CRYSTALLINE - 31. I’m lost for words

On Monday morning Dante appeared briefly before the magistrate’s court and was bound over for a trial date to be set. Jonathan had previously given Smidmore permission to pay whatever bail was granted. However on police recommendation, bail was refused by the court and Dante was remanded into custody pending trial.

Lachlan had accompanied Thomas to the court and both were extremely disappointed that bail was refused. “What do they think he’s going to do?” asked Thomas “Jonathan said he’d pay any amount of bail, but the judge didn’t even consider that”

“Murder is a serious charge and maybe he considered Dante a flight risk” suggested Lachlan

“But I’d make sure he didn’t run off, if they asked me”

“I’m not sure that would have persuaded the judge anyway”

“Ok, we’d better get back to work, now there’s nothing more we can do here”

Just as they were leaving the court building, Thomas spotted Smidmore’s legal deputy, Chelsea Smidmore, his daughter.

“Miss Smidmore, can I have a word with you please”

“Of course, Thomas is it?”

“Yes, I’m Dante Ricardi’s partner”

“Please call me Chelsea”

“Yes Chelsea, can you tell me what will happen next?”

“Shall we have coffee while we chat?”

They moved on to a local cafe and Chelsea explained the expected procedure.

“Dante will be held in custody while the case against him is prepared for trial. We could appeal the bail refusal, but in murder cases it is rarely granted. I’ll seek further advice when I get back to my office”

“How long before the Trial”

“Difficult to say, it depends on the police gathering enough evidence to convince the public prosecutor to launch the trial”

“You mean if they don’t get enough evidence he might not go to trial?” asked Thomas

“That could be the case. If the police don’t get enough forensic and witness evidence then the prosecutor won’t be convinced to proceed to trial. As to when a trial might start also depends on how banked up the court dates are”

“Can you take a guess?”

“Probably no less than three months”

“Fuck! That long?”

“Could be longer”

“Don’t say that”

“It’s my job to tell you the truth, or as near as I can estimate the truth”

“Of course, sorry”

“That’s ok, I understand your concern for your partner. There is another thing...we have to anticipate what the charge will be”

“Isn’t it murder?”

“It could be, but they would have to prove there was a motive and the crime was premeditated. That seems unlikely if Dante is telling me the truth about the fight. Also the little evidence seen so far does not support murder. It is more likely they will go for manslaughter or reckless behaviour occasioning death”

“What does that mean?”

“A person is reckless with respect to a circumstance if he or she is aware of a substantial risk that the circumstance exists or will exist”

“Do you think this is the case here?”

“It will be up to a jury to decide that. It is my responsibility to convince the jury that Dante was not aware or could not have been aware of the risk”

“Sounds complicated” commented Lachlan

“The law is far from an exact science; at best it’s a delicate balance between facts and perceptions. At worst it’s the theatre of the absurd”

“Thanks for your help so far. Please keep me updated, will you?” asked Thomas

“With every little detail we discover”

***

Detective Inspector Fraser was reviewing the CCTV footage “Shit it finishes at 8:14 pm. That’s after the witness saw the deceased and Tanaka fighting, but five minutes before Tanaka reached Dante Ricardi. So we’re right about the death not being caused by Tanaka at that time. The images clearly show Tanaka walking away and the deceased going into the pump room, then the lights go out around the pool and a few seconds after that, the CCTV stops. Presumably he switched off the power to the CCTV immediately after the lights”

His assistant investigator, Detective Sergeant Grace Giles, asked “Will I start laying out the evidence board?”

“Sure, let’s see what we’ve got so far” Fraser suggested

Giles pinned a picture of Patrick Ricardi in the centre of the board. To the right of that, Dante’s picture and to the left Yashuki Tanaka’s image.

“Why did you put up Tanaka?” asked Fraser “We’ve pretty much eliminated him as a suspect”

“As a suspect maybe, but he seems to be the connection between the brothers’ conflict”

“Now I’m having second thoughts about eliminating him as a suspect. We have no evidence that he did not return to the crime scene”

“Ok, two suspects and one of them causing conflict between the brothers” concluded Giles

“Have we got any fingerprint results or forensics?”

“Fingerprints are back, but there are nobody’s prints where we wouldn’t expect them to be. Although a bloody print on the edge of the pool belongs to one Lachlan Campbell”

“He was the one who pulled the body from the pool, so presumably he touched the blood then. Did they get prints from the switches on the pump room?”

Giles scanned down the list, then replied “Only the deceased, clear prints on each of the three switches, which is consistent with the witness statements and the CCTV footage”

“So unless someone used gloves, which we can rule out as they would smudge other prints, we can be certain no one else turned off the CCTV”

Giles checked her computer and added “Forensics is partly back. The blood on the edge of the pool is the deceased’s, no surprise there. Cause of death, yet to be confirmed”

“Until we get that, let’s work with blunt force trauma to the head...”suggested Fraser

“...from hitting the side of the pool” added Giles

“Yes, then fell unconscious into the pool and simply drowned”

“So Boss, if our COD assumption is correct and finger prints don’t suggest anybody else was in the pump house to tamper with CCTV and we have the suspect Ricardi’s statement that he pushed the deceased, then it looks like accidental death caused by reckless behaviour”

“I’d like to know more about this Tanaka” Fraser said as he tapped the image of Yashuki on the board. He may not have directly caused the death but could have contributed to the circumstances”

“Is that a crime?”

“Could be”

“Are we going out to interview him?” asked Giles

“No...let’s bring him in...we can apply more pressure on our territory”

“...and rattle him a bit?”

“You’ll make a Detective Inspector yet, Giles”

***

Yashuki was heard working out in the gym, when Thomas stepped out of the shower and put on his robe. He switched on the kettle, took a bottle of orange juice from the fridge and went to see Yashuki. “Good morning, you’re at it early” stated Thomas

“In the mornings my body works better than my brain for a while, so it’s the best use of my time”

Thomas laughed, then said “Mind if I sit and watch for a while?”

“Watch me workout, isn’t that a bit boring?”

Thomas didn’t answer, he smiled at Yashuki and took a swig of juice.

“Then as long as you’re here can you hold my feet down while I do my sit-ups?”

“Love to, want some juice”

Yashuki took a large gulp of juice and put the bottle down as he sat on the floor. After a few sit-ups, Thomas said “Great view from here, flexing abs are such a beautiful thing to watch”

Yashuki paused and said “Enjoy yourself for as long as you like”

“Why, how many reps are you going to do?”

“How about we aim for one hundred?”

“Ok, I’ll count for you” offered Thomas

When Thomas said “That’s one hundred coming up” Yashuki stopped mid sit-up. “Hey, that’s only ninety nine and a half”

“But the view’s so good from here” replied Yashuki

“What....” Thomas asked as he looked down and realised his robe had fallen open to reveal his nakedness”

“Oops” then let go of Yashuki’s ankles and closed his robe.

“Awe, that’s disappointing”

“Really?”

“Yes, why not”

“I’m flattered , but still think I better cover up. Besides I better get dressed and get to work”

“A busy day ahead?”

“Yes, and I need that to distract me from...”

“How about I relax you before you head off to your busy day?”

“That wouldn’t relax me and not really proper under the circumstances”

“What’s not appropriate about a Japanese massage?”

“Massage...oh I thought you meant something else”

“Can’t imagine what that might be” Yashuki replied and winked “Do you have something for massage, maybe a yoga mat?”

“I can do better than that, Jared thought of everything when he set up this gym space. We have a portable massage table.

Thomas retrieved the massage table from a cupboard, set it up and said “Voila”

“Is that an Aussie saying?” asked Yashuki

“It’s actually French I think, but has found its way into common English, meaning there you are”

“And there you are... robe hanging open again”

“I suppose there’s no point in putting it back on now” he replied as he dropped the robe and threw his body, face down, onto the table.

“Do you have any massage oil?” asked Yashuki

“Sorry, yes it’s in the cupboard”

Yashuki opened the oil and spread it on his hands while Thomas relaxed on the table. Yashuki then gave Thomas a slap on the butt. “Hey! What’s that for?”

“Just making sure you’re awake, don’t want all my efforts to go unnoticed”

“Nothing about you goes unnoticed, not by me anyway”

“I’ll take that as a compliment for now”

“Good, wouldn’t want a cranky masseur working on me. That could be dangerous”

When Yashuki stopped laughing, he said seriously “In Japanese massage the aim is to Let the Pain Go Away”

“But I’m not in pain”

“Not all pain is physical, so here we go” he replied as he pressed his thumbs deep into Thomas’ Teres Major muscles.

Forty minutes later, Thomas looked at the clock on the wall and said “I need to get going”

As Yashuki lay his palms flat on Thomas chest he said slowly “S t o p...relax...for a few minutes more or you risk undoing all my good work”

Thomas closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then let it out very slowly as he felt his body floating a few inches above the table. Yashuki remained silent but kept his hands on Thomas as they exchanged energy and in doing so, recharged each other.

After a few minutes, Yashuki lifted his hands and Thomas took that as a signal to sit up. As he did so, Yashuki put his hand behind Thomas, to support his lift and said “Slowly now”

Thomas did as requested, then swung his legs over the side of the table.

“Ok?” asked Yashuki

“Yes, remarkably so. There’s magic in them thar fingers, and I don’t mean the conjuring kind”

“Thank you, my best testimonial yet”

“Where did you learn that?”

“The techniques from a room mate in college, the inner peace, from my parents’ Zen practices”

“I’m not sure what that means but it works for me”

“That’s good, now go forth and face your day with clarity, patience and a new energy”

“You do know, you’re talents are wasted waiting on tables?”

“Honest work is never a waste if done with generosity and the aim of learning to value our individual selves”

“I’m lost for words” said Thomas

“Then perhaps you can regain your ability to speak by telling me who is in that photograph”

Thomas looked at the wall behind him, thought reflectively for a few moments, then said “That is...Jared. Remember I mentioned him earlier when I told you he designed this gym”

“So that qualifies him to have his picture on the wall?”

“Not just that...he was my partner for nearly five years”

“This might sound a bit obvious, but why do you keep a picture of an ex on the wall?”

“Because he died in a car accident”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to sound dismissive”

“That’s ok, you didn’t know. I have fond memories of Jared and although I’ve moved on, in some ways, now that I have Dante, Jared was taken so suddenly and I wasn’t there with him, at the end”

“You weren’t in the accident?”

“No, he was away with his half brother, in the territory”

“Was his brother killed also?”

“No, he wasn’t in the accident. Jared died with someone else in the car”

“I won’t ask any more, I can see this is painful for you”

Thomas gave Yashuki a half smile, then as he was getting off the table, they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

First to appear was Lachlan.

“Come for a work....?” but before Thomas could finish his question he saw the detective behind Lachlan and asked “Have you got any news about Dante?”

“No, Mr Steadman, it’s Mr Tanaka we’ve come to see”

“Oh, why is that?”

“Could you leave us alone please?” Fraser asked as he gestured towards the stairs.

“I suppose so” Thomas replied reluctantly, then he and Lachlan left.

As they went down the stairs, Lachlan asked “What’s that all about?”

“I don’t know, so I’m waiting here till I find out”

<>

“Mr Tanaka, we’d like you to accompany us to the station. We have a few questions to ask you”

“You can ask me here”

“We’d prefer to do it at the station”

“Sorry, I don’t know much about Australian police procedures, so if you think it’s necessary, I’ll go with you. But I’ll have to go over to my quarters to dress first”

“Of course, we’ll accompany you”

“While you would give all the girls in the office a thrill, if you come like that, I suppose we should stick to protocols” admitted Giles

“Thank you for your observations, Sergeant” Fraser replied, soberly.

As the trio descended the stairs, Thomas asked “Is everything ok?”

“Yes” replied Fraser “Mr Tanaka is just helping us with our enquiries” and kept walking.

“He sounds just like a cop from a TV show” commented Lachlan

“Maybe, but I’m not convinced all’s well. I’m going to call Chelsea Smidmore” concluded Thomas

<>

“I understand your concern Thomas, so to avoid any possible conflict of interest, I’ll send a colleague to sit in on the interview”

“Thanks Chelsea, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree”

“Dad would be thrilled to hear you say that. Not that one can tell when Dad is thrilled”

Thomas laughed and added “I know what you mean. A brilliant man, but as sober as they come”

<>

Thomas and Lachlan waited by the detectives’ car until their return from the staff quarters. As Yashuki was getting in the car, Thomas called “Smidmore’s sending legal advice for you”

“That won’t be necessary” said Fraser “Mr Tanaka is just helping with our enquiries”

“I know what that’s code for, so I’d feel much better if he has legal representation”

“Quite the avid crime drama viewer, aren’t you. But as you wish”

Piloted by Giles, the unmarked car sped off, leaving behind a shower of gravel.

*****

Next Chapter - Fraser shakes the tree.