Murder at Midnight

by Kathi Daley

  Murder at Midnight

  by

  Kathi Daley

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Katherine Daley

  Version 1.0

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Up Next From Kathi Daley Books

  Recipes from Readers

  Scones with a Flavor Twist

  Nana’s Banana Bread

  No-Name Cake

  Tropical Treat Bread

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Giveaway:

  I want to thank the very talented Jessica Fischer for the cover art.

  I so appreciate Bruce Curran, who is always ready and willing to answer my cyber questions, and Peggy Hyndman, for helping sleuth out those pesky typos.

  A special thank you to Joanne Kocourek, Darla Taylor, Patty Liu, and Vivian Shane for submitting recipes.

  And, of course, thanks to the readers and bloggers in my life, who make doing what I do possible.

  Thank you to Randy Ladenheim-Gil for the editing.

  And finally I want to thank my sister Christy for always lending an ear and my husband Ken for allowing me time to write by taking care of everything else.

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Come for the murder, stay for the romance.

  Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery:

  Halloween Hijinks

  The Trouble With Turkeys

  Christmas Crazy

  Cupid’s Curse

  Big Bunny Bump-off

  Beach Blanket Barbie

  Maui Madness

  Derby Divas

  Haunted Hamlet

  Turkeys, Tuxes, and Tabbies

  Christmas Cozy

  Alaskan Alliance

  Matrimony Meltdown

  Soul Surrender

  Heavenly Honeymoon

  Hopscotch Homicide

  Ghostly Graveyard

  Santa Sleuth

  Shamrock Shenanigans

  Kitten Kaboodle

  Costume Catastrophe

  Candy Cane Caper

  Holiday Hangover

  Easter Escapade

  Camp Carter

  Trick or Treason

  Reindeer Roundup – December 2017

  Zimmerman Academy The New Normal

  Ashton Falls Cozy Cookbook

  Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries by Henery Press:

  Pumpkins in Paradise

  Snowmen in Paradise

  Bikinis in Paradise

  Christmas in Paradise

  Puppies in Paradise

  Halloween in Paradise

  Treasure in Paradise

  Fireworks in Paradise – October 2017

  Beaches in Paradise – June 2018

  Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery:

  Romeow and Juliet

  The Mad Catter

  Grimm’s Furry Tail

  Much Ado About Felines

  Legend of Tabby Hollow

  Cat of Christmas Past

  A Tale of Two Tabbies

  The Great Catsby

  Count Catula

  The Cat of Christmas Present

  A Winter’s Tail

  The Taming of the Tabby

  Frankencat

  The Cat of Christmas Future – November 2017

  The Cat of New Orleans – February 2018

  Seacliff High Mystery:

  The Secret

  The Curse

  The Relic

  The Conspiracy

  The Grudge

  The Shadow

  The Haunting

  Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery:

  Murder at Dolphin Bay

  Murder at Sunrise Beach

  Murder at the Witching Hour

  Murder at Christmas

  Murder at Turtle Cove

  Murder at Water’s Edge

  Murder at Midnight

  Writers’ Retreat Southern Seashore Mystery:

  First Case

  Second Look

  Third Strike

  Fourth Victim – October 2017

  Fifth Night – January 2018

  Rescue Alaska Paranormal Mystery:

  Finding Justice – November 2017

  A Tess and Tilly Mystery:

  The Christmas Letter – December 2017

  Road to Christmas Romance:

  Road to Christmas Past

  Chapter 1

  Thursday, October 26

  When is a broken watch found on the arm of a dead body a clue and when is it just a decoy? That was the question I’d been pondering since early this morning when I found the body of a man everyone thought had been dead for the past five years at the bottom of the bluff at Sunrise Beach.

  “Earth to Lani,” my cousin, roommate, and best friend Kekoa Pope said as she waved her hand in front of my face. We were sitting in the outdoor café at the Dolphin Bay Resort, where she worked in customer relations and I worked as a water safety officer.

  I glanced at Kekoa and tried desperately to remember what she’d been rambling on about. “I’m sorry, what were we talking about?”

  “The Halloween party next week and the awesome costume I just spent five minutes detailing. This body really has you preoccupied, which sort of surprises me. I’d think you’d be used to stumbling across bodies on the beach by now.”

  Kekoa had a point. I did seem to find more than my share of murder victims on or near the beach. “It’s not that I found the body of a man at the bottom of the cliff that has me distracted; it’s that the man I found has been dead for five years, yet he looked as if he couldn’t have been dead for more than a few hours.”

  “They never did find the man’s body five years ago. It seems obvious he didn’t actually die when everyone thought he did.”

  “Perhaps,” I acknowledged. “But my gut tells me otherwise.”

  Kekoa was about to respond when her phone rang. It was her boss, so she excused herself to take the call. That was fine by me because it gave me the opportunity to go over everything again in my mind.

  Five years ago, my father, who’s now retired but at the time had been an active detective for the Honolulu Police Department, had been investigating a series of homicides on the island and was pulling a late shift. He was heading home when a call came over the radio regarding the sound of a gunshot from a nearby oceanfront home. He just happened to be passing by the gated community, so he responded and discovered a woman lying dead on the floor in the master bedroom. My father had been able to respond within minutes of receiving the call, so he’d suspected the killer could still be close by. He called for backup and then went outside to look around. He was about to return to the murder scene when he saw a man running from the grounds out of the corner of his eye. He gave chase and, eventually, the men ended up at the edge of the bluff at Sunrise Beach. The man my dad was chasing must have realized he was trapped because he jumped from the bluff into the ocean. His body was never found, but my dad was certain the man couldn’t have survived the fall into the rocky sea. It was assumed he’d been swept away by the strong tide the a
rea was known for.

  My father soon found out the female gunshot victim in the bedroom was Roxanne Bronwyn, an heiress who was famous for the parties she threw and the men she dated. During the investigation of the homicide, he’d learned Anastasia Cramer, a neighbor who lived two doors down from Bronwyn, had been reported missing by her sister after she failed to show up for a family reunion she was expected to attend. Although my father was a homicide detective and didn’t usually investigate missing persons cases, he’d felt the two events could be related, so he’d gone to the Cramer home to look around. He’d found blood on the lanai that was confirmed to have belonged to her. He’d also found a photo of the man he’d seen jump into the sea, who’d turned out to be her husband, Clifford Cramer.

  My father’s investigation uncovered the fact that Mr. Cramer had been rumored to be having an affair with Bronwyn. When Mrs. Cramer never was found, it was assumed she must have found out about her husband’s infidelity, confronted him, and for reasons no one was able to ascertain, he had killed her as well. Cramer was presumed dead after his leap into the sea and, after no further evidence turned up, the investigation had been shelved.

  My father was never happy the case had been abandoned without solid proof of what had actually occurred, but there’d been a serial killer on the loose on the South Shore of Oahu, and his boss had wanted him to focus his energy on that more immediate case. The fact that Clifford Cramer’s body had showed up at the bottom of the bluff at Sunrise Beach just this morning indicated to me that my father had been right to suspect the case wasn’t as open and shut as assumed.

  “Sorry about that,” Kekoa said, sitting back down across from me. “He’s been on a rampage lately, and because layoffs seem to be imminent, it’s best to pacify him when I can.”

  “It’s not a problem. I was just thinking about the implications of finding the body of a man who’d been considered to be dead for five years.”

  “I know it was quite a shock, but like I said before, the fact that you found his body sort of proves he didn’t die when everyone thought he did,” Kekoa pointed out.

  She was probably correct, but my mind refused to accept the obvious answer as the only answer. “You’ve been to Sunrise Beach. There’s very little chance a person could survive a fall onto the rocks at the bottom of the bluff even if it was high tide. And that’s not all. Jason confirmed that the report Dad filed five years ago stated that the confrontation on the bluff took place at midnight. The watch on Cramer’s arm was broken, the dial frozen at twelve o’clock.”

  “Maybe whoever killed him last night knew about the police report and staged things,” Kekoa suggested.

  I supposed it could have happened that way, but my imagination wouldn’t quite let go of the idea that there was more to Clifford Cramer’s death then met the eye.

  “What are we talking about?” Our other roommate and Kekoa’s current love interest, Cam Carrington, asked, as he joined us.

  “We’re talking about the likelihood of a man dying at the same time and place everyone thought he did five years earlier,” Kekoa answered, after he gave her a quick kiss on the lips and sat down next to her.

  “Maybe you should catch me up because so far, I’m lost,” Cam, who was also a water safety officer at the resort, commented.

  “I found a body at the bottom of the bluff at Sunrise Beach when I arrived to go surfing there this morning. It was early; the sun hadn’t even risen over the horizon. The victim, I realized, was a man my dad saw jump from the bluff nearly five years ago. My mind tells me there’s no way the man could have washed up on the beach five years after his death without showing any obvious signs of decay, but it appears that’s exactly what happened.”

  “It seems a time warp or alien abduction are the only plausible explanations,” Cam said in response to my story. “While they both seem feasible, I’m going to go with the man having been scooped up in a time warp five years ago and spit back out this morning.”

  “Cam’s theory would explain a lot.” I nodded.

  “Sure, if this were a science fiction movie, but it isn’t,” Kekoa insisted. “In the current reality time warps don’t exist, so the only plausible explanation is that Cramer didn’t die five years ago and someone killed him last night. What does Jason think?”

  Jason was the second oldest of my five brothers and a detective for the Honolulu Police Department. He’d also been the first one to respond to my call that morning.

  “He agrees with Kekoa that Clifford Cramer must not have died five years ago, but he did think it odd that the watch had stopped at twelve o’clock.” I glanced at the waterproof watch on my arm. “Speaking of watches, I need to get back to my tower, but I’ll see you both back at the condo after work. If you aren’t busy maybe we can head to the beach.”

  “I’m in,” Cam said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Kekoa seconded. “Is Luke still visiting his family in Texas?”

  I nodded. My boyfriend, Luke Austin, had taken off for Texas without a moment’s notice when his father was injured in a horseback riding accident. He’d asked his friend, Brody Waller, who lived in his pool house, to care for his dogs and horses until he returned. I thought it would be a quick trip, but he’d already been gone for more than three weeks. “Based on his last estimate he should be back next week as long as his father continues to improve.”

  “How is he doing?” Kekoa asked.

  I let out a breath. “I’m not sure. Luke tries to put on a brave face whenever we Skype, but I can tell he’s worried. He says his father gets a little stronger every day, but I get the feeling he’s far from being able to return to his previous life.”

  “Do you think Luke will stay in Texas to help out with the ranch if his father doesn’t improve?” Cam asked.

  My stomach churned at the thought. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “Luke does have his horse ranch on Oahu to see to, but his family ranch in Texas is more than twenty times the size of Luke’s enterprise. Luke has twelve horses while his dad has hundreds of cows. He does have two brothers who could help, but they each have their own ranches to deal with. Luke has said many times that he isn’t interested in moving back to Texas, but I’m not certain he would turn his family down if they really needed him.”

  Kekoa gave my shoulder a squeeze. “There’s absolutely no reason to worry about something that may never happen. I say we leave the stress of the day behind and head to the beach as you suggested.”

  “I’m all for some downtime. Let’s bring some burgers and an ice chest full of beer. I’m off tomorrow, so I may as well enjoy the evening.”

  “Shredder is out of town, but maybe we can ask Sean and Kevin if they want to join us,” Cam added.

  Shredder, who’d never revealed his last name to us, Sean Trainor, and Kevin Green all lived in the same condominium we did.

  “I’ll call to ask them,” I offered as I got up from my chair. “Brody is off today, but I’ll call him as well.”

  Once I arrived at my tower I was updated on the current activity on the beach and water I’d been hired to protect by my boss, Mitch Hamilton, who’d taken over for me so I could have a break.

  “A riptide warning is in place for the far south end of the beach,” Mitch informed me. “So far, it hasn’t been a problem, but you should keep an eye on it.”

  “Okay; anything else?”

  “The group of surfers over near the jetty seems to have been drinking. I’ve already issued them several warnings about veering out of the surf zone into the swimming area. If they cause you any problems call security and we’ll see about having them removed from the water. Other than that, it’s been quiet. I did have one kid who cut his leg while climbing on the rocks, but I got him patched up.”

  “Thanks, Mitch. Will you be doing late-afternoon breaks as well?”

  “Yeah.” Mitch sighed. “Resort management wants me to cut my budget by twenty percent. The only way that’s going to happen is if I spend some time on the sand.
”

  “They still talking layoffs?”

  Mitch nodded. “Laying people off is my least favorite part of my job.”

  “Maybe we can work it out so everyone gives up a few hours so no one has to lose their job. I’m currently on four tens. I’d be willing to go to four eights or three tens plus a short shift to give breaks until things pick up. If three of the others did that as well, one of the guards you’d otherwise have had to let go could stay on to cover the eight hours each of us donated to the cause.”

  “You’d do that?” Mitch looked surprised.

  I shrugged. “Sure. To help out a friend. Jess is leaving at the end of the month anyway, so I’m assuming Makena is on the top of your cut list. I bet Cam and Brody would be all right with the idea if it meant she could stay on.”

  Mitch smiled. “I like the idea. I’ll speak to Cam and Brody and, just to be fair, I’ll make sure Drake agrees to the cut as well.”

  “Or, just another thought, you could fire Drake.” Everyone knew Drake Longboard and I got along about as well as oil and water, but Mitch seemed to like him, so I doubted he’d end up on the chopping block no matter what happened.

  It seemed like the cycle of layoffs followed by a mass hiring occurred every year. The summers were busy and then things dropped off in the fall, only to pick up again by Christmas. The resort management needed to figure out a better way of managing the employees if they wanted to attract and keep quality personnel.

  “Excuse me, miss,” a tall, thin woman with short blond hair said from the foot of my tower as Mitch walked away.

  “How can I help you?”

  “My son, Toby, is sure he saw a shark in the water.”

  I grabbed my binoculars. “Where?”

  “Over near the group on that large yellow raft. He thinks you should make them get out at once.”

  I searched the area slowly, methodically looking for a fin, but didn’t see anything even remotely alarming. I glanced back down at the woman. “Where’s your son exactly?”

  “Over there by the waterline. He’s wearing dark blue swim trunks.”

  I glanced in the direction in which the woman was pointing. I’d seen the boy with the group on the raft earlier in the day. I grabbed my rescue can and jumped down from the tower. “I’m going to go talk to your son. If you could stay right here and listen for the radio, that would be great. If someone calls for me come and get me.”