A Game of Greed and Deception: A Mystery Drama (21 page)

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, creating 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.”

Tom
took a big breath. “So you played her like a fiddle? That’s perfect. The bitch
deserved it. When she came to me and told me about the plot to kill Stephen, I
wasn’t about to help her get most of the money while I do all of the dirty
work. But what would have happened if she died in this trap that you left for
her?”

“Then
I woulda made it look like she killed Stephen and Maria and got caught snooping
around the cabin, in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Tom
nodded.
 
“Go on.”

“So I
kept her on edge, thinking that Stephen was trying to kill her. But then I had
to make sure that the daughter thought that it was her stepmother doing
everything. So I put some clues around for her to find as well. I killed an owl
with Tammy’s nail file. Then I wrote a message with her lipstick in the wine cellar.
I made sure that the little girl was scared of her and thought that everything
Tammy said about Stephen was a lie. The key to everything was to pit them
against each other.”

“So
how did you get them to all go down in the basement?”

“I’m
gettin’ there. I was keeping Stephen tied up down in one of the basement rooms.
I told him about Tammy’s plan in detail. He didn’t want to believe me at first,
so I told him all about how she persuaded you to take part with everything. He
was pretty shocked that you could turn on him like that, so I told him that
Tammy manipulated you the way the she’d been manipulating him. We had some long
chats and I made everything really clear to him. I said that I simply couldn’t
let him go anywhere since that could incriminate me. He believed that we were
just trying to trap Tammy with what she was doin’.”

Tom
was wide-eyed. “You told him all about my involvement? Shit, I didn’t want him
to know about that. I would have preferred that he left this world considering
me his very best friend. It was also quite the risk to take. What if
something….”

Darnell
wagged his finger back and forth. “He couldn’t possibly contact anyone and
under no circumstance was he leaving that basement alive. I needed him to go
along with me for a while. So he agreed to write out the letter to his
daughter. I slipped it inside her room. That really incriminated Tammy, and got
the daughter completely against her. I had a bomb ready in the cellar. If the
girl got Tammy down there, that would’ve been fine. But I figured she was too
clever to fall for it.”

Tom
rubbed his chin. “But if she was killed in the explosion, the police wouldn’t
find her guilty of killing Stephen and Maria, right?”

“They
surely would’ve still found Tammy guilty of killing Stephen. It was a
calculated risk. I would’ve had Maria die from poisonous snake bites. I had
plenty of rattlers in a big metal cage out in the woods. I was a trapper for
years and handling reptiles is kind of a hobby. So there were always
contingency plans.”

“So I
still don’t know how you got them all to go down into those tunnels?”

“It
was simple. I’d paid a visit to Tammy and got her convinced that she needed to
get down there to find Stephen. Once they found the trap door, the situation
between Tammy and Maria became life or death. Tammy wasn’t about to spend
another night in the cabin in fear that Stephen would come inside again. I
thought that she was gonna kill Maria and come down to find Stephen alone. But
unfortunately, Maria came down there first. I was waiting and took care of her.
I had her tied up with a noose around her neck, and let Tammy finish her off. A
psychotic person like that is always gonna try and get even before doing
something more rational.”

“That
was a clever assessment. And so what did you do with Stephen?”

“Well,
I had to kill the poor bastard myself. I didn’t wanna leave him alive when
Tammy found him and take an unnecessary risk. So I used some of the good ole
torture things that were already down there, after I chloroformed him of
course. I promised you I wouldn’t make him suffer. But I did cut and burn him
up pretty bad, in the way that a psychotic person would. I wanted his murder to
look like Tammy did it in cold blood. Then I left him waiting for Tammy to find
him. That’s when I released the rattlers.”

Tom
sat back in his chair. It was a lot to take in, but he was mostly feeling
secure in what Darnell had told him. “Tammy said that she saw a hunter living
out in the woods. What if he saw something and the police found him?”

“Unfortunately
for him, he wandered a little too close to my rattle snake cage when everybody
was home, if you catch my drift. Nobody even knows he ever existed.”

Tom
smiled. “And so you covered up all of your tracks? You didn’t leave
fingerprints?”

“I
did better than that. The big snow boots I had on left big, strange prints that
I completely covered up later. I also had Stephen put on a matching pair. I
went over every place where I’d been, or where my truck had driven, and covered
up the tracks. I wore gloves and handled things very carefully. I slept at
night in the hotel parking lot, back away from the other vehicles. And
considering how bad the snowstorm was outside, nobody was gonna even check who
was parked out there.There is no evidence that I was ever there.”

“Great.
And what about her prepaid cell phone? Did you be sure to get rid of that so it
can never end up in the hands of the police?”

“I
did – in fact, I took that with me. I’m gonna just hang on to it – let’s call
it my insurance plan. Nobody will ever know it existed, but heaven forbid if
you ever turned on me, I want that in my possession. I don’t want to ever be
questioned by authorities or linked to any crimes. I’ve never even been
fingerprinted and need to stay completely out of the system.”

“Got
it. So I think we’re all set. Now I just need to pay you your two hundred
grand. Let’s say we double that.”

Darnell
grinned.

Tom
set a briefcase on his desk. “These are all non-sequential twenty dollar bills,
in stacks of two hundred. There are a hundred stacks. It’s all there, you can
count it here if you would like.”

“No
problem, dude, I trust you.”

“So I
guess we’re finished. It was a pleasure doing business with you. If I ever need
you again for anything, I’ll be sure to…”

Darnell
shook his head. “Don’t count on it, man. Anonymity is kind of my calling card.
I’ll be gone without a trace.”

Tom
nodded. “I understand. So you are able to stay hidden and don’t ever worry
about being traced via the internet for what you do?”

“Nah.
I use Deep Web private browsers with untraceable IP addresses. No one knows
anything about me and I’m gonna keep it that way.”

Darnell shook Tom’s hand,
took the briefcase, and let himself out of the office.

***

Reginald Williams wrote five
big personal checks to his money market account. Then he used money market
checks to move more than five million dollars to an offshore account in
Indonesia
. He
would close his personal money market account before heading out of the country
for an extended stay in
Bali
. He was done
using the alias “Darnell” for good, had cut off all contact with Tom, and
decided to put all of his dirty hitman work behind him.

Reginald
was liquidating the 50-pound gold bars from the mid-1800’s a few at a time. He
found that it was relatively easy, and he even received a good collector’s
premium above the market value of the gold. The rest of the gold bars were
safely kept in storage, and he could sell them at any point in the future. When
all is said and done, he will have made more than 25 million dollars from the
collective sales.

Doing
research and finding out about the buried treasure was one thing, but using
Tammy to find it for him was beyond Reginald’s wildest imagination. He knew
that she was clever, desperate, and greedy – the perfect combination to help
him. He was laughing inside at what he had pulled off.
I can’t believe that she found all the gold for me. To think that
bastard Tom only gave me four hundred grand for eliminating all three of them
and a cop. He’s gonna get 20 million. Why are them damn white people so damn
greedy?