Murder at Midnight

by Kathi Daley

  “Yeah, it seemed suspect to me too after I thought on it a spell.”

  “You said Roxanne put him up in a room until his flight, which was scheduled for a week after he showed up on her doorstep. Do you know if he would have still been on the island at the time of her murder?”

  Phillip twisted his mouth, seeming to consider the question. “I’m trying to think back. It was a long time ago, but yeah, maybe. I remember Roxi called me and told me she was going to put Fritz up in the Seafarer Motel out on the highway because she wasn’t comfortable with him staying with her. I guess it was just about a week later that I got the call that she’d been shot.”

  “I can get the exact date she was murdered from my father, but to know for sure if it occurred before or after Mr. Meyers’s flight we’d need to know when it was scheduled or what dates she reserved the room for. I don’t suppose you kept her credit card receipts?”

  “I have everything that was here when I inherited the house. The lawyer recommended I hang on to stuff for ten years.”

  “Do you think we could take a look at the paperwork from the time of the murder?”

  “Sure. It’s in her office. Follow me.”

  When Phillip said he hadn’t touched a thing he meant it. The room was covered in a thick layer of dust. “It would seem the motel room would be on the statement Ms. Bronwyn’s received after her death. Do you have paperwork from after her death?”

  Phillip picked up a thick envelope and handed it to me. “Her attorney took care of paying off all her debts, and once that was done he brought this to me. I’m guessing you’ll find what you’re looking for in it.”

  Phillip was correct. I did find the credit card statement, which detailed expenditures from around the time of Roxanne Bronwyn’s death. There was a charge for the Seafarer Motel for eight nights beginning on October 15. That meant Fritz Meyers must not have been scheduled to fly home until October 23. I texted Dad to ask him if he remembered off hand the date of the murder. He texted back October 21.

  So, Meyers would most likely have been on the island.

  “My father saw Clifford Cramer run from his property after he responded to the call about the gunshot. Because he not only fled when he was told to freeze, then jumped from the bluff, Dad assumed he was responsible for Ms. Bronwyn’s death. He followed up with a few other leads, like his call to you, but I don’t have the sense an intensive investigation was carried out.”

  “Based on what I’ve heard, it does seem Clifford was guilty.” Phillip nodded.

  “Maybe. But if he wasn’t that means someone else was there. I wonder if any of the neighbors might have seen something. Edwina Hatfield has already said she didn’t see anything, and I know the neighbor on the other side has passed away, but what about the neighbors across the street? Do you happen to know if any of them lived here back then?”

  “Sure. Nosy Nellie has lived directly across the street since back in the day when I spent the summer here with Roxi.”

  “Nosy Nellie?”

  “Old gal. Can’t hear a thing, but she still seems to know everything that’s going on with everyone. She has herself a set of powerful binoculars and she sits up there in her attic at the top of the house and spies on everyone.”

  “So if someone else was here she may have seen them?”

  Phillip nodded. “Yeah, I guess she might have at that. Word of warning, though, if you plan to head over to talk to her. Nellie is meaner than a cougar with a splinter in his paw. You best be careful if you don’t want to get mauled.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” I started to stand up. “Before I go I have one more question. What did Fritz Meyers look like?”

  “Tall. Skinny. Big eyes in a little head.”

  “Was his hair dark or light?”

  “The guy was as bald as a cue ball.”

  “Okay, thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.”

  “Anytime, little lady. If you have anything else I can help you with you come on back. I appreciate the company.”

  I said good-bye and left. I didn’t have reason to believe Phillip was lying to me, but something felt off. I just couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.

  I still had a little bit of time before I needed to meet my father, so I decided to see if Nellie was home. I wasn’t sure how I was going to converse with a woman who was deaf because I didn’t know sign language, but I figured if she was home and willing to speak to me I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

  My first hurdle, I realized when I arrived at the woman’s front door, was how to announce my arrival. I supposed she might have a service dog or a flashing light attached to her doorbell, so I knocked and rang the bell too. I waited a full minute, then repeated the process. I figured if the bell was attached to a flashing light she might not see it right off. I was debating the idea of ringing the bell for the third time when the door flew open.

  “What do you want?”

  I froze. Should I respond? Did the woman read lips? She’d asked, so I decided to verbalize my request. “Hi. My name is Lani. I was hoping to speak to you about Roxanne Bronwyn.”

  “She’s dead.”

  Okay, so she either wasn’t totally deaf or she read lips.

  I continued. “Yes, I’m aware of that. I hoped you might have seen something on the night she was shot that would help us figure out who did it.”

  Nellie narrowed her gaze but didn’t answer right away. It looked like she was sizing me up, so I stood perfectly still and tried not to squirm.

  “Didn’t see anything.” She tried to shut the door.

  “Wait.” I put my hand on the door to hold it open. I turned to look over my shoulder at the house across the street where the murder had occurred. “I realize you don’t know me, but I really would appreciate just a few minutes of your time.”

  I turned back to the woman, who was staring at me with a blank look on her face. “I need to look at you when I speak, don’t I?”

  She nodded.

  Of course; I should have realized. “I’d really appreciate just five minutes of your time. I’m trying to figure out who killed your neighbor. I can tell you’re an intelligent woman who knows a lot more than she lets on. So, how about it? Five minutes?”

  “Five minutes,” she responded. Instead of inviting me in, she stepped out onto her porch. I guess I couldn’t blame her.

  I spoke clearly and slowly so I wouldn’t lose her. “On the night that Roxanne Bronwyn was shot a man ran from the grounds. The police officer who responded chased him.”

  “Clifford,” she stated.

  “Yes. That’s right. Did you see him run away from the police officer?”

  Nellie nodded.

  “Do you think he shot Roxanne?”

  Nellie shrugged.

  “Can you elaborate?”

  “The two were sleeping together; Clifford was at the house often. As far as I can tell, he seemed to really care about her. I saw him arrive at the property on many occasions with flowers or a gift. I can’t see why a man who cared about a woman enough to bring her flowers would kill her, and I didn’t see him enter the house the night Roxanne died.”

  “But you did see him flee?”

  “Yes, I did. It seemed he might have just arrived via the fence at the back of the property he often used to sneak in at night when the cop saw him and he ran.”

  “But you didn’t actually see him enter the grounds through the back gate?” I clarified.

  “No, I didn’t. I suppose it may be possible he was already at the house before I started watching.”

  “You speak remarkably well for someone who’s deaf.”

  “I haven’t always been deaf. It happened slowly, over time, and I learned to read lips to compensate for not hearing everything people said. And I remember how to speak. Is that really what you want to discuss with the three minutes you have left?”

  “No. I’m sorry. So, you saw Clifford running from the officer who respond
ed to the shooting, although you didn’t see him actually enter or exit the house.”

  “Isn’t that what I just said?”

  “Yes. It is. Did you see anyone other than Clifford enter the house that night?”

  “Just the cop.”

  “Okay, then did you see anyone other than the cop leave the house?”

  “Nope. Not until the next day.”

  “Who left the next day?”

  “Why, Clifford, of course.”

  Chapter 10

  If Nellie was correct about what she saw, it proved Clifford Cramer hadn’t died the night he leaped into the water. I did have to wonder, however, why he returned to Roxanne Bronwyn’s house after the police left. I needed to get going if I wanted to make it to my parents’ by eleven, so I headed in that direction. Dad had said he had news. Maybe whatever it was combined with what I’d just learned would provide us with a better idea of exactly what had happened five years ago.

  As soon as I arrived, he invited me into his office and asked me to sit down.

  “How’s Jason doing?” I asked.

  “Better. He seemed more alert today and said the tingling in his feet is all but gone. They’re even talking about letting him go home in a couple days as long as his vitals remain strong.”

  I smiled. “That’s wonderful news. Did he remember who shot him?”

  Dad shook his head. “He’s regained part of his memory leading up to the incident but still doesn’t remember who shot him. He did say he’d been following up on a hunch that the plastic bags you found in the water had at one time contained bricks of cocaine.”

  I thought back to those bags. While I hadn’t retrieved them, they’d appeared to be empty. I supposed whoever dumped Cramer and his frozen wife into the sea could have dumped the drugs as well. But why?

  “So, if the bags did contain drugs are we thinking the Cramers were involved in some sort of a drug deal?” I finally asked.

  “I’m not sure. I spoke to Justin before I went to see Jason. He said he tracked down Fritz Meyers, who admitted he’d been on the island the week before Ms. Bronwyn’s death, trying to create a situation where she’d agree to take him in. Once he realized she wasn’t going to do that he changed the date for his outgoing flight and was back in Las Vegas when she was shot. Justin checked with the airline and confirmed he had indeed left the island prior to the murder, as he claimed.”

  “So we can eliminate him as a suspect.”

  “Unless he flew home and then returned to the island immediately after, I think we can. Justin said he didn’t think he had a motive to want Roxanne Bronwyn dead. He admitted to having a thing for her and wanting her to invite him into her life, but that was it. Meyers told Justin he stopped by her house on several occasions before he finally decided to leave, and on one of those occasions Cramer was there. The two of them were arguing about something she had that he wanted. He wasn’t sure what it was, but according to what Meyers told Justin, Cramer was pretty intense about retrieving property he believed to be his.”

  I sat back to let things roll around in my mind. It seemed they were finally falling into place. “What if Clifford Cramer was looking for the drugs?” I asked. “I stopped by to speak to the neighbor directly across from the house where Roxanne Bronwyn was shot. Apparently, she likes to spy on her neighbors through binoculars. She told me that she saw him coming out of the home the morning after the shooting.”

  “So he didn’t die in the fall?”

  “Apparently not,” I confirmed.

  Dad steepled his fingers. “So, here’s what we know, or at least what we’ve been told and suspect to be true. We’ve been told Clifford Cramer was involved in some sort of business transaction with a man named Skip Sellers. He was unable to convince his friend and sometimes business partner Craig Newton to invest with him, so he had to borrow from a hard money lender who we assume was Akiyama. When Cramer couldn’t meet his repayment deadline, he offered him the services of his very attractive wife to buy more time. A masseuse who worked for the Cramers saw a man arrive at the Cramer home looking for the wife when she was leaving. We suspect it was Akiyama coming to collect the favor Cramer had promised him. The fact that Mrs. Cramer was never seen again until her arm showed up in the water last week indicates to me that the man must have taken her to another location.”

  “Okay, so Akiyama kidnaps Anastasia Cramer and then tells her husband he’ll only release her when he’s repaid the money he’s owed,” I jumped in. “Cramer has a plan to get the money, but he needs something that’s at Roxanne Bronwyn’s home to do it. Maybe drugs, maybe something else. She won’t give it to him; they struggle and he shoots her, either intentionally or accidentally. He sees you arrive, freaks out, and flees. Later, he jumps into the sea and somehow survives. He may have been familiar with the area and known exactly where to jump. He returns to Bronwyn’s home the following day to get whatever it was he was after, which is when the neighbor saw him coming out of the house.”

  My dad took over at this point. “Cramer either sells what he took from Ms. Bronwyn’s home or maybe whatever he took was what Akiyama was after all along. He tries to barter it for his wife’s release, but instead of letting her go he kills Cramer too and puts both of them on ice.”

  I frowned. “I like the theory so far, but why put the Cramers on ice? Why not just dump them in the sea or bury them in some remote location?”

  “That part does seem odd,” Dad admitted.

  “And why dump them all these years later?” I added.

  Dad didn’t answer right away. On one hand it felt like we were narrowing in on something that made sense, but on the other there were still way too many loose ends to allow us to pat ourselves on the back. Plus, the theory we’d come up with didn’t explain who’d shot Jason or dumped the Cramers’ bodies in the sea as recently as last week. Akiyama? If he did kill the Cramers it made no sense for him to dump them now. And what was up with the plastic bags? If Cramer had tried to use the cocaine to barter for his wife why would whoever killed them dump the drugs, or at least the plastic bags they’d been stored in, into the ocean?

  “Okay, what about this?” I began again. “We’ve been told Akiyama is a hard money lender. We suspect Cramer borrowed from him, then tried to use his wife to buy himself more time. We also suspect Cramer needed something Roxanne Bronwyn had hidden in her home to use to barter for his wife’s release. If Akiyama did kill the Cramers I suppose it would make sense that he would store the bodies on a property he owned. What if he recently sold the property and needed to dispose of the bodies, so he snuck them onto a boat and dumped them in the ocean? I guess one could argue that whatever was in the plastic bags could be used against him, so he disposed of that as well.”

  “We still have a theory without proof of any sort,” Dad said. “We need more.”

  Dad was right. We needed either an eyewitness or conclusive physical evidence.

  “What about the freezer?” I asked. “If Akiyama killed the Cramers and stuck the bodies in a freezer on his property, and if he sold that property, prompting him to finally dispose of the bodies, maybe we can narrow down the property. He may have disposed of the bodies but still have the freezer. If we can find that we should be able to find DNA evidence linking Akiyama with the Cramers.”

  Dad grinned. “Good thinking, Lani. Very good thinking indeed.”

  I can’t begin to explain how good his words made me feel.

  “I’m going to call a friend who should be able to get me information regarding property owned by Akiyama five years ago and anything he’s recently sold. Maybe we can find a location,” he said. “Once we have that we’ll go take a look. If we can find the freezer the Cramers were kept in all these years we might really have something. In the meantime, I’m going to call Justin to see if we can verify that the man the masseuse saw was indeed the one we suspect had come to collect a debt.”

  “Okay. I’ll say hello to Mom and the kids while you do it. I think I saw them
out by the pool. Just holler when you’re ready.”

  I was happy to see Kala and Kale were relaxed and having a good time, but I wondered why they weren’t in school. It was, after all, a Monday. I sat down next to my mother, who was watching the kids from the shade and asked that question.

  “Alana is going to take them home when she gets back from the hospital,” Mom explained. “It’s time for them to get back to their normal life now that Jason’s doing better. The kids didn’t want to go to school until they felt better about their father, so Alana agreed to keep them out of school today so they could get settled back in their own home.”

  “I guess that makes sense. I heard Jason might be able to go home this week.”

  “Yes,” Mom answered. “He’s doing much better. I overheard the doctor speaking to Alana about releasing him as early as Wednesday or Thursday.”

  I squeezed Mom’s hand. “That’s great news. I was pretty scared there for a while.”

  “We all were, but Jason is strong. I knew he’d pull through.”

  “It was kind of nice having all the other brothers here all at once,” I said.

  “It’s been a long time,” Mom said. “I spoke to them about coming home for Christmas. John said he’d planned to come anyway and Jimmy said he’d already asked for the time off. It’s our year to have Jason, Alana, and the kids, and Justin said he’d try to work out his shifts to be here for dinner. Which just leaves Jeff. He said he’d talk to Candy about it, but we both know she isn’t likely to want to spend the holiday with me.”

  “You could apologize,” I said. Mom had made it very clear she’d thought Jeff had made a huge mistake when he married Candy, and the two women had been at odds ever since.

  “Yes, perhaps it’s time. I thought she’d break his heart by this point, but they seem to be making it work.” Mom turned and looked directly at me. “How about you and Luke? Can I count on you as well?”

  “You can count on me, but I don’t know what Luke’s plans are. I guess you know he’s still in Texas.”