#####
Grace, Ryan’s other assistant, called him and declared, “It was an accident.”
“How did you know? You sound so sure.”
“A trekker shot the accident on his camera and uploaded it on his site; it is trending now. He was trekking on the lower end of the winding road and photographing the beauty of the mountain when he saw the car veering off from the road above and plunging deep into the valley. He turned the camera toward the toppling car and recorded the entire event. It ran for six minutes. I met the trekker in a resort where he is staying and got the camera and the video. John Dalton analyzed it and said it was authentic. I also made inquiries and the person seemed to be genuine and what he said was true.”
Ryan took out his laptop and browsed through the social network sites. A lot of people had shared the video and Ryan viewed it. It was stunning. The car slid out on the road, went toward the ground alongside the mountain, hitting trees and rocks all the while, and the impact caused the car to dive, rotate, reel and finally land on the tree branches, breaking them. Then it slowly submerged and settled down on the green patch of wild bushes like a sinking boat on a lake. Some netizens added music to the video and it appeared like a scene out of a movie.
#####
Ryan checked his social network site and there was a message waiting for him.
Kindly contact me. I want to share something about the person who died in the accident.
Ryan checked the profile, Sydney Sunrise, a 40-year-old man who was an insurance loss adjustor.
Ryan found the phone number and called him.
“I saw the couple, this guy Matt Brown and his wife, in a motel near Palm Springs. They were sullen-looking and silently eating. I can say they were not on good terms. I’m a married man and I know when my wife is in a foul mood. They finished eating, paid the bill and left the motel without speaking a single word. On their way to the car, they stopped and argued. I was unable to hear what was being said over the noisy dining room. The man walked toward the car park and the lady returned to the dining room. She sat on a chair near me. She looked agitated. Her hands were shaking. She took out her cell and called someone. I could hear what she said, ‘I can’t bear it any longer. I decided to leave him. Come to the resort tomorrow morning.’ She cut the call and went back to join her husband. Breaking up and divorce are ordinary things, happening all the time and everywhere. I didn’t care at the time. But when I saw the accident on the TV, I knew at once it was either suicide or murder.”
#####
Ryan closed the laptop and got out. A bunch of reporters ran toward him and thrust mics in front of him. “Can you tell us what could have caused the fatal accident?”
“We are yet to come to the conclusion. It’ll take time.”
“A rumor is floating around that Matt was tired and he slept while driving.”
“I don’t want to waste my time by answering baseless rumors.”
“Can we say that the police department is giving undue importance to accidents which otherwise will go unnoticed because the President is visiting our town?”
“No comment.”
“Major crimes and murders remain unsolved, but you’re spending too much time and taxpayer money on a simple accident.”
Without answering, Ryan shooed away the cameras and mics, parted the crowd and went straight to the resort manager’s room. Ryan spoke to him and he invited the bellboys who serviced the couple’s room. “Did you notice anything odd in the couple, like the woman crying, the man shouting at her and fighting?”
A clean-shaven young man wearing a blue uniform and cap said, “I served them dinner and they looked tired. I didn’t find anything odd in the few minutes I spent with them; the man tipped me well and the dog looked friendly and tried to lick me.”
The second bellboy came forward. “When I served the breakfast, the man was not there. The woman looked so preoccupied and she seemed to have dressed to go out. I saw packed suitcases on the bed. I left the room and 15 minutes later, when I went back to take the tray, I saw a middle-aged man with her.”
Ryan turned to the resort manager.
“A man came, introduced himself as Johnson and said Mrs. Leslie was expecting him. I directed him to her room. Twenty minutes later, he ran to my room, blabbering that Leslie’s husband died as his car fell off the mountain road, Leslie fainted upon hearing the news, and he inquired if there was a hospital nearby. I sent a call to the mobile hospital and he planned to stay with Leslie to assist her to go over the formalities.”
#####
Ryan got Johnson’s room number from the manager and walked on a driveway that branched out in a widespread garden area, connecting various brick buildings and small huts surrounded by a well-manicured lawn. Ryan spotted palm trees throughout the resort and he enjoyed the drizzle from a fountain in the center of the garden as he walked toward Johnson’s building.
As he knocked on the door, a fat squirrel fell on the porch and ran away. The door opened and a middle-aged bearded guy peered behind Ryan.
“No press people?”
“No.”
“They are chasing Leslie to get an interview. They might even pose as room service to get into her room. I left her strict instructions that she should call me if she required anything and I would get it for her. They learned somehow that I was assisting her and tried to corner me. I chased them all just a few minutes earlier. I suspect that they might have even hidden bugs in the building to listen to us.”
Five minutes later, Ryan and Johnson sat facing each other on the lawn chairs near the fountain and Johnson started to tell about Leslie.
“I’m Matt’s family friend. I sell pet foods and Matt is running a vet clinic as well as a home for orphaned dogs. We met often in the course of our business and I knew Matt and Leslie well. She loved pets too and had done a course in animal care. She helped Matt in the administration of the clinic and dog shelter. Both were extremely busy and didn’t have enough money to employ extra hands. I didn’t see any disharmony in their married life; they seemed to be getting along with each other well.
“But the shooting incident changed everything. Leslie always told me that the morning walk gave her peace and she never wanted to miss it. We lived in the same neighborhood and I met her every day during my morning walk. Sometimes we stopped and chatted for a few minutes; otherwise we walked away, exchanging pleasantries. Matt accompanied her in the beginning but he slowly disassociated himself, as he decided to attend calls from his clients from the early morning. He once told me that he loved his job and the overwork didn’t tire him actually.
“The shooting incident made Leslie reconsider the priorities in her life. Why didn’t she bother to spend the early morning tending garden, doing exercises or yoga in the safety of her home? Why did she long for a morning walk? She was by herself during her morning walk, free from animals. Yes, she was spending too much time with animals. If she was at home in the early hours, she would be forced to attend to her pets, three dogs and two cats, or attend to phone calls and she would not have time to pursue her gardening or yoga. Though she knew it all along, the harrowing incident nailed the truth in her mind.
“Matt didn’t present during the police inquiry. He was attending a rich businessman’s dog. Witnessing a murder, death and attending a police inquiry is not a daily affair. It would definitely create a lot of mental agony and trauma. Leslie began to think that Matt was giving more attention to animals than to her. That was the starting point. They started to fight. Being a family friend, sometimes I had to act as their judge in determining who was right and who was wrong. Matt argued that a man could earn only in the prime of his youth. Later in life, their working time would be automatically reduced because of age and they would spend more time at home.
“Then Leslie made a proposal: sell the vet clinic, give the dog shelter to some animal lover, leave Los Angeles and start a new life at some other place with Matt finding a 9 to 5 job in some
vet hospital. Matt didn’t like it.
“The road trip was a disaster. It seemed they fought all the way and Leslie made the final decision to leave Matt forever. She phoned me. I came here. But, unfortunately, Matt met with an accident and died.”
“Are you in love with Leslie?”
Johnson’s face changed color and he gripped the chair’s hand rest tightly. “Nonsense, I’m her family friend. I’m here to help her. I got her cell phone and texted all her friends and relatives about Matt’s death. I had made all the arrangements to transport Matt’s body, once it was handed to us, to Los Angeles. After the funeral, she will go with her parents to live in New York. We do not have any secret relationship.”
“Can we say that Leslie’s behavior made Matt upset and he drove recklessly and fell off the mountain road?”
“It could have been.”
“Did Matt know that Leslie was going to leave him forever before he started out on mountain road trip?”
“Leslie told me that she didn’t have the nerve to tell him directly. She tried to break the news during dinner and in the morning. But she was not able to. So–”
Johnson stopped.
“So?”
“She texted the message to him.”
“When did she text?”
“While he was on the mountain road, just a few minutes prior to the accident.”
#####
Ryan called his boss. “Can you get me the case file of the woman who got slain by the gang member in Los Angeles?”
“You’re not satisfied that Matt’s death was an accident?”
“I don’t want to leave any stone unturned since the President’s life is involved.”
“Great, I like your enthusiasm. But don’t waste your time on simple cases.”
“Just give me two more hours. I’ll finish the case before evening.”
Twenty minutes later, Ryan occupied a corner seat in the restaurant in the resort and, biting the sandwich, he read the case file converted into a pdf document.
Ryan clicked through the pages.
The first few pages contained the bio of the victim.
Ruby Blanc, 33 years old, birth place and parents unknown, acted in two or three porn films, did prostitution for 10 years, then retired and joined a street gang called Red Fox, drug addict, waylaid old men and women by brandishing knife, arrested 13 times, served a total of two years of a jail term.
Then there were photographs of the crime scene. Ruby’s body lay, upper half on the pavement and lower half on the street, eyes staring at the sky, her purse caught in between her right shoulder and her body, wearing a blood-soaked jacket and blue skirt which was raised above her thigh, her knife on the street near her, views of the tree-lined street, the surrounding buildings and office complexes, the distant park, markings on the road, blood stains, the trajectory of the bullet, make of the gun from which the bullet had been fired, the gang members’ story…
She and her gang members had been living in an abandoned building and, on the day of murder, she got up (she was an early riser even though she spent the night with the gang roaming the street) and went out to have a coffee in a nearby café.
The gang members said that none of them killed Ruby. They all loved her and another fact was that they never used guns. They all took an oath that they should never kill anyone. On the safer side, they all had a knife and they would take it out only in tight spots to defend themselves and to threaten others. If the situation got out of control, they would mark the opponents with a knife. Ruby was nobody in the gang and the chances that rival gang members killed her were remote.
Ruby sold drugs, getting a portion from a retailer on credit. She made small packets and sold them in the neighborhood. She repaid the retailer, deducting her commission. Ruby could have forgotten to repay the retailer or lost the money somewhere, the retailer might have gotten furious and killed Ruby.
There were two-page reports on the pursuit of the retailer who had simply vanished from the scene after Ruby’s murder.
Ryan skimmed through the three-page report of the inquiry conducted with Ruby’s ex who had lived with Ruby for six months after she retired from prostitution. Ruby’s ex was living a decent life as a cab driver and had a perfect alibi.
The interview with the early morning joggers and walkers revealed that nobody sighted the tall man with long hair in the neighborhood. Ryan assumed the assailant would have used a long -haired wig while killing Ruby.
Fifteen to sixteen pages contained the report on probable suspects with their photographs and their whereabouts.
Ryan called the detective, Philip Pope, who handled Ruby Blanc’s case, getting his phone number from the report.
Ryan introduced himself. “Philip, I found one anomaly in Ruby Blanc’s case file.”
There was a deep silence at the other end. Then he spoke with slight irritation in his voice. “Tell me what it is. We are always open to suggestions.”
“Ruby Blanc’s knife, how did it get out of her purse?”
“Simple. She saw her assailant at a distance, instinctively her hand unzipped her purse and took out the knife, but meanwhile the killer shot her and she fell down dead, throwing the knife away, which fell on the street.”
“I wanted to make one small correction. She saw an assailant who was pointing a gun at her. She knew a knife was useless against a gun. To escape, she would duck, fall down, roll on the street, find cover and shout for help.”
There was silence at the other end.
“What is your point?”
“There is no assailant.”
“Then?”
“Ruby took the knife from her purse and tried to kill Johnson. He shot her.”
“Ruby would never dare to kill Johnson; he was strong and he was walking a dog too. The dog would fight for his master, so she had to take care of two opponents”
“Suppose she merely planned to threaten him, Johnson mistook her intention and shot her.”
“She would never threaten him in the presence of a dog; her modus operandi is to attack old men and old women for money, and middle-aged strong men with dogs are not in her category. The bullet trajectory and the range didn’t point at Johnson.”
“We have only Johnson’s and Leslie’s account of what exactly happened. They must have been at different range from the victim when the crime was committed.”
“If Johnson killed her in self defense, why should he lie? He could simply tell he had done so and escape from charges, as Ruby had a bad reputation. Think twice before you call me, Ryan.”
The call was terminated.
#####
Ryan closed the laptop and got up. The restaurant was almost empty. He walked on the driveway, reached Leslie’s resort building and knocked on the door. The door opened and an elderly lady appeared.
“Leslie Thomas?”
“I checked in ten minutes earlier.”
Ryan ran, stepping on the lawn without using the driveway, and reached Johnson’s building.
A blue-uniformed bellboy opened the door.
“Mr. Johnson vacated half an hour earlier.”
Ryan called Leslie’s number. It had been switched off. Johnson’s ran to the manager’s office.
“They said that they had arranged a funeral service and that they would get Matt’s body postmortem, embalm it and fly it Los Angeles tomorrow. The press people have been waiting like sharks. So I sent them in my kitchen van to the airport.”
Ryan got the van driver’s phone number from the manager and called him. “Please give the phone to the woman passenger.”
“Who is it?” Leslie’s voice trembled.
“I want to talk to you both. Please wait at the airport for me.”
“But–”
Ryan cut the call.
Forty-five minutes later, Ryan reached the Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport. He scanned the entire area; they were not anywhere … did they run away? Ryan ran
to the boarding terminal and found them there.
Ryan approached them. Leslie held the leash of the dog. The bloodhound sniffed and then gently barked to show its disapproval.
Johnson shouted. “The checking in has started. What do you want?”
“The truth.”
Johnson stared at him.
“Tell me what exactly happened on the morning Ruby Blanc was killed.”
Ryan turned to face Leslie. She avoided eye contact and looked away.
“We already told what we have witnessed to the police.”
“You both lied … there is no assailant.”
“Do you have any proof?”
“The crime didn’t come under my jurisdiction. I’m not going to press charges against you. I simply want to know how it was done.”
“Please leave us alone. We have nothing to hide.”
Ryan took out his cell. “Once the van driver dropped you at the airport, he didn’t drive back to the resort. He waited for me. When I reached the airport, he handed his cell phone to me. I copied the sound file from his phone. You two are partners in crime. I knew you two would start to discuss it once I said I wanted to talk to you. I asked the driver to place the cell phone by the cabin partition and record everything you would discuss. Do you want to hear what you two had talked about in the kitchen van?”
Johnson stared at him in shock and Leslie’s eyes enlarged in surprise. The bloodhound tried to pull at the leash and came forward, baring its teeth and snarling at Ryan.
Ryan switched on the speaker.
Johnson’s voice rang out. “Keep cool, Leslie, we don’t know what he found out.”
Leslie spoke. “It’s getting on my nerves, John. I’ll burst at anytime. Sometimes I want to shout the truth.”
Johnson continued, “The Los Angeles police believed it. Who the hell he is to talk to us like this? Keep mum and ignore him completely. I’ll handle him.”
“It is better we prepare ourselves first. Like last time, we have to rehearse everything to avoid tripping over some tricky questions. Shall we start?”
“Lower the volume of your voice; I don’t want the van driver hear what we are discussing.”
Ryan closed the speaker. Leslie looked straight at Ryan. “I’m ready.”
Johnson grabbed her hands. “Listen to me, Leslie. Please don’t talk to him.”
“It’s over, John. Nobody can help us now. We are caught.” She turned to Ryan. “On the day of the murder, John was walking his dog. He was not holding the leash and the dog was few steps ahead of John, sniffing around and leading John. It was at this time that a lean woman carrying a knife in her hand thrust it forward, ran on the pavement and toward the dog. I carry my husband’s gun in my purse always, so I zipped it open, took out the gun and shot at the woman just before she plunged the knife on the dog. I love animals. Without thinking, I shot a human to save a dog. I couldn’t believe it. I had killed a woman. The immense love I had for the animals made me shoot a human. I had committed a crime. I should have shot at her legs. I didn’t know the sharpness of the knife. The dog would have stepped aside at the last moment. John would have kicked the dog and sent it reeling out of the path of the murderous woman with the knife. There were a lot of possibilities and the dog could have been saved without killing the woman. I had made a great mistake. I couldn’t bring back a human life whereas I could buy another dog.
“John pacified me. He said that she was a gangster woman and his dog always barked at her whenever they encountered her during their walk. It sensed somehow that she was a bad woman and showed its disapproval. She didn’t like it and sneered at me or called me names sometimes. This day, she seemed to have taken the decision to revenge the dog but I had interfered and saved it.
“I feared that the media would play it big and destroy me. I agreed to John’s plan to tell the police that an assailant had shot her. The police believed our story but I started to have sleepless nights. I began to realize that I spent too much time with animals. I started to love them more than the humans. I wanted to get out of it. I love Matt. But I couldn’t separate him from animals. He was not ready for my proposal for a new life. We started to fight. Finally I decided to leave and he ended up in an accident, killing himself.”
Ryan came out of the airport as Johnson and Leslie were on their way to board the flight.
Ryan drove the car, reached the highway, parked the car under the shade of a roadside tree, rested his head on the wheel and closed his eyes.
The entire event reeled in his mind.
Definitely, it was an accident.
Matt received a message on his cell that his wife was leaving him while he was on a mountain road, nearing a dangerous curve; he was upset and also tired and he failed to concentrate on the road and missed to see the hairpin bend. The car veered off and plunged deep into the canyon.
The only thing that disturbed him was Ruby Blanc’s murder; he felt something fishy about it.
Leslie’s confession satisfied his inquisitive mind; she shot Ruby to save the dog and that led to the breakup.
Everything had been sorted out.
He had to call Julia and tell her that it was an accident.
But he couldn’t.
He felt something was still missing, a piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
What was it?
Thirty minutes later, he called Julia.
“Can we meet at some place and talk?”
“I’m so busy now.”
“It’s urgent.”
“Okay, come to my hotel room., I’ll be there at 5 o’clock to change and take a bath. We’ll meet at the café. You have to finish telling your story within the time I empty my coffee cup. Two minutes, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Okay.”
“If you are coming with silly theories, I’ll climb on the table and shout at you, using all the vile terms in the world for wasting my time. I may pour a mug of milk on your head and kick your face. Are you ready for the deal?”
“Yeah.”
Ryan reached the hotel at 5:01. He found Julia sitting at a corner table and drinking coffee. Ryan ran toward her, pushing aside a waiter who almost upset a tray containing glasses over a bald-headed man. Ryan turned to see the waiter recovering his balance and getting the tray into horizontal position.
Ryan sat in front of Julia. She wore a yellow jacket and her tightly combed hair and ponytail glistened with water. Julia showed him the half-empty coffee cup.
Ryan blurted out. “Can you propone the President’s visit?”
“What?”
When Ryan finished his theory, Julia had drunk four cups of coffee.
#####
One week later, Ryan sat at the corner table and watched the President having dinner in the center of the vast dining hall with local celebrities, businessmen and industrialists. Ryan could only see his back and his gesticulations as he was in animated conversation with the successful men of the town.
Julia had explained Ryan’s theory to the top officials and proponed the President’s visit. Media people were not informed, and only those who had an appointment with President—the participants in his programs, big shots who had been invited for lunch and dinner, a few hotel staff—had been intimated at the last moment with the warning that they should not leak the news to anyone.
The President arrived at the airport at seven o’clock. His bodyguards and the security people whisked him across the airport and boarded the bulletproof van waiting outside the airport without attracting anybody’s attention. The van reached the hotel and he was guided to his suite without a hitch. He rested for two hours and then came down to the dining hall. After dinner he would meet the local politicians in his room one by one until midnight. The security officers blocked the entire floor where the President was staying. An industrialist booked the dining room and the entire floor as though he was conducting a business conference to fool the other guests staying in that hotel.
The in
vitees went inside the hall after passing through metal detectors kept at four entrances. A dog also sniffed them for bombs. Grim-looking security officers in the disguise of businessmen sat in the hall and kept their vigil on the President.
The President would have cut a joke and there was burst of laughter in the center table. Two or three people clapped.
Suddenly a woman who was sitting a few table across Ryan screamed. A large bloodhound entered and lurched toward the center of the hall. The guest watched the event in surprise. Could it be the dog trained to smell the bombs? A middle-aged man wearing formal clothes followed the dog, shouting, “Stop, stop!” Could he be a trainer? The celebrities who sat around the President got up, pushing their chairs back. The President sprang up from his chair and swerved to face the dog that rose, put its paws on his tummy and grabbed his coat. The middle-aged guy removed his gun from his pocket. Ryan pointed the gun at the guy’s head and shot at him. As the blood burst out from his head, Julia, who sat at a table beside the President, jumped toward the President, upsetting a table, pulled the dog away from him and threw it toward the entrance. The dog fell on a table, toppling food trays, jugs and mugs and making the diners scream for help, but the dog regained his control in seconds, got up, stood like a tiger, looked around, sniffed and was ready to pounce on the President, who was surrounded by security officers. Julia pointed the gun at the dog and shot.