Unfortunately, when Ole died, Carl Hein beat him to the property and purchased it back. Kabuo pleaded with him to sell at least a portion of the land to the Miyamoto family, and Carl was still pondering that when he went out fishing on September 15, 1954. His boat ran out of power while he was out fishing, leaving him marooned in the middle of a shipping channel during dense fog. Kabuo was also out fishing that night and stumbled upon Carl's debilitated boat. Grateful for the help, Carl agreed to sell his recently acquired land to Kabou.
Later that same night, Carl was killed in a freak accident, when a large freighter passed through the shipping channel, creating an enormous wake which knocked Carl off of the mast. He hit his head on the way down, fell into the water, and drowned. However no one knows about the freighter passing through. The authorities begin to investigate the case the next morning when Carl's boat is found adrift near the island. Art Moran, the local sheriff, and Horace Whaley, the coroner are put on the case, and Art initially thinks it was an accident, however Horace is a World War II veteran, and he remarks that the wound on Carl's head looks like those inflicted by Japanese soldiers who are trained in Kendo. All of the circumstantial evidence seems to point directly to Kabuo, since he was trained in Kendo during his youth. Also, when they inspect Kabuo's boat they find a fishing gaff with blood on the handle that matches Carl's blood type.
There is no was to prove Kabuo's innocence until Ishmael Chambers accidentally stumbles across the lighthouse's logbook from the night Carl died. The logbook shows that a freighter got lost in the fog. The ship passed through the channel at 1:42am, a mere five minutes before Carl's watch stopped working. Ishmael is unsure what to do with the report. As a reporter, he knows that he should come forward with the information, however he is still frustrated at Hatsue's dismissal of him.
