by Dave Sypher
"Good,” Bryce said, "Because we out here need people like you.”
Chapter thirty
While typing up her notes on the latest findings at the Thorntons’ house, Shinju remembered what Cassandra had said about the security company that kept an eye on the property.
Picking up her phone, she called Cassandra.
"Hi, Shinju, Bryce told me that you kept him from sticking his finger into what could turn out to be poisoned drugs, and I can’t thank you enough for that,” she gushed. "He’s in the shower now. Had me meet him in the garage with garbage bags and cleaning gloves on. We’re going to just throw out all those clothes he was wearing.”
"I’m glad I realized what that substance probably is before he did that, too. I’m pretty sure neither of us got any of that on us, so his clothing should be fine after a thorough washing.”
"Nope. We’re not taking any chances. He stripped right there, stuffed his clothes into the bags and sealed them, and I put them in second bags before throwing them and the gloves out. As it is, we’re having a professional team clean our RV now that the police have told us we’re free to go in it again. We think we know now what happened to Trin and Logan, and it’s a damn shame. They were sold poisoned drugs, and that means someone killed them. I think it’s time for us to say 'thank you’ and let you go home.”
"I’ve got one more lead I’m still working on,” Shinju told her, "One that could provide more answers to you.”
"When will you know?”
"In two or three days. A new contact will be getting back to me with more information. I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything for certain.”
"Why won’t you tell me this person’s name?”
"They have asked for anonymity,” Shinju lied, "Or they won’t talk to me. Since at this point I think you’re just looking for closure, I will tell you everything I find out, but not who the information is coming from, because I think it will help you to know. This is all dependent on whether or not the information is pertinent to the case.”
"Well, okay, but other than that, you should consider yourself free to go home.”
"Thanks, Cassandra. I’ll begin making my arrangements to do so.”
She received a text from Chris an hour later. "Your gift was sent, exactly as requested.”
Chris was being vague, knowing that Shinju would understand that he had arranged to conceal both her identity and location from Mira.
"Thanks,” she told him, "You’re the best. Can’t wait to see you again.”
Saturday morning found Shinju at the jail early. Her bags were packed, and her flight was scheduled for early the next morning, and she was looking forward to going home.
However, she had arranged a second meeting with Mira, paid handsomely for it, and had a receipt as proof, so she made sure that she followed up on it before leaving.
Mira brightened up when she saw her.
Sliding into her seat at the table, she immediately said, "Thank you, Baby Girl, for taking care of my yard. Things have improved considerably for me since you did that. Now, I’m going to tell you what you paid for.
"GT was originally a customer. He said he’d been a coke user since living at home because his parents liked the stuff, and he’d heard of my enterprise being in charge of the area he was living in now, so we started doing business.
"This went on for quite some time while he was both working and schooling. I remember the celebration he said he was planning when he got his diploma and college degree at pretty much the same time. He had such high hopes. Then, no one wanted to hire him despite his degree, and he became depressed.
"He told me that he was on increasingly hard times, and then one day, he asked if he could help me out, to make some money, so I set him up the same way I’m going to set you up at the start, working some dead drops. Things went well, and then he started doing some deals.
"He’s the one who hooked me up with the levee people. Some of them have jobs and money but don’t want to blow it all on housing costs, so they live free and save their dough and don’t tell the others where they go all day.
"This opened up an entire new market to me, and I appreciated that so much, I was willing to let GT get in on other products of mine.
"See, it’s fairly easy to get fentanyl shipped to the States. They keep changing the formula so it’s not illegal to import, and we buy in bulk. Now, this shit be powerful, so we got to cut it. Some places, they buy tablet making equipment and make pharmacy-looking pills, but I didn’t want to go into that, so I’ve got my people set up cutting that stuff down and putting it in capsules.
"The great thing about that, is that we sell bottles of the damn things, and no one is the wiser. We got people all over town going through the trash of the rich getting out their used supplement bottles, which we wash and fill with our capsules, and then resell to our customers. The cutter is dirt cheap, and people like you get their pain pills in a form they can keep on their kitchen counters and no one gives them a second look. We do recommend that you keep it out of reach of pets and other family members, but we ain’t had any problems, until GT, he decided that he wanted to help us fill some capsules, so he begged me to let him learn how to do it. So we showed him how to do it, gave him some pure F, some cutter, capsules, and a capsule filler, a scale, and detailed written instructions on how to fill his capsules and bring them back. That’s the stack I told you he owed me, because that’s what his equipment and finished product is worth.
"I’ve gotta tell you, Baby Girl, I didn’t peg him for the suicidal type. If I’d had any idea that he was going to mix those two together and snort them, I’d have cut him the hell off and told him to get his stuff somewhere else.”
Mira sat back, "So there you have it. Was it worth the yard?”
"Definitely,” Shinju said, thinking that everything had fallen into place. Griff, she thought, was very angry that his parents had turned him down when he asked for help, so much so that he decided to kill them, probably in the hopes of inheriting a considerable sum of money from them.
"So now, let’s talk crochet some more. How exactly did you make your curtains?”
Shinju made one final trip out to Nash Distillery after leaving the jail.
Knocking on the door, she was immediately let in by Cassandra.
"You said you have news for us?”
"I believe I do, yes,” Shinju said.
Following Cassandra to their living room, she sat opposite Bryce and Cassandra, who were looking both excited and grim.
"My lead is a person who’s mixed up in drugs, and therefore, I can’t give you their name. However, they knew certain things about what Griff was doing just prior to his death. His street name was GT, and he not only did drugs, but he became involved in dealing with them.
"Just prior to his death, he asked if he could become further involved in the manufacturing for sale process, specifically of fentanyl. He was given some equipment and other supplies and was told to return the finished product when he was done. He also apparently still had a supply of cocaine that he was involved in distributing. The source believes that Griff wanted to commit suicide, but I’m not certain on that account. I believe he wanted to kill Trinity and Logan in order to inherit their estate. They didn’t have much contact, and if they suddenly vanished and were never found, he’d just have to bide his time before being able to collect a considerable amount of money.
"Since you told me that the security company keeps recordings for ninety days, I suggest that you request all recordings from the estimated date of Griff’s death with a couple of days before and after to account for possible errors in the ME’s estimated time of his death, and see if you can’t find images of Griff dropping off contaminated cocaine. Having lived in the house and knowing that his parents were users, it’s stands to reason that he knew where they hid their stash. Since he would not have to break in to access that location, it would have simply been a matter of him walking into the backyard and replaci
ng Logan and Trinity’s supply bag with one containing about an equal amount of adulterated product.”
"That son of a bitch,” Cassandra said. "He murdered his own parents?”
"We don’t have proof of that as of yet, but I believe you’ll find it in the security company’s archive,” Shinju told her. "Logan and Trinity just happened to take that bag of poisoned drugs with them on their camping trip, and they more than likely waited until they were out of sight of both their Tiger Dojo students and any other people in the park before they got out their bag of coke and unknowingly overdosed themselves. I think I know the location where it happened, as three dead vultures were found, along with evidence of something being dragged off into the wilderness. I posit that Trinity and Logan died there, were fed upon by vultures, which also overdosed and died, and then something else came along and dragged away their remains. Whether that animal or animals died as a result of consuming the rest of their bodies may never be known. It’s entirely possible that the security video will show someone other than Griff, but since his death is from the same substance as what was found in your RV, I think that it’s highly unlikely.”
"Oh my God,” Cassandra said. She jumped up, eyes welling with tears, and threw her arms around Shinju. "Thank you, Shinju. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”
Shinju found her eyes welling up as well, and she mutely nodded.
Bryce smiled at her. "We’ll request those recordings first thing Monday, and we’ll let you know the results.”
Chapter thirty-one
The delivery man walked in with a handtruck holding two large boxes on it.
Faith was on duty at that time, and she perked up.
"What have you got for us today, Troy?”
"A signature-required delivery for Shinju.”
"She’s in the break room,” Faith said, calling out, "Shinny—package!”
Hearing Faith call her, Shinju headed into the office, perplexed.
"I didn’t order anything, much less anything to be delivered here.”
"Sign here, please,” Troy told her.
Looking down at the boxes, she saw that the boxes were from Nash Distillery.
"Oh,” she said, signing for the delivery. "Thanks, Troy.”
"Catch you guys next time,” Troy hustled off.
Having heard that Shinju had received a delivery, The others gathered around as she hoisted one of the boxes onto her desk.
Pulling out a pair of scissors, she found an attached letter and cut the envelope open.
"It’s from those people who hired me to go to California,” she told everyone. "I think I told you guys that they run a brandy distillery.”
"Dear Shinju,” she read, "Your sleuthing skills were right on the money. We found video evidence of Griff walking onto Trin and Logan’s property. He was wearing the same hoodie he was found in, so we know it’s him despite the fact that he had the hood up and cinched down and averted his face from the cameras as much as he possibly could. He was there for only a few minutes, but it was long enough for him to plant the poison and leave. It also shows him wiping his nose as he’s leaving, so we’re thinking that with some of the poisoned drugs coming out of the bag, because he needed to reduce the amount so the bag looked like the one he replaced, that he got it on his hands and absently wiped it under his nose, where he breathed it in and ended up poisoning himself accidentally. There’s still no sign of Trin and Logan’s bodies, but the police said after we showed them this video that you’ve given us all enough evidence that we can declare them dead and take over their estate.
"We turned down New Millennium Properties’ offer since they weren’t willing to increase it to a realistic amount, and we’ve decided that Cassandra will oversee it since it was her sister’s business. However, since Jenny Slater is Tiger Dojo’s management employee with the most seniority, Cassandra has offered her a CEO position which will have her overseeing all the dojos for us, which she has accepted. We are going to use some of the proceeds of the dojos to fund a Get Straight Charity to help people in Sacramento struggling with addiction.
"As we would’ve never solved the disappearance of Trinity and Logan without you, please accept this gift from us, two cases of assorted bottles of our most popular brandies. All our best, Cass and Bryce Nash.”
"Wow,” Alejandro said, "That was really nice of them.”
"Well,” Missy quipped, "We know what you’re going to be doing on Labor Day!”
"Yeah,” Shinju said, "And my birthday party will now be a lot merrier!”
Opening up the first box, she dug down through the protective wrapping, pulling out the first bottle.
"Christmas Cheery,” she read the label for everyone, "Nash’s popular cherry brandy. Oh I get it, Christmas plus cheer and cherry mashed together gets you Cheery.”
Unwrapping the second bottle, Shinju laughed out loud. "New Year’s Nash, a blackberry brandy. Get it?”
"Oh, no,” Missy groaned. "The names are all puns?”
The others chuckled as Shinju revealed, the next bottle. "Firecracker Fourth, a hot cinnamon. Well, if they’ll put it in whiskey, why not brandy?”
"Labor Day Picnic, a vanilla flavored brandy that should pair well with everything you care to eat on this holiday.”
"Monster Nash, a pumpkin spice flavored Halloween brandy.”
"And lastly, St. Patty’s Mint, try it instead of schnapps.”
"Those are generous sized bottles,” Rene commented, "So you better have your guests plan on taking cabs to your place and home if you’re going to drink more than one bottle. Brandy packs a pretty serious punch.”
Smiling at Rene’s motherly attitude, Shinju nodded. "I’ll be sure to recommend it.”
"And speaking of your birthday,” Rene said, walking over to an old file cabinet that sat unused in the corner, "I made you a birthday cake.”
"Rene! You didn’t have to do that!”
"Oh, sweetie, but I did. You’ve been working hard the past couple of years, getting shot at, assaulted, and so on, and we’ve got to celebrate you getting to turn older. Unfortunately, as some of your cases have shown, not everyone gets that chance.”
"It’s a white cake with raspberry filling between the layers. I find that it keeps the cake from becoming too dry. Now, let’s all stuff ourselves silly before the phones start ringing again!”
"How old are you going to be this year,” Enrique asked her.
"Twenty nine,” she replied.
James laughed, "How many times have you turned twenty nine?”
"This is my first time,” Shinju said, confused.
"I don’t think it will be your last,” Missy smirked. "All we older women tend to stay twenty nine for a few years.”
"Well, let’s get this cake into the break room and cut up. Tomis, will you carry it in there for me?” Rene drafted the man nearest her.
"Of course, Rene,” Tomis said, carefully picking up the cake.
"I’ll be in there in a minute, everyone,” Shinju said. She rewrapped all the bottles, placing them back in the box, which she slid under her desk.
Opening up the file on her computer, she grabbed the file folder from her desktop labeled 'Thornton’, dragging and dropping it into a folder labeled 'solved/closed’. Smiling to herself, Shinju headed to the break room with a satisfied smile on her face.
The End
Appendix
I hope you enjoyed reading Dojo Double. I would like to ask that you please leave a review for it.
If you’d like to continue reading about Shinju Fujiwara’s adventures, the sixth book in the series, Death Clock, will be released in June, 2020.
Order Death Clock.
Even he thinks he’s guilty.
Dojo Double cover by Chris K of Kudi designs.
https://www.kudi-design.com/
Title font “Hard Grunge” by Jayde Garrow.
Licensed via
https://www.dafont.com/hard-grunge.font
Also by Dave Sypher:<
br />
Crime:
Sleep Stalker
Model Abduction
Mistaken Identity
Grave Communications
Dark fantasy:
Dark Queen Rising