Murder at the Bomb Shelter

by Lee Strauss

  Fear, at that moment, had gripped her. In desperation, she’d fought against nature as if she were fighting for her own life.

  She’d never forget the horror she’d felt in those eternal moments when she couldn’t find him.

  Then she had had his shirt in her fingers, and with supernatural strength, she heaved his heavy form out of the water and onto the tipped-over rowboat. Miguel!

  Slamming his back with her fist, she’d forced water out of his lungs, then putting her lips over his, breathed life back into him.

  “Rosa!”

  Rosa snapped back to reality. Miguel, faced with the prospect of jumping onto another boat, looked close to panic, his jaw tight with emotion.

  “It’s okay, Miguel,” she said. “I can go by myself.”

  She ran down the path to the pier; her purse secured diagonally over her shoulder to her hip.

  “Damn it!” Miguel said.

  Rosa heard his footsteps right behind her.

  As the pair reached the bottom of the pathway, they saw Sidney Gainer untether the docking ropes, climb onto the roof of his yacht, and enter the canopied flybridge.

  Rosa and Miguel quickened their pace again as the twin engines sprang to life with a rumble. Sidney jotted in a notebook. This pause gave them time to jump across the gap between the pier and the boat. They landed with a soft thud, instinctively ducking down. Rosa glanced up as Sidney squinted in their direction. She tugged on Miguel’s shirt, pulling him to the floor behind a large white, vinyl-covered engine hood. Her heart pounded. Had they been spotted?

  Miguel risked a second look. “He didn’t see us.”

  Where was Sanchez? He was supposed to be ready to give chase. Either way, she and Miguel couldn’t stay crouched in their hiding spot forever. Once they had traveled far enough to prove that Sidney Gainer was on the run and not just out for a cruise in the harbor, they must confront him.

  Miguel squatted low beside Rosa, his face was a lighter shade of olive than its usual tone, but he gave her a thumbs up and a nervous half-smile.

  Just as the engine rose in pitch and the boat moved away from the slip, Rosa poked her head up over the engine cowl.

  Por todos los santos!

  They weren’t the only stowaways. Just as the yacht pulled away from the dock, Colin Monahan slipped aboard. Carrying a suitcase, he crouched low and made his way to the door of the lower cabin, then disappeared inside.

  The yacht cleared the dock area and accelerated.

  Rosa’s mind raced. What was Colin Monahan doing on the boat? And why would he sneak onboard? She flashed back to the conversation she’d had with him in the roadside café. I have proven that no matter what I do, I can’t please the old man…

  Was he here to prove himself in some way? Had Orville Gainer discovered that Sidney was about to run and sent Colin Monahan to stop him?

  The questions rattled through Rosa’s head, and then, like a marble thrown into a funnel, she came to one terrifying possibility: Colin Monahan killed Dieter Braun and was here to kill his cousin!

  It suddenly made sense. It wasn’t Sidney Gainer’s fingerprints they would find on that hammer; it would be Colin Monahan’s. The young man with an unpredictable temper. The grandson who could never please his grandfather. Perhaps he had made a bid to win his favor by killing Dieter Braun, the man who could damage the elder Gainer. When that hadn’t garnered the results he’d hoped for, he’d decided to harm the favored grandson. And what better place to do it than on a yacht heading out to sea.

  “We both learned to sail together on my grandfather’s luxury yacht. We would often go out on excursions together as teenagers.”

  Extreme, lifelong jealousy made for a compelling motive. Did Colin Monahan plan to murder his cousin, throw the body overboard, and continue to anywhere in the world? It would explain the suitcase. He could even take on his dead cousin’s stolen identity.

  Rosa turned once again to look at Miguel, sitting with his back leaning against the engine compartment with eyes closed, sweat pouring off his forehead. His lips moved as if he were quietly and desperately praying. She slapped him hard on the thigh.

  “Miguel!”

  Miguel’s eyelids flickered open.

  Rosa leaned in to speak in his ear, but the roar of the engines was loud, and she had to shout to be heard. “Colin Monahan has just come onboard. I think he might be the killer!”

  Miguel looked at her with a wild expression of bewilderment. She rose once again to look toward the lower cabin door as Miguel poked his head around the engine cowl. As predicted, the weather had turned, and the waves conspired against the boat. The water got much rougher, causing the boat to buck violently. The dark clouds released a sudden batch of heavy rain. They were now clear of the bay and speeding along on a southerly route about a mile from shore.

  Where was Sanchez?

  Suddenly, Colin Monahan appeared in the doorway of the lower cabin, and Rosa and Miguel quickly ducked behind the engine cowl. Peeking from her hiding place, Rosa saw Colin grab the ladder railing that led to the flybridge, gun in hand.

  19

  A large rolling wave hit the side of the vessel, throwing Rosa and Miguel through the air. Rosa expected to hit the hard, slippery deck but instead felt Miguel’s warm body underneath her. When she lifted her head, she stared into his startled copper-brown eyes, and everything around her froze in time. The boat stopped bobbing, the sea spray and raindrops froze in midair. Rosa hadn’t been this close to Miguel since she was seventeen.

  Miguel gasped, and then deftly rolled to one side. It was as if an invisible hand switched the rain and wind on again, and Rosa grabbed the rail and hoisted herself to her feet, catching her breathing. Miguel did the same and then focused on the sight of Colin Monahan as he worked his way up the ladder to the flybridge. Colin struggled against the rocking of the boat and the stiff rain, using his one free hand and the elbow of the other arm to pull himself up.

  Miguel and Rosa lurched toward the ladder. Just as Colin stepped out of sight, Miguel started up with Rosa right behind. When Miguel reached the top, he released his police revolver from his holster and yelled, “Put it down!”

  At the same moment, the engines suddenly cut and the boat slowed dramatically. Reaching the flybridge, Rosa braced herself against the closest rail. Miguel stood on the other side of the ladder, one white-knuckled fist gripping a side rail and the other pointing his revolver.

  Colin Monahan stood behind Sidney with his gun to his cousin’s temple. Sidney, whose wrists were bound, sat in the captain’s chair. He stared at Rosa and Miguel with glassy-eyed fear. The slightest jolt of the yacht could end his life in an instant.

  Seeing Miguel with his gun raised, Colin’s eyes went wide open.

  “Colin,” Rosa said, forcing herself to remain calm. “Put the gun down.”

  The boat slowed but continued to pitch and roll. They now had cover from the rain. Rosa glanced at Miguel, whose face had drained of color. She instinctively moved toward him.

  “Don’t take another step!” Colin Monahan shouted.

  Rosa froze in her spot.

  He shouted again, “Wh… what are you two doing on board?”

  “It’s all right, Colin,” Rosa said, gesturing with a downward motion with her hands. “Let’s talk.” She glanced at Miguel, who had turned a distressing shade of green and looked like he could be sick at any moment.

  The floor beneath them all rolled violently, and help was not in sight. Rosa needed to get Colin talking, and better yet, get him to drop the gun.

  Colin’s desperation carried as he shouted, “How did you two suddenly just appear?”

  “We were following Sidney,” Rosa returned. “We suspected that he was going to make a run for it. The question, Colin, is why are you here? Did you come here to kill your cousin?”

  Colin looked astounded by the accusation. “No. I came here to steal the boat. I didn’t know this scum was going to beat me to the punch.”

  Rosa’s
gaze fell to Sidney, who’d curled into himself in fear. “Do you mean this boat belongs to someone else?”

  “Of course,” Colin said. “It belongs to the old man, like everything and everyone else in Santa Bonita. But Sidney and I own some property in Panama, don’t we?” He tightened his grip on Sidney Gainer’s shoulder, causing his captive to wince. “That’s where you were heading, weren’t you, cousin?”

  “I… I tried to get a hold of you,” Sidney sputtered. “I wanted you to come with me.”

  Rosa didn’t believe that for a second, and apparently, neither did Colin.

  “Don’t lie to me, Sid! You’re always lying to me!”

  As if he could dodge the nose of the gun, Sidney’s head bent to the side, but Colin kept it tightly against Sidney’s temple.

  “You didn’t plan to kill your Uncle Dieter did you, Colin,” Rosa said quickly, keeping her voice smooth and reasonable. “I know you feel angry, but killing isn’t your thing.”

  It was a gamble. Rosa didn’t know for sure who had killed Dieter Braun, but Colin’s face flushed with surprise at her statement of belief in him.

  “Colin, please put down the gun.”

  Colin snorted. “You underestimate me, Miss Reed, but that seems to happen a lot around here. Maybe killing is my thing.”

  Tears rolled down his ruddy face, and Rosa felt a stab of pity for the boy who felt he could do nothing right.

  “Talk to me,” Rosa said. “How did it happen?” With each question she posed, she took a small step toward Miguel.

  Colin ducked his chin toward Sidney. “I know Grandpa had ordered this piece of crap to kill Uncle Dieter. Dieter found out about that stupid real estate scam and kept threatening to blow the whistle. I told him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen! Uncle Dieter always treated me okay, but damn he was stubborn! Why was he so stubborn?” He shouted out the last sentence to the sky.

  Rosa moved slowly to Miguel’s side.

  “You didn’t go up to the cabin to kill him, though,” Rosa said.

  “I tried to talk to him. I tried…I really tried. I told him refusing to listen to reason would be dangerous. He just laughed. He laughed hard. I couldn’t take that, him laughing so hard…everyone laughs at me. The old man laughs at me.”

  “And afterward,” Rosa said, finishing for him, “when you realized what you’d done, you carried him to the bomb shelter.”

  Colin cried openly now, tears streaming like the rain falling around them. “Yes, and when I told Grandpa that he didn’t have to worry, that his precious Sidney didn’t have to risk jail after all—”

  Miguel finished the sentence this time, “—he was angry.”

  “He shouted at me and told me to get out!”

  Rosa worried that Colin might shoot Sidney without meaning to, but instead, his arm went limp. Weeping, he dropped the gun, which hit the floor with a clang and slid off the flybridge to the deck below. Rosa then removed her gun from her purse, pointed it at Colin, and gestured to Miguel, who regarded her gun with surprise. Miguel holstered his weapon and took out his handcuffs.

  Colin smiled at Rosa. Then in one dreadful moment, she knew what he was going to do.

  “Colin, don’t!”

  Before the words were out of her mouth, Colin catapulted himself over the rail. Rosa reached it just in time to see him hit the waves and disappear under the angry white caps.

  In the distance, a police boat raced toward them.

  20

  Thirty people stood around the grave of Dieter Braun as the casket was slowly lowered into the dark earth. The morning was unusually crisp, even at 10:00 a.m., and Rosa fought off a chill as she stood beside a tearful Janet Gainer. Her husband, Michael, stood beside her, hands clasped at his waist and a somber expression on his face. Janet had been chosen to give the eulogy, probably as one of the few family members inclined to say something nice about the deceased. Rosa thought she had done a wonderful job.

  Mr. Braun’s business associates, his friends outside the family, and the Gainer clan, except for Colin Monahan, were present. Colin’s attempt at escaping justice by jumping off the yacht had been thwarted by Detective Sanchez’s timely arrival with the police boat, and Colin’s instinctive impulse to breathe. Unlike Miguel, Colin Monahan knew how to swim.

  Sidney Gainer, his face impassive with his eyes hidden by sunglasses, stood next to his fiancée, Debbie, but neither seemed to take comfort in the other. Rosa predicted that the wedding was unlikely to take place—quite possibly, Sidney would spend some time in prison—and future family reunions would prove very awkward for the cousins.

  In a show of moral support, Walter and Patricia Gainer stood next to Orville Gainer, flanked by the two police officers assigned to escort him while on house arrest. Being friendly with the judge clearly had its advantages. Dressed in a black suit and black fedora hat, the elder Gainer showed no signs of remorse on his lined face. His pale-blue eyes appeared cold and calculating as the casket chains finally went slack, and the casket touched ground at the bottom of the hole.

  The service ended, and the crowd began a slow retreat. Janet stepped in beside Rosa.

  “I regret hiring you,” she said. “I only wanted to find my brother-in-law. Had I known about Colin—”

  And her son, Sidney, Rosa thought. She said, “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Miss Reed.”

  Miss Reed. Janet had firmly placed her out of her friendship circle.

  “But family is family,” Janet continued. “We have the best lawyers money can buy. If there’s a loophole, we’ll find it.” She lowered her voice. “If not, we’ll make one.”

  Rosa shivered. She sincerely hoped that Janet Gainer’s threats were empty. Either way, there would be more arrests. She wondered how much Janet knew about the Ponzi scheme?

  “Once again,” Rosa said kindly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Turning away, Rosa slowly walked to her car. To her surprise, Miguel, dressed in a dark suit and sunglasses leaned against it. As she approached, he took off his sunglasses, tucked them into his shirt pocket, and straightened.

  “That’s right, Detective Belmonte,” Rosa said with a hint of a smile. “You’d better not let me catch you leaning against my Corvette.”

  Miguel smiled, pulled out a handkerchief, and made a mock gesture of dusting off a spot on the car’s fender. But when Rosa reached him and leaned on the fender, Miguel resumed his spot. They stared ahead, watching the funeral attendees. Most were still chatting while some drifted back to their cars.

  “I wouldn’t have gotten on that boat, if not for you,” Miguel finally remarked.

  Rosa hummed.

  “I start lessons in two weeks.”

  Rosa crossed her arms. “Good to hear it.”

  Miguel lifted his chin. “I get to save your life next time.”

  “Be my guest.” A smile tugged at one corner of Rosa’s mouth.

  “Probably won’t be in water, but maybe some other way.”

  “I am sure it will be very heroic,” she offered.

  There was a long silence.

  “Nice gun,” Miguel said.

  “Glad you like it. It has a two-inch barrel.”

  “I noticed that. That’s pretty neat.”

  “Thank you.”

  Another long silence.

  “Rosa, I…”

  “How is the Ponzi case coming along?” Rosa somehow knew Miguel wanted to talk about Charlene Winters and Larry Rayburn, but didn’t want to have a conversation right now. She could easily read him because he wasn’t the type to hide his feelings. It was one of the things that had first drawn her to him all those years ago. Things had been complicated then, and they were complicated now. Suddenly, Rosa desperately found herself wanting an uncomplicated life, and that meant trying to keep an emotional distance from Miguel Belmonte.

  “Um, it’s going okay.” Miguel put on his sunglasses again. He seemed to understand. “Sanchez and I spoke to Walter Gainer yesterday. H
e’s willing to testify in court about what he learned from Dieter Braun.”

  Rosa wondered if Walter Gainer would go through with it. After what Janet had said about the family, Rosa wouldn’t be surprised if they circled the wagons.

  “We also now have FBI documents in our possession showing funds were being transferred from prospective Saffron investors directly to Orville Gainer via offshore accounts. I have testimony from Dieter’s associate in Los Angeles, Melvyn Freeman, the one who originally told Dieter about the Ponzi scheme.” Miguel took a small step back. “We are almost ready to make arrests. In the meantime, Orville Gainer is under house arrest and Sidney Gainer is under close police surveillance. No one is going to leave town. Old man Gainer doesn’t know everything we have on him, but he certainly knows some of it, as does Sidney Gainer. They must be sweating in their boots right now. We’ll get them.”

  Miguel paused and shifted his weight as he crossed his arms and looked at Rosa. “There is one thing I don’t understand; why did you withhold certain information from me in the beginning? It’s not like you, and I don’t believe it’s because you wanted the credit of solving the murder on your own.”

  Rosa sighed. “Orville Gainer threatened to have you kicked out of the force if you got too close.” She glanced up, unsure how he’d react to that news. “He says he still has a lot of leverage with someone high up in the police administration. Orville Gainer doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who makes a threat unless he thinks he can carry it out.”

  Miguel had his sunglasses on, so Rosa couldn’t see his eyes, but the way his jaw muscle protruded told her he was staring at her with smoldering anger.

  “I don’t need you to protect me, Rosa.”

  “I know.”

  He dropped his arms and stepped in front of her. “Do you? You put yourself in unnecessary danger! What if something had happened to you because of me? Do you think I could live with that?”