by Dave Sypher
"Thanks, but I feel that way,” Emiliano said. "I should go. It’s my turn to get the class warmed up before Devon takes over.”
"What about the other students? Is there anyone else who was present when the Thorntons left?”
"Not for this class,” Mykel said. "I heard about you being arrested for trying to talk to Emiliano, so I texted him, warning him you’d be here today, and he said he wanted to talk to you, to say he was sorry about getting you arrested.”
Shinju shrugged. "It happens sometimes.”
Chapter twenty-five
Shinju was writing up her notes regarding her discussion with Emiliano Mendez when her phone rang.
"The police came and took samples of that powder in our RV back to their lab for testing. They called me and let me know that their preliminary finding is that the white substance is consistent with cocaine,” Cassandra told her.
"I wonder if it will turn out to be adulterated, like that which killed Griff?”
"They said their test indicates that another substance is present, so I think you’re right. They must’ve all gotten hold of some bad coke, and died because of it, damn it!”
"I wouldn’t be so quick to label their deaths an accidental overdose,” Shinju cautioned Cassandra. "I would expect a lot more deaths to have happened in the area if their drugs were accidentally contaminated. Right now, as the facts stand, I’m thinking you have a double homicide in regards to your sister and her husband, possibly a triple since Griff is also dead of an overdose.”
"Oh my God,” Cassandra whimpered. "Why? Who would want to kill them?”
"In looking at the evidence, I have a couple of possibilities for motive. Mitch Landry went missing in the park a couple of years ago. His father still hangs out at the dojo.”
"Him? Everyone there says he’s a bit off, but he’s harmless.”
"It’s the fact that he’s a bit off that has me suspecting him. He’s obviously still grieving his son, trying to keep his memory alive by hanging out at the dojo. That in and of itself may not be a problem for the people who belong to the dojo. However, if Chase Landry blamed Logan for Mitch’s disappearance, he could’ve just been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to strike. I’m also thinking since Griff died of an overdose, if Mr. Landry is responsible, it could be him thinking it would only be fair if Logan and Trinity lost their son as well. He definitely needs to be investigated further.
"Also on my list is the company that wants to buy the Tiger Dojo franchise. From what you’ve said, they are very interested in buying all the Tiger Dojo locations, but according to your research, they’re simply not offering enough money. If they’re having cash flow issues or just aren’t as well off as they should be to make an offer on the business, someone could’ve decided to murder them in the hopes that their heirs would be naive enough to accept a offer that is far below market value.”
"What can we do to explore these two suspects further?”
"If you have any names on your offer paperwork, I’d like to know them. As for Mr. Landry, I can do a stakeout and see if he does anything that I consider suspicious. It will be difficult since he knows what I look like, but I can shadow him for a few days and see what, if anything, turns up.”
"Hang on a minute,” Cassandra said, putting her phone down. Four minutes later, she came back on the line. "Are you still there?”
"Yes.”
"Patrick Rowe and Ignacio Delgado are listed as the owners of New Millennium Properties.”
"Thank you. I’ll look into them and see what I can turn up about them and their company.”
Calling Sanchez Investigations, she ended up talking to her co-worker Rene Morgan.
"How are things going over there in California?” Rene was her usual cheerful self.
"I was arrested on a charge of solicitation of a minor and accused of starting a fight in the holding cell, but both of those charges were dropped. I don’t know if you heard about the earthquake, but there was some excitement after that as well.”
"Oh my goodness,” Rene said. "How much damage was there?”
"Mostly glass and broken items in homes, with some potholes and cracks in the roads. Otherwise, despite it being classed as a 'moderate’ quake, there were no fatalities, and the power was restored much more quickly than I was led to believe.”
Rene laughed. "At least it doesn’t sound like anyone’s seriously tried to kill you so far.”
"That woman in the holding cell was doing a good job cutting off my air supply,” Shinju admitted, "But fortunately I was able to eventually subdue her until help arrived.”
"Have you been to the park? Is it as lovely as its pictures?”
"Even more so,” Shinju assured Rene. "The sheer cliff faces bordering the valley are impressive by themselves, but the preserved wilderness is the icing on the cake. The waterfalls and the river are a pure joy to be around, since we don’t have water running through Phoenix that often.”
"And when we do, it’s usually that muddy flash flood crap that people drive into even though they’ve been warned,” Rene snorted, "Because the idiots never seem to learn!”
"Exactly. Up here, you can see to the bottom of the river, and the sky is nice and clear, surprisingly smog free.”
"Well, I know you didn’t call just to talk to me about the park,” Rene got down to business. "What do you need help with?”
"I’d like you to see what you can find out about Patrick Rowe and Ignacio Delgado, owners of New Millennium Properties in California. I’d like to know the usual, where is the company located, are there any lawsuits past or pending against the company or owners, any filings for bankruptcy, divorce, and the like, and the addresses of where the two owners live.”
"Okay,” Rene said. "I’ve got some free time, so I’ll check our sources and text you with anything I find.”
"Thanks, Rene! I owe you one!”
"Give me a picture of the waterfalls and river to use as wallpaper on my work computer, and I’ll call us even.”
"You’ve got it,” Shinju hung up the phone.
She called up Tiger Dojo, asking Mykel, "Do you have Chase Landry’s home address?”
"Probably in our old records. We switched from paper to all digital two years ago, and all our paper records are in storage, so it would take a while to get hold of it. Why do you need it?”
"I’m just trying to be thorough in my investigation, and it’s time I saw where Mr. Landry lives,” Shinju was evasive.
"Well, I can’t help you with that, but I can tell you that he’s going to be coming in in an hour. He’s driving three of our regulars in for their classes.”
"Thank you,” Shinju said.
Driving to the dojo, Shinju played games on her phone while she waited for Chase Landry to arrive.
Five minutes before the start of the class, an older Hyundai Sonata pulled up. It had been well kept, and Shinju recognized Landry through his driver’s side window as he waited for the children to exit the vehicle.
He drove off immediately after, and Shinju started her car, performing a U turn so that she could drop in behind him.
She changed lanes every so often, varying her speed, but always keeping Landry in sight.
He stopped at a sporting goods store, and she waited while he did his shopping.
After that, he pulled into an archery range. Parking and removing a bow and some arrows from his trunk, he found an empty lane and began shooting at a target some distance away.
Finding parking outside the range in sight of where Landry was practicing, Shinju realized that she had no idea what Landry was doing for a living, as he appeared to be unemployed.
She was making notes on her phone, when it chimed, informing her of an incoming email.
It was the final toxicology report on Griffin Thornton from the ME’s office.
"Preliminary toxicology results indicated that an unidentified decedent had a moderate, but non-fatal amount of cocaine in his system. As a result, the body w
as held over for further testing. A gas chromatography mass spectrometry of various bodily decomp fluid samples revealed the presence of fatal levels of acetyl fentanyl. With the lack of visible track marks on the body and with no heroin detected in the samples, it is entirely possible that the decedent unwittingly ingested cocaine adulterated with acetyl fentanyl and died as a result. These findings are being forwarded to the local police department, so that they may investigate whether the decedent was the target of murder or not, since no other similar deaths have been reported in the area within recent weeks. Now that a thorough investigation has been performed of the decomp bodily fluids of the deceased, the body, which has since been positively identified as being that of Sacramento resident Griffin Thornton, may be released to the family for cremation or burial.”
Her phone rang shortly thereafter, and Shinju picked up, wondering what Cassandra wanted.
"Did you get the final toxicology report on Griff?”
"Yes, it came through a few minutes ago. I just finished reading it.”
"It says that the report has been forwarded to the police, so they can search for a murderer! It sounds like they’re convinced it’s murder and not accidental! I need to know who did this.”
"My list still stands at the three people we discussed earlier.”
"So what can I do to help?”
"Sit tight. I’m currently performing surveillance on Landry, and I’ve got a co-worker gathering information on the owners of New Millennium Properties. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything else to report.”
Cassandra sniffed. "Okay. That means I’ve got time to make arrangements for Griff.”
"Again, I’m sorry for your loss,” Shinju meant it. "I can’t imagine the pain you must be going through right now, not knowing for certain what happened to your sister and brother-in-law, and then discovering that there’s the possibility that your nephew was murdered.”
"I don’t think; I’m certain Griff was murdered, and I want that murderer found and brought to justice,” Cassandra spat. "I’m thinking that whoever killed Griff killed Trin and Logan as well, and if we can just find out who that fucker is, this will all be over, and maybe they’ll tell us what happened to Trin and Logan’s bodies. I haven’t given up hope on giving them a decent burial yet.”
"All I can tell you is that I’m doing everything I can to solve this case for you,” Shinju told the distraught woman.
"I know. I just need someone to vent to. Bryce said he thinks I’m being melodramatic, but he’s never had to bury a nephew or entertain the thought that three of his blood relatives were murdered.”
"I’m here to talk if you need me to,” Shinju reassured Cassandra. Hanging up the phone, she briefly considered the possibility that Bryce may have had something to do with the disappearances, but given how busy his distillery was, she didn’t think he’d have a hard time coming up with an alibi for the time that the disappearances happened. It didn’t rule out the possibility that he’d hired a third party to do things for him, but Shinju just didn’t see him as having a motive. He appeared to have no problems loaning his RV to his in-laws whenever they wanted to go camping, and he supported Cassandra’s decision to hire Shinju to take on the case.
Turning her attention back to Chase Landry, she watched as he walked out to his target with a large sheet in his hand. Pinning it to the target, he went back behind the line and continued shooting.
When he was finished practicing with his bow, he pulled the mangled image down, carrying it out with him as he left. Shinju became more concerned about Landry’s state of mind when she saw that he’d had an image of bigfoot printed on his target.
Chapter twenty-six
Landry lived in a modest older house, the kind with a large yard in the front and no driveway or attached garage. Parking on the street, he carried his archery equipment inside.
Making a note of the address, Shinju went around the block, pulling slowly down his paved alley, looking for anything that might be out of place. Seeing nothing, she went back to her hotel room.
Looking up the address of the house, she found no recent records. It was a three bedroom, one and a half bath house with a guest house in the backyard and a garage that was entered from the alley. It had last been sold sixteen years prior, and there was no evidence of any issues with it before or after the sale.
Googling Landry’s name didn’t turn up anything other than the disappearance of his son in Yosemite, and true to his statement was the fact that after announcing that the search for Mitch had been called off, there was no further mention of the incident in the local media.
Calling Sanchez Investigations, she spoke to Enrique this time. "Chase Landry is a kook who lost his son, Mitch Landry, in a disappearance quite similar to the one I’m investigating. His son disappeared three years ago. Ever since then, Mr. Landry hangs out at the dojo. He gives the people who need it rides to and from the dojo. I shadowed him to his home, and it looks like your average middle class American home. He did visit an archery range and practiced shooting at a bigfoot poster that he took to the range with him. This is after warning me that he’s positive bigfoot took his son and I should be careful while visiting the park. I told him the explanation didn’t make much sense, but he was adamant that I needed to take additional steps to protect myself from the legendary beast.”
"Yeah, he’s definitely not firing on all cylinders, is he?” However, Enrique was sympathetic, "But, I can understand that with everything he’s gone through. I’ll do a search on his name and see if I can find anything else on him.”
Shinju was considering going out to dinner when she got a text from Cassandra. "I have the copies of the security video from the house on the morning before the burglars broke in. Come to my house tomorrow morning, and we can go over them together.”
"What time is good for you?”
"Eight o’clock isn’t too early.”
"I’ll be there.”
She went to her usual diner for dinner, discovering its broken glass front door had been temporarily replaced with plywood, . A handwritten note on the outside read, "Yes, we’re open, come fire, flood, or quake!”
She chose a fried fish basket with coleslaw as her side. Some round fried balls also accompanied the dish.
"What’s this?” She pointed to the unknown items in her basket.
"Those are called hush puppies. They’re fried bread balls that are said to have been fed to dogs to quiet them down. I could eat a whole basket of nothing but hush puppies myself.”
Shinju bit into one. It was hot and crispy on the outside, but soft and bread-like on the inside.
"Well?” Her waitress waited with a smile of anticipation on her face.
"It’s good. It’s like a battered and fried ball of bread.”
"Told you,” her waitress grinned before hurrying off to another table.
She was surprised when she received an email from Enrique while eating.
"Employment history on Chase Landry shows him working as an independent dog trainer and temporary holiday delivery driver up until three years ago, and since then, he’s been collecting disability. Divorce papers were filed two and a half years ago and finalized two years ago. No alimony statement was included in the final filing.”
"That explains why he’s available to drive the dojo kids around at all hours of the day,” Shinju said to herself. "The disability he receives must be sufficient for him to live on. I wonder why his ex didn’t try to get any alimony from him?”
The next morning, she brewed herself some tea and ate in her room again while watching the local news.
"In crime news today, police arrested Miranda Wilcox on charges of possession with intent to sell. Ms. Wilcox was taken into custody without incident after a confidential informant came forward, alleging Ms. Wilcox is a drug dealer. After an investigation turned up evidence that Ms. Wilcox could, indeed, be in possession of illegal substances, a warrant was issued, and police searched her home, finding what was
alleged to be 'a large amount of white powder suspected to be cocaine’ in the domicile. Samples of the powder have already been sent for testing. We’ll follow this story as it develops further.”
"Huh,” Shinju wondered if it was the same Miranda Wilcox who now owned Griff’s cell phone. The thought made her gasp. What if Miranda had sold Griff the contaminated cocaine that had killed him?
Shinju hastily typed some notes, uploading them to her cloud account before running out the door. "Miranda Wilcox, whom I spoke to when I called Griffin Thornton’s cell phone, may have been arrested today on charges of possession with intent to sell. The media described the findings at her house as being a large amount of white powder suspected to be cocaine, which has been sent off for testing. If it’s the same Miranda Wilcox, I suspect she must’ve sold Griff his contaminated cocaine. If she had sold it to Griff, I’m wondering if he had knowingly taken it as a suicidal agent? Or did she have a vendetta against him, for which she sold him cocaine adulterated with fentanyl? I was wondering how she came to possess Griff’s phone, but it’s entirely possible that he traded it to her for drugs. She has now been added to my list of people suspected to have involvement in the disappearance of Logan and Trinity, because if she was selling to Griff, she may have also been selling to the Thorntons. I’m not certain I should inform Cassandra of the possibility of Ms. Wilcox being the source of the cocaine. For now, I’m going to keep quiet, until I can hopefully learn more about the woman who was arrested.”
Pulling out her phone, she called Griff’s number. It went straight to voicemail.
"Hi, this is Mira’s phone. I’m out at a party, so either you come out and find me, or leave a message and I’ll get back with you. Telemarketers fuck off because I’m not interested and I’ll never pick up.”
Shinju snorted at Mira’s telemarketer comment, but didn’t leave a message.
Cassandra was waiting for her. "Come into the office,” she led Shinju further into their house.
"Momma, momma, momma!” A small girl barreled into Cassandra’s legs. "Is it time for my schooling yet?”