by Dave Sypher
"Thank you, I will,” Shinju lied. She had no plans to come back after her second visit, and she certainly didn’t intend to give Mira any more money, but she found she rather liked Mira despite her probable involvement in the Thornton case. She knew if she’d met Mira in Phoenix that she’d want to cultivate a friendship with her, especially since she probably wouldn’t know what Mira did for a living.
Having a sudden thought, she asked, "Can I mail Mira magazines?”
"Usually people aren’t here long enough to receive a full subscription. Your better bet is to send in a soft cover book. It needs to come directly from Amazon, and it can’t be hard cover or contain any nude or violent images. That account number on your receipt is the number you’ll use for the delivery; it also acts as a p.o. address for the inmate. Our main address is there at the top of your receipt. Do you need anything else?”
"Uh, no, thanks,” Shinju left.
Once she was back in her hotel room, she brought up Amazon on her phone, finding a basic crochet instruction and pattern book. She wasn’t sure how she could send it as an anonymous gift to Mira, but she smiled when she realized she knew someone who would probably know how to do this.
"Chris,” she texted, "I need you to do me a favor, please.”
He texted her back a few minutes later. "I’m free now. Call me.”
Chapter twenty-eight
She was ready when Bryce called her the next morning, and she headed over to the Thornton’s house to meet up with him.
He was mowing the front yard, but smiled and waved her to the house, and she took that as permission to walk through the house to the backyard.
She spent some time locating the exterior security cameras that monitored the backyard, and she found herself wanting to know exactly how much of the rear of the house remained unmonitored, so she took a few river rocks from a garden bed, finding the edges of the cameras’ views on either side, and marked out the unwatched area.
She was almost finished when Bryce came to the back to check on her.
"What are you doing, Shinju? I need to start mowing back here in a few minutes.”
"I’ll move the rocks back when I’m done. I’m using them mark the area that the security cameras don’t cover. This gives me an area to search to see if there’s anything useful.”
"Cass told me why Trin and Logan didn’t want this area recorded,” Bryce said, grinning helplessly as he thought of his sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s reasoning. "I don’t think you’re going to find anything out of place. Oh well, I’ve got to finish up the front, and then refill the mower, so if you could get those rocks out of the way, I will finish up the front and get started on the back.”
"I will,” Shinju promised. She stood looking across the yard towards the back gate. Someone could’ve entered the yard unseen from there. She walked back there, carefully keeping to the paving stones while examining the grass on either side of the stones. She didn’t detect any bent or broken stalks to indicate someone had walked on the grass since the last time it had been mowed. There were no gouges to indicate anything was dragged. The security video showed that the burglars had come from the front, but hadn’t gone to the back of the property, as they were only concerned with gaining entry into the house, so she knew that this area was probably undisturbed by them.
Reaching the gate, she was reaching for the handle when she saw the deadbolt lock.
"Huh. Guess these days that’s not a bad idea. So, no, no one could’ve approached the house from back here unseen, at least not unless they had a key.”
She was walking back towards the house when she spotted something silver glinting under a decorative bush. It was one of the missing sets of keys that Cassandra had been worrying about.
Going to the front of the house, she waved down Bryce.
"You actually found something?” Bryce was surprised. "What is it?”
"I believe it’s one of your missing sets of keys. I didn’t know if we should tell the police or not, but it looks like the burglars threw at least one set of keys out back. Maybe they were hoping to get released and sneak right back, this time with a set of keys to help them gain access.”
"I don’t know if we should inform them or not. We’re pressing charges on the burglars, and since they’re homeless, they’re being held without bond, but I think it will ease Cass’s mind to know that some of the keys have been found. I’ll call her and ask what she thinks. You haven’t touched them, have you?”
"No. They’re under that bush with the lavender-colored flowers.”
"What color is lavender?”
"Light to medium purple.”
"Oh, okay. Go on back and finish your search while I call Cass.”
Walking onto the grass, Shinju continued out in the yard after reaching the ends of the stones she’d placed earlier. She found a second set of keys had been hastily shoved into the crook of a tree, but nothing else stood out to her.
Moving to the other line, she followed it and then stopped. Looking back at the house, she felt that something wasn’t right. She stood considering, then it hit her: The plush reclining chairs that Trinity and Logan owned were sitting in a monitored area of the yard. She felt that it was unlikely that Trinity and Logan would be willing to lay on the ground while having sex in their yard, so it seemed more logical to her that the bulky chairs should be kept in the camera-free zone.
"Huh,” she was saying to herself when Bryce came back.
"Cass doesn’t think it’s important that we save the keys for the police to try to fingerprint. She thinks it wouldn’t be a good idea to let the car keys out of our sight again. Speaking of which, where did you find them?”
"I found one set under that bush over there,” Shinju pointed it out, "And a second set is in the crook of that tree.”
"Damn, you are good. Cass is going to be really relieved knowing all the missing keys have been found.”
"I was looking with the expectation of finding something,” Shinju shrugged. "I did notice something that doesn’t fit with Trinity’s claim that they left the yard unmonitored so they could have sex outside: The chairs I would expect them to use are located in an area covered by a camera. If they really were using their yard for sex as often as it sounds like they claimed, why wouldn’t one or more of the chairs be within easy moving distance?”
Bryce looked at the chairs, then up at the camera near them. He craned his head a few directions, but then had to agree with her.
"I wonder if the burglars moved them?”
"No, I’m sure I saw the chairs on the security footage that was taken before the break in. I wasn’t thinking they were out of place until I realized that Trinity and Logan probably wouldn’t want to lie naked on their grass. They probably put fertilizer and other chemicals on it, and as a woman, I know I wouldn’t want to expose my skin to that for an extended length of time. Plus, the ground would be cold and possibly damp no matter what time of year it was, so having a reclining chair readily available makes sense.”
"What about those?” Bryce pointed to a small metal table and two metal chairs that sat in the unmonitored zone adjacent to the back door.
"You probably know full well what bare metal will do a man’s anatomy under certain conditions,” Shinju pointed out, "So they aren’t likely to have used them. Plus, it would be difficult to move around with those metal arm rests in the way.”
"I’ll be damned, you’re right,” Bryce said. He walked to the bush, moving the foliage aside so he could pick up one set of keys, and then looked in the tree Shinju indicated, locating and retrieving the keys that had been left there.”
"What else have you noticed? Cause if we missed anything else, I’m going to start calling you Sherlock.”
Shinju grinned. "There’s nothing else of note. I mean, I noticed the back gate locks with a deadbolt, but I imagine that’s probably a necessity around here now.”
"Unfortunately, yes. We’ve had to bolt everything even at our house in the country.
Our neighbors had two horses stolen last year that they left out of the barn so they could graze at night. Now they keep the rest of their horses inside at night at all times. Well, I’m ready to refill the mower and start back here, so you should finish up. Thanks for finding Trin’s keys for us.”
Shinju nodded. She took one last sweep of the yard, zigzagging across the grass and picking up her marking rocks while she went.
She put the rocks back in their area and walked both lines to make sure she hadn’t left any hidden in the grass that could damage the mower before giving Bryce the go ahead.
Going to the metal chairs by the back door, she sat in one, sweeping the area with her eyes multiple times until it all became a verdant green blur with spots of color.
Bryce finished mowing, hustling the mower back to the garage.
He came back out to join Shinju. Looking at his watch, he sighed. "Just in time.”
"Just in time for what?”
"Logan set up the sprinkler system to water the yard twice a week. We don’t have water use restrictions like they do further south, but he practiced conservation, which is a good idea. And the sprinklers are set to go off in a few minutes.”
"Maybe we should leave, then?”
"If you’re not done, I’m not done,” Bryce reassured her. "Take your time if you think there’s something else that seems out of place.”
The sprinklers turned on, all but one about one third of the way into what Shinju was referring to in her own mind as the dark zone.
She pointed, about to say something, when Bryce said, "Yeah, I see it. Let’s wait five minutes until the water turns off, and I’ll go out and see if it’s just stuck. Sometimes a bit of gravel will jam one up.”
They sat in silence until the water turned off. Shinju followed Bryce out to the broken sprinkler head out of curiosity.
"Let’s see what’s jammed you up, little guy,” Bryce said, grasping the top of the weathered sprinkler head and tugging on it. It came out of the ground in his hand.
"What the hell?” Bryce exclaimed, "This sprinkler head isn’t attached to anything!”
Chapter twenty-nine
Shinju leaned closer to Bryce. "I don’t think that’s a sprinkler head at all.”
"It looks just like one,” Bryce said, "But it doesn’t have the connector openings needed to connect it to a sprinkler system.”
He unscrewed the top, looking inside. "It’s dry.”
He raised a finger to the opening, stopping when Shinju told him, "Wait!”
Pulling out her phone, Shinju turned on her flashlight, shining it into the empty sprinkler head. It was coated with white powder.
"Oh, shit! Put that down gently, Bryce, and go and wash your hands immediately!”
Bryce looked at her quizzically for a moment, then realization dawned, and he laid the sprinkler head on the gravel and ran for the house.
Coming back a minute later, he stared suspiciously at the sprinkler head.
"Is that what I think it is?”
"If you’re thinking we’ve found Trin and Logan’s coke stash location, then I think you’re right. Since there was contaminated coke found in your RV, I figured this will test to be the same as that found in your RV, and that’s why I had you go and wash up immediately. I don’t know if that stuff can absorb through the skin, and I didn’t want to take any chances that it could or that you’d accidentally wipe it where it could get into your system.”
"Christ, I’m shaking,” Bryce said. "I don’t think it’s from the coke and fentanyl, or whatever that is, but because I almost wiped that tube down with my finger. Thanks for stopping me.”
"I’m glad I recognized its importance in time,” Shinju told him. "We need to call the police and have them take that sprinkler head into custody ASAP.”
"I’ll call them right now,” Bryce pulled out his phone.
Two minutes later, he nodded to Shinju. "A crime scene officer is on the way, and they’re aware of the possibility of this powder being extremely dangerous.”
"I have not let it out of my sight since you pulled it out of the ground,” Shinju told Bryce. "I think that establishes a good chain of custody since I’m not related to Trin and Logan. I’ll keep an eye on it until the crime scene officer takes it into custody. Why don’t you go sit down?”
"Yeah,” Bryce agreed, going to back deck and sitting down in one of the upright metal chairs.
The twenty-six minutes it took for the crime scene officer to arrive seemed to crawl by to Shinju. Her mind spun with ideas. Since Trinity and Logan kept their stash hidden outside, and the area was not covered by a surveillance camera, it meant that anyone who knew of its location could’ve switched out a bag of plain cocaine with a bag of the adulterated stuff.
Her shoulders were knotting up from tension when they heard a car pull up out front.
"I’ll bring the officer here,” Bryce left Shinju watching the uprooted stash.
The crime scene officer was wearing a protective suit and was carrying a plastic tub and in one hand and an evidence camera in the other.
"It’s over here,” Bryce led the man over, pointing at the hole in the ground.
"Have either of you left this alone since you discovered it?”
"Bryce left to wash off possible contact with the powder, but I have kept eyes on it since it came out of the ground,” Shinju informed the officer.
"You can see the hole there where the false sprinkler head was buried in the ground,” Shinju pointed it out, and the officer nodded.
"If you’ll step aside, Miss,” the man said, "I’ll document the find, and make it safe before removal.”
"I’d like to see your ID before you go,” Shinju told him.
The man smiled at her. "Of course. As soon as I’m done here.”
Placing markers on the ground, the officer documented the location of the sprinkler, the sprinkler itself, and the powder visible within it using his camera.
When that was done, the officer opened up his plastic tub, pulling out an evidence bag marked 'hazardous’. Gingerly lifting the sprinkler, he carefully placed it inside the bag to minimize the spread of the powder. He sealed the bag, placing it in the tub. Sealing the tub, he picked it up and carried it away.
Shinju followed him to an official-looking vehicle outside the front of the house where a clean-up area had been set up.
After wiping down his gloved hands and the exterior of the tub, the officer placed it in the back of his vehicle.
Carefully stripping off his protective gear, the man made sure his used suit was disposed of in a bag inside another tub before he scrubbed himself down one more time.
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I’m officer Dakota Kidd with the Sacramento crime scene unit,” the man identified himself to Shinju and Bryce. "You must be the PI from Arizona who’s been looking into the Thornton disappearances.” He showed her his ID, which confirmed his identity.
"I am. I’m Shinju Fujiwara,” she shook the officer’s offered hand. "Thanks for getting here so quickly.”
"The chief filled me in on the case as I was on my way here. After the death of the Thornton’s son and the finding of more contaminated coke in the RV the Thorntons were using when they disappeared, he gave Mr. Nash’s call top priority. Thank you for finding this and calling us immediately, and to you, Ms. Fujiwara for helping us establish a chain of custody. Mr. Nash, we’ll be contacting you with the results of our analysis of this substance.”
Officer Kidd shook Bryce’s hand before leaving.
"Unfortunately, I think this tells us the how about Trin and Logan’s disappearance, but not the who or why.”
"A partial answer is better than none,” Shinju pointed out.
"Yes, but not knowing everything is going to eat at Cass for a long time.”
"It’s not over just yet, Bryce,” Shinju reassured her. "I turned up a possible lead that I’m following in hopes it clarifies a few things.”
"I think you’ve hel
ped out more than Cass was expecting,” Bryce said with a sad smile, "But I couldn’t say no when she said she needed to hire you to look into our case, because I know how much it would’ve bothered her thinking she didn’t do everything she could to find out what happened to them. It just sucks that because of looking into this we found out Griff died, too. Cass isn’t sure if she should have a memorial service for him or not, seeing as no one reported his body for days.”
"Funerals are for the living,” Shinju said. "They allow the family and friends to say goodbye, so if she announces a service, if even one other person shows up, she’ll be helping them to get over the loss of a friend.”
"That’s a good way of looking at it. I’ll tell her what you said. You sound like you have experience with this.”
"I got involved in the serial killer case because one of the victims was a childhood friend. When his parents asked me to look into it, I couldn’t say no. They’ve been friends with my parents for decades, and they always looked out for us, so I couldn’t turn them down. Of course I also attended his funeral service, because while Riku and I didn’t hang out anymore, we stayed in touch via Facebook. I learned some things about Riku from the others who came to say goodbye who stood up to speak about their experiences knowing him, and it helped me say goodbye to him, and I know it comforted his family hearing what the others had to say.”
"Is that why you do this, to help families?”
"Yes. I hate to see injustice and good people having bad things happen to them, and I knew early in my life that I wanted to help out in some way. My father was a police officer, but I knew he’d never approve of me joining the force, and I didn’t want to become either a judge or a lawyer, and I stumbled into private investigations, and I found that I enjoyed the work and can do a decent job at it, so I’ve been doing it ever since I got my license. I’m lucky to have found an office where I get along well with the owner and all the other employees, so I have no intentions of making any changes in the foreseeable future.”