Nature or Murder? + Aftermath

Daniel Smith's Backyard, 5:00 P.M

"Oh good. You guys are back. Can we please move the body now?" Johan asked.

"Not yet blue boy, we now have a testimony from the young guy that was with the Shark man." David replied.

Johan rolled his eyes and went into the back of the ambulance to organise the things inside.

Daniel got down and reached into the green suits interior pocket.

"What are you doing?" David asked.

"I am seeing if he had life insurance." Daniel replied and took out Bruce's wallet. He opened it and found a life insurance's business card in it.

David took the card and looked at it.

"David." Daniel spoke.

"Yes?" David replied.

"Is it safe for you to have your umbrella up so close to a lightning rod?"

"My umbrella has a rubber canopy, and the tip also has rubber on it, we are perfectly safe my friend."

Daniel nodded. "We should give that insurance firm a call in a bit, but first, let us look at the scene and see if it fits with the story that Charlie told."

David nodded. "I think he lied."

"Are we on the same page here?" Daniel said, getting up and giving the scene a quick look.

"I believe we are."

"I will let you take a turn with the deduction then."

David puffed some smoke with a smile. "Charlie said that his father looked at that lightning rod. The static electricity above was finding the path of least resistance to the pole and he happened to be taller than the pole so when the lightning finally did strike, it would hit him first. But Charlie added that he dragged his father away so that lightning would not strike him again and tried to revive him. But the first part of that is obviously a lie, this body was never moved."

"How could you tell David?" Daniel inquired in a faux curious tone. During his previous career he had to take on students of his own and he knew how to be a teacher and he even eared a teaching degree on the way to getting his doctorate. Daniel knew the exact reasoning behind why the body was not moved.

"Look at the nasty weather and the short grass, you must have had a lawnmower person trim it every now and then. The ground is wetter than a Pomeranian after a bath, yet there are no tracks on the grass, if Charlie did drag his father as he proclaimed, then there should be tracks."

Daniel smiled. "20 points to Ravenclaw." He laughed. "There is also something else, is there not?"

"No footprints between the victim and the lightning rod, so he was not carried, and he did not go anywhere near it."

"Good eye David. So, the victim did die here." Daniel added.

"Yeah! But I must wonder why Charlie lied about that. Was he protecting someone... or? We should not discount the possibility that he was struck by lightning."

Daniel knelt back down, his pants became dirty, and his knees were becoming saturated. He was feeling Bruce's ribs.

"What are you doing Dan?" David asked.

"Hey, paramedic, get down here." Daniel exclaimed.

Johan came out from the ambulance and got to Dan and David. "Can we hurry this along; my bus cannot stay here forever." He spoke with impatience.

"When you give CPR you press down hard on the chest, right?"

"There is more to it than that, but yes, that is one of the key steps."

Daniel kept feeling the ribs. "So, you would expect someone who received CPR to have a few broken ribs, right?"

"That is correct, no matter if they survive or not, they always have broken ribs, especially near the heart, why?"

"Check his ribs please."

Johan got down and checked the ribs too and he had a curious look on his face. "The ribs are all intact." He noted.

"So, Charlie lied about giving him CPR? Why?" David asked.

"I am not sure, say, Mr Hostal, when the coroner does their examination, they strip the corpse right?" Daniel inquired.

"That is right, they remove all the dead man's personal belongings and clothes. It is standard procedure." Johan added.

"I want the coroner to check the victim's pacemaker and I want him examined for a lightning pattern burn mark on him as well." Daniel said.

"Usually, coroners have their own styles of performing autopsies. But I will see what I can do."

"Alright, we are finished here." David stated, stomping out his cigarette and lighting a new one. "You should get Shark man out of this rain before he catches a cold."

Johan and his partner got the stretcher, took the body into the ambulance, and drove away.

"That was a good joke, David." Daniel noted.

"Really?" David replied.

"I never heard that one before."

"So now what?"

"We get out of this dreadful rain and call the life insurance company."

David nodded his head and they both went inside. They warmed up by the fire and Daniel went to the land line.

Daniel called the number on the card and waited for a representative.

"Hello, this is WA life insurance, I am Beatrice, how may I help you." Stated the lady agent.

"Hello, I am calling to ask about one of your clients, his name is Bruce Smith." Dan said.

"May I ask who you are."

"My name is Daniel Smith; I am his cousin."

"Did he say that you could speak on his behalf?"

"No."

"Well, I cannot help you sir, is there anything else I can help you with, maybe I can set you up with life insurance."

"Look, Beatrice, I am going to be blunt with you. I am a detective, and the fact is Bruce is dead."

"Well, I am sorry for your loss and your cousin's insurance should pay out within the next 14 business days... wait, are you detective Daniel Smith by any chance?"

"That is correct."

"Was he murdered."

"I do not know yet, I am waiting for the coroner's inquest."

"I see." She took a sip of water. "What does the cause of death look like?"

"We are thinking he was struck by lightning."

"Well, if he was, that would be good news for his next of kin."

"Why is that?" Daniel asked.

"He had double indemnity on his policy, so if he died from a lightning strike, as you claim, then the payout is doubled."

"Really? That is extremely interesting. Thank you for your help, Beatrice."

"Well, it was a pleasure, good luck with your investigation Dan." She hung up and proceeded to the next call.

Daniel put the phone down.

"So, what was this extremely interesting thing you mentioned?" David asked.

"Turns out that Bruce had double indemnity on his insurance." Dan said.

"So, that must be why Charlie was so adamant about telling us that he died by the lightning rod." David said with a puff of his cigarette.

Daniel looked to the ceiling in wonder.

"Uh oh, you think that you are wrong, don't you?" David noted.

"No, I am right. But I do not think that he killed for the double insurance payout, that was an afterthought." Dan noted. "He must have killed him for the inheritance, but I must wonder why?"

"Why?"

"I mean he had plenty of time to create a more convincing accident if he was going to take him out for double indemnity. But he chose to be hasty. Now it makes sense."

"Sorry, but you will have to explain it to me, seeing as you are lightyears ahead of me as usual."

"You were not here at the time, but Charlie wanted to meet with Bruce in the backyard at 4:30, and Charlie can predict weather with his ability, he must have known ahead of time exactly when that lightning struck, so the meeting must have been to make a deal, otherwise how else was he going to get Bruce to shake his hands."

"Oh! Now I understand. The old man was about to cut him off and the meeting was one last chance for Bruce to change his mind, but eventually Charlie decided to accept that his father was going to remove him from the will and shook his hand. That prank buzzer must have been on his hand at the time so that when Bruce shook Charlie's hand, he would get the shook of his life. But how did he avoid getting himself zapped?"

"He wore a big rubber glove, nothing like the thin ones you carry. I recall Catharine mentioning to me that he wore the clown gloves he keeps in his suitcase."

David nodded. "So, we get them, and it is game over."

Daniel shook his head. "He had time to get rid of them, but there was thing I spotted and moved so he could not get rid of it."

"The buzzer! Of course. He did not have much time to think of what to do with it when he heard you approached him. He hid it in the trash bin hoping nobody would find it."

"But I found it, he is searching frantically for it by now I would think. David, hide the bin better and wait for my signal, I will send it via my FORMAL badge."

David went into the basement, the bin was still there, untouched. He hid it in the basement, in a spot he was sure nobody would find it. He heard footsteps and he hid in the corner.

Charlie entered and David left the basement unnoticed, he peeked through the crack in the door as Charlie metaphorically turned the basement upside down. He searched and searched, but he could not find the trash bin. He started to leave the basement and David picked a book at random from the bookshelf to the right of the stairs and started reading it.

Charlie exited the basement and reached the top of the stairs.

"What were you doing down there, Charlie?" David asked.

"Looking for some of my old trophies, David." Charlie stated, and he straightened out the suit he borrowed from Daniel. He almost left the room when he turned with a look of confusion on his face. "David, you do realise you are reading that book upside down."

David looked at the book, he was indeed reading it upside down. "Oh, you are right, I thought this was written in a foreign language at first." David said.

Charlie shook his head and headed off to check other places for the now missing bin. David put the book back and sighed a sigh of relief, he went back into the basement and waited for Daniel's signal.

#

6:00 P.M

Everyone was sitting at the dinner table. Harry had the place of honour at the table's east end.

"I have been waiting for this moment. I am glad to see all of you here today." Harry said. "Even you Melody."

"Thank you." Melody replied. Her hood was gone. There was a faux tattoo of a music note on her left cheek and her rosy hair flowed as if being caressed by a gentle breeze and her blue eyes sparkled like a diamond.

"I am glad you packed in advance; it would not be the same without you." Tiffany added.

"Tiffany Manix everyone, saying things about others that she would like said about herself." Elizabeth joked.

"Let us eat." Harry announced.

Everyone dug in and Elizabeth took a sip of wine. "Say, Daniel."

"Yes, my beloved Eliza." Dan replied.

"Have you seen the kitchen bin? Harrison is sick with taking long journeys to the study just to throw away the scraps." Elizabeth noted.

"I took it into the basement so I could clean the room."

Elizabeth perked her eyebrow up. She knew that the basement should already be spick and span, so having the trash bin in there made no sense.

Charlie got up from his seat. "Excuse me, I have to use the bathroom." He spoke and he left via the library door.

Daniel got up. "I think I should help him find it; he has already taken a wrong turn." He discretely pressed the button atop the badge and had the system officer who responded relay a message to David.

David received the signal and retrieved the bin from atop a thick beam in the ceiling. He knew well enough that anybody looking for something will always look at what is in front of them or below them, rarely do people look up. He put the bin in an easy to see spot and quickly hid in the shadows before Charlie arrived.

Charlie entered the basement and shuffled through the bin, he looked and looked. He could not find it.

Daniel entered the basement. "It is not in there, Charlie." He spoke.

"Ah, Daniel, I thought my father threw out an important piece of paper." Charlie replied.

"I thought you were heading to the toilet."

"I was taking the scenic route."

"Well, then you have taken a wrong turn. The door from the library into the kitchen in left of the entry to this room. Just beyond the bookcase. You should have known that. I know what you are looking for and I know why."

"No, you do not!" Charlie exclaimed in anger.

"It was a cleaver plan Charlie, but you made three huge mistakes. Of course, you made sure the lightning rod was shorter than your father, but you said he got shocked when he stood next to it, and you dragged him away from the rod to prevent him from getting shocked again. Mistake One: it had been raining heavily and my grass is kept short, if you dragged him, there would have been tracks. You said that you tried to revive him, but to no avail. Mistake two: there was no damage to his ribs, if what you said is true then one of them would be broken. Mistake three: you threw away the most damning piece of evidence as you had no time to dispose of it properly."

David came out of the shadows. "Daniel asked for the coroner to do two things upon retrieving the body. During my time waiting for his signal, I got a call from the coroner. He said that the victim had no other burn marks other than the one on his hand, and his pacemaker had malfunctioned and that resulted in his death. That was enough to conclude that the victim died of elocution, but the cause of the elocution was not lightning. I bet when the lab is done with that prank buzzer, they will find that its voltage had been adjusted to interfere with the victim's pacemaker."

Charlie punched a box. "Yes, I did it, I killed him. He was going to remove me from his will until I could prove that I was worthy of his inheritance, but I knew there was no way I could get into his good graces, so I had to produce a plan. I called his insurance and asked about his policy, it was easy enough, I could easily mimic his voice, and I found out about his double indemnity. That is when the idea came to me. My ability to track severe weather was my way of taking him out and getting away with it. I knew that today he would come and today would be stormy. I knew when and where each bolt of lightning would strike. One was going to strike the hill 12m from the backyard, so I just put a little lightning rod up to misdirect it. All I had to do was shake his hand when the lightning struck. If you, Brian, and Catherine had not shown up so fast, I would have been able to hide the most vital piece of evidence before you found it."

Daniel shook his head in shame and David arrested Charlie and read Charlie his rights.

Aftermath

Daniel had Charlie's crimes transferred into Rhombodian authority and Charlie was sentenced to thirty years in Everleason prison where he eventually became a man he thought he could never become, a man his father would have been proud of, a man who would have been rewritten into his father's will.