Watson Manor My Journey Home (Watson Manor Mystery Series Book 4)

by Ronald S. Craig

  *****

  Charlie and Jenny walked into Central Headquarters in Belize City and asked for Ben Cordona, the Commissioner of Police. They gave their names and were asked to have a seat. A few minutes later, a police sergeant approached them. "Mr. and Mrs. Watson, please follow me, the Commissioner is expecting you."

  They followed the sergeant back and entered the office he'd directed them into and pulled the door closed behind them.

  "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Watson I'm Commissioner, Ben Cordona." He came around his desk to greet them. "Please have a seat, I'm sorry to report things don't look good for your friend, Don Richards."

  "I'm Charlie and this is Jenny. We couldn't be more shocked, Mr. Cordona."

  "Please have a seat," he repeated as he walked back around his desk and sat down. "FBI Agent Baker had informed me of the warrant for Brittney Scott and wanted to wait until he also had one for Henry McBride. We understood both you and Don Richards were here trying to locate them."

  "Yes, that's true," Charlie told him.

  "I also understand from our customs department, you didn't arrive at the same time as Richards, did you see him once you'd arrived?"

  "No, he'd not returned our phone calls and we couldn't locate his rented car in town here," Charlie said.

  "Why are you holding Don for this?" Jenny asked.

  "The motive has been made further clear after hearing the message Brittney Scott left for Don Richards. We have his fingerprints at the scene and he was trying to leave Belize on the first flight out late last night. We also …" He paused at the knock on his door. "Come in!"

  "Sir, there is blood matching Scott's in his rental car."

  "Thank you Detective," he said and the man left his doorway, pulling the door closed. Cordona turned back to Charlie and Jenny. "I have two teenage daughters; I understand his rage, but can't condone his actions."

  "It doesn't make sense. Can we talk to him, Commissioner Cordona?" Jenny asked.

  "Yes, of course. I'll have Detective Ramirez take you back."

  "We were told by Agent Baker that McBride was found in the car, was Scott's body recovered?" Charlie asked.

  "Her blood was discovered in the vehicle and trailed to the water where it appeared she'd been dragged, maybe to a small boat. Divers are looking for her remains, but a bloody corpse in our ocean would disappear quickly to reef sharks."

  "If he had a boat, why wouldn't he take them both out into the ocean?"

  "A very good question. Maybe he'll tell you his reason. We can understand his taking more time telling Scott goodbye." He hit the intercom button on his desk. "Will you have Detective Ramirez come to my office and take the Watson's back to see Don Richards in holding?" He turned back and faced the Watsons. "In a case like this, I'd normally look at you two more suspiciously, but Agent Baker couldn't speak more highly of you two. Ramirez will be here in a few moments, and again, I am very sorry for your friend, Don Richards."

  There was a knock at the door and the detective stepped into the office. "Mr. and Mrs. Watson, I'm Detective Ramirez. I'll take you both to see Don Richards now." Charlie and Jenny stood up to follow him and Ramirez paused at the door and turned back toward Commissioner Cordona. "Sir, can we release the rental car back to Budget now?"

  Cordona looked between Charlie and Jenny, thought a moment and said, "Ramirez, we'll hold it a few more days. Have it gone over with a fine toothed comb, inside and out."

  Chapter 34

  Charlie and I hadn't known Don Richards very long and as we rode the elevator down to the holding area, without more than a brief look at Don with his family at Watson Manor, I had to accept that maybe being pushed to protect his daughter, Sandy, he could have done this. I was thinking about what Commissioner Cordona had said, 'I understand his rage, but can't condone his actions' and I tried to put myself in Don's place, my daughter and I wouldn't have tortured Brittney, but I would have eliminated her as a threat, whatever that took.

  The elevator doors opened and Charlie took my hand as we followed Detective Ramirez down a hallway. I'd expected to see Don gripping the bars of a jail cell, but we were led to a small room beyond the row of cells. "You have ten minutes and I'll return to let you out," Ramirez said and opened the door.

  Seeing Don was physically painful, handcuffed to a metal table, in that windowless cinderblock room, his shoulders slumped in defeat, confusion and pain in his eyes shifting to a mire glimmer of hope when he spotted us. "Jenny, Charlie what in the world are you doing here?"

  "If you'd checked your phone, Don, you'd know we were right behind you," Charlie said as we sat down in the chairs across from him.

  "We came … to help you, to prevent this," I told him.

  "I don't know what happened to my phone. I remember holding it and thinking, 'in the morning I'll check' because I had to know my story about my brother was still in place. In the morning it was nowhere to be found. Charlie, Jenny I don't know what happened out there, I'd not found Brittney yet."

  "They have your fingerprints at the scene, her blood was in your car," Charlie said.

  "I was there, Charlie, but shit, is it possible I've blocked it so completely from my mind?"

  "What do you remember, Don?" I asked him.

  "I was on the ground and woke up, kinda foggy and saw the Jeep. The passenger door was open and I walked over. Blood was everywhere and it looked like McBride was in the driver's seat, dead, his throat cut. There was blood on my hands and clothes and I heard sirens coming. I ran to my car, keys were in the ignition and it started and I slammed it in drive, but it wouldn't move, I was stuck and the sirens were getting louder. I saw the parking brake was on and releasing it freed me. I had no idea where I was and drove away from the approaching sirens."

  "You don't remember seeing McBride or Scott anywhere here?" Charlie asked him.

  "Not before that moment, I never saw Brittney. I may have hated her so deep inside of me, but to slice her up like they're telling me I did, no. I'd have broken her neck."

  "I don't think you want to tell them that, Don, your preferred method is not a great defense. We're here to help and suggest you get a lawyer before talking to them. What do you remember before you woke up there?" I asked.

  "I'd just finished dinner in a small restaurant down the street from my hotel, I'd had a beer and she brought another, said it was on the house. All of my running around seemed to catch up with me and I couldn't wait to get back to my room and sleep."

  "Did the police test you, draw any blood?" Charlie asked.

  "No. It makes more sense if I'd been drugged, but who would do that? Why?"

  "Charlie, we need to check this out. Don, where were you staying?"

  "The Stanley House, in Dangriga."

  "Your waitress, did you catch her name?"

  "I'd eaten there several times, Mary, Marie, no Maggie, I think. Young and friendly, maybe early twenties, white gal, probably from the states. Do Linda and Sandy know I've been arrested for this?"

  "Not from us, Don, but we'll let them know we're doing everything we can to straighten this out," I told him and hoped it gave him some sense of support. "Don, what have you told the police?"

  "That I'd never found them and it was time to go home."

  There was a knock and the door opened. "That's all for now," Ramirez said holding the door for us to leave.

  "We'll find the truth, Don," was all I could offer him as we left the room. Charlie and I didn't say anything until we'd reached our Jeep.

  "They have everything they need to convict him, Jenny. His fingerprints at the scene, would asking them to test him for drugs, indicate we knew he was there? We need to prove he was driven there, if that's what really happened?"

  "I believe him, Charlie. Think about it, Don follows them to this remote site, late at night, sneaks up on McBride, cuts his throat and Brittney just sits there waiting for Don to run around the Jeep to stab her in the passenger seat? No way! There is something else we need to find out before we leave here, Don
heard sirens approaching? Why?"

  We walked back into the headquarters building and asked for Commissioner Cardona again. The desk officer made the call and before we could sit down he approached us. "Please come with me, Mr. and Mrs. Watson." We followed him and instead of turning right back to his office we went left and at the end of that hall a sign beside the door indicated 'Crime Lab'. He held the door open and we entered the first area, a clean room with computers, microscopes and lots of lab equipment, I couldn't tell their functions to save my life.

  "Commissioner Cardona, Charlie and I were wondering how the police responded so quickly at night to the remote scene?"

  "Call me Ben and please understand that I am seeking the truth, not a slam-dunk conviction. We are holding Don Richards as a 'person of interest', he's not under arrest at this point. To answer your question, the Placencia Police Department received a call that a woman's scream was heard as they were driving past the crime scene. The caller would not give his name and simply hung up after giving the location of the heard scream. The call was made from a phone booth in Placencia."

  "Was the Jeep visible from the road?" I asked him.

  "No, in fact the police were told that the location of the scream was fifteen miles north of the Placencia City sign, and they still wasted an additional thirty minutes finding the crime scene." He walked over to one of the counters. "Our ME has confirmed this is the knife used to murder Henry McBride and that’s his blood and Don Richards' fingerprints are on the handle." He looked between Charlie and me to ensure that we were understanding him. "I want to emphasize, Don's perfect fingerprints. What wasn't on this knife was any of Brittney Scott's blood that was found all over the passenger's side of the Jeep. Strange?"

  "And I'll bet the knife wasn't hard to find," Charlie said.

  "In the brush, ten-fifteen feet from the Jeep and not along the path her body had, appeared … to be dragged."

  "Appeared to be dragged?" My hope that I understood what his implications were was clear in my voice.

  "We believe Brittney Scott had at least two accomplices to stage this scene. Her fingerprints were on the steering wheel of the Jeep and traces of a fast acting, fast dissipating drug was found in Henry McBride, who'd look, with the cause of death so evident? Don's rental car was at the scene, the soil is distinctly more acidic there and tire tracks match. A rental, fingerprints everywhere. We think their intent was for us to find him at the scene or they would have delayed the bogus phone call. We've been looking at the airport surveillance camera feeds for Brittney Scott without any luck. Can I impose on the two of you to sit with our technician; maybe you'll see something there?"

  "Absolutely! I can't tell how relieved we are that you have seen through the setup." I told him. He smiled and led us to a room with multiple flat paneled screens showing different locations throughout the airport.

  "Ellen, this is Charlie and Jenny Watson they may be helpful with our investigation."

  He turned to leave and I asked him, "Will Don be released?"

  "Everything I've told you is still contingent on finding Brittney Scott alive. Overwhelming evidence is suggestive of foul play, but not conclusive of it."

  "Hello Charlie and Jenny, I'll start these over from last night about three hours after the TOD of Henry McBride. Fortunately our airport it's not LAX and we can fast forward through slow times and we are not looking at arrivals but only departures."

  "Thanks Ellen," I said taking a seat.

  We'd seen the police pulling Don Richards out of the boarding gate and she switched to slow motion as we scanned the other passengers. Ellen expertly got us to that morning's surveillance videos in about thirty minutes and we'd learned she'd slowed down the feeds as the rental shuttles and customers started filling the unloading areas outside.

  "There, stop. Jenny, look at screen three!" Ellen backed it up slightly and forwarded it slowly.

  "Is that someone I should know, Charlie?"

  "That’s right, you wouldn't remember him. It doesn’t make any sense at all," Charlie said. "We need to see what flight he gets on, get the manifest. Ellen, can you get a better look at the car that dropped him off, first?" She backed it up and was even able to zoom in on it. She hit a few keys and a printer fired up.

  "Coming right up, Charlie with license plates. Now let's follow him to the gate, I take it you know him, got a name?"

  "That's Don Richard's boss, Walter Price," Charlie said in disbelief.

  "Jenny as I find his flight, if you'd give the name to Commissioner Cordona we can run his prints against the partials prints they've found."

  "Great work Ellen, I'll tell him right away," I said and hurried back to the lab to report what we'd found.

  "Jenny that's great," Cordova said. "Across the highway from the crime scene we had two sets of fresh tire tracks and some broken glass with some partial prints."

  "Ben, something else Don said, what was it? He was there, we're beyond that, he woke up and saw the scene, but he couldn't get away? The parking brake was set; I guess Don never uses them, so check the parking brake handle in Don's rental car for Price's prints." Ben looked at me with the strangest expression and a smile covered his face. "What?" I asked him.

  "FBI Special Agent Baker drastically understated you two." He turned to his staff in the lab and said, "A day off with pay for the first one to find Walter Price's prints from our crime scene."

  Chapter 35

  Charlie joined Jenny and Commissioner Cordona in the lab with the United Airlines flight number Walter Price had boarded ninety minutes earlier for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.

  "Ok people," Cordona said, looking around the room, "we need Walter Price's prints, anybody want that day off with pay?"

  "Sir, I got it! Do I have to split the day off with Mrs. Watson?" the tech asked.

  "Parking brake as she suggested?"

  "Yes Sir."

  "Partial on the glass too, Sir, and also traces of Brittney Scott's blood."

  "That's how they took her blood to the scene," he concluded.

  "Commissioner, Ben, this is your call to Agent Baker, they can grab Price at the gate in Dallas," Charlie said. "His flight is still in the air."

  "He pulled his phone off of his belt and called FBI Agent Baker and brought him up to speed. They would hold Walter Price in Dallas, but he'd be returned to Belize for the murder charge.

  "When we spoke with Don, he mentioned in Dangriga, a small cafe a block from Stanley House where the waitress brought him a complimentary beer. He said she was young, white gal, named Maggie he thought. I'll bet a photo of Price or Scott would be who paid her to deliver the drugged beer," Jenny told him.

  "Before Jenny and I go looking at beachfront property, can we take a phone back to Don, explain what's happening and let him call his wife and daughter?"

  "I'll send Detective Ramirez to the cafe, after he takes you to see Don Richards. Confirmation from the cafe and I can release him. His boss being involved in this whole thing clouds Mr. Richards' involvement. Sorry, I need more than my gut feeling to let him go."

  "We understand, thank you," Jenny told him.

  Cordona handed Charlie one of his business cards. If you find the right property, call before you close the deal. Support is close and available. I'll get an APB out for Brittney Scott also."

  Charlie and Jenny spent thirty minutes with Don, this time, he was in the cell, and half of those thirty minutes, they were listening to Don's side of the conversation with his family.

  There was only about an hour of sunlight left when Charlie and Jenny reached Dangriga and were on the hard packed dirt coast road heading north. The trees and foliage blocked most of their view of the ocean as the road jogged away from the ocean for beachfront properties. Charlie stopped at what appeared to be the initial construction of a sign with a water feature to replace the very weathered, dangling painted plywood sign indicating 'Dangriga Resorts'. There were five resorts listed on the sign with mileage ahead listed.

&nb
sp; "This falls into our eighty mile radius, Jenny."

  "Looks like a resort ghost town and good place to hide from the world." Jenny took a photo of the sign with her camera. "I didn't see the name of this road and don't expect we'll see addresses, we'll need to tell them the old resort name, I guess."

  "Works for me." Charlie pulled away from the sign and drove slowly toward the first break in the trees. A cable was drawn across the entrance with a 'No Trespassing' sign hanging in the middle. "If it was a gate, we'd look. This place hasn't seen travel for some time." The next break in the trees a half-mile further down was gated and the gate was open. He pulled onto what little shoulder was available and they walked cautiously through the gate.

  "All we need is to see her car, Charlie."

  "You sound like I have a need to carry her into headquarters. I'm perfectly happy pointing, from a distance."

  The area around the "Paradise Resort" had been recently cleared and the hotel was under construction, equipment scattered around and some new stud framing along one side. The workers had left for the day and all appeared desolate.

  "Maybe he drove her out to see it, but they stayed in town, Charlie."

  "Let's walk around the hotel; she could be in an area already completed. We have three more, as you put it, ghost town resorts." There were no lights on inside and the Land Rover they'd seen Walter Price get out of at the airport wasn't there either. They walked back to their Jeep on the main dirt road.

  Jenny pulled out her phone and looked at Charlie. "I've just got to know they have Price in custody."

  "Make the call, Jenny. If it's not good news, keep it to yourself." It was a brief call and Charlie had all the answers he need from watching the smile light up her face.

  "He was traveling as Frank Simmons. Where's this Alias-R-Us place handing out fake ID's and passports?"

  "Let's be thankful that, Alias-R-Us is not offering a 'Disguise-4-You' special, and we found Price." They rolled past the third resort, 'Sea Side' as the entrance was adorned with two broken down and stripped cars dropped lengthwise. 'Keep Out' was spray painted along the side facing the road.