Detectives Sanchez and O’Malley were driving to the San Francisco FBI office when Sanchez’ cellphone rang. “This is Marshall Swift,” Laura said. “What did you find, Kate?”
“The good news is that the combination works. I was able to open the safe. The bad news is: there’s nothing in it.”
“So, the assailant got Eastwick to divulge the combination,” Laura said. “They removed the money and killed Eastwick.”
“Uh huh,” Kate said. “There’s more: someone reentered Eastwick’s cabin and trashed it.”
“So, the assailant went to a safe place, counted the money, realized that it wasn’t all there and then – probably in the dead of night -- returned to Eastwick’s place and trashed it looking for the rest of the money.”
“That’s one explanation,” Kate said. “Whoever killed Eastwick was after money. After the deed was done, they had an opportunity to count the money and realized that it was about half of what they expected; they returned to the cottage and searched for another hiding place. But there’s another explanation: Greg Tanaka was sent to Satori to collect money from Eastwick. When he learned he was dead, Greg Tanaka broke into Eastwick’s bungalow and thoroughly searched it. By the way, when we were in Eastwick’s front room, I spotted a spy camera. It could be that whoever killed Eastwick learned that Tanaka had burglarized Eastwick’s cottage. Subsequently, they killed Greg. By the way, we searched his car.”
“Let’s come back to that,” Laura said. “What you are saying is that the assailant knew about the Satori safe but not the one in San Francisco. That probably means they are on your campus and still searching for the money. They found out that Greg Tanaka was searching for the money and killed him. Is that what you think?”
“The physical evidence suggests that Greg was killed somewhere on campus, loaded into the trunk of his Mercedes, driven to the location by the art studio, removed from the trunk, placed into a wheelbarrow, moved to the edge of the bluff, and pitched into the ocean.”
“Like Eastwick.”
“Similar to the M.O. of the Eastwick murder but in this case the body was tossed over the cliff into a sea cave. It’s likely we will never recover Tanaka’s corpse.”
“But there’s physical evidence?” Laura asked.
“Yes,” Kate answered. “We protected the physical evidence.”
“Good work.” Laura paused. “I don’t like this situation. Is there any way to lock down the Satori campus?”
“Let me ask Tom.” Kate had a mumbled conversation. “Tom says we won’t be able to do that. There’s a big fundraiser here tonight and some celebrities are driving in.”
“This is not a good situation,” Laura said. “There’s no way O’Malley and I can get there until tomorrow morning.” She sighed. “At least you’re there, Kate. Call me if there’s a development and I will send some deputies down to help you.”
“Okay.”
“Otherwise, I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”