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Not Your Fault
Chapter Four
Steve slumped down in his leather office chair and steepled his fingers together. It had been a busy morning which had started with an early morning phone call and a dead body. His first chore of the day had been to visit the crime scene, he'd been to that neighbourhood multiple times before only this time it had been swarming with HPD officers and forensic units. Usually this part of town was scenic and quaint, on the fringes of Waikiki, and was usually frequented by artsy types and students who couldn't afford the high rents of the city. Privately owned shops and cafes spanned the street front for about half a mile on one side and on the other was a narrow beach. There were single story apartments above each store and more residencies in the narrow streets which ran directly behind them. There were no skyscrapers or sleek modern buildings in this part of town.
It had taken him, his team and few HPD officers a couple of hours to work their way around all of the apartments and businesses in the vicinity of where the body had been discovered; the final door to be knocked on was that of Katelyn Connelly, Katie, who was a waitress at the diner downstairs. He had done a double take when he realised who it was, the little waitress who'd face planted in Beth's about a month ago and he instantly had felt a little at fault for pounding on her door this early in the morning. The dark lines under her eyes were practically purple, her eyes wide and bloodshot, she'd obviously had even less sleep than he had had.
Steve had been completely unaware of the fear which he had instilled in the young woman and he likely would've been heartbroken to know; that was why he didn't think twice about following Katie inside when she'd turned to grab her sweater. She was a tiny little thing, short in stature and in desperate need of a good meal or two. To say that her living room was sparsely decorated would have been the understatement of the year; there were no photos or trinkets or those scatter cushions that the women in his life always seemed so fond of. He pushed his thoughts of Katie's home to the back of his mind and proceeded to show her the picture of Graham Keyes.
He sighed in frustration and ran his hand through his short dark hair. That had been about six hours ago, and eight since the body had been discovered behind dumpers near Ala Moana by an early morning dog walker and they were fast running out of leads.
After that, Chin and Kono had taken a squad of HPD officers and spent the morning questioning friends and canvassing the neighbours of Keyes; so far nothing substantial had come out of those interviews. They had managed to confirmed that Katie had been right when she said that Keyes wife had died the previous summer; they also discovered that they'd never had children and that the only family the couple had had left was an elderly brother who suffered from dementia and currently resided in a care home in Florida. He pulled himself up from his chair and joined the rest of the team.
"So the canvass exposed nothing. What else do we have?" His eyes narrowed as he studied the various windows of information displayed on the Surface Table before him.
Kono tapped and dragged on a window which displayed the blue logo of the Bank of Hawaii, enlarging it so the rest of the team could see. The screen displayed the last three month of Keyes bank transactions with several of the lines of data already analysed and highlighted for them.
"The bank statements of Mr Keyes," Kono stated. "Keyes was a retired University professor, he taught mathematics at half-a-dozen institutions across the country; the last fifteen years of his career was spent teaching at Edinburgh University in Scotland before he and his late wife decided they'd had enough of the rain and returned to the States. That was ten years ago."
She tapped on the screen and enlarged three lines of data showing similar amounts of money being paid into the account from overseas. "This is the monthly pension payment and Graham Keyes only source of income; most of the outgoings are routine bills and cash withdrawals for low amounts."
Danny let out a low whistle when he spotted the balance on the account, "this guy had $500 grand sitting in his account?"
Steve's head snapped up, "but that's only what he's got in cash, Keyes also owned his house in Manoa that's got to be worth at least a million dollars."
"$1.4m, to be exact, boss." was Kono's reply.
Steve nodded, finally feeling as though the team was getting somewhere, "so he's sitting on a $2m nest egg; that's our motive right there."
Chin's voice came from over the top of the table, "but who stands to inherit it? The only living relative is Keyes brother, Andrew, and with the state of his illness the doctor that I spoke to was quite adamant that Andrew isn't capable of having had anything to do with his brother's death. Most of the time he doesn't even recognise having a brother."
Steve ran a hand down his face and thought for second. "So, there's someone else; someone else who would benefit from Keyes death. Did you find a will?"
Chin shook his head, "Uni's searched the house top to bottom but didn't find anything."
Steve crossed his arms over his chest and rocked back on his heels, "anything else?"
Kono tapped at the screen again and highlighted three more lines of transactions showing small outgoings in the exact amounts.
"Senior Days?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow as he read the name of the recipient.
Kono smiled as she minimised the window and opened another one showing a website with an aging couple walking hand in hand on a beach at sunset.
Steve squinted as he read aloud the website slogan from the bottom of the screen in a loud monotone voice, "Senior Days, sophisticated companionship for the young at heart." He looked at Kono in surprise, "you're kidding right? Keyes was using a dating site?"
The younger detective let out a laugh. "Yes and no. He signed up about four months ago; I was able to access his account which logs all his interactions with other users included incoming and outgoing messages. In the four months that Keyes was a member he was only ever in contact with one regular match."
She double tapped the picture of a white haired woman and it blew up on the screen; she was smiling brightly for the camera and surrounded by what Steve suspected were the woman's grandchildren.
"This is May Robson, she's 74 years and old and lives in Hawaii Kai, an assisted living community here on the island. She has three kids, six grandkids and one great granddaughter. She's been living in Hawaii Kai since she underwent a hip replacement surgery back in 2012."
Kono trailed off as she finally looked up in to the horrified faces of Chin, Steve and Danny. Eventually Danny spoke, his face pulled in a grimace.
"And they've been knocking boots?"
Kono stifled a laugh, "Danny, that's someone's grandmother," she scolded him, "besides I'm not sure that they were; Graham Keyes definitely took May Robson for an afternoon tea at the Halekulani. That sounds more like the actions of the man who wants to romance his lady."
"Or, the actions of man who wants to romance his lady so they can knock boots." He shot back.
Steve narrowed his eyes at Kono in confusion, "afternoon tea?"
"Yeah, you know tiny sandwiches and scones, maybe a glass of Champaign?"
Steve furrowed his brow, "What's wrong with Me's BBQ?" he asked referring to his favourite BBQ joint in Waikiki.
Danny shook his head in faux disgust at his friend and partner, "you're an animal you know that? I'll tell you what's wrong with Me's is that it's not romantic. Yes, it is delicious but romance cannot be found in a BBQ restaurant. Romance is being waited on and not having to collect your own meal from a counter on a plate the size of a serving platter."
Steve looked hurt, "I like the big portions," he protested.
"That's selfish. Your dainty ladylike date does not like the big portions and that, my friend, is why you're still single, because you're a selfish man who only thinks about himself."
"Uh, guys?" Chin interrupted the pair before they could descend into a full blown squabble. He pointed at the table in front of him, "the case?"
Steve shot Danny a dirty look before turning his attention back to the evidence, "fine, we're still waiting on the results of the autopsy; Max is going to call when he's done. In the meantime Danny and I will drive over to Hawaii Kai and speak with May Robson. Chin and Kono I need you to start tracking down a copy of Keyes will.
Steve pulled into the middle lane and slickly manoeuvred the silver Camaro around a haulage truck which had been trundling is way along the Kalanianaole Highway in the direction of Honolulu. It was late afternoon and he and Danny were on their way back to the Castle after speaking with May Robson, a sweet elderly lady who, it had transpired, was in the early stages of being romanced by their victim, Graham Keyes, and her eldest son, Raymond, who happened to be visiting his mother. He was quite sure that May Robson had nothing to hide; she had been visibly upset when they told her the news of Keyes death. Raymond had admitted that it had in fact been his eldest daughter, May's granddaughter, who had taken it upon herself to set up the dating profile on Senior Days for her lonely grandmother.
There had been something about Raymond Robson that didn't sit well with Steve, although nothing that he could put his finger on. As May had spoken about Keyes Steve could almost sense an air of anger radiating from Raymond; when Steve had asked Raymond about his opinion of Keyes he had simply responded that he'd never met the man. Eventually he aired his thoughts to his partner.
"What did you make of the son?" He asked, keeping his eyes on the road.
"There's something," he paused, "off about him."
Steve nodded in agreement, he was glad that he hadn't been imagining it.
Just then his cell phone started to ring, Danny grabbed it from the centre console on tapped the green button to answer it before immediately putting it on loud speaker.
"Hey, Max" he greeted. It was Max Bergman, the Chief Medical Examiner for HPD.
"Guys!" he greeted enthusiastically. "I'm phoning with an update on your latest vic."
"I thought you didn't trust phones?" Steve countered.
"Well," he responded, "I don't have much to tell you, Commander, so I decided it would be safe to relay the information direct via the telephone." He broke off, "and I have a date shortly which I do not want you to make me late for. Shall I precede, gentlemen?"
"Please do," Danny answered dryly.
"I was not able to get much evidence from Mr Keyes body; the heavy precipitation last night likely washed most trace samples away. I can however confirm that the cause of death was asphyxiation, the ligature marks on his neck correlate directly to the width of the tie which was removed from the victim's mouth. I've sent swabs to the laboratory to test for any DNA."
"What about TOD?" Steve asked.
"Taking into account the various fluctuations in temperature I have estimated that the time of death happened around 72 hours ago."
"Which co-insides with the last time that anyone remembers seeing Keyes." Danny added.
"That's great, thanks Max," Steve called out. "Any idea when the swabs will be ready?"
"They will be ready first thing tomorrow morning, Commander."
They ended the call with Max before briefly contacting Chin and Kono to check progress. The cousins had drawn a blank on locating a will for Keyes and in the end Steve had ordered them all to wrap things up for the evening and to get a good night's rest. They would regroup tomorrow at 0800 hrs; the results of Max's tests should be back by then and would hopefully lead them to their killer.
Steve grabbed the towel from the back of the Adirondack and rubbed it haphazardly over his face and hair to soak up the droplets of salty Pacific water which clung to him. He'd just finished his usual morning swim and he was feeling refreshed and ready to close this damn case. His cell phone started to ring, it was Danny, Steve snatched it up and greeted his partner.
"We have a have a lead." Danny announced
"I'll be there in 20 minutes."
Steve strode into the office; his thick tread boots thudded against the floor with each step that he took. The rest of the team were already there and crowded around the Surface Table.
"What do you have?" he asked as he approached them
Danny turned, "we've got Keyes will." He replied. "His lawyer saw the news last night and came in this morning with a copy of it."
Steve studied the scanned copy of the document on the table in front of him until he got the relevant section and read aloud, "...bequest will be distributed to the owners and staff of Beth's Diner?"
"Apparently Keyes contacted his lawyer a few months ago looking to update his will, the lawyer thought that it was unusual but Keyes was insistent that when he died he wanted his estate sold off and divided equally amongst the staff."
"None of them mentioned this when we interviewed them?"
Danny shrugged his shoulders, "maybe they didn't know."
"Or maybe they did and we now have five suspects. Kono do we still have the staff records that Beth Singer gave us when we interviewed her? I need you to run background checks on them all, see what you can dig up on them."
"I'm on it, boss."
Danny waved his index finger in the air, "also, Max called. The results of the tie came back and he wants to see us."
Four hours later Steve sank back down in his familiar black office chair and shut his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. The case was solved and the killer was down at central booking being processed for his arraignment; it was Saturday which meant that he would need to wait until Monday when the court opened to find out what the plea would be. As far as Steve was concerned this was an open and shut case; Raymond Robson belonged in jail.
The swabs that Max had sent to the lab had found epithelial trace and luckily for the investigation forensics had been able to isolate samples of the DNA which they had then ran through the national database in the hope of finding a match. The match they had found hadn't been exact but it had been a close enough match to indicate that the DNA belonged to the father of teenager who had been arrested and charged with breaking and entering. The teenager in question was Ray Robson, son of Raymond Robson.
Danny and Steve had arrested Robson at his mother's house in Hawaii Kai, May Robson had cried as they had led her son away in handcuffs and in return Raymond has let forth a barrage of profanities and abuse on his poor mother. It had transpired that Raymond's insurance business had not been doing so well lately and instead of coming clean with his family he had allowed them to continue spending recklessly which had sent him into further debt. When it looked like May Robson was being romanced by Graham Keyes Raymond lost his mind, thinking that his inheritance was in jeopardy he decided to make sure that that wouldn't happen. Robson had followed Keyes from his home in Manoa and murdered him before dumping his body in the alleyway.
A soft knock tapped on his door and looked up to see Kono standing on the other side of the glass holding an iPad. He waved her in.
"You finished your paperwork already?" he asked in surprise.
The younger detective shook her head. "Before the investigation started to point in the direction of Robson you asked me to look at the employees of the diner and run background checks on them. There's something you should see."
She slid the iPad across the desk to Steve. He looked up at Kono in confusion.
"This is a death certificate for Katelyn Connelly? But spoke with her yesterday and I'm pretty sure that she was alive."
Kono nodded, "The social security number, all her documents, all match to this Katelyn Connelly," she said as she pointed to the death certificate on the screen. "The only issue is that this Katelyn Connelly died five months ago when her car hit a bollard; she was intoxicated, three times over the limit, she died instantly."
Steve's curiosity was peaked but at the same time this wasn't their case.
"This isn't our jurisdiction, Kono. If you want her arrested for identify theft you should put the case to HPD."
"That's just it, Boss. This isn't just a case of identity theft. When I discovered that Katelyn Connelly was using stolen ID I wanted to know why, so I ran her photo ID through facial recognition. Her real name is Katelyn Anderson and she's wanted in Oregon for the attempted murder of a cop."