesn’t appear to be a way out.”

  I tried the door, which was constructed of heavy metal and was locked. I stood in my bra and shorts and looked around the room. Except for the freezer, the room was empty. There were narrow air vents at the top of the building along the roofline. They were small, but so was I, so I thought if I could make my way up the flat metal wall I could squeeze through. The vents had to be a good twenty feet off the ground, however, and, sadly, I wasn’t Spider-Man.

  “I’m going to try to get up to those vents,” I informed my father.

  He looked up to where I was pointing. “How?”

  The freezer was about four feet high, which would help but wasn’t nearly enough. There was a rope hanging from one of the rafters, but it was at least eight feet off the floor, so there was no way I could reach it. If I climbed up on the freezer it would give me the height I needed to reach the rope, but it wouldn’t be close enough to the freezer to simply reach out my hand, so I’d have to make a leap of faith, hoping I could grab the rope before I fell to the floor.

  I turned and looked at my dad. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’m going to climb up on the freezer and then leap across to that rope overhead. I’m going to see if I can reach one of those vents.”

  “There’s no way you’re going to get to that rope from the top of the freezer.”

  “I have to try.”

  “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “If I can’t figure out a way to get us out of here I have a feeling getting hurt is going to be the least of our problems.”

  By the look of resignation on his face, I could see Dad agreed I needed to do something. “Say you do get hold of the rope. Then what? Even if you make it to the rope and climb to the top how are you going to reach the window?”

  I kicked off my flip-flops. “How about we take it one step at a time? I’ll hurry. Just don’t die.”

  “I won’t. Please be careful.”

  “I will.”

  I climbed up onto the top of the freezer in my bare feet. The rope was close enough to make it possible to reach but not enough to make it easy to reach. I took a deep breath and shoved off with my legs as hard as I could. I grabbed on tight when I felt the rope between my hands. I slid down just a bit before tightening my grasp, which left me with a painful rope burn I’d need to tend to later. For now, I had to climb. I wrapped my legs around the rope and started up one hand over the other until I reached the top.

  When I got to the top of the rope I considered what to do next. The air vents had screens on them, and other than a very narrow ledge I thought I could grab on to, there was nowhere to get a foothold. I also needed to reach the wall with the vent, which was several feet away. I grabbed onto the rope with my hands, then unwound my legs. I kicked back and forth as hard as I could, which set me swinging. When the rope swung far enough for my feet to reach the wall, I kicked at the screen with them. Luckily, it popped out and fell to the ground on the other side of the wall. I kicked again, directing my right foot and leg toward the opening. When it went through I bent my knee, then let go of the rope with my hands. I almost fell on my head to the hard floor below, but I was able to grab on to the small ledge with one hand at the very last moment.

  I heard my dad gasp as I paused to catch my breath.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. Once I get through the vent I’ll drop to the ground and try to get help.”

  “It’s a pretty long drop.”

  “Don’t worry. Falling out of the window is the easiest part of my plan.”

  It took some work, but somehow, I managed to get both my legs out of the window with my stomach resting on the ledge. The top part of my body was still inside the building and I didn’t have room to turn to look at the ground below, so I had to hope I’d land on something soft after I finished squeezing myself through the narrow opening. The ledge scraped my stomach and chest as I crammed myself through. At one point I was afraid I was going to get stuck half in and half out, but I didn’t give up, and eventually, I was hanging by my hands on the outside of the building.

  I glanced down at the hard dirt below. At least there weren’t any large rocks, but I suspected a fall from this height was going to hurt quite a lot. I really didn’t have a choice, though, so I hoped for the best and let go. I tried to land feet first, but one leg hit the ground before the other and I fell to my side, reaching out with my arm as I did so.

  Damn.

  I was pretty sure I had broken my wrist, but I couldn’t worry about that just then. I’d also twisted an ankle, but somehow, I managed to hobble to Dad’s car. It was locked, so I found a rock to break a window, grabbed my phone, and called 911. I felt sure everything would be fine as long as help arrived before the boss—who I suspected was Akiyama—arrived to finish what his thug had started.

  Chapter 12

  When I saw the dust from a vehicle on the dirt road I began to panic until I saw it clearly enough to realize it was a patrol car. I didn’t recognize the cop who first responded, but after I explained
what had happened, he ushered me into the car, then headed to the building to get my dad. By time he got the door open, two additional patrol cars as well as an ambulance had showed up. Dad and I were both whisked into the ambulance before I could ask to speak to Justin, but I could fill him in on everything we’d learned after I made sure Dad was going to be okay.

  As it turned out, my wrist was fractured but didn’t require surgery. They took a few X-rays, then applied a removable cast. My ankle was sprained but not broken, so they wrapped it in a bandage, treated my rope burns, and fixed up all my scrapes and scratches. After I was as cleaned up as they could make me, they released me. I headed over to the nurses station to find out where they’d taken my dad just as Justin rushed in through the door.

  “I was just coming to find you.” Justin wrapped me in a hug.

  I held up my arm. “Ouch.”

  He took a step back. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. How’s Dad?”

  “He’s in surgery, but I think he’ll be fine. I know you’re worried about him, but time is of the essence right now. I need you to come down to the station with me.”

  I must have hesitated because Justin put a hand on my cheek and looked me in the eye. “Alana is with Mom and Kekoa went to stay with the kids. You can do the most good by helping me nail the guy who did this to Dad.”

  I looked down at the hospital gown they’d given me to wear because I didn’t have a top on when I was brought it. It wasn’t fancy, but it would have to do. “Okay, let’s go.”

  When we arrived at the police station Justin had someone find me some clothes. Then he took me into a room where a detective was waiting. Justin was a street cop, but he’d been allowed to help with the case because it was his brother, and now his father, who had been shot.

  I was given a moment to change into the baggy T-shirt one of the female cops brought and then we settled down for the questioning.

  I started off by sharing the theory Dad and I had come up with. “As you know, five years ago my dad responded to a call that led to his discovery of Roxanne Bronwyn, a gunshot victim. He saw a man, later identified as Clifford Cramer, run from the scene and gave chase. Cramer leaped into the ocean from the bluff at Sunrise Beach. It was assumed he’d died in the fall and had been carried out to sea. It was later discovered his wife was missing. It was assumed Cramer first killed and disposed of his wife, then killed Ms. Bronwyn, who he was reportedly having an affair with, before jumping to his own death. That theory held until last week, when I found Cramer’s body at the bottom of the bluff at Sunrise Beach, as well as the arm of Anastasia Cramer floating in the water neat Dolphin Bay Resort. That led to my brother Jason taking a second look at the Cramer case. He was shot and nearly died for his efforts.”