A Game of Greed and Deception: A Mystery Drama

by John Mathews

  “Exactly. They were just some local kids that didn’t know any better. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. I think the parents were more to blame.”

  “That’s usually the case with teens. And there haven’t been any other major crimes in the last three years?”

  “None that I can recall.”

  “That’s really amazing. We’ve kept up the safest winter tourist spot this side of the Mississippi.” David leaned back in his chair, but his fingernails kept tapping on the office desk. “So then what in the hell happened up there at the Dilinger Resort Cabin?”

  Gerald re-filled his cup of coffee and glanced down at the folders before looking David in the eye. “It’s like a scene from a fucking horror movie. In twenty years on the force, I’ve never seen such a thing. Granted, I do small town work, but still…this type of stuff just doesn’t happen up here.”

  Gerald paused to take a sip of the piping hot beverage. “A psycho bitch, that’s what we’ve got here. A greedy, crazy, sociopathic bitch. She brought her family up to the mountains to torture and kill them. And she bludgeoned one of our own men.”

  David gave a faint nod. “Go over the case and evidence with me, Gerry. Lay this out for me one step at a time. What did the preliminary investigation show? What kind of evidence do we have?”

  “Let’s start at the beginning. We received a distress call late Friday evening – well I guess Saturday morning technically, January 15th, around 12:30 am. A woman by the name of Tammy Worthington called to report her husband missing. She said that she came up to the cabin with him and her step-daughter for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary. They had dinner at a nearby restaurant and then checked into the cabin. She told me that he went out in the car shortly after eating and hadn’t returned. She was worried that something had happened to him. I figured it was just the usual car stuck in the snow somewhere and he probably went to one of the local hotels and didn’t have any cell phone service.”

  “What about a lovers quarrel? Could they have gotten into an argument over dinner and he didn’t want to come back for a while?”

  “Well, I asked her about that, and she vehemently denied them getting into any kind of fight.”

  “Got it. So she called, gave you her name, and was concerned and upset that her husband had not come back? Did you get photographs of the husband online?”

  “I didn’t ask for photographs but got his name and detailed description. So I told her to wait until morning and see if he contacted her. I went to bed not thinking much of it. The next morning, she calls again all frantic, waking me up to tell me that there was no heat and she and her stepdaughter were freezing up there.”

  “So did you send someone out to check on them?”

  “I couldn’t, really. You know how bad the roads got in that storm. It was the worst blizzard we’ve seen in a few years. I wasn’t about to overreact to some city chick getting a little scared of the snow.”

  David looked a bit bewildered. “Gerry, this is a mountain town in the dead of winter. We want people to come up here for vacation and enjoy themselves. It’s our job to make sure that they always feel safe. Anyways, go on.”

  “Well, I had my deputy go down around the base of the mountain and have a look to investigate the claim. The family car, one of those luxury cars, was discovered and had been in quite an accident. It went over the mountainside and crashed down below. He found the skid marks and a part of the guard rail was missing.”

  David raised his eyebrow and spoke in an incredulous tone. “The guard rail was missing? Those things are almost indestructible.”

  “Yes, well it had faltered. So within a couple of hours we had the car uncovered expecting to find her husband dead. But nobody was inside. It was like the car went over the cliff by itself.”

  “Cars don’t go over cliffs by themselves, Gerry. Why the hell didn’t you get someone from the local hotel or somewhere nearby to come get the woman and child and get them out of that cabin? What if they were in danger?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that. It was not an emergency situation yet. But then I pulled up some background information on Mrs. Worthington and sent out an officer to go speak with her. And as you know, he never returned to the office. She killed him on the front porch with a cinder block.”

  David removed his spectacles to stare Gerald in the eye and hesitated before responding. “I guess we’ve got some damn different ideas of what an emergency situation is. If you found their family car crashed with nobody inside and a man missing, that should have given you a signal that there might be a problem. What did you find out about this woman?”

  “Well, that’s why I sent out an officer. She had quite the little history, I must say. She was diagnosed with some social anxiety disorder. As a child she badly hurt some kid at the playground and was suspended from school. Then as a teen she got into credit card fraud and identity theft. Totally mentally unstable – you know, the sociopathic type. But she had no record of being really dangerous.”

  “I think I get the picture. So she came up to the cabin to kill her husband with the car? He was supposed to die in the crash? And then she took out an officer? Why would she kill a cop? She was afraid of being found out?”

  “I guess so. Ya, she planned a rather complex murder scheme. We found notes and diagrams in her luggage. She rigged the car to malfunction and acted as if it was an accident. It was all a set-up by this bitch to kill her family. Evidently the guy escaped before the car went over the cliff.”

  “So why didn’t he go get some help or call the police?”

  Gerald smirked. “Revenge. I think he wanted to kill her himself. We found a long letter from him to the daughter explaining about his wife’s plan. Then he tried to blow her up with a hydrogen bomb. I think he knew about her plan in advance and wanted to punish her.”

  David put his glasses back on, looking a bit puzzled. “He knew about her plan in advance – so you mean he was just playing along the whole time? At what point did he catch on to her? Did he really escape from the car or was he just making us think that he did?”

  “He had to be playing along. To escape from a car losing control on an icy road like that is unrealistic. I think that he wanted to make it look like her plan had worked so he could torture her and stalk her before enacting revenge. He wanted her to feel terrified.”

  “So you mean that this really wealthy guy knew that his wife wanted to murder him, and pretended that her plan had worked perfectly. Then he spent his time trying to trap and torture her as punishment for what she had tried to do?”

  “Ya, that seems to be the case.”

  David let out a big exhale. “So then what happened?”

  “From what we can tell, she found him first and trapped him. There is this long underground maze of tunnels and rooms below the cabin. She must have gotten down there to hold him captive. She tortured him, sadistically and methodically. He had burn marks all over his body and died inside an Iron Maiden torture chamber. Have you ever seen one of those before?”

  “No. But how did she find this underground place? From what I read about this cabin, that was supposed to have been sealed off a long time ago.”

  Gerald nodded. “I think it was. But there was a trap door underneath the floorboards in the cabin. She must’ve found it and went down. She held him there prisoner and tortured him for hours before killing him in that thing.”

  “And what happened to the daughter?”

  “Oh God, it was gruesome. She was hung down in another one of the rooms, execution-style, with her arms and legs bound. She died of strangulation. The girl must have suffered before going unconscious. To hang like that from a rope with only the weight of her small body…”

  “Thanks, I got the idea.” David adjusted himself in his chair. “So she comes out here and rigs the guard rail and car to make her husband’s death look like an accident. Then when things don’t quite work out, she captures him, tortures and kills him, and then kills the daughter? She seems
awful damn resourceful to me.”

  Gerald shrugged his shoulders while nodding at the Police Chief.

  “But why did she do it? What was her motive?”

  “Oh, Money. All for money. She had him put a will in her name not long before they came out here. They were only married a year and she was only 23. You know the story, a lazy young bitch marries a rich successful bastard and just wants the lifestyle, not him. So by killing her husband and stepdaughter she would get everything. More than 50 million.”

  “Is that all?” David chuckled to himself. “And how did she kill one of our officers?”

  “Crushed his skull with a cinder block. He never got inside the cabin. His blood was all over the porch.”

  “A 120-pound woman threw a cinder block at his head?”

  “She was up on the rooftop. The block was hurled down at him from above the porch.”

  “She is awful fucking resourceful. So how did this crazy woman die? You said that you found her body?”

  “Poisonous snakes – Western Diamondback Rattlers. They must have been living down in those tunnels which nobody had been down in for decades. They caught her and had her for dinner. A fitting end to her, don’t you think?”

  “Oh yes, I’ve read about those creatures. They hibernate in the winter time. She must have come across their nest and I’m sure they were hungry. Not a good thing for her. But Gerald, did you examine all of the evidence? How did she overpower her husband if he was able to escape from the vehicle? Was she outside waiting for him or what?”

  “Well we don’t know exactly when, but she used Chloroform to put him out. Then he must’ve become her slave. Her prints were all over the bottle. We’ve also got the log from the stepdaughter.”

  “Log?”

  “She was keeping notes. She said that this Tammy was trying to blame the whole thing on the father. Telling the girl that he was outside and trying to hurt them. She even injured herself to make it look like someone was after her. All to manipulate the girl while keeping her husband captive.”

  Police Chief Halloway looked a bit confused. “So then why did she wait so long to kill the girl? If she was just getting in the way, why not just take care of her first?”

  “I think she thought about sparing the girl. If she could convince her that the dad was the bad one and make his death seem like an accident. But when that plan failed, she had no choice but to kill her too.”

  David rubbed his head, let out a big sigh, and leaned back in his chair. “Ok. What did the fingerprint report show? And you examined all of the footprints?”

  “We have fingerprints of the wife all over the place. She had a dagger weapon with her, but that was not used in any of the killings. Her fingerprints were on the outside of this torture coffin. Strangely though, there was this fork-like metal thing digging into the husband’s neck, and we didn’t find any prints on that at all. There were not really any signs of a struggle – I think she used the Chloroform to knock out both the husband and little girl. As for the footprints, the wife’s were everywhere. There were tracks of the girl down in the basement that ended in the room where she was found hanging. We also found some other big, strange marks on the ground, but couldn’t make them out…”

  “I see. Where the girl’s footprints stopped, did you collect evidence?”

  “Well the ground was dirty and covered with dust and silt. We examined the area in detail but didn’t find anything…”

  “Did you find the cloth that the wife used to make them pass out? And what about this bomb in the cellar? You found the husband’s prints on it?”

  “We never found a cloth or towel with the Chloroform. As for the wine cellar, the only prints we found down there were those of the wife. I guess we lost some of the evidence with the explosion…”

  “So you’re telling me that this guy escapes from the car, hides out to get revenge on his murderous wife, while risking the safety and life of his own daughter. And she is then able to capture him, to torture and kill him. Why would a guy of his status take such risks?”

  Gerald shrugged. “I don’t know, David. Rich people do crazy things, you know that.”

  David sighed while rubbing his fingers across his chin. “So what else is being done with the investigation? What about the trace evidence, Gerald? Did you collect samples to send to the forensics lab in Denver? We’ve got four people dead in the most horrific ways imaginable. The state police department might pick this case apart, bit by bit. Then this case is going to get national exposure.”

  “I sent off what we collected to the labs. We’ll have to wait and see if they come up with anything else.”

  David picked up the two stuffed manila folders and stacked them together. “Did any of the locals see anything? Did you speak with the workers at the restaurant where they ate that Friday evening?”

  “We’ve questioned everyone in the area and nobody knows or saw anything. There just isn’t any other possible explanation as to what happened. The case as far as we’re concerned is pending the examination of the trace evidence. But for all intents and purposes, it’s closed. We just have to wait to hear back from the guys at the forensic lab. And now it’s time to close up that underground mess of torture chambers once and for all.”

  “Ok, thanks Gerald. I’ll show myself out.”

  David patted Gerald on the shoulder and headed out of the office.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Tom Murphy read nervously through the Colorado daily crime report online. So much hung in the balance of the investigation results, since as closest friend he had been named as the alternate beneficiary in Stephen’s will. The report had a full page article on the murders in Fraser, Colorado. It read ‘Washington state woman brutally murders her family and local police officer.’ Tom breathed a big sigh of relief. Ok, so they think it was all her so far – perfect.

  He sat back and gulped down a big swig of coffee. He felt a twinge of remorse about betraying a long-time friend like Stephen. But Stephen had been really lucky in business, he thought, whereas Tom had repeatedly gotten the short end of the shaft. As far as Tammy went, she was a cold-blooded psycho who got exactly what she deserved. After all, it was her idea to kill Stephen for his money in the first place, not Tom’s. And as for Maria, well, she just got caught up in it all, and that was really too bad. Like Tammy said, Tom was a risk-taker, and he was confident that in no way could anyone link him to any foul play.

  He got a call from his secretary. “You said that I could leave early today, Mr. Murphy. Okay if I go now?”

  “Sure. That will be all for today, Cindy. Have a great weekend.”

  Tom took out his prepaid private cell and punched in a number. “Okay, you can come up now Darnell. The coast is clear.”

  Darnell sat down across from Tom at his office desk. This was the first time Tom had seen him in person and was a bit awe-struck by the size of this man. Big, dark sunglasses covered up the eyes in Darnell’s bearded face.

  Tom hid his apprehensions. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Darnell. I think that we have some urgent business matters to discuss.”

  Darnell leaned back in his chair. “That we do, my friend.”

  Tom grinned. “So you really pulled it all off? Tell me exactly how it all went down. Go over each and every little detail and don’t leave out anything. We have to be sure that we’re in the clear.”

  Darnell sat up straight to look Tom eye to eye. “I know I’m in the clear, dude, do there ain’t no reason to say WE. But I think you’ll be really happy with everything. Mind if I light up a cigar?”

  “Help yourself.” Tom slid an ashtray across the desk.

  I’ll start from the beginnin’ and will try not to miss any details. First, I rigged the car, road surface, and guardrail. Tampering with the brakes on the car was easy while the three of them were eating dinner. I made sure not to get any fingerprints or marks anywhere on the car. Then I poured plenty of water all over the road which froze over immediately, crea
ting a dangerous patch of ice. After that, I took care of the guardrail by cutting through the anchor bolts which connected it to the base plate. It was easier than I expected since they don’t ever replace nothin’ up here, and were still using an old guardrail system without any galvanized steel.”

  Tom nodded.

  “So then I parked my truck part-way down that steep winding road, right before it hit the sharp curve. My truck was blocking part of the roadway so that Stephen would have to almost stop to pass me. I had that brake on his car set to falter only when a lot of pressure was applied to it. So when he hit the brake after seeing my truck, that’s when it went out. His car slowed down and was nearly stopped for a moment, so I grabbed the door and pulled it open. He was easy to roll out just before the car hit that patch of ice, sped up, and went flying off of the mountain top.”

  “So you grabbed the door handle? Wouldn’t that leave a print? And what about marks on the guardrail and tire marks from your truck?”

  “All covered up. I had on gloves o’course. I came back later and covered up any tracks made from the truck. I went around with big winter boots sweeping the new snow onto the road. It was easy with all of the snow comin’ down thick and fast and covering the road. So then, I kept Stephen calm, and he thought that I’d saved his life. He got in my truck for a ride back to the cabin. That’s when I knocked him out with the chloroform and tied him up. Then I slung him into the back seat like a sack of potatoes and went from there.”

  “Good so far. And what about Tammy? How did you start setting her up?”

  Darnell grinned, showing off a big set of teeth. “That was the fun part. I had an extra key made so I could go wherever I wanted to inside the cabin. I read about them underground tunnels online and found an old map, so it was easy. I was comin’ up through the basement at night so that she wouldn’t see me. I found a lot of old torture devices down there. I shut off the heat and water to keep her on edge and feelin’ desperate. Then I left her a nice trap in the wine cellar. If she fell into it, great – as long as she died by natural causes, I didn’t care how or when it happened. I left clues and set things up carefully so that she would think Stephen was stalking her.”