Anime Murder 6
The telltale blue glow of the Killer's camera moves through the dark corridor of Dr. Anderson office. The Killer's camera takes us into the examination room where Fred Johnson is sleeping on the table. As the Killer's camera moves in close to Johnson, the end of a bangstick comes into view and points at Johnson's head. Suddenly, Johnson wakes up and sees the Killer. He starts to move but it is too late. Flash. Bang.
The phone rings at Headquarters. Conan answers to find Dr. Sharon Anderson on the other end. Her voice already indicates this is not going to be good news. "I think Johnson has been killed," she says. "He was fine when I left the office last night. I came in this morning and he's gone. There's blood everywhere. I need someone to come over right away."
The investigators jump into action, quickly gathering their investigative kits and heading out the door. Dr. Anderson greets ash and Jim at the front door of her office and she takes them back to the room where Johnson slept the previous night. She says she didn't touch anything. The investigators are shocked at the amount of blood on the floor. But there is no body.
Day 16
Morning Briefing. Ash describes the events of the investigation determined that the body was dragged out of the back door of the office. Dr. Anderson says than she definitely locked it the previous night. Nothing else seems to have been disturbed then Andy crosses Fred Johnson from the suspect board
Ash goes on to report that a very upset Ralph came by the crime scene and told Ash he is holding the investigators personally responsible for Johnson's death. He then gave Ash an audiocassette that Johnson had given him the night before, instructing Ralph to deliver it to the investigators.
Andy has had the tape analyzed and it appears to actually be a video recording made on old children's video camera. The investigators remember the camera they saw at Johnson's cabin during their investigation on the day of the Johnson's funeral. The tape is played for the group.
A scratchy, pixilated black and white image appears. It is Johnson sitting in his cabin, apparently filming himself. He is wearing a plaid-hunting shirt over a white T-shirt. Here is the text of his video:
"I'm recording this because I'm… I don't know how much longer I can last. I'm feeling worse every day. There's so much crap in my lungs I can't breathe. I'm spitting blood. I've loved her since I can remember. All I wanted was just to kiss her. Sorry, I'm talking about Ryan. She asked me to lie and I did. I lied for her."
The image goes fuzzy for a moment as Johnson moves forward and turns the camera off. A moment later it comes on again. Now, Johnson is standing in full Marine military dress. He continues, his voice cracking with emotion:
"There's something I have to say. Ryan killed Robert. The night of the murders we got back from Bangor around 1:00am. She said she had to go see him, John. She asked me to cover for her, to lie. She hated him, I know that. I loved Ryan. Semper Fi."
The tape ends. Andy asks for comments. Shute says he still doesn't believe Ryan committed the murders. Ryan still feels it is important to follow up and find out whether Ryan was in love with Robert Smith or whether she hated him.
Team 1's mission is to determine Tina Ryan's true relationship with Johnson. Team 1's assignment will go to Shute and Ash.
Although the killer clue last week focused on the burnt man's involvement in the death of Eric Rose, the team elects instead to focus on the bank statement which they found last week in Robert's basement. On this statement, it was revealed that a company by the name of Enhanced Power had been paying Robert Smith's 9,999 at a time, eventually reaching the sum of 250,000. Andy now reveals that Enhanced Power is owned by Mind Science Inc. Daniel McKay corporate cult vehicle. Andy then tells the team that the cult will be holding a "cleansing" today. This is the only time in which outsiders are allowed into the compound.
Team 2's mission is undergoing the cleaning initiation and Question McKay about the money he paid to Robert Smith. Team 2 will be Conan, Yahiko and Jim.
1:30PM, Ash and Shute wait at the bus stop for the bus to McKay's compound. They are a bit surprise to find Laura Powers waiting as well. She tells them that she thinks it might be helpful for her.
"When you go through some tough times. It helps you get to a good place," said Laura.
Upon arriving at the compound, the new recruits are commanded to line up, single file and march backward in the main building. Once inside they stand silently at the foot of the big staircase, surrounded by tuxedo men. Behind them, a women wearing a flowing white nightgown descends the stairs and welcomes them.
"This is going to change your life," said the woman and the woman is Janet Mitchell.
Ash lists the myriad of situations he's seen her in: as a stripper, hanging out with Reverend Rusty and now this. "I'm ready for anything in this town the way things are going right now" comments Ash.
The interior of the building is like a shell, with mostly 2 x 4 framing but no solid walls. Hanging everywhere are crossed brooms, logos of the Mind/Science Organization and photos of their leader, Daniel McKay. And tuxedo men. Tuxedo men everywhere, standing at attention, awaiting instructions.
2:33pm. Next comes the cleansing ritual. Ash, Shute and Laura strip down to their underwear and stand in small metal tubs of water and wash themselves with soap and scrub brushes, all to the cadence of "scrub, scrub, keep cleaning, keep scrubbing" coming from one of the tuxedo men. Janet watches the whole proceeding, which lasts about 45 minutes.
After the cleaning ritual, the new inductees are dressed in all white and led into a giant, dimly lit meeting hall. Over 100 tuxedo men are standing along the walls. Ash, Shute, Laura and the other recruits are seated facing a podium. On the front of the podium are two crossed brooms and a photo of McKay. Behind the podium is a lit triangle with a single eye in the middle.
The next surprise hits the investigators when Rev. Bernie comes out, dressed in an all white suit.
"Are you ready to change your life" yelled Bernie.
Ash admits that he is a bit scared by this.
The reverend continues"The world is merciless and to conquer the world you must be equally merciless."
Next, General McKay comes in and tells them that the journey to change their lives will take them through three levels; Order, Strength Logic. Once they have passed through all three levels, he will meet with them.
Meanwhile, Conan, Jim, and Yahiko are making their way out to Johnson's cabin when they see a large plume of smoke rising up above the house. As they get closer, they see that Tina Ryan is burning something in a bonfire by the water. Tuxedo men surround her.
Once with Ryan, they see that she is crying and burning all of Johnson's things.
"I'm conducting a funeral for a friend", she tells them.
Jim feels she is trying to get over the loss of someone close. Conan tells her they are just trying to clear up the mystery about her and the bangstick and why she threw it into the water. She says she won't talk to them in front of all the tuxedo men and says to meet her later at the Moonlight Cafe at 9:00pm.
Conan tries to ask another question, but Johnson cuts him off, screaming at him to "get out of here, please"
At the compound, Ash, Shute and Laura are in the "Order" section of the initiation. They must first put 50 decks of cards together in a specific order while chanting "order, strength, logic." The Reverend is constantly shouting at them to hurry up. Samantha begins to show signs of cracking under the stress.
Next, they must test their memory and concentration skills. Ash reads a word out loud from a stack of flash cards. Jim must then repeat Ash's word and add a word from his cards. Laura must repeat both Ash and Shute's words, then add her own.
The list gets increasingly long and difficult. If one of them messes up, they must start all over again. This task is tough for Laura who begins to cry under duress from the Reverend.
He tells her she is giving in to "weakness" which is a "mind set of lack and limitation." Laura finally gives up and leaves. Ash later admits that he thought about going with her as his mind felt over-worked. Still, he stayed for the group and the task at hand.
5:11pm. "Strength." Ash and Shute have moved on to the physical phase of the initiation. They first must run behind a bus down to a peninsula, keeping up with the pace that the vehicle sets. Once at the water, the Reverend tells them to baptize themselves in the frigid bay water. Both investigators dive in to the 34-degree water.
Ash later reflects that besides doing anything necessary to meet the General, he also would do anything to get to compete with Shute. Their next test is to climb a giant water tower and once on top, hold a broom out in front of them with both arms fully extended at shoulder height.
At first this seems simple. But after 15 minutes the strain begins to show. Ash and Shute are standing back to back and clearly, neither of them wants to give in before the other. At the same time, they must perform mental chores like reciting the alphabet backwards and counting in multiples of seven. Just when it appears they are done, the Reverend decides to add more time to the task. Day is becoming night.
Back in town, Conan, Yahiko and Jim are walking into the Moonlight Cafe when Tina Ryan honks her truck horn and tells them to climb in so she can talk to them away from the tuxedo men, who have been following her all day. Once inside, Ryan tells them that her father was a Master Sergeant in the Army as well as being the foreman at the Fishermen's Cannery. She tells them that her dad owned North Island and that when she was eight years old, he ran into some money problems and in order to get a loan from the Cannery, had to put the Island up for collateral.
Unable to pay back the loan, he lost the Island and soon began drinking heavily, which led to his death. In Ryan's eyes, it's as if the Smith's themselves held a gun to her father's head. She is angry at the Smiths' and the town as a whole from taking everything away from her once proud, war hero father. With that, she heads into the club for a beer.
Inside, Ryan continues her story to Conan, Yahiko and Jim. She says that despite her feelings about the Flints, she fell in love with Robert. Apparently, Robert told Ryan that he felt badly for what Fishermen's had done. She never told Robert about the photos. Just then, a sweeper stops at the table and grabs Ryan by the arm.
"We want to talk to you." Said the tuxedo men.
Tina reacts swiftly by grabbing the tuxedo man by the shoulders and shoving him forcefully through the front door of the club. Glass shatters as the tuxedo man and Ryan falls through to the sidewalk. Ryan gets up and drives away. Drew runs the tuxedo men off and the investigators are left in the aftermath.
9:27pm. Cleansing Initiation - Phase Three"Logic." Ash and Shute are now standing inside the giant water tower. They are in the center of a giant triangle, completely surrounded by tuxedo men. A deafening banging permeates the metallic structure. Ash is instructed to hold a rope, which is tied (via a pulley) to a bucket filled with water. He must hold this bucket at shoulder height while Shute is asked a series of riddles. For each question Shute answers correctly, a cup of water will be removed from the bucket, lightening the load.
Unfortunately, Ash struggles to answer the questions correctly, getting only a couple right. He later comments that he wishes that Li or Alfred had still been around as they probably would have done much better at this type of test.
Finally, their eight hours of initiation is completed and they have earned the chance to meet with McKay. They meet him in a small room where they ask him about the 250,000. McKay explains very carefully, that he gave Robert Smith 250,000 in cash in exchange for the Fishermen's Sardine Factory land. And just when Robert was going to come through on his end of the deal, he was killed. "And who" he adds,
"Do you think wound up with my 250,000? Tina Ryan. And when you see Ryan, tell her she can't run forever," said Daniel McKay.
With that he leaves. Ash and Shute have endured eight hours of physical and mental torture to spend four minutes with McKay and listen to him talk almost the entire time. They are quite angry about what little they came away with.
Conan, Yahiko and Jim meet with Ford who thinks he has found the tuxedo men who grabbed Tina. It is the first time a sweeper has ever made physical contact with a townsperson. Tina takes them down to the end of a pier by the water where a couple tuxedo men are sweeping. Unfortunately, the one Ford points out is not the same sweeper from the club.
All of a sudden there is an explosion out on the water. A series of huge, thunderous fireballs explode into the night sky spreading the remains of a boat everywhere. Everyone is startled. Back at HQ, Conan happens to be looking out of the window and screams with fright. Ash and Shute run to the window. Ford tells Conan and Ash that it was Connor's houseboat that exploded. Ash comments that if she was on the boat they can cross her off the suspect list.
INVESTIGATIVE DAY 17
Morning Briefing. Andy reports that no bodies were found at the explosion site and that they are assuming Tina Ryan is still alive. Jim recaps Ryan's story and alibi for the night of the Smith murders. She said she was with Johnson until 1:30am. She then went to talk to Robert at his house. She was not aware of the photos. After Ash showed her the photos, she said they were definitely surveillance photos and she had not idea who took them.
As for McKay, following up on the info obtained during the initiation will be Track One. Ralph has told them that he's been hired to take McKay to North Island that evening, apparently to meet with Ryan.
Andy wants a team to go to the island early and set up surveillance in Ryan's cabin to monitor the meeting between McKay and Ryan. Team 1 will take this track. Team Two, Alan and Jeff, will go examine the wreckage of Connor's boat.
At the wreckage, Alan and Jeff find Kelly Baker taking photos. He tells them that the Coast Guard investigators have found that a C-4 type of explosive caused the explosion of Ryan's houseboat.
Kelly asks the investigators to come by his office so he can give them some more info. At the newspaper office, Kelly tells them that he's discovered that Dixon tried to pull a similar type of scam on the Gulf Coast of Florida where he made a deal to build a development without having raised enough money. Kelly thinks that Robert Smith was on to Dixon.
Just then, Paul Dixon, Amy Nakamura and Chief Ford walk into the office. Kelly tells them that they were just talking about Dixon.
"Your employment has been terminated," said Amy.
In response, Kelly states that to do that she "would have to own the paper." She replies"Mr. Dixon does." Dixon has bought the paper. Kelly is furious, yelling at Lambert that he cannot "own free speech in this town."
Ford tries to get Baker to leave, while Dixon and Nakamura stand by smugly and watch. Kelly grabs his camera and runs out into the street where he starts yelling at Ford.
"There is a serial killer in this town and he's wasting his time with something like this and 5 kids sacrifice their lives for this town already by this killing crime and a few more will be dead if the killer is not found. You're an idiot and a moron," yells Kelly than takes off.
Ash and Jim follow Ford into the diner
"I'm disappointed that they lied to him about who was at McKay's compound yesterday," said Kelly
Laura has told him that she was there and he feels like while he's been sharing info with the investigators, they have not been sharing with him. Ash quickly responds that Kelly is being a hypocrite, as he did not tell them he was having an affair with Laura. Kelly says he would like Alan to talk for a while.
On Team 2, Conan, Jim and Yahiko set up surveillance cameras and recorders in Ryan's cabin on North Island. They are only partly set when Ryan arrives. They hide in a nearby shed and watch the video from the cameras. The audio is not working so they cannot hear what's being said.
Much to their surprise, Tina is not alone, and it's not McKay she is with. It is Randy Silver. They are frustrated that they can't hear what's being said. What they see, however, is that Tina Ryan and Randy Silver are having a sexual affair, as well as a bag containing a large amount of cash.
Inside the cabin, we see and hear Tina's cell phone ring. It is McKay telling her he's not coming to Dog Island but that she should meet him at a different location, Shackford Head, later that evening. Randy is distrustful of McKay and tries to insist to Ryan that she not go out there.
Back at HQ, the investigators try and piece these latest pieces of the puzzle together. Katie wonders if Connor is playing Jimmy or the other way around. Kristen thinks they are both playing the Flints' together.
That night, General McKay sits in his limo, being driven by Bernie Knight, to the meeting spot with Tina Ryan. It is dark and foggy along the road when suddenly the bright lights of an oncoming car temporarily blind Bernie and he swerves to avoid a collision. This causes him to lose control of the limo, which careens off the road and over an embankment, rolling several times before finally stopping upside down on its roof.
McKay is badly shaken up. He calls out to Bernie"Bernie, Bernie what happened" ask McKay.
Then he rolls over and looks up. We see him through the blue glow of the killer's camera. A look of recognition and fear crosses his face.
"Oh…God…No…" McKay pleads. "Forgive me…" he cries. McKay then looks away as the end of a bangstick is pointed at his head. Flash. Bang. The killer has struck again.
Day 18
HQ. The telephone rings and Ash answers it. It's Aaron Thompson the owner of the Hilton Hotel Lodge where the investigators learned the burnt man had killed himself.
Thompson informs them that after their visit, someone broke into the same cabin in the middle of the night and ransacked the place. He saw the person, dressed in black but totally unidentifiable, leave the cabin with an armful of stuff which they threw into the back of a pick-up truck and took off. He said he gave chase in his car and tracked it to the fire road, until all of the stuff started spilling out on the road.
The investigators immediately suspect Tina Ryan because of the truck. Conan points out that Ryan hated both the Smiths' and Carmen Rose, while Johnson only hated Rose, making Connor more of a suspect than Johnson.
At the morning briefing, Andy reports that McKay's limo was found near Shackford Head, but that no bodies were found. He also says that the lab was able to retrieve some of the audio off of the surveillance tapes from Tina's cabin. They play it back on their monitor.
The audio reveals that Randy Silver took the surveillance photos of Robert Smith and Tina Ryan having sex and that Ryan was in on it all along. The pieces now fall into place for the investigators. Clearly, this was all a revenge plan for Connor to get the 250,000 from Robert Smith by blackmailing him.
They further feel that McKay was in on it somehow as well. Jim conjectures that while numerous people seem to be involved, she feels one person is "playing them all" for there own purposes. Conan agrees, but asks who?
One other piece of info has come to light. When Ford arrived at the scene of the limo crash, he found a red and a black envelope inside the passenger compartment. Andy proceeds to open the red envelope and reads the Killer's question: What rank was Tina Ryan's father?
Yahiko thinks she remembers Ryan saying he was a Lieutenant. Conan asks Ash what the highest enlisted rank in the Army is? Ash says "Master Sergeant." "That's it. That's it." He is certain. They respond with Master Sergeant and Ash is correct. The Killer removes Laura Powers as a suspect.
Then hours later the voting process began as Shute thinks that he might be going out and the two people are going out are Shute and Jim. Shute looks like he's not surprise but Jim is. Then Andy hands them the blue envelopes.
"I have to head for the Junkyard," said Jim.
"I will be heading at the storage house behind McKay's compound," said Shute.
"I owe you one Jim," said Yahiko.
"Thanks, we're friends now," said Jim then went into the booth for his last will and testament.
"This is exciting. I always wanted to play the hero of some group and this will be it. But if anyone is hearing this them that means that I'm dead but that's ok because I hope there's a girl waiting for me at heaven if I'm allowed there. Tell my friends don't worry about me because was the slowing down person of the group. So that's all I can say and see you in the next world," said Jim then Shute makes his turn in the booth.
"Yes I knew I will be going out this time because my arrogance but I want to change that I'm sorry to Yahiko and I deserve me going out tonight and being killed. You do this one or more favor for me that tell my friends that I will always be apart of there league no matter what and the second favor is to my friend Sayla that I had a crush on her. If she likes me as I think I do then tell her that I always be by here side and I can hear her that she really likes me. Well can't wait to go out so I'm out," said Shute.
Yahiko is giving some advice about the night out while Jim and Shute takes their shoes and socks off.
At 10:30 they went out of the Headquarters and barefoot out in the cold to their locations.
Shute arrives at the Storage by Ralph's cab. He goes into the storage and laughing a little. At the junkyard, it has begun to rain. Jim follows his map while his naked feet are getting muddy. Jim follows his map to the trailer indicated where she finds another map taped to the door.
At the end of the storage shed, Shute finds a similar map directing him to the Logic tower behind the building. As soon Shute enters the tower there is a burst of explosion.
Jim path takes him into an oxygen bottle storage trailer where he's wiping the mud on his feet as best as he can and moves on. He winds his way through hundreds of these five-foot tall metal canisters. In the middle of the room he finally finds a X. As he reaches for the flowers we see her through the blue glow on the Killer's Camera. The killer rushes at Jim. Then seconds later Jim is dead.
Back in the "Logic Tower", the fireball in front of Shute reveals a giant OSL logo, a vertical sword with a Lupine X across it. The hilt of the sword bears the giant letters OSL. Shute continues to scream with delight. "OSL Baby, for life" Shute's voice echoes off the metal water tower and into the night.
Then at headquarters they see Shute returning instead of Jim they cheer but not the best cheer as they wanted Jim to come back.