Anime Murder 5
Day 13
HQ. There are only six investigators now. Therefore, Andy assigns only two teams of investigations. Yahiko recounts the killer clue from the previous night.
Andy assigns Team 1 to investigate the Ocean Bay Lighthouse and the "Lost at Sea" monument further. They are to meet with the lighthouse keeper, Jack Morris. He will assign this to Conan, Jim and Yahiko.
Then Andy discusses the sliding puzzle game found the crime scene at Carmen Rose's house. He says latent fingerprints taken off the back are those of Kelly Baker.
Team 2 will follow up on Baker; meeting him at his boathouse and finding out where he was the night Carmen Rose was killed. Team 2 will be Ash, Ulrich, and Shute.
Neil Sanchez drops Team 2 off at Kelly Baker's house. Upon there arrival, they find Kelly in mid-argument with his wife Kate, who has packed the car to leave him. She knows of the alleged affair Kelly has had and believes that rumor that his woman is pregnant. After Kate leaves, Conan confronts Kelly and explains they are trying to solve this murder.
"That's what I'm trying to do also," said Kelly He then gives his alibi of the night of the Carmen Rose murder.
"Between 9PM and 11PM I was at the diner with Laura. From there I went to the boathouse for the rest of the night," said Kelly
As they ride down the dirt road in Neil's cab car, Fred Johnson's truck suddenly races past them and blocks the way. Johnson jumps out of the truck and runs to the cab and tells the investigators that one of them should meet them tonight out at the salmon and trout pen by the "Old Sow" whirlpool after eight o'clock. He has something important to tell them then the races towards town.
On the boat ride to the lighthouse Jim tells Yahiko is was wrong trying to vote for him several times. Ralph Green suggests that they shouldn't take the keeper too lightly. They find Jack Morris atop at the lighthouse cleaning the windows. Ash, Jim and Yahiko climb up and meet him. He tells them he knows everything about the "Lost at Sea" monument and the names on it.
"Can you tell us about the Duchamps?" ask Jim.
"It was a spring in 1941, a windy and rough season that saw the lost of man ships. As for the Duchamps, their boat was lost in a gale and the wreckage of the boat was never found. The family was lost at sea, no bodies was never recovered," said Jack Morris.
Upon disembarking from Johnson's boat at the Moonlight Marina Team 1 arrive at the dock and see more tuxedo men then ever. The three starts to get scared. Then they look at he side the see bunch of fishermen are leaning over the holding something in the water. One of the fishermen is Paul Dixon and he starts yelling for help.
Nearby, Tina Ryan is cleaning fish on her small boat. Hearing the cry for help, she picks up some sort of steel rod and runs to her boat. Jim, Ash and Yahiko follow up. Jumping onto the boat, Tina holds up the rod above her head and slams it toward the water. Bang! There is an explosive sound. Dixon quickly follows suits with a rod of his own. Bang, Another shot echoes. The fishermen now have control and pull an 11-foot Mako Shark.
Ford tanks Tina or her help and she leaves. Conan follows her while Jim and Yahiko stays with Dixon. Tina pushes back the numerous of tuxedo men.
"Do you catch those with sharks?" ask Conan.
"No, it's for killing sharks with," said Tina.
"What do you call that metal thing?" ask Conan.
"It's called a bangstick," said Tina. Tina continues to prepare her boat for departure while Conan continues to throw questions at her.
"What does it shoot out to kill the shark with?" ask Conan.
"I don't know, bullets? Air?" said Tina then she leave and told Conan "See you later cutie, I hope you have tons of girlfriends with that kind of a face," said Tina.
Upon arriving back at HQ, Conan announces that they have discovered the murder weapon. Conan, Yahiko and Jim describe the bangstick. They relate to Ralph's told them it doesn't shoot bullets, it doesn't shoot anything at all. It works by pressing the end against the surface.
Later that evening, Ash volunteers for Johnson's request and travels out to the salmon and trout pens to meet Johnson. Upon his arrival he finds Johnson and Ryan in there heated argument. Johnson is trying to convince Ryan to come clean.
"The investigators like Ash here are here to help," said Johnson but Ryan wants none of that argument. She is mad that he invited Ash out to the pens and Johnson is going to tell some crazy story. As Ash approaches, Ryan grabs the bangstick from Johnson's hand and throws it into the middle of the water in the middle of one of the pens.
Johnson goes after Ryan and tells Ralph to take Ash back to shore. As they leave, Johnson continues to argue loudly with Ryan.
"What are you hiding? I saw you the way you looked at Ryan Silver. What the hell you are doing with Randy Silver? Are you protecting him? What are you protecting? Who are you protecting?" ask Johnson.
Day 14
Morning Briefing. The investigators recap their findings from the day before; Andy assigns Team 1 Conan, Jim and Yahiko to train in cold water SCUBA dive to recover the bangstick from the salmon pens.
Team 2 will follow up on Kelly's alibi that he was at the Moonlight Cafe until 11PM the night Carmen was murdered Records from the phone company indicate that a phone call was placed from Carmen's house at 11:15pm. However, the time stamp on Rev. Knight answering machine recorded her call at 10:15pm.
The information does not clear Kelly, as a suspect as 15 minutes is plenty of time to left the diner and made it to Carmen's house. Team 2 is assigned to talk Laura Powers at the diner and see what she remembers about that evening how much her story syncs with Kelly's alibi because Laura Powers is a suspect also.
At the diner, Ash, Ulrich and Shute are sitting in a booth just beginning to speak with Laura when Kelly Baker walks in and wants to know what they are talking about. He immediately gets defensive and says he already gave them his story. Ulrich moves quickly to get Baker away from Laura and the other investigators by telling him he has a few more questions, motions for him to come over to the counter. Instead, Kelly asks Ulrich to come him with him to the newspaper office, and he has something, as he has something to show him.
Ulrich leaves with Kelly. Once at the office, Baker reveals that he wasn't completely truthful yesterday, admitting that he had, in fact, been at Carmen's house the night of the murder. Evidently, Carmen had called Kelly's wife Kate, and told her that Kelly was having an affair
"I was furious and went to confront Carmen. But he was caught off guard when Carmen invited him inside and calmly talked him about his affair. He tells Ulrich he didn't do anything to Carmen that night. While Baker has been more forthcoming, Brian notes that he still doesn't have a good alibi.
With the tuxedo men stationed outside the diner, Laura confides Ash that she two and a half months pregnant with Kelly's baby and say Kelly is a really good guy, and she loves him as a friend, but beyond that she's does not know what to do.
Still in his office with Ulrich, Baker offers up one more piece of new information. In his effort to assist the investigation he shows Ulrich a document that shows Robert Smith had and offshore bank account. Baker points out that this would allow him to circumvent US banking laws, making it easier to dump and hide money. Frank further believes there is a second page to this document that Robert might have kept in a small office in his basement.
Ash feels this begins to present them with a potential motive for the murders. Perhaps the Killer was owed money and was seeking revenge, or knew about a stash of money and had greedy intentions. Whatever the case, money, she states"Is a pretty common motive."
On Team One, Conan, Jim, and Yahiko begin their SCUBA training in preparation for their attempt to retrieve the bangstick. After detailed classroom instruction, they don their equipment and get into a swimming pool for the water portion of their training. While Yahiko takes to it quickly, Yahiko struggles with the bulky dry suit and full-face mask breathing apparatus. Ultimately, the instructor feels that in light of these difficulties, it would be unsafe for Yahiko to dive in the frigid and unpredictable waters of the bay.
Jim reassures Yahiko that although she won't be getting into the water, she is still a big part of the team and that whatever he accomplishes, she accomplishes as well. Yahiko, while disappointed, is both accepting and supportive of Conan and Jim as well.
Ulrich convinces Ash and Shute that they should return to the Smith house to search for the page of the bank statement. Ford accompanies them to the house and into the basement. Ford tells them he had the water drained and the investigators are able to do a much more thorough search than on their previous visits. After an extensive search, Ash finds a small black wadded up trash bag in a corner, containing shredded papers.
"I don't really believe there is anything useful in the bag and admits it will be a great effort to sort through the shreds. Still, it is all we have and so they take it back to HQ with us," said Ash.
Meanwhile, out at the salmon pens near the Old Sow whirlpool, Conan is preparing to make his dive into the pen to search for the bangstick Ryan got rid of the night before. He states that he knows this is a dangerous but important mission as this could be the actual murder weapon. The water is 34 degrees and in his training he learned that unprotected, a human could survive no more than seven minutes. Based on recent developments, Jim believes that Ryan and Johnson now stand out as the leading suspects in the murders. Conan feels that Dixon is his leading suspect, though he admits that Ryan's recent actions have thrown him for a loop.
Back at HQ, Ulrich sees the mess of shredded paper and comments"what a disaster." Ulrich, Ash, and Shute begin the arduous task of piecing together the thousand of shreds to see if a clue lies within.
Jim jumps in and begins a circular search pattern looking for the bangstick. The water is murky and green, visibility about 15 feet. Finally, Jim sees the bangstick but must be careful in his approach as part of the stick is sticking out through the bottom of the net. Reflecting back, Jim describes his need for caution as the wake from his movement might dislodge the stick sending it the bottom of the bay.
Carefully, Jim reaches down and grabs the bangstick. He quickly surfaces and exuberantly hands it to Yahiko. Mission accomplished. After training all day for the dive, then successfully retrieving the bangstick, Jim describes the feeling as being "like winning a race."
Sitting at the dining room table, the race is slow for the investigators piecing together the paper until Ash makes a key discovery. Some of the paper shreds are thicker than others. He suggests that they narrow their search for these shreds. The search continues to be painstakingly slow, however their efforts ultimately pay off as they piece the sheet together. It is a ledger of deposits into a Cayman Island Bank account.
The deposits show that Robert Smith had been depositing nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars (9,999) every few days over the course of several months in early 2001 for a total amounting to 249,975.00. In addition, Robert withdrew the entire amount from the account on April 6th, the day before his murder.
Day 15
In the morning briefing, Andy informs the group that it appears that it appears as through Robert Smith was making some deposits for 9,999 in order to keep the IRS reporting limits. Also, as it says on the statement, the money was coming from a company called "Enhanced Power." He suggests that they do further follow up on this company. Ulrich feels strongly that Kelly Baker is still a key suspect, in spite of his sudden willingness to help their investigation, as he was alone at the time of both the Smith and Carmen Rose murders.
Turning to the evidence brought home by Conan, Yahiko and Jim, Gary compliments the investigators on an "outstanding job in recovering this weapon." He then explains exactly how a bangstick works. The end is unscrewed and a cartridge containing gunpowder wad (but no slug) is placed into a chamber and the covering re-screwed back into place. This covering is spring-loaded so that when its tip comes in contact with a fish, the firing pin is released, firing the gunpowder charge. Since there is no bullet in the shell, this firing causes a concussion shock that "damages" or kills the fish.
Andy proceeds to show a video of a test firing of the bangstick on a cantaloupe. When the end of the bangstick touches the melon, it literally disintegrates. The look of shock is clear on the investigator's faces.
"I'm surprise it doesn't blow their heads off," said Jim.
Ash lets out a big breath at the realization of the power of this weapon.
Andy then calls up Debbie Smith's autopsy photo and states that the nature of her head wound is consistent with the concussion shot of a bangstick. He goes on to tell them that forensics has compared the firing pin marks on the shells recovered as evidence at the two crime scenes and they too are consistent with a bang stick. However, without a slug, there are no rifling marks. Hence, no ballistics. So while they have probably discovered the type of weapon used in the killings, they do not necessarily have the exact bangstick used.
Turning next to the red and blue envelope which the killer left the night before the phone booth outside the Moonlight Cafe. Andy reads the killer's question: How many tuxedo men were at the pier when Dixon and Ryan killed the shark?
As Conan, Jim and Yahiko was there at the time those three is only people that can answer the question.
Conan says there were twelve tuxedo men then they just went his answer and he apologized if he got it wrong so Andy types twelve in and it ends up being correct and Amy Nakamura is cleared.
Two hours later the voting process begins and the two are going out are Yahiko and Ulrich. Conan, Jim, and Ash look at Shute and Ulrich. Now Shute is nervous because if Ulrich gets killed tonight and he might be the next to go.
"You know what Yahiko, if you come back for the fourth time you are Superman," said Conan then Andy give them their maps.
"I'm heading to Johnson's Cabin," said Yahiko.
"I will be heading to the Fishermen's Aquaculture Building," said Ulrich.
Yahiko is the first to make his last will and testament.
"Now I know who is trying to send me to my death. Jim said that he was wrong and there is Shute and Ulrich. Now I get the feeling that I may not come back tonight and I'm going to die. If I die tonight, then tell a girl named Tsubame at my hometown that I love her always even that I'm dead so see you later," said Yahiko then Ulrich is next to enter the booth.
"Well, this really sucks that I have to play the night out game to find the clue or to my death. I would never imagine that I'm going to do this sooner then 15 days. If this is my last night to live then tell my girl Yumi that I fallen love with her always and I promise I will love her in death and also to my parents. If I don't come back tonight then I hope you solve this one murder case for me and all the other people who killed by the killer. So I guess this is good-bye," said Ulrich then he leaves.
Ulrich rides with Ralph to his location and Ralph asks him if he ever thinks about death while hunting down this killer.
"I have, but I'd rather spend my energy worrying about what I can do while I'm alive then worrying about what I can do when I'm dead," said Ulrich.
At Fishermen's Aquaculture, Ulrich climbs up barefoot to some exterior stairs and enters the building He passes through a large room with piles of fishnets, then through the doorway into a bathroom. He checks the toilet stalls and sees blood pooled on the floor in front of one. He swings the door open and is startled when something comes crashing down to the floor. But there is no killer.
Neil drops off Yahiko at the head of the trail to Johnson's Cabin. He makes a long barefoot walk down to the cabin. After exploring downstairs, he heads up to upstairs to the room where the investigators had previously found the shrine to Ryan. There is a telltale "X" of Lupine hanging on the wall and below it, a body and it's Johnson's body. As he starts to kneel down to examine Johnson, he suddenly bolts upright and yells. Yahiko screams in terror to this...
Meanwhile, back at Fishermen's Aquaculture, Ulrich walks into another room and through a window on his right, he can see an "X" made of Lupines, hanging in another room. He walks through a door towards the flowers. He quickly grabs the flowers and turns to run out of the room. But he is trapped. As soon as he turns, a green glowing image hurtles towards him. Flash. Bang. Ulrich is dead.
Back at Johnson's cabin, Yahiko calms a bit and ask Johnson what's the matter. Clearly he's suffering and in pain. He helps Johnson up, then gets the killer clue and walks him out of the woods to Neil waiting cab. Neil drops off Yahiko him off at Dr. Sharon Anderson's (Erick Anderson's wife) on the way back to HQ. He then drops Yahiko off and the upstairs he walks towards the briefing room.
Everyone applauds and laughed that Yahiko has returned numbers of times. Shute can't believe that he's back.
"It's Superman," said Conan, Jim and Ash joking.
Yahiko pulls out the killer clue another can of 16mm film.
"I found Johnson laying on the ground near the clue then he jumped up and it started me. I thought he was the killer that moment," said Yahiko.
"Now I don't think Johnson is the killer because he has to kill Ulrich and races to this cabin before Yahiko does and that's really hard to do when Yahiko has a head start," said Conan.
Then they play the killer's clue and again it's the burnt man.
"The boat was typical for around here, 28 to 30 feet, shallow draft. It wasn't hard to figure out how to do it. I wrapped eight feet of 4 primer cord around the pressure valve of one of her propane tanks. A little six-hour kitchen timer set it off. I watched the explosion from 400 yards away and I could feel the heat from the fire on my face. The boat should have sunk to the bottom, but Oscar was fishing for herring off North Island and managed to beach it before he died. They're calling it an accident, but it wasn't. I murdered Eric Rose," said the burnt man.